Washington D.C.

We had ONE day to spend in Washington D.C.!

Because we had heard it is hard to park close to anything in Washington D.C., we left our car near our hotel and rode the subway in.  

We decided to visit the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum first.

It is a pretty awesome museum!

 

Here, the Ben and kids are standing in front of 

the Appollo 11 Command Module that actually went to space!

After exploring the museum, we had some lunch in a very fancy McDonalds :).

Then we headed to the White House!

It is pretty, but not as majestic as I had imagined.  We were not able to get a tour inside, but it was fun to walk around the outside.  I think it would be weird to live in a house with so much security surrounding it.  There were security guards everywhere . . . and tourists taking pictures :).

From the White House, we went to see the Washington Monument and then on over to the Lincoln Memorial.  These sights were a little farther apart than Ben had remembered, so the kids felt like they were walking SO MUCH :)

It was a good warm up of what was to come in NYC though . . . where I knew we would be leaving our car in a parking garage and riding a train around for a week :)

I LOVED the Lincoln Memorial.  It was my favorite thing we saw in D.C.

The kids were worn out after these activities.  The late afternoon was spent swimming in the hotel pool, eating dinner, and going to bed!  The day was AWESOME! 

 If I could do it again though, I would have arranged for one of those BIG BUS tours where you can hop on/hop off.  It would have been a good way to see more sights in a short amount of time.

But we had a great time, and we saw what we had planned on seeing.

East Coast Vacation: Driving Out East

Ben needed to be in New York City and Cincinnati for work this summer.  His family wanted to get together at his sisters' home in New Hampshire, and he had possible work to do in Nauvoo . . . all in the month of June.

We made the ambitious decision for ALL of us to go.  We would DRIVE to all these places that Ben needed to be for work . . . and mix in visiting family, sightseeing and stopping at church history sites along the way!  Since many of our locations were work related, our trip was heavily subsidized . . . we also had family to stay with for a little while . . . which made taking this trip seem like a no-brainer!

The trip took about 4 weeks to complete.

Here we are at the beginning of our trip.  We decided to spend the first 3 days of our trip just getting out east.  It took about 3 days of driving 9-12 hours a day to get to Washington D.C., which was our first destination.

Our first day, we drove from Springville, UT to Kearney, NE.  This was the farthest east the kids and I had ever been!

The second day, we drove from Kearney, NE to South Bend, IL . . . home of Notre Dame.  Ben of course needed to stop and check it our for a minute :)

Our third day in the car, we drove from South Bend, IL to Washington D.C.

The kids did awesome in the car.  

We had lots of food and sandwich stuff to eat.  

I had even pre-made meals for us to eat in the hotels each night.  

We had lots of movies and listened to some of the book Fablehaven along the way.  

By the time we got to D.C., we could not believe that we had driven that far from our home!

By that time we were also ready for a day NOT in the car :)

Sock Hop

Our Ward had a Sock Hop party last night.  Gwen said she would wear a poodle skirt.  

She also thought it would be fun if her and I matched.  

So, I made us poodle skirts!  

These were so easy to make!

The rest of our kids (and Abby's friend) dressed up too.  

The kids had a good time.  I know Abby and her friend were hoping for more kids their age to come :(

But they still had a good time anyway.  The soda table and photo booth were particularly a big hit!

Provo City Half Marathon

I ran the Provo City Half Marathon yesterday!  This is my 3rd half marathon since I started running about 2 years ago.   I signed up for this race in January or February.  When I signed up, I was pretty excited about it!  But training for this race became really hard, and I'm not sure why.  There were so many runs that just felt "hard".  I contemplated not doing the race at all so many times.
But in the end, I think I knew it would bother me if I didn't do it.  My only reason for not wanting to do it was because it felt "hard".  So, I did it.  Because I love to do hard things :)  HaHa!
My training runs seemed slower that past runs.  But I figured that maybe the "race adrenaline" would help pick up my speed during the race.  And really, my goal was just to finish.  I'm not trying to "win" the race or anything.
The race starts out up in South Fork park, in Provo Canyon.  It is a beautiful run.  I loved the course a lot!  A lot of that part of the race is downhill.  So I let myself run faster than I did during training :)  I kept up a quicker pace for the first 5 or 6 miles or so . . . and then once I got onto University Avenue, my speed slowed down.  A lot.
My time ended up being better than my 1st half marathon!  But I didn't beat my 2nd half marathon speed.  I guess I should figure that would happen when I wasn't going for speed during any of the training runs.
I was pretty happy to cross the finish line . . . and to be able to stop running!  Ben is so good to bring the kids and wait for me at the finish line at these things!
I spent the rest of the day fighting the nausea that I get after running sometimes.  I really need to get that figured out.  I'm sure it is related to dehydration, but I feel like it is such a game on when/how much to drink during running.  I don't know what to do.
It will definitely be awhile before I sign up for another one.  But I'm glad I finished this one :)

Vancouver Vacation

We went to my hometown Vancouver, Washington to visit my parents for our vacation this summer!

It has been a couple of years since we had been there, so it was time.

I also had a 20 year high school reunion . . . which I was really nervous about . . . 

It takes us about 12 hours to drive there from our home in Utah.

We just drove it all in one day.  I've decided I prefer to just have one "bad day".

We drove in on a Saturday.  So Sunday, we went to church with my parents who still live in the same ward as they did while I was growing up.  The ward isn't the same anymore since boundaries have changed, people move . . . a lot happens in 20 years.  But it was fun to see a few familiar faces.

There are a few things that I like to do every time we come.  

One of them is to visit Multnomah Falls.

It is a hike that is not too hard for the kids, but then still has a beautiful payoff at the end.

After hiking, we always go to Cascade Locks to eat the flavor burst ice cream cones from the Eastwind Drive.  This time, after eating our cones, we hung out for a little while at Marine Park which is near there.  Such nice weather and the kids had a great time.


Ben and I were married in August . . . 15 years ago!

We were on this vacation over our anniversary.  

So on our anniversary, we took Abby over to the Portland Temple to do baptisms.

And then Ben and I did a few sealings.

My mom brought the other kids to meet us there when we were done.

It was so fun to walk out of the temple, and see our kids, and be able to walk around with them.

We showed them around the grounds and took them to the Visitor's Center as well.

My parents completed the day with a salmon dinner and special anniversary cake . . . which I should have gotten a picture of.  Actually, I think Ben has one that I can add later :)

Our next adventure was Seaside, Oregon!

I love the coast.

And the day went, the weather was perfect.

It was hot enough for the kids to want to swim and play in the sand.

We flew kites and had a picnic. 

It was one of those "perfect" days.

At first I was planning on renting what I call a "sand bike".  

I actually don't know what they are really called, but they are those low seated, three wheeled bikes.

But then the girls saw these bikes that the whole family could fit on at the same time.

So we ended up in one of these!

Ummm, it was more of a workout than Ben and I thought it would be.

More for Ben than me.  Sometimes I didn't have to pedal because the kids wanted to :)

There are a lot of hills . . . 

But so much fun.

We ate salt water taffy while we were riding around, and then once we were done went to get an "elephant ear" . . . which I highly recommend.

We visited OMSI this year.  

Gwen and Austin had no recollection of visiting it in past years.

It was awesome.

We ran from Washington to Oregon!

My dad, me, Halle and Gwen ran across the I-205 bridge that goes across the Columbia River.

It was awesome.

Ben met Halle and Gwen on the Oregon side so that they wouldn't have to run back too :)

My dad and I ran the whole thing :)

And then to the event that had me nervous all week!

My 20 year high school reunion.

I am not sure why I was nervous. 

 I either was going to see people I knew or I wasn't.

It turned out to be really fun!

I remembered a lot more people than I thought I would.  (name tags help)

And I ended up staying much longer than the 1 hour rule I gave to myself :)

There are many people that I really wish would have been there, but it was still fun and interesting to see people from my past and talk to them about what they are doing now. 

It was funny to find that with some people that I talked with at the reunion . . . THAT conversation turned out to be the longest conversation I had ever had with that person.  

Overall . . . a good experience and I'm glad I went :)

And then it was time to go home:(

Summer is officially over.