What's Been Happening

first day of school



Dew Tour




Its been awhile, a lot has happened!
Well, to start off, school started! Here are the kids on the first day. They like it so far! Yeah! I like it too. I miss them, but life is a lot less hectic. I always dread the end of summer. I don't like to see the beautiful weather and long days end. But, I seem to find myself reveling in the cooler days and changing leaves. I would say that I am excited for baking season, but every season is baking season as far as I'm concerned. Although I have tried to make a goal of baking no more than once a week. I always end up eating way too much of whatever it is I'm baking.
S took G to the Dew Tour. Needless to say, G loved it! We all went Friday night. I have to say, it was pretty amazing. We watched BMX vert and freestyle dirt. It was very entertaining. I couldn't believe the tricks they could do on their bikes. Double back flips and back flips with a 360. A guy from here ended up winning. But, the highlight of the evening was J and G meeting the Star Wars characters. J was so excited and unsure at the same time. It took him a couple of minutes to warm up to the idea and not be scared. Then he wanted to be with them and got very upset when they left.
My last triathlon of the season was last weekend. Thanks to Tausha's brother-in-law, I got in for free! Yahoo!!!! It was a fun race. It was beautiful and a great temperature. Best thing was that Annette and I did it together. It was great to have a friend that is a girl to race with! Annette did great! She placed in her group! And I won a free bike fitting (which I've been wanting). Thanks Annette for a fun day!

AND THE WINNER IS!!!!!

So my husband works with his brothers and a couple of good friends. Hence, they come up with strange contests every once in awhile. This contest happened to be who could grow the best mustache. Scott has only had a mustache once and it lasted about two minutes. Needless to say, he isn't a mustache man. However, I must say, he grows a pretty mean mustache!!


Jonah enjoying a hot dog at the Bees game



Tidal Wave!! I can't get over how much it tickles your tummy for how mellow it appears.

Before riding Wicked

After riding Wicked, he loved it!
ITS WHAT FUN IS, LAGOON!!!

Baptism

This last week was a doozer! It was busy and stressful. My poor husband bore the grunt of my stress. I worked Wednesday night. Isabelle had her birthday party Thursday night. We had a party to attend Friday night (which I had to prepare dishes for) and she was baptized on Saturday. Oh, and Scott left for scout camp today. Needless to say, I'm glad its all over!
The birthday party went well, though it was a little long (3 1/2 hours, yikes! What was I thinking!) Belle had fun, her cousin and two friends stayed over after the party. By far the best was her baptism. What a wonderful day. Most of our family and loved ones were able to make it, which made Isabelle feel loved. It was more emotional than I was expecting. I could hardly look at her without tearing up. I just can't believe she is old enough to take this step in her life. I feel like this is her first real step into adulthood. She is now truly, eternally responsible for her actions! It is a little scary as a mother to let your child grow up and be eternally accountable to for their misdeeds. I guess all we can do is teach them what is right, important and be a good example, right? Oh, I hope it works! I can't think of anything more heart wrenching than watching your child make mistakes that will negatively affect their salvation. I am just so thankful that we are given so much to help us through life.
Our family of course came over after the baptism for a nice lunch. Scott's aunt made this pistachio jello salad that I absolutely loved! Even better, no one else in my family liked it, so I got all of the leftovers! Gotta love the meals after a baptism or blessing! Saturday night Isabelle said, "I want to get baptized again, that was fun!" Grey is so excited for his, he thinks two years is an awful long time he is going to have to wait!

IDAHO!!!!!

We were long overdue for a weekend out of town. I don't think we'd gone anywhere since last fall. Ugh! Well, we had the wonderful opportunity (thanks to a race I entered) to travel to the lovely Burley, Idaho!!! I had heard it was small, but had no idea what to expect. Upon arrival at our motel our friend Rocky said, "I drove in and instantly remembered why I hate it here." At this point I had not had a chance to explore. Later, upon exploring, I decided there were definitely good and bad points to Burley. Good, the Spudman triathlon they put on is AWESOME! The river is pretty and the motel staff was great. Here is the bad. When checking in we asked the receptionist where we could get some good pasta. She replied, "there's a JB's down the road." I thought, uh oh, that's a bad sign. Needless to say, our dinner stunk!!!! Synopsis, Burley is okay, just don't eat there unless you have some inside scoop on good restaurants we were unable to obtain.
My race was great on Saturday. It was so much fun! I highly recommend swimming in a current to improve your time. It was awesome! Sad note. A man passed away during the race. He started in the group after me, so I had no idea until the race was over. Rumor is that he had a heart attack, but they are doing an autopsy. How devastating. My prayers go out to his family.
After the race we went to Twin Falls. You know, I really enjoyed Twin Falls. We went to Shoshone Falls. They were quite amazing! I'd never heard of them. Apparently they have a greater fall than Niagara, but their span is not as wide. Beautiful. I definitely recommend visiting them if you are in the area. There were some pretty places right in town too. We happened to see some guys base jumping off the bridge in the middle of town. It was impressive, the crazy suckers!
The best thing about our trip is it was Isabelle's birthday!!!! She was stoked to go on vacation for her birthday. For months she would tell people, "I get to go to Idaho for my birthday!" She got to swim, go out to eat (she didn't care that it sucked) and have Wal-Mart cupcakes with strawberry creamies. What eight year old wouldn't be in heaven? She is such a great girl (if I do say so myself)! She is so sweet and such a good helper, especially with her youngest brother. She is having a Hawaiian themed party tomorrow and getting baptized on Saturday. She loves the attention, it is a blast to watch her. I can't believe how the time has flown! Don't blink, right?

Summer Lights

I am sitting here at work in the dark by myself enjoying summer thunderstorms. I have a great view of the valley and out around the Oquirrh mountains there is one of the most fabulous lightening storms I have ever seen. There is literally a lightening strike every one to three seconds, huge ones! Its been going on for at least an hour. There is noting I love more than a summer thunderstorm. The light the sound and the smell are so refreshing, especially after all of the dry hot days we've had.

Roll out those lazy hazy crazy days of summer!

So far... not lazy, the sky is hazy and definitely life is crazy!!!! I love that song. I'm not even sure who sings it, Frank Sinara, Bing Crosby maybe? Wow, what a whirlwind!!!! How is it that summer is busier than the school year? I definately made the mistake of overbooking my kids! Well, the problem is that everything I have them signed up for this summer happens to be in June! Grey has soccer, track and swimming lessons. Isabelle has track and soccer camp. All the driving back and forth is awful! (especially with our lovely fuel prices!) We also are trying to fit in the other fun stuff like the park, zoo, swimming and of course lots of play dates. I think that after this week it should settle down quite a bit. At least soccer camp and swimming lessons will be over! I definitely will pull out the calandar and plan a little better next time!
Grey and Belle had their first track meet the other day. It was so fun! (other than the fact that it was 93 degrees, I need to adjust to the heat a little better!) Most of you know I love to run so therefore, I am pushing my kids to do the same. I hope it doesn't backfire. So far they like it! Nothing cuter than seeing 8 six year olds hauling cookies for 50 meters! They get so serious! I love it!
I on the other hand have my first oly length tri of the season this Sat. I am nervous!!! Open water swimming scares me!! I just think about it and it practically gives me diarrhea! Sorry, too much information. I don't think I'll ever get used to pre-race jitters!

Summer

I was sitting here at work trying to read our book club selection, "The Persian Pickle Club, but I keep nodding off. Its an occuptional hazard. According to IHC, definately a no no. So, I decided I would blog! What can be more stimulating than that?
Is it me, or did summer sneak up out of nowhere? Was it the weather being cooler this Spring or time flying by like a fighter jet? Wow, here we are. Today was our first full day off of our summer vacation. The day started out great! I was in a great mood, as were the kids. We went to Liberty Park to play. The temperature was perfect! Then the crap hit the fan so to say. Nothing bad happened, except my children's behavior. One word, fighting. My only thought was, this could be a veeeeery long summer! My question is: Instead of punishements for fighting, what are good preemptive "strikes" to thwart the fighting? I want to nip it in the bud. I want them to love and respect eachother enough that they don't want to fight. Ha ha, I know, I know, wishful thinking. After all, I remember my brohers teasing me relentlessly. I remember throwing shoes or any other such item that might cause damage or at least pain. How did my mom put up with us? I think she would just lock herself in her room at that point. Any great advice for me? My house is too little to lock myself away where I can't hear. Besides, they make sure that I hear all about their injustices. Maybe I just need to ignore them when they complain about what the other one did to them. I have tried this, but its hard not to get involved.
However, I truly am excied for summer. I love having the freedom to do what we want. I'm excited for long days at the pool with friends, park picnics, barbeques in perfect evening weather, long bike rides with Scott, shooting hoops 'til we can't see, the snow shack, and of course, the races I've been training for. I hope everyone has a fun filled, terrific summer!