Things said in your friend's camper at one in the morning.

We were playing a yatzee like game, into the wee hours. I kept smashing my face into their screen to check to make sure no weirdos were entering the tent where the baby and Ava were, or the older girls who were in their own tents.

The yatzee like game was scored like yatzee, with the score card divided into two parts, top and bottom. I almost won, and was declared the almost winner because, according to my best friend:

"Look how full her bottom is!"

Okay.

A Crazy Fourth

On the 4th of July, we went to the parade, the farmers market, then home to rest for a while until we went to a BBQ at a friends house. We had a lot of fun and good food! We always enjoy getting together with our friends, and there is enough children there that all have something to keep them occupied. We were quite outnumbered; 12 kids to 6 adults!

All the kids had fun playing outside, and when the weather turned bad, watching movies.

The adults did what we do best; talking up a storm. Literally; while we talked we watched an awesome storm brewing. We took pictures and discussed what those unusual cloud formations could mean; we soon found out.

We stood under these for a while, talking about how odd it was that it was so calm; no wind whatsoever.

Then the clouds started to swirl in circles, there was more lightening and thunder, the wind picked up and we went inside just in time.



The rain came first, coming down in torrents. The kids watched the lightening from the window.

Then the rain turned to hail, in large amounts. I was concerned about our car; but it didn't get damaged. Our friends, the Harkers, had a beautiful garden. Sadly, it was ruined by the hail.

Only minutes before, we were enjoying ourselves here!

A handful of hail. It was ice hard, and pretty big.

Look at all that hail!

The men shoveled, swept, and anything else they could to keep the water away from the house; it was quickly forming rivers and lakes.

We got about an inch and a half in under an hour. We were graced with a wonderful double rainbow afterwards.

After our fun at the Harkers, (and we did have fun; lots of it! Even with the storm!) we came home to do our own fireworks. Here are the kiddos with sparklers.



Ava had a hard time with these last year; burnt her fingers in a couple of places. We thought she would never touch one again, but she didn't even remember!

Jason and I took turns setting off the fireworks.

We never get very big ones, and we try to stay away from the really noisy ones. We just love doing this as a family!

We had a very good fourth of July. I was so excited to come home and see that my tomato plants were ok! My lettuce was ruined, but I think that will grow back. We were SO GLAD we weren't in a tent somewhere, as had been the plan! I was also very touched by the speech during the fireworks(the one on the radio that plays music to accompany the fireworks). I hope I am not the only one who heard that! Let me know if you did, what you thought of it. A great fourth!

Pool fun

Ava and Michaela out in the pool on a hot day. Michaela put Ava on the floatie and was pushing her around the pool on it. It was so sweet!

Summer Fun

We went to Raft River yesterday for some true summer fun!

This place has a huge slip and slide, a zip line, tramp, swings, candy shooter and lots of room to roam. We brought a picnic dinner and wore our suits.

Here is Michaela and her friend Kayla on the slip and slide. You could either go down on tubes, or just with your body. As time wore on, you could see tubes coming down with way more people than they should hold, and grown men would come down in a big group, crashing into each other on the way.

Here is Michaela on the zip line.

And Payden. She was scared at first, but after she finally went down, she went back for more and more!

I even gave it a go. It was so much fun! A little scary at the end; it looks like you won't be able to stop. But I did, without harm!

Here is a pic of all the kids catching candy. If you click on it to make it bigger, you can see all the candy in mid air!

We didn't bring bags for the candy, so I just told Payden and Ava to put it in their suits! Payden was a little worried at how silly this looked, but Ava didn't care.

Ava, candy in her suit, looking for more. She ate it as she found it!

I took the baby down with Ava in a tube. If you click to make it bigger, you will see she looks terrified, but she was giggling at the end. I think she just didn't like the wind in her face.

Jason even tried the zip line, and he is afraid of heights. He told me he almost chickened out at the end, but didn't!

We had so much fun; we want to reserve if for all of our friends to come with us!

Running and running and running and running and

I have been running in the morning with a group from my neighborhood. We meet at 7am. There is all sorts of levels, some walk, some run/walk, others RUN. I am somewhere in the middle of running and RUNNING. That word gets more and more funny the more I type it. Running. Running. (giggle.)

Anyway, I am training for another sprint tri, and want to do better this time. I was having a hard time getting myself motivated to train until this running group. I love it! I try to keep up with the RUNNERS, but even when I have to slow down, I still keep them in sight and it pushes me to go harder longer than I ever do on my own. This morning I ran about 4 miles, which is really good for me.

I typically hate getting up early, but knowing that there will be people there helps me get up out of bed to go. Once I am up, I love it, and I feel good all day.

So I think I will be better prepared for the running part of the tri, now I just need to work on the bike and swim!

Thankful Thoughts

Today I found myself in Idaho Falls with a few extra minutes, so I walked along the greenway by the falls. I was thinking about all sorts of things, one of which was how grateful I am to be the age I am right now. 31, (almost 32!) seems to be a good age. I am an adult, and can make my own decisions and do what I feel like, am young enough to have young children and enjoy my time with them. I have inhabited my body long enough to know it well, yet it is still young enough to run hard and recover quickly. I have aquired a certain amount of wisdom, and still have a while to use it. All in all, a good age to be. (At least until I remember that I injured my back whilst closing the toilet lid. Ok, honestly, I probably hurt it in yoga and only noticed it right then, but still.)

Birthday Bash

Ok, so these pictures are all backwards, but I don't want to change them around, so there you go! Anyway, we had fun celebrating Payden's, Corrines, and Marlene's birthdays this past weekend.

As you can see, our good friend is teaching our child a good life tool; how to make faces out of frosting. At first, Brian was seated across from Ava, and she was watching him play with his food with wide eyes. She said to him, "You are not supposed to play with your food!" and had us all laughing. But given the chance, she had a fun time doing it herself!

Payden and her grandma share a birthday, so they are sharing a cake and blowing out candles together too!

Watching a baby eat cake is always fun. We had everyone standing around holding cameras and video cameras, all documenting the event. We looking like the paparazzi. (SP?)

She dove right in to the frosting, staying pretty clean until my mom showed her how to put cake on her head. She ate some of the cake, but mostly just tore it apart and threw it on the floor.

I will try to get some video on here for interested family members. I always feel sort of bad giving my children their 1st birthday cakes. Here they are, just one year old, never had much treats before except maybe a taste here and there, and then I go giving them a bellyache on a plate. The only saving grace in this situation is that children this age have not learned the American talent of overeating; they stop when they are full!

It looked like Christmas at our house with 3 birthdays. Payden loved the MP4 player we got her.

Corrine liked opening her packages, but I think was already getting tired (this was before cake!) and was overwhelmed.

I had a GREAT birthday, Mom and Dad!

Here is Corrine's little cake.

Fun was had by all, with serious clean up the next day.