Lazy Days of Summer

Now that Summer has FINALLY shown up, Hayden is LOVING the heat! He wans to run through the sprinklers, ride his bike, dig in the dirt... ALL DAY! It must be great being a kid. You don't care if the house is clean, or dinner is cooked, or laundry is done. All you care about is having fun. The only bad thing about it, is that I have to be outside with him most of the time. Which means all those things really don't get done! He's having fun, though. The rest of the kids are having a great summer too. They are old enough to go over to friends' houses, and they spend most of the day going from house to house (including ours) hanging out and playing with their friends!

Ragnar Relay

Last weekend (Friday and Saturday) Jared ran in this huge relay race called the Ragnar Wasatach Back. It is a 188 mile relay course run on back roads through the Wasatch Mountains. Each relay team has 12 members (unless you are an Ultra, in which case you have 6 people on your team) and they take turns running. Each person has 3 different legs to run. I believe there were about 600 teams this year. When you aren't running, you are riding in a big van with some of your other teammates, cheering on the runners, hanging out, sleeping (not much), and resting up for your next leg! Our good friend talked Jared into running about 2 weeks before the relay. Jared had been starting to run again, but really hadn't run much. Needless to say, he and Jamie trained pretty hard for those two weeks leading up to the race. Jared was also excited to find out that my good friend Sara's hubby Nate was on their team! He was hurt, unfortunately, so he was the driver (but I believe he got out and ran a little bit). Jared's legs were 3.8 miles (uphill), 7.4 miles past a pretty lake, and 7.4 miles (downhill). He was a teeny bit sore afterwards. When asked after the race if he had fun, Jared said "I don't know if I would call it fun, but it's definitely the most challenging thing I've ever done physically." And I know he was really glad that he accomplished it. I'm so proud of him for doing it. Later Saturday night when I went to pick him up, he said he was glad to have done it once, but really wouldn't need to do it again. However, by Sunday he was talking to Jamie about how next year they need to start training earlier! Here are a few pictures... between the entire team they ended up with around 800 or so pictures! I just quickly went through and picked out a bunch of Jared, and a bunch of him with his teammates. Jared took one of our cameras, but the only picture of him on our memory card was really out of focus, so I'm really glad there were others there who took a ton of pictures!

Aquarium

We were able to go to the Aquarium last weekend with Jared's sister Ginny and her family, who were here visiting from Florida. Marie and Christina got to come along too. Bryson thought it was awesome having a boy cousin his age to run around with, and all the kids had a great time. It was fun seeing all the sea creatures, and the highlight for the kids was getting to touch the sting-rays.

Pictures

My sister-in-law asked me to take her bridal pictures, so I wanted to find some great places that were close-by to use. So I took Eryn out to see what we could find. Kaitlyn came along as my assistant. She held the reflector, carried my camera bag, said crazy things that made us laugh, and was just a great sport. Eryn was a great model, as usual, and I got some fun pictures that I can't wait to have printed. Now Kaitlyn is asking when her turn is for pictures. So then, the next week, we took Marie and her fiance Jeff out for some bridal/groomal pictures. It was SO fun and I think we got some good ones. Here are the results of our outings.

And a bunch more...

It has been so fun getting to know Jeff, and we are so happy for him and Marie. They have been able to come down from school and spend several weekends with us. Marie has been going to BYU Idaho, and Jeff has been at Utah State. We've had so much fun playing Apples to Apples, with popcorn and lemonade, and just hanging out. Jeff is such a great guy, and we are glad that Marie has found him. Our kids think he's a jungle gym. They just love him! It's been fun seeing Marie grow up. I think she was about 10 when I first met her, and now she is getting married! Time sure does fly... WE LOVE YOU JEFF AND MARIE! We wish we could be with you in Virginia for your wedding.

The only thing better than trains...

... is tractors! Well, maybe not better, but just as good according to Hayden. He is so funny. He LOVES all the road construction that is going on around our neighborhood (I wish I could say the same...) because he loves to see all the construction equipment and vehicles. He can even name many of them, thanks to his favorite book which is all about Trucks! So a couple of weeks ago, when the guys came to put in our secondary water "box" thing, Hayden was in HEAVEN! He sat out on the front porch forever just watching them digging and working.

Happy Birthday Grandpa!

Last week, we got to celebrate my Grandpa's birthday. We had a fun little cookout/family reunion. It was great to see everyone, and it's really great to see grandpa doing so much better these days. He looked great! I'm so proud to be his grand-daughter. He has always been one of my biggest heroes. I remember as a kid, wanting to please him and make him proud of me. I never wanted to do anything to disappoint him (which actually kept me out of trouble on a few occasions). I felt like everyone knew him, and he knew everybody! And I KNOW that everyone who knows him loves him. He is a great man. I'm so glad that my kids have the opportunity to know him. We love ya Grandpa!!