Makenna's First Day of Preschool

Makenna and Haley started preschool this year. We love Miss Jen. They love going to school like their siblings.

Amazing Race Fun

We planned another Amazing Race this year. We planned one for Troy and Jen and their friends. Thanks to all of our friends who helped with the planning and executing. We had our race and these are all of our fun friends who played with us. Our two partners were not able to come at the last minute and so we recruited my nephew Ronnie to come and play with us. We started at basketball court in Daybreak and went down the street to the Daybreak Elementary playground where we had to solve a brain teaser. Thanks to Kenny and Ronnie we made it through that one. Then we went to Daybreak lake and had to row a canoe around to different docks to get our color of popsicle stick, but we had to get them in the right order. From there we drove to the outdoor swimming pool by the Olympic ice skating oval. We could choose to jump off one of the olympic diving towers. If you chose one of the lower ones then you had a time penalty. I did it once when I was a kid, but I am afraid of heights. I thought about all of the times sitting on the couch watching the show and thinking, just do it. So I jumped off of the highest. I think almost everyone that jumped came up hurting one way or another. It was a great task. Then we drove to the South Jordan equestrian park where we had to rope something and then ride a horse through a timed course. Ronnie whipped through it. We were glad we had him. Then we went to the river bottoms where Ronnie and Kenny rode bikes down the Jordan River Parkway trail. I met them at the other end where I had to find two garden gnomes and then figure out a math problem to get the address of our next task. We ended up at Jen and Troy's house where we had to play rock band good enough to get our next clue. The final stop was out at Utah Lake where we could go on a banana behind a boat or take the wave runners to find something. It was a lot of fun and they put in so much work. We met back at my house after for a BBQ and to talk about all of the fun. It was a great day. Oh yeah, did I mention that we didn't win again. Nice job red team. Thanks Jen, Troy and all those who put so much effort to make it such a fun race.

Kinlee in Kindergarten

Kinlee has been going to "school" on the bus for so long that Kindergarten was almost anticlimatic for us. She started before Daxton did because his school has an altered track schedule this year. She was so cute and there was no drama, she just got on the bus. I love her teacher this year and she has a cute "boyfriend" (more on this later).

After we put Kinlee on the bus, I took Daxton and Kinlee to Thanksgiving Point for $2 Tuesdays. They just wanted to go to the farm. It was fun. Such a difference only taking two kids, I wasn't the frantic mom for a change.

Daxton's AMAZING Birthday RACE

Abbie, Hunter, Jake, Daxton, Austin, Davis (back), Kyle, Cade












Daxton wanted an Amazing Race birthday party this year. We started with two teams of four. They began with a dart gun and tried to shoot pop cans. Once their team hit the designated number of cans, they had to chew up bubble gum and each had to blow a bubble.
From there they chose their driver (Me or Kenny) and we drove to Grandma Joyce's house where they had to eat a piece of birthday cake and sing happy birthday (cake beats some weird thing to eat). After they finished their cake and ice cream they had to each finish an obstacle course in a specified amount of time. The obstacle course was a tire run, dribble a soccer ball through cones and make a goal, then they had to make 5 baskets with a basketball from certain spots. From there they had to crawl under the ropes to get a football. Then they had to hit the telephone pole with the football to stop the time.
Then we went to the Momentum Climbing Gym to let them climb the huge rock walls. Most of their dads came to help them climb and they had a lot of fun.

Las Vegas

We went to a wedding in Las Vegas for Kenny's cousin. Kenny's aunt Katherine got us a condo at the Lake Las Vegas resort. It was awesome. Our condo was right off the pool. There are two pools, one that is perfect for kids. It steps down in levels at about 10 ft increments. It was the first pool that I could watch all my kids by myself in. My girls got really good with the arm floaties that we had. It was so much fun. We also got to see a lot of our Owens family that we only see at Panguitch each year. Thanks aunt Katherine.

My Rock Stars

Kinlee got this new guitar for her birthday. They both love it. I love the tongues.

Zion Canyon Centennial

We were lucky to get in to a 10K run in Zion Canyon for the Centennial. My brother-in-law Jon alerted us to this once in a century run. They assured us that we would all be able to run in the next centennial run for free, if we are around. It was another beautiful venue for a run and a good excuse to head south for a mini-vacation. We stayed in St. George at a hotel so we could swim and went to our favorite park in Utah with our cousins. I would love to build this park in my neighborhood. It was a great time. It is the only run that Kenny and I have run together, thanks to Grandma and Grandpa for playing with our children while we ran.

Moab Half Marathon

I ran/jogged the Moab half marathon in March and it was a blast. Our wonderful neighbors made spaghetti dinner down at the campground. It was fun to have all of us down there. We stayed at the Red Cliffs Lodge with our friends the Pattericks and the Earls. We got there late at night and went out onto the deck of our cabin. It took a few minutes for our eyes to adjust to the darkness when we realized that there was a monstrous red cliff right across the river. It was gorgeous. We left early the next morning for the run, so we definitely want to go back and stay because it was amazing. Or we could stay at the "OK Campground" where Donnarae, Jon, and Chelsie stayed because like it says, its "okay". We rode down to Moab with them and it was fun. Back in the good old days when they were close.
I loved the run. As I was running, I saw an elderly couple sitting outside their trailer in one of the campgrounds. Their adult son sat a few feet away in his wheelchair. As I ran along, I couldn't complain about my knees or feet anymore, or about the 7 miles I had in front of me, because I could run. I thought about the great effort these parents made to take their child camping even though most people their age are empty nesters. How they all must have wished for the ability to run.

My next epiphany was when I realized how lucky we are to run in this beautiful world that has been created for us. The cliffs are so majestic, it just turns your thoughts heavenward. Or maybe it is the pain that makes you wonder if you are going to survive. I kept running the whole way and was proud I finished, even if I took my own sweet time.

We hiked a little after the race. Daxton came down with us and he did really good hiking. Now we just have to start training for next year.

Live..Laugh... oh yeah...blog

Some of you may wonder if we are still alive. We are alive and well. I would love to have any suggestions about how you make time to document your life. In the time that it took me to write those three sentences, I stopped six times to put on shoes, open doors, put on coats, and one trip to the bathroom. Now it is crunch time because they are all outside. I plan on posting on the few pictures that I have for the past year. These are just a couple of pictures from playing in the backyard. This is going to become like a journal for the next few posts to let me catch up. You might want to just look at the pictures.