About Time

I'm embarrassed to say that we haven't been hiking much this year.  Cole loves it, but Jack is a little harder.  He's too big for a backpack, but still a little young to make it on a long hike by himself.  So, we do a lot of carrying.  Which is SO much fun for Bryce and I.  

We did make it up to Alta with some good friends recently, and hit it right when the flowers were blooming.  Beautiful!

Let me just tell you how much these four boys crack me up.  So cute!

Camping

Bryce and I have always liked to camp, but since Jack was born, we've been a little intimidated by taking the boys.  In July, we bit the bullet and braved the Uinta's with some friends.  It was so much fun, and the boys did surprisingly well.  The loved hiking to the river and throwing rocks.

Jack loved covering himself with dirt - especially since Mom didn't make him stop!

The dogs loved having kids around who would conveniently drop food for them to snatch up.

Cole and Bryce spent a lot of time building this incredible little hut out of sticks.  Cole painstakingly covered the sticks with pieces of bark.

We were also able to enjoy the 4-wheelers that Jeremy and Kelly brought up.  Those things are addictive!

We all had so much fun that some of us didn't want to come home.  This is Cole's actual reaction when we told him it was time to leave.  He thought we were going to live in the mountains forever. 

A good time was had by all!

Big Wheels Keep on Turning

So, pretty much everyone knows that physical activity is not my strong suit.  Like when you have to play Legos on the floor and get ALL the way up into a standing position afterwards?  Ugh.

But, this year, Shan convinced me that activity in the form of two wheels might be kind of fun.  I began going to spin with her and dragging my sorry self onto the bike every so often.  We signed up for two all women's rides this year - 40 miles on Goldilocks and 50 miles on Little Red.  Those numbers seemed really doable when I had 4 months to prepare.

Goldilocks was in Herriman in May.  The morning of the ride, I woke up to the drum of rain on our roof.  Shan and I were undeterred and decided to just give it a go.  The first 10 miles were completely miserable.  Water trickled into my shoes, and I could feel it slosh back and forth with each pedal stroke.  Without mud guards, the water sprayed from my tires pretty much everywhere.  And I mean EVERYWHERE.  Ahem.  At the 10 mile mark, we considered turning back and just doing 20.  But some pride kicked in, and we decided to just go for it.  It was one of the hardest things I've ever done.  But four hours later, we rolled across the finish line - we had done it!

I was proud of myself, but couldn't really envision doing 10 more miles, and began to dread Little Red.  The event was June 1st up in Logan.  That morning, our team joined the other 50 milers and began the race.  It was an absolutely beautiful day, and the course was fantastic.  No false flats, no strong winds, just a beautiful blue sky and open road.  About 10 miles from the end, I just kept thinking, "I'm doing this!  Overweight me is doing it!"  50 miles may not be much to a seasoned rider, but it was definitely a big deal for me.  It was a wonderful experience, and I hope to do it again next year!

July 4th Fun

The 4th of July is always fun, even though it fell on a Thursday this year (which means I got to work on Friday).  We started out the day with our neighborhood's annual bike parade and BBQ, which was so much fun as always.  That night, we had Grandma and Grandpa Thomsen, along with the Burker family over for food and fireworks.  

This was Jack's first year with fireworks, and he loved them - even the loud ones.  He quickly figured out how much fun the snappers were....

 And Aunt Leslie showed him how much fun sparklers were...

 But all he wanted to do was douse them.

 Our neighborhood was so crazy with aerial fireworks, we all decided we didn't miss the professional shows we could have gone to.

All in all, a pretty great day!

So Hot

Sometimes I really wish we had a pool.  But, we get sprinklers instead.  And you know what?  I don't think they mind.

Mr. Flexible

Whose child is this?  This kind of flexibility does not come from Bryce or me!

Garden Before & After

Right before Jack was born, Bryce and I had big plans for the east yard.  It wasn't that big and housed the A/C unit.  We initially had lawn planted, but it really was just wasted space, and Bryce was tired of mowing it.  So, we killed off the grass with plans to fill it with rock and build a garden.  Unfortunately, Jack made an early appearance, and we just lost our motivation and momentum.

This year, we were determined to finish it.  Bryce did a lot of research on-line and built the beds himself.  We were super happy with how it turned out, and our plants have been growing like crazy.  It feels good to finally have it finished!