Bear Lake 1/2 Marathon pictures.

Since Amy and I were alone for our 1/2 Marathon we couldn't take pictures of ourselves at the event. A few weeks ago Mammoth Marathons posted pictures and I purchased a few.

In this first one Amy and I were feeling pretty good. We noticed someone with a camera and thought we would smile for the picture. Lucky for us they posted it!

So I had a friend once tell me that he saw me out running and thought that I looked painful. This is a picture of me crossing the finish line of my first ever 1/2 Marathon and I would have to agree! Not only did I look painful... It felt painful! But like they say, at least I was getting the lead out! That is what they say isn't it?

Memorial Day BBQ

We put together an impromptu Memorial Day BBQ!
The day before Memorial Day I was talking with my friend Lara and we decided to invite all the neighbors over for a pot luck BBQ. It turned out to be so much fun, and well attended too! We had 9 families represented with lots of yummy food, wiffle ball, and an all out good time!

It was also Lara's little girl Amelia's birthday. Amelia was pretty sure that we were all getting together to celebrate her birthday. We sang happy birthday and then it became official... It was a Memorial Day Birthday party! Happy Birthday Amelia!

Bill Ingram the Grill Master!

We ate... And we played...

It was an intense game of wiffle ball.
Fathers against sons!

The fathers showed off all their stuff.

And the sons turned the heat on!

Vance even whipped out all of his old tricks leaving everything out on the field!

But the sons didn't let up!

The sons had so much fun playing against their fathers.
And I'm pretty sure the fathers had an equally good time!

I have no idea who actually won the game but one thing I do know for sure is that everyone came away having had...

An all out good time!

One of the CRAZIES!!!

I've always said that to be a runner you have to have a little bit of crazy in you! I mean who in their right mind pays $50.00 to deliberately torture themselves? CRAZIES DO!!! I'm convinced that long distance runners have a little bit of crazy in them! And now my friend Amy and I have a little bit of crazy in us! We have joined the world of the crazies!
This past Saturday Amy and I went up to Garden City, Utah and ran in the Bear Lake Half Marathon. It was my first half marathon and the longest I have ever ran all at once! It was really fun and challenging all at the same time. I felt really good for the first 10 miles and then struggled through the last 3. I wasn't in any real pain, I just started feeling light headed and worried I would pass out. I finished the race without dying or passing out and for that I feel accomplished! We ran it in 2 hours and 34 minutes. This race wasn't chip timed so the time isn't completely accurate but close enough. We aren't very fast but our goal was to FINISH and FINISH we did!
It was a really fun weekend and now Amy and I are talking about running another half. Because every good crazy knows that that's just what you do. You run again, and again, and again, until you get it right... I guess! So run we will... run we must!

Thanks Amy for hanging in there with me
and helping to make my dreams come true!

Just a little side note... I have a theme song!
My ipod quit working so I started using Reagan's. Reagan's ipod is filled with Kids Bop and Millie Cyrus. It's not that I don't love Kids Bop or Millie Cyrus but this just wouldn't be my first choice of music to run to if you know what I mean! It does have a beat and that's really what I need while running, so Kids Bop and Millie Cyrus it is!
Little did I know but...
Millie Cyrus sings my theme song!
One day while I was on a training run I found myself tired, run down and feeling a bit defeated. Millie Cyrus' The Climb came on and took on a whole new meaning for me. The Climb then and there became my running theme song! It's on my sidebar playlist so if you click on it you can hear it and see just what I'm talking about.
Thanks Millie for your words of encouragement that helped me get through my half!

Reagan's baseball season has come to an end!

Reagan's baseball season
was a lot of things.

It was exciting to finally be able to play baseball!
It was something she could brag about!
It was freezing cold for most of her games!
It was fun being the only girl on the team!
It was something she could throw a fit about!
It was a budding relationship with a little boy named J.R.!
And It was a perfect place to flirt with all the boys on her team!

Everybody loved Reagan!
Reagan is cute. Reagan is a good little player.
And Reagan is a major flirt!

If she wasn't tackling the boys while she was sitting in line to bat, she was putting grass down their shirts or in their hats! In this picture, this just so happens to be her little friend named J.R. that she gave her phone number to at the beginning of the season. They talked on the phone several times a day for a few weeks there!
He's one cute little boy that loved Reagan's attention!

Reagan's coach was always so excited to see her. When she would show up for the game he would give her a little hug and tell her how happy he was to see her. He didn't seem to do this with the little boys! When they were out in the field he would always make sure that Reagan was in the prime location for lots of fielding action!

She was pretty convinced that she was the best player on the team! Even though toward the end of the season it was more about the boys than the ball game.

After the last game of the year we gathered the team together for a group picture. The coach gave each of the kids cute little medals made out of ribbon and chocolate coins. And for the after the game treat they each got their very own pouch of Big League Chew!

Some of the kids were having their picture taken with Coach Chad. He took a knee beside them for the picture. When we asked if Reagan could have a picture taken with him he swept her off her feet and gave her a kiss on the cheek! It was cute!
Way to go Reagan
on an undefeated season!
(They didn't really keep score or count outs but Reagan was convinced that her team was the winning team every game they played.)

Dance Festival 2010

I love the dance festival!
It's a great opportunity for the kids to learn how to dance (sometimes with the opposite sex), and to perform in front of a large audience. Every year the kids seem to be excited about it and it's a lot of fun for David and I to go watch them perform.

This year we had 4 of our 5 kids in the dance festival. They went in grade order so first up was our Reagan.
The Kindergarten class did a hula dance. Reagan got to wear her Hawaiian flower from her birthday party.

This is Reagan with a cute girl from our ward, Annika.
They were dancing buddies!

Reagan and her most favorite Kindergarten teacher ever Mrs. Barns.

Carsten was next!
Every year David and I are so impressed with Carsten and his dancing skills. He always knows all the moves and goes all out!

This year the second grade danced to a High School Musical song.

I love the look on this little girls face!

Bradon and the rest of the forth grade got to square dance!
Bradon liked talking the "I hate square dancing" talk but we could tell that he really liked it!

And doe-see-doe!

It's so cute to see your boy dancing with girl!

They looked like they were having a ball!

Now swing your partner round and round!
Bradon did an excellent job square dancing not to mention he looked mighty fine in that cowboy hat!

My sweet friend Shari was and always is my lifesaver! She teaches at the school and volunteered to watch Talan while I ran around taking pictures of our kids. Talan loves Shari so it worked out perfect!

Last but not least our big man on campus Ethan danced. The sixth grade dance to a song from the movie Grease. Ethan tends to be pretty emotionless but just like Bradon I think that deep down he was loving the dancing with a girl thing!

Oh! And there's some emotion!
What a cute boy! Way to go Ethan!

All our kids did such a good job!

Are you kidding me?

Monday, May 24th
The last week of school before SUMMER break!

Wow! Global warming is killing us!
I don't know if I can take this summer heat!

But seriously people!
Somebody needs to inform sweet mother nature that it's not winter anymore!

Reagan's dance recital

This year Reagan started taking dance with Jump-n-Jive dance. We found this gal who teaches dance classes in the basement of her home and thought that it would be the perfect place for Reagan to begin. She went to class one day a week and learned 2 dance numbers.

In this picture Reagan is in the front row on the far right.
The first number she performed was to a song called "POPULAR". Such an adorably cute song and adorably cute costumes! By far Reagan's popular costume was the cutest of the night!

It was so fun to see Reagan dance! Half way through the first number David looked at me with an impressed look on his face and said, "She's pretty good!" I don't know why this would surprise us! Oh yeah, maybe it was the fit Reagan threw every week on the way to dance class. "I don't want to go to dance! These tights are too tight! This leotard is bugging me! My ballet shoes are too small!" You get the idea. We assumed she hated dance and that this would be the end of her dancing career!

In between her two numbers I had to run her to the bathroom so she could change her costume. I told Reagan that she did a really good job and that we were really proud of her. She responded with a confident, "Yeah! I'm the best one in my class!"

Her ballet number was to "Beauty and the Beast".

It was so cute and she did such a good job!

This is her dance teacher Brandi Lovell.
After the recital she gave each of the dancers a cute dance charm necklace.
Brandi's sister owns that cute little boutique shop called Bags that Fit in American Fork. I'm pretty sure her sister helped her with them.

Lots of the little girls got flowers after the show and Reagan noticed! As we were in the bathroom after the show changing back into the costume she came in Reagan asked me, "So when do you think I'll be getting my flowers?"

So as a family after the show we went to the Thanksgiving Point deli for dinner and ice cream to celebrate the night. I ran across the way to the emporium and explained my situation to the lady in the flower shop. She quickly put together a cute little one rose bouquet for our little princess while we ate dinner. As we waited at the soda shop for our ice cream I ran back to the emporium to pick it up. It was perfect! Simple, delicate, with lots of cute ribbon! I took it back to the soda shop and surprised Reagan with it. She was in heaven! When we got back home she wanted to do an entire photo shoot with her flower. This is one of her many cute pictures!

Ethan's 6th grade graduation

This 6th grade year has been quite the transformation for Ethan. He's gone from a boy to a young man in the blink of an eye! He's growing taller, thinning out, and wearing a size 11 shoe! The week before school was out we attended his 6th grade graduation.

We had to submit a picture of Ethan as a baby. On the big screen it said his name, followed with a baby picture, and then a current 6th grade picture. And of course I couldn't get my stupid camera to take a picture when I needed it to! I had it on the auto setting instead of the sports setting and apparently the camera couldn't figure out what to focus on with all that fast action taking place! I got it all figured out by the time I needed to take pictures of my friends kids but unfortunately I didn't get a picture of our baby Ethan on the big screen!

The 6th grade teachers and the school principal greeted him with handshakes and a candy necklace. The program was really nice. One kid from each 6th grade class spoke and each class had someone perform a musical number. I was amazed at the talent of these 6th graders!

As soon as the program was over David hurried home with Talan and missed out on the graduation photo shoot. But here's Ethan and I. I couldn't be prouder of Ethan. He is becoming such a great young man. He's smart, kind, extremely artistic, and an all around great kid!

Mrs. Gregory was a wonderful 6th grade teacher and we wish her luck with her big move to Nebraska. It's too bad because I would have loved for all my kids to have had her as their 6th grade teacher. Thanks for a great year Mrs. Gregory!

So now it's off to JR. HIGH!
Ethan has chosen to go to Mt. Ridge Jr. High next year. I'm excited and scared for him all at the same time. Jr. High is a big step up from elementary school! I'm sure he'll do just fine and I have nothing to worry about but I'm his mother and worry is what I'm suppose to do....right?

Good luck and Congratulations Ethan!
WE LOVE YOU!