Monster Dash

I have been waiting 10 long weeks to make this post. I am glad to say I have good news to report. The Monster Dash was a huge success! Here we are before the race began. I was nervous beyond belief at this point. My knee has been giving me trouble the last few weeks of training and I was hoping and praying that it would hold out long enough for me to make it through the race.

The weather was BEAUTIFUL and running around downtown Chicago over bridges, around the lake, and through the parks was an amazing sight. All the costumes were so fun to see as well. This was for sure the best race to run in for my first 1/2 marathon.

There were moments that I really began to doubt if I was going to be able to finish but thank goodness to a dear friend and my husband who literally ran by my side the entire time giving me words of encouragement helped me cross that finish line. They both could have gone much faster without me but we stayed together and I can never thank them enough for the support they gave me.

The last mile was for sure the most difficult. Lots of people were walking and every part of my body was telling me to STOP. I dug deep and gave everything I had to literally just put one foot in front of the other.

I don't know how many moments in my life will ever compare to crossing that finish line. I was emotional holding the hands of my support crew as we crossed the finish line together. Once we crossed, I cried and then promptly found myself a patch of grass to sit on while I tried to regain some strength. Here we are with the other families from our ward that came and did the race as well. Everyone did a great job and it was fun to share the experience with friends.

These mementos of our race day will be something I will treasure forever. I owe a big thank you to my in-laws who took the kids for us so that we could go do this race together. A big thank you to my dear friend who stuck by me through all of our training and the race. She was willing to sacrifice her own better time to stay by me and show me the ropes along the way and I will forever be grateful to her. A big thanks to my hubby for encouraging me to do hard things and for believing in me when I did not believe in myself. Last, a thanks to my Dad who has lovingly called and emailed throughout my training checking in and making me feel proud of myself!

While this was my first, I am pretty sure it won't be my last. The aches and pains are a good reminder to me of what I just accomplished. It was just a little over a year ago that I ran my first 5k and here I am 12 months later with a 1/2 marathon under my belt! So let this be a reminder out there to anyone who may be reading this that YOU CAN DO HARD THINGS!

So cool

Ok, I really never thought I would be posting this but today in the mail we got a letter. The letter was addressed to "The Young Scientist" as soon as I saw it I knew what it was about. I quickly called in the kids and showed it to them and their excitement could not be contained when they realized someone had found their balloon and written back!

The letter was from a dear woman who owns a farm and found our note out in her field when she was picking pumpkins! The farm is about 25 minutes away and we are going to go there tomorrow to buy pumpkins for Halloween with the kids. They loved looking up on the map and seeing how far this particular balloon had gone. I think it will be even more exciting to drive the route tomorrow and get to see the actual farm where it was found.

My favorite part of the letter that she wrote back was when she said this: "Have a good day and keep studying. You can learn about all kinds of wonderful things that God has created and controls."

This goes down in the history books as one of my favorite experiments we have done with the kids. The look on their faces as they read this letter was priceless!

Balloon Launch

This weekend we did a fun little experiment with the kids that they LOVED. We got some helium balloons and they wrote notes on each of them asking people to be part of our experiment. They put on them the date they were launched and asked if it was found to send us a letter telling us where and when the balloon was found.

The balloons probably did not make it all that far and the chance of anyone actually finding one and writing us back is highly unlikely but the kids had so much fun working on this project. All weekend long they have been wondering if one of their balloons made it to grandmas cabin in Utah. We went on a nature walk yesterday and they were discussing how fun it would be if they found one of their own balloons.

I 'll keep you posted if we actually hear back from someone. Even if we don't, the kids had so much fun with this little project I think we will be doing it again soon!

Balloon Festival

This weekend was our annual balloon festival that the kids look forward to every year. We love this town and we especially love that they do this for free!

The kids always have a balloon come and land at their school during the day on Friday which gets them all super excited. We have a tradition of going every year and bringing dinner and spending a great night with friends and lots of people from the community.
The kids had a great time again this year. We were a little nervous at first because none of the balloons were taking off because there was too much wind. But the winds eventually died down and the balloons started to arrive.The sun started to set and then it was time for the afterglow when they do a countdown and all the balloons light up at the same time.

There were not as many balloons this year because of the wind but we all still had a great time and look forward to next year!

First Day

Last week was the kids first day of school and today Samuel started his first day of preschool. It is just me and Logan right now and the house is so quiet.

The kids were mostly excited to head back and Sam has been asking about preschool every day for weeks now. After the kids started he was upset that he did not get to go to his school yet. We kept telling him he would get to go in a few more days and everyday he woke up he would say, "Am I going to school in a few years?" I am sure to him a few days felt like a few years.



There was no hesitation from Sam today. He walked right in and made himself at home. He was especially excited to see the potty that was just his size!

This time of year is always an adjustment. I can hardly believe that this is Abby's last year in elementary school. My kids are growing up!

Farewell

Today we said farewell to summer. Mother nature must have been informed that school was starting because it went from 93 degrees on Saturday to a chilly 55 degrees today. We actually had to bring out coats and even though I thought I was ready for the first day of school I had to run out today to buy jackets and jeans for the kids.

We had a lot to accomplish today but I did not want the last day of summer break to be all work and no fun so we met up with some good friends and said goodbye to summer in a really fun way.

We rented 8-10 passenger surreys and rode around town honking our horns and laughing up a storm. The kids LOVED it and the parents...well, we had fun too but we burned nothing short of about 1,000 calories pedaling these things all around town.

One of my favorite moments on the ride was when Sam unprompted put his arm around Logan and gave him a snuggle. I was thrilled with myself that I actually caught it on camera.
After surrey-ing (is that a word?) around town we were off to one of our favorite pizza places. Four adults and TEN kids gets lots of looks from other families in the restaurant but the kids actually did really well and it only took 4 large pizzas to feed all their cute little faces!

I am so glad we took some time out today to celebrate a fun summer. The only down side of the day is if you are familiar with the musical Oklahoma, I have been singing "The Surrey With the Fringe on Top" all stinking day long!



I think we have started a new tradition here and I will be looking forward to doing it again although next year I probably won't run 3 miles right before we go!

40 Runs

40 runs...that is what stands between me and quite possibly the most difficult thing I have ever done besides giving birth to 5 children.

I can't even believe that I am typing these words right now but today I officially began my 10 week training leading up to my first 1/2 marathon.

October 29th I will be running in the Monster half marathon in Chicago. The next 10 weeks are sure to bring highs and lows. Charlie will be running it, as well as some great friends. This is for sure going to push me to physical limits I have never reached and I am beyond nervous.

Hopefully in 10 weeks from now I will be posting a picture of me with that medal around my neck and be able to say the words, "I just finished running 13.1 miles!".

Utah Week 2- The Friends

Week two we were off on a whole new adventure to spend time with our best friends of 12 years! We love these guys and always look forward to lots of laughs and late nights.

We always try and have a date night where just the adults go out and we leave our 9 kids behind. No matter what we do we always have a blast but we decided to live it up this time and had a beautiful dinner at La Caille.If you have never been here I highly recommend saving up and enjoying a night here. The grounds are BEAUTIFUL and the food is delicious. We had a great night listening to some music and laughing about it just a little and enjoying every single bite of food we put in our mouths. Another tradition is for Cherlyn and I to visit our most favorite place in the world...Sego Lily spa. Seriously this place brings tears of joy to my eyes. I had the best massage of my entire life and then Cherlyn and I attempted to take some pictures giggling like school girls the whole time. None of them turned out unfortunately but we had a fun time trying.

It has been so fun for us to see our kids grow up together and go from this.....

to this.....

We took the big girls to get their first ever pedicures and they LOVED it. We let them get designs on their toes and they thought it was the coolest thing ever. Morgan had a blast working her massage chair.

We have also loved seeing these cute boys go from this..... to this....

They had fun playing together and also having a very special day together, their baptism!

We had lots of time to just hang out and play but we also went swimming and had late night movies in the backyard projected on the house.

We ate out...a lot and I loved every bite of food. Cafe Rio and Sweet Tooth Fairy...I miss you! Seriously I would gain 50 pounds if we lived in Utah. Here was the big day for the boys. We had a ton of family there and Cherlyn was nice enough to let us invite everyone to her beautiful home for dinner after.

This was such a special day and I was so thrilled that Ethan was able to have so many friends and family involved that love him so much. I am so proud of him.

Here are the boys with their proud papas.

And the boys with their proud mamas. It has been wonderful to grow in life and marriage with this family. We miss them terribly but are thankful each and every day for their friendship and blessing that they are to us. We miss you!

Utah week 1 - The Cabin

There they are...super excited and ready for a trip of a lifetime. Utah here we come! We LOVE flying out of our little airport. The gate agent took each of the kids out to the plane and they got to walk on the luggage belt and then she took them up to the cockpit. The kids thought it was pretty cool.
I was a little disappointed to see that Logan was small enough to bring as a carry on. I was really hoping to check him!

Week 1 was spent at my parents cabin way up in the mountains. It takes some work to get there but once you arrive you never want to leave. This is the view from their bottom deck. It is beautiful.


For the 4th we had the traditional breakfast at my grandparents home. Even though they have passed on my cute cousin lives there and allowed us all to come and be together like my grandmother would have wanted it.


We went to the parade and then Charlie lit fireworks and we ate some delicious food and spent time with relatives that we don't see very often. It was a great day.

One of our first adventures was to Kennecott copper mine. This place is massive and can be seen from space.

Just one of these tires costs $25,000 and only lasts for 9 months. The kids had fun exploring and Ethan and Seth had fun working on earning a scout patch together.The rest of the week this bunch played and enjoyed spending some great quality time together. My sisters kids and my kids play so well together it was my favorite thing to see them be creative and just enjoy each other. Shad and Charlie got some golf in and took the older boys with them. They had a great time and Ethan loved driving the cart.

We took a day trip to Park City and did the Alpine slide and the new Alpine coaster. It was a BLAST and the kids thought it was so fun to drive their carts down the mountain at top speed.

The chair lift freaks me out big time...but Grace and I hung on for dear life together and it was fun to spend a special moment with her.
Morgan is a speed demon and kept telling me to go faster and giggled the entire way down.


Back at the cabin the boys enjoyed a game of nerf wars against the moms. We were finding bullets for days after.
The kids had a sleep out on the deck. Luckily everyone was alive in the morning...we found out later that there was a bear roaming in the area.
We got in some rounds of bowling and the kids had fun making up bowling names for the screen.

You know there are a lot of you when you take up an entire swing set!

We had a great day at Boondocks playing mini golf, bumper boats, winning tickets and playing laser tag.
My sister had the brilliant idea for the two of us to battle each other on the bumper boats and get SOAKED right before we went out to dinner. Great idea Jen!
We had a fun dinner at The Mayan and the kids loved running around getting the best view of all the divers. What a fun place that is for dinner.


The best time was just spent at the cabin. The kids ate lunches outside and played and played and played some more.

One of the last days they had a cake decorating contest. Girls vs boys. The boys named their cake sugar wonderland and the girls was Utah castle. They both won awards for creativity and were given medals for their hard work. No one really wanted to eat the cakes fearing sugar overload!
Here is Sam and Grandpa doing The Hulk. I am not sure how this started but it was so cute to see the two of them put on their hulk faces and growl as loud as they could.
We love this family and love being together with them. We wish it was more often but we make the best of it when we are together. Leaving was difficult and we hope to be together again soon. We miss you guys already and we miss the beauty of this peaceful retreat in the mountains!