Ma & Pa

Jared and I got to be a Ma and Pa for our ward's pioneer trek this year. It was a little weird because I felt like I should still be one of the youth and not a Ma, but it was SO much fun! We had the best little family and had a great experience that I will remember for the rest of my life. We got to go to Independence Rock, Martin's Cove, and Rocky Ridge. I had never been to any of these places so it was fun to go see all three.Jared and Me

The girls following up the rear. Our boys had a little too much energy so the girl's job was to pull back on the handcart when they got going too fast.

Tug-O-War

Jump roping while taking a little break on the trail

Cam and Marissa (two of my kids) and me doing the limbo. We had some down time and had to find a way to entertain ourselves.

My favorite picture. This is our family pulling our handcart through a big mud bog. There were a bunch of these on our long day of walking and we couldn't take the handcart off the trail so the kids had to go right through them. It was great!

Festival Days

We had so much fun at Farmington Festival Days this year! Friday night they had a little kids bike parade so we went to my sister in law, Anna's house and decorated the kid's bikes. It was a little traumatic for TJ when ha stopped to chase his ballon that fell of his bike and got left behind. But other than that and a couple of scraped knees the kids had a ball with their cousins.

Sam, Natalie, TJ, and Emma stopping long enough for a picture and then they were off again

Me and Rees-A-Roni

Eating their Pace popsicles after the parade.

Saturday morning was the parade. Jared was out of town so his parents took Emma and TJ to the breakfast that morning and went straight to the parade afterward and I couldn't find them, so Rees and I sat with my sisters and gathered enough salt water taffy to last us a lifetime.

She was excited to show me her candy she got

Annie and Paige. What a cutie!

Rees talking to Paige...

and now to her popsicle :)

She kept taking off into the street to pick up the stray candy so I had to hang on to her shorts to keep her back. We just missed getting a picture of her trying to crawl away from me. She was having so much fun!




This is a little video of her showing off her dancing skills

That afternoon we went to the park to see what they had going on there...

Emma was so unbelievably excited to ride a real pony!

TJ's pony kept stopping, that's why he looks like he is about to fall off

Before we even made it to the park Emma made sure I knew she wanted to get her face painted. Here are my cute kids with their painted faces.

Farmington City also put on a play of High School Musical 2 at the park. After days of Emma begging to go we decided we'd better take her. It was hot, and not that great, but Emma loved it so it was totally worth going. This is her and Jared at the play. He was SO happy to be there :)

This wasn't at the Festival Days but I thought it was cute. We went to the batting cages at Cherry Hill and the kids had fun with the helmets.

Idaho getaway

Jared has been doing a lot of traveling and scout camp stuff so the kids and I were lucky enough to spend the two weeks up in Idaho with my mom and dad while he was doing all of his running around. It was so much fun! I wish we could just go stay up there every time Jared is out of town.
The first three days were full of laughs as my mom and me built a new swing set for the kids. Yes, it took us three FULL days!!! We had a lot of "help" from the kids, which is part of reason it took so long. But it was fun and the kids loved it! I wish I had a picture of the finished swingset, I think we did a pretty good job. :) It was a lot of fun to have some one-on-one time with my mom. I miss her!
The rest of the trip was full of relaxing, boating, whitewater rafting, games, and lots of rain. My aunt and uncle and their kids came up for the weekend of the 4th but it rained so much we didn't get to do much, but it was still fun to see them.

TJ on the boat

The kids and me on the tube. Rees really wanted to get on until we started moving, then she wasn't so sure she liked it.

Dad on the wakeboard!

Emma and TJ got really cold and tired but Rees was still loving every minute of it. She was so cute whenever anyone fell on the wakeboard she would ask "you ok?" over and over and over. She is getting so big!

Giving kisses :)

My tired boy

TJ playing games

Me, Nancy, and Heather watching games

Enjoying the weather....

before the storm Emma, Sam, and Lexi (my cousin's girls). These three girls had so much fun together! I didn't hardly see Emma the whole time they were around. She was so happy to have some friends to play with, it was so cute.

Emma with her sparklers. Poor TJ was so tired he went to bed early and missed out on all the fireworks.

I did it!

For a while now I've wanted to run a marathon but never thought I'd actually do it. I've never been much of a runner but I pulled it off and ran my first marathon on Saturday! It started out that Jared, his sister, Elise, and I would run it together but Jared and Elise ended up with injuries and couldn't run. I think they were both pretty bummed they couldn't run it with me...instead Jared got to drive me to provo at 3:30 in the morning and hang out all day waiting for me to cross the finish line. Fun!!!Running at around mile 17. I wasn't expecting to see Jared until about mile 21 so I was suprised and happy :).

Running into the finish line. Jared and my mom and dad were there waiting with the kids. Chris and Nancy and Jared's brother Nate and his wife Anna were on their way but I was faster than I thought I would be and finished before they got there. Emma is always wanting to go running with me and never gets to, so she along with TJ ran the last little bit of the race and crossed the finish line with me. I loved it!!!

The family at the finish line. My finishing time for the 26.2 miles was 3 hours 56 minutes. Jared took more pictures throughout the race but unfortunately he is not much of a photographer and they all turned out blurry :) just kidding, we really just need a new camera. I think I am hooked and hope to run more, but right now I am looking forward to just being able to walk normal again...I am sooo sore!

Fathers & Sons

TJ got to go on his first Fathers and Sons campout this last weekend. It is so fun to see him growing up and having fun with his Dad! Jared said he had a blast, he kept saying, "This is so freakin' fun!" :) Cute TJ. I am used to having Jared gone but it was really weird to have my little guy gone for the night. I missed him and kept thinking I was forgetting him somewhere. I'm glad he got to have a good time camping and look forward to see him get older and be able to do more fun things like this.Getting ready to leave, all prepared with his sleeping bag backpack

T and Daddy

Throwing rocks in the stream. This is one of his very favorite things to do.

Holding a snake. This is progress, we found a snake in our yard a while ago and he would have nothing to do with it.

TJ and Jared by their tent

Cute little booger

He went on and on about the campfire. He loved it!

I love this boy!

While the boys were gone I told Emma the girls could go out and do something fun. We called Jared's sister, Elise, to come along and left Rees with uncle Mike while we went to the salon to get our nails done. On the way home we stopped at Dairy Queen for some dinner and ice cream. Emma keeps telling people she got a "dolly pop". For some reason she can't remember what her dilly bar was called. :)

Emma loved the little "jewel" they put in the middle of her little flowers on her fingernails. Rees kept looking at my toes saying "cuuute". Then she decided they looked tasty and kept trying to lick them. Gross, but funny.

Emma was pretty bummed she didn't get to camp out with the guys so we put Rees to bed and put up the kid's little play tent and had our own little campout in the living room. It was so much fun to spend some time with my Emma, she is such a cute funny little girl. I look forward to many more girls nights with her and can't wait until Rees is old enough to come along.