BBQ in Elwood

There were several of my friends that weren't able to make it to the reunion on Friday evening so our friend Desi put together a bbq at her house in Elwood on Saturday.  It was so much fun!  The food was great and the company even better.  It was fun to see not just my friends, but also their cute kids!  Desi and Jed have 5 kids now and a beautiful home in Elwood that was perfect for hosting such an event!  Sherri was there with her 3 kids, including the cutest redheaded boy!  Shayla and her husband came, but their 6 kids didn't want to leave their grandparent's home, and who can blame them when they live in Parawon and probably don't get to Tremonton often.  They announced they are having baby #7 in February.  Julie and Bear had their cute girl and boy (Who is named Elwood, but they call him Woody for Short) there with them and also announced they will welcome a baby in December!  Lisa and her new husband of just a year was there with their beautiful new baby who has TONS of dark hair.  Eric Bingham and his wife Amber (who was a year older than us in HS) had their 5 kids and I they gave us some great recommendations for books for Carson and our family to read.  Katie & Jed Valentine (who both were in our class) had their 4 kids there and Carson had a blast playing with their oldest who is his age.  They played ladder golf and got along so great!  The yard was perfect for all the little kids to just play while us adults visited.  The weather was perfect and it was hard to leave when it got late.  I could have stayed all night and visited!  The kids were so sad to leave and head home from such a fun weekend and so was I!  But alas, we did have to leave and we made it home just after 11 PM.  Luckily we put the kids in PJ's so when we got home we easily put everyone in their beds and got to sleep shortly after.  Here are some pictures of our fun evening.

MS Bike Ride 2014

My HS Reunion on Friday was just the start of an amazing fun packed weekend!  I tried to get some sleep before waking up at 5 AM to be to logan the next morning for the Harmon's Best Dam Bike Ride for MS.  I rode this last year with Matt and it was so much fun I just had to do it again!  We had originally planned on riding 100 miles since we did 75 last year.  But since Matt hadn't trained a lot for it and we both had a lot of other things we wanted to do later that day we decided to only do 45 miles, but it still took us 3 hours of biking and so we still got quite a workout!  I got there a little after 6 and we started at 7 am and stopped in Richmond for a snack break and then turned around and headed back to the Logan Fairgrounds.  We enjoyed a yummy lunch before leaving.  I was home just a little after noon and enjoyed visiting with my parents and loved the surprise visit from my sister Tiffany and her husband Aaron.  

Nick was a big help for my dad who was building benches for my mom for their back porch.  They did a great job and even Carson was willing to help.  The rest of the kids played and enjoyed the yogurt smoothies that grandma and grandpa had.  After the bike ride and construction work we all got cleaned up and headed to a bbq with some of my high school friends.  It was a great afternoon being at my parents house!

BRHS 15 Year Reunion

Wow....has it really been 15 years since I graduated?  Yep...it was 1999.  And looking back I LOVED high school.  And I am glad that I had a great experience and I am glad to have made so many friends in school.  It was so fun catching up with everyone.  It was a little bit better attended than the 10 year reunion.  It was held at the HS and we got to tour the new school since they have practically remodeled the whole thing since I graduated.  I was so busy talking and visiting that I really didn't get to venture off to far.  I tried really hard to make an effort on visiting with as many people as I could and see how everyone was doing.  I was happy to see some of my closest friends like Sherri and Tovey.  Neither of them made it to the last reunion.

 Of course, Tiffany is the most amazing person I could imagine Tovey marrying and I consider her one of the coolest people and a dear friend!  Love them both!

 We had a nice dinner catered by the pie dump and sat with Tovey, Tiffany, Sherri, Scott, Lance Oyler, and his wife...I think her name was Sara.

 We recreated a picture somewhat from when we graduated.

 This was our re-creation of the "Most talented" picture from our yearbook.  We were missing two boys.

 Meagan (Miller) Savik, me, Crystal Tracy, and Tara Chatterton.  

It was such a fun night and I took a million pictures.  It was such a fun night and I am excited to see them all and more at the 20 year!!

Lots of Water!!!

Summer isn't official until the kids have swimming lessons I think!  This summer, all three older kids get to take lessons.  Alivia was SO excited!!  We got on Tues & Thurs, for 40 min, for three weeks.  This works out well compared to EVERY day for two weeks like we have done in the past.  I have also enjoyed getting a neighbor girl to come over and babysit Preston while I take the kids so that I don't have to wrestle with him the whole time.  It has been fabulous!  I forgot my camera on Tuesday, so I took some pictures today.  All three kids seem to being doing great and I can already see great improvement in Carson.  

When we got home, we had a quick lunch and then we ran to Kmart since they had their swimsuits 50% off.  I got the older three a new suit and found a steal of a deal on a cute shirt for Preston...it was only $1.29.  When I got home and put Preston down for a nap, the other kids played with friends while I worked on stuff for an upcoming group piano lesson.  We were tempted to go to Ihop for dinner because they have a kids eat free special right now, but I had plenty of eggs, so we did scrambled eggs and pancakes for dinner.  Yum!  After dinner I took Kaylee with me to return an item to Ross, and when we got to the store it was barely sprinkling, but by the time we left the store it was pouring rain...like it drenched us by the time we ran to the van.  We had to make one more stop at Sally Beauty and this time we took an umbrella with us, but the puddles in the parking lot were so huge that we soaked our feet and legs walking into the store.  We just laughed and laughed.  Kaylee thought it was the funnest thing in the world.  And it really was!  I love warm summer thunderstorms.  When we got home, I wasn't surprised to find the kids all out playing in the rain.  So I grabbed my camera and an umbrella and took some pictures of them enjoying one of the fun things of summer, thunderstorms!  

If it would have down poured just a bit longer I am sure the park across the street would have filled up again which is always a favorite thing to have happen in our neighborhood.  But we still all enjoyed the rain we did get.  So overall...it was a day FULL of water!

Ward Campout-Saturday

Carson was the first to be up Saturday, no surprise!  Eventually Nick and Kaylee also woke up and went outside to visit with other people who were up.  I finally got up about 7:30 and the little babies also got up shortly after.  Breakfast was still being put together so I decided to go for a run since I had all my stuff with me.  It was amazing!!!  I ran 3 1/2 miles down from the camp almost into Liberty.  It was just a beautiful crisp morning full of sunshine and fresh air.  It was such a great run.  I would seriously live there if I could just so I could enjoy that run every morning!  I got back just before breakfast was ready.  We enjoyed pastries, fresh fruit and hashbrowns in the dutch ovens.  Yum!

After breakfast we all got ready to do a little hike.  They had two hike options, a 1 mile and a 5 mile.  Since we had little kids and we needed to get home somewhat early in the day, we did the 1 mile.  It was pretty much all straight up and down though, but the kids didn't have any problems with it at all.  Alivia walked the whole thing herself.  And even Preston insisted that he walk some of it!  The views from up on top of the hike were amazing!!!  I could have hiked that trail and been on that mountain all day, and so could the kids!  It was just beyond fun!

 I love this picture of Carson holding Alivia's hand and helping her walk through the river bed.  It was so sweet to see them be so nice with one another all weekend.

We got back from the hike and grabbed a quick bit of watermelon and then finished loading up the trailer and headed out of there by 11:30.  We made it home, through ogden canyon this time, by 12:30 and quickly unloaded some of the trailer and got all cleaned up to spend the rest of the day at Lagoon with Nick's family.  Overall it was such an enjoyable campout and weekend.  I can't wait to do it again!