Swimming for the Reunion

We spent a couple days down in Richfield playing around for our reunion.  On one of the days we went swimming with everyone.  All the kids loved it and it was nice to take a dip in the pool with all the hot weather we were having.

Here's Kenna going down the slide.

Railey was a little nervous at first to go by herself.  But after about 3 times she was a pro and doing it all by herself with out anyone catching her.

All the big boys went down to the other end and practiced their diving and flips and belly flops and such.  This one is Seth

Here's Damen.  He has always hated jumping off the diving boards he doesn't like the water getting in his ears.  But he perfected the dive on this trip and isn't quite as scared to dive off anymore.  Good Job bud!

Grand Teton Relay Part 2

here's another picture looking out towards the Tetons after we had finished running. The thing was after I got done (I was runner 11) our team split up runner 12 length which was the rest of the way up Targhee and down into the ski resort. Steve, Kyle and Kevin each took turns up the 4.5 miles. When we got there the other car wasn't there yet so Kyle just took off and started heading back down the road (only one way out). He'd gone a ways when the other car finally caught up to him and dropped off their guy but at least it didn't slow us down, we were still ahead of our projected schedule.

Here's me, Caralee and Robbi the three girls on the team.
We headed down to Victor and got a yummy breakfast at a cafe and went and laid down in the park waiting for the other van to get done with their runs before we headed out again.

This is a picture of Steve and Jon right after Jon got done with his second run. They were waiting to cross a pretty busy road.

Here's Steve prepping for his last run. This was what he had been preparing for for the last 3 months. He was running the pass that goes from Driggs in to Jackson Hole. It is way steep and one of the hardest runs, the only thing harder was running the whole thing down hill. But Steve would rather go up hill than down.

And there he is off. He really was excited to finally be running this run. How many people can say they ran this hard stretch of road!

This is one of my favorite pictures of Steve. It shows that the road was 10% grade and look at him he's still trucking away. There weren't a lot of places to park once he took off so they held us back for 20 minutes. When we finally got to go we kept thinking we would see Steve around the next corner and then he wouldn't be there. By the time we caught up to him we were shocked at how far he had gone he only had 1 mile to go of his 3 mile run.

He's running down the home stretch of his run, even this part though it was down hill cause he had just crested the top was hard, he said it really hurt his feet even though it was only about 1/4 of a mile

He's almost done and there's me in pink waiting to give him a big hug. I was so proud of him and what he had just accomplished. I couldn't cheer loud enough for him. I really hope I am like that in our marriage everyday because he deserves it.

See that grin on his face! He was just handing off to Kevin who had to run 5 miles all down 10% grade hill into Jackson.

Here's the 3 that climbed the pass, with Steves' being the steepest of it all. There's Kyle, Steve and Jon. See that sign in the back. I thought it was so funny "Be Bear Aware, Food Storage Required." I was explaining it to Damen when we got back to Mom and Dads saying that even bears have to eat so they can store up enough for their long winter nap so people needed to be aware of the bears so they wouldn't get eaten. Steve and Dad started laughing and told me that's not what it meant. It meant to store away your own food so that bears wouldn't get into it. I have to say I like my explanation a lot better.

The two of us after Steves great run.

Then when Kevin was done it was my turn. I had another 4.7 left to run and I was feeling it. My body was aching my thighs were burning but I pulled out that "stick" and worked them over pretty good and just told myself to "do my best and forget the rest". I was doing good until they told me I had taken a wrong turn and had run maybe a 1/4-1/2 mile more than I had too (I wondered why I couldn't see any other runners) But I made it to my end spot only to think of what else we were going to have to run in 20 minutes. See the other car was going to take the 12th run but they decided to go home so once again we had to split up almost 5 miles. We decided we all better take our turn and run a little bit. So about ever mile we would pull over and switch runners. I was the last and ended up running into Teton Village where I met up with everyone else and we finished the race together. What an accomplishment. All that training all summer long had brought us to this point and it felt GREAT! Yeah I wish I could improve on my time and there's always next year but for never having even run a 5 K we were pretty proud of ourselves!

Kyle, Kevin, Steve, Erika, Jon

See you again next year guys. We will be back!

Grand Teton Relay part 1

Last spring Jon called and asked if Steve and I wanted to be in the Grand Teton Relay. We were very hesitant, not having ever ran any race before. But we knew that this would definitely force us to get into shape so after a lot of prodding Steve agreed to run it with me. Chris, Caralee, Jon and then Steve and Me as well as two other cousins were going to run it. We thought it would be a fun family bonding thing. In the end both cousins couldn't do it and Chris and Caralee ended up in another car but it was still fun to work towards this goal all summer long and push each other with running even when we were on vacation.

This race consisted of running 184 miles between 12 people. Each person would run 3 different legs of the race and we would run then rest while the other car ran and then we would be up again and do that 3 times. Yeah like Steve said the morning of. Hey I have an idea why don't we get 12 crazy people to see if we can run from here to Jackson Hole without sleep and eating like crap, Doesn't that sound like fun! Well that's basically what we did. I still don't think Steve was convinced he was having fun until the end.

I went down to Richfield early Thursday morning to drop the kids off, Mom and Dad were kind enough to watch them for 3 nights (not sure they will do that again for a while). Then I came back picked up Steve and headed up to Jons house near Rexberg. Yea for those keeping track that's 8 hours in a car but can I tell you it's doable when you don't have kids! We pulled in late and had ice cream and went to bed.

The next morning we woke up in time for the other half of our team to show up and take a picture before they headed out to run. We were the second car so we didn't have to start running for another 6 hours.

Here's a team picture minus Kyle (he was in our car and came later and yes you will count that there are only 10 there so you add Kyle and we only had 11, we were down a man.)

So once we headed out and got going things started to get funner. We had time for a few shots to take away a few butterflies.

Me and Steve before the sweat and stink started to coat our bodies. So Jon took off first and ran 8.5 then it was Kyles turn and man was he fast. We were a little embarrassed of what our times would be after watching him go but then Steve was up to run. He had a good incline on his first run but knew if he did his scout pace if he had to (run 100 walk 100) he would be fine.

Here's Steve about to start his run. He was anxious to just get out and go!

Using the "stick" to roll out his muscles. That thing was such a blessing. I either have to get one or make one it was amazing.

Here's our car all decked out. Our team name was 4 sores and 7 blisters ago. Next year I think we decided that we would go with The Grand Teton Colon Cleanse!

Kyle came in and handed off to Steve and he was off. The funny thing is, see the half naked guy there, he watched Steve for a minute and turned to one of his teammates and says "man that old guy is flyin" Steve heard him but didn't even realize that he was talking about him. We knew he was and thought he was some arrogant jerk so we tried to push Steve to stay ahead and beat the guy the whole time. But he ended up passing Steve and came in right before. Steve and him ended up being friends and pushing each other the whole time, we called him "pace car" He was a little relieved to find out that he was only having to keep up with a 37 year old instead of some 50 year old. He was only 28 and almost pucked when he was done.

There he is finally off and running!

here he is climbing his hill

There he is handing off to Kevin, who was another great runner. He did a 10 mile run all down hill and made it in great time.

Here Kevin is handing off to me. I started running about 8 o'clock at night and had a 6.5 run in front of me, but it was mainly down hill. It felt great to be running and I felt like I was flying. I was probably going faster than I should have been but it felt good. That was until about mile 3 when my feet were killing me and I felt like I was getting some serious blister on my feet but we kept going and pushed until we were done which was about 8:54. I had just ran faster than ever before. Normally I run a 10 minute mile but I crushed that and I actually felt it later.

Yeah the only picture they got of me was blurry! We got right in the car and headed off to get some dinner. I had needed to use the bathroom and then had to wait an hour. I also hadn't eaten or drank anything and really I thought I was going to loose it all out both ends to be frank. The feeling was the one I get when I have seizures and I got pretty scared there for a while. Once I found a bathroom and got food in me I felt a little better and by the time I had to run again the next morning I was feeling fine but there were many prayers said in the mean time. We handed off to the other car so they could run the 12th runner spot (remember we were down a runner, they took that one and we took the other 2 times), but it mean we got more sleep time.

We were able to sleep from about 11 til 1:00 and then we were off to let Jon start the process all over again. This is a picture at the top of Targhee. Steve had his easy run at about 2:30 in the morning and actually struggled. It was all flat and he ran the whole thing but he had slower times then he had for his hard hill runs. I think he just hadn't prepared for this run like he had for the others and it just got the best of him. That or it was 2:30 in the morning, that alone can do wonders to a run.

Another shot looking down from Targhee, the road I had just ran up.

When it was my turn to run I had another 6 miles in front of me I knew it was up hill and would climb about 700 ft. But I have no concept of how steep that is and spreading it out over 6 miles didn't help that. But it was dark and I just ran. I think it helped me to not know how steep it was. Mentally I think I would have broken down. I still had to do the run walk thing towards the end. I wasn't going to but when Steve told me that I was only going 4 mph I figured why not power walk and then run, it helped a lot and at the end of my run I felt so much better than I had after my first run. I still beat my projected time which I was quite happy about!

I know you are all jealous of what we did especially when you see these amazing pictures of where we were running. Ok maybe jealous isn't the right word but it definitely was beautiful. Now if we could run again in the places that we ran at night just so we can see how beautiful those places were.

To be continued in the next post because I don't want to individually add photos and it wouldn't bring them all up at once in this one.

Rockets

On Friday we had an Elders Quorum party at our house. We ended up having about 90 people show up. I guess if you say your going to have a BBQ rib cook-off (so free ribs) lots of people will come. It really was a lot of fun and the meat was incredible. They ended up getting 2 guys who aren't active at all to cook the meat and boy they knew how to cook it. It was amazing. I ended up being Steve's committee and was a little frustrated when he said kids would be coming because then I figured that was one more thing I would have to plan. How to entertain 50+ kids in one night while parents mingled. But Steve took this on on. He's been wanting to make a rocket launcher for a while, so he made this whole contraption out of PVC pipe and hooked it up to his compressor. The kids made rockets out of foam tips and card stock and then we placed them on the launcher and watched them go. Some went all the way across the cul-de-sac. Others not so far but many people who were packing up to go ended up staying around and building themselves a rocket. It was a blast. I think the dad's had more fun than the kids--well at least it's debateable.


3...2....1....

Blast off!!!

And then the madness would start as all the kids took off running to go and catch them.

Here they are building away and yes see those Dad's eyeing up their competition and Seth wondering if mom was taking pictures to put on the blog!

Everyone was having such a great time that the last of them didn't finally go home until about 9:30. It was a fun night! Too bad the ward couldn't fork out money for ribs at least once a month, I'm sure we could get everyone to show up that often for a party!

Woman, Behold Thy Son

Steve wrote me a poem today for Easter, well he said it was actually for Mothers day but I think it's fitting for today too. It's amazing or at least I think so. It's as good as this one for Christmas a few years ago. Here you go:

Woman Behold Thy Son

Christ spoke from the cross
Woman, behold thy son
His atoning sacrifice
A few moments from done

His eyes seemed to say
as he hung from above
When father forsook me
I was sustained through your love

Where does it begin
Faiths cycle of hope
Charity and love
Eternal in scope

Great is the mystery
Of where it begins
A boys faith in his mother
Or her faith in him

At his birth, Satan had come
A mothers faith to destroy
Born in a stable
Does God care for his boy?

Mary had known God
Would provide from above
Wise men with gifts
Tender proof of his love

She had unveiled his godhood
To this son she did impart
Israel's hope for a Savior
Sunk in his young heart

He had believed in his mother
And her faith in him
Helped him seek out his Father
And so it began

He had grown in wisdom
And stature to a man
He had learned line upon line
Of his role in God's plan

That seed sown by his mother
That he could set Israel free
Had grown to fruition
As he hung from the tree

Woman, behold thy son
Christ spoke from the cross
A mother's salvation, gained
At such infinite cost

We too can have faith
In this mothers son
For it is through him
Our salvation is won

He provides grace
And allows us to change
To reconcile with God
And not be estranged

Hidden in the lesson
Of the faith of this mother
Through our faith in Christ
We can have faith in each other

Where does it begin
Faith cycle of hope
Charity and love
Eternal in scope

Great is the mystery
Of where it begins
A boys faith in his mother
Or her faith in him

Women, Behold thy sons
or is it the other
World behold
The faith of our Mothers

Feeeesh (as Bill puts it)

The last two days, the fish haven't been biting as much. One day they went in the middle of the day yesterday they went late at night didn't get back till midnight our time. So they decided to go a little earlier, actually in the morning, this time around. Looks like it proved to be a good plan. He keeps telling me of eating "fish bellies" and how even as I write they are smoking some salmon and I will love it because it's not as salty (I'm not a huge smoked salmon fan). I just love how happy he looks in the pictures. I have always loved his smile, especially when it's as big as it is in this picture. Dang I miss him! Can't wait for you to come home!!!!!!

While the Cats Away the Mice will Play

Steve has been gone since Sunday night. All of us miss him A LOT! I have tried to keep the kids entertained to just take their minds off of it. I keep telling them "well Dad would just be at work now anyway so stop thinking about it." But it's not working for them or me. But we are staying busy.

On Monday we went and did all the school shopping. Just call me nutso mom, because yes I took the girls with me. What was I thinking? But it's all done. I decided to do it all in a day so I wouldn't be an awful Mom for 2 different days.

On Tuesday I took the kids swimming. It was a milestone day at the pool. (I've wished so many times this week that I had my camera, but we sent it with Steve) Seth started doing flips off the diving board. Back flips are his specialty. He also does a thing he calls a "come together" (I don't know where that name came from) "basically Mom it's a cartwheel and a flip in one." "Seth they already have a name for that, it's called an aerial." However he tries to do dives and just can't. Who would have thought that a dive would be harder than a flip. I always thought I was just too chicken to do flips, but I can do a great dive. I've had it backwards this whole time.

Railey is now going under the water "by myseowf" She just bounces up and down all over in the water until she goes under. I will get a picture of her face coming up out of the water when Steve comes back, because it is priceless. It's a "I'm so proud of myself, I love the water, I'm big, I'm beautiful and cute and everything else" all in one little smiling look. It's priceless.

Damen started floating on his back and was pretty proud of himself for doing that. He loves diving for things in the pool but doesn't care much for going off the diving board. He says his legs always come open and it "really hurts my privates." Poor kid, we got to keep those legs together.

On Wednesday we went swimming again and also went and picked from the garden. Lots and lots of corn, green beans, couple squash, tons of peppers and my whole colander full of strawberries!

We do have great kids and I really am glad they miss their Dad it shows how important he is to them. They love him because he shows them love and shows them that they are the most important thing in his life. I know because he does the same with me. He deserves this break but we sure are looking forward to him coming home on Sunday. They look forward to skyping him every morning, though not much is said and the mic is fought over they can't wait to see him and ask if he has bought their presents yet and how big the fish were from the day before. Today Seth even made a sign to show on the video camera it said "The wrld's gratest Dad" and "I love You."

If you do end up reading this Steve we are really looking forward to you coming home but hope you have loads of fun while you're there!

Delish!

Alaska living off the land is so rough. Steve with his plate of breaded salmon. (Yuuuummmmm)

First Silver

Steve went up to Alaska for the week to spend some time with a friend of his and of his Dad's. The kids miss him terribly, and if truth be known so do I. We skyped him earlier this morning and oh that was an adventure. Railey thought she needed to put the microphone in her mouth as she talked and all the kids wanted to be the main one on screen so they were pushing each other out of the way, but it was fun to see and talk to him. Hopefully tomorrow it goes a little better. We just got an email of this picture it sure helps the kids when he sends home pictures. Especially knowing that he caught 3 of these today! Oh I need to go clean out the freezer now!

Happy Birthday Steve!

Happy Birthday To You!

Steve you are an amazing man and whether you know it or not you have taught us so many things and have loved us in so many ways. We love you and want to just say thanks for being our Dad and husband!

You have taught us to get up on our own to feet and go after the things we want in life

You've given us a beautiful family(dang we have the cutest kids ever)!

You've taken us on exciting, fun vacations


You let us kiss you on the cheeks (never on the lips), and we always want to be with you.

You love to wrestle with us (or so you pretend)

You cuddle us and watch games with us

You take us across fast waters, even when we might be a little scared--to show us that we can all accomplish whatever we want to.

Happy Birthday Steve. Railey was singing all day long so I got her to record it on video for you. Hope you like it. You are one amazing man. We all love you so much and are so grateful to have you in our lives. I don't know how we ever got to be so lucky. Although I can't believe you are 10 years older than when I married you at age 26 (where did the time go). When did we start to get old. I remember when my parents were 36, and now you are (I'm not there yet!!!!).

You are such an amazing dad and even more amazing husband. Hope you have a great birthday!

Here is your birthday present--a motorcycle and a $2 million life insurance policy. Yes they do go together. Here's to hoping you have many more birthdays.

Happy Birthday!