Basketball Court

So as many of you may know we prepped the ground just to the side of our shop for a basketball court in June. The ground was dying grass, because of the shade of the trees, and kind of an eyesore. So Nate put in many hours of prep work so that he could have his court. We actually bought the b-ball rim last November, and have been waiting until the ground was ready to pour cement on. Our friend Shane Staheli pours concrete for a living and gave us a smokin' deal on our cement. As long as Nate would be his trusty side kick and help out, since Nate has helped Shane of a number of concrete jobs. Everyone asks how our boys like having their own court, and of course they like it. But not as much as Nate. If you know Nate, you know that he lives, eats, and breaths basketball. He is always out there shootin' hoops, but I love having him here so close and being able to watch him. I have a feeling his love for the game will rub off on the kids in no time. Here is a picture of him dunking a b-ball...look how much air he can still get. Not bad for an old man! Just kidding love...at least you're my old man.

Favorite Things

So I've been pretty bad about blogging lately, but with a good excuse...we've been having a fun fun summer. Staying busy, playing hard, and enjoying being together as much as we can. So I'll try to catch up as much as I can remember. One of my favorite things in the world (seriously) is to look outside and see all of my kids sitting in the sandbox, all playing together. I'm glad that the older boys love to play in there as much as Hannah does. It just makes me a happy mom to see them all hanging out together. As we were preparing the ground for the b-ball court in early June, Nate commented that in both houses I've always insisted that we have a sandbox, and both times he has grumbled a little, but he comes to realize just how valuable they are!

Family Prayer

So I have to write this real quick before I forget. Nate knelt down in our sitting room tonight and said, 'Everyone kneel down for family prayer.' So all the kids quickly minded, and as I was crossing the room to join them, Hannah, (who is 18 months) started walking around the outside of the circle tapping everyone on the head saying, "Dah...Dah...Dah..." We all started busting up laughing, because she was trying to play duck duck goose. (Our favorite FHE game.) And as we all quited down and Nate started praying, she gets up and starts again. It was hard to keep our laughs to ourselves, but we managed the best we could. And of course we had a quick game of duck duck goose before bedtime!

Cherry Hill

Hannah and Mom at the pool.

Jace didn't feel good, and ran a temperature most of the time we were there. He loved the water of course and when the Motrin would kick in he was up and at 'em.

Zack on the famous Pirate Ship.

Rachel, Brady and Zack behind the water fall.



Courtney Clayson and Hannah....they loved being in the pool together.


Nate and Hannah having fun.










Last weekend we made our annual trip to Cherry Hill in northern Utah. We usually go with family, but this year we decided to invite a couple of families in our ward to go with us, since they had never been, and since we do so much with my side of the family. We had a ball, even through the 100+ weather. Eating good food, hanging out with friends, soaking up the sun in a nice cool pool, and letting the kids run-a-muck on the ever so clean grass. (We all noticed how clean our kids actually were during this camping trip, because of the grass...usually not something that happens when you go camping.) And now since our oldest 2 are good swimmers, we just let them carry on by themselves. (Sadly they probably got the most sun burned, since they didn't want to come back to camp for lunch, which is when we re-apply sunscreen.) Everyone said they had a wonderful time...even the non-campers...and we are all planning to do it again. If you havn't ever been to Cherry Hill, I highly recomend it. It is a great stay-cation, and pretty cheap with all that you are able to do there. And I'm sorry, I know there are a ton of pictures, but believe me... I really did narrow it down. Just wanted to capture all the fun things that we were able to do...one of these days I'll learn how to put on a slide show on our blog.

I wish I would have raised the camera a bit...this is Courtney and Hannah in the ball pit and Brady jumping over the top of them. I didn't even know he was there until he landed.







Rachel and one of her good friends Autumn Redd.

Chauntel and a bunch of kiddos hanging out at camp.

Annie and Chauntel rock climbing...they were both trying to beat each other's time. Nate, Mike and Brett in the background.

FHE at the "G"

About 1/2 way through the hike...all smiles, but Hannah is long gone. She pretty much slept the whole trip up.



Still sleeping, she did finally wake up and enjoy the view, and some Oreo's!


I tried to mark on the picture our house behind the trees below, and you can see the roof of our shop.

Enjoy the view and a snack!





Well it has been 3 years since we moved into our home in Pleasant Grove. And when I tell people of the location of our place of residence, I always say, 'Right under the G'. But can you believe that we had never hiked to the 'G' as a family? Crazy, huh? We've talked about it many times, but something always comes up. So last night for FHE, Nate came home and said, "Let's go hike to the 'G'!" We heard cheers from everyone. (Except from me, only because Nate and I drove to Orem early that morning to drop off his mom's car at a mechanics, and ran home...just a mear 5 miles, until we hit 1500 East, which was a huge hill.) Anyhow, the kids were very enthusiatic during about 98% of the hike....the last steep incline, is where we heard some whining from Rachel, and Jace said, "Mom, my legs hurt." But I was so impressed with their dedication to make it to the top, and now we can all finally say, "We hiked to the 'G'!"

Wasatch Back Baby!

Queen's of Sole ready to start the race in Logan, Utah.

Angie, Sara, Marcae, Lori, Bonnie and Annie Queens of Sole Van 1

Coming in from my 1st run...man was it HOT!

I did get to see my hubby on the course a few times. Our teams ran neck and neck...but he was in his team's 2nd van.

It was so stinkin' cold waiting at the finish line in the rain.

At the finish line...Queens' of Sole finished in 29 hours! I think we did awesome!

Team Photo

Don't our calves look awesome?

Michelle, me, and Annie....Michelle is in our ward and was our team captain. Annie and I loved running together!







Well I've been waiting a few days for Nate to get his pictures from the Wasatch Back...but I decided not to wait anymore, so we'll have 2 seperate posts about our fun race last weekend. Both Nate and I ran in the Wasatch Back Relay. It is a 188 mile 12-person relay from Logan to Park City. It involves high mountain passes, harsh conditions and NO SLEEP! You may think we're crazy, but it was a ton of fun. I was on an all womans team (aka: Womans Sub-Masters...which means we were all over 30) called the "Queens of Sole". And Nate was on a mixed team (men and women) called "There is no 'I' in Teim". This is a race where there are 2 vans with 6 runners each, and each runner runs 3 different legs. While the other van is running, this is where you 'rest'. My first run was 5.1 miles in the heat of the day. Running in the sun is something that I hadn't ever done...but will definately prepare for next year. My second run, 4.2 miles, started at about 11:30 that night, and was wonderful. It was such an endorphine rush to be running through the back roads of Cache Valley next to the farmers field, and only have my head lamp for light. After our 2nd legs, we went to North Summit High School and slept. It was wall to wall bodies of tired runners, but believe it or not, the 2 hours of sleep really did help with our 3rd run. We started running at 7:30 am again, and my 3rd run was 3.8 miles....and about 3 miles of that was down hill. Pretty harsh on my knees, but they are recovering nicely I think. I had 9 road kills on that run (road kills: aka...people that I passed while running, which surprised me..because we were all running down hill), and felt like I was flying down that hill. I had a little rain, but it felt good of course. After that our van had to wait a few hours for the 2nd van to finish their 3rd legs, and then we could all cross the finish line together. We killed time by going to Cafe Rio and having lunch. And can I just say that after living on trail mix, Gatorade, fruit and power bars for the last 30 hours....that Cafe Rio salad never tasted so good. Queens of Sole came in 4th in the woman's sub-masters and 16th out of 81-all-woman's teams. I am definately going to run in this race again...no sleep and all!

Jace-ism

Right before school got out, Jace, Hannah and I were walking into PG Rec Center for morning aerobics. Since it isn't that busy of a parking lot, I let Jace either run ahead of me or walk behind me. Well that day he was lagging a bit, but still close enough that I could hear his footsteps. When he say's, "Mom, I'm on you." I turned around to see him walking on my shadow. So I let out a fake, "Ouch! Jace that hurts...stop...Stop!" He just looked up and gave me that devilish grin. And now it is a little game whenever we are walking somewhere for him to walk on my shadow, and for me to pretend that it hurts. (Although in the past 2 weeks, there hasn't been a whole lot of opportunity with all the rain.) But it beats dragging him along and making him hold my hand while walking in a parking lot!
(The picture of Jace is just one from the other morning. I let Jace make his own toast, since the other kids get to. But there is about an inch thick layer of butter on that toast. I let him take just one bite before I scraped off his future heart attack!)

Valentine's Weekend

Mario Cart on the Wii was a huge hit...and when Nate and I needed a break from remodeling we would come and steal the wheels and race each other.

Poor Hannah was 'neglected' by everyone. See it's the middle of the day and she was still in her jammies. But she didn't whine too much as long as she was dry and fed.

Valentine's day cookies...oh so yummy!




So this past Valentine's we kind of forgot to celebrate. It was actually the weekend that we decided to rip out our Master Bathroom (see previous post) and start the remodel. This meant that we had to make it up to our kids and find something to occupy their time. Nate had always wanted to buy Mario Cart for the Wii with a wheel for each of them. This was the perfect Valentines present, because it kept the kids occupied and out of our hair. Since we weren't working on the bathroom on Sunday, we made an effort to at least make some Valentine's cookies and let the kids help frost and make their own. This is something we do every year, which is a favorite of everyone's.

Utah Museum of Natural History

In April when I had to go up to SLC to pick up mine and Nate's 1/2 marathon gear, I decided to take the kids with me and we would make a day of it. We went to the Utah Museum of Natural History on UofU campus, this was the first time for any of us. Since I hadn't ever been there, I didn't know what to expect. But it is a lot like the Dinosaur Museum at Thanksgiving Point, only on a smaller scale. (And since we have been there many times, it was nice to go to a smaller museum, since I was handling 5 kids on my own.) We had a great time, and the highlight was the Frog Exhibit. They had an actual Frog Wrangler there, that talked to the kids about all different types of frogs. Still the most interesting thing are all the dinosaur bones that they have on display. I think that will always be my favorite too!