Summer 2013

Well I have been terrible at the whole blogging thing this summer. Maybe it's my kids getting older or that we have been crazy busy, who knows!? Anyway lets start at the beginning. At the first of the summer Ben and Jarrett ran Ragnar, I drove. That is a relay race that goes from Logan to Park City. It covers close to 200 miles. Our team had 12 runners, 2 drivers, and 2 vans. We figure Jarrett was the one of the youngest runners, if not the youngest since you have to be 12 to run and he had just turned 12 a few weeks before. It was a lot of fun to spend this time together. We were completely exhausted. I think I only got maybe an hour and a half sleep in 2 days. I was thankful to pull into our driveway safe and sound.

Next we were able to go to Martins Cove with our ward and participate in trek. It happened to be over the 4th of July. A little different way to celebrate the 4th on the trail pulling a handcart. Our family has loved learning about the pioneers. Our kids love it and we have gone in search of several graves from the movie 17 Miracles, Ephraims Rescue, and some of Ben's ancestors. So we thought it would be good for our kids to experience some of what the pioneers went through. It was a very humbling experience. We were able to see where the handcart companies were at and how desolate and hard the Wyoming country was. We don't even have a clue as to what they went through. We would trek about 8 miles a day, we ate better there than we do at home, we had water, shoes, and came back to a air mattress and pillows. To think of what those people of the Martin company and Willie company went through is unbelievable that any survived. You could definitely feel the Spirit there. Amazing experience, we were humbled and so thankful we were able to experience that as a family.

The next even was Isabelle's 10th birthday! I can't believe my girl is 10. She got a new bike and we took her and a friend to the pool. We all had a fun day and are so thankful Isabelle is ours.

Before school started we ventured to Eden to a petting farm. The kids loved it. I think we all came away wanted a pot bellied pig for our next pet. Lots of fun, but a little on the pricey side.

That is our summer in a nutshell. Once I put things down it doesn't seem like we did a ton but we were running all summer. For the first time in our kid's life we live in a neighborhood we have friends for all of our kids. I have never had my doorbell ring so much, or had so many kids at my house, but we loved it. This neighborhood has been a blessing for our kids.