Reid Ranch

This year girls' camp was at Reid Ranch again. And, once again, we had a blast.

Here we are all ready to leave on our adventure!



Waiting in front of our cabin to get our wrist bands.



Sorry Kerry, I just had to put this picture in. We had been up at the ranch for a total of 5 minutes when Kerry snagged her pants and ripped a hole in them. In the picture Jana has just finished putting a piece of duct tape on her butt. We all had a good laugh over it.



Here is a picture of the leaders after finishing with our skit. I think that we thought we were funnier than we really were. Alicia is the one in yellow, she was the sun.



Here is our bishop, what a great sport!



It has become a tradition to make bananna boats up at girls' camp. Everyone shaped their foil into an easily identifiable object. Courtney's was the phone and Jenn's the receiver.



Cute pictures around the fire...







90% of our time was spent around the craft tables, though we did make it outside eventually.







I have to admit I got just a tiny, itsy-bit obsessed with the horses. We had certain times that we were scheduled to go and I went every single time. Granted, I couldn't walk for a week, but it was worth it.









The girls had a blast flirting with the boys-I mean going to the archery post.



There was a lot of swimming, paddle boating, KSB squared (kick soccer bum ball), hot tubbing, and eating. But apparently some of us didn't get enough sleep at night.







Here is a picture of our amazing camp directors...



Jana and I are going on 3 years now. I couldn't have asked for a nicer, sweeter, kinder, make you laugh until you cry...friend. I love you Jana, I can't wait for next year!!

Bryce Canyon

This summer we went to Bryce Canyon with the Jones side of the family. We had never been before, so we were pretty excited to go.

It was such an incredible place. I had heard a lot about it and seen a lot of pictures, but I don't think you can really appreciate the beauty until you have been there and seen it for yourself. We went on some of the most amazing hikes and saw some pretty spectacular views.

The kids were real troopers they went on a some really long hikes with us and didn't even complain when we woke them up at 5:30am to go and see the sunrise.

We had an amazing time. I have to thank Alisa for coming up with the idea and making all of the arrangements.

Here are some of my favorite pictures.

Spudman 2010

The Spudman this year was extremely exciting to say the least! After 5 years of running, swimming and biking his butt off (literally). Sean finally potatoed! He came in 3rd in his age group and finally, finally got a Spudman trophy.

Sean trained this year with two of his good friends from work. His goals were to (in order) be in the top 3 in his age group, be in the top 20 overall, run the race in 2:05 or less, and beat both of his friends' times.

Here is a picture of Sean and Adam before the swim. They started in the same wave.



This is Sean at the bike transition. And Adam! That was NOT supposed to happen. Sean is a faster swimmer and thought for sure he would be long gone before Adam got out of the water.



Here is the best picture of all. Sean is in the front, and if you look really closely you can see Adam not far behind him.



They both came in 3rd in their age group. Sean came in at 2:03:32, and Adam came in at 2:03:46!



Although he beat Adam, he did not beat Todd. Todd is in a younger age group, and his time was better than both of theirs (2:02:44). Here is a picture of Sean, Todd and Adam's brother after the race.



Unfortunately, Katie and I were witness to a horrible accident during the race. We were standing watching the bikes come in with Adam's and Todd's wives (who are sisters) and their children. A female biker came around the corner and crashed right in front of us. Adam's wife was the first one to run over and see if there was anything she could do. She came back to get something to wipe up the blood and then ran back out. In the course of running back to help, she was struck by a bike and knocked unconscious. Her sister ran out to help her while Katie and I stayed with their children.

Luckily, the ambulance was right there and the paramedics were able to get her to the hospital quickly. The minute Adam finished the race, he got on his bike and rode straight to the hospital. A few hours later she was flown to IHC in Salt Lake and later that day we found out that her skull had been fractured in two different places. She is out of the hospital now and expected to make a full recovery.

I have never witnessed anything like that before and hope that I will never have to again. It has taken me a while to even be able to talk about it. Of course I am leaving out a lot of details, like the amount of blood on the scene and the fact that I actually thought that the impact had killed her.

It has really made me realize how precious life is. In the blink of an eye everything can change. I find myself cherishing all the moments I spend with my family and telling them I love them constantly.

Sean has been so good to comfort me through all the tears and to listen to me talk through it.

I am so proud of him for getting a trophy this year. I may even forgive him for spending all that time away from me while he was training. :)

Dixie

At the end of June, Sean and I went down to Dixie with Cottonwood's girls soccer team. They needed a mom in each condo, so I volunteered along with another lady named Diane. Since Sean has been helping to train the girls this summer, the coach asked if he could come down with me.

Although we have been to St. George quite a few times, it was never in the middle of summer and never when the temperature was over 100 degrees every day. Needless to say, it was very, very hot!

We had 18 girls to take care of. We split them up into two different condos and were responsible for breakfast, lunch, dinner and transportation.







They had two games each day. Luckily they only lasted an hour, so we were able to get the girls back into some air conditioning pretty quickly.

On Wednesday, their coach took them to the Pizza Factory for lunch.





I threw in this picture to show you the bread sticks. If you have never tried these beauties, you are missing out. (Insert image of Sean rolling his eyes.) They were so amazing, seriously, I have never tasted a more delectable piece of heaven. I am not going to admit how many I ate, but it was a lot!

Thursday they were each given a movie ticket and since Eclipse had just come out, there was really no question what movie they wanted to see.

The girls played really well and won most of their games during the week. Friday night they had an all-star game where each high school team got to pick a player to go and play in the game. They all voted and Katie was picked, she was pretty shocked and extremely excited.

Before the game they got some paint and decorated their faces with Katie's name.



I have to admit, it was pretty exciting sitting in the Hansen Stadium watching my daughter play soccer. I have to keep reminding myself that she isn't even 16 yet and I still have a good 3 years before she leaves me.



After the game we went back and had banana splits to celebrate.





It was an exhausting week, but I had the time of my life. There was very little drama, and it was so much fun getting to know all the girls a little better. Diane and I worked our tails off feeding, cleaning and chauffeuring. We would fall into bed exhausted every night. I can't think of a better way to spend a week of vacation and have already signed up to do it again next year!

May and June

The end of the school year kind of snuck up on me and now summer is almost half-way through!

Spring soccer season was nothing short of a nightmare. It rained so much that 90% of their games were canceled. One would think that that would be cool for a stressed-out, over-worked mom, and while it was cool that I got to spend a few rainy evenings at home, it was NOT cool when it came time to make up the games. For almost 3 weeks straight we had a soccer game scheduled for every single night!

Here is a picture of Katie's leg when all was said and done. You can't see it very well, but her ankle is swollen and she has bruises from the tips of her toes to her upper thigh!




She not only had her games, but Sean double-rostered her so she could play on his team too, she literally had 5 games one week!

Next on the agenda was a trip to Cedar City for the Summer Games in early June. Sean took Courtney's team down and recruited a few of Katie's teammates to go with. Katie is on a Premier team, so her and her friends have no problem playing with girls a few years older than they are.

We rode down with Courtney and one of her best friends Maddie. Here are a few pictures from the 4-hour ride.





We had some very exciting games.








The girls played their hearts out and won every single game. It was very exciting to go to the finals and play in the Eccles Coliseum. We won 2-1 even though the ref made a horrible call on Katie's breakaway! Sean was "Justifiably pissed off!" That is what he yelled at the ref anyway. It has become one of Katie's favorite sayings.

Sean has worked so hard with his team, it was so good to see them get the gold.

Boston

Sean called me up a month ago and told me that he had to go to Boston on a business trip. The minute that was out of his mouth, I informed him that I was going with him. He has been trying for years to get me to go to Boston with him, so he was pretty excited.

I flew in Friday after all the meetings were over. Sean met me at the airport where we caught a shuttle to our hotel. The driver asked if we were going to go to a Red Sox game. Sean told him no, that we had not planned on it. I looked at him and said, "That would be kind of fun, we should go." Sean was totally shocked that I would even think about going to a sporting event on my vacation. I am not really a sports fan (unless my kids are playing). It was one of the highlights of our trip!





We had a blast! I don't even like baseball and it was fun. I am not sure if I had more fun watching the game or watching all the crazy Red Socks fans. I was lucky enough to have this little jem sitting next to me.



She was crazy drunk, AND a Yankees fan. I spent the first half of the game afraid that she would spill her beer on me. Of course the second she finished it she promptly went and got another one. Luckily she downed the second one pretty quickly and was extremely excited that the Yankees won.

We only had two and a half days to get everything in. My calves are still hurting from all the walking we did.

We went on a Harbor Tour





A Duck Tour



We toured Paul Revere's home and the USS Constitution





The second night we went to a little Italian Restaurant in the North End called Strega. I had the most amazing meal of my life that night. Risotto Don Pietro, it had arborio rice, chicken, portobello mushrooms and baby spinach. It was to die for.



After dinner, we went to a busy little pastry shop called Mike's Pastry. There were about 60 people in line, but that didn't matter. We ate the desserts before I could get a picture. They were amazing. I love going on vacation!



On Saturday, after walking around all day, Sean decided that he wanted to walk the whole Freedom Trail, starting at the Bunker Hill monument.



We walked up the 294 stairs to a beautiful view of Boston.





When we got back down to the bottom (did I mention that there were 294 stairs?) we went into the little museum to look around. The museum was closing and the guard asked if Sean would help him fold the flag. Just as Sean started to help a guy with the local television station came up and started filming them. It was pretty cool.



It was by far one of the funnest trips we have ever taken. It was a little cold, some times rainy and a lot windy, but we didn't let that stop us. The only thing we missed out on was a bicycle tour. It was just a little too cold for that.

Next time Sean has to go to Boston, I hope it is in the summer, I will definitely tag along again.

Tyler's Birthday

Yes, I know Tyler ’s birthday was only 2 days after Courtney’s, I also know that it has been almost a month since I blogged last, but I have 2 great excuses. Number 1, (Sean loves it when I number things), soccer season is in full swing. Number 2, our computer crashed AGAIN! Those are good ones, huh?

These past few months have been pretty exciting for Tyler . After months and months and months of searching, he finally found a job! Granted, it is at McDonalds, but he gets a regular paycheck and that is all that matters. He is not too thrilled about it and is still searching, but it works for now.

He turned 19 in March. I am actually okay with having a 19-year-old; I didn’t think I would be and I'm not sure how I will feel when he turns 20. I guess I will let you know in about a year.

Erin got him a huge basket full of fun stuff. She also made him a really cute scrap book.





A few days later Erin asked to him to Girl’s Pref.



They had a great time. They went with a huge group of friends to Boondock’s, and then Chili’s for dinner. After the dance, they went back to Erin ’s to watch “The Proposal” in her backyard.





When asked about his favorite part of the night, his answer was, “Aw, come on Mom!” To which I replied, “ Tyler in 10 years when your kids are reading this blog, they are going to wonder what the most favorite part of your night was!” His answer to that…silence.