Runs in the Family

It has become a tradition the run the Bryce Canyon 5k. This year the kids joined us. I had my mom sign up to be with Paige, although as soon as the gun went off she never saw Paige again! I ran the fastest 5k of my life, and my boys still beat me! Justin ran it in under 8 min miles! Paige started panicking when she saw us pass her on the way back, but she kept running and finished in 31 min! I think we have more runners in the family!
I think my dad was sporting his "Falls to Falls" race shirt for intimidation factor! He was bound and determined to beat my mom this year. As he rounded the final corner I thought he had it in the bag. Then comes my mom running(who was only suppose to be walking this year, but you have to know my mom, she loves the medals)... we yelled for grandpa to speed up, my mom even slowed a little for him to pull a head....she beat him by 3 seconds! But he met is goal of running the entire time. Go Grandpa and Grandma!
Justin took second place in Men's 12-14.

Family Fun

Go Grandpa Go! My dad finally got his Harley, 40 years after selling his first one to go to college. I was surprised how much I enjoyed the ride. Riding through Provo on a summer evening is so beautiful. I'm even more surprised how much my mom enjoys it! I did have to give them a hard time until they both had helmets, hello people!Cute baby and cute babysitter!

Best Place In the World

When I was young, a trip to Henrieville, UT was the most exciting, most anticipated event of the summer. Henrieville is 19 miles from Bryce Canyon and sits in the middle of what is now the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. My mother was born and raised here along with her 4 sisters. There is hardly a more beautiful place on this earth. In my mind the beauty is definitely enhanced by the great memories that dwell there for me. The kids and I caravaned to Southern Utah with the rest of my family for the Hughes family reunion (my grandma was the oldest of 12? Hughes siblings) My mom's family was in charge this year, and I got more than one encouraging nudge to be in attendance (I love you mom). We took a hike to the "Girl's Playhouse" just a hop, skip and jump from what used to be my grandma's house. I'm not sure what Paige expected - slides and jumpy houses? It is a beautiful rock formation on the side of a mtn.
Ryan, Emily, and Julianna took the hike with us. Yes Ryan, I see the pink mountain.
Nice hat, Clayton.

As we drove around Henrieville (it took 5 min.) and past where my grandma used to live I had to control the urge to jump out of the car and run up on the porch, make the leap to the side of the cellar stair wall and jump across to the back porch. (If you're in my family you know exactly what I'm talking about). I could still smell what her house smelled like. I loved that place! It is interesting how things are different when you go back as an adult and you start to see things for what they really are. The house is so small, old, lacking so many ammentities, and did I say old? But as kid I felt like I was in heaven being there. The memories of my grandma include picking beans, making pie crust, hiking in Kodachrome, and her teaching my brothers and me to shoot the .22 - she was a dead aim. How many people can say their grandma taught them to shoot a gun? If I close my eyes I can picture the mountians off the back porch, still see the cracks in the cement and hear my grandma's hoarse laugh as she watches something crazy the grandkids were doing. To me it will always be the best place in the world.

Sawtooth Tradition

Darren's family has been going to the Sawtooths for the fourth of July for over 30 years. It is a fun tradtion to carry on, although this year, after the river trip we were all sort of dragging our feet about going camping again. But, we were very well equipped for mosquitos - head nets and A LOT of deet! We were able to watch Darren's nephew be baptized in Alturas Lake, what a great exprience! We hiked, biked, caught frogs and salamanders, ran, swam in freezing Perkins Lake, and took lots of time to relax. We went to church in Stanley and took the traditional picture on the fence with the breathtaking Sawtooths mountains in the background. (thanks Heather, it's nice to have a photographer in the family :) This is the view out of the church windows behind the pulpit. Chacos and no make-up to church - I could get used to this!

Kimberly Good Neighbor Day

Paige ran the 1 mile race for Kimberly Good Neighbor Days. She refused to let me run with her and was mad when Darren followed her to make sure she went the right way. She loves to run and is a natural at it. She finished in 9:57 and took third place.

Cockadoodle doo

One night Darren and I kept hearing one of the kids cry. So I got up to see who it was... sound asleep, all of them. I'd go back to bed, and then a few minutes later we'd hear the noise again. After checking on the kids three times I just forgot it and went to sleep. It wasn't until a week later we realized it was one of our chickens trying out its lungs. Since then it has become really good at that 5:34 a.m. crow. It has also been really picking on the other chickens, when you hear the words "pecking order" it really means something! The neighbors came down for the show... the moral - be loud or mean around our house and "off with your head!"

Tahoe Lake Relay Race

On June 14 six friends and I did a relay race around Lake Tahoe. ALL THE WAY around the lake. If you've ever seen it you know what a feat this was. It is 73 ish miles around and SO beautiful! Each person did one leg ranging from 8.2 to 12.3 miles. We started at 7:00 am on the south side of the lake and ran counter clockwise. We ran support for each team member along the way. I came to really love the sight of Kari's van - it meant I had made it that much further, and there would be water, gatorade and GU! I ran the second leg, the 8.2 miler, that climbed 1000 ft in 3 miles. Jenna's music saved my life, my ipod is broken, and I would have never made it without her rocking music! It was such a great experience to see every Go-Go Girl (that was our team name) run their heart out despite heat, exhaustion, elevations sickness, etc! (Running at that elevation is interesting) We were known along the way as the "pink team". It was fun to cheer along other people that were at our same pace. I loved running again with "little" Jodi, I would give anything to have her as a running partner again! We finished at 7:02 p.m. and headed for the biggest hamburgers and shakes we could find!
On my leg of the race the van was waiting for me and what did they see climbing over the guard rail? This bear! It was right where I would be coming in a few minutes! This picture was taken by some sort of law enforcement man, it is not zoomed in, the bear was RIGHT THERE! I don't know what I would have done had I come upon it while I was running, I'm glad they got it away before I got there. There was also a bear that ran out behind our last runner, crossing the road as she went by! Thanks Jodi for inviting me, I really loved it! Anyone want leg #2 next year?