Heather, Spring and I got together last Friday to go see Eclipse. It was so much fun to get together! We had a major mishap (I'll post later. It is still hard to talk about.) After the movie we went and got Farr's Ice Cream and talked and laughed until almost 11PM. Just like high school.
We met at the park later in the week so our kids could play and so we could visit some more. It is hard to believe that Heather's oldest is going to Middle School next year. Seriously, weren't we just in middle school a couple years ago?

Mini-Mission Reunion

I was able to meet up with my friends, Robyn and Lindy, that I served with in Thailand. It has been almost 12 years since we were living in that humid paradise. Crazy! It is so nice to be able to visit, catch up, eat Thai food, and be amazed at how big everyone's kids are. (We brought Thai food in and the kids ate McDonald's. We thought it was a good compromise, don't you?)

Our offspring: my 4 (minus Ewan), Robyn's 3, and Lindy's 3.5.

Silly Faces.

Afterward, we sat and talked in the parking lot. Of course, when it is time to go, that is when the ice is broken and friendships are made. Austin, Zane, and Harrison played Mario Kart on their Nintendo DS's.

24 Hours with the Christensens

After Grandmas, after the Fossil Beds, we finally made it to our friends' house: the Christensen's. They moved away from PA about a year ago to be closer to family, but we have dearly missed them. We scheduled some time to stay at their new house, to catch up, and to have fun. Dave took us to a local cave where we went spelunking.

Let the bro-mance begin!

My friend, Josi. Little Drew wasn't too keen on being in the cave.
After caving, we went back to their house, aka the homestead, for dinner around the fire and s'mores. Abric and Drew hit it off like "peas and carrots", as Forrest would say. It was so cute to watch them play, eat Doritos, and just smile at each other. Did they remember hanging out as babies? Probably not, but they still bonded all the same.
The bigger kids played a pioneer game that evolved into World War II. Zane was one of the casualties, apparently.
The two munchkins. Drew just turned 2 and has never had a haircut in his life.
I had the absolute honor to give Drew his first haircut. "Give him the 'Coy Boy Cut'!", said Dave. They had me cut Will's hair when he turned two. I had no idea they were saving Drew's for me. For the record, I'm not that great at cutting boys' hair. I guess I just have a LOT of experience, right?
The next morning we were up bright and early to head south toward Utah again. Josi and Dave had to go to her mom's house and we had to go to Bear Lake for a family reunion. We stopped at the City of Rocks, just on the Idaho-Utah border. (Yes, folks, yet another stamp for our passport.)

This is Bath Rock. We climbed it. It was awesome.

This is the back side of Bath Rock, the much-easier, kid-friendly side. We all walked up as high as we could go, then Dave put on his harness and a harness on the kids to go up the steeper parts.

Will was a trooper as Dave belayed him up and Andy helped from below.

The view from the top. Let me tell you, I'm not super afraid of heights, just enough to respect the rock. But climbing with little kids is so scary! Especially when Zane decides to lean over the edge and say, "I want to see down the rock!" My heard just about leapt into my throat!
Zane and Grace climbed with us. It was the adventure of their 6-year old lives!
Harrison stayed below and helped the younger kids. He tried so hard t be brave, but he has a debilitating fear of heights that is very real. We didn't force him to climb up to the top with us.
The view from below as Andy and Dave helped Grace come down the side.
After that adventure, we continued southward to Promontory Point to see where the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific met to complete the transcontinental railroad.
This is where we said our good-byes. Good-bye dear friends, until we meet again and you have another addition to your family!

Trip to Connecticut

We headed out for a road trip up to Connecticut for this weekend. We were able to stay with some great friends of ours: Sheree and Jason. Nicole and Ben met us there on Saturday. It was so much fun to have a mini-high school reunion, East Coast chapter. Andy was planning on running a the Hartford Marathon. This is what we saw the during the entire drive.

Here is Andy's cheering section!

Andy PR'd at 4:14. I was so proud of him!

It was so nice to hang out at the house later that day. The boys had a blast playing in the yard, ie forest. Harrison and Zane made a fortress. We had an excellent birthday dinner to celebrate Ben and Harrison's birthdays, complete with birthday cake.
Here is the group. Crazy to see how we have multiplied. Sheree and Jason have Jackson, with one little baby on the way. Ben and Nicole will have their little bambina in less than 8 weeks. Good times, good times.

Hershey 5k

Here are the pictures of a 5k that we ran in Hershey a couple weekends ago. The race photographer posted them on the race site and we were able to 'swipe' them. It was a SWEET race. (It was in Hershey, after all!)

Andy and Shawn battle it out.

I brought in the rear 30 seconds after Andy and Shawn. (At least I was in front of the shirtless guy. We had been going back and forth the entire race...know how that is? I just could not let him beat me!)

After the race Andy, Shawn, Christine, and I hung out near the awards section and ate Rita's Italian Ice. I decided to jog back to the finish line to see the finisher's board. Unbeknownst to me, I was in the middle of the Kids' Run and the photographer took a picture of me. I was trying not to look at him... was I thinking that would make me invisible? I was so embarrassed when I realized what had happened. Whoops!


Little did I know that just over 24 hours after this race I would try to pull our cooler out of the back of the van with one hand (while I held Abric in the other hand) and pull my piriformis muscle which would then pinch against my sciatic nerve.
I haven't run since that race and boy am I missing it. Thanks to some great advice from my Marathon Mommy friends, I am finally healing. I have been doing some stretches, icing my back/bum/hip/leg, and taking ibuprofen.

First Day of School

Can you believe this boy is starting 2nd grade?

And this boy will be starting Kindergarten?

The excitement is contagious! Ewan wanted to be like his big brothers and wear his backpack to the bus stop.

Bus buddies.... waiting for the bus!

There they go! Harrison and Brennan (our neighbor) are off to their first day at 2nd grade. (Kindergarten actually starts on Thursday, but Zane has his meeting with his K teacher today.)

"What? I don't get to ride the bus today? I never got that memo."

"I'm chucking this bag and stomping home."

Poor Ewan.... sometimes it is hard being the little brother. You want to grow up so fast.

Zane had a great one-on-one meeting with his new Kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Heilman. He is ready for Thursday!

Saturday

Saturday was a busy day....a fulfilling day, yet busy all the same. We began the morning with going to watch Andy run the York Rail Trail 10-miler. The boys love cheering their dad at his races, and I know he loves having them there to support him. Seeing your family at the end of a long race means a lot.
After that, we went home and had someone come pick-up our old washing machine. That is a blog post in and of itself. The lady who came to pick it up practically fell up (and down) our stairs. We think she was a little drunk. Either way, I'm glad to have more space in our garage/shed.

Next on the schedule was Hayden's baptism. We believe that the age of accountability comes ate age 8; this is when a child truly understands the difference between right and wrong. This is the age that they are baptized and then confirmed a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
It was such a happy day and we were so grateful to share it with Hayden and his family. Andy was asked to give the talk about the Holy Ghost. Harrison was asked to give the closing prayer.
Harrison and Hayden have been friends since they were one year old. They get along so well and I think their personalities compliment each other perfectly. For example, at age three, Harrison was the 'wild child' running around the gym at church. As he would jump off the stage Hayden would warn, "Harrison, be careful!"
Ang and I try to imagine them when they are teenagers..... time is going by so quickly that I'm sure it won't be long before they are being chased by the girls. Well, maybe not by making those faces, but they sure are handsome all the same.

Mini-high school reunion

First of all, I must begin by saying, "I have the BEST friends!" I was able to meet up with some of my dear friends from high school. Although it has been 15 years since we graduated, we were able to talk, laugh, and reminisce just like we had seen each other yesterday.

We began the evening with dinner: Spring, me, Abric, Heather, Heather, and Kristin. (Abric was our gentlemanly escort. Thanks, gals, for letting my nursing baby tag-along for a Girls' Night Out!)
Our server came outside to take our picture. We should have left her a bigger tip!
After dinner, Heather had to leave... she had work the next morning (drats!). Spring, Heather, Kristin and I headed to Park City to a condo that Gil hooked up for us. What more could a bunch of girls ask for? I put Abric to bed and we stayed up until 4:30 in the morning talking about life. Our friendship is just as fun, even though our conversations were much different than an innocent high school girl's conversation. (No more V.L. Club for us, right?) Kristin brought some pictures from the high school days. Spring was demonstrating the fun of a Murphy bed when she almost broke her camera. Her batteries and memory card flew everywhere. I laughed so hard I almost peed in my pants.
I got 3 hours of sleep when Abric woke up at 7:30 and my motherly duties called. Like I said, things are much different from high school slumber parties.

We shopped at the Park City Outlets for a couple hours, ate lunch at Cafe Rio, then drove home in a huge rain/lightning storm. It was an absolute blast. I LOVE you guys! Sheree, Nicole, and Jan, we have to have a big GNO some year.

And Abric loved all the extra attention!

Mini-reunion

This afternoon I met with some of my mission friends for lunch. If any of you are ever looking for some good Thai food in the Salt Lake area, I highly recommend the Lotus Thai. It was some of the best Thai food I have eaten since living in Thailand. Aroy maak maak! (YUM!)
l to r: Lindy, me, Robyn, and Leah. The restaurant had this cute little Thai dancer photo-op, so we took advantage of it.
We had so much fun catching up, talking about husbands (it was all good, dear), kids, life now, and life 10 years ago in Thailand. By the way, we not only ate Thai food, we feasted on Thai food: Som Tam, Spring Rolls, Tom Yam Guy, Gaeng Kiaw Waan Guy, Gaeng Massaman, and, of course, Mango Sticky Rice. They were so kind to us. We arrived at 3pm for our late lunch. The restaurant was closed between 3-5, but they let us come in anyway. We were the only ones there. It was so much fun.

Has it really been 10 years since we were all serving a mission in Thailand? It hardly seems possible that time has gone by so quickly. I'm so grateful to have had such good companions and to have met such good friends!

Playdate

Tuesday, the 23rd, the boys and I drove to Layton Park to meet up with our friends who just moved from PA. The kids were so excited to see each other. l to r: Drew, Ewan, Harrison, Abric, Will, Zane, and Grace. They played at the park, mostly on the merry-go-round, then we fed the birds. I say 'birds' because there weren't too many ducks around, mostly seagulls.
Josi and I had fun catching up on all the happenings this past month since they moved. I still don't think it has hit me yet that they won't be in their house in PA when I go back. This was a super lousy picture of me, but I had to post something with the both of us! Good-bye, my dear friend! Until next year. Thank goodness we are both 'Utah gals'.