WY

First a shout out to my sister:
Thank you for the bags for each of the kids. They love the bags and now we have something to put our travel to do things in. They are big bags too that work perfect for the car! Thanks!

After our adventure at the Ice Caves we headed to my parents home in WY. We decided to bring our mountain bikes and that was a blast. We were able to go up twice. The intermediate trails were hard! It had just rained and the trails were not in good condition. Shale and mud are hard to pedal up! 

Yep, we biked up this. 

Just a few battle wounds, is all. 

I found an old friend. It's been years since I've seen one of these little guys that I used to catch and take home as pets. 

Ms M loved the fire. She never got close enough to roast anything, but she still liked pretending too. 

 Grandma's and Grandpa's home is always fun!

Logan Hike/Bear Lake

The end of July and beg. of Aug we decided to take a little vacation, which turned out to be a bigger vacation. We started with a rainy hike up Logan Canyon. 

Can you see the hummingbirds?

We then went to Bear Lake for a night. It rained and rained and rained. When it finally stopped we went to the beach. We had fun watching Ms M and Buddy chase the seagulls, and the girls enjoyed collected sea shells. As soon we left to get dinner, it started to rain again. Perfect timing. 

The next day the kids just wanted to head straight to grandmas home, but I wanted to have an adventure. We headed up to the Paris Ice Caves. However, the road was closed due to construction. So we took the kids to the park while we figured out an alternative route.  

After a little drive in a round about way we finally made it to the Ice Caves. They are really cool! I'm glad I trumped my kids and took this adventure. They had fun too!

There is a big cavern in the back of the low rocky area. It is hard to find. RB went down it first and said I had to do it too. So Lil came with me. RB got a pic of us down it and I got own of him looking down at us. There is a spot where it is completely dark till you take three steps forward and then can see the light from the opening. A little unnerving but still really cool!

After the Ice Caves RB rode his bike down the mountain. He got really muddy but had a great time. 

This is some car fun when you are stuck in a seat for a long time. 

Good times and good memories! 

I Am So Behind...

It is almost time for school to start and I still have July things to post about. Ok, not many but still. August has been go, go, go with so many fun adventures. We will get to them later though. For now here is the rest of July. 

We have decided it is time to sell our jeep. We just don't use it enough to keep it sitting in our driveway. Our jeeping friends have moved away, and now our family wont fit in it anyways. It was a great jeep! We are hoping in the future to get another one. 

Buddy got bit by a mosquito. He balloons up in funny ways. Last time it was his ear. 

MJ had a cabbage growing summer activity that she got at the end of last year. Here it is after about 9 weeks. When we pulled it and weighed just the head it was 10 lbs. We were both impressed. 

Every year our neighbor puts on a neighborhood firework show. Tons of families in the ward, tons of food, and a great time visiting and watching the kids play. 

The girls wanted me to watch a movie with them on the computer. Here we are camped out enjoying the show. 

Enjoy!

Spudman Triathlon

After my marathon last year I set my sights on a new goal. A triathlon. My good friend was planning on doing the Spudman Tri in Burley, ID and said she would love to have me do it too. So all summer long we have been getting up anywhere from 5am to 7:30am to do our various exercising. The day finally arrived. We went up the night before and had a nice relaxing evening. We were one of the first to get our packets, so the wait wasn't very long. Then we got a good spot for our bikes, and had a good meal. We sat on the docks and just talked with our hubbies while we waited for our other two friends to make it up to ID, and get their things. Then we headed to an aunt's home to crash for the night.  

Here we are the night before after we were branded. 

Here we are ready to go. We were in wave 3 so we had to wait and hear the start of 2 other waves. Talk about nerve racking. I was ready to go when our wave finally came. 

This video shows some of the swimmers in my wave. I do not think any of them are of me though. I struggled through the first half of the swim. I think it was a combo of nerves, asthma, and just eating a banana. No more bananas before races for me. The second half of the swim I calmed myself down and got into my rhythm. Then before I knew it the swim was over with and I was a little sad. The swim was the part that scared me the most, and it ended up being the part I liked the best. 

Here is our transition to the bike. Awkward, yes. It didn't seem like anyone knew when to get on and go. But we made it. 

Here is our second transition marker. With hundreds of bikes it was nice to have the bright pink undies to show us where we were at.  

The bike and the run went well. The 6 mile run went by really fast. We had a strong finish. 

We made it!

My tracker didn't get my swim time or my run time over the finish line. So I'm glad I did it with a friend so I could see our time with her tracker. I'm glad I did it with a friend for my first time doing a tri. I am already looking forward to next years tri. and can't wait to see what I can really get. 

I loved this triathlon and am looking forward to doing more in the upcoming years. I may have found my favorite type of race! 

24th Celebration

 We watched the 24th fireworks in Logan again this year with RB's family. The kids had fun playing at the park. The girls came back from their cousin swap and they were excited to see us again and visa-versa. We had a good time chatting, and watching the booms. 

Ms M did really well during the fireworks this time. She claimed the popcorn tub hers and she chowed down. 

Good times!