The Floating Party

A 14th birthday party on Millerton Lake

cute girls, silly boys

A new tube

and an old one

out at the same time

Smiles and sunshine

sitting

resting

climbing, flexing

jumping

falling

screaming

waiting and debating

synchronizing

hugging

hiding

flying

Posing

Done

Lots to Love

I've had lots to love lately!

Loved ending my day at Tokoyo Steak House Tepanyaki. Loved that I made it there safely in spite of the fearless and reckless racing done between Jeff and Aaron en route.

Love that my sister and Jason were visiting again 

Love that Kristi and I didn't get burned while I was busy showing her a picture taking app on my phone.  Laughed so hard at the video Aaron took of my acrobatics getting away from the flames. 

Love that the birthday package we had determined was lost after several weeks in the mail finally showed up for Miss Brynne from Grandma Sherry and Grandpa Teddy.

Loved all the adorable little gifts that were crammed inside that box.  Especially this darling dress Brynne wore to church the next Sunday.

Love that even though several of us were sick I still made it out to Sunnyvale to be there when Sterling and Katie blessed their new baby boy.  Especially loved watching Brynne mother her little cousin Pheobe.  

Senior ditch day round two, Garrett's birthday party, my sister in town, and a baby blessing out of town.  Busy, busy, busy weekend but totally loved it all! 

Kickin' Off Camp!

Your Once Upon A Time is Now, Girls Camp 2013

We all have a story, unique and entirely our own.  Yours is being written right now, and you are the author.  The paths you will take are entirely up to you.

As our stories progress there will be dragons to face and battles to fight.  There are decisions big and small that will need to be made.  

Our fairy tale has a wise King, Father of Heaven and Earth.  We are daughters of this king. 

Mirror, mirror on the wall, who's the fairest of them all?  If we could see ourselves the way our Father does, we would know of our infinite worth and see more clearly the beauty that lies within each of us.  If we could always see others this way we would be kinder and more patient.  

Our story is one of learning and growth. Experiences that will bring joy and heartache. 

Too often we think that life will get better after the next hurdle is cleared, or that life will really start right after our current bump in the road has passed us by.  The truth is that your once upon a time is NOW.  You are already writing your story, so make it good.  Make it what you want it to be.

The journey is yours to take. The dragons are yours to fight. The path is yours to find. Make our Father proud.  Remember the greatness that is within you and you will return home with honor to live happily ever after!

Mom=The Best Job Ever!

Mothers Day started with this crew coming in to take my order for breakfast in bed.  

It got even better when I didn't have to worry about getting everyone else ready for church and we were even on time!! Wes was one of the three speakers and he gave such a sweet talk.  I was a proud Mama.

 After church my dad, Jeff and the kids completely took care of dinner. As in I did absolutely nothing, except walk myself out to this beautiful patio and sit myself down in a chair.  Truly lovely.  This no work deal may be old hat to some of you, but this is the first time I can ever remember really doing zero work on Mothers Day, and I have to say, it was pretty dreamy.

 Jeff, who always hates trying to figure out what to buy for me, decided to have a little fun with the purchasing and got me a gag gift so that I could return it and just get whatever I really wanted.  He bought a Ninja 2000 Super Duper Crock pot.  He thought it was pretty funny, but  I thought the crock pot was actually pretty cool. But then he told me how much he spent on it...now that was funny.  I returned it.  

 What I didn't take back though, were all these sweets Jeff also loaded me up with. It was exactly what my waistline needed after my recent Oreo binge, but I just took it to mean that he likes me a little thick in the middle and dug right in.  I did leave it all in the kitchen though so I could have some "help" with eating it all.  Thank goodness for a house full of boys!  I think it all disappeared without too much damage done.

The real sweet treat of the day though were my notes from my kids.

  I love these kids with all of my heart and am grateful everyday to be their mom.   Maybe not every minute of every day and not usually all of them at once, but at least once a day I have a moment with at least one of my kids that makes me certain that my job is the best there is in the whole wide world.  My kids make me proud of them in the way they handle themselves, treat others, take responsibility, work hard, open themselves to learning and growth.  They inspire me with their faith, honesty, testimonies, and goodness.  My heart swells for them in their successes, and breaks for their heartaches. They are the reason for most of my worries, and plenty of my frustration. They are the cause of my greatest joys, biggest laughs, and happiest moments. They are my world.

*In the spirit of keeping it real around here though, check out this hilarious video about mom's loving every minute of their jobs as moms...

St George BABY!!!!

 On Monday I checked the St George Marathon website about a gazillion times. The results for the lottery letting you know if you are one of the 7600 that get to run in the race were being posted at some point.  

 I was super pumped to see that I had gotten in.  Then I saw that the whole crew that I trained with last summer and entered into the lottery had gotten in too!  I was about as happy as I was when I crossed the finish line last year!

It means I can count on another summer of running with these fools! Marlon will cut up fresh fruit for us to eat after our long runs on Saturday.  He and Andrew will be stuck being my water boys for another few months.  Nick will continue to blow us away. We will be on the lookout for Bruce's missing gerbil and Marlon's height challenged cousin.  Names like Kabob, Ninja, Haskins, Flutterbutt, Carrott, Featherhead, and Cookie Monster will continue to fly through cyberspace.

And when we get too tired to continue on we will always have a friend on the ready to pull our rickshaw!

Andrew posted the picture below on FB sharing his news at getting in to the marathon.  Then he tagged the picture with the rest of the running crew's names.  I made a snarky remark about which runner was going be me.

Tonight Marlon sent me a message telling me which chick I should really be.   The one in the bright yellow shirt on page 4 of the 2013 St George Marathon Runners guide...

Okay fine I'll be her.  Does this make me famous? Probably I 'll have to start signing autographs.  They'll roll out the red carpet for me when I arrive at the Expo.  Next thing you know they'll be asking me to speak at the convention. Pretty much the possibilities are endless!! Really though, I am super excited to run this race again.  I am looking forward to training with my friends.  My sister Tara and her hubs Jason are BOTH going to be running and our good friends Talli and Jeremy are BOTH also running this year.  Jeff has even decided he wants to run in it too!  I found a charity spot that he can purchase if he decides he's going to have the time to train.  I have my doubts but he seems pretty determined.  It's going to be a PARTY in St George this year and I am looking forward to it!! Out with the Oreo's and in with the early morning runs!

Senior Ditch Day!

Last Friday was Senior Ditch Day at Buchanan High School. Yeah, I know I'm not in high school anymore but I might know a few kids who are.  One of them called me Thursday night and asked if I knew what sounded fun.  Of course I did, but I indulged her and said what. "You taking me and my friends out on the lake for Senior Ditch Day tomorrow!"  

Yep that did sound fun! You don't really have to twist my arm to get me out to the lake.

 We got the boat cleaned up that night and ready for the first trip out of 2013!

 It was a gorgeous day! We just had one minor hiccup, the accessory battery on the boat was dead so we couldn't blow up the tubes!  They guys made a quick trip up to the car to blow it up and we were on our way!

 Dakota kept us continually entertained!  From climbing all over everyone on the tube and eventually tossing Kailey off, to his choice of serious reading material, we all got some dang good laughs!

I thought it was hilarious when he pulled out his lunch and offered to share.  A whole rotisserie chicken and some Scooby Snacks!  

We drove up the river a ways and found some great rocks to jump off of.

I let Wes ditch school too even though he's only a sophomore, so he could come help me with the boat.  

 When everyone had their fill with the tube we pulled out the wake board.  Wes was doin' work! Landed his first back flip of the season and got some great jumps in too!

We wrapped things up a little earlier than planned when Kailey knocked her head with the wakebord.  She took a few more turns afterwards and finally decided to call it quits. She's one tough cookie! When she got back into the boat Wes noticed she was bleeding.  One look and I knew she needed stitches! Luckily we know a guy.  He's sewn up a few heads in the last year for the exact same reason!  He and his wife interrupted their date night to help out the Hankes crew.

 In spite of our rocky ending, Kristie and I had a blast with these awesome kids!  It's crazy to me that they will all be gone next year. They will definitely be missed!