Utah! We missed you!

We flew back to Utah this summer for a visit.  First of all, it was amazing to fly, and not drive.  Although we had some minor delays on the way out, and our kids were ornery, I just kept reminding myself "we only have to travel for part of one day, not two days!" and I felt much better about the situation.  And they did amazing on the way home, but I am getting ahead of myself.

My parents picked us up from the airport.  It was so good to see everyone! Jake even came home from his mission in Germany to see us! (ok, so it was reverse...we went to Utah to see him. )

We were able to spend time with the Maughans the next few days, starting off with an amazing camping trip in Tony's Grove up Logan Canyon. Side note, Tony's Grove was where we got engaged, so it was fun to be back there.  It was breathtakingly beautiful!  There were so many wildflowers, of which I was particularly fond of.

Adelaide and Calder LOVED the Foxy the dog.

A little too much sunscreen!

We went on a walk to the little lake, and the kids had fun wading around in the water.  

The next day we got to go to Bear Lake.  A friend of Craig's family graciously agreed to bring his sail boat and let us all come sailing.  It fun!  Frightening, at times, too. (I thought we were going to tip over!) I love how blue Bear Lake is.  The kids enjoyed playing on the beach all day.

Calder wore himself out! He ended up sleeping for 2 hours on the beach!

Such a beautiful place.

I love how blue the water is!

We enjoyed a mini Maughan/Young family reunion the next day, complete with a waterfight.  Calder was overjoyed to be wielding a water gun.

Craig had nowhere to run to. he he. :)

Sunday we got to listen to Jake's returning missionary talk in church.  He did a nice job.  It was so good to see that kid.

We went up to the cabin for a few days with my family.  Everyone was there (minus Cody, because of scout camp.) Spent all three days at the lake.  It was so fun to be with all of my siblings! Such a blast! In no particular order - pictures from the cabin!

 

Grandma, Jocelyn, and Blaze 

Sandcastles!

The sand/booger face grin says it all.

Beautiful Pineview!

Cousins!  Blaze and Calder were best buddies the whole trip.  

Adelaide and Kenzie were two peas in a pod.  Crashed at the beach and everything together. :)

Beautiful sunset.

These three. :)

Adelaide learned quickly where Grandma kept all the good stuff.

Calder, Jocelyn, and Blaze all got to water ski on a trainer ski.  I was so proud!

Calder was so proud, too!
Every time he passed the beach he would turn, look, and give a little squeal to make sure everyone was watching. :)

We spent one day relaxing at my parents house.  The kids were thrilled to play with all of the toys at Grandma's house.  We visited the new aquarium, and really enjoyed seeing the otters, penguins, and sharks!

To finish up the trip, we headed back to Mendon where we had a babysitter. (Thanks Carin!)  Craig and I got to float a river with some friends (so fun to see you guys, Jon-David and Becky!). That evening, we went with Craig's dad to the Brigham City Temple.  (Thanks Elva for watching kids!)  I am so grateful for temples and the opportunity we had to go!  

The annual Mendon 24th of July Celebration happened to be that weekend.  It is a tradition to run in the 5k.  This year we talked ourselves up way more than we prepared for the race!  It was a fun time with some old friends.

We took some time to drive around Logan to show Calder Utah State University, Logan Regional Hospital (where he was born), and the Logan Temple.  So many good memories!

USU!!  Go Aggies!!!

Our return home was uneventful.  Both kids were happy, and no flight delays.  We were ready to be home again.  I am afraid I am spoiled now...I am not looking forward to the next time we have to drive instead of fly! 

What a wonderful trip!  We wore ourselves out.  Thanks family and friends for such a good time!  Now you all can make trip out to Arkansas...

#Latergrams

As I was going through my pictures (it has been far too long since I have loaded them all onto the computer!) I realized there were several that I want to post for my sake.  So here is a random smattering of what we've been up to the last month:

We bought a boat last October, and now that it is warm enough, we pulled it out of storage and have spent many evenings and Saturday afternoons on the water.  The lake is about 15 minutes away from our house, so it is the perfect activity if we have 2 or 3 hours to spare! :)

When the boat isn't on the water, it doubles as a "spaceship" in our garage.   We have explored the galaxy in that thing.

Walks at Crystal Bridges are always a favorite.  Just look at all that green!

Calder was so proud that he figured out how to climb up all by himself!

Bike rides to the park by our house fill up an hour and a half on many afternoons.  Adelaide is quite the little monkey, too!  

We love having picnics inside on rainy days.

Adelaide discovered the joy of using a walker!

Then she started using everything as a walker!

And another "walker"

I gave away the dishes we got when we were married (they were not kid friendly, I mean adult friendly. I broke several of our plates!) and I got a set of Corelle.  Hopefully these will last! 

For Father's Day the kids humored me and held these letters so I could take their pictures...

I put them all together in a frame that Craig took to work.

What I wish I had a picture of:

• The amazing breakfast Craig made for Mother's Day: Eggs benedict and asparagus!

Outback in the Ozarks

I don't consider myself a runner.

But a few months ago, Craig and I signed up for a relay (similar to Ragnar) here in Arkansas, through the Ozarks.  It is a 200 mile race that is run by a team of 12 (or less) people.  So we started thinking about training!

How our original team of 12 was lined up, Craig would be running 3 short legs (a little over 3 miles a piece) with one of them being a huge climb in elevation.  Mine were a little longer, so I went on a few longer runs.  But we didn't train near as much as we should have.  Oh well!

Angie, my sister, generously agreed to come watch our kids during the race and visit for a few extra days!  It was sooo fun having her here!  Sisters are the best!!

Picture taken by Calder.  I am quite impressed with his skills.

Ang and I had a great time.  She brought Kenzie with her (her youngest daughter) and it was so much fun seeing Adelaide and Kenzie interact with each other!

This window is the perfect height to look out of!

 While Calder was at playgroup one morning, we went to Crystal Bridges and walked around.  It was gorgeous!

I love the random picture frames they have set up along the trails there!

Race day came.  There had been a few changes in our team of 12.  We knew we were down to 11 people, and that we should have trained more.  The morning of the race, we found out we were actually down to 10.  Someone bailed last minute!  So everything we had expected to run was now changed, and was now harder!  Yikes!

Craig was the first one to run from our truck.  He did awesome!

Craig finishing his first leg.  He doesn't even look phased.

My first leg was on a trail for the first 5 miles.  It was gorgeous, and so much fun to run through, actually.

At the beginning of my first leg

Getting ready to hand off!

 So the Ozarks aren't huge mountains, but they are beautiful.  And they seem huge when you have to run up and down them.  I loved how they were wooded, and then would open up into green fields where cows or sheep would be grazing.

 We met and saw a lot of interesting people.  When you think of Arkansas, it turns out there is definitely some truth to the hill-billy generalization that comes to mind.

The kids we passed seemed thrilled that there were people out in their neck of the woods.  This kid was having fun showing off.

The van and truck from our team.

The truck was really nice to have.  After running, we would get to lay in the back with our feet up during the whole time the next person was running.  I hated having to give that spot up!

Each time we had to run it was harder, and harder.  

We ate dinner in a small town in the Ozarks, and tried to rest for about an hour, before we had to meet back up at the exchange zone to run again.  We ran through the night, and didn't end up being able to lay down to sleep until about 5:30 in the morning, just to have to get up at 7:30 to run again.

I ended up running three legs at 6.2, 7.4, and 4.7 miles.  Craig ended up having to run 4 legs: 5.1, 6.5, 4.8, and 4.7 miles.  I felt so bad for him!  He went in thinking he was going to run 3 5ks, and ended up running almost a marathon!  But he was a trooper, and handled it all so well.  To the outsider, it didn't even look like it was a struggle for him.  

We did it!

 Craig was able to cross the finish line for our team.  Our team was made up of 10 people - 8 boys, and 2 girls.  Because we didn't have an even number of boys and girls, we fell under the "men" category.  By sheer luck of circumstance, we ended up placing first in our category.  Hooray! It is impressive to say we won first in the men's division! There were some really strong runners on our team.

The team - minus one who had to leave early.

Now I remember back and say "that was a lot of fun!"  Even though at times, it was miserable.  But we did it!  And if we ever do it again, I think it is safe to say we will train a little more.

Our kids did surprisingly well while we were gone.  I was a little stressed about it, but they did great!  

We took Angie the next day to a place called War Eagle Mill in the Ozarks - actually where I ended my first run.  Again, another beautiful place! We had a good time taking pictures and going on a little walk - the perfect Sunday afternoon activity!

Calder's got a killer wink.

Love these 3. :)

So serene.

So Angie, how about coming to visit again?  Sometime soon, please!!

Birthday Boy

Calder was soo excited to turn 3!  He is growing up so much!

We wanted to make the day really special for him, so we decorated the house the night before with balloons, crepe paper, and a happy birthday sign.

That morning, Craig woke him up to open presents before he had to head into work.  He was thrilled with the decorations - especially the balloons - all around the house.  He got some awesome presents - he loved all of them!!  We kept things pretty simple, and got him a little T-Ball set and a superman t-shirt (one just like Craig's).

Grandmas and grandpas got him a telescope, (which he loves to play around with) and a subscription to the Little Kids National Geographic. (He likes to tell me little facts that he's learned about the animals all the time.)

At noon, some of his friends from the ward came over for a birthday party.  We had some pizza, and played some amazing games of hide and go seek, duck duck goose, and Simon says.  After opening presents, the kids decorated their own cupcakes.  It was so cute seeing all of the kids in their little party hats.  I loved it!!  Craig was able to take a long lunch that day, so he was able to be there to help out with the party.

I love these goofy kids!

My boys in their matching shirts.  :)  I'm not sure which one of them likes to match with the other one more.

 The afternoon was filled with playing with his new toys, and finishing his birthday cake.  Calder likes a lot of things: Curious George, cars, trains, airplanes, balls, etc.  There wasn't anything that stuck out that he is obsessed with that I would pattern a birthday cake after, so I just went with the number 3 and a train. (Exception: he does have an obsession  - he is obsessed with pipes.  Like the pipes under the kitchen sink.  He loves learning everything about them: how water travels through them out of our house to the sewer, and onto the treatment plant, etc.  But I wasn't going to make a birthday cake look like plumbing.)

We had both sets of grandparents on video chat while we sang "Happy Birthday" to him that night, and then finished off the evening with a movie.

I LOVE that Calder's old enough to be so excited about everything - all day!!  It made it so much fun.  He is already excited to turn 4.  

Calder's birthday interview.  He was having a hay day with that frosting.

Happy Birthday, little man!