Magical

Riding, riding, riding in the car

Changing seats every half hour

Missed the turnoff at Idaho Falls

Find a place, turn 'round

Bumpy, rocky, bumpy dirt road

Seems like forever to get there

Trees and dirt and scouts everywhere

Lovely lodge, good food

 

Creeping, sneaking, tip-toeing up behind

Don't let him see us yet

Happy Birthday Sonny Pie!

It's my birthday? It is!

Flickering, shining, glowing campfire

Laughing at skits and cheers

Patriotic thoughts abound

Down the trail to bed

Hiking, swimming, playing outside

Freezing in the lake

Creatures and plants to explore

Thought provoking film

 

Flashing, booming, pouring rainstorm

Shaking the whole lodge

Children playing under the eaves

Love the summer rain

 

Morning, shining, walking to church

In the summer sun

Feel the spirit out of doors

Learn to be our best

Packing, lunching, hugging, leaving

Find our way back again

See him in a few more weeks

When he's back at home

A misnomer

When I started this blog a couple of years ago I decided to use nicknames for my children for privacy purposes. It was so easy to come up with the right names for Juice, Sonny Pie, Superstar & Cutie but Silly Guy was a puzzle. He is rather silly sometimes-- like when he's wearing a chicken hat we got for free from the grocery store and singing "cock-a-doodle-doo" along with the radio in the car, or when he pretends to call me to tattle on his brother and get him in trouble--but silly doesn't really encompass who Silly guy is like the names of the other kids.

So after much consideration and discussion with Silly Guy his name is being changed to......oh let me explain first.

This boy is a little bit of everything---artist, author, athlete, scientist, worker, builder, tease, sensitive, tough---it's really difficult to sum him up in one or two words. So there's someone in history who I think of that way also--he was an artist, scientist, author, philosopher, and who knows what else('cause I'm not really a historian!). From what I have learned this person was so diverse and difficult to sum up in a word or two so we decided to re-nickname(is that a word?) Silly Guy after him.

He never did like being called Silly Guy and so we are thrilled to announce that
his new blog nickname is now DaVinci because he is so diverse just like Leonardo DaVinci.

What is a hero?

This morning Superstar came to me talking all about how a hero never submits. He was very anxious for me to know that he wanted to be a hero by never submitting. I was prompted to use this as a teaching moment and gave him some food for thought by telling him that sometimes a hero is someone who does what's right even when everone else around them is not. Or sometimes a hero is someone who admits when he's been wrong.

I am grateful for heroes in my life who have taught me these concepts and been good examples of them. Especially my wonderful children who are much better at standing up for the right than I was at their age!

6 years old!

I am behind about a week as you can tell but Cutie had a fantastic 6th birthday last week. In between opera dress rehearsals we had tickets to we managed to fit some balloons, presents and cake & ice cream. He was so excited to get a new slip-n-slide, swim goggles, and a really cool shark swim towel. What a great day!

9.3

Well I did it! I ran in the Blacksmith Fork Freedom Run 15k on July 3. It was really hard! Between miles 3 and 4 my left hip started hurting and that made it even harder. The last two miles I was really slow but I finished in 1:52.47 overall which was just a little slower than I had hoped for. It was kind of fun to do this with my hubby although he's much faster and more experienced than me. He asked me afterwards if I wanted to run in the Top of Utah Half Marathon in September and I told him I am done with long runs for this year. But we'll see what might come up next year!

Happy Fathers' Day!

Summer on the run! (In more ways than one)

Wow! Summer is here. Every year I think that when school gets out things will get so much more relaxed and easy going but it never happens that way---swimming lessons, summer orchestra, Juice needs the car for work, eat lunch at the high school, summer job lists and fun activities when the jobs are done. It seems like we never get to slow down. So when am I supposed to do the laundry or make dinner? School has been out for two weeks and Silly Guy said to me yesterday, "School has only been out for two weeks but it seems like forever!" Oh boy, we better make more plans. 8 1/2 weeks to go! Maybe a trip to Bear Lake for a couple of days or to visit Sonny Pie at Camp Loll for the weekend :)

Speaking of Sonny Pie at Camp Loll he left yesterday morning for the whole summer. This is the third summer he's gone but somehow I'm more sad(sadder?) to see him go this year. He's just so dependable and easy going(most of the time) and good company. We're going to miss him!

I'm also literally on the run because I'm training to run in the Blacksmith Fork Freedom Run 15k with Stephen. I ran(and/or walked) 7 miles this morning. That's the farthest I've ever run. I get up early to run before everyone else is up(at 5:30 this morning because I was running so far). I like to go early while it's cold outside. Also, once everyone is up things get too busy and I never get it done. The race is in two weeks. It's pretty amazing that a little over a year ago I would never have even considered considering training for a race but here I am. It's still pretty hard for me but I kind of like it.

I feel so blessed that I am able to do all I do. I don't know how I manage it all and being the Relief Society president too. That job hasn't been too hard so far. Thank goodness I don't really know all I should be doing yet. I think it will get busier as I go along--and bring more blessings with it.