Summer Part 2

Instead of moving all the pictures around, I think I'll just start here with August and end in July. In August we had our yearly branch camp out at the Hileman's in Grand Lake. The kids had a grand old time getting dirty. They found a slash pile, built teepee's, and decided it would be fun to smear charcoal all over themselves...

Casey and dad went fishing in the nearby pond. Dad with his big fishing pole and Casey with his Casey sized Spiderman fishing pole. And who came out victorious? Spiderman. Great catch Casey!! It was a very yummy fish.

We had lots of fun this summer exploring where we live. This hike was around Lake Cataract near Heeney. Just about every wednesday we ladies with our kiddos picked a hike that we could take our kids on and went for an adventure.

Casey and Maddy.. The gang...
One of our favorite hikes is to a place we call "top of the world". It's close to our house and is also the highest point around. You can basically see 360 degrees around the valley. Here, we were actually clay pigeon shooting with some friends. It was a little cold ...

In high school I ran the mile in track. I ran against an incredible runner named Maria Zeller. She lived about 40 miles from where I grew up. She was amazing and beat everyone she ran against, including me. We moved to our little town in the mnts and low and behold Maria was here (what a small world). We've become great friends and decided this summer to run together to get in better shape. As we were running Maria came up with a "great" idea that we should train for the 5K race that was coming up in August. The race was called "The Gut Buster". The slogan was "It's a hill, get over it", doesn't sound fun does it? I know, some people train for marathons, half marathons, 10K's, but me....a 5K sounded like a marathon. I was incredibly nervous. But...this was my chance to go back in time and beat the infamous Maria. We had two months to train and we worked hard. So the race began and I jumped ahead (I'm right behind the Hard Rock guys and she's in the yellow shirt not too far behind)....

I didn't get far before she caught right back up. We ran the whole race side by side...

She kept saying, "if you need to run ahead, go for it..." while I was thinking, "show no weakness, just stay with her"...So the final sprint to the finish line. Out of body experience coming on, legs weakening....
So no photo finish but I beat her!!! For the first and probably last time I leaned at the end and beat her by half a hair. But I didn't care. I did it. We got first in our age group and 8th and 9th overall. We ran it in 23:37. Not amazing times but for us who started a few months before the race, we were pumped. Matt ran the race too and finished just ahead of us. I was so proud of him. He's become quite the runner and has much more determination then I. His next goal is to run from HS to Granby (10 miles).

We had some good times with cousins this summer. Here we went to Nana and Papa's community swimming pool and had a great time swimming with the fam. Here's Tommy and Annabelle enjoying the shallow end...

Cally and Calvin in the deeper end...

Another hike but near Grand Lake (can't remember the name)....

This year in July we had a family reunion in the Big Horn Mnts in Wyoming. My Aunt Karen from Texas was coming into town with all of her kids and their kids. So a family reunion was organized. We had a great time catching up with family and cousins. My Aunt Karen was put in charge of the activities. They played various games, had a fishing pond, ran races, decorated bug catchers, ate candy, ate candy, and ate some more candy. They were in heaven....One of my favorite things to do in the mnts growing up was creek fishing. My kids realized my love for it...Casey caught 11 brookies...Cally caught quite a few too but we stopped counting...We saw some really cool moose which was a treat....After a few nights of camping we went back down the mnt to my parents house and enjoyed the yearly festivities of the 24th celebration. It was full of sports, and fun for the kids. Matt and I played in the basketball tournament, ran the 5K, and competed in the volleyball tournament. We finished exhausted but we were in heaven. Here are Cally and Cody during the parade...

Annabelly just taking it all in...

Summer 2009 part 1

We started summer off with T-ball. Cally and Casey were able to play on the same team and had a lot of fun playing together. Casey struggled with all the standing around you have to do (hurry up and wait!!). There was a lot of kicking of the dirt and not realizing when the ball was rolling past. It was hard keeping his eyes on the ball. He loved batting and playing pitcher and catcher (they get the most action).

It's amazing the difference in attention spans between a 7 year old and a five year old. Cally was much more focused and into the games. Although she too wanted more action. They put her as clean up hitter every game. She hated waiting til the end to hit but loved hitting grand slams to bring everyone home. It's much easier when you're the oldest on the team.

Our town had its yearly "Hot Sulphur Days" and the kids were on a T-ball float for the parade and had fun throwing candy. Casey suprisingly had quite a bit of candy left over at the end of the route. He didn't quite get the idea that he was suppose to throw it and not keep it for himself.

To get the summer really started, we went back to our favoirte 4-wheeling spot (the sand dunes) and camped there with some friends. We all had a blast. They got pretty dirty but it was lots of fun.
Cally's first grade class took a field trip to the zoo in June right before school let out for the summer. Casey, Annabelle, and I suprised Cally by picking up cousins Jon and Josie and meeting her at the zoo. It was a fun suprise for Cally.Annabelle had a good time and loved all the animals although according to her they all say "moo".
Cally at spring soccer camp... The highlight of the camp was dressing up the coaches. They looked pretty funny playing soccer in tutus.

At the end of camp they all chased their coaches trying to dump their water bottles on them. Annabelle with a dirty face from all the food she mooched off of others...
Casey at soccer camp...We've been working pretty hard on finishing our basement and we're pretty much done (minor little things left)!! Yeah!! When we were done we let Cally have a sleep over with some friends Ellie and Katie on the first night in her new room. Casey got to invite a friend too but I didn't get a picture.
Annabelle begs to go outside everyday. As soon as she's allowed out she goes straight to the pond and jumps in the stream. She loves water.