Tour of Utah

The Tour Of Utah is a really cool 5 day stage race in Utah. This year we were lucky to play a small part in the race. Our neighborhood hosted an amateur team and we had 2 of the racers stay at our house. Sean and Kennett stole Dane and Ian's hearts from day one. They stayed with us for 8 days and when they had to leave the kids were close to tears and wanted to boys to live with us forever! Sean and Kennett were so great with the kids and never acted annoyed (even if they were) with all their questions and silliness.

Because we had racers stay with us, (and the director of the race is our friend and neighbor Karen Weiss), we were able to snag VIP tickets to the events. We chose to go to the criterium race in Park City and the finish line the final day at Snowbird. Both days were fabulous. It is really amazing to see how hard these guys ride! They are definitely not joking around!

Above is Sean sitting on his bike in a red jersey. Below is Kennett the day he left.

It was a great experience and hope we can host again next year!

Five Mile to Delta

On a beautiful sunny, summer day our family, the Dawson's, and Don, Courtney and Brittney went for a fun pre-runner ride. We drove from 5 Mile (by Eagle Mountain) to Delta Utah taking the back roads. Round trip was 200 miles and our top speed was 115 mph! Can you believe it?! When we hit top speed it was on a long, straight and fairly smooth dirt road and the kids were asleep in the back seat. The ride was so smooth and didn't feel that fast! The kids really enjoyed the ride out and back except for the grasshoppers that flew in through the windows and the open holes in the floor. Dane was hysterical! It was pretty gross but I didn't want to freak out and have Dane freak out even worse.

We stopped for lunch in Delta and then went to Stephanie Dawson's parents house to play in their huge back yard before heading back to the trailers.

I Have a 7 year-old?!

On July 20th I became the mom of a 7 year-old! I can't believe my baby boy is that old already! Dane asked me the other day why parent's don't want their kids to get older. I said it is because if you are getting older then that means I am getting older too and I still feel like I am 20!

Dane wanted to have a skate park birthday party this year. I must say it was the easiest and most fun party I have ever thrown. I loved making the invite. I just took this picture in the driveway and then embellished it using picnik.com. It was so easy and so much fun!

Since the party was from 10:00 to 12:00 in the morning I just provided healthy snacks. There were apples, carrots, grapes, peanut butter, pretzels, granola bars. We did have a pinata with candy so I figured that was enough sugar and didn't even have a cake.

The Skate Group

L to R: Daniel, Gavin, Skye, Patrick, Jackson, Dane, Wyatt, Ian, Roman, Izzy

The Birthday Group in their Rock Star sunglasses.

TWINKIE'S!!!!

Ian enjoying his very first Twinkie! I thought I should document this momentous occasion.

It was packaged for the Shrek - Forever After movie so the filling was GREEN!

The other kid is Jason who was camping by us.

Seriously! How do their Little Minds Work?

This is my conversation with Ian when I told him we were going to Taylin and Finley's house for dinner.

Ian: Do they have a playground?

Me: Yes.

Ian: Do they have a tiger?

Me: Umm....No.

Ian: Oh good! That would be scary.

Sweet Boys

Last night the boys had a sleep over at Grandma Sherrie's. Dane told Grandma that he just had to call me to say goodnight. When I answered the phone I couldn't get a word in he was so excited. He said he had the perfect day! He also told me about his good, medium and bad parts of the day. We do this every night at dinner time. I love hearing what the boys remember about the day. And I think it is a good way to initiate conversation. I hope as they get older that doing this will be a good way for them to talk about things and keep the lines of communication open between us. Ian says the same thing every time. His good part was going to Abbey's house (whether he did or not). His bad part usually changes whether it was from that day or not. I just LOVE these two Boys!

The Second Day of Summer Was Better than the First

I will spare you the details of the First Day of Summer. It included quite a bit of yelling coming from me and the kids. I pulled out my hair in frustration and wondered what in the heck I was going to do with these high energy kids all summer! Aaaaagh!

We started off the second day of Summer vacation by heading out for an early hike with Skadi. The boys wake up at 6:30 pretty much every morning so I figure we should make the most of the day when everyone has lots of energy. I was so proud of the kids. They hiked for an hour with minimal complaining. The view of city in the morning was beautiful.

We came home from the hike and cleaned up and then headed to Ogden to meet my friend Natalie and her kids (Lola, and Luke) for lunch. Then we headed to the Dinosaur Museum. It was a pretty cool place with an indoor museum and then an outdoor park and lots of dinosaur statues. We had a great time!