small fruit does not go a long way

my neighbor has 2 apricot trees that they don't harvest so I asked if they wouldn't mind if I picked some. Of course it was fine, so my mom and I loaded up buckets of apricots. They were so delicious fresh off the tree and I had some grand ideas for these here apricots, minus canning, not in the mood yet for canning. I made fruit leather, dehydrated, freezer jam and then just froze the rest in baggies for later use. It seemed like they never ended but then I didn't end up with a lot of leather and dehydrated fruit considering the amount it required. At our new house we have a grape vine, cherry tree, pear tree and my neighbors apricot tree which is all a first for me, but I'm liking it :)

Birthday Boy

Brody is 8, which in the LDS religion is a big birthday. He not only gets to attend scouts now but he is also old enough to be baptized a member of the church. His birthday was pretty low key because of the celbration we were also going to have for his baptizm. The day before his birthday, he returned home from his special "8 year old trip" with Grandma and Grandpa Brown. They went up to a dude ranch in Wyoming and did all sorts of boy stuff. Brody absolutly loved it!! For his b-day, he had his cousin, Gavin spend the night and we went to seven peaks and dinner at his favorite mexican restaurant, Maria Bonita's.

Brody has a strong personality and a good sense of humor. He can cause me grief (often) but he has a very tender heart and is a hard worker.

hittin' the trails.

This summer I have really gotten into trail running. I love it. I first started when I signed up for a race the begining of July and about died. It was so incredibly hard, all I could think was "trail runners are crazy!" The first 2 miles were incline and I didn't warm up, so besides starting out uphill on uneven trail my muscles were tight. But it was also so gorgeous and addicting. There was a part of the race that opened up into a single track trail with a meadow and Mt. Timp in the background, gorgeous. but quickly focused my eyes back on the ground so I didn't trip. Once I felt warmed up and the trail evened out and descended it was amazing. One morning I went for an early trail run on a new trail. The sun was just rising and it was so peaceful and everything was so fresh so I thought this would make a great activity for the kids, to take a hike. walking, not running of course.



and I got these little sweeties for my birthday. Some girlie trail running shoes. My road shoes lack traction and I have taken a spill because of it.

"copper me mine"

Way back in July, there was a week at the Kenecott Copper Mine that had a promotional free entry. I had never been there and neither had the kids so we made the long journey out west. Charlotte was excited to finally ride in a bus, they shuttled us up there, and it was cool to see and learn so much about the mine, how copper is used and to see the huge trucks with huge tires. It was a pretty hot day and the kids were less than thrilled to pose for a picture.



But for some reason my kids think it is called Copper me Mine, not Kennecott Copper Mine.

happenings

I really do prefer to write something when I blog but I get so far behind that my posts are starting to become pictures. and that's it. But I haven't thought much about blogging like I normally do because I am honestly loving summer. I dreaded the kids getting out of school because the lack of schedule and "my time" but I get really sad at the thought of school starting again. I love this warm weather! I love the gorgeous mountains this time of year, summer storms, sleeping in, staying outside until the sun goes down and doing fun stuff. I have also been doing quite a few races this summer and that is another thing I love about summer. I prefer to be hot and sweaty when I run rather than freezing with a runny nose. I actually have started letting my kids go to bed dirty this summer. that is a big deal for me. I'm anal about clean beds. Ever since I can remember I would either wash my feet or wear socks to bed when I was younger because it grossed me out to get into bed dirty. The kids and I have been having a lot of fun together (wish dad could join us more, but he has this thing called work) doing summer things.

Let's start with the mountains. We live 10 minutes from a great day use area in the canyon and we head up at least once a week. It's great because it's free and the kids love to be up there. Sometimes we have a fire and other times we grab a Little Caesar's pizza and bring it up. The kids love to hike and I love the fresh air, it smells so good up there.

Kids Bowl free summer program. great for rainy or too hot of days. And at 2:00 they turn the lights off and black lights on and blast the music, so fun. And come on, watching my kids dance like no one is watching, hilarious.
Girls day. I bought a groupon to Color Me Mine to use as a date for the girls. I had never been there before and didn't realize that place was so expensive. But they had fun.
Ryan and Abbey on the go karts at Trafalga. He does exist.
4th of July with my family (really the 2nd of July) up in the canyon. Grandpa let brody be in charge of the fire and he is surprisingly safe. The kids hiked and played in the creek where it had been damned. I relaxed.
I love summer evenings. Our front yard faces east so I can sit on the porch or lawn and it is nice and cool in the shade and we usually get a nice breeze coming out of the canyon, love it! This is why we eat dinner so late at night, the last place I want to be is in a hot kitchen.
The 4th of July with the Brown's. "can I light one?" over and over. We had a great BBQ, baseball game and fireworks. I enjoy hanging out with Ryan's family and the kids love playing with their cousins so we all have a good time and leave happy but tired.

run, eat, sleep? repeat.

I decided to run the Wasatch Back Ragnar race again this year and don't expect to see me doing it again next year. I got about 3.5 hours of sleep the night before because our teams start time was 5 am and then at night in the middle of the race I got somewhere between 2 or 3 hours I think. Lying in a sleeping bag on the grass has never been more comfortable after sitting in a car all day and feeling sleep deprived. But at the same time I also loved it and want to do it again. I had some great runs. I was runner #6 and my first run was at about 11 am. It was 6.9 miles down Avon Pass, which is a dirt road with cars kicking up dirt, steep descending switch backs but I loved it. I felt like I was about to puke at the end but I couldn't slow down. We rested at Snowbasin ski resort while the other van ran their legs. My second leg was just as the sunlight was fading so about 9:30 pm up east canyon. This was by far my favorite run, it was amazing. It was 8.1 miles up the canyon but because of the darkness I couldn't see much of the road ahead so I had no hills or steep incline to dread, I just ran. The stars were clear, the moon was full and it smelt so fresh. A mountain lion could have dragged me into the bushes and no one would've known. I would love to go on long night runs more often but it just isn't safe for a little ole' lady like me. But the bummer about this leg is that there was tons of traffic at the exchange and I couldn't find the car so I started to get really cold. We then attempted to sleep and were awoken before the sun to start running again. My last leg was my least favorite. It was only 3.1 miles flat, easy terrain and I think the flat terrain through the neighborhoods of Heber city is what made it so painful. Our car was done after I finished but we still had to wait for the other van to do their legs before we crossed the finish line. We went to Dairy Keen for lunch and it was so good! One great thing about this year is I had some good friends in my car so we had a good time hanging out for 36 hours straight talking and joking. And a team we enjoyed was "Sofa King Amazing runners". Last year I totally crashed from exhaustion when I got home but this year wasn't as bad. I had to make Ryan's cinnamon rolls for Father's Day so i kept busy.

We drove the Suburban because we failed to find a van. It served us well.

Running my first leg down Avon Pass, the mountain behind me, accomplished.
our whole team at the finish. I threw the medal away. I hate keeping them because I have no use for them and they just become stuff. Should I be more sentimental?

summer going ons

Wheeler farm and free summer school lunches in the park with cousins.
The girls spent the night at Grandma's so Charlie and Brody were playing after his baseball game and decided to gather some firewood. They were being so cute together. Sometimes I wonder what she would be like if she didn't have older siblings because she tries to keep up with them.
Seven Peaks!! We try to go once a week and the kids love it. Now my sister has a pass so Charlotte has a friend to roll in the waves with.

Happy father's day to our favorite Dad. I love how Charlie poses.
Art City Days children's art festival. Once again, over crowded, hot and not worth the time and effort. This was our only Art City's Days festivity we attended. I just wasn't feeling it this year.
The weekend of my triathlon, two of our hens that the kids raised from chicks were killed by a dog that got out. These are the replacements, they aren't as old but they were a good deal. A kid was selling them for $8 to raise money for scout camp. Then a few days later, the yellow one was torn apart by two dogs right in front of Cloe. Poor thing was trying to save the little guys and the dogs snuck in the cage or the stupid chickens snuck out, can't remember. But I beat the crap out of one of the dogs after and chased down the other one but couldn't quite catch it. So we went back to the nice boy scout and bought another one, a white one.
Cloe got 11 inches cut off and "donated" it to locks of love. I put it in quotations because the hair was in a grocery sack and I accidentally threw it away. It was nice thick long hair that would've made a great wig. smooth move exlax.
enjoying a hot dog at Cloe's softball game. Cloe loves to play but I think gets a little spacey and by the time the ball is hit to her she has forgotten where she is.
Charlotte watching Abbey and Brody at swim lessons. Brody made huge improvements this year, I was very impressed because he has always been the most fearful in the pool.
Riding his bike to Cloe's game. It was about 3 miles and we trailed him looking like a stalking kidnapper. I could tell he felt pretty cool riding his bike.
Brody plays coach pitch baseball but they let the boys pitch and if the kids can't hit it then the coach pitches. They put Brody in as pitcher and I was shocked at how well he did. He was pitching so fast. We have never practiced so I didn't know he had it in him. I loved watching him.
He's all boy. Why can't they just sit and enjoy the fire? Why do they have to constantly poke at it and throw things in? I let him have a small fire while I enjoyed the sunset and cool evening breeze. I love summer evenings and since we live close to the mouth of the canyon we get such a nice breeze.

Little Red Riding Hood

Little Red is an all woman's bike ride in the Logan area and it is so gorgeous and so fun. I was planning to do it with my cousin Emily but didn't sign up fast enough since it sold out in 12 hours. I decided to bag the idea because I had already been doing long runs while training for a half marathon so the last thing I wanted to do was more long bike rides to train for a 50 miler. Last minute I changed my mind and bought a registration that someone was selling 2 weeks before the race. I had been training for a triathlon so I had been riding my bike. I rode with my cousin and her neighbor Julie. I'm so glad I did it because it was so much fun and such a good experience. I loved it. By mile 40 my butt was sore from the bike seat but besides that it was great. Next time I do it, I want to do at least the 80 miler, possibly the 100 miles. we'll see.

my camera battery died so this was the only picture I took, unloading bikes. next time I will check the battery.

last day of school

hooray for summer! I could not wait to have a more relaxed day and not worry about constantly nagging my kids "to get ready" and "let's go" and then to do their homework after school. Abbey got out a day earlier than Cloe and Brody and her class did a little program with songs and then we had cookies afterwards. On the last day, Cloe and Brody had free dress day and field day. Cloe, Brody, Charlotte and I rode bikes home from school. They always beg me to ride bikes but to get to our house from the school is up hill. So actually we rode to Ryan's studio and then drove the rest of the way home. The kids all had great teachers this year and I was especially thankful for Brody's teacher because she was so patient and positive with him.

I need to blog. I will blog.

I am running the wasatch back this weekend which means no sleep. So don't expect anything anytime soon.