Just Hanging

I have been waiting for things to mellow out in our family, but that will likely not happen for a number of years.  Between work, church, school, sports and family we have been pretty busy that last couple of months.

Joaquin has been playing loads of soccer and Laney and Ruby are in soccer and dance.  I have meetings usually two to three times a week and then just doing general stuff at home--well I am beat after that.  Plus it has just started to become fall-like around here and now I am not sweating like a beast all of the time.  Especially at church where I have to wear a suit all of the time.

We all need a few days rest, but that is not likely to happen this weekend so we will have to wait.

I am grateful that I have so much and we have been so blessed to have all we have and be healthy and generally happy.  I hope I can continue to become a better person, husband and father.  Let the fall begin.

Shauna and I went on a hike--just the two of us.  Beautiful night.

Sam just hanging in the magazine rack.

End of the game.

The boys.

Family on the tramp.

GT Relay 2016

Here is the race report of the Grand Teton Relay.  This year Shauna and I were both able to do it because we now have no newborns.  Shauna's parents flew in just to watch our kids while we were racing on Friday and Saturday.

We had six couples who ran the race most from Kaysville and us from Sandy.  They are a fun group of people to spend some time with.  We don't spend a lot of time hanging out these days, but when we do it is fun to be with this group.

It was a fun race even though I have been battling bronchitis the last few weeks.  Shauna and I ran legs 10 and 9 respectively.  Shauna did switch one of her easier legs for a much harder one so both legs turned out to be pretty hard.

We finished with a time of 25 hours and 22 minutes which was good enough for fifth place over all. We were about 45 minutes faster this year.  This is actually quite a feat given the number of problems we had.  One runner dropped out the night before, and Thad and John picked up those legs.  As a consequence, Thad had to drop out as he was running his last leg.  Scott also could not finish due to IT band problems so car 1 picked up his last leg.

My last leg going up over the pass from Idaho to Wyoming was brutal.  Because of my bronchitis I felt like I was not getting enough oxygen.  I have felt like this for several weeks and thought it would clear up before the race.

The weather was great and not too hot.  We started at noon and car 2 hung with car 1 for the first part of the race because Thad had picked up a spare leg.  We went an ate a Big Juds and then went and met car 1 for their final leg.

Again this year there was supposedly a bear sighting, but I think that is just an excuse for some teams to collect there runner and just skip a leg or two.

John had King of the Hill this year and bested my time by nearly four minutes finishing around 54 minutes.  The fastest guy did it in 46 minutes.  That is flying.

After the race we had a couple of masseurs come to the cabin and rub us down.  It felt really good but my soreness persisted for a couple of days.

Midsummer Night's Dream

The summer has flown by pretty fast.  The kids start school in just over a week.  I cannot believe our kids are growing up so fast.  What is the saying by Dr. Seuss:  "Don't cry that it is over, smile because it happened."  Well, nothing is really over yet, our kids are young and healthy, summer has a few weeks left and we are very blessed and have every reason to give thanks to our Heavenly Father.

Last week we were invited to camp with the Arvidsons at Lost Lake in the Unitas.  Lost Lake is about 10,000 feet in elevation.  It was cool and nice the entire time.  I was loving it, rather than sweating which is what I have been doing most of the summer.  It has been really hot and continues that way. I think we need to take climate change a little more serious and do what we can to conserve and be prudent with what we have.  Shauna went with the Scouts to the Salt Lake County landfill and found that it only has about 50 years left--which may seem like along time, but in reality it is not.  We are required to care for the earth and treat it as stewards should.  I estimate that we have avoided putting hundreds of pounds of garbage in the landfill by composting our kitchen scraps (excluding meat).  It is really cool to see that waste turn into compost that can be turned into the garden.

Anyway back to camping, when we got there I promptly backed into a post denting and breaking the back light.  However, after that things got better and we had a fun time with the Petersons and Arvidsons.  The Petersons did not stay the night and left around 5 pm.  We fished, played cards, and ate.  Shauna and I went for a run on Saturday that just about killed me given the altitude and my recovery from a cold.

Joaquin is play competition soccer with the Blue Knights and has been practicing quite a bit.  We went to the park after his coach told us the kids need to practice more on their own.  He is getting better and more practice will help.  The other kids are doing well with Laney making art projects all over the place, Ruby getting into everything and Sam starting to walk around.  You cannot stop the progress of man, you can only hope to channel it for good.

Nice move Paul

Chocolate face.

I am cool and relaxed at Pack Meeting.  I have a tank top on under my Scout shirt.

Enjoying summer.

Dirty Sam at Lost Creek.

It is cold!

Taking a hike.

Love ya Honey!

Flirting with disaster.

Keeping the home fire burning.

Made some friends and found a dead fish.

Laney holding the dead fish.

Watch out all you bastards. Laney has warned you.

Practicing.

Time to call it a night. Love those mountains though.

Happy B-Day Sam!

It is always hard to believe we grow up so fast. I can imagine my own parents thinking the same thing about me as a baby.  They come home in such a small package and then it is all up hill from there.  Sam came to us one year ago as an awesome little dude.  He shares a birthday with my mom which is pretty cool.  He sort of got the shaft this year with birthdays, but we don't love the guy any less.  Happy Birthday sweet kid.  We all love you.  

Big Dude with Little Dude.

Learning to crawl.

Learning to eat.

Learning to enjoy the game.

Paltry first piece of birthday cake.  Sorry!

Update on Life

A really bad day to be making a post in light of what happened yesterday in France.  I hope those people and their loved ones are comforted.

I wanted to give a short update on the summer doings of our family.  We have been doing all kinds of things this summer including soccer, swimming, partying, jumping, feasting, and camping.  I was able to attend Youth Conference and Girl's Camp this year.  It was a great experience to see how these things went down so well.  The leaders put in a lot of effort and time into making these things happen.

Girl's Camp was a bit of a revelation and Youth Conference saw a lot of kids having a good spiritual time.  These kids are great and reach out and help others so well.  I hope the spirit can stay with them always so they can know what is really important and what brings lasting happiness.  They are so good at being together and making good things happen.  One night several of them sat and sang songs while Braxton played the guitar.  It was really awesome to see them free from the cares of the world and just doing what felt right and good.  Love them all.

I do love summer, but there is something to love about all seasons.

Neighbors and kids with big dog.

The three youngest

Grandpa and Sam.

Maybe Girl's Camp is not that different than Scout Camp.

On a four miler with the YW.

Jeremy and I at devotional.

Youth Conference at Flaming Gorge.  I love it there.

Cameron.

Kids enjoying the cool water.

All of us taking a tour of the dam.

Sammy enjoying some watermelon.

We went to Barnes and Noble to get some summer books and Joaquin suggested that I get this for Shauna.  I read the teaser and had a good laugh.

Jonah and Mason kissing a dead fish.

Tara doing the same.

Part of our devotional activity.

Found this picture on my phone. Nice one you two!

Tahoe 2016

We drove the 8 hours to Tahoe for the 52nd Tahoe Relay.  We went with the Arvidsons, Mayers, Peachys and Cuellars.  The run was great because the weather was perfect for running. It was low 60's and overcast for much of the race.  This was almost going to be the last year of the race because the director was going to retire.  Fortunately, a local decided to take on the race and will be managing it next year.

We had 12 kids in the cabin for the weekend and it was a bit crazy, but not nearly as bad as I expected.  There was a lot of wind while we were there, but on Saturday there was no wind.  We all did pretty well and finished 3rd in the mixed division.  This is the first time we have placed.  There were fewer teams this year so that is probably why.

We went to the beach, played Monopoly, watched movies, went to Round Table Pizza with 18 kids and went a bunch of hikes finding large St. Bernards and snakes. On the night before we left, I was outside cleaning up the deck when I heard some large animal crashing through the brush.  It freaked me out and I jumped a little bit and got close to the door. I assume it was a deer, but since we saw the bear a few years ago, I am a little more cautious.

A good time was had by all.

Doin' it one-handed.

Emerald Bay

Shauna on the hill.

Swing

Hmm...is this a good idea?

Beach

10 of the 12.

Buddies 

Finished.