Candleshoe

We try to regularly do family movie night.  With children ranging in ages from 10-2, it is often hard to come up with something we all can and are willing to watch.  

I remembered seeing this movie in the theatre when I was a little girl with two of my sisters and some children of friends of my parents.  My memories were sporadic at best and after some internet research, figured out the title and bought it. 

This movie really is a delightful watch.  David Niven and Helen Hayes are wonderful in this charming tale.  It contains mystery, fun and humor.  A rare gem. Highly recommended.

Donut Falls and Donuts

For Family Home Evening, we decided to do another hike.  This time to place called Donut Falls.  The hike was the perfect length and the scenery was beautiful.

You may have noticed that I seem to wear the same pants but in a different color in many of my summer pictures.  My love of Hanna Andersson is in full swing and I bought these lightweight sweatpant capri's in every color during their latest sale.  It has a side pocket that I keep my keys, my phone, driver's license and credit card.  It is my favorite "find" of the season.  I haven't had to take my purse anywhere.

On their own, the kids posed on this rock and asked for their picture to be taken.  Notice toothsome #3's legs.  

Donut Falls.  It was a little anti climatic because about 2 years ago, there was a rock slide and you can't see the said "donut" rock that the water runs through anymore unless you really off- road into the mountains which with a two year old, we couldn't do.  The falls are still beautiful but we couldn't get as close we thought.  

For dessert, we had donuts.  

Toothsome #4 eats her donuts by eating off all of the chocolate and then asking for another one.  

Heber/Midway with Gabriela

My friend Gabriela was in town this past week.  Thankfully, she called me and we were able to get together.  Dentist husband had the great idea of getting together to do go-karts at my father-in-law's Heber property.

Gabriela and I.  We have known each other since high school.

The kids played basketball (and collected many bugs--notice the blue bug catcher at the bottom of the frame)

Of course, rode go-karts.  We stopped the when the kids got bored doing it.  (Who knew kids could get bored doing it.)

Later, we went to her in-laws house where we were told we could find snakes.  I didn't believe them and I was wrong.  Within a matter of minutes, at least five snakes were found.

The kids also collected golf balls.  Many, many golf balls.

It was a wonderful fun night.  Looking forward to her next visit.

1/2 marathon thoughts

A few months ago, we purchased this treadmill.  

(Yes, weird picture, it is the only one I have of it).

We bought it mainly so Dentist husband and I wouldn't have an excuse to not exercise.  It is in our Great room, in front of our TV and is a constant reminder that we need to use it.  

Shortly after getting it, I made this pronouncement and was convinced by my friend Gabriela to join her doing this 1/2 marathon next summer.

This is a scary thing for me for a lot of reasons.  First, Gabriela is an amazing runner--always has been.  I have some distant memory of her in high school on the cover our school newspaper when both the boys and girls track teams took State that year.  She was somehow featured because she was so good.  So, running anything with her is intimidating.  My only crutch is that she lives at sea level and I live 5180 miles above sea level.  She just ran the above mentioned 1/2 marathon at just under a 9 minute mile (Yes, Gabriela, I checked).

2nd, while I have run many 10k's, I hate doing those and those are less half as long as a 1/2 marathon.

3rd, after purchasing our treadmill, I now know how bad of a runner I am.  When I first started, I struggled to run 2 miles without stopping at approx. a 16 minutes a mile  pace.  Struggled is not even a good word for it.  More like felt like I was dying during the whole thing.  

Well, today, has been my best run ever, running a 12 minute mile (with moments for forcing myself to run a 10 minute mile) for 3 1/2 miles. without stopping.  I am way far away from doing the 1/2 marathon thing, but I have made progress and I still have a year.  I can do this right?  

 

July 6th

We headed up to my father-in-law's house in Heber to celebrate the July cousin's birthday.  Here are the 3 boys ages 11, 13 and 10.

The mother's who delivered those cute boys.  

(FYI:  We are all the in-laws.  We married the first three sons in the family.  There are five sisters and one more brother.) And, yes, we were all very wind blown by the end of the day.  Not the greatest picture of any of us.

We did go-karts

and roasted hot dogs.

I think we are done with major events for a while around here.  It has been a fun few days.

Fifth of July

We celebrated toothsome #1's 10th birthday.  

Later in the day, we visited the Temple Quarry trail

Had a homemade ice cream pie

Mom and son 10 years later.

And, because his birthday is so close to the fourth we always light fireworks.  

Fourth of July

For the Fourth, we headed over to Dentist husband's brother's house for a barbeque.  Here is visual proof that the men in Dentist husband's family love their non-alcoholic beer.

Later in the evening, we did our own Utah approved fireworks.

Many of us sat on the side and watched the fun.  Notice poor little niece on her mother's shoulder.  She was pretty distraught over all of the noise and lights.  Toothsome #4 was pretty perplexed by the whole thing.

Later, we drove closer to the Sugarhouse fireworks and watched them from a grassy area by our old house.  It was a great fourth.