Inspiration

I woke up bright and early today to go be a support to my Sister-In-Law, Mandi, as she ran her first half Marathon....so I thought. As it turns out, I woke up bright and early this morning to go have my Sister be a support and total inspiration to me. I stood near the finish line and watched as runner after runner (about 2000 of them total), came running across the finish line. Some of which had some obvious disabilities, some were pushing loved ones in wheel chairs, some looked like they couldn't take another step but they kept going, others sprinted to the finish, and some even had big smiles.

As I watched these people accomplish something so big, I realized that none of them had just woke up that morning and decided they were going to run for the the first time. Each one of them at one point in their lives had to take that first step and overcome whatever obstacles were in their way. That same concept holds true for whatever goals we have in life - not just running. At some point, we have to set that goal and take that first step towards it.

In January of this last year, some of my extended family decided we were going to have a "Biggest Loser" competition. We set up a blog, set our goals, and reported into each other once a week. It has been a great way of setting goals and supporting each other. When we started the competition, each one of us had our reasons that we didn't think we could exercise or reach goals that seemed unreachable. This "Top of Utah" race was one of Mandi's goals, and to see her work so hard and to see her reach her goal was totally inspiring to me. Thank you Mandi for not giving up when the going got tough! I think Monday I will work just a little harder to reach my goals, and who knows...maybe next year I'll be in that half marathon with you (or maybe I'll just stick to trying another 5K) :)

Since I'm on the subject of Mandi, I have to brag about her other half (my little brother) - who just coached his first game as head football coach of the West Side High Pirates. It was totally cool! Way to go Tyson - your team is off to a great season! (Us Preston Alumni will try to overlook that he's coaching the "other" guys!)

Some of the guys in the family cheering them on.
Reece, Dad, Brayden, Ira

Family Camp

Disclaimer...this post probably won't make a lot of sense to most of you - but will make complete sense to some of you!


I totally skipped past blogging about one of my favorite weekends of the whole year - (I think I'm losin' it)!
I don't remember how old I was when this family camp tradition began, but I'm sure it began as most traditions do - just a weekend away that was so much fun it had to be done again the next year. But I do know that we have been doing this for a lot of years, and the group gets bigger each year (45 people - minus Jord & Kims families and one missionary). And every year, we do some of the same stupid (oops, I mean - funny) games, and every year we have someone else to "initiate" with our funny (stupid) games. Poor Josh, Brittany's husband, was the victim this year. Your really missing out if you've never had the opportunity to be initiated with such things as: AHemmm...AHemmm "My Aunt Emma, died last night...", OR sniff..."I LOVE peaches...OH, I LOVE peaches!" I have pictures of my grandparents shakin' their hips years ago - and I treasure those pictures now that they are gone. I bet they are on the other side, teaching our ancestors, just so we can all be initiated into this craziness we call family.
A couple years ago, our traditions started to include games such as "signs" and "Mob & Mafia". This year...we finally relented to let Marc teach us "Dippity, Dippity, Dip...Dip, Dip, Dip". (Don't ask - you'd be better off not knowing). Other parts of this weekend tradition include hiking to Bloomington Lake (which it was raining too much this year, and didn't happen - big bummer!), paint ball wars, 4-wheeling, hike to the Springs, late night scary stories by Derrick, someone throwing up (Emilie had the honors this year), eating too much, having our "talent" show around the campfire ("talent" was put in parenthases for a reason. However, there are a few married-in family members who actually had real talents to share - the rest of us...well, we'll just leave it at that, except to say that Shawns marble eating talent must have taken him all year to work on, and Grandpas "duck song" has taken him 40 years to perfect!).
The best tradition of all is our last night devotional given by Grandma and Grandpa (always my favorite). This year was more somber than most years, cuz we knew that they wouldn't be here next year to share their wisdom and love with us (I mean that sincerely). However, they have started a tradition for us that won't end just cuz they won't be here. I don't think any of us could handle going to the same place and doing the same things without them - it just wouldn't be the same. So next year will be very different - but it will still be the same craziness that we always enjoy.

I dug this old picture out of me with my nieces and nephews at the time. These little people are wives, husbands, and mommies and daddies now, except for the youngest two who are on a mission/college now.

Family Football scrimage


Kam and I are HUNNNNGRY!

Kameron, Rylee, Karlie, Elise, Truman

(a few of my nieces, great nieces and my nephew)

Ira & Brayden going on a ride - it was FREEZING this year!

Right after this picture, Emi started complaining of not feeling well. So this is one of the only pictures of her this whole trip. Probably a trip she'd like to forget. She and her cousin Karlie are singing Kamden to sleep - she has mastered being able to put him to sleep!

Brayden

My silly nieces (and new nephew-in-law) who came all the way from California (and Brittany & Josh from Pennsylvania). They had to stop at Gossners for those very fabulous and stylin' shirts.

Jarin has talked non-stop about his Uncle Todd since we went to his house in California back in February. He hung around Todd the whole time camping, and has since informed us that he and Todd are "Buddies". He has also started calling us all "Foo's" (fools) since camp - I wonder if that was Todd's influence too!

Mom didn't want any pictures of her taken in her hat at camp - but sometimes I still find it necessary to disobey my mom. I really don't think this picture is doing her a disservice at all - I think it shows her beautiful smile so great. Besides, I can't properly document this traditional family camp without the person who started it all.

What a lucky aunt I am! Pictured are a few of my nieces and nephews, along with Brayden and Jarin.

Let the battle begin!

There are certainly advantages to having a chiropractor in the family.

Brayden, Josh, Brittany & Karlie

Marc showing off his remarkable ability at being the champion of "dippity dippity dip"

Taylor, Brittany, Erin, Shayla, & Nathan

This is Tysons remarkable "talent" of impersonating a Velociraptor. I told you...we are a VERY talented family!

Grandpa singing his famous "Duck Song" at his roadshow with Rex Woodward

The Good...The Bad...& The Ugly

I'm going to catagorize school starting today as good, bad & ugly.

Let's start with the good - it's a good thing to start off on the right foot, right?

So the GOOD things of school starting is:

*routine, routine, routine (can't say this one enough)

*End of constant arguing with me and with each other

*End of "Can I have a popsicle?" "Can I have a friend over?" and "Can I get wet" (sprinklers), and my personal favorite, cuz I give them something (jobs) to do when I hear: "I'm bored" (24/7)

*Brayden said "Now you will have to do more work, cuz we're not here to do it all for you!" HAHAHAHA - That was REALLY funny! It is true that I really like their help cleaning up. However, there's not AS MUCH to clean up when said children are gone all day (hmmm...wonder why that is? I'm not good at math, but I can put 2 and 2 together for that one! DUH!!!)

*No more late nights - that means I might have a quiet moment to myself after everyones gone to bed, BEFORE I collapse of exhaustion. (As is, I collapse when they do which means no quiet time for me)

Bad:

*My babysitting son is gone - now what do I do when I have to go somewhere? Take them with me you say? Are you kidding me???

*Spending money on school clothes (this should technically go under "ugly", but my kids think it is "good", so a compromise is "bad").

*Back to Brayden's comment about jobs - I will miss when they get into trouble, and their consequences are an "extra" job (deep cleaning task). I like it when they get in trouble around here - I'm such a mean mom! ;0)

*School is starting TOO early!!

*Jarin & Kamden will really miss their play mates - which means that I will really miss their playmates too (cuz now it will be ME doing the entertaining).

*I really LIKE having my kids around in the summer, and doing all the fun summer activities together - I will really miss that (OK, let's be honest - I will SORT OF miss them)

Ugly:

*Homework - it is a constant source of contention at our home with one of our children (it would be rude to mention HIS name, or what almost teenage year HE is approaching, cuz then you'd know which child I'm talking about - so I won't be so rude! :) )

*Goodbye warm weather

*Not many more Bear Lake or Camping or 4-wheeling days left this year

*Goodbye lazy daze of summer - I will miss you! Next time you visit, stay a little longer.

Emi & I

Our farewell to summer activity. We went to First Dam in Logan, and played in the water and fed the ducks.

Brayden & Jarin

Emi feeding the ducks bread...Kamden ate the duck food before we could feed the ducks!

Emi & Kam




Brayden & Jarin

First Day of School

Some Call This Fun????

I set myself a goal a couple months ago to run a 5K race in our area. This last Saturday was the big day. I woke up still tired from an extra long week, and hearing the rain pour down. Well, I can't let a little rain or exhaustion stop me from my goal. So off I went to register for my race. Saying that I felt a little "out of place" was an understatement. I don't consider myself a "runner" by any stretch of the imagination. These people there looked like "real" runners, and they were out for their morning stroll! Three months ago, I went to the track to see what I could do with running. I ran one lap, and walked one lap (trying to recover from the running lap). I did that until I ran a full mile, and walked a mile. I was really pretty proud of myself, considering that less than a year earlier, I couldn't have even walked that far. Ever so slowly I have worked my way up in distance with running, but still not anything extraordinary. I currently run 4 miles (if I'm running a slight downhill the whole way), or I can run about 3.5 if I have some ups and downs. AND, my running is more like walking speed with a lot of bounce (I'm not too speedy). So back to the 5K race (3.2 miles). I figured this would be good for me to run with other people, maybe challenge me to run a little harder and faster. WRONGO!!! It was just plain torture. As soon as they said "GO", everyone (except yours truly and a maybe 3-4 others who I think were walking) was down the block and around the corner in the amount of time that I had taken maybe 3 steps (not much exaggeration there either). I tried to keep up to their pace, knowing that my family may have to give me an early burial, OR I could swallow my pride and slowly bounce my way through the race. I opted for the latter, since it is less expensive and more convenient than a funeral. The first half of the race, keeping at my own bouncing pace, was not too bad. Sure I was only a quarter of the way through when the first guy passed me going back the other way towards the finish line - but I was still all livin', and still runnin' - so no complaints! The torture came when I got to the half way mark and had to make my way back. Remember how I said it was raining? Well, the wind was blowing too. It wasn't a terrible wind, but when I was tired and running, it felt like a hurricane. So I had a hurricane in my face, and was running UP hill on the second half of the run. OUCH!!! When I finally got to the finish line, I decided then and there I would never do one of those again. Today...I still don't ever WANT to do one again, but I think I SHOULD do another one, just so I can either prove to myself that they really are THAT bad, or I can be proved wrong - that it was just a bad morning for me.

Yesterday a friend asked me if it was fun. I had to be honest and say "NO". I can't, for the life of me figure out why some of you call this "FUN". I guess I'll have to keep signing up for these things until I have the answer to that. So stay tuned, I'll report on this subject again later...much, much later! But you know, when all is said and done, I do feel a sense of accomplishment...and THAT is FUN!

Camping...Camping...and Cleaning

As usual, I threatened my "guys" (Ira & Brayden) with their lives that if they are going to leave me behind from the fun activity they were going on, they had better take lots of pictures. It is all about the picture you know! ;0)

While I was missing Ira like crazy, he was enjoying the beautiful Wyoming backcountry (the Wind Rivers area). I have to say...after seeing these pictures, I am even more jealous. It looks like the type of trip that I would LOVE. They canoed into their camp spot, hiked, fished, and whatever else six guys do when their in the backcountry (I'd imagine that probably includes stupid jokes, belching, and other unmentionables to the civilized world).

Three leaders (Ira, and pictured below - Paul and Darrell), chaparoned three boys. Did it really take all three leaders?...probably not - but KNOW that they liked the exuse to get to go.

I missed this scruffy guy so much, and was so glad when he came strolling through the door!

Another adventure... Brayden went backpacking with the big boys and one girl, (his Uncles and cousins and his girl cousin Tiana). They drove to the Sawtooth mountains and started their hike to Hell Roaring Lake. It is a beautiful mountain lake, surrounded by several other lakes and waterfalls in the Sawtooth mountain range. The lake was beautiful, but they wanted to continue on to the next lake (Imogene Lake), and apparently, it was totally worth the extra hike. They enjoyed a good day and a half of fishing, swimming and being eaten alive by mosquitoes.

Brayden really needed to catch this fish for his fishing merit badge. PERSERVEARANCE!

They swam the freezing cold water to this island. While on this island, they had a bald eagle flying circles above their heads. Then it swooped down, grabbed a fish from the water right by them and then flew away.

Cousins and friends: Zac, Brayden & Nathan

Being the worrisome mom that I am, I was so worried sending Brayden for his very first (long) backpacking trip, and especially sending him without his dad. Ira was going on his own adventure, and wasn't able to go with Brayden. I wasn't sure that Brayden could make it carrying such a heavy load. But I was told that he'd be OK. So I reluctantly helped him pack his backpack and sent him out the door under his Uncles watchful eye (thank you Derrick and Shawn!). When the trip was over, I was told that Brayden hiked like he "had something to prove". I told him that that's what I had been told, and he said, "well, I did have something to prove." I asked him who he was proving something to (thinking he wanted to be as tough as the other guys). What he said really surprised me, he said, "I wanted to prove something to you, that I could do this hike." My response...surprise mingled with pride mingled with sadness because:

1. (Surprise) Me?? Why me?...did my worrying give him the impression that he wasn't capable?

2. (sadness) he's growing up and can do things on his own without mommy babysitting him

3. (pride) he accomplished something difficult that he set out to do.

Way to go Brayden!

While the big boys in my family were doing all of that...I was doing this...

It may not look like much to ya'll, but it took me three days (yes, I said THREE days) to clean my kitchen and organize it. I wish I had taken a before and after picture, but I didn't think about it (a moment to remember...ME forgetting to take a picture!). I emptied all the cupboards, cleaned them, threw many things away, got containers for all my stuff so that now everything has a "home", and if it doesn't...it goes in the garbage (thanks Mary for the moral support). I knew that my never-ending cluttered home was causing me great anxiety, and I can't even tell you just how happy it makes me feel to be organized and not totally humiliated everytime someone comes to my home. AND this is only the beginning...watch out garbage man, you will be working over time at my house! HAPPY, HAPPY, JOY, JOY!