Antimony and the Bryce Canyon Half Marathon

Well, I have left Washington and Tom has left the United States. I took him to the Seattle Airport where he was able to catch the Patriot Express, the free Space A flight and had a pretty decent flight back to Japan. I’ve been having a great time here in Utah and the kids are thrilled to be so spoiled by their grandparents. I arrived Thursday night and on Friday we drove down to southern Utah, to Antimony, a tiny town where my grandpa grew up and we still have a house, or rather cabin type house. On the way down I was able to stop in Spanish Fork to see my brother, his wife and my nephew Parker who is 4 and met my adorable niece Penny for the first time, she’s 5 months old and so cute!!! We enjoyed lunch with them and then continued on our drive stopping at Big Rock Candy Mountain before arriving in Antimony. We went for a ride on the 4 wheelers and took Hayden to go target shooting. He’s been so excited to go shoot a real gun for the first time. He was surprised it wasn’t as easy as it looks to hit the target but he eventually got one of the glass bottles and was really excited.
Then we had a hot roast and ate s’mores. I however, ate a microwave lasagna in preparation for my 1/2 marathon on Saturday morning!
I got up at 4 (after hardly sleeping due to kids and the stress of not getting up on time) I drove the hour from Antimony to Bryce Canyon, barely missing a deer, a fox, several rabbits and skunk on the way. I made my way around got to the starting line just in time. It was dark and cold but within in minutes of the race starting it started getting light out and the race was just beautiful! I thoroughly enjoyed it, the scenery was great, my music was great and I felt great. (is that too many greats?) There was a lot of downhill running which left me with a fantastic time but some really sore quads, bloody toes and swollen foot all in the name of fun. I finished a lot faster than I imagined possible. After the race I changed and we went back to the starting line to take a picture. We spent a while at Bryce Canyon going to a few lookouts. Once we returned to Antimony I showed the kids around the town and we climbed the trees and explored the ranches. Danica kept walking around holding Alyssa’s hand. When I tried to help out Danica said I had to let go because I was not Alyssa’s big sister and she was going to take care of her! It was cute.
We rode the 4-wheelers up the canyon and played in the river. It was freezing but we had a lot of fun!

Now we are back in Sandy. Today we went to my sister’s apartment and went swimming and then went to visit my grandma in Provo. The kids have been good and are really enjoying themselves. Our days are jammed pack with something to do every day. Time will fly by for us. Hopefully it will fly by for Tom as well because we miss him a ton and don’t want him too bored waiting for us to return! Well, I must go to bed I want to get up early so I can talk to Tom before he goes to bed...oh the time difference!

New Love

I know I'm a little late on this one but I've found a new love. I'm not a big concert goer and my concert history includes only a Chicago concert in high school and a Ben Gibbard concert in Michigan a few years ago. So I have to say that now I don't know if I can ever go to another concert because they will all pale in comparison to the experience I had last Friday night. Thanks to my amazing and music savvy in-laws I got great seats at a Coldplay concert!!! It was unbelievable with outstanding music, great special effects and so much fun! At one point they disappeared off stage and were suddenly only about 40 feet from us on a little platform where the performed a few songs including a great piano/vocal solo. It was unreal to have them right in front of us! I've been reliving the concert during my morning runs and am loving it. If you ever get a chance to go you won't be disappointed!

The Houseboat Top 10!

We have just returned from a fantastic week on a houseboat with all of Tom’s siblings and their families. With seven kids in his family, 6 of whom are married with children, we are a large group. 31 to be exact, outnumbered by the children, 16 to 15. We all met up on Saturday June 27th in Redding California, northern California, where we ate at In n Out (yumm!), then loaded up on food at Costco (more than we could possibly fit in the back of an Expedition even with the seats folded down!) and we headed out to nearby Lake Shasta and the adventure began! This is the boat required to house all of us- sleeping arrangements were creative with lots of people sleeping outside, in the dining room and even a baby in the bathroom. But it was a beautiful boat and the accommodations were as good as you could dream of while floating on a beautiful lake!


Top Ten Things About the Houseboat:

10. Together meal prep and clean-up (okay,maybe not really fun but it was great because we had a large chart with assignments and everyone worked together so we had great food everyday! It takes a lot to feed our crew!)
9. Game playing galore! Every night we tried something new while the kids wandered around, played Bionacles and eventually passed out and fell asleep!
8. Movies on the rocks! Papa set up a big projector and the kids enjoyed watching movies up on the nearby hill side! This is one of Hayden’s favorite traditions!
7. Hiking and running- we loaded the boat and dumped a group off on shore and we enjoyed some of the beautiful forests surrounding the lake.
6. Swimming and more swimming- Danica loved swimming out in the lake and in the hot tub on top of the boat.


5. Talent Show- a new tradition, we did this one without much advance prep but it was fun to see what everyone came up with, mostly skits. Alyssa stole the show with her awesome dancing to the theme song from Dora, she can seriously wiggle her hips!
4. Tubing and Kneeboarding- Hayden was a champion with his desire for while tube rides that made the older kids cry and he tried out the knee board and did a great job!
3. The Jetski- we had a blast learning to maneuver this old machine, it was so fun! Not so fun were the bruises we all got from the wild rides!
2. Waterskiing and Wakeboarding- Nearly everyone in the family at least tried wakeboarding and some are getting really good. I put in my time but in the end returned to my first love of slalom skiing, it’s like snowboarders verses skiers, I tried to join camp with the wakeboarder but I think I’m on the ski team to stay! Tom is a phenomenal wakeboarder- very hot!
1. Family, Family, Family! This is the first time Danica and Alyssa have really understood what cousins are and they love them! We had a great time and formed bonds and made memories that will last forever. The crazy stories and inside jokes that will keep coming from this trip will last us a long time, at the least they will last until the next time we all get together!