Pres Uchdorf Rocks!!

Last week we had a great experience at Young Women's. We attended the Castle Valley Pageant in Emery County. We got a tip from one of the girl's friends who was in the cast that Pres. Uchdorf was going to be there so we were really excited that we might get to see him and get a picture. Apparently everyone in Carbon and Emery Counties had heard the same thing because the place was packed! We got off the bus and immediately started looking for a tall, white haired man with a crowd of people following close behind.

We didn't see him right off the bat so we decided to walk around the pioneer village when we heard an announcement that the cast meeting was starting. Being the wannabe groupie that I am, I figured the cast meeting would be the place where Pres. Uchdorf was hiding out and I was right! We decided to wait just outside the tent and be the first ones to get at him. My counselor thought I was crazy but it's not everyday that girls from small town Utah get to meet a general authority. So we waited and waited and he finally came out. You could tell he was trying to avoid the crowd of people who had gathered but we snagged him anyway and him and his wife were somewhat happy to take a picture with us.

As we walked away he said, "Goodbye, Princesses!" That was so cool because we had gone to the General YW Meeting where he had given his famous "Happily Ever After" talk so the girls knew what he was referring to. Yeah! It was better than meeting a rock star.

International Days!

Karen says I need to update my blog but for the first time this summer we've had about a 10 days where nothing has been going on. It's been kind of nice to lounge around the house, go swimming, do some chores here and there but have no real obligations. The girls have been attending a science camp through 4H and have had a really good time. Luka came down and went to the Slimy, Gooey, Gross camp with Lindsey. They had a great time making snot, mold, gloop, glow in the dark bats and exploding Diet Coke using Mentos.

International Days finally came around again and the kids had a great time watching the parade and collecting candy.

Josie didn't like the sirens on the firetrucks so much.

Lindsey got to ride in the Dance Technica float during the parade. After the parade we headed up the park so I kids could ride the carnival rides and I could get my annual Funnel Cake fix. Yummy!

Huntington Triathlon

Mark and Emily ran the San Rafael Classic Triathlon at the Huntington State Park today. This was Mark's second time running this triathlon and he finished 9th overall and third in his age group. Last year was quite an interesting experience. He finished second in his age group...right behind my ex-boyfriend from high school (Mike from Emery County for those of you who might remember) and the guy I broke up with probably 4 different times! Boy, was that awkward. I was really hoping he would be there today because Mark has gotten much faster but he wasn't. Oh well, maybe next time.

Emily did great finishing 10th in the girls division. It was a blast watching her. She got right in on the swim and Mark helped her with the transition to the bike where she got passed up by quite a few racers because she was on a Huffy bike from WalMart with no gears. She did really good on the run and after she finished I asked her how she felt. She said, "I feel GREAT! That was so fun!" Oh, to be young again. Mark is hurting pretty bad tonight but Emily went throughout the day completely unphased.

Emily is the in middle of the picture in the black life jacket.

The girls had a great time playing the water while we waited for Emily's race to start. I think next year Lindsey will do it too.

Girls Camp

I've been at Girl's Camp all week where I had the great pleasure of celebrating my 29th birthday...again. I've been 29 for a few years now and maybe next year I'll turn 30...depends on how I feel. I would post some pics of my cute young women but I don't think their parents would appreciate that. We had a great time up at Flaming Gorge where we ran the river twice and went on a beautiful hike along the rim trail overlooking the lake.


The day we got there was hot and sunny so we decided to run the river the next day in the afternoon instead of in the morning as we had planned. We hung out all morning and headed down to the river after lunch.


The minute we got on the water, the clouds came in and the temperature dropped 10 degrees. The water in the river is 55 degrees but that didn't stop us from jumping/falling in and having water fights with the other boats. Our ward had brought very few "weapons" so I decided to jump from our boat to another and steal some weapons because we were getting killed (soaked). I made it to the other boat but on my way back with their water cannon in hand, they pushed me overboard and I fell into the freezing cold water. I got back into the boat barely able to breathe because of the shock of the cold water and then it started raining...hard...and it rained pretty much the rest of the 2 1/2 hour trip.


We had a blast despite our feet being numb and our bodies shivering the whole trip. We turned the oars over the young women and proceeded down the river in circles, going down rapids backwards and hitting every rock in the river. It was hilarious. We laughed so hard our sides hurt. When we finally reached the take out, the clouds parted and the sun came out. We all laid out on the concrete and warmed up. It felt so good. When I tried to get out of the boat, though, I almost fell on my face. My body had stiffened into a sitting position from being so cold and shivering for so long. I had to lay down to stretch out and I was chilled to the bone the rest of the day.


The next day we ran the river in the morning and had sun most of the time. Sure enough, when we pulled the boats out just after noon the clouds rolled in and the second we got back to camp it started hailing and then rained for the next four hours.

This is the view from our hike. The weather was perfect for the hike but again, just after noon and at the end of our hike, another storm rolled in. The clouds were dark and the wind blew and blew but it didn't rain that time.

This is me hiding from the freezing cold wind trying to eat my sandwich after the hike. We had a great time and it was nice to get away for a few days and not have to wipe anyone's nose or bum or cut anybody's food for them and nobody got in a fight...at least not in our ward. Good times!

Summertime...and the livin's easy!

I thought that once summer hit, I would have all kinds of time to update my blog, clean the house, and work on unfinished projects that I didn't have time to do during the school year. I thought that with Em and Linds home, they would be able to entertain Josie so I could get some things done. But, no, that isn't the case at all. In fact, it's quite the opposite. Between holding Josie because the girls hurt her feelings by not letting her play with them, or breaking up fights between EmiLinds or making sure they aren't hiding downstairs watching TV all day, I have hardly had a free moment. Until this morning...when I decided I wasn't going to sleep in. That I would get up and work on the computer before the kids woke up. So, literally two minutes after I sat down at the computer in my nice, quiet house, I heard coughing from downstairs, then mumblings and rumblings..oh, no..the kids are waking up! I'm still not going to get anything done! And now, Emily is beside me complaining that her sister and her cousin woke her up. Is that Josie I hear waking up? Now they want breakfast. When does school start?









We made it to Lake Powell last week for an overnighter. Had to make sure the lake hadn't forgotten us. And it hadn't. It welcomed us with 100 degree temperatures and nice refreshing water. We packed up the boat and tried to head down river to find a nice secluded, shady canyon to camp in but the boat was giving us trouble so we turned around and camped closer to the marina in Hall's Creek Bay which was overloaded with houseboats. But it was all good.








I like these two pictures of the Queen Cleopatras on their river barges.








The nearly-full moon rising between two sandstone bluffs behind our camp. We left Lake Powell at 4pm, stopped at Stans, got home at 8pm and unpacked. Mark took a shower to freshen up and headed downtown to run Price's 1st annual Lunatic Triathlon that he has been training for for months. I thought he was insane but he did it and did quite well finishing 18th out of 150 people/teams. Go Mark!

This is one of the songs from Emily and Lindsey's last singing performance. As you will note, Emily found her groove on this one. Maybe next year she will take break dancing. :) Sorry if the camera is a little shaky, we couldn't stop laughing.

School's out for summer...

I haven't written in the last couple of weeks because things have been incredibly busy with the end of school but here's a brief update of what we've been doing along with some pictures.

Because of budget cuts the field trips at our school are pretty lame so we skipped school one day and went to the aquarium in SLC. The kids had a great time and Josie was just flabbergasted at all the colorful fish. And I only lost her two times!!! I really need to get a leash for that girl.

We headed to Goblin Valley for a couple of days and about got blown off the face of the earth. I've been in a lot of storms in southern Utah but this one took the cake. Sustained winds of 30 mph with gusts of 50-60 mph ALL NIGHT LONG!!! It was just fine until we left our awesome camp (Angie, you know the one) to go to The Valley of the Goblins. When we got out of the car the wind was blowing pretty hard so we only spent about 15 minutes there and decided to head to Little Wild Horse Canyon to seek shelter.

We had a great time in this beautiful slot canyon. The kids did great and although we didn't make it to the end we figured we hiked about 7 miles round trip!

This picture was taken inside our trailer the morning we left and the winds were probably blowing 25 mph. Our trailer was shaking so bad I couldn't even steady the camera to take this picture.

Lindsey, the explorer, looking for goblins.

The girls got all done up for Crazy Hair Day at school. It was the easiest hair do's we've done all year. No combing, no screaming, no crying. They just got out of bed and I put a bunch of loops in their hair. Both girls had a great year and came home with excellent report cards. Lindsey had a goal of passing off 1000 sight words and she reached it just a couple of days before school got out. She was so excited! We're glad school is out so we can all sleep in...now it just needs to warm up so we can go swimming and hit Lake Powell.

The girls finished up their dance and singing seasons. Lindsey is so cute on stage and really seems to have a knack for dancing. She catches on to the routine quickly and knows just what to do without relying on her teacher the whole time. Both of the girls had a final singing performance at the civic auditorium and Emily wowed the crowd with some unchoreographed breakdancing during one of her solos!!! Our friend who was sitting across the aisle from me asked, "Is she breakdancing?" It was the funniest thing I have ever seen. I was laughing so hard I couldn't hold the camera still. I thought it was hilarious but I made her apologize to her teacher after the show. The teacher's daughter was also on one and had some antics of her own. It was the best show ever...and the singing was good, too! I might have to enroll Emily in a hip-hop dance class so she can perfect her moves.