Baseball

June was full of baseball for our family.  Mylie played machine-pitch this year, and was able to get a few hits. Connor played major league for the first year, and although he was a little guy in the big league, he did really well.  Both of their seasons ended this past week, but baseball isn't quite over since Connor is going to the state tournament on the 9-10 year old Bridger Valley All-Star team mid-July.  He is super excited about this since he'll get to play more than he does playing in a league that goes up to 12-year-old kids that are double his size!  The best part about baseball, however, was that they both got to play with their cousins.  So fun.

Mylie, Jaxon, Ashton

Caden, Connor, Andrew

Some great pics of Connor that I stole from a FB friend who takes much better pictures than I can. Don't you love it when people share their great photos?

The SLACKER Half Marathon

Last weekend, I ran in the Slacker Half Marathon in Georgetown, CO.  It is the highest elevation, downhill race in the country, starting up at over 10,000 ft and finishing at about 8000 ft. It was a gorgeous course, and FAST!  My goal was to PR, and I did by 6 minutes!  I ran it in 1:35:29, which is a 7:17 pace. I was happy enough with that, but then found out that it was good enough to win my age group as well--a nice bonus!  It was a fun race and a course I'd love to do again.  The only down-side? After running that fast, and pretty much ALL downhill, I could hardly move the next two days.  But as all runners know, that's a small price to pay for the satisfaction of a PR.

Two of Tony's sisters, Haley and Angela, also ran the race and PR'd. Also, Haley's friend, Elena, ran it and was AMAZING!  It was her first race ever, and she beat me by almost a minute and a half.  Lucky for me, she wasn't in my age group.  I think she's found a new talent and hobby!

Our whole family went as far as Cheyenne and Tony and the kids stayed at his brother's house there while the runners went down to CO for the race.  The kids had a great time playing with cousins.  They have a great place there with lots of room to roam.  It was a great weekend!

Girls Weekend

This weekend, my mom, sisters, sister-in-law, and I took a quick overnight trip to SLC and had a great time!   We checked into our amazing hotel on Friday afternoon. I need to put a quick plug in for Embassy Suites in West Valley City.  We were able to all stay in a 2-room suite, which had 2 beds, a pull-out-couch, and then an extra little part of the couch which was big enough for a shorty like Livi to sleep on.  Everything was newly refurbished, very nice, and the breakfast was SOOOO good!  Made to order omelets, even!  All for just $105, or a mere $15 apiece.  So, if you're looking for a place to stay with a group, check it out.

Anyway, after being amazed by every little thing at the hotel, we headed out for an early dinner at Olive Garden.  We had great food and great laughs there, especially getting a kick out of the ones in our group, who I won't name, who didn't know how to do the whole pay by credit card, then add the tip, then sign thing.

From there, we headed to the Tim McGraw concert.  Although we all pretty much hated the opening act--Tim McGraw was AWESOME!!!  He opened with one of my all-time faves, "Where the Green Grass Grows" and then played great song after great song.  We screamed, we sang, we enjoyed the people watching, we didn't enjoy some of the people watching (umm, your cheeks are showing . . . ) and we just had fun being together.

Back at the hotel, we stayed up way too late, of course, just chatting and laughing.  And then the next day was all about SHOPPING!  We shopped for awhile there in West Valley, then headed downtown to the City Creek Center.  We hadn't had enough yet, so we stopped at the outlets in Park City, then again in Evanston for Walmart.

I'm so glad we took the time to get together. I sure love all these girls (or ladies, or whatever we are.)  We'll have to plan something again SOON.

We LOVE Summer!

Although Connor has reminded me several times this week that summer doesn't "officially" start until June 21st, we have been out of school for over a week now, and so in my book, it's SUMMER!  And we've had a great first week of summer.  The highlights:

Baseball!  Connor and Mylie both had two games this week.  We are at the ballpark A LOT. But everybody is pretty happy there, so it's good.

Picnics!  Somehow eating lunch on the porch is SOOO much better than eating at the table. And now that summer is here, we can eat on the porch a whole lot!

Daily Jobs!  OK, so maybe this isn't a highlight for my kids, but I love watching somebody besides myself dusting, cleaning bathrooms, feeding cats, vacuuming, etc. :)

Bike Riding!  Both Connor and Mylie earned new bikes this spring by meeting their school reading goals every month Jan.-May and practicing the piano daily for those five months as well.  So on Monday, we zipped over to Evanston and they picked out new bikes.  And they've been riding, and riding, and riding some more.  They especially love riding on a paved, wide open surface, neither of which exist at our house, so one night we headed up to the church parking lot for some major riding.  Mariah loves her bike as well, and Brady thinks bikes are the best. Just sitting on one or touching one gets him so excited!

Playground Fun!  With baseball, we spend a lot of time at the park as well.  

Quick trip to Bear Lake!  We did an impromptu mini-vacation the middle of the week.  One of Tony's sisters has a time share and got us a guest pass, so we got an awesome 2-bedroom condo for a great deal.  The kids loved hanging out at the condo, going swimming in the pool, and then a quick trip down to the lake to check out the marina and find some shells.  Tony and I enjoyed the BBQ, a nice run through Garden City in the morning, and just a little rest from the crazy week of work. We just wish we could have stayed longer.

Work!  Since a lot of it was outside work, I rather enjoyed it!  I got all the garden and my flowers planted, so it was a great week!  If you want to learn a little about faith and hope, plant a garden.  I love mine.

Springtime Sunday Morning

This morning, we were actually ready for church early, and everybody looked so sharp, so I decided we should head outside (since that's the only place my cheap little camera will take a decent photo) and try to take some pictures.

Both Brady and the wind didn't cooperate, so we didn't get anything fabulous, but I still love looking at these cute kiddos.

Best Sisters

Mylie and Mariah are "best sisters", which is a good thing since they only have each other.  They love doing just about everything together.  They play house, school, orphanage, track meet, barbies, crafts, fashion show, beauty shop, and so much more!  I love watching them use their imaginations to entertain themselves for hours on end.

This spring was fun for them because Mariah was finally old enough for tumbling.  Although they didn't go to class together since Mariah was in level 1 and Mylie in level 4, they loved having this in common and practiced their tumbling together at home a lot.

A couple weeks ago, Mylie's school earned a reward and got to have crazy mismatch day at school.  Mylie came up with her own crazy outfit, and so, of course, Mariah had to dress up crazy that day as well.

I know how special it is to have sisters, and I'm so grateful that these two have each other.

Brady-Boy

Brady is already almost 10 months old, and I feel like I haven't done a very good job at recording all the ways he is growing and changing.  So here's the latest scoop on Brady:

1--Finally decided that drinking from a bottle isn't all that bad.  In fact, he seems to quite enjoy the bottle, which makes me pretty happy.

2--My little chubster is getting to be not-so-chubby anymore.  At his 9-month check-up, he weighed 19 lb. 15 oz., which is just the 50th percentile. He was also 50th percentile for height.  The constant motion of the last couple months is burning up the calories apparently!

(Horrible, blurry picture, I know. But I love when he makes this face!)

3--He is really starting to show us what he loves.  He has started snuggling a little big, which I love! He definitely loves his mama best, but loves to play rough and wrestle with his dad.  He has discovered his voice, and uses it often, babbling or even yelling at us.  He also loves the swings at the park, which is a good thing since we'll be spending a lot of time there for baseball games in the next month.

4--How can I not mention the HAIR?!?  The first thing anybody comments on when they see him is the hair. It has grown a lot lately, and it stands straight up.  Some people have asked me when we're going to cut it, but I'm in no hurry.  I kinda like it.

5--He's a mini-Connor.  Looking at pictures of Connor at the same age, I can hardly see any differences, aside from the fact that Connor's hair laid down and he was a little fatter.  Brady even seems to have that same beautiful skin that tans very easily without burning.  He's been out in the sun a little the past couple weeks and is browning right up.  Look at these two handsome devils.

 6--The poor guy looks like somebody has been beating him.  He is constantly pulling up onto things, then falling and banging his head and face.  I suppose we'll be in the bruised head phase for at least the next year, so I might as well get used to it although I hate seeing my little guy with "owies" all over him. :(

7--One thing that hasn't changed over the past 10 months is the number of people in this house that are absolutely crazy about him!  We can't get enough of this adorable little guy.