I Am 35!

I am officially halfway through my 30's craziness!  I am enjoying my life, but it sure is going by fast with all of the busyness of raising a family and having fun. Sheesh!  I had a fun family party on Friday and my sweet husband got me a yummy Larson's cake, yellow cake with chocolate frosting. On my actual birthday, we went to all of the kids soccer games, and then in the late afternoon my mom took the girls so Rick and I could go on a trail run and out to dinner before our soccer game. It was a fun, beautiful day!  A few of my favorite things this year: My Husband, he has taken such wonderful care of me during some rough times this year. I am so thankful for his faith, patience, and for what a wonderful dad he is.  My growing children.  It is so fun to see then grow and have so many talents and experiences.  It warms my heart to see then learn new things and find success.  They are all so wonderful to me!  I am thankful for trials...they bring us so much closer to our Heavenly Father and you really have to rely on The Savior.  I learned a lot this year and accepted a lot of hard things.  I could not have done that without the love and comfort of both of them.  I am also having a lot of fun getting back to my active self.  I missed out on a lot of races that I planned to do this past year, but I am healthier and I have been able to get running, strength training, playing softball, soccer, and just having fun running around with my kids.  Life is good!

Adyson's first cross country meet

It was so much fun to see Adyson run her first meet! It was so hot out and there were some nasty hills, but she kept going :)

First day of school!

The kids were so excited for school (and a bit nervous). We were so busy getting everyone off to their different schools, that only Avery got a picture taken.

Lower Falls Campout

Beautiful Lower Falls!

This girl is tired...

Jumping under the falls

Adyson and Abby sliding down middle falls...they were a little nervous

Rick wiped out!

Cold and Wet!

Love this girl!

Crazy Rick jumping into the freezing water without a wetsuit

Lil Rick jumping off of the 40 ft. cliff

Dirty face getting ready for the Amazing Race

All of our contestants!  

Adyson and her partner Madison-3rd Place!

Rick and his partner Ryann-She even made matching shirts

Sydnee and her partners, Ashley and Anna-2nd Place!

Avery and her partners Ashley and Camille

Yummy, yummy

They did not enjoy the food...

Sydnee was somehow afraid of the food...

Face painting

Our favorite place to camp is up at Lower Falls, north of Carson, Wa. It is beautiful with so many fun things to do.  We always go up with a big group of our friends.  This year we had 40 of us up there with over 25 of them kids. Needless to say people are a bit taken aback when they wandered past our very large and busy camp.  We love being up there though and we spent our time playing in the woods, and all of us put on wet suits so we could jump off of waterfalls, slide down water slides, and drag the little ones around on rafts.  It wasn't super warm up there, and the water is freezing, but that doesn't stop us.  I discovered the magic of wetsuit booties.  They are amazing!  I am definitely investing in a pair of my own.  This year Rick and Adyson decided to jump off of a 40 ft. cliff.  I was a little nervous for them but they loved it.  We also put on The Amazing race for all of the kids with prizes and everything.  They had 12 stations all over the place and they were randomly put in groups of 2 or 3 and had to complete all 12 stations together and receive a bead for a necklace at each stop as fast as they could.  Each team had matching bandanas too. They had to do things like walk a slack line, there was a river crossing, they had to blow up balloons with blow darts and do a challenge found inside of the balloons, there was a relay race, word puzzle, riddle, and of course a station with interesting food that had to be eaten by both team members.  Some of the kids had a hard time with this one.  We all had a blast! Enjoy the funny pictures :)