2009 in Review

Butch Cassidy

Sadie: This weekend I ran the Butch Cassidy 5k. I took 3rd place out of all the girls under 10 years old. I raced a dog half way! IT WAS SO FUN! Later that afternoon we went to a frog pond. I caught a frog the size of a nickel.

Sadie crossing the finish line...

Emilee: I took 5th place in my age group: girls 11-14. I couldn't run because I was 11, but I walked fast and had an awesome time. We were with our friends the Claytons and we had a blast!

Brin: I took 5th place out of all the girls under 10 years old. I won a green ribbon for my prize. The race ended in a ghost town and we got to explore some of the old houses there. That afternoon we drove through a really long dark tunnel in Zion's National Park. We turned off the car lights and Dad drove really fast and we screamed like on a roller coaster!

Reunion

Bear Lake 2009

Emilee getting up on the kneeboard-look at that determination!

Sadie inside Minnetonka caves

Brin on the beach

After a vacation as I sort, wash and fold the piles of laundry, while the tent gets stored and the sleeping bags and flashlights put away and as I start to put the house back together I have had the following internal conversation with myself. "I'm doing it for the kids." "Some of my best childhood memories are the vacations and time I spent with my cousins." And by far the best... "they'll appreciate this when they are older."

This summer I finally admitted to myself that it is as much for me as it is for them. I love spending time with my family and extended family and I'd pack and unpack all summer long if it meant that we could be together. And this summer I did just that and for the record it was all worth it.

Camp

There's camp and then....there is GIRLS CAMP.

The ingredients:

1 campground

16 girls 12-17 years oll
5 women leaders

3 very patient men

5 tents

lots and lots of food

The directions:

Do a little hiking, a lot of eating. A little fire-building, a lot more eating. A little knot tying, and more eating. Then take another day and spend it boating, mixed with more eating.

The results:

Sixteen 12-17 year old girls (who started out with not a lot in common) who now really like being around each other. They still don't have that much in common, but what they do have in common- the gospel of Jesus Christ- is enough. The friendships they formed and nurtured through 3 days of girls camp have turned them into friends forever and a strength and a light to each other through the coming years together. And that makes it all worthwhile.

1994

• President Bill Clinton takes office
• Nancy Kerrigan gets clubbed on the leg
• 9 people are held hostage in the Salt Lake Public Library
• Apple computer releases it's first Mac computer with a powerPC microprocessor
• Kurt Cobain, of Nirvana, dies
• OJ Simpson leads police on a televised chase through LA
• ...and I graduated from high school

Tonight I attended my 15 year high school reunion and had fun visiting and catching up with old friends. Some of my good friends even won awards...longest married (14 years), most kids (7, WOW!), and farthest distance (over 6,000) miles. You know who you are, so now when you browse through my blog you're required to leave comments so that I feel important and am inspired to be witty and intelligent.

After a few hours visiting, I decided that 1) we're not that old, 2) we haven't changed all that much and 3)we really should stay in better touch!

Flash Flood

How we spent our Memorial Day weekend...

http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=148&sid=6593300

Shortcuts

Why you should RUN when in response to your "what are you doing?" you get "I don't know."

After Aunt Kati came to the rescue:

Certified!

Well...almost. Brian and Em went up to the crater at the Homestead for Emilee's two days of open water certification. Day 1...not so successful, but after some sudafed and afrin Day 2 went much better.

A few years ago in church our friend, Justin gave a talk where he explained that he always tells his girls "you can do hard things!". His words have stuck with me all this time and it is something that I have found myself repeating to my own girls.

During the course of Emilee's dive certification we have had this conversation several times and I am so proud of her! She did it!

Expansion

You may think it looks harmless, but my seven year old would quickly correct that very mistaken impression.

If you had been hanging around our house this past week you might still think that the Middle Ages were in full swing, and that torturing small children was an acceptable practice. Every evening around bedtime the wailing would begin...echoing through the chambers of the house shrill screams of "not the crank" and "don't tighten it! " along with shouts of "NO, MOM, NO."

A friend once told me that she always used to tell her daughters "Beauty is Pain" as she combed out their snarls and got them ready for the day. That hasn't been quite the lesson I wanted Sadie to learn this week, and besides who wants the moral of the story when their teeth, their head and their tongue hurts?

Let's just say it's been a long couple of days. But I think we might be through the woods. Tonight as we finished the crank and the hysterics I looked down at Sadie and asked as I dried her tears "Does it even hurt anymore?" She stopped crying and looked up at me thinking. "You're just crying because you remember that it did hurt a few days ago, huh..." and then she started giggling.

I decided that's the moral of the story for this week: growing can be painful, whether it's reshaping your mouth, or your life. And that seems a lot better lesson to teach my girls...instead of "beauty is pain" how about "inner beauty often comes from painful lessons." But I still think I might wait a few days to pass on my little bit of mom wisdom...at least until all the aching subsides.