Breakfast

Breakfast king at it again.  Today German Pancakes are on the menu.

 

End of Kindergarten for Desh

Desh is graduating from half day school as this kindergarten year comes to an end!  Mrs. Hernandez is just amazing and we have loved having her as our teacher once again.  Desh loves to learn and is awesome at math and his letters. But is also the sweetest kid around. I know he's going to do big things with that big heart of his!

 

End of 2nd grade year - Beck

2nd grade has been a great year for Beck!  He is sweet and kind and continues to grow and learn so much.  He loves math, loves to play at recess and has fun friends that he has met this year.  So excited to see where this boy continues to go!

 

End of 4th grade year - Keen

Keen has LOVED 4th grade and Mr. Brown has been such a big influence for him this year.  They have done so many fun projects, learned dances and had a blast learning outside the box!  I have loved watching him grow up this year. 

 

End of 5th grade year - Liev

Liev has had a great 5th grade year and has progressed so much!  He has really developed a love for art - drawing and coloring and being creative.  This boy is something special!

 

End of 7th grade year Rhen

Middle school has treated this girl right!  She has done amazing with her classes and has grown so much as a person.  She met and made some super good friends this year and I'm so happy she has a group to hang with that are good people.  She is one amazing girl!

 

End of 9th grade year Rease

Rease has loved her 9th grade year this year!  She has done really amazing in her classes and has such a fun group of friends.  I know she's really going to miss them next year while we take a year away, but I have no doubt that they will keep in touch!  For now I'm just proud of this girl and all she does and works so hard for. 

 

Kimball

Aunt Nat can't get enough of this baby and his amazing cheeks...

 

Rhen and Lily

Rhen and her friend Lily are like two crazy peas in a pod.  They are silly and goofy and just love to laugh and I wasn't surprised at all to see this pic of them after a day together.  Love them.  

 

Beck's field trip

I got to go on a cool field trip with Beck today as we visited Harmon's grocery store and Sherwin Williams paint store.  We got tours of both of them and a couple treats at the grocery store before we ended up at the park for sack lunches.  I love going on these with my kiddos and am so glad I got to sneak this one in with Beck right at the end of the year!

 

Visiting Sarah's grave

We have made it a tradition to visit Aunt Sarah's grave for memorial day and we love taking a minute out of a busy schedule to just remember who we love.  And look forward to the day we get to be reunited.  Love you Sarah.

 

Sick

We got the pukes at our house this week and, though it really stinks, I won't say I don't love the snuggles when I get them.

 

Beck's birthday in class

Because Beck has a summer birthday, Mrs. McCarty chose a day this month to celebrate his birthday and let us bring treats to the class.  All the students made this cute book with hand written notes for him wishing him a happy birthday!  

 

Movies

When Josh is out of town, we indulge in a few things that we really love.  I took Rease and Rhen to see the new Top Gun movie and loved it so much that I took the boys back to see it the next night!  I'm sure when Josh gets home I'll go with him too :)

 

Egg drop

This week Liev got to participate in the egg drop at school.  Unluckily for him, Josh is out of town and I had to help him with it.  I have not the slightest clue on how to do an egg drop container so we improvised a little bit and tested 4 or 5 different containers before we finally settled on one that would do.  When he got home from school I asked how it went and he said, "Mine was the only egg that broke." 

:(

Mom fail.  Sorry bud.

 

Piano Recital

Tonight Leanne our piano teacher put on a special piano recital just for our kids.  We're going to miss the summer one and she wanted them to be able to show off all their hard work.  It was so nice of her to open up her home for us and I LOVED hearing all their recital pieces that they've been working on.  It's not easy to fit piano into busy schedules and I'm so proud of these kids for their hard work.  

 

Crepes

Our boys have a breakfast obsession and have become really good at making their own.  And making them however they want even if it means filling a crepe full of powdered sugar, butter and whipped cream almost to the point of explosion...

 

Keen's class

I have been able to help out a lot in Keen's class this year and help Mr. Brown grade papers, tests and anything else he might need.  It has been so fun to be a part of the classroom and see Keen so much during the week!  Today they were working on puppets and he made this Kirby character as his puppet.  Love this boy!

 

Liev's history report

Liev has been working hard on his report and poster for the History Report.  He chose to do his report on the Wright Brothers and did such a fantastic job making his poster about them and getting his presentation ready.  He loved learning all about them and thought it was so cool to learn all about flying a plane.

 

Trans-planting

Josh has been looking for certain plants to put in our yard in Puerto Rico and hasn't been able to find any Star Jasmine down there.  He decided to pack a suitcase full of them as he heads down this week to work on the house.  It looks like he's transporting illegal plants, but hopefully they make it without a fuss!  

 

Desh's 6th birthday

Because I was running my marathon on my birthday which also happens to be Desh's birthday, we had to make up for it and celebrate for him in a big way!  He loves to ride his bike lately so we made him a mountain biking cake and opened lots of gifts with our favorite people with us.  He got a new backpack that he's so excited to "hike" with and a whole bunch of one dollar bills from both Grammies that he can't wait to spend. The cake was a hit and we loved spending this day with this boy!

My favorite things about 6 year old Desh:

1) Desh loves school and loves to learn.  He has had the best year in kindergarten and can't wait to get to 1st grade so he can have lunch at school.  He loves math and loves his letters and sounds.  I know he's going to do something great with all the knowledge he's soaking in!

2) Desh loves being outside and loves having fun.  He's up for anything and always wants to try whatever anyone else is doing.  He has no fear and feels like he can do anything that his big brothers are doing, so he usually just does and finds out the hard way whether he actually can or can't :) I love his positive outlook on life and would love to have the same!

3) Desh is as sweet as they come.  I LOVE that he loves his mama and will always give me a kiss, hug, or snuggle with me when we're just chillin.  He is the best helper and will always work harder and longer than anyone else.  He just wants to do good to everyone around him and truly has their best interest in mind.  You can't find a kinder human anywhere on the planet.  

6 year old stats from Dr. Erickson:

Height: 4'2" - 98%

Weight: 54 lbs. 7 oz. - 86%

BMI: 15.3 - 48%

Happy birthday cute boy!

 

Ogden Marathon

I love the process of running a marathon.  From the beginning of training when it's as much training your mind as it is putting in the miles, throughout the middle when it's just an effort of time getting all the long runs in, all the way to the end when race day arrives and your stomach is full of butterflies in anticipation.  It's a 6 month journey that I love taking part in every once in a while.  This year race day fell on my birthday(!) which just made it cool anyway and I felt like maybe I had a little luck on my side because of that.  Turns out it was a combination of things that made it the perfect day to run a marathon! 

Friday afternoon I rode the train up to Ogden and Josh's mom kindly put me up in her spare bedroom for the night. I borrowed their car for a few hours and headed to the expo where I got my bib, my bag of goodies and shopped around looking at all the booths.  I had an early dinner of pasta and breadsticks from Olive Garden which has become my tradition before race day.  And then I headed back to the house to get ready for the morning and get to bed early.  Sometimes I have a hard time sleeping because I'm anticipating and early rise, but this night I had no trouble and slept all the way until my alarm went of at 4:00 am.  I felt rested, ready and excited.  The bus ride to the starting line is fun because there's a great energy in the crowd of people all going and doing the same hard thing that I'm about to do!  It's so great to be a part of! I had about an hour at the starting line before the race and it was just the right amount of time to get in a good stretch, use the bathroom and find my sis-in-law Steph just as the race was about to start.  She was with a group of friends, so we said hello and goodbye and split up as the horn to start the race went off.  And just like that, all the work we'd all put in those long months was about to be tested.  

I went with a different approach this year as I was feeling a little less confident about my running time and how I was going to do.  I tend to put a lot of pressure on myself that I need to/want to qualify for Boston because the last marathon I ran I also qualified.  I think I feel like I should always be able to since I did it once.  It's weird and crazy and I always tell myself I should just be happy to finish, but there's a big part of me that just wants to qualify and that tends to put me under a lot of self-induced pressure.  Anyway, I was feeling very un-confident about my chances of qualifying this year due to a small injury I've had, my age (41!) and the fact that it's been 3 years since I've run a full marathon because of covid cancelling all sorts of races the past few years.  Due to that, I wasn't really trusting myself that I would be able to run a fast enough pace to make it.  So...I decided to run without my watch giving me mile marker updates with time and splits.  I ALWAYS run with my watch on and usually love to hear how I'm doing and where I'm at, but today I wasn't feeling it.  I wanted to just run and do it my pace without any extra pressure on myself.  So that's what I did.  I had my music on loud, I enjoyed the absolutely gorgeous scenery around me and basked in the warm sun that was shining down on all of us runners.  It was literally THE PERFECT day to run.  I kept a good pace, ran without getting into my own head, had one bathroom break at mile 11 and didn't check my watch or the time until I crossed the halfway mark and saw that the official time was 1:41:00.  I did some quick math in my head and felt good about the pace I was running and did my best to just keep it up.  Around mile 21 as I was coming down out of the canyon I stopped for just 15 seconds or so to stretch my right knee that was feeling sore, but other than that small minute I had really no other problems through the whole race.  It was finally at mile 23 when I saw another official clock that said 3:04:00 that I realized with just 3 miles left to go I was actually on pace to not just qualify for Boston, but also run my own PR.  And then when my playlist that was only 3:15 long ended not too long after that, I knew that I could do it.  I really was on pace to make it!  I pushed hard to the end and crossed the finish line as it read 3:32:01 and felt like I had conquered the world!  I did it!  I felt so amazing at what I just accomplished but also just LOVED seeing everyone right at the finish line cheering and waving and yelling for me and all the runners.  What a great day it was!  I know that a marathon is so mental and I was just so happy to have been able to talk my way through that whole race and actually do it.  My official time came in at 3:31:49 - 3 minutes faster than my fastest time before.  I'm headed to BOSTON!

 

Visiting Heber Valley Camp

I'm on a committee for a special Oakcrest camp that's going to be at Heber Valley Camp later this summer. It's a camp for the older girls that missed Oakcrest during their 7th grade year due to covid closures.  So it's one of kind!  The cool thing about it is that we get to got to Heber Valley for it!  We went up to the camp today to check things out and make sure we had all the right details for planning.  It was so fun to see mom and dad in their new home and doing their job as missionaries.  They are going to be THE BEST with all those girls!  And we can't wait to be up there with them to see them in action.

 

Desh's book of national symbols

Desh has been learning all about the national symbols this year and comes home consistently telling me about what he learned and where it's located.  They put all these things in a book for the end of the year and we loved looking through this together.  I love this patriotic thing they did as a class!

 

Year end band concert

Rease and Rhen had their last band concert of the year tonight and both did such a great job!  Seriously major improvement in both groups throughout the year and they sounded so good!  We went to the band room after and gathered up their things and I think they were both sad to see it coming to and end for a season.  These girls are simply the best.