Site Title

Zach, Emma, and Carter all did track together this summer!  I loved that it got us up and going 3 mornings a week, that it was everyone at one place, that they tried to beat their personal bests throughout the season, and I loved watching them run!  

  

Zach and Emma both ran the mile all season, and I think I got emotional every single time I watched them run it… it is such a hard race and I was so proud of their effort!  

The older two even made it to the all-county meet (Emma in the mile and long jump and Zach in the mile and shot put)  It was fun to have some spectators!  

 

 

By the end of the season we were doing anything we could to entertain the crew during the wait… this time they resorted to playing "legendary catches" with Carter's cat Runner over the fence.  It was all fun and games till they hit a lady with the cat…   And then the fun and games had to move away from all the people.  :)

I am not sure how I have made it this far in motherhood without having kids run a lemonade stand!  (Although I did have kids run a used baseball ticket stand once.)  

Emma and Carter have been dying to have one this summer, though, so we loaded up on lemonade, cups, and ice (which took a special trip to the store since our icemaker is out of comission) and they got to work.  Zach wasn't sure he wanted to sell lemonade but was quite interested in offering live music at the stand.  Meg was extremely interested in selling and pouring lemonade, so she got her own little stand to pour to her heart's content.  

Meg made and poured and drank all the lemonade she wanted, and Carter was the designated runner for more ice and other supplies.  

 

Although they had some quick success initially (a construction worker who payed double for just one cup), the other customers came few and far between despite our neighbor boy spreading the word door-to-door as far as his mom would let him go.  (The rest of the customers included me, Meg, the neighbor kids' mom and little brother, and two boys from down the street.)  

Hot and disillusioned with the lack of success, (and with blisters forming on the guitar players' fingers), the kids decided to close up shop after about 3 hours.  As with any new enterprise, they learned a few things: 1-4 is not a high traffic time of day on our street, and even if people say they'll stop by later, don't count on it.  :)

Luckily the $1 they each ended up with after dividing the money jar was still plenty exciting, and all in all I'd consider it a good way to spend a summer afternoon.  

There is something special about some friendships, that last through separations of years and continents and even periodic lapses in communication.  

  
(we were laughing so hard while Zach was taking a picture for us!)

We spent a fun day at the Church Museum of History and Art with friends like that!  And it made it even more fun that our kids seemed to feel the same way.  

 

It was also pretty entertaining to see Zach inspired by such a friend to dance – with a little bribe, of course.  (Not that a regular Iceberg shake is little…)

  

The time passed too quickly as usual and we are already looking forward to the next time!  

  

The wonderful thing about princess night at the Bees game is that Meg thoroughly enjoyed the night at the ballpark.

  

The not-so-wonderful thing about princess night is that she now thinks that the princesses – like the bee mascot – are there every night.  Next time might not be pretty…

We started Independence Day with the traditional parade/breakfast with the Adams family:  

  

Zach hangs back and watches from the chairs, and Emma and Carter are on the front lines scrambling for every free thing tossed their way.  (Emma actually chased an RC Willey truck quite a ways down the parade route when they started throwing soccer balls out of the back… I am sure they finally figured they'd better make sure she got one or she'd chase them all day. 🙂

After the parade everyone was so hot that water at Grandma's house sounded good!  

I said "everyone", right?  :)

Then we headed home for a nap and then went up to Park City to see uncle Joe's concert and fireworks.  

  

It was fun to listen to Joe while we had dinner, played UNO, danced (Meg!), relaxed in the beautiful scenery, and enjoyed an unbelievable stash of glo-sticks while we waited for the fireworks to start.  

Whew!  It was a busy but wonderful 4th!  

 

We met the cousins up at the capitol for a self-guided tour and lunch on the lawn one afternoon…

 
Meg and Carter were rolling down the hill on the grass and with Independence Day just a day away I thought it would be a great pic with the flag in the background… and of course they started fighting.  I had to smile and thought – that is what freedom is!  We are free to choose.  Not free to choose the consequenses though.  :)

 

Then the kids played cards on the blanket in the shade after lunch while the littles collected rocks.  It was a fun day at a beautiful place!

 

  

Even if you haven't run in 10 plus years, if your out-of-country friend asks if you want to run a 5K with her when she's in the states, the answer is obviously yes!  
It ended up being great for a bunch of reasons:  
1- it got me running again.  which, after the first 2 weeks when you just want to die, ends up being fun.
2 – we did it with our sisters!  sisters are the best. 
3 – it gave us SO much more time to chat uninterrupted than when we meet up with our kids!  
4 – what isn't fun about wearing zebra bandanas and riding trax covered in chalk?
Good times! 

He's the best!  Glad to see I could get the "big fish" smile out of him on father's day this year.  :)