Maureah's Graduation

We were able to attend Maureah's high school graduation last week. She is the youngest in Randall's family. She used to tell us that she was going to have to push her mom and dad in a wheel chair at her high school graduation... ha ha! They walked in on their own, and they even chaperoned her all night party!

We are so proud of Maureah and all her accomplishments. She has been a very busy young lady this past year. She was Rigby's Jr. Miss and had to compete in the state pageant last fall and was on the varsity girls basketball team. We're going to miss watching her play ball! We love you Maureah!



Randall and the kids had fun going for rides on the 4-wheeler. I'm not sure why I only got a picture of Lainee, but her smile is contagious!

Snuggle Time

My kids sure love their Daddy! When Randall walks in that door they no longer want anything to do with me. I am thankful that they have such a wonderful father, and it does give me a bit of a break sometimes!

Boys in chaps

The boys were out helping Randall do chores the other night and had to put on their chaps. Randall grabbed the camera and they started making funny faces. I just love my little cowboys!

Slip me some skin

Tonight while we were enjoying a bedtime snack with the boys (Lainee was already in bed), Randall said to me, "Slip me some skin." I looked at his outstretched hand and smiled, then pulled my pant leg up a little to reveal bare skin, just to be funny.

A few minutes later Randall said to Cooper and Carson, "Slip me some skin." Cooper replied, "I don't even know what that means!" Randall answered, "It means to give me a high five." Cooper said, "Oh." Cooper then thought for a moment, got a little twinkle in his eye, and yelled, "Oh ya baby!" while pulling up his pajama pants to reveal his bare leg. Carson of course had to follow suit with his own "Ya baby" and showing off his leg. Randall, Kiana (who has been staying with us for a few days) and I busted up laughing. Way to funny!!!!!



PS. We just love having Kiana here- we're going to be sad to have her leave in a few days :(

T-ball

Some days were colder than others!

We just finished up Cooper's first T-ball season. He had a blast! A few months ago they started talking about spring baseball. I knew that the age limit was 8-12, so I asked the girl in charge (who happens to be a friend of mine) if they'd ever done t-ball. She said not recently, and that it was too big of a hassle so they weren't doing it. I decided if you want something done (and if I want my kids to be able to participate in any activities around here), sometimes you have to do it yourself. So, I opened my big mouth and told her I'd do T-ball if she'd include them in the league.

So, that's how I became the T-ball lady and the coach. I didn't really think we'd get very many kids. Enough to have a team, hopefully. But by the time we'd had couple practices I had 18 kids signed up! That was great because then I could just divide them up into 2 teams and they could play each other. The only bad part was, I was the ONLY coach. Thankfully I had a few parents who helped here and there, and we got through it. Randall helped a lot when he was in town. There were 2 weeks in the middle of the season that he was out of town working. The kids all had a good time and really improved over the course of the season (which was only 5 weeks- 5 games).

Cooper really loved learning how to play and was sad when it was over. I must admit, I was a bit relieved when it was over, but I was glad I was able to give Cooper this opportunity. There really aren't very many things in our little Grand View community for my young children to be involved in.

My First Half Marathon

So, I ran my first Half Marathon- The Great Potato Race- on Saturday, May 15 in Boise. I've been training for 3 months, and I guess it paid off, because I finished the race in 2 hours 3 minutes amd 23 seconds. I was so excited, because I beat my goal of 2 hours 5 minutes.

The week before the race I was running 10 1/2 miles and felt great. Then exactly 1 week before the race I was going to run 8 miles and after the first 2 miles my left knee started killing me. I was very concerned, because typically my knee problems are with the right knee. I decided it was my IT Band (Iliotibial band- outside of your kneed) and the only thing to do was take it easy and rest it as much as possible 'til the race. I still trained on my elliptical machine and went for walks with the kids to keep active, but I didn't do any running on it at all for 5 days. The Thursday before the race I ran a couple miles and it felt a little sore, but much better, but I was still concerned about running 13.1 miles- obviously.

Anyway- a friends of mine, Rachel Neibaur and her sister Kristen were also running the race. We decided to meet the Neibaurs in Boise the night before and get a hotel so the kids could sleep in a little while we girls hitched a ride to the race start. The race started at 8:00 am Lucky Peak Reservoir and finished at Ann Morrison Park. It was cold and windy at the race start, but after we dropped down in elevation a bit it was a very pleasant day for running. I lost Rachel and Kristen at the start of the race, there were something like 1700 people on a narrow course, and then my shoe came untied. I didn't expect to keep up with them for very long, because they are what I would call 'seasoned' runners- Rachel ran the Boston Marathon a few years ago! Plus, they were trying to beat personal bests, and I was really just running to meet my goal and finish the race. Period!

My knee felt a little achy after a couple of miles that were slightly downhill, and at mile 8 it reallly started to ache. At that point when I slowed down to grab a water cup, I decided I just had to keep running or I'd never finish. As long as I kept running the pain was tolerable, but when I slowed to a walk at the water station and then started to run again I was in agony. As I neared the finish line I could hear the announcer and the crowd cheering for the runners, and that really gave me a boost. The best part of the whole race was seeing my husband and kids at the finish line cheering me on. If it wasn't for them waiting for me it would have been easy quit running and say it was too hard. But I knew I could do it, and having Randall, Cooper, Carson and Lainee provided just enough extra motivation to make me push to that finish line and meet my goal.


Waiting for mommy to come across the finish line. (I think they were a bit bored!)



So happy to be done!!!



Now to train for the next half marathon. Our good friends, the Merayos, are going to meet us in Park City in August and Trishell wants to run a Half Marathon with me that weekend. Maybe I'll try to come in under 2 hours!

Cooper's Field Day & Last Day of Preschool

Today was Cooper's last day of Preschool. They had a field day and then each child received a certificate saying they completed preschool.

Cooper sitting with his class during group time

Cooper shaking Mrs. Draper's hand and getting his certificate from Ms. Davis

Happy to be recognized!

I must admit, I'm a bit sad that Cooper's preschool experience is coming to and end. He has really enjoyed preschool and had two fabulous teachers who genuinely love the kids they teach. This fall he will start kindergarten, and I am certainly not ready for that. On top of that, they just changed our school district to a 4-day week beginning this fall, and kindergarten is all day. So he will start school in the morning around 8:00 and not be done until almost 4:00, Tuesday through Friday (they'll have Mondays off). That is a really long day for a 5 year old!


On your mark... I love Cooper's track pose!

Go!

For one of the relays they had to run down, chew up a piece of bubble gum, try to blow a bubble, and run back.

Cooper did not like the bubble gum. He said it was hard and tasted gross! Luckily they had a bag they could spit the gum into.

Getting to play red rover. Cooper's other teacher, Ms. Davis, is in the background.

Red rover, red rover, send ----- right over!

We finally had a decently warm day, and the kids all had fun playing outside.

Lainee playing on the slide

Carson on the slide

Cooper on the slide

Cooper, posing at the bottom of the slide

Lainee showing off her beautiful smile

Cooper

Carson