One year older...

...and wiser too. (?) On May 15th I turned the big 3 4 which means I'm only a year away from 35 and six years away from GASP 40. I know it's still a ways away, so I'll just focus on the here and now. For my birthday I went to work, quit by job and then took my kids to the zoo with my friend Sheryl. (Quiting my job wasn't anything dramatic, it just wasn't working out) For dinner Mike took me to India House (yum!) and then (that's where I left off when I started writing and now I can't remember what we did after dinner. Man, I did get older) ;)

Here are some pictures from the zoo.

We purchased a couple of "Legacy Fish" in honor of Erik and Mike's brother Kevin. We were happy when we found that they had a nice spot in the Seal exhibit.

Mike and the kids did a great job of making me feel loved. Steven asked me throughout the day what I needed, because he wanted me to have whatever I wanted even if it didn't come from him. :) Mike got me a gift card to Banana Republic and a cute pair of shoes almost identical to ones I own. (It's the thought that counts)

Adam's field trip

Once again it's 2018 and I'm filling things I didn't originally blog. On May 20th Sarah, Steven and I joined Adam on a field trip to Wheeler Farm. From the looks of the picture, Adam wasn't impressed by the wagon ride. ;)

Adam probably won't appreciate these until he's older, but he's so cute when he sleeps. :)

House Update- It's done!

Our house is finally complete! It seemed to drag on at first but now it seems fast considering that we're moving in a week from today. Since I've been out a few times without posting I'll just put a few pictures before the final pics I took today.

Front of the house. Mike doesn't like the color of the garage doors, so we're going to have them painted. We picked the color thinking it would look nice but it doesn't. :)

Family room

Kitchen and media center

Adam's room

Craft loft

Sarah's room

Laundry room

Master bedroom

Entry way

Notice the shocked expression on Sarah's face. She walked into the basement bedroom and saw something she wasn't expecting.

Yes, that is Adam pulling up his pants after using the window well as a urinal. We told him he couldn't go potty outside, so he considered this somewhere between inside and out.

Here are the bookcases we had put in next to the fireplace. They installed them as we were closing on the home. I love them, now I just need to fill them.

Iron Will Race

Today I ran a 5k in the Iron Will Race at Camp Williams. The race was in celebration of the base being 100 years old. The event started with the Color Guard, a talk from Governor Herbert and a beautiful rendition of the Star Spangled Banner. Mike had to work so Lynette was kind enough to join me. 

Before the race

Boys riding the animal "train"

Sarah getting ready to climb the wall

Sarah at the top

Boys on the bouncy house

Sarah's 2nd or 3rd time up the tower

Steven made it to the top cheered on by Sarah

Steven with Miss Bluffdale

Lynette with the kids

Game of throwing TP and "poop" into toilets

Getting ready for the kids 1 mile race

Isn't Adam adorable?!

All of us with our dog tags

This isn't my PR, but it's the best pace I've had in a Utah race. The first 1 1/2 miles was uphill and a complete beast. I got 13th overall out of ~160 and 5th place for the women. Considering the terrain and my lack of training I'm happy with my results. It makes me miss my running group. :)

Lake Powell

Last week the kids and I joined my parents for five fun days in Lake Powell. We arrived Monday but it was the evening and a little windy so we camped in the RV campground and launched Tuesday morning. It was my parents maiden voyage, and my dad's fist time on a bigger boat, so there was a learning curve. We found that wind is not a boats friend in the loading/unloading phase and that all boats have leaks so make sure the bilge pump works well. :)

After launching we wanted to find a good place to camp. The weather report was windy on Tuesday and wind plus rain on Wednesday so we needed to find a good canyon do stay in. 

Dad as the good luck mermaid

Poor Sarah got sea sick shortly after leaving the marina

After searching a few canyons we chose this spot because of it's protection from the elements. We used to know where the cool canyons were, but it's been 15 years since our last trip. The water was really low so there was sage brush everywhere. The place worked but there wasn't much to do on the shore.

I spy two boys. Can you? :)

On Wednesday we went to "Forgotten Canyon" and visited the Anasazi ruins. When I was younger we could drive the boat close to the cliff, but since the water is low it took us an hour to get there and 45 minutes to get back. The boys found some cool critters on the way.

Steven finds a frog

Lots of tadpoles

The ruins are at the top of the rock rubble

My parents and the kids on the steps leading there

Pretty cool to think a family once lived here

My wonderful parents

The ladder leads to a cold room below

The walk back

I've never had technology on Lake Powell, so I didn't put much thought into communicating with Mike. We talked Tuesday morning at the marina and then lost reception once we went farther onto the lake. Since the lake is big, the weather wasn't great, and big boats aren't easy to hop around in I didn't talk to him the rest of Tuesday or Wednesday. I didn't think anything of it, because I figured I wouldn't have service. Mike on the other hand didn't realize that. He thought I'd be able to easily get to a place to call him and since he hadn't heard from us in 36 hours he got worried. He got off work Wednesday, changed his clothes and hopped in his car. He slept in his car and in the morning immediately started talking to park rangers and trying to contact us via radios. I turned on my phone when we got to the marina Thursday morning and found out I had a very worried husband waiting there for us. Poor guy! I felt very bad for him but at the same time grateful for his love. He had to work the next day so he came out on the boat for a couple hours and then we dropped him back off at the marina. I was really missing him, so I'm glad I (we) got to see him for a little bit.

We found this canyon with Mike and came back to it after we dropped him off.

Steven found the perfect place to build a fire pit and set to work making it great. He drug over wood for the fire, wood for seats and instructed me as to what rocks we needed for the fire ring. The kids all took turns sitting on the rock we dubbed "Throne Rock".

My mom and Steven BEGGED to light a sage brush on fire. After burning two in the fire pit my mom suggested we burn large caches of them piled up around and under rocks. After her continued insistence we had to give her and the boys a really good talk about fire safety.

Sarah as the mermaid ;)

Adam on the throne

Even though I got lost for 2 1/2 hours on the way home (atlas and GPS were immediately ordered for future trips) it was a great trip and allowed me to put off packing for a whole week!