Playing on the job

A couple of months ago BS brought home a used tandem bike. We had been talking about how ever since we started Aerie we hadn't had a chance to go out and exercise.  So, he thought it was a brilliant idea to have our work meetings on the bike.

Well, turns out he is brilliant!  I know it is super dorky but it is super fun and we have a really good time together!  Serious!  

We have only made it out 3 times but we have big plans to hit it hard in the Spring.

Snowbird round 2

A few weeks later we were back at Snowbird.  Ahh, it was so great to be back!

More swimming, more hot tubbing, more relaxing, more napping, more eating, more playing.

Hot Tub on our deck

It also happened to be the finish line for the Tour of Utah bike race!  This place was happening!

We took some time to cheer on the winners and watch the finishers.  We have missed cheering for BS at his bike races and this brought back fun memories :)

 

The top 2 finishers of this stage, the one in 2nd went on to win.

True story:

Will lost a molar at Snowbird. For some reason he put it in a glass with some ice and water (which nobody knew at the time). A bit later, BS asked Quin to fix him a drink. She saw a glass of ice water sitting on the counter and gave it to BS.  BS chugged it down.  Later Will went to get his tooth out of the glass to place under his pillow and discovered that the glass was empty.  

Yep, BS had gulped down his molar!

Will did not think this was funny because he gets very excited to get money from the tooth fairy!

Here is the note I found that night under his pillow:

Snowbird round 1

We love this place and look forward to staying here every summer. It is far but close and provides the relaxing get-a-way that we always need come summer.  This year we split our week - going Mon-Fri in July, and Fri-Mon in August. Splitting it up allowed us to spend more time up there because we could break up our work and commitments at home. We were lucky to have several friends and families come stay and play with us!  I wasn't good at taking pictures of everyone but did manage to capture some of the things we did in July. 

A Nice Day

We try to spend as many free summer days as we can at ECR, but it's never enough.

I took my bike and rode solo up to Snowbasin.  It is quite a climb, but it was so nice because it was cloudy and not so hot. It started to rain just as I reached the lodge.  I took some time to enjoy the rain and some rare time to myself.  But then it rained all the way back down to Mountain Green.

I made it!

 When I got back the kids were fishing in the pond.  I helped Will's friend Maddux catch his first fish.

 My boys think it's so funny that I know how to set up fishing lines, bait the hook, catch a fish, let it go, or gut it :)

 

And of course, the usual 4 wheeling and motorcycling.

It's so great that we can bring friends up here and they can just be kids in the outdoors. Explore and do whatever they want and just be kids.

What a nice day!

Pamperfest

In July, my friend Kelly talked me in to doing a cycling event called The Pamperfest.  It is a 4 woman relay from Snowbasin to The Homestead in Midway.  Even though I haven't been riding much, I figured I could handle 2 legs that were 20 miles each.  As unfortunate events played out, Kelly's Dad passed away and she had to miss the event.  I decided to still go for it - but instead 4 of us rode together for the last 3 legs, equaling 67 miles.  That would have been fine, except we started at noon.  Noon in July.  It was soooo stinking hot!  I struggled at one point but for the most part I really enjoyed my day with awesome people!  Even better was the 30 minute massage I got at the finish line, in the shade, at the beautiful park.

Jenny, Brenda, me, Dee

From Kamas to Heber with Jordanelle in the distance

But the best part of the day was coming home a scrumptious homemade cheesecake that Millie made

just for me!

Dates with BS

Amidst the chaos of end of school stuff and summer beginning,

BS and I have managed to squeeze in a few dates.  We do try to keep our priorities straight :)

We love going to the movies and do that quite a bit, but mix it up every now and then.

At a Salt Lake Real game {with Russ and Holly Smith}.  Before the game our friends took us to eat at an Indian restaurant and I tried lamb for the first time in my life. 

 On a bike ride through Highland, American Fork, and Alpine.  We love to do this together.

I like to let him ride in front :)

Rickshaw!

We had the pleasure of going on a nice Sunday family bike ride thanks to our friends who own this awesome Rickshaw!  Four people pedal and you can get going pretty fast!  Millie loved steering and Sambo controlled the brakes.  So fun!!!  There's even more room for a couple of little tikes in the front.

Moving

We did it!

We moved.

We are pretty settled into our new home.  We still need to pack up BS's office which we have been putting off.  Even though we are completely ready for this change - packing up and moving is horrible!

It has taken us almost a month to get moved out and in.  I can hardly write about it.  Because we weren't moving very far, we decided to do it ourselves.  So between 9:00 pm -midnight on the weekdays BS and I got most of the packing, moving, and organizing done.  For BS the weekdays were shot with work and straight to football practice.  Saturdays were mostly shot with all of the kid's games throughout the valley.  I boxed up as best as I could during the day - an hour here,  an hour there - and we would pack the trailer {thanks Plummers and Pogues!)  and take the loads at night.  We decided that we have WAY TOO MUCH STUFF and got rid of a bunch of it.  

Yard sell, donations, and garbage. 

We are SO sore and tired.  

But...we did it!

We can't take all of the credit - we had some help from family and friends.  Thanks everyone!  Especially to Grandmas and Grandpas for watching the kids and helping at the houses!

In the early morning, ready to get packing!

Moving to a smaller garage

I can't believe I didn't take any pictures of our whole house before we moved out.  We have lived there for 6+ years so I'm sure we'll remember it...but the younger kids maybe not so much.  It's been a great house and we will miss it dearly.

BS has job opportunities that will lead him to either stay at the hospital in Provo, or manage the new facility in Ogden once construction is completed.  This leaves our future living location up in the air - but  either way, we knew a move was inevitable.  When we built our home in Suncrest we were planning on living there for about 5 years while the kids were young.  That was our plan then and we now feel like it is time to take the next step forward. 

BS and I knew that moving down the hill would bring more convenience with less driving up and down the mountain, close to the schools, closer to our work, and closer to the kid's extracurricular activities.  Closer to everything!  Our kids are old enough now that they are involved in many things {all located in the same 5 mile radius} and of course at different times, so it was very appealing to be within minutes of everything.

So we put the house up for sale in May anticipating that it would take a year or so to sell {thanks to the economy situation}.  If we happened to sell it before we knew where we were going, we planned to find a rental home within the kids' school boundaries and be SO relieved that we didn't have the burden of a house to sell when it was time to move.

Fortunately, we received an offer on the first day that the sign went up, plus 2 more back-up offers!  

We couldn't believe it.  We soon discovered that finding a rental house within the school boundaries was going to be a challenge.  The options were scarce and when one did become available, it was snatched up in an instant.  There is some stuff pending on the sell of our home so we weren't in a rush to move out, but at the same time we had to take what we could get.  We were lucky to hear about a rental through word of mouth from some friends and we had to snag it that day before 5:00 pm or else the owner was going to go with the next people in line.  We had to make the tough decision between what made sense financially {wait for the sell to be final}, ...and what just made sense for our family.

So here we are.  And we are so happy!  We knew living here would be more convenient, but we had NO IDEA how much easier life would be!  The kid's walk/ride bike/scooter to school, I drive carpool only one day to the Junior High School, I only have to leave 3 minutes early to take Millie and the boys to sports practice and dance and if I happen to be busy at the moment - they can get there themselves :)

Off to school!

-And the neighborhood...it is a mecca for kids.  Kids everywhere, bike/walk paths everywhere, a huge open park and playground right next to us.  The neighbors are great and have been very welcoming and friendly, and the best part is we know many of them from sports, dance, and school.  

-And the Ward...the kid's are stoked to have so many of their friends in our ward.  Not that we didn't in the ward before {we loved our ward} but the move has not affected them in the way of not knowing anyone at church and school. 

-And the house...it is smaller and simpler.  Unfinished basement, less bedrooms, no grand laundry/craft room, small garage, but clean and cute!  Great deck and yard!  We are working on making it a comfy place to be.  Here's the 4 kids snug as a bug in our bed at the new house.  We came home to this after a late night of working at the Suncrest house.  Home is where the heart is, right?  

And a bonus has been that Quincy sleeps in her own bed every night since we moved here!  Up until now she has played "musical beds" with everyone in the family.  I'm sure her new Dream Lite has something to do with it.  

Something to note is that since BS and I moved to Mountain Green in 1999, we have not lived where pizza delivery has been available.  Can you imagine our delight when we had pizza delivered to our front doorstep last week?  Sometimes the small things make us so happy! 

Oops!  BS's rock hard butt cheeks ripped his shorts while lifting this old huge TV :)

The Crusher & PIerre's Hole

BS has had an extremely busy year...work (x2), school (MBA x 2), coaching (x4), and on and on.  As if being a full-time father and husband wasn't enough!  Consequently, something had to give, and sadly it was biking.  He only registered for 2 bike races this year...The Crusher (in Beaver) and Pierre's Hole (at Grand Targhee ski resort).   Even then he hardly found time to train and if you ask him, he had no business doing either one.  

But, he is a freak of nature and still managed to finish strong at both.  I am amazed by his strength - mentally and physically.

Anyway.  What this means for our family is a fun get-away with our friends!  In July we drove to Beaver, Utah which does not seem like a prime destination.  But I was surprised at the beauty of the mountains and the cool ski resort called Eagle Point.  The race course was near 70 miles in the mountains with some really hard climbing.

At the start with Joe S and Jon J

At the finish and he is still smiling
I love Quincy talking to her precious Tigress

 

Bright, Rust, White, Banks, Clark

I didn't have my camera with me during the race.  We met up with Sepulveda's and James's and hung-out by a lake with gorgeous views.  There were 11 kids and even though we were waiting for hours, they didn't mind at all - they had a great time being in the outdoors!  We are definitely planning a weekend ski trip to Eagle Point this winter!

Pierre's Hole: {What a dumb name}
A few weeks ago we went with a group of 14 adults and 18 kids to Grand Targhee Ski Resort near Driggs, Idaho for the next race.  It was a 50 and 100 mile course {25 mile laps}.  BS was planning on riding 50 but pushed himself to ride 75 miles!  All the guys agreed it was a tough course.  While the racers were sweating and gutting it out, the ladies and children were swimming and chilling in between support stops.  It was super fun being with our friends and especially great to have Adam and Jess with us.  Even better, Uncle Shad flew Grandpa and Grandma up for the day to support BS!  

Early morning at the start

On your marks...

After lap 1

After lap 2

Adam between laps

Meanwhile...at the pool
Keegan & Q

Chesney, Kai, Keegan, Q, Xander, Tizer

Brayden, Sambo, Skye, Will

Reissens and Brights

Support Crew

Millie would rather watch and wait for her Dad than play around with the kids, she really gets into this!

M and Grandma Cindy

Done!

Starving

Q and Aunt Jess waiting for Uncle Adam

Adam  and Jess at the finish

Cheering Section

At the finish: Banks (100), White (50), Reissen (50), Rust (100), Clark (75), Clark (50), Bright (50)
Some of these dudes were on their bikes for 14 hours!

We are so grateful that we get to do these fun adventures with our friends and family!  Thanks guys for doing these races :)