June 2 was National Trails Day. The Utah Governor wanted all the mayors from Ogden down to Salt Lake to pass a baton down along the old rail line trail from Rainbow Gardens up in Ogden down into Salt Lake to celebrate National Trails Day. The trail pieces were split up in about two mile increments to make it easier. The Mayor of our city was supposed to pass the baton, but wasn't able to participate in the trail riding that day so he asked the youth council to take his place. Unfortunately, a lot of the youth council were out of town so they just asked Josh if any of his family could ride with him. Aaron only had short notice so he was only able to get three bigger bikes in working condition. That meant Josh, Daniel and Sarah got to ride. Noah really wanted to ride, but I didn't know if he could handle the distance and neither Aaron or I could ride along with them since they were using the only adult bikes we had. Anyway, it all worked out. Here are Daniel and Josh riding along the trail representing our city and passing the baton on this particular 2 mile section of trail:
Sarah wasn't too far behind them on the trail:
After the bike ride we headed over to the grocery store as a family. The grocery store was having an anniversary party where they had some good deals and throughout the store they offered free root beer floats, birthday cake, and cheap deli hot dogs. How could we pass that up?! Haha! Anyway, every 15 minutes they would have a drawing for free groceries. They had 20 numbers taped on the ground throughout the store. When they announced they were getting ready to do the drawing you found a number and stood on it. My kids were all for that. As soon as they announced they were getting ready to do the drawing the kids all scattered to find a number to stand on. Well when you have 7 out of the 20 numbers covered your odds of winning are pretty good! Josh's number got chosen and he/we won a bag of free groceries containing a bag of tortilla chips, brownie mix, loaf of bread, a 2 liter bottle of soda, and some other various items. Wahoo! Here's Josh getting the bag of groceries:
I was pretty excited since my kids are eating me out of house and home since summer began!!
Monday morning summer was in full swing. Matthew had his first week of travel camp for Camp Kostopulos. Camp K is a camp in Salt Lake up Emmigration Canyon for special needs kids and adults. It has been an amazing experience for Matthew to attend for the last 3-4 years. I am grateful that things like this are available! Anyway, Matthew was pretty excited. He was going to be traveling down to St. George, Zion National Park, and Snow Canyon. He made sure he was all packed and made doubly sure he had his road atlas with him so he could help navigate the driver down there. While I was checking him in bright and early he kept running around to all the staff members telling them he was the Human GPS and if they needed help with traffic directions to let him know. A few of the staff were returning again from last year and immediately recognized him not by his name, but by his Human GPS announcements. They came over and said, "Hi!" to him, but Matthew didn't have time to socialize because he needed to know which way they were driving down to St. George. After the last check in station was completed it was time to say goodbye Matthew gave me a quick squeeze and grabbed his atlas to talk about which road they were going to be driving on to get to St. George.
I'm sure this staff member got an earful--haha! Thankfully, the staff member was really good natured about it, though. Matthew and his atlas--haha!
After dropping Matthew off I came back home and picked up the other kids and we went bowling with some free coupons I had gotten from the school. I let the kids fill in their own names for bowling. Daniel was the first to find out that the backspace button didn't work. So he had typed out D-A-N, but then accidentally typed a C and finished it by spelling H-E-L-L-O to be funny. The joke was on him since he couldn't back space to fix it. The whole game we laughed every time it was Danchello's turn--haha!
By the way let me just add bowling is not my kids' forte. These scores are even with the bumpers on except for Josh. I don't foresee a future in bowling for them--hahahaha! Here's Noah taking his turn:
You know you are a mom of boys when you go to bed only to find a hidden Whoopie Cushion in your sheets hoping that you will lay down and 'set it off' when you get in bed.
Noah came in my room the next morning to see if his prank worked. What a funny kid!
The kids were missing Matthew while he was gone. Matthew is in charge of walking Sophie every day so while he was gone at camp the other kids had to take turns walking her. This time it was Josh's turn:
We did spend a day at Lagoon. Daniel and his cousin Miles were having a sleep over at G&G T's house and Matthew was gone to camp so I was down to only three kids at home. It was pretty weird. Anyway, we had fun together at Lagoon. Here is Sarah and Josh riding the Terror Ride:
We did the bumper cars, too. Sarah and Noah have a hard time driving them so they always like to be the passengers. Josh wasn't too happy about it since he could barely fit his long legs in the care let along another passenger. Oh well it worked out.
Last week was Sarah's dance recital. I love getting her all dolled up if I haven't mentioned it a time or two lately--haha! Here's my beautiful girl as we are getting ready to leave for the recital:
She is on one of the three performance teams which meant she was in four dances. Here's some still shots showing where she was in the dance:
There was a team dance with all three performance teams, but I didn't get a picture of that dance.
Afterward she was happy to come and see us:
She loved the flowers Aaron gave her:
Since she is in one of the performance teams she gets a head shot in the program.
I forgot to mention Matthew's Learning Center Yearbook that he got from his teacher at the end of the year. It was a hard bound book of pictures, quotes, and other activities from each student. I thought it was really nice of his teacher to put together such a book. Here's the cover of the mini yearbook:
Each student got their own page to design. Here's the pictures of Matthew throughout the year they included:
The other page of Matthew's was devoted to the Youtube video "Man on a Buffalo". I have heard so much about this video. It is the second thing Matthew asks anybody he meets. After asking if they need driving directions the second questions is if they have seen this video of a man riding a buffalo. I guess his teacher heard a lot about the video since she included it in the mini yearbook--haha!
Josh had the opportunity to do baptisms for the dead at the temple last week. Here's the bunch that went together:
Last week was Aaron and my wedding anniversary. 18 years have gone by pretty fast! Here's a few throwback pictures to when we were young and child free.
It was so long ago as you can see by how young we look--haha!
We decided on no presents for each other. However, Aaron surprised me with tickets to one of my favorite plays "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" put on by a local theater. It was a fun night. Since it was a local theater we even got to see people we know in the production and the audience.
We got home late, but didn't get to sleep for very long. We had to get up at 2:25 am to take Josh down to Salt Lake for him to catch his 4 am bus to the beginning of the Drop 13 half marathon race. The Drop 13 race starts at the base of Solitude ski resort (7700 ft elevation) and slowly drops 3000 feet in elevation over 13.1 miles. Anyway, if getting up that early for your kid doesn't mean love I don't know what does!! I slowly dragged myself out of bed when I heard Josh and Aaron stirring. Luckily, I thought ahead and slept with my day clothes on just to skip a step that morning--haha! After a caffeine soda stop at the gas station we drove down to the bus stop for the race in Salt Lake. Josh checked in and got ready to get on the bus. Here is a very awake and excited kid (unlike his parents):
The race didn't start until 6 am so Aaron and I had about 3 hours to kill until Josh finished. They didn't allow any traffic in or out of the canyon due to the race which meant we couldn't cheer Josh on along any of the trail. Instead we found a dark corner of the parking lot and tried to get a nap in until we were going to meet Josh at the end. Let me just say trying to sleep in the car is not comfortable. It reminded me of a family vacation when I was a little girl. My family drove through the night to get to California. We stopped at a rest area to get a few hours of sleep in the car and let's just say it was a really tight fit. We had two adults and 4 children trying to get comfy in a SMALL Cavalier Station Wagon. I straddled the gear shift while my parents tried to sleep on either side of me. My other siblings tried to sleep in the back, but there wasn't much room back there, either. After a few hours of trying to sleep (TRYING is the key work here) we gave up and drove on into California. Trying to sleep in the car waiting for Josh reminded me of that 'fun' memory. Anyway, Aaron and I didn't get much sleep either because cars were just not meant to sleep in. Thankfully, we were able to track Josh on our phone so when he started getting closer to the finish line we walked over to meet him. He crossed the finish line, but looked TIRED as you can see:
However, he recovered pretty quickly afterward. He made sure he got some of the food they were passing out including a Fat Boy ice cream sandwich. He made pretty great time. He got a personal record and placed 2nd in his age group of 15-19 year olds. He got on the podium to get his medal, but was still taller than the kid that won first--haha!
He ended up getting three medals: one for finishing the race, one for setting his personal PR (1 hour 44 minutes), and one for finishing in second place for his age group.
That's a lot of bling! His cross country team was volunteering at this race so he got cheered on by his teammates through the race. His coach was even at the end of the race handing out medals so he got to see Josh finish. Wahoo Josh!
Yesterday I took the kids hiking in the morning. Matthew had started his summer program so he wasn't with us. Daniel had started his summer fun class for 5th and 6th grade kids that morning so he wasn't with us either. It was just Josh, Sarah, Noah and me. We went on the Holbrook Canyon trail in Bountiful and it was pretty awesome. There were many bridges to cross along the trail which was pretty cool. Noah thought he was pretty awesome when he found his own walking stick, too:
Sophie didn't like the bridges, but we got her to cross them anyway.
The trail followed along a creek and there were tons of butterflies. If you stood still they would come and land by you. I had one land on my foot, but flew away before I could take a picture. I did get a picture of this black one that was right by my shoe:
I had Sarah try to make a wish by blowing on a weed, but she cheated just a tad--haha!
The trail was right behind the Bountiful temple which was a cool thing to see as well.
Summer is in full swing and doesn't appear to be slowing down. Daniel is still playing baseball along with Aaron who is assistant coaching again. Josh has started up running with the cross country team again. I also signed Josh up for a cooking class. It is held twice a week for three hours each time. He is loving it. The first class was all about different types of knife cuts (julienne, chop, mince, slice, etc.) and he was able to practice it and make stir fry. The next class was all about how to make different pasta sauces. He is really loving the eating what you cook part of the class.
We are enjoying summer so far despite it being pretty crazy!
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