Freedom and cross country

We are now officially in the middle of cross country season. All three kids are running this year and it has been such a fun experience for all of them. Kolton picks up the girls from RMMS and takes them over to BHS and then gets all of them home. It has been so wonderful to have all of this extra time not driving kids all over! The days they have dance or piano he just takes them from practice to dance or piano. (LOVE TEEN DRIVER!) The only thing I have to do is have dinner on the table when they walk in the door, and they are so hungry they eat everything!

For the 2008 season we have traveled long distance for meets which is different than it has been the last 2 years. We spent our weekend in Boise and for the next 2 meets we will go to Salmon and Arco so we will be putting the miles on the Yukon. I guess the upside is lots of alone time in the car with my sexy husband!

We had a fun rainy weekend at the Bob Furiman invite. All the kids running were covered in mud. Kolton ran just after the rain stopped and it turned SUNNY and beautiful. The girls were not scheduled to run until 4:30 in the afternoon and just as the were warming up the dark clouds start rolling in and the the lightning strikes.......the girls did not run! I was not to sad about this because I did not want muddy girls riding in my car. I think they were feeling just fine about not running in a down pour. So at the end of the day we were all happy.

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NOW FREEDOM

Kolton driving has given me this freedom that I am loving! But I am finding that now my weekends are filled with my kids activities. I miss the days of little babies running around and watching Disney all day, feeling like I was trapped in my house and to take a shower was a great feat. We now live our lives in cars driving from one thing to another, and at the dinner table catching up on the kids. I am not working many hours so I am finding that I do have LOTS of freedom. I spent the first few weeks of school having ME TIME, breakfast with my friend Shareen (al her kids went to school this year), reading books, and catching up on projects. I actually think I might tackle a Levi quilt! I have been saying for years we needed one for all the cold sporting events, I think I have the time. The upside to all of this is how fun the kids are and how much fun we have together and how enjoyable this age is. It makes me sad to see how fast time in going but I keep hearing it just gets better and better. So far so good.

I choose to live in here....

When you grow up in this little community and marry your high school boyfriend (who has deeper roots than I) you learn to accept that you will run into everyone else that has the same scenario and you will find that you can find a connection with anyone in this community or they know your family or friends. About 20 people a year are able to break away from Idaho Falls and move to other places. In reality about 10 of them find there way back to move"HOME". Based on the choices I have made I will continually run into old "friends" or make a connection with someone during the week (good or bad).

Now I will admit due to my profession I have a high profile community job where I interact with many people, so I am at risk to be put in these situations quite often. I have run into people from high school, old ward members, people who knew me as a little girl, and others who know my family or Kelly's family. Some of these interactions have been fun and others are quite awkward. One day while at work I even met the father-in-law of an old boyfriend. (that's a funny story)
I had one a the funniest things happen to me at work yesterday and today it still makes me laugh a little. Our blood drive was at Kelly's work yesterday. While he was donating another guy came and sat in the chair next to him. Kel is so good to make sure he introduces me to everyone and make me familiar with his co-workers. So he says "Jen have you ever met Eric ****** " I looked at him and said "no, Nice to meet you Eric *****" and after processing the name in my head several times I looked at him and said "Are you the same Eric ****** from South Bonneville?"
He had recognized me but I would never have placed him in this lifetime. I walk over to Kelly's chair and explained quietly to him that he was my very first boyfriend and that I broke up with him because I thought he was kind of a geek. In Eric's defense he was such a nice guy and now make fabulous money! It was a funny situation and probably more awkward for me than him. I do live in the community I grew up in and so what should I expect? Good thing we all grow up and become better people!

Girls Camp Got Wisdom? WORD!

Who knew I could make it four days in a tent but I made it! Being the camp director this year has been such a blessing in my life, I have had the best week. I started the week off with no sleep because I kept thinking about things that I forgot to pack and things I wanted to get for all these girls! At 2:30 I went to bed and by 3:00 am I was at walmart getting moleskin for the hike.

Our Theme this year was fairies. Our ward choose the tooth fairies. I made all the girls tutu's we were particularly cute! We started off the week with a bang! (Andrea I knew you would love how wrote that! just for you!) The elderly couple that was the camp host for the summer scared the girls about bears so we had to deal with that all week. And the morning of the hike Kelly had to ask the girls if they heard the coyote at 4 am! Thanks KEL! I got one of our priesthood to wear a tutu during our skit...WE LOVE BRO LOTT! And then the pranking started! I believe in good fun pranks, I had our girls leave with all the other wards a crown and tooth brush with a sign that said GOT WISDOM? We stole other ward flags and left fake teeth with notes to get other ward to come up to our camp. When they came to retrieve there belongings we would give them all a toothbrush.

My very favorite part of camp is when the girls decided to prank the leaders. We were in our tent having solo time(sleeping), the girls had gone down to the creek to write in there journals. We had an extended solo time on Wed after the hike so they could nap if they wanted. We woke up to Saran Wrap being applied to our tent. They had pinned our zipper closed and kept saying "try to get out" to that we laughed! and Laughed and laughed. Like we wanted to leave the tent from our great nap. Silly girls. So the pranking continued the rest of camp we had a blast! To get the girls back we took squirt guns and ambushed them while they were cleaning the bathrooms. That was a proud moment for me, I have been pranking these girls for years and they have never pranked back until now.

We had all the fathers as priesthood for the week and that made the experience for the girls soooo amazing! I was so thankful for all their dads. This was Kelsies first year and Kenzie's second I think they both loved having Kelly and I there for the entire week. I know I was thankful for Kelly, he treated all the girls like princesses.

The last night it rained and rained and rained so we had to move the girls from there tent into the cabin it became a huge muddy mess :) Who has ever been to Darby without rain? Makes for a fun experience?

Chaos

We had some friends tell us years ago enjoy your summers and the time you have while your kids are young because at some point in your lives you no longer get to chose what you do your children's activities will keep you from travel and activities you want to do....the time has come. It was amazing we had time to fit our vacation in.

Our children's activities now run our lives. Between Dance Camp and all the things they are scheduled for we are packed full of activities. Kelly and Kolton are at high adventure this week and I am sure they are having the time of there lives! They left on Tues and We should see them late afternoon on Saturday. We will be attending the Williams Family Rodeo this weekend which runs from Fri to Sat. I keep hoping Kelly will be home before the "official" rodeo starts on Saturday. And the Girls and I are getting ready for girls Camp.

I have almost forgotten what it was like to have a lazy summer....

Cross Country season will start as soon as we get back from girls camp and school soon after it will be nice to have some order and live with a schedule again.

Sunshine?

We just got back from Seattle where we attended a Williams Family Reunion. And of course it was the funnest time ever and we did not sleep and we saw many many things and did many many things had long visits with family, and drove all night to get home....that is not really the reason I am writing.

I have always been a fan of the North West. I have always believed it would be fun to live there and have often looked into moving up North. Seattle is a city that I have always enjoyed and romanticised it a bit of being a "city Dweller". So many of you have read Kelly's blog about how much he HATES Idaho and how he cannot believe we live in this WINDY area. Now don't get me wrong any of you Washington residents! It is Beautiful and it is very green and it does offer more that you can ever imagine.

It is too darn cold for me! After our Really long winter and a rainy spring many of us were so thankful for warm weather and sunshine. I just cannot imagine having rain most of the time and having it be cold in July. I carried a jacket with me most of the time and had it on about 50% of the time. It did make me a little crazy that is takes sooo long to get anywhere! I have always wanted to live in a big city or near a big city. So now I have learned I do have to appreciate the fact that I can make it from one side of Idaho Falls to the other side in about ten minutes and I can hit all the major department stores in just a few hours. Now don't get me wrong Idaho Falls and rural living has it draw backs! but I wont dwell on those right now. HOME SWEET HOME!

Snow in July

Kelsie turned 12 on july 5th!!! She has always had to compete wuth the 4th of July, which was fun when you are 5 because you think all these people came to your fireworks! That does not fly anymore and every year her birthday is really hard to fit in with all of the celebrations. Because 12 is a big birthday we knew we needed to do something FUN! So we thought of a few random ideas, Lava, downata, salt lake, the alpine slides.....none sounded like the right activity. So we went to bed on the 4th and decided to make the fianl decision in the morning. Kelly came up with the most amazing idea, he saved the day and made Kelsies birthday wonderful

Teton Village! in july? you can ride the gondola all day for one price. They offer hiking up there, fine dinning, a deli, and camp fire. We spent the first part of the afternoon hiking around and playing in the snow, ate dinner, and later in the evening after a quick trip into Jackson we had smores at 10,000 ft! You can buy a smores plate for about 6 buck and it is worth every dime. It was so fun and all the kids enjoyed it. A day we will never forget. I recomend everyone do this at least once the views were fab!

To Bone and Back

Every year we put together a team for the To Bone and Back Relay. Over the years we have kept mostly the same people on our team, so we have grown as a team and it is soooo fun. Every year we have about 2-3 spots to fill so it varies year to year but we always have a revolving people. this year was no different we lost a few and gained a few. By the end of the day you are tired sweaty and gross, FUN TIMES! We finished with a time of 5 hours 41 mins. everyone ran hard in 90 degree heat. It is fun to see people you know on team and every year you get to know different team better and start small rivalries. We always want to beat this particular team but they have about 10 mins on us....maybe next year! Kelly's cousin Jake and Katie formed a team and it was fun to see them up there having a good time and to see many of them do this with little amount of training, you guys were awesome!

Kolton this year had his own team, they did a 4 man team and did awesome. they were 3rd team over all and got third place in the high school division. They finished with a 5 hour 5 min time GO BEES!