Orchard Days

Once upon a time in a town called Santaquin the people decided to have a summer celebration, they named it Cherry Days since the town was full of orchards and many people were employed in the cherry business. That made some of the town's farmers very sad, they grew apples, peaches, pears, etc. and thought it was mean that their fruit wasn't the namesake of the celebration. They cried and cried until finally the city was tired and changed the name to Orchard Days. The end.

Ada was crowned a runner up to the Little Miss.
She seriously mastered that wave.

Miles also had a moment of glory,
Riding in the train with his soccer team.

Calvin's job was to bring back candy
for Jami, Cory and Jenna.

Doesn't everyone pick up their kids on the four wheeler?

After the parade, we ditched the rest of the festivities,

Including the cherry spitting contest,
And went out to the reservoir.
Miles has turned into a fearless driver,
When there is someone to race.
Since he was the driver, he needed my shades,
And totally rocked the look.

While Brycen had a pleasure cruise on the tube,
I took advantage of the sun.

Forty One Already?

Can you believe this guy has had another birthday? He just keeps getting hotter and better, the 40's are the new 20's for sure. True, I'm still kicking and screaming my way to 40, but it looks so good on Tim. Sunday we had a pre-birthday celebration with a full German meal and presents. Tim requested a cheesecake so I busted out the super secret recipe that usually gets made once a year for my brother Craig's birthday. Looks like this year we will get the cheesecake twice this year. Tim claims to not remember me making it before, but he certainly won't forget now. It was pretty much amazing. I forget how long it takes to cook so I may have been up till 1:00 a.m. waiting for it to be done, but it was worth every minute of the labor of love.

I was impressed to find any candles...

Tim saved his oxygen to make sure his wish was granted...
Wait a minute, he just blew out the candles...

Hmmm, I think my mom may have left her trick candles...

Victory...for a moment...

Quick, someone grab the candles and douse them in water.

Too bad my mom wasn't there to see it.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABE

THANKS FOR ALL YOU DO

Jillian Kicked My Trash

Last week I got to the gym, did my cardio, and then lost all motivation to lift. Normally I really like to lift, but lately, I have been in kind of a rut, and couldn't decide what to work on I found a copy of Shape magazine in my bag and saw a workout by Jillian Michaels, 5 exercises that each worked several muscle groups at a time. They looked quite simple, perfect for the way I was feeling. Cue ahead 30 minutes when I was standing in front of the fan, sweating and trying to catch my breath. I'm sorry Jillian that I ever underestimated you. The rest of the day my muscles were kind of twitchy and by the next day there was no way to describe them except for SORE. Clearly this was the kind of change up my muscles were needing. The soreness is finally gone and I can hardly wait for tomorrow when I plan to do the workout again. Give it a try, your sore muscles and toned body will have Jillian to thank.

These Boots are Made for Walking

Miles

(Don't you love the boots with the cutoffs?)

Josh

Me

Emily and Miss Ada

(I promise, Emily's boots were great)

We missed the shot of the boots

But the hat was too cute not to share.

Come Back to Texas

This is the firstborn nephew, Joshua David Broadbent, age, 19. The first few weeks of his life I would spend my lunch hours at his house holding and feeding him, I was amazed by his little old man look and totally in love with being an aunt. When he was in the second grade they moved to Texas and I had to start working extra hard to be the best aunt ever. It's rough to be the favorite through packages, visits and texting. At the end of June, it got much easier, Josh moved to Utah to live with my parents. It has been so much fun having him here. I think everyone has loved it for different reasons, my parents have enjoyed the company, the little kids have a built in playmate, and I have just enjoyed him being around. So, just when we are having a great time, he decides to go back to Texas. What???

So, he actually has a super responsible reason for moving. He's figured out what he wants to do with his life (business music) and is going home to Dallas for a few weeks then to Austin for school. That's probably the real reason, but I like to think that ever since he got here he's been haunted by Bowling for Soup's "Come Back to Texas"

Come back to Texas
It's not the same since you went away
Before you lose your accent
And forget all about the Lonestar state

Troy Aikmen wants you back
Willie Nelson wants you back
NASA wants you back
And the Bush twins want you back
And Pantera wants you back
And Blue Bell wants you back
I got a premonition
I'm taking a petition
And the whole state's gonna sign.

I don't know if it's the Bluebell ice cream, or the petition signed by all of his friends, but he left us. Boo! Tuesday night before he left we went up the canyon for dinner.

It's pretty much tradition that we have a self-portrait.

The babies were ready for smores as soon as we got there.

Good buddies.

As you can see, everyone had a great time.

Especially these two.

I couldn't figure out why my mom wasn't in any of the pics. Apparently she was too involved in the marshmallow roasting. At one point she had sticky marshmallow all up and down her arms. The smores she made were delish.

These are our sad faces when we said goodbye.
Hope Austin treats you well.
We will miss you.

Thank goodness we have snowboarding.
He will be back.

Spudman

About six months ago we put in for the lottery for the Spudman triathlon. There were a few little snags, but we got in (me, Tim and Jarin). Since that time I have been stressing about it and wondering why I thought it was a good idea. My training lately has not been great and I worried how I would do, and how it would go for Tim and Jarin - it was their first triathlon. By the time the big day rolled around I was a head case and just ready to get it over with. Friday afternoon the three of us headed out for the lovely Burley. You may ask yourself why there is such a rush to get into a tri in Burley, Idaho. It is an Olympic distance which means a 1 mile swim, 25 mile bike and 6.2 mile run. This swim takes place in a river, down current, it makes your time about twice as fast as normal. As we pulled into Burley and crossed the river Jarin and Tim started asking about the current, the water to them looked flat but I promised them that it would be fast. It wasn't until they got into the water the next morning that the truly believed me. We went to the park, picked up our numbers, listed to the pre-race directions and ate a marginal pasta dinner. This one threw in a baked potato - strange, but it was actually my favorite part of the meal. After dinner, we headed over to the bike transition area to get our gear set. I was a little tense, it is so much to remember and prepare. By the time this picture was taken we were all settled and having fun looking at all the great bikes.

We decided to get up at 5:30 Saturday morning and be at the park by 6:00. My wave started at 7:10 so that would give us plenty of time to put out our run gear, go to the bathroom five times (ok, I'm the only one that needs that many trips to the porta potty), and get the wetsuits on. Both Jarin and Tim set an alarm and I figured we would be fine. Small problem, the next morning when I woke up, it was 6:11. I kind of freaked out and we all got up and moving quickly. We made it to the start with about a half hour which in my mind was cutting it close. I got to the bathroom a few times, squeezed into my wetsuit, and away we went. I wasn't fast, but I was happy that I didn't panic which often happens in an open water swim. I kind of cruised along and came out of the water feeling pretty good. The bike was fun, super flat course and plenty of people to pas and be passed by. Jarin was in a wave five minutes behind me so I kept watching for him to catch me on the ride. I finally saw him as I was pulling into the run transition. We chatted briefly while we changed and we took off on the run. wow, I thought I remembered how hard it is to run at that point, but it was worse than I thought. Jarin ran a super steady pace, I ran a little faster then did some walking, but we pretty much stayed together the entire run. It's totally cheesy, but you know the Selena Gomez song, "Who Says", it may be teeny bop, but it was my total inspiration: "But when it comes to me, I wouldn't want to be anybody else...I'm no beauty queen, I'm just beautiful me." The song kept running through my head and gave me a little girl power. Eventually that wasn't enough and I just wanted to be done. I tucked in behind Jarin, and we finished the race together. As soon as I crossed the finish line I remembered how much I love triathlons, it just took a few miles to remind me. Tim started fifteen minutes behind, but made up some serious time and crossed the finish line just a few minutes after me.

Tim's brother Michael and his wife Megan did the race as well.
When we found Megan my friend with the camera was gone.

We look almost as good as we did the night before.
I was so proud of both Tim and Jarin,
They totally rocked their first triathlon.

Tim was great at being the bike guy.
Thanks for the loading and unloading.

Still sweaty, but feeling fine.

Probably the best part of the entire race was my mantra. I knew that I wasn't going to be as fast this year as I was the last time I raced and I didn't want to focus on that, the people who were faster than me, or anything else negative. I really just wanted to race and enjoy the experience. The entire time I was racing I just kept repeating the mantra:
Swim your race, enjoy your swim, swim for those who can't,
Ride your race, enjoy your ride, ride for those who can't,
Run your race, enjoy your run, run for those who can't.

Pioneer Day

I realized that I posted about the race,
But didn't ever download my pictures from the parade.
Fortunately I was the photographer,
After racing, parading, etc., no one needed to see a picture of that.

Pre-Parade, smiles all around.

Seriously handsome boys!

Can you spy the missing tooth?
Hopefully the tooth fairy found it.

The firemen had the hoses out and were squirting kids.
My dad suggested that B go try it, definitely refreshing.

Oh good, I at least took one picture of the actual parade.
Ada thought it was strange that the eagle had hands.
The girl is a smartie.

Grandpa was encouraging everyone to act like monsters.
Clearly he was the scariest of them all.

Gavin kept running out into the road to do a "trick".
He would tell me to take a picture,
Then run back and ask to see the image.
He would laugh, say he was funny, and run back for another pose.