Pioneer children sang as they walked, and walked, and walked.....

we started off the weekend with a girls night here at our house.......
lauren ashcroft, hailey ashcroft, marlee redford (ashley's school roommate), aubrey nilsson, ashley, and me came together for games and fun.......
we played nerts (card game), and did hair wraps, and ate m&m's
at 1:30 am, i sent everyone home and to bed so that we could gather at 6:45 am to go to the pioneer day parade.........family tradition!
we decided against sleeping over at the parade and would just go early.......
we picked up grandpa walter, his ladders and board, and headed to a shady spot to watch.......
we found a perfect spot under a tree but up against a wall........
thank goodness cuz it was hot!.......
it is always hot on july 24th for the parade!........
staying up late and going to the parade can really wipe a person out.......
home to afternoon naps by most of us!........
after a long nap.....head to the store for barbeque food.......
barbeque, homemade raspberry icecream, and fireworks top off a wonderful weekend!
happy pioneer day!

i am grateful for all that the pioneers sacrificed for me and my family! it is amazing to me what they went through to get here to salt lake so that they could practice their religion in peace. i am grateful for their faith and perserverence and i pray that i may learn and apply these two qualities.

bam! it's summer!

from cold to cool to HOT!

last week i made bank with all my many private swim lessons!

i love teaching swimming! except when they scream and cry in my ear....ouch!

the family is signing up for the "alta canyon sports center midnight moon run" on august 27th.

it is a 5k run. mark and add are already talking smack to each other over who is going to win.

oregon/washington trip was perfect most of the time.....

flew into portland.....my bag didn't come.....lost in the abyss of tsa inspection zone

sunday......try to buy clothes for church......have security tag on my shirt.....get it taken off.....security tag on mark's clothes......didn't beep through the door at the store.....mark had to find something in his bag to wear.....took back his clothes.

sunday.....went to nick walter's mission homecoming.....over to his home for scrumptious food....haley walter made this yummy cake......ate too much.......oh no i am feeling sick to my stomach.........head to the bathroom.........feeling is stronger.......yep, lost it all in the porcelain throne! head back to the hotel so that no one knows that i threw up!

okay.....now that i got that over with, the rest of the week went great!

we had beautiful weather.....great company......made a "how to" video for the stanky leg dance move......we rocked at that!

went to mount st. helen's.....what an amazing site.....ashley got her pic taken there in her mt. st. helen's costume that she wore in 3rd grade

headed up to the bair farm in ephrata, wa.

spent a few days there just hanging out with jay and trina, allison, kim, ben, ellen, kyle, necia, jens, marin, and jillian.

played a mean few games of wallyball out in their racquetball court. yes, they have a few toys on the farm to entertain themselves. it was too cold to go waterskiing.......dang!

went to applets and cotlets candy factory......then to leavenworth......which is a little bavarian town.....did some window shopping there.....and then headed over to seattle.

spent the day in seattle at the pikes place farmers market; a science fiction and music museum; the mall and then flew out late saturday, july 3rd.

flew over mt. rainer on the way out of seattle, wa.......wow!
saw some fireworks as we flew into salt lake city airport.

home for a few days and then headed to girl's camp.....more like girl's retreat!

we spent 3 1/2 days at a cabin at bear lake.....

we had so much fun!

time at the beach......time in the freezing water......crafts, games, devotionals, testimony meeting, dancing, more games, "chirps", yummy food, and quiet time at the cabin....and did i mention there was lots and lots of delicious food!

we had almost all of our girls there.....only missing one girl and one nonmember girl.

the most amazing part was that there was no drama!!!

i have never been to girl's camp and not had drama!

everyone.....girls and leaders alike all got along and had some good fun and bonding time at the bear lake girl's retreat!

p.s. "chirps" are little nice notes that we put in everyone's birdhouses at camp.

p.s.s. the theme for girl's retreat was S.O.A.R.........

find your strength in........

S. the savior

O. serving Others

A. aspiring to go to the temple

R. rejoicing in your blessings

scripture is Mosiah 26:12..........yea, i know that i am nothing; as to my strength i am weak; therefore i will not boast of myself, but i will boast of my god, for in his strength i can do all things; yea, behold, many mighty miracles we have wrought in this land, for which we will praise his name forever.

summer swim lessons 2010

*swim lessons have officially begun down at the life centre (i run the swim lesson program)
*it is an outdoor pool and makes for an interesting summer when you have to deal with the weather
*i have some great teachers this year, but not enough swimmers to give them very much teaching time
*one of my teachers is addison!

*addison is a fast learner as far as being a swim teacher
*he is very good with little kids!
*all the little girls love him
*one little girl asked her mom if they could go buy some mermaid "leg" (fins) after lessons so she could be a mermaid at home......so cute!
*mother's have come to me and told me how much they love addison!
*i am really proud of him!
*he will make a great dad some day! :0)

*teaching swimming.....there's nothing quite like it!
*taking someone from the beginning and watching them progress and become comfortable in the water is very rewarding to me
*i love teaching swimming and i love the water!

moving again & roommates....

*i love ashley to pieces that i would do anything for her....even move her for the 3rd time since last august :0)
*i am a pretty strong person, but ashley can really pack a box......heavy!
*i am so excited to have her home for the summer even though she won't be around for part of it....efy is calling her which i am totally thrilled that she has that opportunity
*so if i have to move her 20 times this year, it is still worth it when it's all said and done!

*we love ashley's roommates! it gives us more children to love!
*we moved marlee's stuff in to the basement (walter storage unit)
*marlee is a brighton girls camp counselor....yeah!
* i was one 25 long years ago!
*she will be great and i hope she will love it as much as i did!

i love ashley and addison so much! i am grateful for the opportunity to be their mother....
even when i make mistakes as a mother......
i love ashley's roommates and friends......
i love addison's friends, also......
having them in our home brings me joy!

smorgasborg......

**i love when i spend several hours cleaning something out and it looks great!
take the garage, for instance........what a mess!
i put things away......sort of cleaned the work bench (can't clean it too much because it's mark's organized chaos)
i threw things away.....
i swept out the garage......
i got nice and dirty........man it feels good :0)
now, i just need to finish cleaning out ashley's room so she can move back home....yeah!

**i hate ego bursting experiences.....take swimming for instance.......i love to swim with the master's program at the life centre. i swim about the same pace as two other ladies.....well, one other because the other one has become really fast....ugh! i usually can keep up with denise hyer, but not with cathy dover, any more...i had a hard time at the end of the work out to keep up with either of them.....dave ryland (master's coach) told me i should be able to keep up and we are doing more of these kind of work outs so that i can......ugh! at the end of swimming, dave told me that i needed to be split up from cathy because she is too fast for me....double ugh!!
there goes my ego, my swimming confidence, my competitive ego.....
i know, really dumb to think this way, but.....
i have been swimming with her for 2 years now.....
all of a sudden she has gotten really fast......i don't know how she does it....
i guess i just need to try a little harder and swim my best.....UGH!

**i love teaching swimming lessons, though.....
it is fun to watch someone progress and understand what their body can do in the water....
when they finally get it.....that's success!

**i love that i am not ptsa president any more! yeah!
i turned over the key to the "castle" today to the new president....
i can just concentrate on the fun buses for next year.......
fun.....here i come!

need to start seriously training for my triathlon.....spudman
coming up the end of july....
need to start running.....need to get up to 6 miles...
i think i almost killed the dog on my run the other day....he was not happy to be there....
he is fat and out of shape.....better keep exercising him....

**biked 80 miles on june 5th.....
little red riding hood century ride....up in logan, utah
beautiful ride.....beautiful weather.....beautiful riding buddy.....denise hyer....
we averaged about 15 miles per hour......about 4.5 hours riding time.....
not bad for ladies in their 40's.....

summer 2010 fun list

*mom's can have a fun list, right?!
*here is mine.....

*teach swim lessons....private preferrably
*swim, bike, run = triathlon.......july 31st - spudman triathlon
*sew some quilts - maybe learn to use a quilting machine
*have a few craft days with ashley
*read, read, read.....hooked on books, lately
*go on some hikes
*waterski and la beus shakes
*make home made ice cream....yum!
*firepit fires and s'mores
*youth conference & yw's camp

*i love summer.....let the fun begin! =0)

mary, mary, quite contrary...how does your garden grow?

unlike the nursery rhyme, my garden doesn't grow like mary's......

i worked long and hard to get my garden to this point....

i would like to show you the many things i grow in my garden....

now don't be fooled by those tulips in there....

i am really going for the weed and grass look....

i started yesterday in the corner of one of my lovely weed/grass gardens in hopes to thin out the lovely weeds/grass.....

maybe even re-plant them somewhere else in the yard......hahaha......

it took me 45 minutes to do this one little corner!......

and 2 big buckets full of these lovely plants......

see....what progress?......

my dream garden......to look like temple square gardens!!!