Mesa Falls....We Did IT!

So on Quincy's birthday August 20th we left in the afternoon and headed to West Yellowstone with the best company ever, the Bruderers. Hailey and Marc were able to come to and we got to go see Guys and Dolls at the Playmill. Saddie and McKin with the birthday girl.

Quincy got "Happy Birthday" sung to her at the playmill.McKin and Saddie loved the show. McKin said her favorite part of the play was when the guy tried to kiss a girl and she slapped his face, hope she keeps that attitude up later in life, ha ha!The next day we headed out to Yellowstone, and saw an elk in the background on the island behind the kids. Halle and Easton were holding hands just like this pretty much the entire time.We then went to the Paint Pots...and then off to Old Faithful.After Old Faithful, we headed back to Ashton so our kids could get some much needed naps along the way. We went to the best little pizza shop in Ashton and our kids decided to dance..

So although this trip was great, I don't recommend sharing a hotel room with your 3 kids for 2 nights before you run a race, something I'll remember for next time. Saturday we got up bright and early and went to get on the bus to go to the starting line.Our fans were waiting for us. When we turned the corner to the finish line, I saw Marshall and Chan and the kids as expected and my Mom, my Aunt Deb, Hailey, and Whitney who I didn't expect to be there. I started crying when I saw them, and then had to hurry and dry my tears because I didn't want everyone to think I was crying because the race was so hard! I was so glad they were there and it meant a lot to me.

The pink ladies coming in to the finish line!We DID IT! Thanks to Abbie and Misti for being such great running partners. I'm looking forward to many more races together!

Happy Birthday McKinley

So only one short month ago (I'm still a little behind with the blogging) my oldest turned 5 years old. The day started with her cheer performance in Aberdeen and then back to Blackfoot for a zoo birthday party with 12 of her closest friends. Then to Idaho Falls for a movie and dinner, it was one jam packed and fun day. McKinley brings so much joy to our family, she is a great help to me with her younger sisters and I love jamming out to Hannah Montana with her in the car. She is going to Kindergarten this week and I will really miss spending that time with her but I can't wait for all the experiences that life has in store for her. We love you Kin!

Summer's almost over

Here are a few of the things we did this summer.....

Whitney came to visit which we always love,
McKin took swimming lessons and passed!I got to go the American Idol Concert with Joni and Misti, which was great. A little more of Kris and a little less of Adam and it would have been even better!

We went to the American Falls Stake Pioneer Day Parade with my mom,

McKinley went to stay in Aberdeen to go to Kiddie Cheerleader Camp, Whitney is a darling cheerleader and got to be McKin's teacher! They both did so awesome,

So did little miss Jenny Wahlen!We spent A LOT of time at Ross Park in Pocatello, the girls love it. Aunt Wendy came into town and we even got spoiled with 2 traditional Wahlen Ross Park days instead of one!

So excited to go..

Cousins Easton, Taylor, Jack, and Peyton even came down from Utah for the festivities, it was a blast as always.It has been quite a crazy summer for our family, the summer of 2009 will be one I will never forget, that is for sure. Now the summer is almost done and my little first born will be going off to Kindergarten. I don't know whether to shout for joy at the possibility of some free time or cry my eyes out, it will probably be a little of both......stay tuned to find out.

We are in a recession....

So throughout the summer our sweet kids have been thinking of ways to help out the family cause, and in partnership with the neighbor kids they have opened several new business ventures. The first was a nail painting stand, many of our friends and neighbors stopped but this idea quickly died because apparently not a lot of people are willing to pay money to have 5-8 year old kids paint their nails (I even had to suck it up to contribute to that one). Halle was perhaps the only real willing participant, she got about five coats of polish that day.

Having already shut down one stand, they turned to a classic and sold Lemonade which did very well. So well in fact, that even more neighborhood kids joined in.Their most recent scheme was delivering vanilla instant pudding (homemade by McKinley) to every home in our neighborhood. They were under strict instructions not to charge for this, but we've found out since that they were apparently accepting donations. Well, I guess we've all got to do our part, right?

Mesa Falls

So one bright sunny afternoon in July we decided to go with the Bruderers to scout out our half-marathon location and have a little picnic and enjoy Mesa Falls while we were there. The day started out great, except on the way to lower falls we start to realize how many LARGE HILLS there were. Misti and I were madly texting each other in disbelief, what had we gotten ourselves into? We decided we'd pay closer attention on the way back, maybe it wasn't so bad.

Halle, Easton, McKinley, and Saddie at Lower Mesa Falls

As our picnic was winding down a little it began to drizzle a little, but it was no big deal and we packed up and heading for Upper Mesa Falls deciding it would stop in a few minutes and we'd have dessert there. By the time we get there and park it was raining a little more so we decided to hurry and go see the falls, wrong decision! By the time we had walked almost all the way down there it starts to pour and hail! We had 5 little kids all together and my two little ones were in tank tops/sundresses and we didn't have any jackets or umbrellas. Chan took Quincy and took off for the house/ranger station running and some nice ladies let me Halle, Saddie, and McKin share their umbrellas. We were all ok but soaking wet, so we broke out the dessert!

Finally it calmed down and we actually go the see the falls. The cute Bruderer fam....

And our little fam. I know what you are thinking.......she is running in a half marathon?? I too was once under the impression that anyone who ran a bazzillion miles would surely be skinny but as you can see that is not the case.On the way back down we evaluated the hills once more and began to feel sick. We hadn't trained hills at all and it appeared to be all this course was. Since then we have done more research and realized we were looking at the wrong course, thank heavens! It was a fun day, full of adventure for sure. Thanks Bruderers!

Soccer

Another one of our many summer activities was soccer. McKinley really loved her Monday night soccer games and scored quite a few goals, some games more than others depending on the mood. Her favorite part was taking up her mom and dad on their goal-scoring bribes at Rupes but just for the record....we do feed our kids even if they don't score goals. We were so proud of our little soccer player!

Halle and Quincy LOVED every minute of watching their big sister play soccer,

Well I guess not every minute.......