Summer Is the Best---Part V

After leaving the kids in Utah for Grandma and Grandpa to take care of, I went to the annual Redneck Fishing Tournament with Trevor and The Johnson's...it's not really a place for kids...a lot of drunk people around that weekend...

Everyone needs to experience this at least once in their lives.  Put it on your bucket list. Google "Redneck Fishing Tournament" and read about it.  It's in Bath, Illinois--a town of 350 people, but this tournament is quite the attraction and there are MANY more people in Bath the weekend of the tournament. They're trying to rid the river of Silver Asian Carp because they're taking over. They don't want them to reach the great lakes. In spite of their efforts, the fish get closer and closer each year.

You may have seen videos of these fish on America's Funniest Videos where the fish jump out of the water--a lot of times right in the boat.  It's crazy.  You don't need a pole, just a net (and the website says a baseball bat :) )  They don't know why the fish jump, but it has something to do with the vibration or noise of the boat engine.  The fish jump right behind boats where the engine is.  The best way to catch fish is to stay right on the tail of another boat...and I mean RIGHT next to them--like 6 feet from the boat in front of you--so you can net them as they jump out of the water.  However, it's risky because you get hit by these huge fish as they jump.  They've had broken noses and fingers, etc. at this tournament each year.  We all got hit a few times, Marci had the most hits.  A couple years ago when we went, Trevor's legs got cuts all over from getting hit with fish.  They jump in the boat often, and those fish are MOVING.  Sometimes you drive through a school of fish and there are so many fish jumping, it's all you can do to keep from getting hit.  You just drop your net and cover your head.  Good times. Seriously. You need to try it.

We all dressed in our redneck gear to go along with the redneck theme.  You should see some of the costumes people wear.  It's a circus for sure.

There are two heats each day, two hours each.  We only fished in the two Friday heats and the Saturday morning heat.  Then we had to get going because we had to drive 24 hours straight so Trevor and Jared could make it back for work Monday morning.

Here are some pictures:

I know the picture is blurry, but this reminds me of our trip.  We saw this huge sugar daddy at a gas station early in the trip.  They bet me I couldn't eat the whole thing by the time the trip was over.  It was hard, but I made it.  Mission accomplished.  It was good, too.

I love this girl.  She makes me laugh really hard.  We needed some temporary tattoos to complete our redneck costumes.  This is what Marci picked.

The view from our boat as we waited for one of the Friday heats to start.  Judging from how clean everyone still is, it's probably the very first heat. It looked like this both directions, but the Saturday heat was MUCH more busy with the boats packed more tightly and people EVERYWHERE.

After each heat, they would count everyone's fish and dump them in these bins.  Then use a fork lift to lift them into a truck (a diesel) and haul them off.  We only counted our fish one of the heats, the rest of them we didn't want to wait in line and we knew we wouldn't win since we only had 4 people in our boat.  So we just dumped them in the bin.  We caught 180 fish in one heat. 

This is the biggest fish we "caught".  It jumped right in our boat.  Not only that, but right in the bin we were using to hold our fish.  It had a death wish, I guess.

How filthy we are after a heat.  Those fish are so slimy and scaly.  You have dried scales all over and this is what the slime looks like after it dries.  We spent a lot of time in the shower after the heats.

One of the times Marci got hit with a fish.  She was wearing a baseball face mask even.  The fish knocked her over!  Poor girl.  She took it like a champ, though. (Marci...not the fish.)

The end of our trip.  The whole weekend I was laughing uncontrollably like in this picture.  We stopped at a gas station to get gas and they had a Sinclair dinosaur there.  Naturally we climbed on and took a picture.

I don't know how I composed myself long enough to get a normal picture.  It makes me smile just to remember that weekend.  Now go google the tournament and mark it on next years calendar.  It's that much fun.

Summer Is the Best---Part IV

One day while at Grandma's house, we took the kids to Lagoon.  Grandma Madsen came to help out with all the kids I wanted to take :)  Tyler, Hailey, Ashley, Jason, cousins Jared, Nathan and Natalie all came to have a fun filled day at Lagoon.  Here are some pictures to document our fun:

Hailey's really having a good time, she just thinks it's funny to look like she's not :)

Nathan and Ashley on the Spider.  I was surprised at how many crazy rides they wanted to go on.

Natalie and Jason--they loved riding together on some of the smaller rides.  When the kids wanted to go on the big rides, I went with them and Grandma stayed with Natalie and Jason.

The older boys would humor the younger kids and ride the little rides with them (they loved it...)

This may be my favorite face.  I think this girl is darling.  She looks a little scared, but she really wasn't.  I turned and said: "smile!" and this is the look she gave me.

 All the kids on a swing ride.  

Tyler and Hailey on the Colossus.  They loved this ride!  They wanted to keep riding it over and over, but I told them we should try other rides, too.  Ashley went on it, too.  She was barely tall enough.

We also took the kids to 7 peaks.  I don't keep my phone with me to take pictures with at water parks.  So this is all you get.

Summer is the Best--Part III

I went to YW camp this summer.  Although it was amazing, I didn't take any pictures...I do have some "selfies" from the Young Women taken with my phone, but I figure they don't want me to post their selfies on my blog. 

*Note: I was only using my phone for the camera and the clock.  There was no service up there...this is important because phones weren't allowed.  And apparently I wasn't even using the camera...so I guess it was just a very large watch...

I did the girls hair in a lot of braids so Trevor and the babysitter wouldn't have to worry about their hair.  It took longer than I thought, so Ashley's braids are bigger since I had to leave and didn't have time to make her braids tiny.

Braids:

After the braids:

We took a second trip to Utah this summer that was FULL of fun..each and EVERY day.  We went for a couple reasons:  Trevor was going on a fishing trip to Yellowstone with some guys (so I wasn't invited) and I figured we should visit Grandma and the attractions in Utah.  And I needed to drop off the kids at my mom's so she could watch them while Trevor and I went on a little trip...to be posted later.

We did so many fun things.  I had bought the kids a "Pass of All Passes" which is a pass to a whole bunch of fun places in Utah.  And it was only $10 for a year!  Actually $30, but then you get to chose a $20 gift certificate to one of the places they list on their website...I digress.

We went to the Trafalga's.  These pictures are of the Lehi Trafalga.

Hailey and Ashley REALLY liked the rock climbing.  Jason wouldn't try it because he was busy playing on the slides.

Tyler tried it...I think it scared him to get higher than this...

 We went with the Howard's (Aunt Saralyn and Uncle Sam and cousins) and Grandpa and Grandma.  The kids loved the time they spent with their grandparents and cousins!!

Hailey in the go-cart.  I just think they're a little weird about the rules these days.  I got to drive when I was her age.

I met with some friends one morning for a picnic breakfast.  I have such fond memories with these girls from high school.  We missed the rest of The Collective!!

We went and visited Trevor's sisters.  Briana bought a house in Murray and Britta was visiting.  Her house is beautiful!  I only got to see Scott for like 3 minutes before he had to leave for work.  But I DID see the amazing things he's done to their back yard!  It looked so good and he wasn't even finished yet!  It was so great to talk with Briana and Britta while the kids ran wild in her house.  I wished I had taken some pictures...

We stopped by Scheels when we were driving past one day.  They have a ferris wheel INSIDE the store.  It's huge.  All the kids wanted to go on the ferris wheel, except Jason--who I FORCED on the ferris wheel.  I knew he'd like it if he tried it.  He did.  He LOVED it!  That eased my guilt.

That weekend Mike and Alicia came to Orem to go to a wedding. We went to the Orem Trafalga.  I secretly want my kids to be best friends with the cousins their age.  It's working like a charm!

Tyler and Trevor got mustache's with their game winnings.

If you haven't read the two previous posts, those are new today.  I have to stop for today to pick up kids from school, but there will be more Summer posts to come!  Maybe not until after the Labor Day weekend though--we have more fun plans :)

Summer is the Best--Part II

When I think of summer fun, I think of pouring concrete...don't you?  But actually, it was kind of fun.  Considering a lot of it was mostly watching my hot husband do most of the work.  10 yards of concrete!!  To many of you, that means nothing. It's not 10 yards long, but actually 10 cubic yards (I think). To those who know the construction lingo, that's a whole truck full of concrete...all poured for one and a half (the half is me) people to do all that work.  Seriously folks, he's amazing.

Here it is all formed and ready to go.  Trevor did all the work and I helped shoot some heights with the transit.  That means I sit there and look in a little telescope and read numbers to Trevor off of his measuring pole...easy for me.  I also tied some rebar.  That's a good time.  I seriously recommend everyone learn to do this.  It maybe a dying skill since they have fiberglass fibers in the cement these days--which they say are millions of little "rebar"...but Trevor wants to make sure his work will last--so we used both fiberglass and rebar. 

We poured a sidewalk and a base for our basketball hoop--the base took 3 of the 10 yards by itself! During this summer fun, I was a raking fool (as in: an amazing raker--is that a word?)  I also helped with the edging...Trevor did the rest.

 Wouldn't it be awesome if I had some "after" pictures?  Well, I don't.  And I'm too lazy to go take one right now.  I'll post some house pictures in a different post, and although there's not a good one of the concrete--you can see there's some there.  For now, use your imagination--and take my word for it, it looks amazing.


Later that day...after pouring concrete...we went to the parade.

Now, the fourth of July isn't just a one day holiday around here.  More like a 3 day party.  The parade is on the 2nd every year because it begins the weeks celebrations.  It's so much fun.  There are rodeos every night with fireworks to follow (REALLY good shows that you can see from our deck), awesome activities for kids and adults, a little swap meet kind of thing where people sell their goods, and if you're into the drinking scene--there's PLENTY of that going on.  We aren't, but Trevor gets a lot of emergency calls due to drunken falling/fighting, etc. Good times.  My husband's a genius because he set up the shade for us and brings a dry ice cooler full of popsicles to enjoy (and share).  It was over a 100 degrees that day.  That's hot for where we live :)

We have rabbits.  Not pet rabbits, but pest rabbits.  SO many rabbits.  The kids caught three baby (adolescent) rabbits and wanted to keep them.  I let them hang around in a box in the garage for a couple days while they fed and named them. Finally I told the kids we should let them go.

Ashley gets attached to things, and I thought she may cry herself to sleep for the next couple of days (weeks) so I was worried what this might bring on.  But after I read some things on the internet to her about how wild rabbits get stressed and don't eat well when they're in a box, she decided we needed to let them go RIGHT AWAY. So we took them down the street a couple miles and let them go.  Look, Ashley's even happy :)

 The rabbits had it too easy the last couple of days, they needed some encouragement...or a foot nudge...

 Ashley still catches rabbits every day.  I'm pretty sure it's the same rabbit.  I'm happy she doesn't ask to keep it, though.

We took swimming lessons.  Since I'm a good mom, and I take so many pictures--this is all I've got: Jason's class talking about safety rules before they get in the pool.  Swimming lessons really were great, though!!

We took a few hikes this summer.  This trail is nearby our house that is a perfect hike for kids.  Not too long or steep, but not a short and groomed trail either.  They love it.

What is it about your children holding hands that melts your heart?  I had to take a picture.

There isn't just a Part I and II to my "Summer is the Best" series.  So stay tuned...again...

Summer is the Best--Part I

This summer I went to a church Youth Conference in Helena with the youth from my church.  I can't tell you how much I love these girls.  They're so much fun to hang out with.  We had a LOT of fun.  

Some of the youth and I stayed at Trevor's uncle (and aunt's) house in Helena. They were a "host family".  I always have a lot of fun hanging out with them--they're barely older than us, and I just REALLY like both of them.  I fully took advantage of the time with them and kept them up until 2 a.m. each night (morning) talking their ears off. Trevor's aunt is the YW president in their ward, so I got to hang out a lot during the days with her, too!

These are some of the amazing YW--we stopped for lunch on the way...always time for a little food and fun...

This is during our service project one of the days.

We had a lot of fun with service projects, games, the dance, testimony meetings, and talks from several youth leaders/stake presidency members.  It was an amazing weekend.



This town is the coolest place.  One of the banks here had a carnival one Saturday, so we decided to take the kids to it.  They had games, face painting, food, etc. What cute faces!  Tyler didn't partake in the face painting fun.  I guess he's too old for that... :(

The duck race was part of the carnival.  It was really fun to see the kids run along the banks chasing the ducks.  None of our ducks won.  I think we should've received a prize because we were one of only two families that came to watch the race.

The finish line...

Stay tuned...there will be lots more summer fun pictures to come!

The Weekend--this is a long one...

The girls and I made a quick weekend trip to Utah.  My sister and I had signed up for our second annual half marathon (we're making it a tradition :) ).

We figured it would be easiest to meet each other in Utah for this half marathon after researching races in our own states.  There are a LOT of choices in Utah for half marathons, and they're mostly held on Saturday instead of Sunday.  They happen every weekend AND there are choices of races in canyons where it's nice and cool, but most importantly, there's a lot of downhill sections of the race.

First, the half marathon story and pictures.  And since I want to remember how it went, I'm going to copy my sister and tell the whole story about how I felt during the race. I only wish I was as witty as her so this would be entertaining for you.  But I'm not :)

We had to wake up at 3:30 a.m. to catch a bus to the start line.  I guess that's the price you have to pay for running down a canyon--there's nowhere to park at the start and they have to bus people up there.  And wow, there were a LOT of buses.

Living in a small town, I underestimate the amount of people who show up for these races.  It's fine, except for the traffic at 4 a.m. to park and get on a bus. And maybe you're a little late to begin with. We sat in the car a good 20 minutes trying to get to the parking lot.  Finally I pulled over and parked in front of someone's house and we walked the rest of the way to meet Jordyn (a friend from my ward who was running this race with us) We all boarded the bus and listened to the other people around us talk.  I scoffed at the man talking about his toe causing him problems, until Jordyn told us later (she was sitting by him) he had just run a 50 mile race the week before and lost his toenail. Yikes! WHO DOES THAT!? I wouldn't be WALKING a week later.  Actually, I probably wouldn't have lived through it.  So no more scoffing at hurting toes.  Good work old man.  (And he was old--by 50 mile race standards anyway--probably like 55 or 60).  Much tougher than I could ever hope to be.

We got to the start line and waited for 6 a.m. to come around.  Amanda was grumpy, which was really funny to me because 1) she's funny all the time and 2) she's always (or was always) perky in the mornings.  So I had some good laughs at all the funny, grumpy things she was saying.

It was FREEZING cold.  They had a van to take down items of clothing so you could pick them up at the finish line.  I didn't want to part with my sweats because it was so cold. So I waited until the last second to shed them and dump them in the van.

Finally the start time rolled around and we were off.  Just a note, I'm a big jerk and I don't ever want to run with anyone. I probably mentioned this last year on my blog when I ran the first half marathon.  Amanda likes to run with people and talk to make the run go faster and I think this is crazy.  I just can't talk while running and I want to go as fast as I can at my own pace and not pace myself with anyone else--faster or slower. I don't even want to follow a pacer. Sorry Manda!!  I've heard you shouldn't run so fast that you're too breathless on long runs.  If I wasn't breathing hard, I'd be walking.  So...I'll just listen to my music and breathe hard for 13.1 miles.

As we took off, I was impressed with how downhill this race really was!  It was FUN to run (the first 7 miles) because I wasn't out of breath or too tired.  And I was pleasantly surprised when the lady on my app broke in to tell me how fast the first mile was.  It was fast.  Probably too fast, but I didn't feel like I was going that fast and I felt like I had plenty in me to keep going at that pace.  But then after mile 7 we started coming out of the canyon and my beautiful downhill run was over.  We started running on a cart path at a golf course.  I didn't like this part as much because it was hilly--up and down--with the downhill being too steep to be comfortable to run.  And who am I kidding, so were the uphill parts.  I was starting to get tired around mile 9 and could tell I better scale the pace back a bit to have the next 4(.1) miles in me.

That's when I saw our family.  YAY!! They were situated in just the right spot in the race to cheer us on.  I stood up a little straighter and pretended I wasn't tired.  Picked up the pace a bit and looked like I was enjoying myself :)  Sam and Brett (my brothers-in-law) came and brought Hailey and Ashley.  Bless their hearts for waking up that early and driving through the traffic to find a spot to cheer for us for the 2 seconds it took to run by.  But seriously, it really meant a lot and made all the difference in my mood and energy.  I was getting bored of staring at the backs of the people in front of me and watching their funny ways of running.  One day I want to videotape the back of me to see if I run as funny as some people do.

Anyway, I don't remember which mile it was--probably 10ish?--that there was a big steep UPhill.  I didn't think this was a very funny joke.  I still "ran" up it, but it was STEEP.  I was excited to get to the top of it and figured I could handle the last 3 miles.  The last 3 miles were OK, but a little slower than my beginning pace.  And I thought SEVERAL times that I don't know how anyone could run a full marathon.  Because that would have meant I wasn't even halfway. Maybe one day.

I didn't sprint to the finish like I did last year.  I did quicken the pace and beat my last year's time by a lot.  I got 1:40.  That's a 7:40/mile pace.  7 minutes faster than last year's finishing time :)  I was happy with that and can't complain.  Just remember that downhill start helped a lot.

When I stopped running, I didn't feel like I was going to puke like I felt last year.  But I did feel a little drunk--or at least I imagine that's what someone feels like when they can't walk straight, seeing as how I've never drank in my life.  It was a little funny trying to walk around and stay upright.  My legs were so wobbly!  Finally I found some shade and laid down.  I should've probably kept moving but by this time I was REALLY hot. Such a difference from the start!

There was free Kneaders french toast at the finish line for racers.  I think this is funny because the LAST thing you feel like doing after running is eating.  I had a banana and walked around a bit.  Met Manda and Jordyn at their finish.  Sam, Brett, Hailey and Ashley had also come to the finish line :)  They went home and took ALL the kids out for breakfast.  We said good-bye to Jordyn and then Amanda and I hung around awhile.  We waited until we kind of felt like eating and by that time they were putting away the grills and all the food.  Boo. No free french toast for us.  I didn't care at the time because food sounded gross, but now I do because I haven't ever had Kneaders french toast. And french toast is right up there with my favorite foods :)

Sam (an amazingly talented graphic artist) and Brett had spent time making this poster to cheer us on.  I was REALLY impressed!  Zombie Kim is a little scary.  I hope there's never a zombie apocalypse :) 

For any of you who have seen Zombieland (the edited version, naturally): don't you think we could've added Rule #1: Cardio

Haha, funny movie.  You should see it if you haven't.

And yes, Amanda and I wear matching outfits because it's AWESOME, and it's a now a(n awesome) tradition.

Hailey and Ashley made little posters, too.  One says: "Go mom and Ant Amanda" :) and the other says: "Run Amanda Run"  I'm glad they woke up to hold posters for us.  I think ours were the best :)  Although it was entertaining to read other's posters and helps pass the time.  One poster said something like: "You think your legs are tired, my arms are dead from holding this poster"  I'm sure it was worded much better, but you get the gist.

Amanda, Jordyn, and me. 

Ugh, she's so beautiful.  And way cuter in her outfit than me!

Now, for the rest of the weekend.  Sunday was Ashley's birthday, so we took a trip to Build-A-Bear on Saturday.  It was a surprise for her, but she was SOOO excited.  She's been begging and begging to go sometime, but we don't have any branches very close to us.  Amanda and her adorable kids came and we had the whole Build-A-Bear experience.  Ashley was beside herself.

Ashley holding her bear.

Brandon was so cute with his little puppy (his name is Brown :) )  He did NOT want to let it go!  Even before it was filled and just a limp sack he loved it.  We got it filled and he held it as soon as it was done.  He didn't even want to let it go while she tied up the back of his puppy.  So he held it while she tied it up. He's so cute!

Hailey and Ashley with their Build-A-Bear loot.

Amanda took us out for Coldstone after.  Ahhhh, Coldstone.  So delicious.  Let's pretend that my cup's not licked clean already and everyone else hasn't even finished yet. OK? I just ran 13.1 miles. I was finally hungry by this time and food sounded REALLY good.

This is my nephew, Jacob.  He's 4 1/2 months old and SOO CUTE.  My goodness he's handsome.  He's such a good little baby and so happy!  He has the cutest smile, and he's not shy about smiling at everyone all the time.  Plus, he's so chubby!  It's too bad he has such modest clothing on, or you would be able to see his arm/leg rolls--the sign of a true chubby baby :)  

We drove home Sunday so we could have a little birthday party for Ashley and celebrate Father's day with everyone.  Trevor and the boys had made a little video of them telling Ashley Happy Birthday.  She LOVED it and wanted to watch it over and over.

 I was kind of sleepy on the way home and Ashley asked if we could stop at a playground we were passing.  It was only about an hour from home, and normally I would've kept going.  But I figured I'd better walk (more like hobble, because I was sore now) around and wake up.  

Hailey found a dead fish to poke at.  Good times.

We got home and had a little birthday/Father's day celebration.  Ashley was so excited :)

 Mostly for her Giant Tummy Stuffer.

I can't believe she's 7!  She's such a good helper and always so happy. We had so much fun on our "girls" weekend.  I'm glad I got to spend a little special time with the girls on our roadtrip.  I'll have to post some pictures of the boys on their father/son campout when I get them from Trevor's phone.  What an amazing and fun weekend!!  This summer has lots of plans in store, so hopefully many more posts to follow!