Girls Camp

Front row l to r: Kenayde, Hailey, Mich, Whitney, Tara.  Back row l to r: Anneke, Amy, Sierra, Amanda, Emily, Kimberlie

I had the fun opportunity to go to girls camp with my Young Women this June.  We went to Camp Batel up near Laramie, WY and we had such a good time.  We got to shoot bows and arrows, throw tomahawks, canoe, shoot guns, and eat yummy food.  We had a fairy tale theme and our ward was “Camp Lumiere” from Beauty and the Beast.  We had a fun skit night, and fun ward party luau, complete with dutch oven pineapple upside down cake.  The girls loved bishop’s night where the bishopric all came up and brought us brownies and ice cream.  We then enjoyed a beautiful testimony meeting around the campfire.  It was fun to get to spend all that time with the girls, and also with my good friend, Amy Braiser, who was our amazing camp director. The only thing that was not awesome was the mosquitoes.  They were just awful!  There were so many, and they were so relentless, that by Friday night I felt like I was going a little bit crazy.  One of our YW counted over 150 bites on her body!  But, one wise leader likened the mosquitoes to Satan, and how he tries to distract us from the important things in life, just like the mosquitoes were distracting us from the fun and the beauty all around us at camp.  We survived the mosquitoes and lived to tell the tale.  After camp we made cute little camp scrapbooks, so these pictures are from the scrapbooks we made. 

 
Tara, Amy, and Lynnette giving the girls a run for their money in the canoes

Tara, Kristie, and Mavanee showing off our amazing archery skills

Traitors and Tyrants and a trip to “the Cave”

Timpanogos Cave, that is.  We decided that Halle and Josh were old enough to make this rite of passage hike.  I have so many fun childhood memories of hiking the cave with my family, aunts, uncles and cousins, that I was excited to share this same experience with my kids.  It is a tough hike—1 1/2 miles and 1,065 ft of elevation gain.  But, we brought lots of water and snacks and were confidant that the kids could do it. As we were getting ready to leave Josh said, “I sure hope there are no “Traitors and Tyrants” inside of the cave!”  Where does he come up with this stuff???
While there were no traitors or tyrants, the cave tour was amazing.  The kids did really well on the hike up, and Halle absolutely loved every minute we were in the cave.  Josh liked it to, but it got a little long for him.  He got a free ride down the mountain, and my quads got a killer workout from steep downhill hike + child on my back.  This will definitely be a repeat activity. 

Annual Pilgrimage to Utah

I met my parents in Rawlins to send the kiddos off on their summer vacation to Grandma and Grandpa’s house.  I expected Blake to throw a huge fit when he realized I was going to leave him, but he just waved and waved and said, “Bye Mom!  See you later!”  Not a tear in his eye.  On the other hand, Josh and Halle were crying buckets.  Josh had been counting down the days since April, so I was shocked that he was even the least bit sad.  But a few miles down the road and a lot of jokes from Papa and Uncle Roger cured him.  Ice Cream at Little America Helped too :)

As was expected, the kids had a marvelous time being spoiled rotten, and hanging out with their cousins.  Jack and Blake have a love/hate relationship.  Blake loves to bite, and Jack hates it. 

Some of the festivities included:

Feeding the ducks at Adventure and Learning park: Playing in the hammock and jumping on the tramp:

A treat from the Pink Shop everyday when Papa came home from work:

Watching the Children’s Parade in Lehi:
(Gotta be one of my all time favorite pics of the cousins)

And who could forget the Princess Festival.  Halle had a splendid time again this year, and in case you are wondering, she is STILL a REAL princess!  Thanks to Grandma Cornell and Grandma Banks for sharing this special day with her. 

   

They also had a great time spending a few nights with Grandma and Grandpa Banks—playing on the jeeps, hanging out with their Banks cousins, watching fireworks, and going to the splash park.  It’s no wonder my kiddos always beg to move to Utah!

Weekend Get-away

Thanks to my wonderful parents, Rusty and I had a few days to ourselves before I had to head out to girls camp.  With the kids shipped safely away to Utah, we packed our bags and headed for the hills.  Or mountains, to be exact.  We had a quadrathlon of events in Breckenridge—running, mountain biking, tennis, and hiking.  And that was all before lunch!  It’s amazing how much you can do when you don’t have to take care of tiny ones.  After enjoying the outdoors and eating lots of yummy food in Breck, we headed down to Buena Vista to raft on the Arkansas.  Wow.  That’s all I can say.  The river was running unusually high this year and the rapids were amazing.  I also looked pretty amazing in my wet suit.  Too bad I didn’t get a picture ;) If you are ever in that area, please stop and eat a burger and onion rings from a little hamburger dive called “K’s”  I am still dreaming about it. 

  

(This is at the top of an incredibly LONG mountain biking hill.  The view was amazing.  Wearing jeans to go mountain biking---NOT amazing)

We concluded our getaway in Colorado Springs at the Cheyenne Mountain Resort.  More tennis, hiking in Garden of the Gods, and an awesome lantern tour through the Cave of Winds. 

Blake and BlogFrog turn two

This post is late in coming, but the pics are cute.  If you all will remember, Rusty quit his job at Ball Aerospace to go full-time with BlogFrog when Blake was 3 days old.  Although technically BlogFrog is much older than 2, I will always think of that crazy time as similar to giving birth to twins.  So, here are the birthday boys, Blogger the Frog, and Blake. 

Happy Birthday Rusty!

We had a fun time celebrating Rusty’s birthday this year.  The night before his birthday I took him on a fun hike up Eldorado Canyon.  It’s been a long time since the two of us went hiking, and we had a great time.  The view from the top is breathtaking!  After the hike we headed into Boulder for a yummy dinner at Pasta Jay’s. 

On Sunday the kids helped me wrap his presents—they loved it!  He got some new running shoes and a family tent so we can go camping this summer. 

Later that evening we had some friends over for ice cream cake.  My inspiration came from here, but I ran out of frosting, and I had many little helping hands, so the cake didn’t turn out beautiful, but at least it tasted good.  The top is supposed to look like an ice cream cone melting all over the cake :)

Happy Birthday Rust!  We love you so much!

All she wants to do is DANCE

Halle’s ballet recital was last Saturday, and she was wonderful!  She LOVES getting all dressed up and wearing make-up.  She dances with 3 of her closest  pals—Jenna, Berylnn, and Ainsley.  We’re proud of you Halle! 

The Ultimate Runner’s high

If you are ever in Colorado around Memorial Day, you MUST run the BolderBoulder 10k.  It is by far my favorite race of the season!  Why, you might ask?  Well, let me tell you.  50,000 runner make for some SERIOUS endorphins flowing through the streets of Boulder.  There are crazy people all dressed up, there are frat houses cooking up bacon and serving it to runners on toothpicks, there are slip’n’slides and people with hoses and water guns, you finish in Folsom stadium and it’s projected up on the big screen,  and it’s on Memorial Day so there is a spectacular show to honor our military.  What’s not to love? This year the race was even more special b/c I got to run in honor of Brett, my brother-in-law, who is currently stationed in Afghanistan.

(It’s kinda hard to see my bib, but it says, “Im running in honor of Lt. Brett Banks, Flight Surgeon)

It is a tough course, but thanks to all my great training with the Redline Running Club, I still set a PR (47:42). I was very chaffed, and very very exhausted, but I did it.  There are so many runners that the age group breakdowns are just year to year.  So, of the 743 twenty-nine year olds, I came in 21st. Overall place 2760 out of 54,554.  Not too shabby! Here’s the course map just so you can feel some of my pain: 

This is me and my running pal Jen.  She is AMAZING and always inspires me to do my best and to try new and difficult things:

(Redline Running Club gals and our coach, Josh)

(Folsom Stadium before the race started)
 
(Picture from here)

Here's the entire race in 30 seconds. Kinda cool