Pioneer Day

Here's actual proof that I ran the race. Not pretty - but I did it.
We started Pioneer Day with Stephanie's first ever (and maybe last) 10k race. The race started off with a massive hill named "Goliath". Everything said about this hill was true - "challenging", "huge", "nasty", and "intense." It was a very short but steep hill, and thankfully, nearly every runner ended up walking up the last part of the hill. I made it 3/4 of the way, just couldn't take it anymore, and had to succomb to peer pressure and walk, which was something I didn't want to do in my first 10k. The rest of the race was a series of small hills and a lot of downhill. My legs were like rubber the first 3 miles, but once I got over the trauma of "Goliath", it wasn't so bad. My goal was to finish the 6.2 miles in under 60 minutes, which I wasn't sure I would do after "Goliath" slowed me down. But, I managed to finish in 59:07, a 9:30 minute/mile average. It wasn't a pretty race, but I did it. The best part was winning a $15 gift certificate to Ruby River Steakhouse in the raffle afterward.

Our neighborhood had a small children's parade with decorated bikes and pioneer cotumes. We did the best we could with what we had around the house and the kids had a good time. Well, except for Landon. At the end of the parade he fell off his scooter and came crying back to me with this nice bump on the side of his forehead and said, "I'm not 'bery' good at this race." I guess he thought he was supposed to go as fast as he could and beat all the other kids. Not quite the right concept, but cotton candy and a balloon made it all better.

We ended the day with our own, less intense, version of the Knowlton's 4th of July "Cul-de-sac of Fire." We invited a few neighbors and let Leon do all the work.

Only watch the following video if you are willing to endure 2+ minutes of random kids in the neighborhood children's parade. Halfway through you can hear Landon being brought to us crying. Good times.

California Here We Come!

Since we were on our way to California and the Cunninghams were on their way to Utah, we thought it would be fun to meet up somewhere in Nevada. We literally got off the freeway (you can see it in the background) and got together for a half hour in Lovelock.

We celebrated the "Fourth of July" California-style with a lot of swimming and fun games and relay races. Marisa is a whiz at creating fun - thanks!Bonzaii!!

On a day trip to Santa Cruz, we stopped at the "Mystery Spot." It's hard to explain the mystery of this place, you would have to go there to understand it. But, basically they claim that either gravity or magnetism is messed up here and creates mind-bending phenomena. Whatever the case we can say we "been there, done that."The slanted house is in the center of the "Mystery Spot" where the "force" is the strongest. You can stand leaning off of a ledge, climb a ladder without having to hold on, a round object seemingly rolls uphill, and short people appear to be taller. The boys found it all creepy-cool, but most of us adults found it disorienting and nauseating.

A trip to California wouldn't be complete without the beach. It was a little chilly, but the kids didn't seem to mind. Uncle Bruce and the cousins are very talented with sand sculptures.

We were invited to a birthday party for Jake (cousin of the Visnaw cousins - Marisa's brother's son) at a place called "Pump It Up". There are several bounce houses and slides - more fun than any one kid should be allowed to have in two hours.

We took a little trip to San Francisco and went to the Exploratorium. We spent 3 or 4 hours checking out all the cool science stuff. The boys were in heaven. After visiting the Exploratorium we went Geo-cahching. It was a lot of fun exploring and finding hidden "treasures". This particular cache was hard to find until Marisa "stumbled" upon it.

The final cache of the day lead us to a very interesting spot that no one had ever heard of. Way out on the end of a sand bar in the San Francisco Bay is a not so noticeable "wave organ." Among all the miniature "ruins" are tubes that bring the sound of the waves below up to the surface. Sitting on the benches you hear "glurps" and "glubs" as the water passes underneath. Way cool!

The last day - boo, hoo!

We always end our trip with the traditional "couch picture" (Jayden, Dallin, Allison, Landon, Katie, Cameron, Megan, Hayden, and Buddy the dog).

Some random video clips of our trip:

Weekend Barbecue

We had the Brocks over for swimming and a barbecue this past weekend. We all had a great time and were surprised that the pool actually held up.

Leon cooked a mean barbecue. We thought it looked too good to eat and had to take pictures.

We had the backyard rockin' and sloshin'.