BRYCE CANYON 2013

 
Friday the 12th I had a small surgery from 10am - 12:30pm and then we went straight home, picked up the kids and headed out to Bryce Canyon.  I slept the entire way in the back seat.  Josh was at scout camp so Sophie sat up front and the two little boys sat in the middle so I had the back all to myself.  It worked out nicely.  But when we arrived to check into our regular Teepee at Ruby's Inn they had given it to someone else.  I was so mad.  So we had to go find a room at the hotel.  We are lucky they even had one.  Usually the entire region is sold out of rooms.  So instead of unloading all of the sleeping bags, blowing up the air mattress and putting up the cots we just took our bags in the hotel room and were done.  I think the Lord did that on purpose so I didn't have to lift anything.  I think it was good for my body to actually have a bed to sleep in.  So, after we were done we went down to the finish line so we could pick up Joel's packet and get ready for the Color Fun Run that Cannondale was doing to raise funds for their music program.  We had signed up in advance and I was even going to run it but couldn't because of the surgery.  So, the lady in charge was nice enough to let me throw chalk instead.  It was great because I was also able to take pictures. Kyle also threw chalk and got a ride from one of the officials and then they started handing out bags of chalk to the runner who instantly started throwing them at each other.

US ALL CLEAN BEFORE.

US ALL DIRTY BEFORE THE RACE EVEN BEGAN.

AND THEY'RE OFF.

AFTER THE RACE!  ALL SMILES AND OTTER POPS.

 Afterwards we ate the annual spaghetti dinner that they have there and then let the kids play on the "world".  I'm really not sure what this thing is called but we had one in our park growing up and we called it "the world".  I am pretty sure that this is the last one on the face of the Earth.  Our kids LOVE it.  This year Kyle, JoEllen, Joel and I were making bets on which kid was going to fall off first.  It was so funny. 

 

The next morning we got up early and I dropped Joel off at the starting line and then went back and woke the kids up to get ready.  It takes about 15 minutes to get to the end of the race regularly but during the race they close down one of the lanes and only let one side go up or down at a time so it takes at least twice as long.  We love to find the runners and take pictures of them.  Last year we got a late start and didn't even get to see Joel finish.  This year we saw everyone.  It was great and the weather was perfect.  No rain and it was nice and cool.     

This is the 1 mile marker.  Cute huh?

 

Dale Ipson - Austin and Jolene ran it too.

Aaron Potter - who got up super early (2am) to drive up from Ivins to run. 

Brescia and JD!

JOEL!

Here is Sarah who was happy her stomach wasn't bothering her like the last time she ran this race.

Mandy was the first of our friends to cross the line.  She was flying!

Joel - Happy to be done.

Here is the only picture that I have of Kyle running.  It's Sophie's fault because she was taking pictures while I was driving. And it was Kyle's fault because he changed shirts without asking our permission.:)  We were looking for a bright blue tank top.

Ray Miller coming in right behind Joel for his first ever half marathon!

Aaron finishing.

Here is Sarah almost done.  Good Job!

And JoEllen's yummy photo bomb of the traditional photo at the end of the race.

After the race we checked out of our room and went to take a little hike.  It was a 1/2 mile walk up to a cute little waterfall.  It was perfect.  Not to long and had some gorgeous views.  The kids found this little cave and we just had to get a picture.

THIS YEARS CHRISTMAS CARD.  DONE.

After that we drove up to some lookout points to see Bryce Canyon at it's best.

 The views were incredible and we just had to find Thor's Hammer for Ben.  That was the only thing he cared about.

 

THOR'S HAMMER

The kids had more fun feeding the squirrels than they did looking at the view.

Every year we make sure that we stop by the cute little shops and the the traditional pictures before we head home.  This year the had these Books Of Mormon hanging on the door.  They were in different languages and I just had to take a picture.

 Another year, another set of great memories!

4th of JULY!

The 4th of July was great this year.  We started out down at the Sunbowl watching Joel , John, Kristal and all of their kids and a dozen Red Rock boys run the Uncle Sam 5K.  It was a good little run around downtown St. George and they were given red shirts, white beards and a tall red, white and blue hat.  Although none of them wore any of it to run in.  The race course was awesome for us by standers because they passed by us 3 different times so we were able to actually see them and cheer them on.  John almost won the entire thing except for these 2 young runners that were pacing off of him that passed him with a quarter mile to go.  It was a fun race to watch.  Then we went to Grandma and Grandpa's to watch the parade.  It went right past their house so we had great seats and the kids got a lot of candy.

 Then we went swimming at Uncle Larry and Aunt Boydine's.  One of our favorite watering holes. 

Then we all went home and took a nap and rested up for the fireworks later that night.  It's tradition for us to go into the Sunbowl to watch the show.  They always have a live band for you to listen to while you wait for the sun to go down and for it to get dark.  The show was a little shorter than usual but was still beautiful. 

After we got home we lit off some fireworks.  We had the Scoresby boys over for the show and William decided to show us how his exploding flowers were water proof.  So flowers are usually the fun ones that spin around really fast and change colors and his did that and then exploded.  So he dropped one in our bucket that we had standing by in case something caught in fire.  It was pretty cool.  It made the entire water change with the colors and then when it explodes it splashes a little water.  So, he did about 5 of them and then one got a little to close to the side and when it blew up it blew a hole in the side of the bucket!  Wow!  It showed us all how powerful even the little ones can be.   At the parade Chick-Fil-A was handing out little cows and we decided to see what one would look like after we stuck a firework in it. 

 It was a super fun day and I'm glad that we could spend it as a family and with family.  After all that's what makes the memories right?

Elder Jacob Beckstrand Returns!

Two years ago Jacob left to serve a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Fukuoka Japan.  He returned Friday night at 11pm.  He looks so great!  So happy and alive. We had a good sized crowd at the airport which was weird for the airport for that late at night but not weird for us.

Here we all are waiting upstairs at the lookout to see his plane come in.

Here is Brianna who was sleeping over so she borrowed Josh's shirt and joined the group.

 Here is his plane docked right in front of us.

And here is everyone straining to see a glimpse of him walking into the terminal.  Of course he and another Elder were that last ones off the plane.  I'm sure the airlines probably ask them to wait so the other passengers can get off and out of the airport, knowing that as soon as the families see them they will make a huge crowd that will not move.  It also is nice that the families don't have to get out of the way for other passengers.  A win win situation even if we have to wait for a couple extra minutes.

   David was asleep before we left the house so we weren't surprised to see this.  We left the sign by him on purpose so that the security guard knew who he belonged to.

 Here he is with the family.

 Today after the Homecoming we went over to their house for lunch and below are some fun pictures that are mainly meant for Shayne to enjoy. 

Together again after 4 years.

Just like it was 2 years ago at his Farewell.

Awesome picture especially Kali!  Nice Photo Bomb!

We are a happy family.