The Happy Couple

Here is just a random shot of me and my sweetheart.  We stopped by the Summerfest in Logan and Mike bought me this gorgeous pearl necklace, just because!  It is beautiful and I am so happy and in love.  I feel like the luckiest girl in the world :)

All Dressed Up!

After the bad hair day post, I thought I should post a pic of the girls all dolled up.  Nana and Papa took the girls to church with them and snapped a photo since they looked absolutely adorable.

Two gorgeous girls posing for the pic

Happy girls all dressed up!

Logan Rotary RAW (Ride Around the Wellsvilles) Century

I get to add another Century bike ride to my list.  This one I basically did riding solo.  My dad and his neighbor, our good friend, Dr. Firth, also signed up to do this ride.  We all started together, but it wasn't long before I lost sight of the two speedy riders.  I kept on trucking along, determined to finish.  I rode through rain and more rain... it was the wettest ride I've ever done.  Long and exhausting... but I finished!  And I wasn't last again :)  I began to wonder what became of my dad and Dr. Firth, because the course looped back and I was able to see all the riders ahead of me as they headed back toward the finish line/starting line.  I never saw the two of them, which puzzled me.
Once I reached the end of my ride, my sweetheart was there to welcome me in and snap a photo or two of me.  I was dead tired.  I asked Mike if he knew where my dad was and he said that he had to stop early because of some kind of problem with his heart.  Luckily for my dad, he was riding alongside a physician so the kind Dr. Firth took my dad in to his office and tested his heart, which did in fact, have a problem.  After some rest, his heart got back on pace and it was all good.
I was supposed to head to a work bar-b-que that afternoon but I just had zero energy left in me... so I just hung out with my sweetheart the rest of the day...my favorite thing to do :)
For this ride the only shots I have were a couple that Mike took of me as I was riding in to the finish line:

 

Look What We Grew!!!

I get so excited every time I go in to the backyard garden and see how the plants are progressing.  The tomatoes really started to take off...as well as the artichokes and the pumpkins!

These cherry tomatoes are so sweet and juicy!  I pop 'em in my mouth like candy!

Check out our lil pumpkin beginning to grow!!  Future pumpkin pie... Mmmm...

Wow!  Who knew this artichoke plant would thrive so well!  One of the coolest looking plants I've ever seen...

Now if only I could keep up with pulling all the massive weeds... sigh.

Hair Cut Time!

Nana's hairdresser name Lacey lives in Richmond, Utah, so Nana drives all the way up there to get her hair cut.  Since the girls' hair was getting sooo long and hard to maintain, nana brought them with her to go visit Lacey.  These girls were blessed with gorgeous hair.  Here are some shots of their haircut experience:

Avril likes to keep her locks long, like Rapunzel

After her trim...

Gorgeous and shiny hair!

McKel's turn...

She's intrigued

snip snip snip

the finished product!  So pretty :)

Sweet, beautiful McKel

Pioneer Day

One perk to living in Utah is the extra holiday...Pioneer Day!  :)  The neighborhood held a pancake breakfast with some fun activities for kids.  Arleen and Britt also joined in the fun.  The girls loved the excitement.

Just love seeing this girl smile...

Can't get enough Avril sweetheart girl

I love you as much as the sky (as Avril always says)

Avril played tug of war with her cousin Britt.  They did not last long standing up...

Adorable McKel.  She was hard to snap a photo of, that girl just does not like to stand still!

Happy Pioneer Day!!!

Morning Hair

We are often in such a hurry to get out the door in the mornings that the girls' hair sadly gets neglected.  Just thought I would show a couple silly shots of the girls in the wee hours of the morning.

Usually when McKel gets up she comes and hops in mommy's bed.  I just had to get a shot of her lovely bed head :)

Pretty sure this one was actually an evening shot.  We were enjoying Mike's delicious salsa dip (see chip crumbs) and Avril is enjoying a very large chunk of banana...

Boating

Mike's friend Dave has a boat.  Very nice having friends with boats :)  He invited us to come up to Bear Lake with him and some friends, so we headed up there again for some more lake fun.  One of the guys who came out with us, hopped onto a wake board and was enjoying some wake boarding.  He was the first ride of the day...and the last.  He took a pretty hard tumble and somehow dislocated his shoulder, which appeared to be VERY painful, judging by his reaction.  We were able to get an ambulance to come out and take him to the hospital.  That pretty much ended our day at the lake, so we headed back to Logan to relax, which is pretty much all I felt like doing anyway.  Our jam packed summer of fun was making me welcome the R&R!

me and my love out on Dave's boat

Love the sunshiney days!

Day at Bear Lake

We thought a picnic on the Bear Lake beach sounded like a super fun activity, so we loaded up the truck with the girls, swimsuits, snacks, and drove off through Logan Canyon, headed for the lake!  By the time we got there, McKel was sound asleep and a random hail storm decided to hit...so much for our beautiful picnic day!  We just decided to hang out in the truck, eat some food, and wait for the storm to subside and McKel to wake up.  Nobody wants to be around McKel without her nap anyways.
When the hailstorm stopped, all was quiet and calm at the beach, although it was no bright and sunshiney day... the girls get more excited when they see a beach than anything I've ever seen!  They were both giddy with excitement.  McKel and Avril went running along the shore.  They were disappointed that this beach didn't have any sand crabs for them to find... but they still had a blast, getting all muddy and splashing through the water.

McKel's beautiful mud mask!

Hi mom!

This cutie pie didn't let a  little storm stop her from having a blast at the lake!

Mud pie, anyone? :)

Love him!

Not afraid to get wet!

Just look at the smile!!  :)

Some adorable shots of the girls drying off after their swim:

I wonder how these little muddy footprints got on our nice clean towel??

My message in the sand....and McKel's cute lil foot!  :)

Cache Valley Gran Fondo

Distance: 105.33 miles;  CLIMB: 2588.58 ft

We lucked out getting to do this ride... I waited until the last minute to register, not sure if I'd be ready for this lengthy Century.  At the last minute, my dad's friend, Dave Jones (who did Rockwell with us), could not do this ride even though he'd registered already, so I got to take his spot, which was totally nice of him!  We signed Mike up too so I wouldn't have to ride solo and suffer alone.  This was a beautiful ride, but soooooo long!  In my mind I kept thinking I could do 100 miles, then I found out it was closer to 106 miles!   What?!!  That extra 6 miles seemed like an extra hundred!  But somehow we managed to finish... my dad also did this ride and finished WAY ahead of us, not surprising at all, considering he's pretty much a pro biker now...  I'm so proud of us for adding this to our list of athletic feats!

Here we are at the start of the race.  Ready to die ride!

We stole this photo from the race photos.  Nice shot of us at the starting line.  Love that guy on the Specialized next to me!

Mike was able to find a few more photos from the race photographer's website.  This is us coming up a killer hill.  Some guy with drums was up at the top playing music for us, encouraging riders to keep going I guess.  Kinda cool.  Note:  there are people behind us... we are not in last place!  :)

Here I am, headed up the ginormous hill!  Beautiful ride though :)

Look How our Garden Grows!

Our first artichoke begins to bud.  Never seen anything like it, so excited!!!

I'm naming him Arty :)