We have had a very busy July! Most families have a lot going on this month, but there were times I felt I barely had enough time to breath. We were preparing for the Spudman Triathlon and family reunion. We had a bunch of yard work and weeds to pull. Of course our children needed much love and time. The most time consuming thing for me was moving Brian’s office from our little space we shared with Mark Wasden, 137 Gooding St. W. to our own larger space with it’s own reception area (something we did not have before) in the Justamere Inn, 401 Gooding St. N. We were pretty crammed into our old location. Now we have more room for comfort and growth. I had to beg my family and my visiting teacher, Andrea Baird, to help watch my children while I got it ready to go. I painted it with the help of our ward’s former bishop, Chuck Hansen. I purchased new furniture, wall hangings, an additional desk, plants, and a million other things an office needs. Somehow, we managed to get the phone lines and internet all working by Monday, the first day of operation. Soon after that, we left for our Tanner Reunion with all of Brian’s siblings and their families in Cascade, ID.
Our family reunion was wonderful. Everyone made it there except Matt Briggs and John Coburn. It was not easy for some people to travel that far and for the men to miss an entire week of work. I know Brian will have a very challenging day today because he missed an entire week.
We rented a 6 bedroom Cabin about 150 yards from Lake Cascade. It was just perfect! We played a lot of games, went to the beach, paddled some kayaks, prepared meals, had devotionals, and had a lot of fun just being together. Abby, Ester, Louisa, and Clara, who are all close in age became as thick as thieves, running around everywhere in a little pack. Scott was running around making friends with everyone. Half the time I didn’t know where he was and sometimes I got a little worried. Usually he’s my little hip buddy. He survived though. I only had to run after him once to fish him out of the road.
Andrew Howard carrying Scott to the lake for me:)
Are you saying something buddy?
Abby and Clara playing in the water
Grandma and Scott
Essie!
Cami and Aaron
David....looks so much like his brother and sisters:)
Isaac Howard
Sarah and Tanner
Grace and Steve
Isaac and Moni
David and Emily
Lisa and Scott... Abby in the back
Here's the trouble makers! Thick as Thieves I tell you. Essie, Abby, Louisa, and Clara.
Grace and Scott
Grandma with ALL of her grandchildren
6 little boys from all 6 children in 13 months.
Scott, Tanner, Aaron, David, Isaac Marc, and Isaac Scott.
Emily, Cami, Tia, Sarah, Brian, Diane, Ben
Every once in a while we try to get a good family photo....maybe we'll pay a photographer next time:)
Scott was so tired we had to tickle him to get him to smile!
Maddy pulling a Maddy. Who knew corn starch could help acne?
Brian with all the candy
Here comes trouble again:) It probably didn't help that I snapped a bunch of pictures before telling them to stop jumping on the bed...oops.
They tried to get the little ones to run a foot race...the prize was Twinkies. Here's Scotty Bott's Twinkie kissy face:)
Pass the wet sponge over your head game
Piñata....Abby barely tapped it....but she had fun.
Candy!
Scott learned a new trick. This clothes hanging rod was just the right height for Scott to walk up the wall and hang upside down....over....and over...and over again.
We left Friday and stopped at The Joint in Boise, which was where my chiropractor was filling in for a friend that day. He taped my feet to help me combat my plantar faciatis for the triathlon the next day. He taped Brian’s knee as well, but his tape didn’t even stay on during the drive home. I think he needed to shave the area first. Brian was very concerned about his knee. He had knee surgery as a teenager and he hurt it again a few months ago while bringing a grill home from Lowe’s. He wasn’t sure if he was going to be able to finish the race and was pretty grumpy about the whole thing all day Friday. He was being so pessimistic about just about everything that day that I asked him a couple of times to cut it out because he was being so unpleasant to be around. We went to Burley that evening to get our registration packets and drop off our bikes. While we were there I bumped into one of my classmates from the dietetics program at BYU, Krista. We made the connection that she had actually been at Rick’s the same time time Brian was there. She is still unmarried but has a boyfriend who was participating in the race. It is very hard being unmarried in our church at this age. I do not envy her. She is pretty, an accomplished ballroom dancer, involved in her community, and works fulltime as a dietitian for WIC in Salt Lake. We know a lot of awesome older women who are unmarried. I really don’t think they have any problems....it’s the men.
We didn’t get very much sleep that night. My mom was so kind to come over and watch our children at bedtime. Scott woke up at 2:30, wiggled around in our bed until 3:30, and watched the ipad in his own room until 4:30. Then I just got up and fed us both Breakfast, got ready to leave, and passed Scott off to my mom as we left the house. We met up with Brian’s uncle Mont and headed for Burley. It was such a zoo getting into the parking area that we barely made it in time for the gun @ 7. I think I had been in the water for only 30 seconds!
This year the river was a lot swifter, cutting our swim time almost in half. I lost Brian in the sea of orange caps and black wet suits, so I just swam on without him doing mostly my comfortable breaststroke, and met him a minute and a half later at the transfer station. Brian thought that he had been following me until he got out and realized the woman he was about to sidle up to was NOT his wife! I thought that was pretty funny:) He was glad to see me by the bikes because he couldn’t get his skin tight wetsuit off by himself.
At the beginning of the bike ride Brian told me he “just wasn’t feeling it.” Then about halfway through he started going so fast I had a really hard time keeping up with him. It was a little cool and rainy, which was just perfect, and the whole ride felt awesome.
The run felt pretty easy to me. Brian had an injured knee and was smart to take it slow. He pretty much alternated jogging and walking. I could have left him in the dust. However, that’s what I had done last year and I felt a lot of regret not going through the finish line with him when I saw other couples doing it. He kept telling me I could run on ahead, but I guess I was being a romantic, so I said to heck with the race times, I’m going to stick with my husband so I can hold his hand across the finish line. That’s exactly what I did this year, and I’m glad I did:) We had a great time. Brian’s knee held up. My feet were okay. We had such an adrenaline high that we felt great for the rest of the day. Next time I might just go for a personal best....we’ll see.
