Weekend with Mom

I'm late getting this posted, but we had a great weekend. Mom came to visit on Wednesday last week and had to leave Sunday. It was the first time that she had been to our new home and she loved it and could not believe how beautiful it was here. She understands now what a healing place this is with all the beauty. Thursday, Sophie had a skit for all the parents and family and it was so cute to see them and all their hard work. Friday we went and showed Mom around some more. Saturday was a difficult day as that was the 1st anniversary since my Dad passed away - I still can not believe that it has been that long and that he is no longer with us. I miss him so much every day. We spent the day by going to Bear Lake as Mom had never been and it was just a beautiful day through Logan Canyon and in Bear Lake. We spent the day there walking along the beach, the girls played in the water and we had Rasberry Shakes before we went home - yummy. The entire weekend was so nice and we loved having Mom here.

The Beauty of our Surroundings!

Mark and I went and drove around a bit yesterday and look at what we found just 5 minutes from our house. It is just beautiful and breathtaking - we LOVE it here!

Samantha Run's the Mile

For the past few weeks, Samantha has been training for the Mile run here locally as her school to compete with 4 other Elementary's. They all met today in a nearby town for the race. It was the 4th and 5th grade girls from 5 elementary schools and they had so much fun. Out of 100's of girls, she placed 32nd for the 4th grade girls. We were really proud of her. She has always loved track and field and this just may be the beginning of her track career - you never know. She ran a 10 minute mile and honestly Mark and I laughed and thought, I bet we could not even do that. She did a great job and as you will see in the pics, it was hard to catch her in action with all the other girls, but she is the one with the ponytail and the yellow shirt. Our little "Track Star"!

Bear Lake Day Trip

We had so much fun today! We decided the day was so beautiful and really was not worth wasting. We decided to go to Bear Lake which is about an hour for us now and the weather was in the upper 70's today. We packed a picnic and the girls really wanted to swim so they grabbed their suits and we thought the water would be way too cold, but as you will see in the pics, it was an awesome day!!! We got up there in the afternoon and decided to find a place to have our picnic and then go from there and we found this really fun area near Lakewood by the lake that had picnic tables and a great beach area and we had our lunch and then found that they also rented canoes so we rented one of those for an hour. This had the girls and Mark dumbfounded by my behavior as I had never been on a canoe before and it honestly made me really nervous. I know - Mark could not believe it. He thought I was afraid of falling in the water, but I just did not like the wobbliness of it and needed some time to adjust. We had a good time, but I just did not want it to tip and get all wet - I did not have plans of getting wet so was fully clothed and did not want to be wet - WRONG!!! Of course, Mark and I were in it and we tipped right by the shore and YES, I was all wet. OH well, the girls sure got a kick out of it...The girls had such a blast playing in the water and splashing around - it was an awesome day and really just what we needed. We realized it has been so long since we've just had a family day to go and have fun like this and enjoy all together. The last time we went to Bear Lake was almost 2 years ago. We also found some great campgrounds on the way up that we want to go back and camp at so it was an amazingly beautiful day and we had so much fun and loved living in this area so much.

Sophie turns 8!

I can't believe that my youngest is 8 years old already. It really seems like she was just born..time flies! She celebrated this past weekend with her cousins and all of our family for her birthday and then since we just moved to a new area, she did not have a party, but we went to dinner last night and she had a great time. So grown up.

Rainbow!!!

The never ending rain since we have gotten here brought this beautiful rainbow that was right off of our deck. If you look, it was actually a double rainbow and you can see the other one behind the bright one. Very vibrant colors, my girls were amazed.

We're finally in our Rental!

We made it to our rental finally and are loving being more rural and can't wait for life to feel back to normal. We've been unpacking and trying to get things situated, just trying to take a little each day so that we are not so overwhelmed. The picture is a view off of our deck - we are LOVIN IT~!!! We miss everyone, but are so excited to be out of the BOX and living in a house again. The girls start school on Monday and can hardly wait to meet their teachers and meet some new friends.