Annual Family Photos

Coordinating outfits, the perfect hair and make-up, kids who are all smiling and looking at the camera at the same time, not ending up in those Awkward Family Photo greeting cards.  All these are goals of getting family pictures.  Also all these are just a few of the reasons that I experience anxiety when it comes to thinking about getting family pictures done, that is unless you count the annual Pioneer Village Old Time Photo shoot.  Why is it that we look forward to this so much?  We pay for parking, drive 35 minutes out of the way, pay a near fortune for the pics...Oh yes, I know why, because it is awesome!  Nothing can bring a smile to my face quicker than these little gems!

Perhaps it's because we are so out of character?  Maybe it's because we aren't that out of character? Maybe it's because I just love to dress up and be crazy?
What ever the reason, we have had our fun!  Now to get them blown up and displayed for the world to see!

Relay for Life!

We recently participated in the Relay for Life in Price, UT.  This is a fundraiser for Cancer Research.  Participants set up teams and work to earn funds.  Walkers are then set to walk to track from 6:30 pm until 7 am the next morning.  A member of each team needs to be walking the track at all times.  My sister, Jenny, organized a team in honor of my dad this year.  Last Ocotober he was disgnosed with Prostate Cancer.  After 4 very intense radiation treatments he was declared cancer free in January. We walked in his honor! 

At the walk survivors are honored and get to take the first lap around the track.  This year the survivors were lead by Riley(3) and Brailey (2), 2 little children in the community who are fighting cancer.  They also asked for those who had just found out this year that they had cancer to lead, so my dad, towering over the crowd, lead the Survivors Lap!  The purple shirts are worn by those who are fighting cancer and surviving!

Round and Round the track we went!  We ran, we walked, we tracked our laps with beads.  There was a dunk tank that wasn't being used, so we asked if we could try it out!  Domenic wanted to volunteer.  Sure said the committe member, and up he went!

 I tried knocking him in several times, even hit the target, but to no avail.  A little adjustment to the seat, a few teenage boys tossing the balls and "SPLASH" in went Domenic!  Hold up says a new committee member, they have to be 18!  Oh well, says our original worker.  Next lap around and the dunk tank was drained!  Our little trooper was the only one to get to use it!  Lucky!

At midnight they started a dancing competition that went on until nearly 2 am.  Skyler was going and going, and one of the youngest participants and few boys.  He bounced ping pong balls out of his kleenex box like a pro, then he showed how he could Gangham Style like the best of them!

The moon was almost at Super Moon phase (1 day away), but it was bright and beautiful.  My babies were troopers and stayed up so long, selling cupcakes, playing, dancing and enjoying the party feeling.  Domenic alone trudged around 6 miles worth!  Finally around 3 am they crashed, sleeping out under the canopy.

In the end I completed 17.5 miles.  I was exhausted by the end of the trek.  I really do not know how people can just run marathons in 6 hours or less and survive!  Amazing!  I trudged on for nearly 12 hours.  We had such a great time!  I went a total of 47, 804 steps!  I won a prize for it, yippee!!  It was such a fun night!  The kids loved walking, staying up late, and being a part of the teenage crowds!  What a great way to celebrate life!

Kaboom!

I decided to clean the bathroom this morning.  I know, that sounds like a crazy task, but I did!  So, as I clean I post in my mind.  I find that I blog in theory often, just not in actual print.  Sure, sometimes I post on Facebook what we are doing, put up pictures, but I find that more people ask about my blog than anything else.  I have been bad about it.  There are such great examples out there: Leisy Miller, Michelle Jensen you two rock!  Even my good friend Marci is better at it than I am!  So here we go again.  It will probably be years before people start reading me again, but oh well.  At least I will say what I needed to say!

Back to the bathroom!  I bought a new cleaner called Kaboom!  It is a mildew/mold remover.  I needed this, but have tried many cleaners that fail to get rid of the mold that seems to grow rampent in the shower.  This stuff is AMAZING!  I recommend it to everyone!  It cleaned better than anything else that I have bought in the last 10 years that we have lived in this house!  I wish I had taken before and after pics, but I had no idea it would clean this well! 

As I cleaned and contemplated, I am reminded of a long time ago when my friend posted that she had cleaned her house walls for the first time since they had moved into their house 6 years earlier.  Julia, I am jealous of you every time I clean my walls (which is at least twice a week)!  We are so dusty, and then the kids and their little fingers and now the puppy!  It's a never ending battle to keep them clean!

So there you go!  The first post of hopefully many to come!  It's time to clean house and share my life achievements with the world!