Pinewood Derby

On Friday we went over the the church for the Cub Scout Pinewood Derby. Mackay made a Ben Ten Car and it actually did pretty good. We worked on it all week but it finally all came together just the day before the big day. It was a more official derby this year than it was in the past couple of years. The kids were excited to watch the cars race at first, but quickly lost interest and played in the back of the gym. I was lucky because I just sat there and held the Saunder's sleeping baby. So I had a great night. Mackay got a certificate for the most animated car and received a toy motorcycle. He was pretty excited about that. The important thing is the kids had a great time. Thank you Scout Leaders for all your hard work!

Another Hike...

Justin has been on this big kick for doing hikes so we thought that we would check out this one in Death Valley to Wildrose Peak. We started out by looking at some Charcoal Kilns that basically look like this huge beehives. At the time that these where built they would cut down the pine tree close by and burn them in these buildings then take the charcoal to a silver/ore mine. The kids had fun exploring these.

We then set off on our hike. The trail was really nice (compared to Owen's Peak) It was steep in some areas, but not to bad. So we started at an elevation of 6800 feet and hiked up to 9000 feet. There was some snow on the way so the kids had fun throwing snowballs at each other. I tell you our kids are troopers. They hike really well. They go even faster that I do. I am the one holding up the rear. It is always worth the hike to get to the top and overlook the valleys below. It took us about 5 hours to do 8.4 miles round trip. I was sure tired when we finished, only because I had run 8 miles the day before. Hopefully I will be in great shape soon after all of this hiking and running, so far I am not feeling it but will keep plugging away.

Oh my...Where has the time gone?

Our Easter Festivities
Mackay's Birthday

St. Patrick's Day, Crazy Hair Day, and our new pets

So much has happened over the past month and luckily I have kept a journal, but have not been so good at keeping up my blog. Sorry fans, I have just been either too busy to make posts or I have just dreaded back tracking.

We went to Utah and had a wonderful time. Most of our Utah trip was spent in Parowan visiting my Mother in Law. We had a nice time just visiting and resting. We also took a few bike rides, and visited with other family members and my Father-in-Law's grave. I would love to post pictures of all of our Utah trips, but accidentally erased it, BLAST! I was furious with myself. When it says delete don't press OK for all of the pictures on your camera. I only wanted one of those pictures deleted. C'est la vie! We also visited my parents and my family. I took a short trip to Brigham City to visit a friend but didn't have time to visit with all I wanted to.

We also acquired two new pets. Mackay informed me that if he ever got 100 % on a test he would get a fish. He did it, and we bought a fish. A very inexpensive bribe I thought. I am glad I didn't promise him a DS.

Easter was nice and relaxing. We watched conference, colored eggs, had our own egg hunt, and were just plain lazy. It was nice. It was also Mackay's Birthday so we let him celebrate on Saturday instead of Sunday.

I forgot St. Patrick's day. The little green men did visit us and caused all kids of trouble. Footprints everywhere! They also peed in our toilet, and sent the kids on a treasure hunt for their breakfast. They gave us Lucky Charms this year.

Aprils Fools day was fun too. The kids had waffles and eggs (ice cream with yellow chocolate in the center), for lunch I replaced their fruit snack with carrots and sealed the bag again, and for dinner we had stir fry (nuts, fruit roll ups cut in the shape of peas, and peppers, dried fruit, and I can't remember what else. I made real stir fry too but put that one out first. It was a fun day. I had pictures of that also, but I think they were among the deleted one. DRAT!

Anyway, I think that there were just too many things that came up all at the same time. It made March and now part of April fly by.

We did it...We hiked Owen's Peak

My oh My that is quite the hike. It took us 5 1/2 hours to peak. Justin had a crazy idea to go off on a trail of his own so we were climbing boulders, sliding on steep dirt paths, and scaling cliff like structures with an eight year old and 6 year old child. Are we CRAZY or what. Anyway it was a little scary at times. I was just scared for the kids. The kids were amazing troopers. The total hike took us 10 hours. We started at about 9 a.m. and got done at 7 p.m. My husband is a goer so he kept us going. I think I slid and fell at least 10 to 20 times. Our backsides were all dirty from sliding down steep dirt inclines and I am surprised that my pants are in one piece after sliding down slick rock also. It was a definite adventure and very cool to see the world from the top of a high peak. It was worth all the blisters on my feet and the pain I feel in my legs. Would I do it again? I will have to think about that for awhile.

Can you believe this kid is 9

Mackay now
Wasn't he such a cute little guy
(Mackay at 7 months, I think)

Happy Birthday Mackay! It is really hard for me to believe that Mackay is 9 years old.

Things we love about Mackay:

His laugh

His smile

His attitude about life

He is loving

Loves to give hugs

Compliments people

Makes others feel better when they are hurt or down

He tries to work hard at school

He loves making people smile and laugh

Is getting better at playing the piano

There are many more

We so appreciate that he has come into our life and helps us to learn and grow while on this earth. We just hope we can do our best as his parents in teaching him and loving him.