August

The highlight of August was that my best friends from Pennsylvania stopped by for a way too quick visit!! Paige and Matt were like family to me when I was newlywed, pregnant, and Nate worked nights, in PA. They often had me over for dinner, or took me on outings with them. I just love them both! Matt is from Twin Falls and they hadn't been to visit in almost 6 years! One of his friends from high school was getting married in Boise so they decided to make the trip out! They stopped by for a few hours before the wedding and it was NOT long enough so when they had a free day in Twin I happily drove me and the boys down to hang out with them! Spencer of course loved that Henry was into dinosaurs too.

The middle of August was the big race for Nate. We stopped and had lunch with Heaton in Pocatello and then made our way to Rexburg to meet up with Nate's family was coming. We also had some time to kill so I got to see one of my old roommates, Megan from my BYU-I days! We met at a cute little park and let all the kids play while we waited for Nate's family. We drove the course so Nate had an idea what we was in for and then had a spaghetti dinner at the elementary school. We ended up sitting next to the race director and it was so cool to talk to him. He works so hard and puts so much time and energy into the race and he doesn't take any profit! He was such a down to earth, just kind man. Plus the race (marathon at least) was one of the best put together and organized races I've seen and Nate agreed.

 

 

the dinner was at the elementary school so of course we had to play on the cool equipment first! 

 

 

Race morning Alyssa and I did the 10k which I think had a total of 22 people? I came in 8th and was really hoping to be under an hour but it wasn't me best running and I was 1:02. After we finished and met up with the kids and grandma and grandpa we went to find Nate on the marathon course and Jake on the half marathon course.

We found them both at the top of a pretty intense hill climb (about mile 18 for Nate). It was pretty awesome to cheer on all the runners, while a beautiful course, it has got to be one of the harder ones!
We then headed back to the park/finish line to wait for them to finish! Nate's time was 4:22 and he got 3rd in his age group! I thought that was fantastic! If I ever do one I'll just be happy to finish :)

 

so proud of him, love him!  

 

Spencer helping dad cross the finish line! 

After the race everyone went back to the airbnb and laid down so I took Spencer over to St. Anthony sand dunes where we played around until it got too windy and then headed to a park along the river. We stayed in St. Anthony one more night so we could attend the baby blessing of Hudson the following day!

 

when in Rexburg you have to visit the boat house

 

August ended with more swimming in the pool, watching the night glow of the hot air balloons at the Spirit of Boise balloon classic, and this fun little surprise...

And it just wouldn't be August without some swimming in the pool!

July

Baby Birthday Cake turned 1!!!!
Time sure flies and our petite little guy (17%) has officially been around for a whole year! Watching Spencer and Kade I sometimes think "what took so long to get Kade here?!" They are BEST buddies and I sometimes feel guilty they're so far apart in age, but I try to reassure myself that it's exactly as it was meant to be.

We had a cactus birthday party and invited the Rices and my parents over for tacos and cupcakes. And I made my dad bring his camera and drive over to Wilson Pond to try to get a decent family picture. I thought they turned out great for amateur and free :) Even though Kade was not real happy about pictures on his birthday!

For the 4th of July we headed to Melba to tag-a-long with the Jones'. It was a cool parade even with TONS of people. There was SO much candy given out, popsicles, water ice, it was a fun time even if we had to hoof it a mile both ways with thousands of people!

Later that day we went swimming with cousins at my parents and celebrated Katie's birthday and had Opa do some fireworks with the boys.

My parents worked a lot of JDRF events over the summer to raise money for T1D and the 100 mile bike ride Heaton and my dad were doing in October. A few times while Nate was marathon training, the boys and I went to the events. This is car they were raffling off.

Some friends invited us up to Black Canyon for a day of boating and playing in the lake. We spent a good chunk of the day up there and had a ton of fun!

We made it to Meridian Speedway for a night of car races!

Jourdan and I were pretty consistent runners even though our strollers were getting heavy! We tried to make the big kids ride bikes one day and this is how it turned out after half a mile...

I turned the big 3-0 this year and had my first of many "I'm old!" moments...starting with my first ever migraine!

My friend Brei talked me into volunteering for our ward at the "Dirty Dash" so that we could then "run" it for free. We spent all morning pouring water for the racers and at 2pm it was our turn. It was HARD! I don't think I ran very much of it and I know I slowed Brei down, but it was hilarious and a great memory!