We celebrated our 15th anniversary, we went camping with family, we played with cousins, we have a firework show, Darren raced in his first Half Ironman in preparation for the real Ironman, played indoor soccer but shouldn't have, and me and a few of my cousins/brothers participated in the Red Rock Relay. Wow - we were busy. OH - and we can't forget being forced to evacuate our home as the fire came within 100 yards from burning down our house.
Here is our summer in pictures:
Darren and I celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary. Unfortunately we didn't get to vacation somewhere exotic to make it all worth while but hopefully we will do something next year. We decided this year not to exchange gifts but the both of us got each other something anyway. Darren had spent all June and most of July in Arizona so he sent me his gift before he got home. He sent me a picture of himself at the age of 18 stating "he didn't want me to forget what I married". You can guess what that meant. In turn - I had asked an amazing illustrator friend to draw a portrait of me for him so that he never "forgot who he married". Pretty funny huh? That we would both give each other pictures of ourselves - or is that not funny but vain? Anyway - it was too funny opening each others "pictures". He also surprised me with an industrial sized snow cone machine which I absolutely love. While he was in Arizona, Pierson and I went to the local slushy hut once a day for weeks until Pierson begged me NOT to take him anymore. Which is okay now that I have my own and can make one whenever I want. See the pics:
We were lucky enough to have some of our DeGracie family up with us to celebrate the 24th of July. Becky and Jaden were up here for soccer camp so we bought a bunch of fireworks, had Colin, Ranie and McKay over and had the best little firework show ever. It was especially exciting for Jaden since she comes from Arizona and is not allowed to light fireworks - not even sparklers. You can see the excitement as she tries to write her name. This is also the first year we let Pierson hold his own sparklers so they had a lot of fun.
We are more than excited to finally have cousins on the Carlson side and have tried to spend as much time as we can with them. Kaylee has spent an evening camping with us as well as coming over once a week to get to know my boys. I absolutely love taking pictures of her and can't wait until we can play Barbie's, dress-up and do our hair/nails/make up. April and Josh will probably end up hating my influence but I have such a need to be a mommy to a little girl! Can you blame me? Who is more girly than me? The boys are so bugged with me when I make my way to the little girls section and start looking through the clothing racks. If I was only made of money.... Here are a few adorable pictures of sweet Kaylee.
McKay is my special little buddy that I would consider mine but Ranie won't let me have him. He is such a cute little boy with such a fun personality, He loves to yell with excitement, loves attention, loves to look at himself in mirrors, LOVES my boys which I am so grateful for and doesn't mind my unstoppable kisses. We just love that he is a part of our life and that he has brought so much joy to Ranie and Colin. We love every minute we have with him. Here are some cute shots of McKay. He is notorious for NOT smiling for the camera yet he is always so full of smiles. Isn't he just so kissable?
Camping - what can we say? We love it. We obviously didn't do enough of it this year with the boys being in Arizona longer than usual and the many races on weekends we had but we loved the time we did get. There is nothing better than sitting in a chair under a blanket of pine trees up in the mountains with family. I would do it every weekend if I could. The best part of camping is the campin' jammies. We each have footy pajamas that keep us so warm. We got to spend some time with Joni and Garrett roasting ginormous marshmallows and spent a weekend with Ranie, Colin and McKay in the most awesome camp spot. We hiked, played games, a ton of games, napped, searched for walking sticks, stayed up late, ate great food (food is always better when your camping, especially breakfast). Here are a few shots of us camping. We also invited J.T., Canon's friend since birth, to stay the night with us. They had such a great time.
Darren's Half Ironman: Darren competed in the Utah Half Ironman and finished with a time of 5 hours and 53 minutes which included a 1.2 mile swim in open water, a 56 mile bike and a 13 mile run (half marathon). It was amazing!!! He has been training for something bigger and did such a great job on the Half. We were so excited to be there for each transition but made for a really long day. We were there at 5:30 am waiting the for race to start and didn't leave until 1:30 pm. We are so proud of our daddy and how much training and work he has put into these races.
And finally - the Red Rock Relay. You probably know all about this already but I have to mention how awesome it was to be together with family in this competition. It is very Taylor of us. We competed in a 186 mile relay race that lasted 28 hours, each of us with 3 legs of the race at various lengths. I had so much fun being with my cousins, chatting, taking pictures, moaning about the pain, trying to sleep, failing to eat, and finally running in together at the end. What an accomplishment. I am so proud of my family and excited to see everyone again! I can tell you that I have not jogged one bit since the race! Here are some shots of our amazing team!
1 comment:
Kaylee is so lucky to have you as an aunt!
Post a Comment