When I look at my blog posts for 2011 compared to past years, I am mad at myself for being such a slacker. I want to keep this updated so I can look back and remember what we've had going on. So this will be a quick recap of our summer, just so I can remember what we did.
In June, we headed up to Glacier National Park for a family reunion. It was beautiful and a lot of fun to be with Josey's Allen relatives. We stayed in a hotel right on the shore of Lake McDonald and enjoyed a beautiful view each morning. We hung out with family, went on a little hike, and had a small boat ride on the lake. There was still a lot of snow so the Going to the Sun road was closed and we didn't actually explore much of the park, although we did get to see a bear.
When the weekend was over, we left our kids with Lyle & Jan and Josey & I got to be a ma and pa for our stake pioneer trek. It was a great experience, and I was so glad to be able to go to Martin's Cove and Rock Creek Hollow. The spirit was very strong and while our main goal was to help the youth have a spiritual experience, I felt my testimony strenghtened also. I felt particulary impressed that I would make sure that the terrible suffering these pioneers went through and experienced would not be for nothing. If they could be as strong as they were, I can be a strong influence in my home and family. I can keep evil influences out of my home and not give in to the pressures of today's world. I will teach my children how to make good choices. I will not glide through life hoping they will learn these things at church or in other places, but I will take an active role every day in teaching them correct principles. I feel strongly impressed that this is of utmost importance; not that I do the best job at it, but it's something I will continue to work on.
When we returned from the trek, Josey had to travel to eastern Idaho/Yellowstone/Jackson Hole to do a field studies course for his master's degree. This would be his final course. He had a busy week and a half and then he returned to get to work on his final project, which was putting together a field studies course for the area around where we live. He stressed about it and sat in front of the computer for about a week and half straight, but all went well, as he scored a 96% on his final paper, when he thought he would barely pass. To be honest, it was about the most boring paper I have ever had to proofread, but if you ever want to know anything about the geology of western Wyoming, you should probably ask him. He now has a master's degree in Geosciences, but is still not quite as smart as me. I'm so proud of him for accomplishing this. He has been really busy these past three years, working on his degree and coaching in addition to teaching. It is a huge relief.
With those big things underway, we could finally start enjoying our summer...oh wait, first I had to get through Fossilfest, our town's celebration of which I am the treasurer and on the committee. It is a lot of work for both me and Josey (he being left with the kids a lot for those 3 days and also being worn out from playing in the basketball, volleyball, & golf tournaments this year), but all went very smoothly this year and as soon as it was over I felt a huge weight lifted off my shoulders and I felt like the fun could finally begin.
The boys had swimming lessons, we played at the park and went swimming a lot, took day trips to places around Kemmerer, went to Bear Lake, Josey improved his golf game quite a bit, and I ran a few races.
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| Skipping rocks at Viva Naughton reservoir; it was kind of gross (leeches), but the kids loved it. |
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| Check out Jarrett's tan line; like I said, we went swimming a lot. |
In August I ran the Epic relay from Logan, UT to Jackson Hole, WY with some family members. It was AWESOME and definitely the running highlight of my summer! 9 out of our 12 team members were descendants (or through marriage) of my Grandpa Christensen's brothers/sisters. It was so fun to get to know everyone and everyone had worked so hard to prepare. I was actually quite surprised at how well our team did, taking 19th out of 82 teams. Not too bad. It took me about a week to recover from the lost sleep and toll on my body, but I finally felt like I recovered. My last leg was the hardest for me, running over 7 miles up the canyon from Alpine towards Jackson into blasting wind. I felt like I was hardly even moving. Even when it was flat or slightly downhill, I felt no relief because the wind was so strong. I was definitely relieved when I was through running that leg, but I would love to do a relay again.
Our final adventure of the summer was camping in the Big Horn mountains of northern Wyoming with Josey's parents. Josey didn't really feel like making the 12 hour drive to their house, so luckily they agreed to meet us halfway and were great sports about going camping. After researching on the internet, Josey chose Meadowlark Lake for our camping and fishing destination. One thing the internet forgot to mention is that the lake was being drained for a highway project. When we first drove past the lake and Josey told me that was it, I thought he was kidding. We couldn't get close enough to the lake to fish or we would sink in the mud. I had the terrible idea to take a nice little trail run around the lake. I ran into a problem when the trail ended about halfway around the lake. Instead of going back, I decided to try to make my way around the shore. Worst idea ever! I ended up getting stuck in the mud a few times. Literally stuck. I thought I was going to be stranded out there for a few hours until my family decided to come look for me. I managed to get myself free, but I was out in the middle of this huge muddy lakebed and it was quite the effort to make my way through it. I ended up going through a few streams and more mud in the process. What started out as a nice run turned into a huge adventure, but it was actually kind of fun. We did drive to another lake so the boys could do some fishing. They had no luck. Josey waded out to the middle of the lake and there were fish jumping all around him, but he didn't catch any. I think the boys had fun anyway, especially since grandpa let them take off their underwear and wade out into the lake too.
Now our summer is winding down. Josey started school last Monday, but Jordan doesn't start until after Labor Day. A 1st grader, I can hardly believe it. I really hope he likes 1st grade. It will be good to be back into a routine, but I will miss the warm weather and always having Josey around as backup. I will have to start getting up really early to work out, but I guess I will get used to that quickly. I really love the fall and I'm glad Josey doesn't coach during this time of year and we can enjoy watching football games together. We've got tickets to one BYU game this season, and I'm looking forward to that. Jordan is finally to the stage where he is interested in trying to run actual plays. He can almost tackle me too.
I know I say this every time I blog, but I love my family. My kids are so funny and cute. They make me laugh every single day. Yes, they get on my nerves sometimes, usually every day, but then they turn around the next minute and say something funny or do something sweet. Josey asked me the other day about my "job satisfaction" because it was being discussed on the radio show we were listening to. I can honestly say I would not rather be doing anything else. I consider myself very lucky and blessed that I feel this way. I do not feel like I'm giving anything up, and I've never regretted the choice I've made to stay home with my kids for this short and precious time in their lives. It helps that I have a husband who lets me have time to myself and pursue other interests that I enjoy. He is so good to me and I love spending time with him. We just have to avoid talking about certain subjects on certain days. :) Another bonus about my family? They're beautiful!
