It's a long one, buckle up!!!

We have been up to a lot this past couple of weeks, let me just fill you all in!!!

June 21st- Strawberry Days 5k.This was my final event for this race season. It was such a great experience to finally participate in this event with my family!! They have run this race together for years and I have always been out of shape or pregnant- so this year it was one of my goals and I am happy to say that I did it- with my best time on record- 25 min.! To some, this is not impressive but for me it was the fastest race so far, I have improved with each of my events.It placed me at 9th in my division again, but that is not the best of my family, oh no, they all did so well! My dad took 1st place in his division (he ALWAYS does!) finishing in 20 min.(yes he is 58 and beat me by five minutes!), my brother-in-law Steve took 2nd in his with a 21 min finish, my sister-in-law Bethany took 2nd in hers with a 23 min. time, and my little nephew Kobe (who is 10) took first in the under 12 division, coming in at 22 min.!! Yes, we pretty much cleaned up at the awards ceremony!!!

Strawberry Day's Parade
After the race we took our seats on the Parade route. I have been to this parade every year for as long as I can remember, it really is a tradition in my family. Of course it is much shorter now and not as many floats or bands take part and it is basically a big line of car advertisements, but they still throw candy and the fire trucks still squirt water on everyone and my girls LOVE to see the royalty on the floats- good times!

City of Fun Carnival
That night we continued in our new tradition with our friends the Conroy's and made our way to the carnival. This year Abby was brave enough to go on the Farris Wheel and it turned out to be her favorite of the night. It is so much fun to see the smiles on these darling faces as they ride these rides. Liv's favorite ride was this car one- she wanted to ride "the blue one, WITHOUT fire on the sides". Of course snow cones and cotton candy all around and our evening of fun came to an end.

June 30- July 3- Bear LakeThis past week we loaded up the car and made our way north to the Griffiths Family Reunion at Bear Lake. We stayed at The Inn at the Lake Bed and Breakfast which is a HUGE place complete with pool, hot tub, movie and game rooms. Last time we went, it was a total rain out, but this time it was absolutely beautiful!! We spend most of our time down at the lake playing in the sand, making sand castles, looking for shells, skim boarding, floating on crocodiles, rowing boats and riding the wave runners! Paul and I decided before we left that we would switch off on morning kid duties and I would go biking with Shamae one morning around the lake and the next morning he would go golfing with my brother Cory, cousin Brock and Uncle Stan. This proved to be very fun for both of us. The bike route around the lake at 6:30a.m. was so beautiful and pleasant, I just loved it! Paul came home from his round and said he had his best game of the season and was just thrilled. It was kind of a short vacation but we loved every minute of it! It was really good to sit up at night and visit with all my Aunts, Uncles and cousins that I haven't seen in two years, but I have grown up with. We are now heavy into the third generation and there were sooo many kids running around- our group totaled at 77 people! I loved to watch the smiles on my Grandparents faces as they spent time with all their GREAT- grandchildren. Hopefully it won't be that long before I see most of them again!! The Reunion came to a close with the traditional Saw Dust hunt for money and candy! This is one of my favorite family traditions, I can vividly remember doing this as a child and being thrilled to find all those quarters, nickels and dimes!! Thanks for the great memories everyone!

July 4th- Independence DayWe had a pretty calm 4th this year, with pretty much everyone we know out of town!!! We slept in(which was heaven!) unpacked from the trip and invited my brother Randy and Megan and their sweet girls over for a BBQ and to watch the fireworks from our backyard (they had been moved to the Jr. High this year because the High School is under construction). It turned out to be really fun and the girls loved playing with the pops and sparklers and watching their dad put on his traditional fountain show (although paired down this year due to lack of fan count!).

Yea! You have made it though this enormous post- Thanks for reading!

Oh, because I forgot to take my camera to the beach the first day, I don't have many pics of the trip so if any of my relatives read this (and I know you are!!!) email me any good ones that you have, I would appreciate it, you know that I need to scrap this event!!!
bree at choicetelephone dot com

Love you all!!