MightyJohnsons

We got ourselves a teenager here folks!

Thirteen years ago (on June 20, 2000 to be exact) our first baby joined our little family. It was one of the happiest days of my life. Now thirteen years later, I find myself feeling much of those same emotions. My baby is growing up. In but a few short years I will be attending his high school graduation. Time has creeped up on me so slowly and before I even realized it, my baby was in junior high, running for student council, playing every sport known to man and every instrument he can get his hands on. Reality has set in…I have a teenager…my baby isn’t a baby…he is growing up.

My sweet, tender, Jake has a special place in my heart. He is my first-born and will forever be my baby. I made him promise me that no matter how big he gets, he will always have to give me a hug and a kiss. The best part about that promise is that he loves that promise too. I won’t pretend that we don’t have any days where I want to pull my hair out and sometimes his too, but I figured that is expected and it would be unusual if we didn’t have our challenges.

There are a lot of things I love about Jake and here are a few…

1) I love that he is confident in who he is and what he believes.
2) I love that he is affectionate and loves be close to me.
3) I love that he is overly worrisome about his siblings and is always looking out for them.
4) I love that he is clean. He can’t handle a day without a shower.
5) I love that he wants to be a good person and tries to do what is right.
6) I love that he reads his scriptures when he is upset, lonely or has concerns.
7) I love that he tries to be nice to everyone, even if they are different.
8) I love that he listens to his dad (and my) counsel and tries to be better every day, even when he falls short.
9) I love that he works hard in school and always wants to excel.
10) I love that he looks like me. 🙂
11) I love that he will attempt hard things, sometimes with a fight, but he always does it.
12) I love the example he sets for our family and especially his brother and sisters.
13) I love that he won’t do something he doesn’t want to do, even if it makes him seem “uncool”.
14) I love that he does sweet things for people (leaves notes, treats, etc. for them)
15) Most of all, I love him because he is mine and part of my forever family. I couldn’t be more grateful.

As I began this list, I quickly realized that I could write 100’s of things that I love about this boy. He is just a good kid and I am so very proud of him. Happy 13th birthday Jake. I love you.

American Fork Half Marathon 2013

June has come and with that brings the annual American Fork Half Marathon. I ran it last year and fell in love with everything about it…the purpose, the heartfelt messages along the trail, the organization and how well it was run, everything! For that reason, I decided then that I would give it another go the following year.

Race day fell on June 15th this year. As with last year, it was extremely well organized. The race started exactly on time at 6:00 am. My good friend Kristy and her husband also ran the race so we got up bright and early and made our way to the starting line at about 4 am. Last year my finish time was 1:53. The night before the race, I gave myself a pep-talk. I decided I would do my best to run it a little harder this year.

After the gun went off and I headed down the canyon I realized I was keeping a really good pace for me and I felt great. I was steadily running under a 7:30 (keep in mind this is downhill). I kept the 1:45 pacer in my sites nearly the whole race so I knew I was on track to beat my old time by several minutes.

As I came out of the canyon and the downhill turned into flat and some rolling hills, I felt my pace drop. Thankfully my dear friend, Claire, met up with me at the mouth of the canyon and ran with me for the last five miles. She kept me motivated to keep trying hard. Although there was a mile or two that I am not too proud of, I was very pleased with my overall performance. I didn’t quite catch the 1:45 pacer, but I wasn’t far off with a time of 1:46, averaging a tad over 8 min per mile. That means I shaved off 6 minutes from my time last year!

I am not certain if I will try this race or attempt a different one next year, but if I do, you can bet I will have a new goal to beat. I wonder if I trained a little harder if I could pull off 1:40?! I guess we’ll have and see next year.

Kristy and I…best (and fastest) running partner ever!

Brett, Kristy, me and Claire (Yep, I look like a midget squished between all my tall friends!)

Look at that awesome group of people that came and cheered me on! Could I be any luckier?!

And for the sweetest part…Seth didn’t let me down this year. Jake and he left the house around 11:00 pm and drew awesome chalk designs along the trail to encourage and cheer me on. I heard they didn’t get into bed until after 1:00 am and they still made it out to cheer me on at 6:00 am. I sure do love those boys!

Grandma Ria comes to visit.

As expected, we were able to have Grandma Ria come visit us again this June. Every year the whole family looks forward to her arrival with great anticipation. This year did not fail us. We had another fantastic visit.

We kept very busy. We managed to make it up to South Fork campground for our traditional KFC and Krispy Kreme Donuts picnic. We also went to the Canyon and had a cookout consisting of hotdogs, watermelon, chips, soda and the highly raved “Banana Boat” (A banana mashed up with the addition of chocolate chips and mini marshmallows grilled to melted perfection). In addition we threw in a trip to the movies, several shopping trips, lots and lot of goodies, and more memories for the kids to store away until she comes again next year.

I am so grateful for a mother like her. She is such a kind and loving person. She would do anything for anyone and I am thankful to have been chosen as her daughter. I can’t wait to be able to see her again. I love you Mom!

Vegas Baby!

This Vegas trip had been in the works for quite some time. As difficult as it was to make it all come together and work for everyone, it was well worth it. Brian and Claire own a large home in Vegas that conveniently fit all of us. It was in a nice gated community with a pool, hot tub, and spacious living quarters.

We carpooled down in a Suburban with the Francis’ and the Denny’s on Thursday morning. We had a such a blast visiting, eating and laughing for six hours together!

Road trippin’ with our buddies!

The first night we got there in time to get settled, grab dinner, and sit in the hot tub for a while. The next morning we woke up bright and early. While Seth made everyone omelets for breakfast, Emily got us all organized and we were able to make and pack up lunch for everyone before we took the boats and headed out to Lake Mead.

I will admit that I was skeptical about boating and surfing in cold water. My body has acclimatized to the Utah weather and I no longer have any Alaskan blood in me. 🙂 However, we could not have asked for a better time on the lake. The water was like glass! The outside temperature was a little over 90 degrees and the water was surprising warmer than expected (although still at bit chilly upon initial plunge).

Everyone had so much fun wake boarding, wake surfing, and just hanging out with good friends on the boat. Other than my complete failure on the surf board, I had an amazing time on the boat. Good friends, good food, good music, and beautiful weather…what more can we ask for?!

Me and my honey.

Seth did great!

This is about as far up as I got in my attempt to wake surf…sad.

Yep, and here is Brett and Kristy making tandem wake boarding look easy.

Saturday was our last full day in Vegas. We used it to relax and have some fun at the house. Some of the guys went golfing. Seth and Brett had brought their bikes and they went out for a 40-mile bike ride. The smarter gender chose to stay back at the house and lay by the pool, eat, listen to music and visit. Wow, that was so nice! I could have used a few more days of chill time. Not to mention, I love all the girlies to death and had a ball spending time with them. Later in the evening we grabbed dinner and then hit the strip for more fun by shopping at the forum shops and people watching in the casinos.

I was sad to see this trip come to an end so quickly. We had such a fun time being with all of our good friends. My only complaint is that it wasn’t nearly long enough! Next time ladies…next time.

Night out at the buffet.

All the men in the party…such a great group!

Playin’ a little soccer!

This year we decided to sign both Ellie and Drew up for a soccer team with all their little buddies (ages 3-5). Four of the eight players were three years old so it was interesting to say the least. Ben, a good friend of ours, generously offered to be the coach of these little rascals and did an amazing job. He will forever be known around our house as “Coach Ben.”

Our team wasn’t pretty but those kids sure had a great time. They could be found wrestling, hugging, kicking the ball yards and yard out of bounds and more. Ellie, in particular, was often found laying flat on the ground kicking and screaming because someone had taken the ball away from her. It was quite a comical season of soccer.

Drew loved every minute of it and was the leading scorer for our team. He was the oldest kid on the team and had no problem taking the ball from everyone to get upwards of 5 or more goals each game. He is already looking forward to playing again in the Spring!

Our whole goofy team!

This pretty much sums up Ellie much of the season. 🙂

Of course they were both all smiles when they got their medals at the end of the season.

Preschool Graduation

We are closing another chapter in Drew’s life. He has completed preschool at Bear Hollow and will be heading to kindergarten in the fall. He has really enjoyed his time with Miss Molly and has grown so much in the last eight months. I can’t, however, pretend that he isn’t super excited to start school with his big sisters.

For Drew’s graduation they sang several entertaining songs. It was fun to see Drew get over his stage fright and perform the way he knows best. He did a wonderful job. He also received the award for the “class acrobat”. I am not sure what to think about that one, but it certainly isn’t surprising.

Thanks to Miss Molly and Drew for all their hard work this year. We made it and now I am ready for summer! Good job Drewbie!

Drew and his class singing songs.

Drew and Miss Molly

Drew and his buddy Natalie excited to finish off they year!

Preschool at the Zoo

Drew is in Bear Hollow Preschool. For their final field trip of the year, they headed to the Hogle Zoo. I partnered up with my good friends Claire and Emily, who also have children at the preschool, and arranged for all of us to be together. This allowed us to see all the sites, but do so at our own pace with our own agenda. The kids had such a great time and surprisingly, I had a lot of fun too!

Much of the zoo is under construction, but we were able to see some of the new exhibits of legos made into animals. We also made time to go to the bird show, which I haven’t done in years. Drew and Ellie especially loved it! We are excited to go a few more times this summer with the big kids (thanks to Uncle Derek and Aunt Alison who furnished us with a zoo pass for Christmas).

All the kiddos.

Check out the Lego polar bear!

Taking a treat timeout while waiting for the Bird Show to start.

Drew and Ellie on the carousal.

Plymouth FC

Megan has been playing D1 soccer for Plymouth Football Club over the past year. Her coach, Adam Lockyer, has turned my dear daughter into a soccer fanatic. He has been a fantastic coach and she has excelled so much under his instruction. It is so fun to watch her and her team play.

Unfortunately, the team decided to go to a big club and join Forza. That transition has caused a few girls to leave the team. Between the costs involved and time involved we opted out this year. She is headed to a lower level team with hopes of growing them up to D1 in the near future. It was a hard decision which required a lot of thought, prayer and late night chats. I know Meg is good. I also know she has huge potential. Because of that, I believe she can grow on this other team as well. The coach is likewise great and we are hopeful for another fabulous year.

So with that, we leave Plymouth FC with a sad heart. See her team below. They are a fabulous bunch of girls and we will miss them and her coach tremendously. One of her best friends, and closest teammates, is following Megan to this new team and we are really excited to be with her again next year.

Megan and her teammates.

Check out the moves!

Another big kick (wow, that ref!)

Coach Adam giving Megan her trophy at the end of the season.

All the girls being goofy.

Great American Challenge, Take 2

Megan is in the A.L.L. (accelerated learning lab) program this year. At the beginning of the school year Megan’s teacher, Miss Louw, told the students about the “Great American Challenge.” She told them it was strictly optional. She went on further to say that those kids that did it would be rewarded. There were a lot of rumors going around about what the reward might be but nobody really knew for sure.

Megan wasn’t sold on taking the challenge. I will admit that it took some coercion on my part, but she did it and finally completed it just after the new year. She had to finish all seven requirements and they had to be passed off by April 15th (no exceptions). This is what she did:

1) Label the fifty states, their capitals, the Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico and the country of Canada and Mexico on a blank map of the United States (no help or misspelled words).

2) Recite by memory the Gettysburg Address. (8 helps)

3) Recite by memory in order of Presidency, #1 through #44, the names of the Presidents of the Unites States, first, middle and last name. (no helps)

4) Write, spell and punctuate perfectly the Pledge of Allegiance. (no helps)

5) Sing or recite by memory the first verse of the Star Spangled Banner. (no helps)

6) Recite by memory the Preamble of the United States Constitution. (no helps)

7) Recite by memory the condensed version of the Declaration of Independence. (8 helps)

She could only pass them off on Mondays and could only try each item once per week. She also had to do it in front of the class, which only adds to the pressure. I was so proud of her for doing this. She worked super hard.

All of her hard work paid off when Miss Louw and three of her classmates showed up at our house in a limo! She was shocked and excited. The driver took them down to Thanksgiving Point for dinner or dessert (their choice). She loved it. Way to go Meg!

Tulip Festival

We braved the crowds last week and went to Thanksgiving Point to see the tulips at the Tulip Festival. It is a yearly tradition that we make with my in-laws but due to scheduling conflicts, we went with friends this year. As always, the flowers were amazing. It is such a beautiful place to visit. We only made our way through about half the places, but still had a great time running and playing on the grounds.

Dylan, Izzy, Gwen, Ellie & Owen