SATURDAY MAY 16, 2015
Team Ashley Fundraiser

I was able to help with a fundraiser for Ashely Smoot today.  Nate, Adrey, Cru and Carter ran in the race. They all did really well. We weren't to sure how the kids were going to do. Nate beat his Personal Best by 2 minutes and that was stopping to help Cru and then recatching up to the people he was behind originally.  Carter showed up at the finish line shortly after the race began and we still aren't sure how he got there.  He said that someone gave him a ride and that they knew us.  No idea, it was a little weird. 

Cru took off at the starting line and was in first place for the first mile until he got a side ache and slowed down.  He finished really well

Adrey did well but she did stop by and show one of her friends the pigs on the way past our house.We were really proud of them for doing there best. By the way we are not signed up for a 5K next Saturday but Nate and I have enjoyed getting up in the morning and running Benchcreek and we will continue that.

SATURDAY MAY 9, 2015
Ali's 4th Birthday Party

Ali wanted to have a Princess Birthday Party.  Before the party we made Princess crowns for all of the girls.  When they got here we had princess coloring pages for them to color. Then we painted nails and put diamonds on them. Next they got to make there very own Princess necklaces.   We played pin the lips on the Frog, musical chairs with Disney music, and hide the crown.  They had a lovely time.  

SATURDAY MAY 9, 2015
 United Firefighters Outreach & Angel Hands 5K

This was Nate's first 5K.  We stayed at Nates parents house on Friday night so that we could get up and go straight to the race to Herriman.  Nate and I have been training for the last three weeks to get ready.  Jelina's paint company Final Touch was nice enough to let us run for them.  We had a blast!  It was pretty cold and rainy but we crossed the finish line when the real down poor started.  

 We both finished 3rd in our age groups and 32 and 33 out of 179 people.  After the race we were able to drop off Mother's Day gifts.  (a cute red mixing bowl filled with fruit) To both of our mothers.  

MONDAY MAY 4, 2015 
Ali's Birthday

All of the kids get so excited for their Birthdays. They can't wait to see what kind of candy gets left hanging in the doorway when they wake up.  Ali was so nice to all of her brothers and sister.  It was gone before all of the kids went to school.  We had a fun day together and she could hardly wait for dad to get home and dinner to get over so that she could open her presents.  Adrey gave her paintings, a purse, and bunch of other knick-knacks.  Cru made a origami pony and Carter gave her a fairy.  Nate and I gave her a hot pink scooter.

WEDNESDAY MAY 6, 2015
Payson Temple Open House

We took the family to the Payson Temple Open House.  The kids love to see the inside of the temples and we think it is important for them as well.  While we were in the baptistry, the kids all expressed how excited they were to come and do baptisms for the dead someday.  It was cool to see how excited they were.  The Payson temple is really beautiful on the outside and the inside.  It had a lot of dark wood trim inside and a lot of glass work.  The exterior was different, too, since it was not white, it was more of a cream color.  It looked really nice, though.

On the way home we stopped in Provo at the Brick Oven for dinner.  The kids had not been there before and they loved it.  They had someone going around doing balloon animals and toys for kids.  The boys got bows and arrows, Adrey got a dolphin, and Ali got a pink T-Rex dinosaur.  They had a blast and all want to go back on their birthdays, because the staff came out and sang to Ali for hers, gave her some ice cream and a lollipop.

FRIDAY, APRIL 29, 2015
Diamond Fork Camping Trip  

Our family's April camping trip to Diamond Fork Campground in Utah.  We have had this trip on the calander for a few months.  The forcast said it was going to rain so we almost canceled but  I am glad that we went and enjoyed the adventure in the rain.  We got things set up at camp.  Nate didn't think that we needed to put in any stakes and the wind kept blowing it over. So we took it all down and started over. I am just glad that we didn't break our new tent.  That night we did the traditional tin foil dinners over a great fire that the kids helped build.  We finished up with smore's and the down pour started. Everyone ran to the tent while Nate put everything away in the rain.  He was drenched by the time he got into the tent. It rained hard the rest of the night. I do hate camping in the rain but I have to admit that it is beautiful to listen to the rain when you are inside the tent.  Nate told the story of the Hobbit. I don't think that the kids will ever forget that. (it was really bad but next time we will bring a book)

Nate took a nice scenic drive into Spanish Fork the next morning and while he was there he picked up some eggs that we forgot for our french toast.  We walked the Discovery Trail after breakfast next to the water.  It was fun and the kids had fun collecting rocks and trying to skip them in the water.  Of course on the way back it started to rain so we jumped into the car, turned the heat on full blast and tried to get warm.  A while later the rain stopped so we thought that we would go and check out the hot springs.

The hike to the hot springs was longer than we thought. We were expecting a mile in and a mile out.  It was 2.3 miles in and 2.3 miles out.  The kids all did great except Ali had a hard time getting started and wanted Nate to carry her.   

The kids love to get their pictures taken on the way up but we limited it to a few cool spots.

The hot springs were really crowded with boy scout troops and other hikers, so we just tested the water with our hands and then went up to the waterfall that is right there at the hot springs.  It was cool to see both the waterfall and the hot springs right in the same place.  The waterfall was very unique, since it has so much mineral in the water, it created a rock wall of mineral right underneath the waterfall itself.  You could actually climb up behind the rock wall and waterfall and stick your head through a hole in it.  Pretty wild.  The kids thought it stunk pretty bad from the sulfur smell of the hot spring.

On our way down, it started raining pretty good again.  We tried to pick up the pace and run a little bit or walk fast.  But it just seemed like the hike went on forever.  By the time we got to the bottom, we were all pretty wet and the rain stopped again, but we still enjoyed it.  Good times!