Women of Steel Triathlon

 
This picture sums up my relationship with these girls perfectly. We always have a fun time when we're together. Always laughing, always smiling, always making memories.

We signed up to participate in the Women of Steel Triathlon a few months ago together, and I am so glad we did.

It was a cold rainy morning, but it didn't stop us!

 It started with a 300 meter swim in the pool...

 
Running to the transition area...

 
Hopped on my bike and I was off on a 12.75 mile bike ride...

 
Found all my boys around mile 6 with these cute signs. I sure love them!

Last was the 3.2 mile run. Here I am at about mile 2 when Will and Tyler are waiting and run with me for a little bit.

The finish line!!!

 Kristin, a wonderful neighbor of mine, who ran the 5k and placed second in her age division! Way to go!!

Jennica almost done with the bike ride!

 Michelle at the finish line! Way to go!!

We did it!!!!

LAX

LAX (lacrosse) not to get confused with LAX (Los Angeles International Airport).

This is the new sport that all the boys are crazy about. Because Will now plays Lacrosse, the other boys all need to have their own sticks, lacrosse balls and learn all the drills and new rules. It's pretty cute to see them all outside playing together... practicing....
 
Will plays for Olympus and his team has had 3 games. They are 3-0!! Way to go boys!! Will is #12 and is doing a great job, getting better and better with every practice and game. It's been fun for me and the rest of the family to learn about this new sport. Every game we learn a couple of new rules.

Go Olympus!! Go Will!!

Selfish

 

Every negative thing someone does and every sin a person commits comes down to being selfish.

• If you have an affair on your spouse, you're being selfish.
• If you are fat because you eat too much food, you're selfish.
• If you don't spend enough time with your children, you're selfish.
• If you yell at your kids, you're selfish.
• If you're late to work or meetings, you're selfish.
• if you're a drug addict, you're selfish.

I don't care what it is, after you dissect it, it will be because of some selfish reason. I'm all for putting yourself first and taking care of yourself and all of that. It's the extreme of this spectrum that I'm frustrated about. It seems more and more lately there is more selfishness going on and not enough selflessness.

A huge example is the recent bombing at the Boston Marathon. Some little examples of selfishness are when I find friends or myself complaining about dumb little things.  Most of the time, our complaints are because we are being selfish.

If you think I'm wrong, test me on it. Tell me something negative or sinful and I'll show you the selfish motive behind it.

One of my close girlfriends is going through a divorce. Her spouse recently had an affair and told her that it wasn't her place to tell other people about the affair. Literally, he said, "we are not together anymore, so it isn't an affair!" Hello (you stupid idiot!), YOU ARE STILL MARRIED, not that that means anything to you anymore.

Here are some quotes I recently found on selfishness:

"Love is what is left in a relationship when the selfishness is taken out." - Nick Richardson

"Surround yourself only with people who are going to LIFT YOU HIGHER." - Oprah Winfrey

"When faith replaces doubt, when selfless service eliminates selfish striving, the power of God brings to pass His purposes." - President Thomas S. Monson -
 
To end this post on a slightly lighter note:

Baptism

A few months ago, Scott was walking into work and asked a co-worker and friend what he was doing as he walked past. The friend answered something like "just getting in some B-O-M time..." Scott walked past him and continued down to his workstation in the ER.  It was then that he stopped dead in his tracks. This friend was not LDS and Scott wasn't sure what else BOM could stand for, besides Book of Mormon. He went back to ask more questions and sure enough, his non-LDS co-worker was reading the Book of Mormon. This instantly grabbed Scott's attention and thus began many conversations and questions answered about the gospel.

A few months later he had a strong desire to be baptized and asked Scott to preform this wonderful ordinance. Of course, Scott agreed and was honored to do so.

It was such a unique experience for me, never meeting this guy before this special day. As I watched him I could tell he was little nervous and excited, like a child. It was powerful to watch a grown man choose the gospel of Jesus Christ in his life. His face lit up as he entered the waters of baptism and continued after the ordinance was performed.

Such a wonderful day! Such a beautiful experience!

St. George

Over spring break I wanted to head somewhere warm. Somewhere we could play outside. Somewhere we could go swimming. We decided to head to St. George for 3 short, wonderful days.

We always stop off in Beaver for some squeaky cheese and a short rest. We arrived in St. George and it was beautiful. The weather was mid 70's and we couldn't change our clothes fast enough to jump into the pool.

Later that evening we headed to Pioneer Park. It was a couple of miles from our timeshare and totally worth the stop. The views were breathtaking. It was so beautiful with the red rock surrounding us. The boys climbed and climbed.

The next day we headed to see the temple close-up and went on a tour of Brigham Young's winter home. It was very interesting, even the boys liked it!

Next we were off to Snow Canyon where we spent most of the day hiking. There are a ton of different hikes, trails and fun things for the boys to do.

Here they all are climbing away.

Will longboarded all the way down, which was super fun for him. At the very bottom a ranger stopped us and said it was illegal to longboard in the park...Oops! We apologized and promised not to ride again! He could have written us a ticket, but thank goodness he didn't!

There is an awesome drink shack called, "Swig". Every time we drove by there was a huge line, so we had to try it. There were sodas, shakes, cookies, iced teas, shaved ice....It was worth the wait!

Right before we headed back to SLC we stopped off at the park again. It was a blast and good for the boys to run around before sitting in the car for 4 straight hours!

Book Reviews

The last time I typed up a book review was back in November 2012. That is way too much time to pass before writing another review. I have read over 40 books since then, and there is no way I'm going to review all of them for you.  But I do want to take the time and let you know the ones I loved and why! There are several Young Adult books I really liked that I will share with you. Scott and I try to read the same books our boys are reading so we can discuss the books with them. It makes for entertaining talks with the boys!

Starting backwards...

• The Candy Shop War by Brandon Mull ****

• The Phantom Tollbooth by Juster Norton **** I read this book a million years ago and was glad to read it again!

• Sarah's Quilt by Nancy Turner ****

• The Good Earth by Pearl Buck **** I wasn't thrilled about the ending of this book, but it goes to show how money and greed can get to you.

• A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith **** I loved Francie and was cheering her on the entire time. A good story about hardship and love.

• The Maze Runner by James Dashner **** (finally!!) I read this the same time as one of my boys. It's a creative and interesting story.

• The Glass House by Jeanette Walls **** Loved, loved loved this TRUE story. It's so shocking to me how people live so differently than how I do.

• The Time Keeper by Mitch Albom ****

• The Scorch Trials (Maze Runner #2) by James Dashner **** I kept asking Scott what was going to happen next, but he would never tell me. So I had to just kept reading and reading.

• The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer ****

• The Lost Hero by Rick Riodan **** I don't gravitate to books with mythical creatures, dragons or sci-fi stuff.  BUT, this was a real good book. Even though it's lengthy, it was a quick read!

• The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin **** Scott, Jackson and I all read this at the same time.

• Micheal Vey: The Prisoner of Cell 25 by Richard Paul Evans ****

• The Death Cure (The Maze Runner #3) by James Dashner **** A good ending to the series
• The Kill Order (The Maze Runner Prequel) by James Dashner **** A interesting start to it all
• Little Women by Louisa May Alcott **** I've seen several Little Women movies and finally read the book. It was beautifully written.

• The Entitlement Trap by Richard Eyer **** GREAT advice for the family!  In fact, stay tuned on our blog for how we have implemented some of the elements with our family.

• Matched by Ally Condie ****

• Crossed by Ally Condie ****

• Edenbrook by  Julianne Donaldson **** LOVED this book. Loved the story, so cute. I told Scott he needs to read this...it's that good!

As you can tell from all the 4 stars above, those are the really good ones! Are there any YOU have read that I should add to my to-read list??

PLEASE, Please, please join Goodreads and rate the books you have read. I check my account often and will add books my friends have read and rated 5 stars! I want to hear from you! Also, there is a place on your account where it will not only track the books you're reading but you can make a goal for reading a certain number of books for this year.

Swimming

Over Spring Break, we headed to the pool at the Holladay Lions Club. It's huge! There are several pools to play in, a kids area, a diving area, and a tube to slide down. We all had a fun time, especially this cute little guy! He kept splashing around by moving his hands and feet. Preston was like a little fish in the water.

  Here are 2 short video's of our time swimming. The first is of Preston kicking around and splashing the water; and the second is of Brigham on the slide.

Easter 2013

On Easter morning, we ate Ebelskivers with homemade strawberry syrup and looked for our hidden baskets. The little kids took about 10 minutes to find theirs. The middle kids took a little longer, with a few hints and poor Will took over an hour! We, I mean, the Easter Bunny sure hid them well this year!!

That is one of our family traditions, is to have the Easter Bunny hide the actual basket for the kids to find.

I took Will's and Jackson's out of their baskets and put all their treats in a bag. It was much easier to hide that way! Jackson's basket was inside the piano.

The baskets were filled with candy, money and more candy!

Church starts at 1pm, so before we left, I made a batch of delicious Easter sugar cookies. The kids loved helping me cut them out and decorate them. Oh yeah, and eat them!
Scott had to leave shortly after to got to work but the boys and I were joined for dinner by the Boyce cousins. It was a real treat to have them spend the evening with us.

The meal was slightly different than I normally make. I wanted to try a bunch of new recipes this year. Thanks Pinterest!
I made crock pot ham with pineapple and brown sugar, twice baked potatoes, pastel colored deviled eggs (I placed the white part of the egg [after it was hard boiled and de-shelled] in a cup with food coloring. They turned out great! Pink, yellow, green and blue eggs!), Bunny rolls (they really looked like rats, but they tasted delicious!), Asian pasta salad with spinach, jello salad and our new favorite drink, limeade with Canada Dry.

 After we ate dinner, we hid a bunch of eggs all over the yard for the boys to find. I was telling Brynnlee, Kelsey and Aleigh that I use to come to Easter dinner when they were my kids age. Now, they're coming to my house. So cool.

I had a wonderful Easter filled with family, food, fun and of course the spirit.