June Gloom

My Aunt Jill calls June the June Gloom month. Because in California it gets hot and gloomy. I didn't have a name for this post so June Gloom it is! 

June has come and gone. Here's a little of what we have been up to! 

Under the clouds you can see some snow! One sunny June day our high was 48', brrr for June. BUT it did green up the lawn. Most of June has been sunny and warm and perfect spring temps. 

Lexi loves to pick our berries. Here she has a bowl full of strawberries. She also loves to pick the sugar snap peas and raspberries which are just coming on. Today in fact, I yelled at her and a friend for picking and consuming all my berries that were going to be in a yummy salad. RRR, I was upset mostly because I didn't get any berries. Raspberries are heaven--my kids love them just as much as I do! 

Baseball season wrapped up. Here's Ryan and Jack finishing strong with the A's and the Sox' Peewee 8 season. THIS year they gave everyone a trophy, remember last year how both boys were crushed to not get a trophy and a dog tag instead. The 1st and 2nd place team got a bigger trophy but a small trophy made these boys smile. Jack was very sad to learn he didn't make the all star team. I'll admit I was sad too. They only take the top 2-3 boys from each team and make 2 all star teams. Most of the boys who made the all stars played on the accelerated team. I'm not sorry we didn't play on that team, it was enough baseball without more games. BUT Jack had a great season. He got to pitch, he played 3rd base all season, got hit by the ball, walked, struck out, and had several hits. His team lost the playoff game but had a great season and all improved immensely. So in my book, that's a win! Loved his coach and esp loved that his practice was so close to home. Maybe next year, these two can be on the same team and help out their momma's who are running them here and there!


This is our army post box in the corner of our yard aka electrical box!! Aren't we lucky to have 3 in our corner??? Lexi and Lilly love to table dance on it, or climb up and jump off (usually into my flowers)--iris surrounding the boxes were gorgeous this year as always! I forget how fragrant they are--one of my favorite smells of spring! Thanks Grama for the iris starts many years ago. All of the gardens I have have them too.

Lexi also received a trophy for playing t-ball. This is Tanner. They are best buds and talk about getting married. She loved playing ball. Next year, in this league the players play machine pitch. I asked Lexi if she wanted to play here with Tanner and Brooks next year or go to Maddy's league and play with all girls. She wants to play with both! I told Mike he was on the wrong board (he was the t-ball VP with Cal Ripken this year)--he has 3 girls and only 1 son (Cal Ripken supports both males and females but mostly males play there where only girls play at Oquirrh Mountain) I guess we'll see where she wants to go next year.  Hopefully Lexi and Abby can play on the same team.

We've enjoyed our Thanksgiving Point pass and spent the day with cousins and enjoying learning and figuring out new things. This is a music room. Amazing place the Museum of Natural Curiosity is a fam fav!

We spent several afternoons at a new park dedicated to Sierra Newbold, a young girl who was killed 2 years ago. It is amazing, love the soft turf, the splash pad and it is fun for all ages myself included!



And finally softball season came to an end. Maddy's team was brand new at the beginning of the season and by the end, had a 6 game winning streak and placed 3rd in the championship playoffs and got a medal and a trophy. I love the medal! She has several and they don't collect as much dust as the trophy's do. She finally figured out how to hit and was a hitting machine. Her confidence and hard work, helped her to play 2nd base. She worked hard and learned so much!

Here's me and my new hair cut. Not loving it but I guess it's growing on me! Some days I  like it better than others.

Camille sent me some pictures of our kids at 7 peaks. We have a season pass and try to get the most out of our money--heck we paid $19.95 and got a $20 gift card for the POAP. It's a killer deal and not as many people bought the pass this year--haven't seen the usual crowds but we love spending the day at the water park and enjoying the sunshine! 

 Alli, Macey, Maddy

 Lilly has her moments, she isn't a fish like her big sis but enjoys some water time. She does love sitting in the tube and last week we were floating the lazy river and she took a nap so we floated it 4-5 more times while she slept. It was fun for both of us!

 Lexi and "little" Ally

 This technically wasn't taken in June, rather in April but loved the fam picture so threw it in here among the others. This was taken at Grandpa's funeral in April.

And then some more pictures all out of order. Here is Maddy up to bat at her playoff game.

 For her closing ceremony, the team mates and coaches signed their names on the shirts.

 And here the girls are getting their medals and trophy's. 

 Jack and Maddy participated in a week long basketball camp at West Jordan High School. It was 5 days, 2 hours, $50 and they learned so much. They both loved the camp and love playing basketball. Madison surprises me and dribbles with her left hand (she's right handed), Jack is fast and little and loves to play tornado (we called it speed when I was young). He was a dribble tag champion.

 They loved "dribble tag" Maddy loved it and won! Jack won a free throw contest award. They enjoyed the camp so much. Jack's been begging Dad to put up the basketball hoop that we bought in April. BUT it's more complicated than we know what to do so it's still in the box in the garage.

 We've also been doing swimming lessons. Lexi is a fish and not afraid of the water or anything, poor teacher Grace--she has a hard time keeping up with Lexi.

 Jack took lessons to help his style, he knows how to swim but needed some work to make it look like he was swimming rather than drowning!! He looked like a crab swimming he was all curled up instead of a long lobster. BUT the lessons payed off, he is swimming with more grace and his dives are beautiful. Matt his teacher called them "smooth."

 Lexi had lessons with her friends, it was rather play time then lessons. I asked if she could be switched to level 4 with Jack and she learned so much  more. She needed something to challenge her.  It was so good for her!

 Hailey, Abbey, Lexi, Lincoln

Mike was on a scout camp overnighter and Jack was at Buddy's house for his birthday so me and the girls went to Grammies to help her with some yard work and then to go have dinner at IHOP. Lexi was with us just inside playing. Grams is doing so well and so independent, she is still very careful about where she walks and makes sure she can hold on to something. She doesn't use her walker anymore and her sister Penny is a life saver and drops by daily to help Grama with anything she needs. 

The next day the girls and I ran into Elsa and Anna at the FairyTale Festival at Thanksgiving Point. 

We were so excited to see them! 

They had a giant bubble station. I need to get one of these! And make some homemade bubbles--glycerin is the key! 

Lexi's hands are covered in bubbles made with dry ice. 

They had a may pole (I think that's what you call it). 

They  even had real live mermaids in the lagoon. Lexi has always dreamed of being a princess when she grows up and now after seeing a real live mermaid may change her mind! She was in love with the two mermaids! 

After the show we went back to swim with Kamryn and Karsyn at their pool. Lexi and Karsyn are such great buds! Sure love these cousins and so glad we live so close that we can see them so much. 

Any time we get with Emma is always welcome, we met up with her at 7 peaks and enjoyed the day with her. These kids can't get enough of her, she is growing up and will be headed to high school this fall! It seems like yesterday she was helping with baby Maddy. 

 When boys turn 8, they are invited to particpate in cub scouts. With baseball and school Jack has missed some activities but worked hard at home with Mom and Dad and received several awards. Jack had his first pack meeting as a cub scout. His leader said "Jack you received the most awards" tonight. He received his BobCat and 2 belt loops. He was super excited.

 For his Bob Cat, I received a pin and he pinned it on me.

 Love this boy so much! 

 After the award the kids did a giant slip n slide. Well not as giant as the hill last year but a long tarp.

 Here's swimming lessons again. I love that Jack is swimming and breathing to the side.

 Even Lexi picked it up and was swimming so much better and breathing to the side. I'm torn, should I put her in another session or not. It will definitely help her skills (she already swims) but it's also 2 more weeks of my summer driving back and forth to lessons (and my summer ends in 3 weeks).

Several mornings I went to the church to help glitter flowers for the stake float for the days of 47 parade. I'm doing the easy part. These flowers have all ready been cut out, put together, painted and just needed my help to add glitter! Any excuse I can have to glitter--I'm there. I can't wait to see the finished results. The float will be amazing and I've only seen the flowers for it. 

Another cool storm brought us and goofy friends to the zoo. The train is now open and the giraffes, zebras and ostriches are walking around the train. We loved the lions and the monkeys and enjoyed the bird show. 

And a trip on the train. It's longer now but not sure it's still worth $2 per person!! Trying to decide if I'm going to renew my pass it expires in July. 

 And last for the month was Ragnar. Mike has been training for the last 3 months for this race. Tifani tried to talk both of us into running it. I thought heck no but Mike thought heck yes. He trained for it and said he has found the runners high (even thru loosing toenails and being sore and walking with a limp)!

The race starts in Logan and ends in Park City. It is a relay race of 12 person teams with each person running 3 legs of varying lengths. He left for Logan Thursday afternoon and arrived home late Saturday night. He slept a little (maybe a couple hours) and ran his heart out. His team ran 197 miles. There were 12 runners, the drove in 2 vans and cheered each other on.

Mike's legs totaled just over 11 miles and were all rated "Hard" by the Ragnar organizers (legs are rated Easy, Moderate, Hard, or Very Hard). He thinks it was because of the steep inclines and mountain trails he had to run.  He did say he was glad to see us at the finish line, it is an emotional time. So I'm happy we came to see the team finish strong!

He bought some compression socks (awesome orange knee highs) and was amazed that he didn't have shin splints! I'm so proud of his accomplishments.

On Saturday, I took the kids up to Park City to cheer him on to the finish. We arrived just before Alex finished her leg and Mike ran the final leg. Here they are handing off the baton aka slap bracelet!

Mike's last leg was up the mountain that the PC is written on for Park City High School. Yep straight up the mountain, it looked brutal. Tifani's last leg also looked brutal. I heard her tell my dad that her last 4 miles were not fun and that she didn't remember last year Ragnar not being fun. Her's was the Ragnar Hill that the entire relay series is named after and it has a difficulty level of Very Hard ~ 4 miles of straight up. It was the mother of all runs. Way to go Tif and Mike and team. I'm so proud of you all!

Here is Mike rounding the corner to his leg to cross the finish line. I'm not going to go into details on the finish line but I'm proud of the team for working hard and ending strong.

 Mike didn't know to wait for his team to cross the finish line so "most" of the team straggled in.

 Here's Mike and the girls he rode in the van with and Nick (he was in van 1) but took a picture with the group. Tif, Kennedy, Mike, Autumn, Madison,  Alex, Nick

 And then Taylor jumped in the picture. I didn't get a whole Ragnar team shot and not sure they ever took one. LOL.

And that's a wrap! July is already here and will be full packed I'm already sure of it.