Hinkley/Ewing's at Temple Square

Every spring Uncle Ira puts together a Hinkley/Ewing family gathering up in SLC.  Everyone who is in the area goes to listen to Music and the Spoken Word, put on by the Mormon Tabrinacle Choir. Then we walk around Temple Square until we meet up at Ira's house for a big lunch.

It was perfect weather, and the flowers looked beautiful! There was a big group picture taken with everyone, but I didn't get one on my camera.  But it was a really nice morning/afternoon!

Happy Spring!

Thanksgiving Point Half

I have run 2 marathons, 3 Ragnars, and now I can add a half marathon to my resume'! I was originally going to sing up with a few ladies, but one by one, something came up and had to back out.  But I still wanted to run the half.  I was doing really good training up until a month ago.  I have been running/working out at least 5 days a week (I am doing a challenge with some friends...I'll explain at the end).  But I haven't found time to do any long runs for the past month.  I was a little worried about my legs not being able to make it, so I decided to just keep it at a good steady pace.  I found a pacer for the race, and kept with her the whole way.  I just looked at the official time, and I finished in 2 hours 19 minutes!!  (about a 10:37 min/mile pace) ....not bad. I was pretty proud of myself!  And to top it off I was greeted by my cute little family at the finish.....Ben got all the girls ready and out the door to cheer me on at the finish! 

I learned a few things while running:
1. I am slow, but I have a pace that I can hold forever. Even without my long run training, I felt like I could have done a full marathon.
2. Even though I am slow, I still like to pick people off. ....as in passing people. 
3. I am not one of those cool young runners anymore.  I am a mom runner....I run with a fanny pack.  It is a small running one, but I run with a fanny pack none the less!
4. And I am a little scared to see what I actually look like running. There was this lady who looked like a really slow runner....but she was a head of me. If she looked like that, then what do I look like?!
5. I hate training, but I love the actual race.

When I first had Charley, I made a goal for myself to run a marathon after every kid I had.  And I hope that by this fall I will have completed that goal! This half was to help me figure out how my body was doing.  Now, I just need to figure out what full  I want to do.

As for my challenge.  There is a group of 6 ladies that live in our neighborhood.  We all have recently had babies, and were looking for some motivation to get our baby weight off.  So we came up with a challenge:  We started March 1, and it will go until June1st.  We have to work out for 5 days a week, for at least a half an hour.  If we don't, we have to put $50 in the pot, and the money will get split between the ladies that make it the full 3 months.  I has been a great motivator to workout, even on those days were it is so easy to talk yourself out of it.  I think we are going to do a different challenge when this one is over. But this was a good one to start with to get us in the habit.

Our Little Garden!!

On Saturday we planted a GARDEN!!!  We never go in our back yard.  Why? Because we live on a mountain, and we have a cliff off our back!  Seriously! Plus it is tiny.  Since we have moved in I have wanted to plant a garden, and our back yard is really good for nothing else.  I saw on Pinterest to use cinder blocks instead of wood. This way you can use the little holes on the outside for little plants!  I asked Ben's aunt Liz to come help me....she is an expert gardener. Her backyard is AmaZING!!  She was so nice to come to our house all afternoon to help.  She even went to the store with me to pick out plants and get dirt!

The girls had so much fun helping.  Dani sat on the edge of the box and poked at the dirt for at least an hour!  We still need to get a few more plants.  The veggies don't go in until after mother's day.  But our big box has all of our berries.....strawberries, raspberries, blackberries and boysenberries. In our veggie box, the broccoli, lettuce and green onions are already in.  But the tomatoes, peppers and squash have to wait.

I am sooo excited for things to start producing!

TM5K

 Charley's school had a 5k run last Friday. Where we live, we are really secluded. And it was really easy to have the kids run through the neighborhood.  They actually ran most of the way on a dirt trail that runs along the front of all of the houses. Last year they did a "TRY-athalon".  They have always tried to encourage kids getting out and being active.  They sent home letters telling parents to have the kids train for the 5K.  I took Charley out a few times, and the day before the race, I took all of the girls. I was expecting Gabby to stay int the stroller, but to my surprise she ran all the way to the school from our house without stopping.  When she said she wanted to run the race, I was all for it.  However, I signed up for the race, and didn't think about Gabby.  So I got a shirt for me when I signed up, and when I went to see if they had extra, they were all sold out. So I cut up my shirt and sewed it back together.  It was a little snug on her, but she still looked cute! She was SUPER excited to have a shirt to run the race.

 At the start!  There were lots of mom's and dad's running.  Everyone in the school had to run it, even the teachers!  It was so fun to see the whole school out running!

 As we started running, I had one of those proud mommy moments.  It was one where I really just wanted to cry I was so happy!  I am not an amazing runner....I was decent when I was in high school. But I love it, and I was so proud of them so excited to run, and doing it!

 Crossing the finish line!

So proud of my little runners!

You can't make this stuff up...

The other day I was working at the computer.  When I was all done, I walk into the kitchen to this....

Now, earlier that day I had gone to the store, and bought the girls some new hangers.  They were out on the counter because Dani was sleeping.  I was waiting to put them away until after she woke up.  

I asked the girls (Charley & Gabby) what they were doing, and they began to explain to me that they were trying to make ICE SKATES!!!  So they broke the hooks off of the hangers, and tried to GLUE them on their shoes with a GLUE STICK!!!!  Apparently it was Gabby's idea, and Charley was the one that broke the hangers.

Yes, I did get mad at them.  I had JUST bought them! When I was younger my mom kept telling us she couldn't ever have anything nice because we just broke everything.  Well, I am coming to understand her a lot better these days!  

But after 5 minutes I couldn't stop laughing!!  Very creative girls, but maybe next time we try something stronger than a glue stick!  And maybe not try making ice skates when it is 60 degrees outside!

Omaha & Zoo

My girls have gone to the Omaha zoo more than they have gone to the SLC zoo....why....because the Omaha zoo is just plain COOLER!  Last week I took the girls back to Omaha for Spring Break.  I was asked by OPS (Omaha Public Schools), the Title VII program to teach another Hoop Clinic.  I have gone back a few times to do this....they pay me well!  :)  Plus it is a good excuse to visit Nana & Grandpa.  And of course the girls love it!  We had a busy week of dancing. And I ended up getting sick, and it was nice to have my mom help watch the girls so I could sleep!  But we managed to have some fun. The girls got to play with the Perez cousins, we went to the zoo, and got to visit with my grandparents. Ben stayed back to work.  However, he had to go to Santa Barbra for work, so he stayed an extra day so he could visit with his sister, Emily and family who live in Camarillo...just about an hour a way from Santa Barbra.  He loved his visit!  And the girls were a little jealous that he got to see AV and KD!  

But in all...it was a great spring break!  Now it is back to the schedule....and one of these days I will actually unpack from our trip! hopefully I will do that soon!!

Easter Festivities

 I probably went a little over-kill on the Easter Egg hunts this year.....we went to THREE!!  The top pictures of from Ben's work egg hunt.  Have I mentioned before I LOVE his work.  They are so fun. They had tons of eggs and candy and even games with prizes for all the kids....with lots of treats to eat. We also went to an egg hunt put on by our HOA....we paid for the hunt with our fees, so I was going!  And then we also went to an egg hunt put on by our friend and real estate agent that helped us buy our house.  He had an egg hunt with money!....the girls got a lot of change, and Dani found an egg with $20 in it!  They also had an adult egg hunt where he put in $100 bills.  My little brother didn't want to do it, but we made him, and he was the one who ended up finding $60!

 The girls woke up to the Easter Bunny coming. Dani didn't care about finding the eggs. She saw the bunny poop, and that was all she cared about! (did you know jelly beans are easter bunny poop?!....watch the movie "Hop" it was explain everything!)

Here are my pretty girls all dressed up for Church.  It was fun to have Grandpa and Nana and Aunt Jordan in the morning with us.  Grandpa and Jordan left after breakfast to head back to Omaha.  And Nana stayed an extra day with us to help  me drive back with the girls.  I put on a Hoop Clinic in Omaha, and it happened to be during our spring break, so I took the girls. For Easter Dinner, we had Aunt Kay and my siblings at BYU over!  Fun crazy weekend!.....family, legends, pow wow, egg hunts, Easter.  It was a lot to cram in to a few days!

Living Legends/BYU Pow Wow

3 of the 5 sisters after Ruben's Legends show during Heritage week. 

 Some of our families friends from our Home ward in Omaha....who have actually all moved out here to UT. They heard about his show and came to support!  We love the Johnsons and Ericsons!

 Mom and Dad were in Phx. with my sister the past week b/c she just had her baby (super cute by the way! she is a doll!) and so they decided to drive up to UT after visiting the new baby so they could catch Ruben's show.  They tried to come out in February to see it, but didn't get the chance because of a snow storm.

Heritage week also means that I get to see old friends!  I love this lady!  I wish she lived next door to me so I could see her everyday.  She was my roommate for 2 years.....and she is honestly one of the best people I know!  And she is expecting baby #4 in a few months! Yay Crystal!

And of course we went to pow wow.  Charley was a little tried, and thought she wanted to dance in Tiny tots, but once she got out there, decided that she didn't want to, and sat down.  However, both girls did dance hoop, as did I.  I think my parents got pictures of that.