S'mores!

One of my favorite things about summer and about our house, is roasting marshmallows out at our fire pit. A few weeks ago we invited a bunch of neighbors to bring their kids and come have a fire with us. Since it's usually about 90 degrees during the day here in July we had to wait til the sun went down a bit and it cooled off before getting the fire going.

Nothing like a gigantic marshmallow to make a gigantic mess with...but oh so yummy!
Brian, Brady, Brian, and Arlene and Ken.
Kenley, Karly, Cayli and Brian.

Looks like Regan is trying to see how many he can get in his mouth. Such a crack-up!
We found out at the end of the night this was little Dylan and Sarah's first time having s'mores, so happy to be a part of it!!

Hopefully we can do it again before school starts! Mmmm! (Not pictured: Lots of other fun people. Sorry I didn't get pictures of everyone.)

Triathlon: Pass the weak...hurdle the dead.

Tina saw that saying on the back of someone's t-shirt and we both thought it was hilarious. (and I hoped I would be neither the weak or the dead by the end of the race...)

We were up before 6am to get ready to go, Russ had expertly loaded our bikes the night before. We were in Layton by 7:00 and finally getting in the water sometime after 8:30. This triathlon has a mini sprint which is 300yd swim (12 lengths of the pool), 5.5 mile bike and 1.5 mile run. The full tri which we did, was the mini, then head back to the pool and do it all over again.

At the end of my run I was truly dreading getting back in the pool to start all over, but to my surprise, the second swim felt so much better than the first!! Of course Brady swam each time in about 4 minutes and seemed to have no problems at all getting through the whole course with the exception of the seat cushion on his bike coming off so he had to hold it for 5 miles. The transitions were kind of a pain, but it's part of the fun.

Brady finished in 1:34 (20th overall!) and I finished in 1:52. (3rd in my age division)

And then there's Karly! She did the kid's tri and she was awesome!! She's been doing swim team this summer, so her swim looked so good and she was fast. Unfortunately other kids weren't such good swimmers and one girl, going the other way, drifted over to Karly's side of the lane and bonked her in the head. She recovered quickly, finished her swim and was off across the parking lot to get on her bike. The kids did a 100 yd swim (4 lengths), 1 mile bike and .5 mile run. Karly finished in 17 mins!

Dylan, Kelsey and Russ were outstanding supporters, cheering us on at every transition!

One thing that made this such a good experience for me was how supportive and fun all the other participants were. Of course there were athletes there that took this very seriously, but everyone was pleasant, smiling and encouraging one another. Most people there did not take themselves too seriously which made it fun. I loved being there with Tina who would not let me catch her on the last bike ride, Brady who always has a good time, and my cute Karly!

As good as this experience was, I do not see an Ironman in my future!

Vacation at our house

This summer, instead of our normal trip to Portland to see family, the family came to see us. Kimber was coming out to see Chad who has been teaching at BYU and stayed a lot of her two week visit with us. Since Kimber was coming out with Abe, Mom and Dad and Kecia and Mike decided to come down too. I'll admit it was a little crazy at times, 16 people in our house, but it was tons of fun.

We loved seeing Abe! So fat and so much fun! Too bad he hasn't learned that sleeping all night and into the morning makes you really popular! Abe turned one while they were here and Kimber hosted a birthday party for him and invited a bunch of her friends that came from all over Utah to see the Nelson's and celebrate Abe's birthday.

Our kids were super excited for Nana and Papa and Kecia's kids to get here, and it was one fun event after another once they did. Shopping, crafts, Raging waters, tie-dyed shirts, Cole's birthday and lots of goofing off.

At the end of all the fun the Chandler's went home, Karly packed up and left with Nana and Papa to Portland. Brady went to EFY in Provo. Kimber stayed a few more days and then she left too, taking her adorable monster with her...all leaving our house very quiet and uneventful. I know it was crazy, but I'm so glad they all came!!

P.S. The following week Kelsey flew by herself to Kentucky to stay with Kris and Kourtney for almost two weeks. They did all kinds of fun stuff, crafting, shopping, boating and more shopping and Kelsey had a blast and came home with most of her school shopping done! Thanks Kourtney!!