Hobble Creek 1/2 Marathon

Well, another race has come and gone. And let me just tell you that this race was so nice! After doing the marathon, this race was awesome and felt so good! Don't get me wrong. Running 13 miles is still hard! But, the miles just seemed to go by so fast and to be done at 13, and not have to do 13 more was a wonderful feeling!

I am so proud of my 2 sisters-in-law, Cherry and Amz, and my brother-in-law, Greg. This was Cherry's 1st half and she did awesome! This was Amy's 2nd half, but she blew her 1st half time out of the water and felt so good! Greg was feeling the pain by mile 4, but persevered and finished with a great time! It was really fun to run a race together with the family! Cherry's brother in law also finished 30th overall and had a great run!

Great job you guys!

One thing I cannot fail to mention is my greatest fan and racing buddy, my hubby, Brett. He is awesome! He is always there to help me when I need it and get my mind in the right place when I'm down and out. He is wonderful! I'm glad we have a hobby that we can do together and running has become something I really love.

Thanks to my mom for taking the kids while we ran! We definitely couldn't do it without all our family support!

Thanksgiving Point Fun

Thanksgiving Point was having it's $2 Tuesday's this month and a few friends and I decided to take advantage of the great deal. The first Tuesday we went to the beautiful gardens and walked through. Then we ended at the Children's Gardens with a sprinkler park to top it off. Connor had already started school by this day and I was just able to take the twins. I was bummed he couldn't come with us, but McKay and Makenna had a blast!

The whole group of neighborhood kids

Love that little face!


I love this picture of Makenna. It sums up the whole trip. They had a great time.

The next Tuesday we went to the Dinosaur Museum. The twins and I had never been to the museum before; Connor has and he loved it when he went. So, I thought $2 Tuesday's would be a great time to go. Well, so did a lot of other mom's. My friend, Teri and I went and when we got there there was a HUGE line of people waiting to get in. That should have been our first clue. The place was a mad-house!!!! Kids running wild everywhere and double wide strollers everywhere! It was hard to move around! But, it was still fun. The twins thought it was awesome and loved the bones and huger than life shark. They especially loved digging for fossils. They had a great time! Thanks, Teri, for the pictures!

Boys Night Out

While Makenna and I attended a fun girls night out at my fabulous neighbors home (thanks Maryam), Brett took McKay and Connor camping with his brother Mike and his boy, Brandon. Well, much to their chagrin, a lot of families had the same idea the weekend before school started. By the time they made it to the place they wanted to camp (the Spruces in Big Cottonwood Canyon) it was totally full. But, they did get to hike up to Donut Falls and then they had a big sleepover at Mike and Amz' house (thanks guys).

Connor and Brandon at the base of Donut Falls.
Brett did some fancy trick with our camera to get this picture. Yes, this is the same precious camera we almost lost in Yellowstone......thanks be to the soul who found it and turned it in.

Connor and B-ster at the top of Donut Falls. Brett had to carry each boy up to the top because it was such a steep climb. Uncle Mike stayed with McKay.

Brandon, Connor, McKay and Uncle Mike

Connor's First Fishing Trip

One of Brett's good friends from work asked if he could take him and Connor fishing. Brett jumped at the offer because Connor has always wanted to go fishing and neither of us really know how. I had gone once or twice with my Grandpa Harmon when I was younger, and Brett has little experience under his belt. Jared, apparently, is a professional! He knew this great little lake up American Fork Canyon and Connor had a wonderful time! He came home beaming and told me all about the 5 fish he caught. He also learned a lot about the fishing laws from Jared and was able to pass of a scouting requirement! He was thrilled about that too!

Here is Connor with Jared and one of his first catches of the day!

Can you just tell how excited he was about this fishing trip!? I love this picture of Connor. It just captures all he's feeling at that very moment: the thrill of catching another fish and the need to hold it far enough away from himself that it doesn't actually touch him! He just looks so happy and proud of himself at this moment. Fishing is all he's talked about for the last few days and the other night he told Brett, "I think I want to try fly fishing, dad." And Brett said, "Well, maybe you ought to practice regular fishing for now and get really good at that, and then try something else like fly fishing." Connor said, "Dad, I'm already a pro at that! Jared already taught me everything." It was pretty funny! Thank you Jared for taking time out of your schedule to take two of my boys fishing. They had a great time!

Kindergarten date with Grandma Rush

Brett's mom had McKay and Makenna over for a little kindergarten date. She gave them each a present (a new school shirt) and then took them out to McDonald's for lunch. They got to eat and play and then she let them choose out a movie to rent. They both agreed on Barbie Mariposa. McKay didn't seem to mind. Anyway, the kids we just thrilled to be going on a special date with grandma and are so excited to go to kindergarten! They also got to go along with their cousin Kiera. They had a wonderful time. Thank you, Grandma!

Funny triathlon commercial

This is for all my friends who have ever done triathlons and know the truth to this commercial. Hillarious, but oh, so true!

Yellowstone!

We had a great time at Yellowstone and I am so happy to be able to present you with our pictures!! I still can't believe that my camera was found and turned in. Oh, I'm so happy about that! Anyway, we went to Yellowstone with some of Brett's siblings and their families. We took up a couple of canoes (which I don't have pictures of because canoeing came after I lost the camera) which were SO FUN and we also took a little cousin, Madison, with us. We camped-- no trailers here-- and loved our campground-- fully equipped with flushable toilets and showers!!! My kind of camping! Anyway, here are some of the great shots we got!

Connor, Brandon and Madison in front of Dragon's Mouth-- part of the Mud Pots.

Makenna and Hayley. See the deer up in the trees in the background ?

Walking along the trail of the mudpots with some of the cousins.

Kids playing in a warm stream/river. This was fed by a geyser a little upstream and really nice and warm!

A black BEAR!!! In all our years of going to Yellowstone, we've never seen a bear. Well, we did this year. Interestingly enough, as we pulled over to take some photos and see the bear, I saw an old friend I haven't seen for over 5 years! We'd thought we'd lost contact, but now I have her info! So happy!


Big buffalo walking down the road as we're driving past. He knew we were in his territory and he wasn't about to move out of the way of oncoming traffic.

Brett and Kenna swimming in Jackson Lake. The water was cold, but very fun!

Connor playing on the shore of the lake. He preferred this to swimming in the cold water. He is not a fish like his mom and dad are. We'll swim in almost anything!



Cousins at a really neat waterfall. We explored this one day and saw a whole bunch of college kids climb up to the top and jump off. It looked so much fun, so Brett and I had to do it. We came back the next morning and Brett made sure the water was deep enough (about 10 feet) and then we climbed up to the top and jumped in! I stood on the ledge for about 5 minutes (seriously) before I could jump off-- it's about a 30 foot high ledge. Then I took the plunge! It was so exhilarating, I did it 2 more times! It was so great! Probably the highlight of the trip for me!

This could be on the cover of the visitor's center brochure for Old Faithful. The kids thought it was awesome! Aren't they the cutest things?