Farewell to the McDonalds

Sniff, sniff. 

Last Saturday, we had these fun peeps over to send Kara and Nic off for their next adventure in life. Stanford University. Britt and John will be leaving us in the next year and then Alli and Justin the next for school. It's crazy where life takes us! Dave and I are home bodies for now, but who knows what the future will bring! I'm sad that Kara and Nic are leaving, but I know they'll have a great experience and jokes on them, they have to come back to visit family and us!

I love these peeps!

ha! this is the aftermath of the jumping picture. I just had to post it!

Wildflower Pedalfest

The Wildflower Pedalfest is a women's only bike ride up in Morgan Valley which is right up the canyon from us. It was the first annual and they put together a great ride! I wasn't planning on doing it because I have been ridiculously busy with school and tennis so, I haven't been riding as much. I did the 50 mile ride the weekend before and I did fine so, I bought someone's spot (shh! don't tell, I got a better deal that way anyway and still got all the perks! Lunch, massage, a cute shirt, etc.). Bridget did the 75 that climbs Big Mountain, maybe I'll do it one day, but I wan't conditioned for it this time.The 50 miler climbs up to East Canyon Dam which is a nasty climb so I am glad I did it the week before! I felt much better doing it this time than the week before too. I found a couple of girls to ride with and we stuck together until the last 6 miles where I separated from them because I got anxious and felt great. The ride was a lot of fun! The only part that was tough was the head wind while climbing up East Canyon, but it helped to be riding with others. I'm the first to admit I'm not a strong climber, but (I'm going to brag for 1 sec) I kicked everyone's behind up that hill! It felt so good to finally be the one doing all the passing and breaking away instead of being the one left behind or passed! 

 We got lunch and a free massage afterwards. And they had at least 6 long tables lined with desserts! It was insane how many desserts they had. We had to be careful. They also had a raffle with at least 100 prizes. Sadly, Bridget and I didn't win anything. Oh well.

Getting ready 

Warming my legs up before the start

At the first feed zone

Taking off from the first feed zone and dreading the next 12 miles

Climbing to East Canyon with my new buds

On the descent back down! The girls I rode with completely fell in love with Dave after he had yelled out to us, "it's all downhill from here" at this point. They thought he was such a sweetheart for supporting me (I couldn't argue). 

I finished strong!

How Can I Describe How I am Feeling?

sleep deprived
mind racing
chaotic
overwhelmed
yearning for organization (and sleep)
anxious

yet,
taken care of
supported
blessed
inspired
eager
loved

My Pops is 60!

Sunday was my dad's 60th birthday! We celebrated by having a few of his favorites: sausage pizza and coke (even Michael participated in the coke party). The plan was to buy him Sbarro pizza (my grandma used to bring him a whole big Sbarro pizza every year on his birthday) but when we went to pick up the pizza on Saturday (tried to make a good choice by not buying it on Sunday) the Sbarro in Layton  was closed down, so we did the next best thing (it's my first choice) HOMEMADE PIZZA! Then, we finished the meal with this delicious chocolate zucchini cake I discovered last week! I got it from Pinterest but tweaked it to make it a bit more my style (healthier- did you know that you can cut out almost half the butter/oil in most baking items and they still turn out yummy and hold together?!? I've tested the waters out on everything I've baked in the last year or so and I have had about a 95% accuracy rate! I don't use the applesauce tactic really anymore but I have thrown in Greek yogurt to things to moisten them up!). Dave and I devoured the exact cake in just two days, the week before!  

The can was perspiring and made the drinks look that much more refreshing.

We had a nice spread of food!

I can't get this photo to rotate correctly

ELED Buddies For Life

I am so lucky to have met these three great girls (Morgan, Mary and Jenn) in my elementary ed program up at USU 6 years ago! It's crazy how time has flown by and the places we're all at in our lives now.Morgan was just recently married and Mary and Jenn both have two adorable kiddos, Mary has a third on the way. Mary just moved to Layton so I'm super excited to her so close! Last night, I had the privilege of having them all over with their cute families! I was looking forward to this night for awhile and  it didn't disappoint!  I'm so happy we could all get together with everyone's busy schedules! 

Morgan, Mary, Jenn and I
(My shirt makes me look like I've gained 20 pounds in this picture!)