Flag day

I love that every year the park near us sets up these flags.  We always go and I make the kids figure out how many flags there are...its our math for the summer.  Ha ha.  When we went this year to see the flags (we went a few times) there was a nice breeze blowing the flags.  It is such a sight to see all those flags waving in the wind.  I love it!

We had a picnic in the shade before we ran through the flags.

And Sadie was Finley's playground.  Ha ha.  Such a good big sister.

Zac is always the one you have to watch while taking pictures!

5 kids and 900 something flags...

We invited our friends to come see them this year.  We planned ahead and dressed our kids in patriotic clothing.  :) It made for some really cute pictures!

We love the Hatch family!

My little (big) family minus Rob.

Finley-8 months

Sadie-10 years

Emery-6 years

Zac-8 years

Riley-3 years

And Sadie loves playing with Clara!  She chased after her on the playground so us adults didn't have to.  :)

5k with Laurel

 So after I had started exercising (after my hospital stay) I told my friend Laurel that we should do a 5k together because I had been looking at all my medals from my previous races that I've run and it motivated me to want to do another one.  So Laurel found this 5k that was in Salt Lake and was benefiting brain tumor/brain cancer research!  Perfect! So we signed up and went!

I had to stop and walk a few times to catch my breath, but I finished!  And it was so great to run with Laurel.  Seriously.  It makes the running part go by faster if you are chatting that whole time.  Although I was mostly just listening because I was so out of breath.  ha ha.  

Then at the end they started calling off the raffle tickets.  Laurel and I were sure we were going to win something so we stuck around.  They started handing out the medals of the people who got first in their age group.  Then they said they were handing out awards for survivors who ran the race.  Then I heard them call my name for the female survivor who got first.  ha ha.  I couldn't believe it.  I had walked part of it!  I must have been the only female survivor.  :)

But I got this cool trophy.  So it was kinda fun.  Ha ha. 

Hopefully we can do this one again next year!!

Good bye Zac's Cast

After 4 weeks of wearing this cast...Zac finally got to get it off!!!  He was so excited to be able to straighten his arm again!

They let him wear ear protection  while they were sawing the thing off.  

The kids all got suckers and then we went to visit dad at work since we were right there...

Zac still couldn't really straighten his arm (he can almost all the way now.) 

That night the kids were going to try sleeping on the trampoline.  So I let them stay up later than usual because it is light until 9:30 here.  They were outside playing on the swingset and I heard Emery start screaming.  I ran out there and she was on the ground saying her arm hurt.  

She was screaming and crying for over and hour.  But it wasn't swollen.  My first thought was that her arm was broken but we decided to wait to bring her in because it was late at night...and because she is sometimes really dramatic.  Also I thought there was no way she broke her arm the day Zac got his cast off.  So we waited till the next day after her piano lesson and after a movie that we were going to see.

 The kids didn't last on the tramp.  There was lots of fighting and coming in and going out and finally around 12:30 when Zac came in crying because Emery had his light stick we thought "That's IT!!!"  So we made them all come in and sleep inside.  Maybe we will try again in like 5 years.  :)

The next day we brought Emery in to the Dr. and sure enough it was broken.  Both the bones in her wrist were broken.  Poor girl. 

I made bread!

 I thought I would start this post with a cute picture of Finley.  Just because she's cute! 

A few Sundays ago, I decided I wanted to try my hand at making bread from scratch.  I have made lots of bread before, but not like bread for sandwiches and stuff.  I had some wheat flour I wanted to use up so I called my friend for her recipe and made some.  I also had to borrow 4 bread pans from her.  Thanks Tessa!

 Here it is rising by the oven.

 The kids loved punching it down!

 Empty bread pans...

 Baked bread.  My house smelled so so good!

Yummy warm bread.  I ate about 5 slices.  It was so good fresh out of the oven.  I want to do this more often.

Family Reunion

 In May my parents came up to Utah for a little family reunion for my dad's family.  It was here in Utah so that was convenient.  They stayed with us and would drive to the various activities during the day.  It was fun for the kids to be able to see them again and we always love having them around.  One of the days was a trip to This is the Place Park.  I had been there once many years ago...and I didn't remember much about it.  I actually wasn't planning on going with them because usually Emery got out of school at 11 (half day kindergarten) but that day she happened to be going on a field trip so she was going to stay all day at the school and walk home with the older kids.  Perfect!  So we decided last minute we would tag along.  It was so much more fun than I thought it would be.  We loved it so much that we bought a season pass and have already been back 3 times!  The kids love it!

So when we went with grandma and grandpa, I only had Finley and Riley.  Here are some of the pictures.

This was in the school room.  We learned how to write our names in an alphabet that isn't used anymore.  But it was based on sounds.  It was fun.  This was right before I saw Riley head outside and then she was lost for a minute.  Really it was like one minute, but I couldn't find her so I started to panic a little bit.  But we found her pretty quick just hanging out by the fence.  

 

 Riley loved the place where you can pet the animals. 

 This is a random picture but I just thought my kids choice of footwear was hilarious.  It was a rainy day and Emery chose rain boots, Riley chose snow boots, and Sadie and Zac chose flip flops!  Silly kids!

 Our neighbors painted Riley's face.  I don't know what it is supposed to be, but it was pink!

 My mom took Finley on the trampoline.  I think she liked it.

 Grandpa took her for a ride on the swing.

 Petting more animals.

 She really loved the pony ride!  She went twice!

 Here she is making an arrowhead necklace.  

 Here is Riley and Grandpa trying to float a little boat down the stream but it kept getting stuck on the rocks.  

 I love Riley in a hat!  And my cousin Giuliana took a turn holding Finley. 

 The trip really took it out of both kids and they both promptly fell asleep on the way home in the truck.

 

 We took lots of train rides.

 Then grandma and grandpa treated us to ice cream sandwiches.  Our teeth looked great.

 This picture cracks me up because the kids get angry at each other for "stealing" Finley.  Looks like Sadie "stole" Finley's attention from Emery. Ha ha.  But Finley is smiling in the mirror.  

 This was at the park for the BBQ for the family reunion. It was great to see some cousins that I hadn't seen in a while and also to see my grandparents and aunts and uncles who were there.  

 Grandpa kept Finley entertained. 

 Unfortunately they always have to leave to go back home...which is sad.  But we love it when they are in town and can't wait to see them again! Hopefully soon.  :)