Running cousins this morning for Spanish Fork Fiesta Days celebration. After Benjamin not doing so well in the Tour de Donut on the bike, I wanted him to experience something I knew his was good at – running. So Benjamin and Samuel did the 1 mile fun run with Matt. Benjamin’s time was 8:27 and Samuel’s time was 14:05. I started running with Benjamin, but he took off when Samuel and I were slowing him down. Benjamin also decided that he wanted to run barefoot, but did opt to run in socks since that would be slightly more comfortable. This was because he wanted a pair like my Vibram 5 fingers shoes, but they are too expensive for growing feet!
The older cousins ran the 10k. Brandon with his good friend Matt, Jared, Alyssa and Holly. In fact, I think after Brandon finished his 10k, Matt’s 1 mile fun run started and LaMont wasn’t ready to run with Matt, so Brandon jumped in the race to run with Matt. What a fantastic big brother!
I don’t know why it is that having chickens brings such joy, but it does! (On most days) Please forward to any other family that you know has chickens. It would be interesting to find out how many of us are keeping chickens!
Perhaps our chicken fascination is genetic… afterall LEL hauled his chickens from Nevada to Idaho in 1942. Does anyone know why? Maybe he just liked them so much he wanted to keep them!
Yesterday this scene unfolded: my cat and chickens observing each other cautiously with the back door as their barrier. It was a hoot!
Have a wonderful Easter celebrating our Savior’s gift to all.
Love,
LaReita
Cambridge Ward's float - Builders of Eternal Families.
Spanish Fork’s big celebration for the year is July 24 (Pioneer Day). They hold the Saturday before the 24th a Children’s Parade, that has grown into a much larger event than what the original was intended to be. Now after the Children’s Parade, there are activities and festivities in the Library Park that last all day. It really is a lot of fun, but also exhausting!
But that’s ok, since summer time is about having fun!
The boys really wanted to take Ruxpin with us for the parade. I really didn’t want to have to drag him around with us in the park for the rest of the day, but I relented and asked Dave to come get us when we were done. Well, our day turned out much different than we thought it was going to be.
I had Jacob in my sling and Ruxpin on a leash and I walked down with them on the parade route down to the park. Ruxpin was very excited for the walk. Jacob loved all the attention too.
Benjamin, James, Anthony, Samuel (hiding in the house)
Once we got down to the park, there were activities galore. The first and most important for my boys and for LaMont’s family was to get to the Fish Derby. They really wanted to make sure that they caught a fish with their bare hands. For $5 each they waited in line for 45 minutes waiting for the fish to arrive. I called Dave and had him pick up Ruxpin, and drop off swimsuits. They really wanted to have swimsuits so they didn’t have to get their clothes wet.
Dave was a good sport and was taxi person for the next 30 minutes doing my To Do list (like going to the ATM to get cash, bring the swimsuits, then coming to pick us up when we were done).
But the boys had a great time! 2 years ago when we did the fish derby James was heartbroken to see his fish die before his eyes
Here's Sam using a net to try to get his fish
in the Ziploc bag. This year he did ok, but it was Anthony that was traumatized with the death of his fish. He started crying, asking for Dave to get to the park fast to pick us up so we could get it home and in the fish bowl. Even though we kept telling him that a trout can survive in a little bowl. He had to see it for himself. After quite a few tears, he insisted that we bury it in our backyard. So we did. We planted a plant over it too. Benjamin couldn’t wait to have his fish grilled up. (Which we still haven’t done yet. It’s still in the freezer.)
Sam's Fish!Ben's fishAnthony excited for his fish. After this picture James gives him the bad news that the fish is going to die.James finally got his fish with his bare hands. It took him about 45 minutes, but he did it without the net!
We got home with the fish, changed their clothes (the boys, not the fish), and returned back to the park to do more activities. This time we brought along Jessica, Ryan and Savvy. (Boy that’s a full crowd to put in the van!)
Samuel and Ryan climbingSavannah coming down from a big jump
There was also a jumping trampoline thing that was $5/jump for about 3 minutes. There was a huge line for this right after the parade, and Brynn Lewis waited in line for it for 1 hour. By the time we got to it at noon, there were significantly less amounts of kids there, so we waited about 10 minutes for a turn, and nearly everyone took a turn jumping HIGHER than they’ve ever jumped before. Too fun!!!!
Anthony - a bit blurryBenjamin loved thisJames (10) is really getting brave about some things, and was getting some great flips
Trying to 'crack the egg'. Samuel doesn't like this game.
During piano and violin lessons, the kids take turns going on the trampoline. There have been a few accidents. And for sanity’s sake, I should probably stop letting them do this while we come for lessons. But it has been a great bribe at the beginning.
While Savvy and Ryan have been visiting us, they also have come to lessons so they can also play on the tramp. Oh, and Ruxpin too, so he can see his half-brother, Sachmo. (Meika’s dog.)
