Donaldson Family Party

On July 23 we had a family gathering with the Donaldsons (my mom's side of the family). I wish I had captured everyone on film, but only managed to get a few pics. I guess that's what happens when you get busy eating, conversing, and watching the kids. Pictured above are Lee, Meg, my mom, Isaac, Carrie, Ashley with Samuel, Caleb, Dave, and Adelaide.

Hayden and his "cousins" (my cousins' kids) having dinner at the kid table. Pictured are Jacob, Eliza, Noah, Alexander, Hayden, and Luke.

The kids did so well playing together! They played in the sand, the water, and rode some bikes/kid four wheelers. In this picture we have Samuel, Gage, Hayden and Alexander.

I made dessert with an Americana theme. We had red, white and blue cupcakes, "popcorn" cookies, star-shaped sugar cookies, and red and white popcorn.

Art in the Park and Airborne

Hayden is taking an Arts and Crafts class through Draper and it's held at Steep Mountain Park. We found out last week that his friend, Abbi, is in the session after his. So naturally we stayed while Hayden and Ty played and I could chat with their mom and my friend, Michelle.

Group hug! This is something they did on their own---no prompting from us moms.

Afterwards, Michelle and I took the kids to Airborne (this great indoor trampoline place in Draper). The kids had a blast!

After Airborne, everyone was pretty hungry so we all headed over to Fazoli's for some food.

I thought it was so cute when Ty asked Michelle if Hayden was family. Ty and Abbi decided that Hayden felt like family which just made my heart melt. Seriously, if something were to happen many, many, many years from now between Abbi and Hayden I would have ABSOLUTELY no problem with it...we already love the Anderson clan.

***On a sidenote: When did I become that mom who is already thinking about arranging a marriage for her five-year-old? Seriously, what century and culture am I living in? Maybe I should layoff all the Lisa See books immersed in past Chinese culture.

Paragliding

Continuing on with my bucket list...now I can cross off paragliding (although I would happily do it over and over again). Last week I went up to the point of the mountain for a tandem paragliding experience (found a fabulous deal through City Deals). It was a perfect day with gorgeous weather and plenty of wind.

My mom, Bob, and Hayden came to support and watch the adventure. Yes, I am lucky to have such a great family!

Hayden befriended Zeus, the dog, and played fetch with him for awhile.

Here I am getting all buckled and ready to fly.

And we're off! This experience was completely relaxing and enjoyable. I wasn't nervous at all which I think is due to the fact that I had already done the skydiving thing (now that gets your heart racing).

I was up in the air for about 25 minutes. My pilot did a few quick consecutive side-to-side movements to replicate the feel of a roller coaster ride. My family didn't know at first what was going on and worried for a moment, but Justin from Cloud 9 explained the move and reassured them.

Now Hayden, who is such a funny kid anyway, hardly even noticed what I was doing. After he finished playing with Zeus he decided to build mini mountains in the dirt. I am trying to instill a little bit of fearlessness in him and be an example of "you can do anything if you put your mind to it." However, I'm not sure how well this works when he doesn't notice what I'm doing. Oh well, we have a joint "high-flying" adventure coming up this week that he is sure to pay attention to.

Draper Days

Yay, it's Draper Days! This is a summer favorite and it was even better this year because they added a 1-mile kids race. Hayden was excited to do the race mostly because his friends, Abbi and Ty, were running it too. The 5K that I did started at 7am and once I finished I had to dash to my mom's to get Hayden and bring him to the park for the kids race at 8am. Luckily it worked out and we made it in time. We even had time to snap a few pics before the start. Below is a pic of Michelle and me.

I ended up running/walking with Hayden during the kids race. I didn't know if he would stay with Abbi, Ty, and Justin (sorry that Justin didn't get pictured...next time). After the kids crossed the finish they all got a gold medal. Here are the kiddos showing off their gold!

Now us adults had to earn our medals in the 5K. Although this race was chip timed, I really think that everyone's time is thier gun time because we never crossed a timing mat at the start. Had I known that I would've been at the front of the pack instead of the middle. When I crossed the start the timer showed that we were into the race 16 seconds. I pushed myself as hard as I could hoping to get a new PR. I ended up finishing in 22:20, not a PR, but I still think that's the gun time. Oh well, I was pretty glad to get a 2nd place medal in my division. You wouldn't think that Draper would draw such a competitive crowd, but ever year it's filled with amazingly speedy runners (the winner came in under 15 minutes). Michelle came in third in our division, and I'm still amazed at how she was able to run at that pace with a fractured arm (pretty awesome though).

After all the racing and awards, we headed over to the parade area. Once we found a spot, Michelle and Justin went to grab some breakfast while I watched the kiddos play with bugs (they were the harmless kind).

Having some pancakes and eggs just as the parade is getting started.

Cheering kids trying to catch some candy!

After the 2-hour parade, Hayden and I walked back over to the park so he could do the inflatables and check out the animals.

The Past Week

We started this last week off with a trip to the zoo. Here's Hayden on the T-Rex. We went a little later than I planned on so it was pretty warm and crowded. We still had fun and Hayden loved looking for all the dinos again.

On Wednesday we hiked up Timpanogos. Hayden made it all the way to the cave entrance, but he had already decided that he didn't feel like going in the caves this time. Two days later I went back solo while Hayden enjoyed some one-on-one time with his grandma. My goal was to make it up to the same spot in less than half an hour...and...mission accomplished!

On Thursday we ventured over to the gardens at Thanksgiving Point. We started out in the Discovery Gardens so Hayden could cool off at Noah's Ark. He spent an hour in the water and then we took our picnic over to the main gardens so we could have lunch by the waterfalls. There was hardly anyone there! After lunch we spent at least an hour walking throughout the gardens and exploring some areas we had never been to.

We had a great time feeding all the fish in the pond area. There were so many and they would swim out of the water on top of eachother just to get a little nibble. Cheap entertainment (it was only $0.25 for the fish food).

Dino Park in Ogden

This last week Hayden and I ventured to the Eccles Dinosaur Park in Ogden. Most of it is outdoors with fun little trails to follow as you try to find all the dinosaurs. We did explore the museum, too. Hayden was a little nervous around the robotic dinos, but he insisted that we go back and see them a second time.

Hayden's favorite part of the playground was the Pterodactyl slide.

The Utah Raptor...Hayden was most excited to see raptors (even more than t-rex).

4th of July 2011

Happy Independence Day! We had an early morning this day because I was running the Sandy City 10k. Hayden got to go to hang with his grandparents for a bit while I was racing. It was an overcast, humid, hot morning. I was definitely feeling the heat throughout the race and wanted to pour water on my head, but resisited the urge (although I did pour some down my shirt). Luckily the outcome was pretty good since I was able to place first in my division and finished seventh overall (out of the women). It wasn't my best time, but I still came in under fifty minutes. Afterwards, I picked up some breakfast for Hayden and my mom and Bob. We hung out in their yard for awhile, and then Hayden and I headed home to get ready for the day's events.

We ended up doing the Sandy City stuff again this year. Hayden loves all the inflatables there.

Since Hayden had no desire to have his face painted, he ended up with this $4 umbrella hat. It was a great investment for that day since we had rain off and on. We ended up walking over to the mall for a bit just to escape the rain. Then we had an early dinner at Sweet Tomatoes before the 6pm parade.

I thought that I would capture Hayden enjoying the festivities! He is such a cutie!

He obviously got really excited when he saw this float coming.

I was so glad to see that our local landfill was represented in the parade (ok, not really). I actually thought this float was pretty funny so I had to post this pic.

It was cool to watch the jeeps use their teraflex suspensions to do some fun stunts.