Race Against Cancer

My sister sent a text out to all our family in February to see if they were interested in racing in the American Fork Half Marathon. I had some medical things going on and knew that I couldn't do the Half.As the time grew closer and I was better I contemplated the 5K they were doing as well. I decided to start training for it. If I'm being totally honest, I don't love running. I'm not fast at all. It's not my favorite thing. BUT, it was all for a worthy cause.

The American Fork Half Marathon and 5K donates all money to cancer patients for treatments. Last year I lost both of my grandfathers to cancer in a 10 week period of time. It was heartbreaking. One of those grandfathers shared a birthday with me...making things very real this week. It's the first time I haven't been able to call and wish him a happy birthday, share a cake, or blow out candles together. That man has always held a special place in my heart. 

I have run a fair amount of 5Ks, but this by far was the hardest. Since all monies went to benefit cancer patients both grandfathers as well as family members who are survivors were on my mind. I hear a small child running the race say, "Mom, is this really going to help grandpa?" I cried while I ran. There were signs in memory of cancer patients or by cancer survivors all along the way. I miss them so much, and am so grateful that this was one small thing I could do to help me remember.

our little fam post race

Ivan, couldn't run this year because of a recent injury

Joshua did the kids 1 mile fun run

This sign tugged at my heart...and made me cry again.

little buddies

mom, great supporter :)

me and cami pre-race

runner girl nails Cami did for me the night before

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She loves being a super hero. She has asked that dad is one with her as well. She loves running around and pretending to be anything as long as it involves a cape and dad wears one as well. 

For Father's Day I wasn't totally on top of it with dessert, so we had a pleasant surprise. I had bought strawberries earlier in the week, and googled how to make pound cake. It was a perfect dessert. We were surprised at how well it turned out :)

We got her this bike almost a year ago. We finally took it outside on the walking path. She did amazing and is already starting to balance on it. If you can't tell from the picture, she LOVES it!

A friend invited us to swim the morning of my birthday. They live in the condos across the street and have a pool there. We were also watching some neighbor kids and thought that sounded like a great way to entertain them for a few hours. I am so glad we did :) It was cool, Scarlett laughed and laughed. I'll have to take her more often!

For the past several years my mom has taken me out for lunch and shopping on my birthday. I had a sister in town so it became more of a family event. S was so excited to see M again!

best buds

lunch with mom

Last year I decided that I wanted snow cones for my birthday instead of cake. I opted for the same thing again this year. We may have a new family tradition :) S loved them and talked about them in the car all the way there. I got a blueberry banana combo and Brett did orange pineapple with cream. We had a great time together as a family! I truly feel blessed!

Since my sister is in town and we don't see her super often we have done a lot of things together. Wednesday my mom put together a "Grandma Day" at the zoo. I was a bit leery because it has been so hot around here, but there was a nice breeze much of the time, and enough shade here and there that we survived. It was fun to have so many of the kids together. I kept S awake all the way home so that she would nap. She ended up taking an almost 3 hour nap. I had to wake her up a little after 5. Poor kiddo. She was worn out!

all the cousins who could make it

Polar bears usually aren't very active when we are at the zoo, but that day was definitely the exception. He was up, walking around, and swimming. That night at dinner S told Brett all about it. She even acted it out for him :) 

all the girl cousins

Aunt Heather is so fun to play in the water with the kids!

All of our cute kiddos measuring up to the apes

 She has loved this bike so much. It has been nearly a daily occurrence this week. It makes me happy that she loves it so much. It could be a great option for being healthy in our family :)

I got a call from my mom Wednesday night that my former roommate from before I married Brett had had surgery and it hadn't gone well. She has cancer, and they had gone in to remove it. She was in recovery when she started bleeding internally and had to be rushed back in. I was grateful that my mom let me know, and that I could take the time to go see her. I found it funny that even though there are 13 floors, there is no 13 in the elevator. Apparently some people really are superstitious. 

We took a chance and stopped by the Children's museum....mainly it was to meet up with my sister's babysitter who was there. I needed to get her race packets to her. S started saying, "Seum. I go! Mom, I go a seum." I couldn't just drop them off and leave at that point, but we also didn't stay more than 30 minutes. There were just WAY too many people!

Top: dress ups videoed in front of a green screen Left:doing the laundry. She's big enough to spin it all the way around now Right: our blurry selfie :)

Several family members chose to participate in the American Fork 5K and Half Marathon. Jessica did amazing, finishing the race in 1 hr 50 minutes. I'm so proud of her. There were lots of feelings involved with this race that I really feel deserve their own post. I'll try to make that happen soon :)

those who raced

The whole fam

 With her love of water we had to play in it :) We opted to get her pool out from last year. She had tons of fun getting everyone wet. The water is way colder than I would've preferred, but she sat it in and just had a grand time. I love seeing the excitement she has in the water. It seriously makes me enjoy it more :)

We decided to try out a new little place for dinner Saturday. They had great reviews on google and we figured it was worth a shot. We went for sandwiches and burgers and ended up being pleasantly surprised that they had Dole whips too. We will definitely be going back. It was all super delicious!

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S has wanted to wear the infant sized headbands she has found that I haven't gotten to packing away yet. She was with me at the store and found toddler sized ones...it seemed like the perfect answer. I was also curious how much curl her hair would hold with a little effort. We just did a little mousse and spray gel. She was really funny. She asked me what the white stuff was and I told her mousse. She had on her shirt from Tahoe with a moose on it and said, "Mom, same same."

We were out doing errands for a little while one day, and S was fantastic. By 11 it was in the high 80s, and I decided that meant time to have snow cones. We had our first one of the season (it took us way to long) and she was definitely a fan! 

S has started insisting on being tucked from head to toe in her flannel blankets when she goes down for naps or to sleep for the night. The only flannel blankets she has are the ones that I made for her when she came home from the hospital. To say that she has outgrown them might be an understatement :) I dug through fabric that I had and only had to buy one more kind of fabric to make this for her. It's still in the process, but with any luck I may be able to finish it this week :)

S and I took time one afternoon to make this love sign for Brett for Father's Day. S loved painting her hand and feet for this. I told her it was a present for dad and I was going to go hide it for him. As soon as Brett walked in the door S said, "Dad, I pain a foot. I paint my hand. Love dad! Hide it! Love Dad!" Which was my signal to go upstairs and get it for him. He loved it...and Scarlett has continued to talk about it everyday. It's already hanging in our kitchen :)

Wednesday was a bit of a rough day for our family. Brett wanted to lighten things and just have fun together as a family. We stopped for our (mine and S's at least) second snow cone of the week on the way home. It was the perfect way to distract, have fun, and get on minds on something else.

Thursday we had to Foster Care training to do. I hired a babysitter and we left. S was so cute the next morning. The first person she asked for was Harmony (her baby sitter). It went something like, "Mom, Harmony go?!" When we got to our meeting Thursday night I had a bad feeling that they might already have marked us down for this class. I checked before we started, and they did. Blah! We figured since we had already hired a babysitter we might as well make the most of it. So, we went on a date. It was just what we needed! What a happy mistake :)

My sister ended up coming down to Utah to visit unexpectedly. Most of us met up at a Splash pad in Davis County. There were a good amount of kids there. S was not a fan of all the noise, and walked around with her ears covered for the first 30 minutes we were there. I love how good of friends she is with her cousins. We are happy we were able to spend so much time with everyone. 

S and Sa

S and M....she really misses her!

We had invited my side of the family here for a barbecue Saturday afternoon. Ivan and Dad had gone to Sundance to do the zipline there. Jessica and kids, Grandma, Ben, and Holly all hiked Stewart Falls. They took a long time on their hike and were a couple hours later getting here than they anticipated. We grabbed a picture with grandpa and all the kids that were there. It was fun to see them all surrounding him :)

We planned on making snow cones with the family here. Grandpa also brought popsicles. Then there was the great debate which didn't last long. We told their kids if their parents said yes, they could do both...which most kids did. I just love that we are able to get together now and then. S always talks about all of them after they leave too :)

I have a couple of friend who take a family picture each Sunday. I liked the idea, and thought what a great way it would be to see our family through the year. Yeah for the selfie stick :) I just need to learn where to look ;)

Tahoe Vacation

A couple days before we left on vacation with my parents I hit up the dollar store for things that would be entertaining in the car. We only pulled out 2-3 of the things on the drive there (about 11 hours of traveling) She didn't sleep at all the whole time...she also didn't fuss once. This kid is a superstar traveler! 

This set was a hit. The giggles we got out of her numerous times with these made them worth every cent!

Dinner with "Grammy and Grampy" the first night at a cute little Italian place. She currently finds it very funny to add an E sound to the end of most words :)

We stayed at the top of a mountain ridge near Lake Tahoe. Grandpa, Dad, and S all went on a little walk gathering pine cones for a fire. S loved every minute of it, but no, it really wasn't cold enough to warrant a fire. We had the windows open while the fire was going :) 

Pine cones dad, grandpa, and Scarlett gathered for a fire.

Sunday evening we took a little walk at an overlook down by the lake. It was so pretty, the weather was perfect, and S had a great time exploring :) 

Grampy and S

Peeking through the rocks 

playing with Dad

Grammy and Grampy

playing together on a log

We brought books from home to keep nap time and bedtime as "normal" as usual. She took full advantage of getting as many stories out of everyone there as possible.

Bedtime stories with Dad

The first day there we hiked to Emerald Bay with the purpose of taking a tour of a castle built on the bay. We had about 30 minutes to wait for our tour time so we decided to play in the water. It was frigid, and the rocks hurt the toes. After a bit it wasn't so bad because you couldn't feel your feet anymore :) Grandparents do things they don't love for their grandkids....like grandpa getting in the water!

this kid LOVES the water...no matter the temps :)

These ducks were very domesticated. He walked right up to us for food. S loved watching him. The only thing we had that he might eat was pretzels. It was too hard for him to break through so he took it to the water to moisten it :)

When we were close to the top we got a picture of both families. It was quite the hike down, but such a beautiful view!

grandma and grandpa

us! Yes, I packed her all the way down and up :)

One night we were there was my parents anniversary. We all went out to dinner together. S loved walking around holding Grampy's hand whenever possible. They are so fun together!

After the anniversary dinner

Grandpa insisted on finding a place with ice cream for this kiddo :) When he saw the place we went into had a banana split, that was it. He couldn't wait to see her take it on. She was completely in heaven. Yes, she got spoiled a bit this week! Yes, we pitched in and helped her finish!

banana split

There were dogs everywhere we went. This man was kind enough to let S pet his dog early in our trip that she asked to pet other ones she saw all along the way. He even gave her kisses on her cheek which she talked about for days!

We stopped by the lake spontaneously one day. The place we stopped we decided we needed to come back to another day. It was warm and and shallow for a long ways out. I love how excited she was to just be there and be in the water!

Brett had a project for work that had to be done while we were gone. It was due to a client while we were on our trip. He ended up staying at the condo and the rest of us went on a drive around the lake. One of the fun things we got to do on the way was to stop off at Squaw Peak where they held the Olympics years ago. It is a beautiful place! They are adding lots of new things there, and we stopped at a cute little toy store. So much fun!!

After Squaw Peak S miraculously fell asleep. She VERY rarely sleeps in the car. We went lots of places so I was amazed that she actually fell asleep this day. She was exhausted! I had to take a picture since it happens so rarely.

We were amazed to see a bear at our condos one night. When we saw it, it was standing next to the dumpster on its hind legs. Brett stood there later and we were able to see that the bear was about Brett's size. S still talks about it. She went on a walk with dad one night to see what they could find. I was praying it wasn't a bear :) 

The following day we went to Virginia City. It was quite the mining town back in the day. When Brett saw they had a train ride that was top of his list. We took a little tour and had a great tour guide who definitely was informative, but also fun!

There were several fun little candy shops in town. S had a grand time walking around with Dad and a basket picking out what she wanted to try out.

Our final full day there we spent at the beach. We went out about 100 yards and it only hit S's waist. She was in heaven. She'd walk for a bit, then sit and play, then walk out a bit farther. It was so much fun to watch her and play with her. I wish we had more places like that here in Utah.

On the drive home we really had some fantastic clouds a good chunk of the way. It wasn't a beautiful drive, but we had beautiful skies.

On the way home she amazingly fell asleep. She only slept about 45 minutes because we had to stop for gas. She did great though. She only had one meltdown all the way home and that was when it was approaching lunch time and getting hungry.