6 Deans + a Dog

Mike and I ran in the Provo River half marathon last weekend with 7 friends in our ward. It all started in June when my friend Holly wanted to set a summer fitness goal for herself. Well since I love running I said lets sign up for the Provo River Half marathon. Her initial reaction was ummmm...NO WAY...I am not a runner...but after some SERIOUS thought... I was able to convince her that if she trained she could do it :) We started our training together and she became more confident in knowing she could do this. The great thing is when some of our friends in our ward found out we were doing the half they wanted to join in and train as well since none of them had completed a half marathon before (except Molly). It was great fun for me to get to go on long runs with some of these friends while we were training and to see them accomplish their mileage they needed to build up to the half.... first 8 miles, than 10 miles and soon 12.5 miles. The deal was when Holly committed to run the race was that I would stay with her and not go ahead. Since I have competed in this race 2 times before I said no problem, I will stay with you. The race began and everyone was super stoked. As we started our run Molly, Mike, Steph and Mandy were outta there :) Me, Holly and Lisa were in the back together. I kept looking back and I would see our friend Diane getting further behind. I ran over to Holly and said would you be OK if you stay with Lisa and I hold back with Diane? She said yes I will be fine (after all the deal was I wouldn't leave her...she could leave me:). Well Holly and Lisa finished 20+ minutes before Diane and I finished. Although I was sad I didn't get to be there to see all of my friends finish and accomplish their goal it was so, so touching to see Diane's boys run to her as we turned the corner to the finish and to see how proud they were of their mom and her accomplishment. Tears filled my eyes and made the last 3 hrs 11 minutes all worth it. I was happy at the end when I talked to all the girls that had run to find out that they would actually do this race again. I guess it was a positive experience for everyone after all :)

Me and Holly at the start.

Steph finishing.Lisa and Holly finishing. Me and Diane finishing.
Love this girl...she was such a trooper since her knees and feet hurt it was very hard for her to run. Way to go Diane...looking good for a 50 year old :) All those in the Olympus 3rd ward that ran:
Diane, Mandy, Lisa, Holly, Me, Steph, Tiff, Mike
(Molly was off to a baptism so wasn't there for the pic.)Can't wait for next year!!!

Rachel and her friend Ellie did a kids camp this summer. Rachel did the camp last summer with her friends Sydney and Zoe. After they were done I thought it was so much work we are not doing it again. Well when Ellie made cheerleader and found out she had to pay $1000 she pushed Rachel to do the camp again this year. They had two weeks of days filled with bug day, sports day, carnival day, pirates day and water day. It sure was a lot of hard work but so fun to see these girls interact and play with all the kids. They had 18 kids in their first session and 25 in their second. Rachel was really glad she did it again. It is good experience for the girls to plan and be in charge. Thanks a ton to all our friends that supported them and sent their kids.

Story time during lunch.Carnival day - cake walk.

Ellie's mom Jill is so talented she painted their faces on carnival day...love Hunter's frog face :)

Jill even painted faces on pirate day :)My niece Abby and Sadie

Love this picture :)

The company Valcom that Utah Cancer Specialists (Mike's company) buys their printers from have customer appreciation activities all the time. They invite the IT guys and (sometimes) their families to these activities. Well when Mike mentioned to me that all 6 of us were invited to raft down the Provo River (FOR FREE) we couldn't pass it up. We had so much fun. The rapids were perfect for families. We did have to duck under a few trees along the way, but that was mostly because we were water fighting with other boats and lost control of our own. I guess being an IT guy does have some good perks :) Thanks Valcom...can't wait for next year!!!

Will's soccer team played in their second tournament up in Park City last week. The weather couldn't have been more perfect. The morning games I actually had to wear my sweatshirt...I know hard to imagine. They played really well again together. This tournament they tied for 3rd place. It is so fun watching our kids play the sports they love. Keeps us busy but, we are really enjoying this time in our lives of going, going, going...cause soon this time will be gone :(

Will's buddy Logan plays for another comp team and their game was right before ours. It was fun to have Logan sit with our boys on the bench and cheer them on. What a great friend :)

One of the things on our bucket list this summer was to go to the temple with Rachel and Jake and do baptisms. Well as the summer is quickly getting away from us we decided we better schedule a time. A few Fridays ago we finally went early in the morning before Mike had to go to work. It is so fun to spend time with our kids in the temple. I love how important sleeping in to them is and when I told them we were getting up at 5:45 to go they didn't mind at all of how early it was. I am grateful that they are excited and want to go with us. I hope they continue to make good choices and want to go to the temple as much as they can. There truly is no greater place to be to feel the spirit.

We just LOVE summer rainstorms (our grass does too). It is so nice to sit on the porch and watch the rain and not be cold :) This storm was pretty crazy. It rained and rained and rained some more...

bring on the rain.
LOVE IT!!!

Rachel went to youth conference last weekend with our ward to Reid Ranch in Fruitland. They had a great time. Some of their activities were: horseback riding, paddle boats, archery, tether ball, soccer, frisbee golf, swimming, hanging around camp, games, ping-pong, a dance and just fun being together with all the 14-18 yr old youth in our ward and their leaders. Thanks Bishop Ellis for planning such a great weekend for our youth.