August 2012

August was a FUN and busy month for us.  Sadly, I know that my pictures will not depict all the fun and busyness because I actually did not take that many photos.  August is also a sad month for us as it brings summer time to a close.  Though RJ does not start school until September, Dale always has to be back to work by the middle of August.

We started the month out with a fast, overnight camp out.  Our sole purpose in this camp out was to bring the camper, ATV, and gear home.  When we started the summer, we thought we would have TONS of time to head out camping so we left everything at the campsite (it's private, so we can get away with that).  Well, as it turned out, we got to go camping twice-once in July and once in August.  Sadly, I did not get any pictures of this event. 

The next BIG event was the Grand Teton Relay that I participated on.  I was hoping for more pictures from one of my team mates by the time that I posted about this, but she hasn't gotten them posted yet. So, I am just going with what I have.  This is a 180-mile, 12 person relay team.  I was on team WyDaTards in Van 1.  My van consisted of Sheena, Aarin, Karen, Ben, Monica, and me.  Van 2 consisted of Heidi, Mary, Leslie, Travis, Kristy, and Kim. The relay starts in Ashton, ID and ends in Jackson, WY--lots of mountains.  It was gorgeous and SO much fun! My team finished in exactly 30 hours, which was 34th place (not that we cared).  My van managed to get maybe an hour and half of sleep the entire 30 hours.  It was by far one of the most draining but FUN experiences and race I have completed to date.

RJ was able to finish out his summer playing trains with his neighbor friends both at our house and at their house.  We also went to Rigby Lake for our "annual" end of the year swim party.  There is a picture of RJ getting "snuggled" to death by our little neighbor Gabe.  The next pictures are of RJ at the lake playing in the water with his friend Noah.

In between all these events, we spent time biking, playing, cleaning, shopping, etc.  The most time consuming and busiest item of business was the garden.  Almost every day, I have spent picking, canning, dehydrating, freezing, storing, etc every type of produce imaginable.  It is exciting to have so much yummy fresh produce, BUT man oh man! it is a LOT of work!!!

Lastly, I have to brag on myself.  After 5 years and 2 pregnancies, I am finally down to goal weight!!! More importantly than that, I feel great and I am happy.  I love having energy and being able to feel like I can accomplish anything I set out to do.  I don't normally post pictures of myself on the blog, but this is an exception even though it is not too great of a self picture.  It is to remind that goals can be and are achievable.

So that is our month in review. Fun but busy.