Well, I am missing Washington and really missing Tom but am enjoying our time here. Thank you to everyone who made our time up there so much fun. We truly had a blast and can not wait until we come to stay! It's been strange having Hayden around so much because I think he thought he'd been adopted by D&A, thank you for taking him in! He just keeps telling stories about things he did with his cousins and stories his cousins told him, etc. Today Danica told me she wanted to go play with Melia and asked why we couldn't just go see her. Taking Tom to Seattle worked out well, he got the Patriot and had a good flight. He's totally bored in Japan and counting down our return which sadly isn't for a while. I arrived here Thursday night and on Friday we drove down to southern Utah, to Antimony, a tiny town where my grandpa grew up and we still have a house, or rather cabin type house. I grew up having family reunions there every Labor Day. On the way down I was able to stop in Spanish Fork to see my brother, his wife and my nephew Parker who is 4 and met my adorable niece Penny for the first time, she’s 5 months old and so cute!!! We enjoyed lunch with them and then continued on our drive stopping at Big Rock Candy Mountain before arriving in Antimony. We went for a ride on the 4 wheelers and took Hayden to the dump to go target shooting. He’s been so excited to go shoot a real gun for the first time. He was surprised it wasn’t as easy as it looks to hit the target but he eventually got one of the glass bottles and was really excited.
Then we had a hot roast and ate s’mores. I however, ate a microwave lasagna in preparation for my 1/2 marathon on Saturday morning!
I got up at 4 (after hardly sleeping due to kids and the stress of not getting up on time) I drove the hour from Antimony to Bryce Canyon, barely missing a deer, a fox, several rabbits and skunk on the way. I made my way around got to the starting line just in time. It was dark and cold but within in minutes of the race starting it started getting light out and the race was just beautiful! I thoroughly enjoyed it, the scenery was great, my music was great and I felt great. (is that too many greats?) There was a lot of downhill running which left me with a fantastic time but some really sore quads, bloody toes and swollen foot all in the name of fun. I finished a lot faster than I imagined possible. After the race I changed and we went back to the starting line to take a picture. We spent a while at Bryce Canyon going to a few lookouts. Once we returned to Antimony I showed the kids around the town and we climbed the trees and explored the ranches. Danica kept walking around holding Alyssa’s hand. When I tried to help out Danica said I had to let go because I was not Alyssa’s big sister and she was going to take care of her! It was cute.
We rode the 4-wheelers up the canyon and played in the river. It was freezing but we had a lot of fun!

Now we are back in Sandy. Today we went to my sister’s apartment and went swimming and then went to visit my grandma in Provo. The kids have been good and are really enjoying themselves. Our days are jammed pack with something to do every day. Time will fly by for us. Hopefully it will fly by for Tom as well because we miss him a ton and don’t want him too bored waiting for us to return! Well, I must go to bed I want to get up early so I can talk to Tom before he goes to bed...oh the time difference!