So I guess I better give Kira the big thank you she's been waiting for. At her encouragement (force), I signed up to run with her and my dad in the Deseret News 10K on the 24th. As much as I was dreading the run and getting up at 3:30 a.m., I feel so great about having done it. I think my goals for the race were the same as most average people who decide to give running a go: finish the race and don't walk, if possible. And I did it! I wanted to die, but I did it! I feel really good about my time as well. It wasn't fabulous by any means, but for me, who did my very first 5K just three years ago, it was awesome. I did it in one hour and three minutes. I would love to work towards improving that and doing more 10Ks. Unfortunately, Kira now has a bee in her bonnet to do a half marathon. I think she's on her own for that one! (just get Dave to come with and prance alongside you, not breaking a sweat or losing any breath). My dad, who is 56 and also just started running three years ago, finished ahead of me. Go Dad!

Here's me and my two BFFs, my cute sisters Kira and Cami. We're at our cousin Anna's wedding which was last week. Cami is here from Taiwan for the summer, and we have been having a blast together. Where would I be without these girls?! I love them so much. We have had the BEST time eating out at Grossias (ha ha), having our game nights, YARD SALING, and lots and lots of visiting. It has been such a fun summer. Cami's son Dallin is staying with us and my kids are LOVING that.

Here's one with my cute little bro as well:

I just love my siblings. They are the best! My other cute little bro will be in town next weekend so hopefully we'll get more pictures.

I took my kids to Lagoon yesterday - by myself, yay me - and we had a great time. We got there right when they opened, which was a great idea. We got to walk right onto several rides before it got a bit more crowded. The crowd never got bad, though. It was the perfect day to go. The weather was hot, but thank goodness for the day Lagoon got smart and put that fountain at the entrance. The kids and I stopped by there three times throughout the day to get wet and cool off. Corben and Trevor went off by themselves for several hours to go on the big rides, while I took the other four on the smaller rides. Luckily they all grew a ton since last summer, so Lance got to ride some of the bigger rides he's been wanting to go on, and the twins finally fit on the kid rides that have a height limit. I couldn't believe how fearless the twins were. There was no ride they were too scared of. The kids even let me watch one of the music shows, which was really neat. Jeremy met up with us in the evening when he was done working and brought us some pizza. It was a great day, and greatest of all when we have big days like that, the kids all went to bed and slept like logs!

So Kira and I go to yard sales every week. We're pretty obsessed with it. We're in the process of writing a book about yard sale etiquette (so far it's only written in our heads, but still). So I often bring the kids home random things that I think they'll like or need, so eventually they started giving me suggestions about what to look for. So yesterday I asked the three older boys if they wanted to join me today, and they were game. We didn't have much success (as will be in my book, some days you find loads of great deals, others you come home empty-handed), but it was sure fun taking them. They got a beginner's lesson on the art of yard saling, and I think they had fun. I guess I'll find out next week when I ask if they want to go again. Kira was camping, but Cami was up for going so we picked her up. The kids were excited to spent a little extra time with Aunt Cami. Especially because her favorite activity is eating out, so we were forced to go to Subway after yard sales!

On Sunday night Kira stole Lance and Zack and kept them for a sleepover. Corben took pity on Brody and Jace, who rarely have sleepovers, and had his own little sleepover with them. First he took them downstairs and played with them forever. Apparently he's trying to lure them to the dark side of being a rapper (his dream):

Then, the best part of all, he BATHED them!! I think that made me happier than it made them!

At bedtime he took them downstairs and unfolded the couch bed and got them all tucked in, then the three of them, plus Trevor, slept all night long. I got up before they did! What a treat. Thanks, Cob! Hope you can do it again sometime soon!

These are some of the fun things we've been doing this summer:

I took my three youngest to the aerospace museum with Kira, my two Kristen friends, and their kids. We got there about one and Kira and I had an exercise class we wanted to go to at 5:30 that was in the same area, so on the way there we were trying to come up with how we could kill time in between the museum and the gym. We needn't have worried. We ended up having to drag the kids out of the museum. They had a blast! They loved looking at all the huge airplanes, and there is an awesome room with toys, space suits, games, cockpits they can climb into and pretend to fly. They also got to build and shoot off a rocket. It is an awesome place to take your kids and we will definitely be going back soon.

A couple of weeks ago we went to the dinosaur park. There are no photos of that but we bought season passes, which enables us to go to Hogle Zoo once a month for free. We went there with Kira and her kids last Thursday. Remember, the day of that torrential rain storm? It was bright and sunny when we arrived. It started raining about an hour after we got there. We figured we'd wait it out, but pretty soon it started pouring buckets. I don't know if you can tell how wet we are from the photo, but we were all soaked. We ran to the giraffe house for cover, and then when the rain let up a little bit we decided to call it a day and hurried to the van.

Our holiday weekend was the best. I love the 4th of July. We have several much-loved traditions. We started out by going to the parade in the morning. Jace was, of course, very frightened, but the other kids enjoyed it. We then went to Kira's house for a bbq and some water fun. They have a big inflatable water slide that the kids love, as well as two pools. The weather turned out to be perfect and the kids played in the water for hours. In the evening we got ready to go to the fireworks show. Of course, Kira and I have to squeeze in a workout somewhere, since the gym closes for the 4th, so we jogged from her house to the high school and met our families there for the fireworks. Jace was, of course, scared of the whole display. He had a death grip on my neck the whole time.

The downside to the holiday was that Cami and Dallin were supposed to arrive that morning, but their flight got cancelled. We missed them, but we're excited to see them tomorrow and start bringing Dallin along for all our fun!

The bottom four photos are of the awesome mohawks I gave the boys last Sunday. I took their photo and then finished buzzing them off. Except for Corben. He begged me to let him keep his, and since he knows the best way to get what he wants is to argue with me until I'm exhausted, I relented. I told him he could keep it for a week. He's already sick of it because he can't get it to stand up, plus he hates using gel (as you can tell from the photos, he thinks he's really hilarious).

The top picture is of poor little Zacky. I think he looks more pathetic than Lance with his broken arm! He fell off of his friend's bike tonight. Again, THANK GOODNESS FOR HUSBANDS! Jeremy got to Zack first, and when I realized what was going on I covered my eyes. Covered my eyes, people! Are you kidding?! I waited until Jeremy got him all cleaned up and assessed if he needed stitches or anything before I dared look at him. I mean, I'm the mother of six boys. I can't believe anything can still phase me!

So I wanted to tell you about my evening yesterday, because it's pretty comical (in hindsight), and I bet you've all been in a similar situation. It begins with our clothes dryer breaking down on Monday. Bad, bad news with a big family most of whom change their outfit five times per day. So by yesterday I desperately needed to get some laundry done. I teach an exercise class at my gym on Wednesday nights, so I thought I'd combine that with a trip to my dad's to put a load of clothes into his dryer (I debated posting about this. Now he'll know it was my kids this time, and not Kira's, who trashed his house). Leaving my house in a hurry like I usually do I grabbed my exercise shoes and threw them in the van and drove in my socks. When we got to my dad's the three little kids were sleeping, so I left them in the van with Corben watching them while I ran in to put the clothes in the dryer. Since I was leaving all the van doors open I just hid my keys in the van (I ALWAYS forget where I leave them when I'm at someone's house, so this makes it easier). While I was inside, Lance was fiddling with the van's buttons (I found this out later). So I got the twins into the house, went back out, got the sleeping Zack, and pushed the button to automatically shut the sliding door. As it clicks shut, I hear it lock. Oh. Crap. So basically I have twenty minutes until my class starts, my ipod with my class music, as well as my WORKOUT SHOES!!! are locked in the van. I ran over to Gayla's to see if she could run me to the gym. She wasn't home. So I called Kira and THANKFULLY caught her as she was on her way to my class. So she sped over to pick me up, following behind the world's slowest drivers, of course. Well, none of this solves the problem of the fact that I have no shoes on. I am racking my brain. Well, here's what I came up with. I am soooooo embarrassed to tell you. And again, I debated on posting this because my dad will be so disturbed on so many levels about this information. I wore my dad's Nikes. Thankfully (in this instance only) I have always had huge feet and my dad has (sorry) petite feet. So they were only slightly too big. But still!! I mean, sick (for him)! So I was only like three minutes late to my class, and luckily I had the foresight to KNOW something like this would happen someday and I put my exercise class music on Kira's ipod, so I was able to use that. Jeremy picked me up from the gym and took me to unlock the van. All's well that ends well!

Alright, Gayla and Jenny.  I DON"T want to hear I told you so.  I couldn't be more devastated than I already am.  Our dog went to a new home last Sunday.  I SO could not handle having a dog.  I really, really wish I could have.  Poor Corben sobbed for hours.  I've been distraught all week about it, and today I made Jeremy call the people who bought him and ask if we could come see him.  They are so sweet and had no problem with it.  So the kids and I picked Jeremy up from work and we hauled on up to Draper to see Sawyer (now called Tucker).  We couldn't be more pleased about his new situation.  First of all, no one in his new family is afraid of him, so I'm sure that's nice for his self-esteem.  Secondly, they have a lot of land and there are lots of other dogs around, both relative and friend.  He was wearing a handkerchief around his neck.  It looked hysterical!  The kids had a great time playing with him for about a half hour.  It was the son of this family who actually got the dog, and he is just adorable.  He's sixteen, and as cute as can be.  But to top it all off he was just awesome with my kids.  He chatted with them like they were old friends, took them to see his gecko, his horses, and some other things around their property.  So all in all, I'm very glad we went.  I'm still very sad I couldn't have been a stronger, less lazy person and just dealt with the extra effort of a dog, but at the same time I can't believe the immense feeling of relief.  I hate admitting that, but it's very true.  I still don't know if I did the right thing.  But now that I don't have that extra stress I'm trying to focus that energy on being a nicer and more patient mom. 

Do you guys know who Joel McHale is?  He hosts "The Soup" on the E! (or, as Joel says, the "eh") channel.  Well, I got to go see him last night at Abravanel (or, as Joel says, A Brave Anal) Hall!!  He was so so stinking hilarious!  I love him so much.  It's the first time in my life I was willing to spend big bucks to go see someone perform (well, when I was a teenager I desperately wanted to see New Kids on the Block and Nelson, but my parents wouldn't let me).  It was so worth it.  His opening act was a guy name Brooks McBeth, who was almost as hilarious as Joel.  Even Jeremy was busting up.  This guy got me through some major postpartum depression three years ago!  

So when we first walked in there was a little stand selling his t-shirts.  I wanted one real bad.  We decided to have a closer look and if they were like ten or fifteen bucks I would've bought one.  We hear the worker say they're $25, but then she says Joel will sign it!!  I was beside myself!  I start marching Jeremy to the line and then we hear the girl say, "Cash only."  What?!  Who carries cash in this day and age?!  We start rummaging through Jeremy's wallet and my purse.  Counting the five dollar bill Jeremy found on the ground on our walk there, we had seventeen dollars.  I was the saddest person in the world!  I kept telling Jeremy to just run and find an ATM, it's okay if he's a few minutes late for the show.  No deal.  I didn't get the t-shirt. :(  Huge bummer!!  But it was still the most exciting night ever!  Thanks, Kira, for watching my kids for five hours.  I love you Joel!!!!