I've been bummed all week about last week's Deseret News 10k that I ran with my dad, sister, and brother-in-law. I had no doubt that I would improve on last year's time and ended up adding three minutes! So I'm trying to gain a little perspective. I'm blessed that I have the ability to even attempt a race. It's not something I would've ever thought about trying ten years ago. And my sister made a couple of good points when she wrote about it: It is an awesome family tradition that we've started. This was our second year but we have no plans to stop. Also it's inspiring to run with our dad. He's 56 years old and didn't even start running until about five years ago or so. I am an avid exerciser, and despite my deep love and appreciation for all things chocolate/fried/crunchy/salty, etc. and the ensuing weight problems that causes, I think I am fairly healthy. So I need to stop being bummed about what I couldn't do and be proud of myself for what I can do.

The kids and I just spent an awesome few days in Wyoming at Kira's in-law's cabin. Kira and I were there with ten kids between us. It kept us quite busy, but I think everybody had a great time. I was quite surprised at how much fun I had, since I really loathe anything resembling camping. But it's like Kira always says when she goes to the cabin, "I had fun because my kids had fun."

The favorite activity was going down to the river. The first night there we walked down intending to just throw rocks and maybe stick our feet in. We told the kids where to stand and to not get any closer to the river. Of course they all just kept inching closer and closer, and before we knew it they were all totally in the water and their clothes were soaked. I was pretty uptight for a while but Kira quickly taught me that you have to muster up lots of extra patience in that kind of setting. The next day after breakfast we got smart and got them all into their swimming suits before heading back down to the river.

The bigger boys had tons of fun playing card games with Kira. There was lots of screaming and laughter. I'm definitely going to have to learn myself a few games. Trevor's been begging for me to play some with him since we got home.

It was a lot of fun going hiking and exploring. There were a lot of interesting and fun sights. I was so amazed at how well the little kids did. They never got tired or slowed down. Everybody's legs are full of scratches and bug bites. Totally worth it, though.

(warning: yes, a couple of the kids are in their underwear in this first photo because their shorts were drying on the deck.)

Good job getting the computer fixed, Jeremy. Still waiting for our millions of photos to get put back on the computer, but until then, a bit about summer.

I've discovered that the only way to survive the summer is to keep the kids busy. Sure, my house, laundry, and cooking suffers, but that's easy to deal with compared to whiny, fighting kids. We've definitely been putting our Lagoon season passes to full advantage. We've also gone swimming, fun times with neighbors, and had a really fun 4th of July. When all else is lacking, we put out the pool in the backyard, or watch a movie in the basement to escape the heat.

I know everyone's met my best friend, Intention. Intention's job this time was that I was going to set aside some time every day for reading, and for the school boys to work on math. So far it has been done, let me think, zero times. Are there people out there who actually keep up on school work during the summer? If there are, I don't think I want to meet them.

Father & Sons 2010

Well, another F & S is done. This year, like last year, all seven of us went up. The difference this year though, was that we got there at 12:30 Friday, and it was really nice, we played kickball, football, frisbee, and played on the swingset (which the Brody and Jace can't ever get enough of). I was well prepared with food, which you have to be with 7 boys. We had chicken hobo dinners, and the kids ate them up.
Then, about 6:00, the storms came rolling in. It was a torrential downpour for quite a while. I was up most of the night paranoid about one of the twins or Zack becoming too cold and dying. Finally, after my second visit to the neighboring tree that night, I noticed that our tent was covered in snow. I went to the van to see what the temp was, and it was 35 degrees! I couldn't believe it. I started the van and got it warmed up, then started carrying one child at a time through the snow to the van to warm up.
I figured if I was cold and shivering, which is extremely uncommon at night, then they must be worse. So Finally about 4:00 in the morning five of us were in the van, and Lance and Trevor, who had the best sleeping bags, were in the tent.
It was crazy, and we quickly had breakfast and loaded up all of our wet gear and came home earlier than we have ever done from F&S.
Here is our annual picture we take in front of the tent:

I REALLY wish I would've dusted that coffee table before I took that photo.

I guess now's the perfect time to write since Jeremy took the boys to the father/son campout (I hope they don't all get hypothermia). It's been a busy couple of weeks since Kira and I started our new job. We're working at Lagoon for the month to earn season passes for our families. I'll write more about it later, when we're done. I'm sure Kira will bring her camera on the last day to capture some of the magic!

I just wanted to briefly note how my Mother's Day went. This was my main gift:

Remember my living room set with the duct tape ottoman? It's finally been banished. I couldn't be happier about it. That thing depressed me every time I walked into the room. It's now in the basement due to Jeremy next 10 Father's Day/birthday/Christmas presents, which is a home theater system. He's a little obsessed. He keeps dragging people down there to show them and I'm pretty sure 75% of them really could care less (no offense, hun).

Anyway, Jeremy and I had picked out the living room set a bit before Mother's Day, so on the actual day they gave me what I truly love: chocolate. And the kids and Jeremy were so sweet to me all day, which is really all a mother ever wants.

Skiing 2010

Well, I guess Kelly is tired of updating our blog. At least that's my excuse for being "forced" to put these pics up here. I like to leave this up to her, but she says I should be more involved with the cardon8 blog-site. Just to punish her, I'm going to see how long and boring I can make this.

Corben and Trevor love to ski. Lucky for me, I love to ski too. It is expensive, but the exercise is good, and the time with the boys is invaluable. They are "forced" to sit for several minutes at the end of each run with me on the chairlift. Luckily, Trevor only fell off the lift once, right at the very end. Corben has the green coat on, Trevor has the blue one. I think that Corben was getting tired by the time I took this one.

This is Corben's third year skiing, and he is getting the hang of it pretty well. He is fairly cautious and a conservative skier. This is Trevor's first year. I don't take any kids until they have had their 4th grade ski day. He had his this year, so we could go with him now. Trevor is far more daring than Corben. He doesn't snowplow anymore, he is trying to parallel down the hill. He had a few nasty falls this year, but overall, has done very well. I've been impressed with both of them, and look forward to many more ski trips in the future.

We were lucky to be able to go to Deer Valley this year, thanks to Denny for scoring us some deeply discounted passes. Normally $86 per day each, we were able to go for $25 each.

Here are some pics of our last trip, Conference weekend, April 3rd, 2010.