To Bone and Back Relay

On Saturday we ran To Bone and Back. It's a 40 mile relay that takes you from Idaho Falls to the little town of Bone, and back. It was so much fun! We had an 8 person team, with each person running 5 miles.

Our team rocked! We ran in this order: Becky Beck, Sawyer, Mason Whitehead, Tamra Norton, Kassie Temple, Tricia, Julie Whitehead, Bailey

Becky got us off to a great start.

Sawyer was the hero and MVP of the team. Byron Beck was supposed to be the second runner on our team. It was the hardest leg of the race. It was 5 miles of uphill. Not little hills either...we are talking 5 miles of big, grueling hills. Byron got a stress fracture 2 weeks earlier while running a marathon. No one wanted to run this leg of the race. Sawyer said he would do it, and he did AMAZING! He cruised it, and passed tons of people.

At this point, he had another mile to go.

Sawyer handing off to Mason. We've got to hand it to Mason. He stepped in at the last minute to run with us. He's not even a "runner" but he did a great job for our team.

Mason


Tamra did awesome, and was so happy and cheerful the whole way. She had a pretty hard leg of the race, but every time we drove by her, she was smiling and waving.

Kassie, Kassie, Kassie...I don't even know where to begin. She was the entertainment of the team. But not only that, she ran a really fast leg of the race. We saw her competitive side come out. Right after I took this picture, I ran down the hill to bring her some water. Well, when she stopped to get a drink, she started peeing her pants. She had to step off the road and try to pull her shorts aside because she was going whether she wanted to or not. Keep in mind that the road was lined with runners and support vehicles. The rest of our team thought she was in the bushes throwing up. She stepped back onto the road with pee all over her shorts and hands. Good thing I had water. It was the funniest thing ever...until later on in the race when she even topped that!

Kassie handing off to me.

My leg of the race is where things got interesting, and funny. Our support vehicle would drive by the runner, and then park a little ways up. The team would get in the back of Marks truck, and blast music and dance as the runner went by. I was having a hard time, and I felt like walking. They must have noticed that even their dance moves weren't cheering me up. The next thing I know, I look up and see Kassie's bare butt mooning me from the back of Mark's truck! I started cracking up. I knew I couldn't walk after that effort she made. When the truck pulled away, she was standing in the back still flashing me her butt. It was hilarious, but not that surprising. From Kassie, I would expect nothing less!

Julie running strong down the final hills.

Julie handing off to Bailey.

Bailey wanted to be our team anchor, because she wanted to cross the finish line. She did AWESOME! She passed four people in the last 5 miles. She was cruisin'. I knew she would do good, but she surprised all of us with how fast she ran.

The final stretch!

Bailey crossing the finish line, with our team there cheering for her.

A big shout out for Mark too. He couldn't run with us because his knee still isn't healed all the way. But he was the best support crew we could have had out there. He was our driver, and our very energetic cheer leader. Thanks Mark!

We had so much fun! I already can't wait until next year. I think we are going to do a 4 person team next year and each of us will run 10 miles. We had a lot of people we know run it, and they all did great. A guy in our ward did it as an ultra marathon and ran all 40 miles. He got 2nd place. Amazing!

Happy Father's Day!

We love to celebrate Father's Day! Maybe it's because my kiddos have the BEST dad in the whole world! I've never met a dad so involved with everything his family does. I hope my kids realize that all the extra things he does for them is not common or normal. I hope they always appreciate just how lucky they are!

Florida Vacation-13 &14

Day 13 &14
Islands of Adventure

Islands of Adventure was the perfect way to end our vacation. This park was THE BEST! We didn't have to wait in any lines, and the rides were awesome. We would go on the roller coasters, and figure out where the cameras were. Then we would ride a bunch more times and make faces at the cameras. When we got off the rides, we would run to see our pictures. Sawyer's faces were always the best.

The Hulk Roller Coaster was awesome. It was so big, I couldn't get a picture of all of it in one shot. We rode it tons of times. We also liked Dr. Doom's Fearfall, and Spiderman. We did two water rides in a row, thinking they would be stupid, and not expecting to get very wet. Boy were we wrong. There was not a dry spot left on any of us. It was so funny! Then it was off to ride Jurassic Park. We saw two shows...The Eighth Voyage of Sinbad, and Poseidon's Fury. They were both really good. They opened up the Dueling Dragons Roller Coasters in the middle of the day. They were AWESOME! They run two coasters at exactly the same time, and several times during the ride it seemed like they would collide. It was probably our favorite ride of the whole vacation. We loved it and rode it several times. The last part of the park was a place called Seuss Landing. It was a dArLinG Dr. Seuss land. Everything about it was so cute! They put so much detail into it.The Hulk
Soaking wet after our water rides
Jurassic Park
Poseidon's Fury
Seuss Landing
There's a Zamp in the lamp

The bushes were carved like all kinds of Dr. Seuss characters.

We had lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe. Sawyer thought that was the coolest place.

The only downer of our vacation, was that we didn't get into The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. We went back to the park the next day, and waited for 2 hours, hoping to get in. It wasn't officially opening until June 18. They were only letting people in who were staying at one of their on site resorts. BUMMER! It looked so cool. We walked through part of it to get on a ride, but most of it was blocked off from view. I wanted to shop in Honeydukes and Zonkos so bad. We saw people coming out drinking butter bear and carrying pumpkin juice. I guess we'll just have to go back again someday.

Hogwarts

Hogsmead

That was the end of our vacation. It was great! I can't wait to think up where our next big trip will take us. We've already got some fun ideas brewing in our minds.

Florida Vacation-12

Day 12

Universal Studios

Universal Studios was fun. They have a new roller coaster called Rip, Ride, Rock it. You pick your song when you get in the seat, and they play it really loud during the ride. It was pretty cool. We also rode the Mummy several times. The kids loved the ride, so now they want to see the movie. Mark and Sawyer loved the Simpson ride. That is totally their kind of humor. We ate lunch at Bubba Gump Shrimp. The kids were kind of skeptical about it, since it was sea food, but they got shrimp, and ended up loving it.

This is the start of the Rip, Ride, Rock It. You go straight up. It was a really good roller coaster.

This guy was hanging out by the Mummy ride. He kept glaring at Bailey. She thought he was pretty funny.

The Jaws ride was really stupid, but we liked the big shark.

Life is like a box of chocolates....

Florida Vacation-11

Day 11

Sea World

We love sea World! I think I could go back over and over and never get tired of it. This was a great day! So many cool shows, rides, and animals. We sat in the soak zone at every show and never got wet. Bailey was so mad. But then me and her rode in the front seat of Atlantis a bunch of times and ended up drenched. Sea World has two of the BEST roller coasters...The Kraken and The Manta. Both of them were AWESOME! My favorite part of the day was petting the rays. They are just like dogs.Sawyer, Bailey and Shamu

The Kraken

An underground aquarium

Petting the rays

The dolphins are so cute. They are Sawyer's favorite.

We loved this manatee.

We were there when they were feeding the seals and sea lions. They were pretty funny!

Clyde and Seamore were so funny. They put on the best shows.

This is Winston the Walrus.

Shamu from the underground viewing area.

Look out Sawyer!

Waiting for the Believe show to start.

Shamu and a trainer during Believe.

We went to the dolphin nursery. They were so cute and playful. This one was playing peek a boo with us! It would go underwater and then pop back up and look at us. It did it 3 or 4 times.

Bailey wanted a giant turkey leg since Disney World. She thought it was so funny that the Chinese people kept taking pictures of each other with the turkey legs, so we had to make sure we took a picture of her with her own.

Me and Bailey getting drenched on Atlantis.