Summer Cross Country!

I love coaching the Rocky Mountain and Bonneville runners over the summer! Such awesome kids! They work hard, but also manage to have lots of fun at our practices! I'm always sad when the summer comes to an end, and I have to hand them over to their coaches, but I'm also super excited to see how they do durning the season. Here are a few highlights of our summer fun!

Disc Golf Races:

I have them pair off with a runner of similar ability, and each team gets a set of discs. They go through all 18 holes of the disc golf course, and it's a race! They have rules they have to follow, and the first team back wins! It's serious business, and a super good workout! You would naturally think that the fastest boys would win, but it doesn't always work out like that. A lot can happen on the course. This year Stetson and Alex got their disc stuck in a tree, and had to climb pretty high to get it out. That gave Bailey and Hannah the edge, and they won!

Good times!

Hannah and Bailey won the coveted pineapples this year! Way to go girls!

 The Watermelon Run:

We always have a watermelon run. With split the group into two teams. Each team is given a watermelon. They have to carry the watermelon twice around Freeman Park. Each member of the team has to be in possession of the watermelon at least twice. The team has to finish together, and the watermelon has to be intact. The handoffs get hard when the sprinklers are on! This year was the closest the teams have ever been. They finished within 5 seconds of each other.

This was our winning team this year!

Such fun kids!

They get to eat the watermelons when they finish!

 Backyard Movie Night:

The last week of summer practices, we do a backyard movie night. The kids make s'mores until it's dark enough, and then we watch a movie outside. This year we watched Forever Strong. I love that movie!

S'mores!

Forever Strong

 Last Practice:

For our last summer practice, we always play games. This year I divided them up into teams, and they went on a picture scavenger hunt. So funny! After that we played games at the track.

Our traditional donut ending!

These kids work so hard! I love seeing the improvements they make over the summer. I'm so excited to watch them throughout their cross country season! It's my favorite time of year! Good luck runners! 

Shrimp Boil!

We had our annual shrimp boil with the Hughes. When Keith dumped all the food on the table, the wasps started swarming! It was crazy! We actually had to move the table into their garage and eat in there to keep them away. Dinner was yummy, and once we were done eating, the kids went in the hot tub. Bailey brought a couple of swim caps that were left over from our young women's synchronized swimming activity, and they had way too much fun with those! So funny!

Dinner!

These two are hilarious! Bailey had her cap on the wrong way, and she was teaching Emersyn how to make creeper faces for pictures! The combination was disturbing! :)

Jaxson, Emersyn, Bailey, Mason, and Preslee

Best buddies! 

These guys are nuts! Preslee had a big crush on Mason, so she was right by his side the whole night! So cute!

Synchronized Swimming!

We had a hilarious activity with the young women. It was an extension of Girl's Camp, and went right along with the Olympic there. We ordered them all swim caps, and went to Christina Hansen's pool for a little synchronized swimming! So funny! I love these girls!

Eastview young women at their finest! 

Emily, Madi, and Bailey were the teachers! 

Sophie, Hannah, Bailey, and Dacee.

Gotta love Bailey's face!

Rails To Trails Bike Ride

Mark and I went up to Ashton to bike the Ashton to Tetonia section of the Rails to Trails. It spans for 30 miles, but we only went out 10 miles, and back, making it a 20 mile ride.  The section we did is mostly through farmland, but we passed a couple really pretty spots crossing the river. We are looking forward to riding the next section of it this fall.

My cute biker buddy!

We were going towards the Tetons, but there was a fire, so the smoke was moving in fast. We could see the Tetons really good at the beginning of the ride, but by the time we turned around, they were totally covered by smoke.

Summerfest Performance

Bailey and Mark got asked at the last minute to perform at Summerfest at Melaleuca Field. They had just performed at the Youth Jam, so they had a set list all ready. They played for an hour, and did a great job. We had never heard of Summerfest before. It's an event for families at the baseball field with bounce houses, face painting, pony rides, water games, crafts, booths, etc. It was pretty windy, so attendance seemed low. At one point there was a big gust that almost blew Bailey right off the stage. So funny!

Summer Guitar Recital

Bailey had her summer guitar recital for TNT Studios. Seth had her and Mark play for a half hour while he set up, and while people were showing up and getting their guitars tuned. Then for their actual recital song they played Journey's Don't Stop Believing. They did a great job!

Mason came to listen to them.

Hahaha! I sure love this crazy duo!

That's better!

Seth has almost been teaching Bailey for 9 years!

Roaring Youth Jam/Duck Race

Mark and Bailey performed at the Roaring Youth Jam again this year! It's always one of their favorite performances. This year they did 'songs through the decades.' It was so awesome! They started with the 50s and ended with the 90s. Bailey has discovered that she loves old music, and has a huge list of older songs she still wants to learn. It was hard for them to narrow it down to a 45 minute set list! It was fun to watch the people walk by. They had a lot of people stop and listen, and this year it wasn't kids...it was a lot of different ages, depending on what era they were on. So fun! Half way through one of their songs, all the power shut off, and then we heard a big explosion and saw a big cloud of brown smoke coming from further down the river. A big transformer must have blown. The sound lady was great, and had them up and running again within a couple minutes.

Their set list was:

50s

Johnny B Goode

Walking After Midnight

60s

I'm a Believer

Ain't No Mountain High Enough

Bad Moon Rising

70s

Jolene

You Light Up My Life

Go Your Own Way

80s

I Wanna Dance With Somebody

Eye of the Tiger

Here Comes The Rain Again

Don't Stop Believin'

Rock This Town

90s

Everything I Do

Cutest duo out there!

I didn't get many pictures of them performing. The sun was right behind them, and it was too bright! 

Cute Hannah came with us, so I didn't have to watch them by myself. Seth came and watched them too. He's so great!

I love listening to them! 

Jolene (from the 70s)

The 80s are so fun! They played 'Here Comes the Rain Again' by the Eurythmics. This was one of my favorite songs growing up!

After they performed, we took the girls out to lunch, and then went back to the river for the duck race! It's so funny! They dump 18,000 rubber ducks into the river, and the duck that goes over the waterfall first wins a truck! 

Waiting for them to drop the ducks!

Hahaha, so funny!

There wasn't much of a current, so it took forever for the ducks to make it to the waterfall this year!

Yay!

Keith Urban Concert!

We went to an awesome Keith Urban concert! It was at the Portneuf Ampitheater in Pocatello. The ampitheater was nice, but the seating was lame. We had pretty close seats, but they weren't elevated as they went back, so we couldn't see very good. We got stuck in traffic in Blackfoot, so we missed Maren Morris as the opening act. We were so bummed! She has two songs out on the radio and I love them both, so I really wanted to see her. We made it in time for Bret Eldredge though, and he was great! Keith Urban was AWESOME! Way more fun and personal with the crowd then I was expecting. He was a great performer!

Our crew ready for the concert!

Bret Eldredge!

The people watching was hilarious! Bailey and Mason were cracking up at the drunk, crazy people. It was like the fair! A good country concert brings them out of the woodworks! Sawyer was dying! This is his 'I can't believe people act like this in public' face! 

Mason and Bailey 

Keith Urban! 

Hahaha, wait for it.....

Dani's Home!

Our cute little Dani got back from her mission! Mark and I were there to greet her at the airport. So fun! Sawyer was in Utah for a wedding, so he had to wait until the next day to see her. It has been over 3 years since they have seen each other! Bailey still hasn't seen her, but hopefully sometime this week!

Yay!

I'm so glad these three were reunited! Dani will be leaving for college at Utah State soon, so they don't have long to hang out. I hope they make the most of it!

West Yellowstone/Playmill

Lesa, Michelle, Becky, Misty, and I go to West Yellowstone every year. It's become a fun tradition that we decided we are going to do until we're 90! We go to Pond's Lodge for lunch, get old fashion pictures taken (Misty refused to be in it this year, hahaha), and then see a play at the Playmill. This year the play was Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. It's my favorite one we've seen so far. I sure love these ladies! We always have endless laughs when we get together!