Prelude to a Family Reunion

I wish I could remember everything so be patient with my writing.  My Sister in-law Sarah, and the kids came out to Utah a couple of weeks before our big family reunion.  My Brother Chris came out a week before it so he could be there with Sarah and the kids for her side of the family reunion.  Sarah and the kids didn't get to my mom's house until late evening on Friday July 29th to have a fun sleepover weekend.  We had dinner, and talked.  The kids played.  We made plans for the next day Zumba, swimming at the outdoor pool of the rec center by my mom's house, and to see the races at Rocky Mountain Raceway.  We have lived here in Magna for over 3 years, and we had never been to one, we live 5 min away from the track.
Sarah and I woke up bright and early and went to the rec center and did some Zumba.  I love Zumba, but it's so hard to do when the class is packed.  I can't concentrate.  It was nice when people had to start leaving and  space opened up, and I could concentrate.  Sarah is awesome at it, and it was fun to be able to go with her!  Next stop was swimming.  We were trying to decide whether to swim in the indoor or the outdoor pool.  The weather was kind of iffy.  We chose to do the outdoor.  It was nice at first and not very crowded.  We were able to stay for a couple of hrs.  It started to get windy and cold near the end.  The deciding factor of us leaving was when they blew the whistle telling people to get out of the pool because someone either pooped or threw up in the pool.  Good timing, and oh so very nasty!
Next stop Rocky Mountain Raceway.  We thought that the races started at 5 p.m.  We were so wrong and got there way too early.  You weren't able to bring in food or drinks, so I had to leave my backpack of snacks in the car.  We went up to the bleacher area, and only a hew other people were there.  We sat down for maybe 15 min. and the kids were starting to get board.  We went back out to the parking lot to the cars and had cookies and warm water.  Oh YUMMY!  Then went back up and waited.  It got very hot, just sitting there, so Rex the guy my Mom was involved with at the time bought us all snow cones.  I'm not a huge fan of them, but this one I so was, and so was everyone else.  Very thoughtful treat!
Luckily we didn't have to sit and watch nothing for too long because they started doing practice runs.  Then the real races started.  Some were fun, and others not so much.  I don't think I could ever get into NASCAR with  the hundreds of laps that they do.  It gets boring.  We wanted some action cars cutting each other off, tires squealing, you get the picture.  There were some races with lot's of close calls, and it was awesome!  I wish that it had been a demolition derby.  I love those, and they are so much more action packed!  The kids started to get restless again, and so we decided to leave early.  We went home ate some yummy food, and just hung out for the rest of the night.
The next day was Sunday and we had planned on going to my Mom's ward, but we were so tired from the day before that we slept in and took our time getting going for the day.  We decided that we would go to Temple Square for our church and walk around.  Maybe go on a hike up to Ensign Peak if the weather stayed nice.  We got ready, and left.  We parked a few blocks away from Temple Square by a park.  I can't remember the name of the park to save my life, but we were able to get some nice pictures with the kids there.
It was nice to see the Salt Lake Temple, and sit by the reflection pool, to go to the visitor center for the temple, to go see the visitor center at Temple Square and see the new family video, and to go see the Joseph Smith Memorial building.  It was closed, but they did have Church meetings going on.  They let us go and see the statue of Joseph Smith.  It was a nice replacement from church meetings for the week.  Sarah and my Mom were able to take some great pictures of the kids.  I'm so glad they have good cameras.  Thanks Sarah and Mom for taking great pictures. =)  The weather turned on us so we weren't able to do the hike, which was okay because we were tired.
We went home and just relaxed.  The kiddos in between rain storms played outside and started gathering snails.  Nasty!  My girls were the ring leaders of gathering, but the real ring leader was my niece McKell who told everyone what to do.  My nephew Gabe was kind of iffy about the whole thing, but gathered the snails anyways.  It was hilarious.  They filled up my Mom's little bird bath with snails.  Then my Mom gave them a huge zip lock bag to put them in.  We were going to throw them away, but the kids started to get upset.  So we compromised and took the snails to the park to let them loose. So gross to see this huge pile of snails by the lamp post in the park.  Hopefully nobody got angry with all of the snails being there.  That ended our fun sleepover party.  I'm so glad we were able to do it, and spend time together.  I love family!  Stay tuned for my post on our fun family reunion this year.  Thanks for reading, and enjoy the pictures below!

At the pool:

We really did have a lot of fun at the pool, but by the end our girls had had it, they were freezing.  I love the picture with my nephew Trace kissing Madisynn on the cheek.  Priceless!

At Rocky Mountain Raceway:

Like I said earlier, the races were fun, but they got old fast.  Madisynn fell asleep for a good 20 min. or so.  That girl could sleep anywhere!  Don't those snow cones look delicious?  They were so good!

At the park by Temple square:

I love how the girls are all wearing bright colors with flowers in their hair.  They are so beautiful!

At Temple square grounds:

Inside the Joseph Smith Memorial Building:

Inside the North Visitors Center at Temple Square:

Sunday night catching Snails:

It was so much fun to have them come and have a little party over the weekend.

Love this picture of them, so stinking cute and priceless!  Thanks Sarah and kids for coming and spending time with us.  We love you!!!!

Maintaining...

Anyone that knows me knows that I'm a die hard Jillian Michaels fan.  I have read her books.  I love her workout DVD's.  They are difficult, and they do deliver results if you are willing to give it your all.  I have all of the one's pictured up above.  I have been rotating them.  One week I do the 30 day shred.  So starting on a Monday I do level 1, Tuesday Level 2, Wednesday Level 3.  Thursday six week six pack level 1.  Friday six week six pack level 2.  Saturday if I feel like working out it's either Banish fat, boost metabolism, or No more trouble zones.  The next week Monday ripped in 30 week 1, Tuesday Ripped in 30 week 2, Wednesday Ripped in 30 week 3, Thursday Ripped in 30 week 4. Friday Six week Six pack level 1.  Saturday Six week Six pack level 2.  I do this to keep it tough, and so my body doesn't get used to it.  It;s nice to always feel the burn of a good workout!
It will be a year and a half next month since I met my weight loss goal.  I am happy to say that I have maintained.  I keep fluctuating between 145 and 150.  I have gotten up to 152 and that depressed me.  I have also gotten down to 140.  That felt awesome to reach that, and say that I was 140.  It's just too hard to maintain 140.  I have a problem though, and I don't like it one bit.... I feel like i'm starting to lose my focus.  It makes me mad, frustrated.  I thought that losing the weight before was hard, but you know what maintaining it is even harder.  I need another challenge with a reward at the end.  I found my challenge today.
So I decided to go onto JillianMichaels.com to see if she had anything new.  I was so excited to see that she did.  It was just barely released.  This is my new challenge:

I watched the preview, read the reviews, and I just couldn't resist I went onto Amazon.com and ordered me a copy.  I seriously can not wait until it comes, i'm so excited to have another challenge!  Shopping will be my reward.  Bring it on Jillian!

Back to school

Madisynn started school last week!  She was so excited, and so ready.  I on the other hand was not so ready for her to start.  She is my baby, and she is just so tiny, it's hard to believe that we are at this point.  Because she was excited, I needed to show my excitement for her, and I did.  So on the afternoon of the 29th I took pictures, and then we bravely walked to the school for Madisynn's first big day of big kid school.

Madisynn has a friend from church that is in her class.  I'm so glad that she has a buddy that she already knows.  So I had to take a picture with Maddie, her buddy MaKayla, Kenzie and MaKayla's little sister Kaley:

 

And of course a picture with just the 2 of them:

Then the time came.  Mrs. Dunbar opened the door greeted us, and gave specific instructions to help our kids get backpacks hung up and to find their desk, and say our goodbyes.  

Maddie at her desk all set and ready for Mom and Dad to leave:

I have to say I held it together pretty well.  I didn't cry in front of her.  I told her to have a fun day, to behave, that I loved her and that we would see her in a few hrs. Then kissed her and said goodbye.  I cried on the way home.  I got myself together though, and called my BFF Brittnie.  She made me feel better. =)  I made it through the rest of the day without crying and I was excited to pick Maddie up at the end of the day.

Maddie was a true star!

McKenzie started school today September 6th, and she has been waiting so patiently to go.  I decided to try something new this year with Kenzie.  I decided to enroll her in a charter school.  It's brand new this year so lucky us we get to be the group that works out all the bugs.  Why did McKenzie start so late?  Well the construction on the inside of the school wasn't quite done yet, and they didn't wan the teachers to be stressed and panicky so they moved the start date back a week.  McKenzie was supposed to start the same day as Maddie.  It really would have been nice to have had them start on the same day,  I was all prepared for it,  Oh well.  So this new start date only effects the end of school by 2 days.  That's okay with me, not a big deal.

Over Labor day weekend the staff and volunteers moved stuff into the school.  Labor day they actually had the open house to be able to go around and see the school.  See who the teacher's were.  How drop off and pick up work.  I really felt that Kenzie needed to see who her teacher was and know where she was going, and not just go into it cold turkey.  I was glad we went, it settled my nerves some.

This morning bright and early I woke McKenzie up.  She was excited to get up and wear her school uniform jumper.  She hurried up and got dressed.  Then I did her hair really cute, and then she ate breakfast.  We really had to hurry because we still weren't sure on drop off procedures. We grabbed her lunch, she has to have cold lunch all year since this building is only temporary until they build the new one.  This building doesn't have a kitchen to be able to do school lunch.  This doesn't bother me though because Kenzie had cold lunch almost everyday last year.  I had to do some cute pictures of Kenzie on her first day before going to school. 

Had to also get some of Kenzie posing when I did Maddie's pictures:

Everything went smoothly dropping Kenzie off this morning.  She went into shy mode when she got to her classroom.  It was hard to leave her there.  She was just so far away from what I was used to.  I knew she would do fine though.  I did not cry, which i'm very proud of.  I kept myself busy trying not to think about it, and before i knew it it was time to go pick her back up.  Pick up was going to be crazy, so we got to the school 10 min. early and already the pick up line was backed up.  We decided to go into the school and wait, since we had to be back to pick maddie up from school.  We picked kenzie up with no problems, and in the car she told me about her day.

She is so excited to be going to Endeavor hall, and to be an Eagle... She had an awesome day!  She told me about lunch, and art, and the library. She made a friend, her name is Sky.  Kenzie went on and on how at recess the school principle played football with her and Sky.  They just threw the football back and forth to each other.  I really like her principle he is an awesome guy, and is going to do such a great job running this school!  I am going to think positive and we are all going to have a fantastic year.  Really we are!  Thanks for reading folks. =)