Fly the Coop

Russell and I love riding our bikes together so much that we signed up for the third race in the St. George Virtual Race Series. We signed up for the biking division again and got started on another 200 miles for the month.  This race was called "Fly the Coop." 

This month we rode all over the valley.  This picture is of us up the canyon near Porcupine Reservoir.  We love discovering new areas on our bikes.

Another ride we rode all over Logan City.  We started at our house and rode all over the town discovering new bike trails along the way.

We had no idea that there were paved bike trails in Logan but we found them.  We need to take the kids and their bikes on these trails because they were really nice.

We also conquered Blacksmith Fork Canyon on our bikes.  This has always been a goal of ours because we have been afraid of the wind.  Well we achieved our goal twice this month and rode to Hardware Ranch and back on two different occasions.  The first time we battled gale force head winds the entire time we rode up hill.  We were beat but the ride back down the canyon was pretty awesome.  We got going pretty fast.  The next time was totally opposite.  This time we fought the wind going downhill so we still got a good workout.  This is a nice road bike ride though.  I love riding and running in the canyon.

Our peak ride of the month was when we rode to Idaho!  It is 30 miles from our house to the Idaho border and Franklin, ID.  After riding to Arizona while we were in St. George last month, we made it a goal to ride to the other end of the state and make it to Idaho.  We finally did it!  This was our longest ride yet.  The out and back ride totaled 60 miles!  It was a pretty nice ride and relatively flat.  But after that many miles, we were ready for a nap when we got home.  It took as a little less than 4 hours.  I am glad our neighbor, Cyrita, was willing to come to our house at 5:30 am and watch the kids.  We were excited to achieve our goal.

We finished our 200 miles for the Fly the Coop race by riding to our local food truck, "The Coop!"  We were hoping this picture would win us a prize in the race but it didn't...  Oh well.  

We ended the month with 261 miles.  We placed 4th and 5th in our age group this month but that's okay we still had fun together.  Too bad I had a birthday and turned 35 because I was put into the next age group.  If I was still in the 30-34 age group, I would have won first place again.  It stinks getting old...

A few weeks after the race, we received our swag in the mail.

Because I participated in all three of the virtual races in the series, I received an additional medal and shirt.  Here I am posing with all of my medals earned over the summer:

This has definitely been an eventful summer.  I definitely pushed myself to do more physically than I have before.  These races definitely pushed me to new limits. Over the last three months I have ran 400 miles, and biked close to 600 miles. Thank you St. George Races for the challenges!

I am not the only one that achieved their physical goals this summer.  Emily's physical goal was to run a 5K this summer.  On July 3rd, she did it!

She trained so hard but unfortunately because of COVID-19, all the races were cancelled. So we decided to do a virtual race instead. Together we completed the Besties Virtual 5K. We earned these awesome medals that connect like a friendship necklace.   It is so awesome to see the kids achieve their goals and love how they feel about themselves when they do.  Good job Emily! You are amazing!!

The boys have also been having a blast riding their bikes outside.

Our neighbor boys set up this ramp for their bikes and skateboards and Logan and Colby had to try it too.  They got so much air going off this jump.  They loved flying and looked so awesome doing it!  I loved doing things like this when I was a kid so I am glad they do too.

Camping

The best part of summer is camping!  This year we spent a lot of time up at Grandma and Grandpa Morwood's property on Cove Mountain.  We loved hanging out with Grandpa and Grandma, our cousins, and exploring the mountains.  We went up there about every weekend in July (in between baseball games and Russell's work) and then for a week at the end of July and first part of August.

 

First there were a lot of card games like Go Fish!

Then we went on a lot of four wheeler rides.  Thankfully, we had much better luck riding here than when we went with the Farnsworth's.  

Clint and Haley took us on a long, bumpy ride around the mountain.  It was awesome to see all of the different areas and scenery.   

The kids love seeing this old cabin and exploring around the building.  I won't let them go inside because it is so rickety, it could collapse at any moment.

We also took a really long ride with Grandpa and Grandma and the Hughes.  We rode from the property over the mountain to Fish Lake.  This was a new trail for us.  We had heard that there was a trail that lead all the way to Fish Lake but we had never been on it before.

We stopped for lunch at Cold Springs and watched the rain clouds roll in.  It wouldn't be a long four wheeler ride if we didn't have to break out the rain gear.

The ride was so fun even though we had to dodge the rain.  It only rained on us a little bit because it seemed like we avoided the main down pours which was really luck for us.  We really only got muddy.  The rain only seemed to be on Fish Lake mountain.  By the time we got back to Cove Mountain, the sun was shining and we were getting warm.  

Another rides we took on our own.  We decided to go down every trail just to see where they lead.  We rode to this cool overlook.  We could see the whole town of Richfield from here.

Four wheeling is not the only thing we did while we were here.  We also did a lot of fishing.  We even brought the kayaks out to try fishing from the boat.

The water in the lakes were really low this year.  Because of this, we were able to catch quite a few fish.  Emily decided to stay up with Grandma and Grandpa for a week while we headed home for work and games.  She had a blast hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa and Tyrel and Jack.  While we were gone, Emily became a great fisherman and caught all of these fish! 

When we came back up, she showed us exactly where to go to catch the best fish.  She was right.  We fished in her spot and caught about 7 more fish.  The boys even caught a few while on their kayaks.  It was funny because they would row out to the middle of the lake, drop their line, get a fish, and then have to row back to shore because they needed help getting the fish off their line.  Finally they just stayed at shore to fish.  That night we have a fish fry for dinner.  The fish were really good with really pink meat.

Another thing we did while camping was help fix up the property.

Last year my parents put in a septic tank so this year we had to bury and level out the ground that had been dug up for the septic tank.  We hauled logs, rocks, lined a new volleyball court, and build a fence around the septic tank.  We called this fenced in area the graveyard.  The boys even found an animal skull to put in the graveyard.  We worked hard and had a fun time riding on the tractor with Grandpa.

Before heading home at the end of the summer, we took one last four wheeler ride to a natural spring.

The water was so clear in this spring and it was so cold.  We also walked around to try and find the starting of the spring but it was too far and too wooded.  We found a bunch of downed trees and the kids thought this huge root ball was pretty awesome.

We love camping at the property.  We especially love spending time with family and getting away from the world for a little while.

Can we just stay on the mountain forever?  Yes, please!!

Baseball Season

Baseball season is in full swing and with three kids playing, it seems like we are at the ball field every night.  (Probably because we are!)  Because of the whole Covid thing, we didn't even know if they were going to be able to play baseball this year.  The season kept getting postponed until finally they were ready to start.  Usually baseball is in June but because of the delays, the season was in July this year.  This really put a cramp in our camping schedule but we made it work.  

Emily loves playing softball.  She is getting better each year.  This year she played just about every position including catcher and pitcher. She like pitching but says it is too stressful!

Her team this year was called the Rockettes.  She liked playing with all the girls and made friends with all of them.  The Calderwood's were her coaches and they did a great job teaching the girls and making them feel needed on the team.

They had a great season and won third place in the final tournament.  Good job, girls!

Colby played fast pitch baseball this year.  This was his first year playing fast pitch and having a boy team member pitch.  He definitely learned a lot and had fun.

While playing catch with him one day, I noticed that he could throw pretty straight and fast.  I asked him why he didn't try out to be the pitcher for one of the games.  He was really ho-hum about it and said his coach only likes the older boys to pitch.  I talked to the coach and told him Colby wanted to pitch but was too nervous to ask and he said he would put him in the next game to try it out.  Colby did a great job pitching.  His pitches were straight and good.  Unfortunately though, they were too good and the other players could hit the ball every time.  He just needs to get a little faster at throwing and he will be right on.  The other thing to work on is endurance and strength because his arm got pretty tired by the end of the inning.  He was able to pitch in two games during the season. He loved playing outfield too and with his arm, he could throw the ball in from the outfield.  I think that will probably be his position.

His team this year was the Giants.  He liked playing with all of the guys on his team especially his friends, Noah and Max.

Logan also played this year.  He played his first year of machine pitch baseball.

We were actually really impressed with Logan's performance this season.  He just went to it and hit the ball every time he was up to bat.  Then he would sprint to the bases so fast.  Being outfield was a little different though because he would easily get distracted.  But when he did get the ball, he was right on top of it to throw it hard to the base or pitcher.  He is getting better and better and catching and throwing.

His team this year was the Marlins.  He had a bast with the boys on his team and loved every minute of playing.  The Calderwood's were also Logan's coach this year so they were pretty busy with coaching.  

Colby is getting more industrious lately.  I think it is because he is getting older and maybe because he gets some reward or earning from the work. Anyway, he has started to mow the lawn.

I really think he likes to just be by himself listening to his tunes on the MP3 player.  He likes to not be bugged so mowing the lawn is a way to get away from the other kids.  Good job Colby!

Farnsworth Reunion

 We all had a great time at the Farnsworth Reunion this year.  Traci and her family even came out from Texas.  This year we went camping in the Manti-La Sal National Forest.  This area was so nice. It was new to all of us so we had a great time exploring and seeing new sites.

One thing the kids loved was spending time with their cousins.  We don't get to see our cousins very often so when we do, they all have a great time and get along so well.  Also the best thing about camping is cooking and eating S'mores around the campfire.

We spent about four days together and did something new every day.  On the first day, we played in the lake.

The weather was so warm that the cool water felt good.  The kids were mad that I wouldn't let them go swimming and we didn't bring our swimming suits like everyone else.  Oh well, they had fun wading up to their knees instead.  We also took along the kayaks and the Stewart's brought their paddle boards.  We all had a blast floating and kayaking across the lake.  Logan and Colby loved the Stewart's canoe and worked together to paddle it all over the lake.

Another great thing was relaxing in the hammocks:

These three little cousins were inseparable.  They played together non stop and loved every minute.  Kari and Charlotte are best friends.

Because we missed and will miss everyone's birthdays this year, we decided to have one huge Super Hero birthday party for everyone.  We all dressed up as super heroes and played a lot of fun games.

The kids loved dressing up and chasing each other around on their super hero missions.

We had fun games like knocking over buildings:

Silly string wars.  And deactivating a bomb:

Our mascot Par-core Squirrel even joined us for the evening.  This squirrel was so funny to watch all week.  He would jump from post to post and climb trees with ease.  He was such an acrobat!  The birthday party was so fun.  To top it off, Traci made an amazing chocolate caramel cobbler for dessert.  It was so chocolaty and good!

The next day we decided to go for a four-wheeler ride.  Since not everyone has four-wheelers, we decided to find a central location at a campground and take turns on the trails around the campground.

This was really fun because there were a ton of trails that lead every which way.  We took one that lead to this awesome overlook of a lake.  Then we rode around the lake and back to camp.  On the way back, we went up a steep hill.  On the hill, Russell and Emily hit a rock and rolled the four wheeler.  This was so scary for them especially Emily because she was driving.  Thankfully no one was hurt and Russell was able to get the four wheeler back upright and they were back on their way.  Then while loading the four wheeler back into the back of the truck, the ramps slid out from under Russell and he was thrown off with the four wheeler coming after him.  This was also so scary and I ran to catch the four wheeler while Russell rolled out of the way.  This was definitely not our day for riding but thankfully we were all safe and the four wheeler was not ruined either.  From now on, Russell ties the ramps down before loading or unloading.  It is just safer that way.

The rest of the reunion was spent just enjoying the outdoors and enjoying each other.  We loved spending time around the campfire, talking, playing games together, exploring the woods around us, and just having fun.  

On the way home, we took the camp trailer up to my parents' property on Cove Mountain.  We will go camping up there a few times this year.  On our way back from Cove, we stopped at the Salina Cemetery to show the kids Great-Grandpa Morwood's grave.

I don't know if they have ever been there because it has been a long time since I have been there.  It was fun to show them his grave and tell them a little more about the other family members buried there as well.  

Another crazy thing that happened was Emily got braces!

Right before we left for the reunion, Emily got her braces on.  Her teeth were pretty crooked and she is also missing a few teeth so this transformation in her mouth with take a couple years.  She says the braces really hurt right now so hopefully she gets used to them soon and hopefully they won't hurt the whole time.  The hardest part she says is learning how to eat with them and not have her teeth hurt.  She is liking soft food right now.