Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Summer Vacation to Utah

We went up to Utah in July for a fun retreat from the heat, and a great time with family. The kids kept themselves occupied on the drive up. Rebecca with her Barbies


Sydney with her waterbottle.

And Hayden with his.... pillowcase?? Ok, so it was a long drive.

I already wrote about the race in the last post. That was the day after we got up there. That night we had a good time out on a date with my siblings.

We got a new camera while on vacation, and had fun trying it out by taking pictures after church on Sunday.








MMM... Isn't he a handsome man!!
Monday we went bowling at Boondocks. It was a lot fun.





That afternoon all the Roylance girls got together for our annual "Favorite Things" party. Fun and wonderful things were shared. I love our party every summer. Every summer I have to rack my brain thinking of what to give that I haven't already shared. This year I gave a pair of running socks, Lindor chocolates, and a recipe book. Other fun things that got shared were a gossip magazine (I love the Hollywood gossip too.), a dusting mitt, Stewarts Root Beer, reading glasses/smart glasses, grapefruit, yummy smelling lotions, and many other things.)

We ate a delicious meal of fondue, appetizer, main dish, and dessert!


Tuesday we went boating out at Pineview Reseviour. It was so fun. I haven't been skiing in such a long time. I was sore for the whole next week, but it was so worth it. It was also very fun just playing at the beach.












That night I sadly had to say good bye to Jerry. He had to fly to California for a work meeting, so we dropped him off at the airport and said good bye. The kids were sad to say good bye. It broke my heart after we left the airport Hayden was so quiet. I turned to look at him and saw tears welling up in his eyes. I asked him what was wrong. He quietly said, as he tried to hold back the tears, "I think you know why." Oh, break my heart! Then he pointed his thumb back behind him towards the airport. He missed his daddy so much! They have such a close relationship. It's very sweet.

When we got back to my brother's house it was such a nice summer night. We got out the sidewalk chalk, and played outside for hours. Hayden had fun making up a game for everyone to play. That's my little organizer. He was writing everyone's name at the starting line of the game.
Rebecca had fun drawing pictures of anyone and everyone that we knew. So cute.

And Sydney loved riding around in the car in an area that is larger than 10 square feet.
There is my little diva, Rebecca!
Always ready for the camera!
Wednesday we went to Chuck E. Cheese with the kids. They had so much fun - as always.



Hayden LOVES his cousin Ethan. They always get along so well, and have such a good time playing.
Then we went out to play with more cousins at my parent's house. Rebecca has a cousin, Rachel that is only a month older than her. They are two peas in a pod. I wish we could see them more than once a year. They love playing together.

On Thursday we got together with my girlfriends from High School. I also wish we could get together more often than we do. It's always great getting together and catching up.



Here is me, Nicole, Holli, and Sunni. We missed Jaime who couldn't make it from Kansas. Love these girls.

On Friday I decided to take a stroll down memory lane. Before our trip we asked the kids if they wanted to see another temple on our trip up to Utah, other than the SLC temple, since we went there on Memorial Day weekend. Hayden really wanted to see the Logan temple, which made me happy since it is my temple that I grew up with. I have a little porcelin statue of the Logan Temple that I made when I was in YW, and it's in his room. I think that's why he has a love for the Logan temple. Anyway. I met up with my sisters and kids and we went down memory lane. First we went to the temple. I LOVE the Logan temple. It is so beautiful, and always reminded me of a beautiful castle.

They've added a reflecting pool in the front since the last time I was there. Here are all the cousins that went in front of the pool.



Rebecca and her little buddy, Rachel.




My sisters, Esther, Ruth Ann, and Elizabeth


Next we went to my old neighborhood. My parents moved to Virginia when I moved to Las Vegas. It was very hard moving from my childhood home. I wanted to not only drive past the house, but walk around the block remembering the people that lived there, and memories from my great childhood. it was great - unfortunately it was VERY hot! It was good to see the old house, but it's funny how in my memories our house seemed much bigger, as did the whole neighborhood. It was kind of sad to see how run down the neighborhood is now. A couple homes are still kept up, but overall, not so much. Sad really. Here is my childhood home. Where we played night games every night with all the neighborhood kids, where we played "Annie-I-Over" for family nights, many great memories. How on earth we ever fit 10 kids in there, plus my grandma for a few years, I'll never know. It never felt small to me growing up.


Next we topped off our trip to Logan at LaBeau's. I worked there when I was in high school. It's a fast food/ shake place. They have the BEST raspberry shakes. It was perfect after the hot walk as well. It took me right back to when I was 17 yrs old. And I think the only thing that is different about the place is newer tvs, still delicious food and shakes. Here is Hayden and his cousin James, and Rebecca and Rachel.

We stayed till Monday morning, and had a great time. Next up - Ewell camping trip!

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

2010 Farmington Half Marathon

We went on a family vacation up to Utah this month (More on the vacation in the next post) which was conveniently scheduled around another race for me to do. What can I say, I've got the running bug. I actually really like it - for the most part. I was able to run the Farmington 1/2 marathon on Sat. July 10th. I ran it with my two brothers Mark and Joseph, and my sister, Esther, and sis-in-law Angela. My nieces and nephew also ran the 5K. It was so fun. I wasn't as nervous before this race as I was before, and that made me nervous. I think just knowing I had done a 1/2 marathon before helped me. At first I wasn't going to worry about time, I just wanted to run for fun and not worry about any personal records or anything like that. But as I got running I felt really good and I did make little goals along the way. I was so happy that I beat my time by about 10 minutes - don't know the exact time because we happened to be in the potty when the race started, thinking we had more time, and even though they used chips for the race, they didn't use the start time from the chip. Bummer. We weren't too far behind everyone, but still it's not the way you want to start the race, already trying to catch up to everyone.
It was the first half marathon for Esther and Angela so Esther got us all matching outfits with shirts that said, "Half Marathon Virgin" on the back. It was pretty funny. We got a lot of laughs out of that.
We did it!!


So now I'm on the lookout for another race. I'm planning another 1/2 marathon in November, but that seems so far away. (NEVER thought I'd say that)

4th of July Weekend!


We had a great 4th of July weekend. First my brother, Dave and his family were in town on vacation staying at their timeshare. So we were able to get together a couple times with them throughout the week. It is always fun having family in town. They left on Friday but had the time share till Sunday morning. They offered for us to stay for free, and we quickly and gladly accepted. It was so nice. It was at Tahiti Village and they had two connecting rooms so we didn't have to squeeze everyone into one room. They have a fun lazy river, and even a pool with a sandy beach. The kids loved swimming there.
On Saturday we were able to go to our nieces baptism. It was a very special day. After the baptism we went back to my bro-in-law's house and had a delicious dinner and of course fireworks.
Sunday after church we went to Jerry's parent's house for a yummy bbq and some fun fireworks again. I love Independence Day. When I listen to those great patriotic songs I get emotional thinking about the freedoms that we have and how grateful I am for the country I live in.