Let Freedom Ring

Mere days after returning from the great Southwest adventure, I scooped my still-packed back off of the floor, changed some things around, and headed up to Idaho for our great Patriotic adventure. It all started off on July 3rd, with burritos, chatting, and antics by toddlers in the back yard. They were being so crazy chasing around, biffing it awkwardly, and helping each other out, even the other kids were laughing their heads off at them.

The thing in Andrew's mouth is a ring pop. Surprisingly, he weaned himself from the binkie long ago.

The next morning started out at 4:30 a.m. as Cindy and I had to get our booties up Blacksmith Fork Canyon so we could Freedom-Run down it. Total distance 15k. Odd-ball distance, but I really liked it. We signed up to stick together, and we did. We laughed and joked a lot in the car, the warm-up, and the beginning, but as it got hotter Cindy started getting heat stroke, and we turned our determined faces on. It felt so great to finish the whole thing after all of the barriers I've had to working out for the last year or so, and extra fun to be with Cindy. Our average per-mile wasn't bad for us, either. We want to do more races - it's such a rush, and we figure if we remember to take our Gu at the right time (um, not at the end), we'll rock it even more. Look at us, we just ran for freedom!

This is the race shirts-shot. When I see this pic they make me think of firefighters. A heroic look.

After the race, we headed over to Village Inn for a big patriotic breakfast. (Patriotic because of the day, of course). Then, we took advantage of a 30% off all running shoes sale and got new ones at the sporting good store next door. What a great reward for doing the 15k, it was high time. Then . . . what's more American than kids running shirtless in a firehose? Probably the children exercising their right to not do it again just for pictures. That's okay, they had a grand time, and got snowcones afterward. Here we are enjoying hanging out at the park.

Many snow cone pics of Josh and Tate, but they are just so amusing to me.

Cindy just runs a race, then looks that cute in 4 minutes. For real. And Lissy loves her tons, but was a bit tired.

Wow, you can fit a ton in a day when you start early . . . it seems we spent a really long time lying about the house and having a BBQ. Yum . . .Then off to the reservoir for paddle boating, rafting, and general frolic.

Beckett was wiped out. This is how he spent his lake adventure.

Boats met up mid-lake for a little Noah-transfer.

Not a fan of the water temperature, but diving rings are where it's at.

So funny - Leia snuck into our van, and Gary thought that Nate put her there. We get to the reservoir, and hello, we brought a dog . . . she loved it.

Gary's legs were tired from paddling kids all around with Shane, but he loves me enough to take me for a ride. Romance!

Why did Kristen want to take pictures of Lissy?

Cute family . . . Lissy is a stand-in for the one coming in October.

Right as we were rolling from our ride, planning to give Gary's legs a rest, Tate decided he wanted to paddle, too. Uncle Gary is the best . . . do you love the imbalance here?

Then for the day's finale, fireworks and rootbeer floats with the neighbors. Banned in Utah, but okay in Idaho. These boys were very into it.

I didn't realize until I looked at the pictures later that the kitten was lapping up the rootbeer.

See that porch swing? I lied on it, had my head on Gary's lap and Lissy in my arms, and rocked. The night was perfect. Magical. It was the very definition of content. Sigh . . . what a wonderful life. It was then Gary decided not to run home but to spend the night. So we relaxed a little more.

Two boys and fire up ahead . . .

Noah, Sophie, and neighbor Jen.

Brade-man.

It's hilarious to me to see how this little spark has the full attention of EVERY boy.

Sparkler time!

And that was the end of the camera battery. It's just as well, that was when I relaxed in the porch swing. However, the night wasn't over, because the neighbor Jen brought glow sticks. The kids went nuts running around in the back yard with those, even Lissy. She held her glow stick and shook it for probably 20 minutes, even though she was tired. Jen took her outside to play with it, and we thought she was upset because we kept hearing her, but it turned out that she was just making happy noises because of the glow stick. Hooray for independence!