Man V. Mud 2013

Traditions.....Traditions! (Sing it in your head if you want...)

Here is another of my favorites. This was our third year participating in the Man V. Mud 5k in Logan and I dare say that each year it keeps getting better and better.  I love that we have developed a theme each year and that we have so much fun with that alone-- then add the race and all the mud and obstacles and well, it's just a blast. I usually don't blog these things so fast (or at all these days), but I am seriously so exhausted from the race that I can do nothing more than lay on the couch now. So, I might as well be productive while I lay here, right?

The theme we came up with this year was Richard Simmons and it was a perfect theme for many reasons, first and foremost because who doesn't love Richard Simmons? And second, because the costumes were light and easy to run in with pounds of mud dripping from them. Too many layers or heavy costumes creates some extra heartache during the race because everything just hangs off of you after you are covered in mud. Yum. This year, the race had new obstacles including a tunnel of ice water that you had to crawl through (SO COLD). The changes were fun though because it keeps it interesting and exciting.

So without further ado, a whole host of pictures- as usual.

Richard himself-- for the two of you who may not know who he is. :)

Our versions of Richard. Apparently Richard has everything from orange to black hair, according to us. 

This is really the funniest...her wig matches her hair color closely, so it almost looked like she just went out and got a really awesome perm. haha 

The lady Richards

The men and their lovely, oh so lovely, short shorts and equally lovely farmer's tans. 

Love this Richard. 

And how do you act like Richard? Just ask these three. 

Ready for this race to begin! 

Spirit fingers!

The whole team together. 

With our best moves. Which clearly need some work...

Devin's Richard hair clearly got a little out of control...

May I point out Devin's farmer tan just once more? 

Steve's visor may have been my favorite part. It says "Bride" on it, which makes it even more special. 

And then there was this addition to our team this year....and I don't even have words.

And, here we are at the end! I know it doesn't look like we are all that muddy, but that's just because the end of the race is a huge slide into a big pit of water. Believe me, we were covered before then- especially after two mud trenches (neck deep at some points), one of which was the consistency of pudding and smelled like manure. Ewwww! :)

This picture just cracks me up

Apparently that was my pose of the day. Super. 

Can't see our faces, but still a fabulous picture. 

Eh, a bit out of order, but who cares, right? 

Really out of order as this was the first hill down right after the starting line.

Devin. If you look closely, you will see that he had already come off his tube. Ouch.

 And while we raced, my mom, Che', and Brad were kind enough to keep an eye on the kids. They found the kids man v. mud section and let them go to town in the bubbles and other fun things. The kids had a great time. Thanks everyone for your help!

Just the cutest boys

Flor and Brookie

And the girls showing us what they did...see the drenched outfits? Fun for all!

Until next year! And, if you have any spectacular themes for us, we want to hear them! 

I Heart Adoption

Hey, did you know I love adoption!? Yeah.

Sometimes I feel like I have the most incredible job in the world. Sure, it has its downs like any job (like case-noting every conversation I ever have with anyone! UGH! Or writing multiple home studies in a week), but I have had so many incredible, sacred, amazing experiences during my 5 + years there. I so wish I could record the details of all of these amazing experiences (since this is my outlet!) but they are not my experiences to share, so I can't. Each and every adoption that I have been a part of has a beautiful story attached to it and I hope I remember them for years to come, even after I am done at LDSFS.

I just felt like I should share a little experience I had today, minus identifying details of course.

I got to go to court today with a couple who waited for 12 years-- yes, 12 years (and that was the wait time after they decided to pursue adoption-- years before that dedicated to trying to conceive) for their little guy. I think I mentioned a while back doing a home study in one day- this is the couple. They had chosen to close their file a year or so ago and to just be happy with themselves as their family when out of the blue, they got a call from a family friend who knew of a baby that had already been born. Commence the busiest 24 hours of my life!! We met on a Thursday for the first time, did interviews and paperwork all day, and met the birth mom and had the placement on Friday. Insane. So anyway, this is the couple that finalized their adoption today. When asked by the attorney to testify in open court what this baby means to them, well, let me just say that there was not a dry eye in the room. The judge was even wiping his tears.  The spirit was so strong. 

Adoption is such a sacred thing. I know that each child goes to his/her home. I have felt this is true in my own family, with Flor, with my niece Kylie, and with my Aunt Linda. I am so grateful for a loving Heavenly Father who sends these children to the right homes, even if it is not the "traditional" way.

Ahem. Another Post. Jace Related.

Look! Two days in a row. I know, miraculous. Don't get too excited. This one is a short one.

Each night, we try to read read from a short, child-friendly version of the Book of Mormon for our scripture time. It has a lot of pictures which the kids enjoy looking at while we read. Ever since we read about Alma, Amulek, and Zeezrom, Jace has been convinced that the picture version of Zeezrom is Grandpa Perry. He points out each one and says "There's Grandpa Perry again!" Even now that we are past that chapter, Jace wants to go back each night and find the pictures of Grandpa Perry. We like to focus on looking at the ones where Zeezrom is righteous, versus when he was wicked. :)

Pointing out "Grandpa"

See, he is really excited!

Judge for yourselves-- Grandpa Perry-like? 

The end. A cute story about Jacer recorded for posterity. :)

Family Reunion Videos!

Hallie going down the slide Flor going down all alone! Devin and his "huge" splash Hallie and Shawna racing Lining the kids up to dance and perhaps catching a few adults dancing too :) Getting the kids to dance for the "dance off" (Please ignore my loud, annoying voice. Ugh!) This is when the water fight was winding down. The kids got smart and started to throw the water balloons back at the adults. Haha! Uncle Aaron running his pictionary game. So much fun!

Sorry for the overload of videos!

August Reunions

I know I have said it a lot, but I feel quite bad that I have neglected this little blog of mine. I used to really enjoy writing here and capturing life's moments. I still enjoy it, but I seem to have so much less time. I remember writing up so many funny little posts about Hallie when she was little, and now I just throw up a bunch of pictures and call it good. I hope the other kids don't feel "middle child' syndrome (I totally did growing up) because of the lack of details about their lives. I love them all the same. It just must be the whole parenting three kids instead of one, going to school, working, etc. that has me lacking time. Oh, well. I will try to do better. 

So, here are a WHOLE bunch more pictures. Last week, we had quite the week. First, we traveled to St. George for Grandpa Maughan's funeral on Thursday. I will post a separate post on that, because I still want Devin to write down some of his memories for our kids to have of Grandpa Maughan. Everyone just pray with me that he will actually do it. :) Anyway, we traveled down on Wednesday and spent the night at a hotel with most of the family. We then spent Thursday morning/afternoon at the funeral and luncheon, then headed back to Provo, where we unpacked the car and repacked it to leave the next morning to go to Bear Lake for my mom's reunion. We considered just skipping going there, but we had really looked forward to going and we didn't want to disappoint anyone, so we headed up for Friday through Saturday morning. I am really glad we went as we had a great time. Saturday, we woke up at the crack of dawn after a lovely night camping in a tent (I hope you catch my heavy sarcasm there! Camping is so not my thing) and headed to Pleasant Grove to Mesha's house for the Perry family reunion. Reunions all around! So much fun, and oh-so-exhausting. But well worth it! 

Now, for a large picture tour, of course with my excellent commentary (please don't crush my bubble by telling me that you don't enjoy my commentary). 

St. George:

Basically, we got to St. George, spent a few hours swimming, and then put the kids to bed. We hung out on the hotel lawn with some of Devin's siblings/spouses and ate Ben and Jerry's ice cream (yum- don't worry about the 1200 calories per tiny container) and chatted. It was great to talk to Slava for a little while as he was here from Russia for just a few weeks. It was also Alisa's birthday that day, but she refused to let us sing to her on the lawn. I can't imagine why....

Jace was seriously such a wild man in the pool. Good thing for life jackets! He kept wanting Devin to throw him as far as he could and then he would go back for more. Crazy kid.

This is Hallie splashing in-- kept missing her actual jumps

Reese, Grandma, Dallin, Grandpa, and Flor

A pool full of Perrys

Cute Kylie. This girl is so hilarious. Love her.

This RARELY happens!! rarely! Since it happened a few times in our travels, I'll let you guess how tired the kids were?

Of course he has to have his Mickey to keep him company wherever he goes. Heaven forbid we lose that Mickey!

 Bear Lake:
Ahhhh, I love Bear Lake. Truly one of my favorite places on earth. The sparkling blue waters, the sandy beaches, the boating, the sun, the family time. Just love it. I also have some fond memories of going to Bear Lake with my friend Camille and her family when I was in high school. I think the love affair started there. We had some good times, didn't we ladies? :)

Some of the kiddos. Devin and I picked up Ryen and Jack (Linda and Brad's kids) on the way because we love the spend time with them and don't get to see them all that often. Ryen, Jaidyn (My step-sister Jaimie's daughter), Sadie, Hallie, Claire, Flor, Jace, Brookie, and Jack. We are missing Jaimie's son Jett in this picture and Jesse's kids Austin and Jake. We had a Jake, Jack, and a Jace amongst the kids there...not confusing at all! :)

She was not so sure what to think, but she loved boating and ended up really liking riding on the tube, too! Way to go Flor!

He just thinks he is big stuff, this kid.

Grandma and Doyle came for part of the day too and it is always fabulous to see them!

The kids were loving Dave's kayak. A hit for sure. 

Hmmm, not quite sure your life jacket fits there, Mikey

Grandma and Claire. Let me tell you, I was really coveting Grandma's hat in the hot sun. I think I need to pick one up for myself!

A whole bunch of people (okay EVERYONE) told me that it was silly to even try to get Jace to take a nap. But, HA, showed you all, didn't I? As long as he has his blankie (no matter that it was 100 degree weather) and his Mickey, he is good to go!

Just cute.  As I was taking pictures, Jack would request, "can you please send that one to my dad? I want him to see me having fun!" Brad probably got sick of all my texts with pictures of his kids. I also hope he will forgive me for the sunburned faced his kids returned with. Oops.

Uncle Devin loves little Claire

Games on the beach

Oh look, I wakeboarded for the first time in years. I actually had never wakeboarded until Devin's family reunion about 4 years ago and not again since. I grew up water skiing, but thought I would try wakeboarding again this time. I had a good time, but paid for it in soreness for a week after. Seriously, this getting old business is rough!

Dinner time. Always fun when camping. Dave and my mom made homemade french fries though that were to die for. Yum. 

Again, the joys of camping. Brush and spit in the sand. At least we brushed, though, right?

Beautiful sunset

At some point in the day, Ryen began to refuse to let me take her picture. What? Who does that remind me of?! Just like her mom!

Jack, Hallie, and Ryen all asleep at like 9:30! Not too bad, especially for Jack who usually goes to bed at like 1 am. No joke. He is a night owl. 7 of us slept in this tent and it was cozy, but we all actually slept, so it turned out okay.

I realize that I have zero pictures of my mom or Dave. How sad! They were so kind to put this on for all of us and we appreciate it! We had such a good time. Thanks Mom and Dave!

Perry Reunion:

Devin's family has decided to have each kid take a year to plan and execute the reunion, so a big thanks to Mesha and Aaron for hosting and planning the reunion this year! We had a great time and I know it was a lot of work for them. We missed Jana, Karl, and Grady a lot, but enjoyed having everyone else there. Mesha rented this huge blow up waterslide, which was a HUGE hit. I was so sunburned and sore from wakeboarding that I basically did nothing but sit in a chair all day long, but I really enjoyed the day anyway. It was so much fun to watch everyone playing on the slide and having little (or big I should say in the case of anything that Devin was involved in...) water fights. 

Again, this kid has no fear. Up and down the slide all on his own, over and over. Crazy kid.

This is my favorite picture of the day. Look closely at both Grandpa and Flor's faces. So cute!

Love the hands over the head technique. I am not even sure who this is!

Some slip-n-slide action

We enjoyed lots of good food throughout the day, including all-you-can-eat watermelon. Seriously.

My second favorite shot of the day. Devin's butt. He was so proud of his technique going down and that he produced the biggest splashes. Such a goof. I have some videos that I will try to post next. 

Like that. Good job Dev.

Ryder had it made. A bag of chips, some sun, a little entertainment in front of him...

Devin was ruthless with his siblings and some of the older nephews. Here he is attacking Kirston.

 At one point, we lined all the kids up on the grass and told them that we were going to have a dance contest for a Hershey's bar. Some people were even designated as judges and the kids went to town dancing, only to discover that it was a prank to get them all lined up so that we could bombard them with water balloons. It was hilarious. The best part was that after, quite a few kids were still wondering who won the chocolate bar. Haha.

You go Hals and Trey!

Aaron was hilarious this whole day. He participated in the dance off with the kids to get them going and we all enjoyed his moves. :)

Full on water fight!

And....back to the slide

That evening, Aaron hosted a round of pictionary for the kids-- and again, it was hilarious. He has some funny commentary.

Flor found her way to the tramp and had a little rest :)

All the kids helping to deflate the big slide

Sean performed a little clogging dance for us and the posed for this picture specifically for Jana and fam. sorry it's so blurry!

And we ended the night with a fabulous family slideshow put together by Tade, showing pictures of all the kids growing up. 

And I was there too, just in case you wonder!

 This is so beastly long, I will add a separate post for videos. No one is obligated to watch those, but Jana and other family members may like them. :)