Beautiful Big Horns

This past weekend we went to the Big Horn Mountains and camped for 2 nights. It was our first camping trip of the season. We had a lot of fun and rode over 115 miles on our 4 wheelers. As you can see from the pictures, it was kind of cold up there, especially while riding. I'm glad we brought our winter gear. On Friday night it rained; on Saturday it rained, hailed, snowed and was thundering and lightning. But during the day on Saturday and Sunday it was nice. We found some new trails that we really like and can't wait to get back there again! It was really nice because it felt like we had the mountains to ourselves; we had our choice of campsites and we had most of the trails to ourselves.

Deadwood Mickelson Trail Half Marathon

On Sunday, Brad and I ran the Deadwood Mickelson Trail Half Marathon with Matt and Kristen. The good news is we all finished, the bad news is we all hurt. It was a lot of fun and I highly recommend running a half marathon if you ever get the chance. Training is a lot of work, but rewarding yourself with finishing a race is well worth every bit of work it takes to get there! I NEVER thought I would run a mile or two without walking and/or complaining let alone 13 miles. However, once I started running I got addicted, and now I look forward to it. Thanks Matt and Kristen for inviting us to run the half marathon with you guys way back in January. If it weren't for you guys I would have never fell in love with running!

June 2009 Dance Recital

The girls had dance recital June 5th and 6th. They were awesome! I love watching everything come together at recital; it always looks so good. However, I am always a little nervous when I'm watching because I am hoping that they will: 1) make it to the stage for each of their dances, 2) have the right costume on, 3) have the right shoes, accessories, and tights on. And it seems every year it turns out all right. This year Makenna had 8 costume changes and Alanna had 7 costume changes! That's a lot of dancing for them and a lot of worrying for me!

David Foy Scholar Athlete

On Thursday, the girls had their school awards assembly. The principal had told me several weeks before that both of the girls had been nominated for the David Foy Scholar Athlete Award. This is a special award that they first gave out to one student last year in honor of a kindergarten teacher that had passed away in the Spring of 2008. It is a very special award because classroom teachers can only nominate one student from their class if they choose to. This year there were 10 nominees out of approximately 350 students. It means a lot for the girls to be nominated because they both knew Mr. Foy and liked him a lot.

So, at the awards assembly the principal anounced 9 nominees and read why their teacher had nominated them. Alanna had already been called up and after the 9th nominee was up there I thought maybe I had misunderstood the principal when he had told me "both" girls had been nominated. But then he said, "And this years Scholar Athlete is Makenna Massman!" I almost cried I was so happy for her. I looked around and saw her standing in the back of the room with some of her friends and teachers. She was shaking her head no and saying, "no it can't be me because I wasn't nominated." Her teachers and friends were nudging her forward and she finally went all the way up to the front to receive her award. I think she finally believed it was her award when she read her own name on the paper (even if it was spelled wrong; which none of us caught until the next day).

It was a great honor for both of the girls and we are so proud of them.