PA Fun Times!

The day after Thomas's baptism, Steve took Grandpa and Grandma G and McKay and Tricia to the Newark airport.  The grandparents were headed home and Tricia and McKay were flying south to catch a cruise ship bound of the sunny Caribbean.  They were excited to try cruising and celebrating several events including their 16th anniversary and McKay's tenure achievement.

It was helpful that Tiffany and Abigail got to stay a couple of additional days.  It gave the kids something to focus on to ease their missing Mom & Dad.  Our first activity was to take the kids shopping at the grocery store to choose their favorite contribution to a "crazy dinner."  At first they thought that they just ate the item they picked--all of it.  We had to explain that they each chose and item to share with everyone else.  They all chose dessert items.  Surprise!  It's a good thing that Tiffany chose roasted chicken, Steve chose watermelon and I chose corn on the cob and salad.  They raced through a few bites of that "stuff", ate a bunch of watermelon and focused on their chosen desserts.  It was definitely the diversion we needed to keep any serious tears away.

 The day of the baptism, Tricia and I attended Jessica's DARE graduation.  I think they were making an effort to give this a lot of attention.  It took longer than Tanner's high school graduation ceremony.

Sunday we attended our church meetings and the kids had fun playing together.  We read and enjoyed their musical performances too.  It was pretty rainy so we didn't walk that day.

Monday morning Steve, Tiffany and Abigail left early for Philly for an educational tour of our country's founding for Abigail.  They added in a couple of stops for lunch at the Reading Terminal and a favorite donut shop nearby.  I stayed back at the house and got the kids to and from school, washed sheets and laundry, cooked some supper and did a bunch of work for my clients back home.

It seemed liked everyone was back home in no time at all.

Our family home evening consisted of a story and musical performances by all the kids--Those are my favorites.

Congratulations, Thomas on your baptism...

 On May 12, we flew to PA to be present as Thomas was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  The baptism took place the next evening on May 13 with Bishop Smith presiding.  Both sets of grandparents, Tiffany, Abigail, McKay, Tricia, Cameron, Jessica and of course, Thomas, were in attendance.  It was a wonderful and inspirational evening.  Cameron and Jessica gave incredible talks.  We love you, Thomas, and are so pleased with your decision to become one of Christ's disciples.

Visitors From China and the Big Race!

Jen, Will and June arrived from China about the middle of April.  They came just in time for Jen's brother's wedding.  Taylor flew to CA later in the month for corporate meetings and then they met up in Utah for a few days prior to their big Iron Man race in St. George the first weekend in May.

Steve managed to paint the bead board in the kitchen prior to my book club.  It looks nice.

It was good that Jen could spend time with her family and participate in wedding festivities.  She was also able to spend some time with her sister, Jamie.  They are special friends and sisters. They squeeze in dental appointments, hair cuts and restaurant excursions.  The big focus of this trip was the Half Iron Man Triathlon for Jen.  There were about 2500 entrants and that included pro -racers as it was also the North American Triathlon championships.  Jen was amazing and finished in the top 10 women in her age group.  Wow!  It was a cold, windy and rainy day and her times were incredible.

Taylor rode the bike in a relay with Tyler doing the swimming and Seth doing the running portions while Taylor did the cycling.  They took first place overall among the relay teams.  They were really strong and beat the next team by about 5 minutes.

All the families stayed in a big house near the start of the race.  That was really convenient.  Fortunately the day prior to the race was nice enough that the kids could swim in the pool.  After that it was too cold and rainy.

Jen is among the sea of green caps waiting to enter the water for the swimming portion.  BRRRR!

Tyler is smiling because he hasn't yet entered the freezing water.  Well, for some reason he was smiling after he swam too.  Maybe because he did so well.

Here is Jen after her swim.  She is just starting the cycling portion of the race.

Here is the group waiting for Jen and Seth to complete the run.

Jen didn't even looked tired as she neared the finish line.  I bet she was though.  She is one tough gal!

By the time she finished, Jen was freezing and after 41/2 hours for peak athletic performance, I'm sure she was exhausted too.  Congrats, Jen!  It amazes me that so many people are willing to torture themselves this way!

Tyler, Taylor and Seth are the big winners of the relay!

 Here is a picture of Taylor, Jen, June and Will at a yogurt shop in CV a few days prior to the race.  I get challenged when it comes to getting photos in the order I want.  Sorry about any confusion that creates.

Jen and Taylor both gave impressive performances.  Congrats to them!

This picture includes Tyler, Sarah, Kristen, Larry (Sarah's Dad) and Karen, Jen's very supportive friend.