Bryce Canyon 1/2 marathon

Oh yeah!!! I finished the Bryce Canyon 1/2 marathon! I was just as surprised as anybody when I rounded the corner after 13+ miles and saw the finish sign. This picture is actually staged, they let me sneak in while no one was finishing to snap a picture. Doug was not there to see me really cross the finish line, I was way faster than he had planned on me being. Just kidding the traffic was a lot worse and they could only go as fast as the pilot car through the canyon. But is was ok we faked it!

I never thought I would say this but it was really fun! I am new to the running world but I would suggest the Bryce Canyon half to who ever is looking to run a 1/2 marathon. It was a beautiful run, perfect weather and enough down hill to make the up hills not seem so bad!

I ran with my sister-in-law. This was all her idea, and I am glad she dragged me along. There may have been a bit of kicking and screaming a few weeks ago when I started training, but over all it was a blast!


Here we are me, Megan (my sister in law), Laura (Megans sister), and Clint (Lauras fiance). We all were in this together!!


This is after the race. We needed to stretch our legs a bit!


The head band is so flattering I know, but if I do not wear that thing I would not be able to see because the sweat would be running into my eyes!!! It took me 2 hours and 23 min. to run and I am proud to say that I did run the whole 13.whatever miles this race was. I had two goals not to walk and to run a 10 min. mile. I 'm not quite sure about the 10 min. mile part. It took us around 2 minutes to get up to the starting line and there were the lines at the bathroom break that were included in my total time. However, I ran the whole blasted time so I felt ok about it and besides there is always next year right??????

If anyone is interested we could run together next year! Just let me know!!! I am committing Doug, Paige and Mark whether they want to or not! I am serious let me know we will have a blast!

Ashtons big day!

Ashton was baptised on July 5th it was a Sunday! We do not have a combined stake baptism. Ashton had the whole day to herself. She chose the hymns we sang, who gave the prayers, and who spoke on baptism and the holy ghost! It was so special to have so many members of our family there!

After the baptism everyone about 50 people ( I love that so many members of our family live so close) came over for desserts that Ashton picked out!I can't believe she is 8 already! I know she is taking this baptism thing very serious

and is truly trying to make better choices and be a good example to her little brother and sister and to her friends!

Ashton with her Great-grandma Curtin

She is the only great my kids have ever had on the Ekins side!!

Ashton with Great-Grandma Toni! Ashton with her Great-grandpa Dick and Great-Grandma Shirley! This picture is very special to me because you have to be very quick and sneaky to get my grandpa in a picture. This may be the only one they have together!

Ashton with Nana and Papa Jack!

Ashton and Grandma and Grandpa Ekins!

Ashton was so tickled with this bouquet of white flowers her primary teacher brought over for her! She is so kind and Ashton just loves her!

Happy 4th of July!!!

We started out the 4th with the annual Ray Barrus 5k "fun" run! It really was fun! Paige and I ran together so Doug and Bub could run as fast as they wanted and would not have to feel guilty about leaving us behind! Doug came in 5th but if I would have registered him in the right category he would have been first! Oops! I came in eighth and this was Rylie first time running the one mile race and she came in third! So we all felt it was a successful run this year!

Here they are already to go to the parade! Rylie is wearing the shirt that she made in achievement days! She was so proud of her tie-dying skills she could not wait to wear this on the fourth!

We have watched the parade from Grandma Toni's house for the past few years, it is nice to have a house right on the parade route, no fighting for seats or walking miles to find a spot. We just turn the side yard into a parking lot and we all fit!
This is Deseret Family Dentistry's float! I must say for a last minute entree we did a pretty dang good job!

I love this picture! All the grand kids that were in Grantsville! You would never know this was taken in G-ville in the middle of the summer with all this green foliage everywhere! The rain has been great!

Chelsi, Me and Kadee how good are we to color coordinate with red, white and blue!!

I had to quickly capture the moment when they were "best-friends" instead of how they usually are, pulling each others hair out!

This can only mean one thing......TROUBLE

Later that night we all got together for the Annual Family Olympics!

This photo is from one of the Leapfrog kick ball games. Young, old pregnant, injured nothing gets you out of playing in the Olympics!

The Sponge Squeeze really helped to cool everyone down!Basketball Toss-Poor Doug everyone on his team made the shot except for him!The Football toss and golf were where some teams started to fall apart!This year Austins team took the Gold!!!Bubba's team won the silver! And Dougs team took home the bronze!



These two teams will need some extensive training before next year!

We are lucky enough to have a back yard that faces the city park so we don't have to battle the crowed and we still get front row seats. Paul even added some patriotic music to the show this year! It was another great Independence Day! I love this holiday and feel so blessed to live in this great country where there are so many brave men and women willing to fight to protect the country I love! Thank you so much! !

Wasatch Back!

Dougs boss decided to put a team together to run in the Wasatch Back Ragnar Relay competition! And Doug was asked to join them! This is a race that goes from Logan to Park City, 188 miles of fun! Your team consists of 12 people each person running several miles over a two day (or how ever long it takes you) period. The races motto is Run. Drive. Sleep?Repeat.Hear is the Presidio half of the team all geared up and ready to run!!!!Although Doug has never really ran before in his life, he did great for his team. In case you did not read that with enough animosity in your voice I will tell you that although I am proud of him it really ticked me off that he just decided to run one day and off he goes pumping out a 8 minute mile. Men.... it just is not fair!

Look at that form!!!! I am sure that as soon as Doug sees I have blogged about this he will try to delete it so I hope someone gets to see this!!!!!

The last few legs of the race they really were trying anything they could to keep motivated. However, is does not look like this bag of cookies is what Matt wants, maybe they should have tried good old Gatorade!!!
Here they are "trying" to sleep while the other van is running. But Doug said there was too much excitement and way to many people to get any sleep!

Doug in the van waiting for his turn. This leg of the race he had to run at 1:00 in the morning!

There team finished 145th out of 436 teams not bad!!!!

Girls day out!

Ashton looks up to Rylie so much that whatever Rylie does Ashton must also. When Rylie turned 8 my mom went with me to help pick out a dress. We ended up making some "traditions" that we really did not realize we were making. But Ashton remembered every detail of Rylies trip and very sincerely asked when we would be having the "girls day out" with her!

So we planned it! And of course she wanted Rylie to be there with her. (Lucky Rylie)!!!

It starts with a trip to the spa to get a pedicure, since "she will be barefoot during her baptism!"

Followed by a manicure, we need to have those hands looking good for the big day!They both decided to go with a Fourth of July theme, since we were so close to that holiday!!Next is was off to get her ears pierced! This was a very difficult decision for her. She wanted to do it soooooo bad but was absolutely terrified!


This is the look of pure fear! But she did it and was soooo glad she did!

She hates looking at this picture she says it makes her want to cry again, but she also admits that is really did not hurt that bad she was more scared than anything.

After she got the ear piercing over with we were ready to focus on finding the perfect dress! This was the second dress she tried on and she fell in love. She thinks she looks like Cinderella !

After we found the dress it was off to look for shoes! Rylie and Ashton would not stop trying on all these crazy drag queen style shoes. These were one of our favorites! It was a fun day! Davin turns 8 next, I wonder what we are going to do special for him? I don't think he will want a mani or a pedi and ear piercing is out of the question!!!

Ashtons Eight!

Ashton had been looking forward to this birthday ever since Rylie turned 8!

She wanted to do everything exactly like Rylie! So that of course meant that the birthday

party had to be held at the Lion house in SLC. It is not your typical "party" but they

do make the birthday girl feel very special!

They do some fun things, like the cake for example, has a hidden gumball in it. Whoever gets the slice with the gumball is suppose to have good luck for the year. So the kids are super excited to start eating their piece! And it is delicious Lion house recipe cake! YUMMY!!!

The kids get to go on a tour, play some old fashion games like the ones Brigham Youngs 70 plus kids use to play, pull taffy, hear some funny stories about Brigham Young all the while filling their party bags with fun treats and reminders of the stories they have heard!

They get to have a tea party! With a light lunch that Asthon selected from their party menu!

The birthday girl gets to wear a crown during the party and before she goes she gets a smaller crown to take home. Rylie wore hers to her baptism so of course Ashton wants to do the same.

They also get to pick out a porcelain doll to take home! She got to choose the hair color of the doll so it would match hers!

The weather was so nice, finally a day with no rain, that we got to go out into the garden terrace to open presents!

Here are all the kids ready to fight the traffic and road construction to get back home!