trying to be better

so i've been a huge slacker on the blogfront. i will try to do better.
here is a rundown of the things we've been doing in the last couple of weeks:

happy anniversary, baby!
on the 26th (see, i can remember when i really think hard about it) we celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary.how would you have liked to open this up in your mailbox 5 years ago??? isn't it amazing???
i love you weston, you make me better.

then came girls camp. then came the flu. i haven't felt that horrible in years. although, it did kind of remind me of the debilitating effects that come with creating a person ... so maybe i haven't felt that horrible in a good couple of years. either way, it was not fun... at all. then kate got sick, but she does seem to be feeling more like herself... hopefully it lasts.

we had a family reunion in the middle of all the sickness - my sickness anyway. the colton family got together at heber valley camp (that made 3 trips in 1 week!).

kate very excited about her new balloon flowernot sure about her dead balloon flower

we had fun learning about our extended family, eating, and playing on the challenge course. let me just tell you i haven't been that terrified in my entire life. at least i can't remember being that scared. i have never thought of myself as such a wimp, but apparently heights and harnesses are not my idea of a good time. we had to climb a tree trunk that was no longer in the ground - it was suspended at the top by a wire and was free to swing away whenever it desired. the log had notches cut out like a ladder for your hands and feet - only problem was about halfway up there was no longer really a place for your hands so you had to hug the tree as you climbed. i started hyperventilating, the tears started to come (but i stopped them right away), and i pretty much wanted to wake up from the nightmare.

i was only like 1/5 of the way through the course! thank goodness my sister in law, jessica, had already successfully completed the cruel and unusual punishment and i was inspired to keep going. i climbed and hyperventilated my way to the top of the 2 story tree log and grabbed on for life to the wire at the top. once at the top, you have to tight-rope to another tree that is like 30 yards away. thankfully they have a rope to hold onto as you walk across, but you have to position your weight in front of you as you shimmy across the wire - not the most confidence inspiring contraption. i only looked down once and that was enough to just about make me pass out, so i had to keep my eyes locked straight ahead at the beautiful view. i was just a little distracted, however, so the view wasn't as beautiful as it could have been.

once i got to the other tree, the easy part came. we had to rapel down and thanks to a high school boyfriend, i had done this several times. it was absolutely something i will never do again - i have done it, it is now in the past :)

weston on the challenge course

kate had a car-sickness episode on the way to the reunion, so we are playing it ghetto style on the way home...

we got to spend a couple of hours on thursday with johanna, tom, and the 2 littles. they came to utah for the 4th and we visited and had lunch with them before we headed out of town. thanks for stopping by, guys! we'll see you in a few more weeks :)

after lunch and packing up, we headed for monroe to spend the 4th with our families. weston and i got a couple golf games in on friday and saturday with cory, my dad, and cory's brother in law. i had a much better second game - but i still can't seem to reach my goal (a double-bogey round). oh well, only a few more strokes to shave off and i'll be there.

it was weston's dad's birthday on friday so we all gathered at their home and had homemade chicken enchiladas, a la jess. they were delicious! we visited there with everyone for a few hours and sang happy birthday to chris. as my dad would say, chris is just a kid (he turned 53 this year).on the 4th, we woke up bright and early and got to richfield just in time to watch the parade. it was fun to be out with everyone, but the parade was mostly disappointing. when did it become acceptable for your "float" to be a rented pickup truck with a sign on the door, advertising your local business? there was way too much of that. but it was nice to participate in tradition again, either way. i hadn't been to that parade since i was in it, 12 years ago! after it was over, we enjoyed some ice cream at the dairy and headed back to monroe to give kate a little nap.

we met up with everyone for lunch in central where they have their own town celebration with food and relays and games. the little girls all raced and got a quarter for ice cream - kate started out strong and got halfway but got scared once she heard all the screaming on the other side of the finish line :) so i had to go help her get across - maybe next year :)

that night, we met up with everyone again for fireworks in richfield. weston's grandma & grandpa carson came for the weekend so it was really fun for kate to see them again. she liked the fireworks and actually watched for about 1 minute - the rest of the time she tried to get the cousins to play with her. sophie was asleep and kate tried for 30 minutes to get her to wake up and play - she wasn't having it though!

a little impromptu midnight swinging with kate

sunday was a great day, too. jessica and trent blessed their baby girl, karli. after the meeting, we had lunch with everyone who came to support and celebrate. i could go for some more of that food right about now!!
that afternoon, i finished a project i had been working on for kate (stay tuned for that one) and watched the second half of a movie i couldn't finish the night before. we left town around 8:30 that night and had a quick drive home.

it has been a busy couple of weeks and weston and i won't get to slow down anytime soon!! we are heading up a committee to plan our ward's youth conference and it's time to get down to business with that. maybe we'll be able to relax in a couple of months, just in time for cooler weather :)

thanks for sticking it out during the marathon post!!!