Croft Family Blog: July 2009

Be Prepared! Lots of pictures to follow . . . because I have been gone a whole week seeing lots of beautiful people and this is my first chance to post about them all.

FIRST - I met Cassidy, Richard and James in Bryce Canyon, Utah where Cassidy and Richard ran the Half-Marathon. Cassidy has been training for the past 6 months or so, Richard for about 6 seconds. (Of course as a Military Man his whole life is training!)

Here they are in the wee hours of the morning at the starting line; just before Richard handed James and the car keys to me and decided to make the ultimate committment to his darling wife and accompany her on her 13.1 mile run.

Just as the sun peeked over the horizon, the starting gun rang out and they were OFF. All 1,300 or so of them. It really was an amazing and inspiring sight.

This is part of the beautiful race course. They took us non-runners through by pilot car because there is only one road from the beginning to the end of the race.

Here are the victorious runners. I felt so bad because it was so crowded around the finish line and a little awkward with James and the stroller and various bags that I didn't get in close enough to get a picture of them actually finishing. But I know they did!

James was pretty happy to see his mom and wear her number and medal.

His favorite part was afterwards when she let him hold her post-race banana. He began eating it; peel and all. Mmmmmm

After sleeping and swimming and just plain relaxing back at our hotel we drove through Zion's National Park and then through St. George before going home to Las Vegas. We had a wonderful time in Cassidy and Richard's new home playing with James and Isa - but I didn't get pictures :(

Then I drove up to Utah and arrived at the exact same time as Conrad and his two boys, Colton and Damon, drove in from California. The next morning we had an early (and amazingly delicious!) 24th of July breakfast outside at grandma and grandpa's church.

Then off to Spanish Fork for the big Pioneer Day Parade. Here is one of those "I Spy" pictures. See if you can find: Shane, Conrad, Damon, J Ryan, Adam, Bethany, Braddock, Ethan and Colton.

I though this was one of those "Only in Wyoming" types of attractions, but, no, it was a pretty big deal in the Spanish Fork parade. I think I counted more than 20 in this Tractor Brigade.

Here is the Beautiful Brielle as uncle Adam lifts her high to see the parade route.
She looks like she is flying!

That night we went to the Spanish Fork Rodeo. We got there early enough to have amazing hamurgers from the concession stand (Of course they don't hold a candle to Ralphburgers.)Here is another "I Spy" pic. See if you can spot J, Conrad, Damon, Bethany, Emma, J Ryan and Colton.

We saw some pretty good rodeoing but most of my pictures just turned out blurry because the action was so fast. Here is a guy who rode standing up on the backs of two gigantic Brahma bulls.

Then it got dark and started to rain - and Grandma and Ralph were prepared, as always.

The next day we all went up the canyon past the ranch for a fun day of picnicking. Here is MY whole family together - we don't get to have all of us kids together very often. There are Marilee, Me, Mom, Greg and Conrad.

There are always so may cute and crazy cousins to get pictures of. They enjoy the chance to all get together too. Here are Melanie, Del, Ethan and Katelyn.

Conrad took time out to "pitch" to Alisha's, Melanie. She already has her mom's skills at bat.

Later Melanie and Braddock played a game that I never quite figured out - but they were sure having fun.

Alisha and Adrian's youngest, Savanna, always finds something to make her smile. She is the sweetest, most content little girl. Even when her big brother chops off all her hair!

And here is Jim and Bethany's little Emma just hanging out with her Great Grandma.

We don't have too many REAL "Stott" cousins but here are two of them who just met for the first time that day: Colton Stott and Josh Stott.

Darcie's little Jocelyn spent most of the picnic napping. Here she is trying to wake up and eat some lunch. Love those little ponies!

So, J Ryan was pretty amazing out on the frizbee field. Look at that stretch! Alisha, Adrian and Shane seem to have conceded that J Ryan was unbeatable and begun their own conversation.

And it looks like Brielle is trying to get a game of football going.

There was a really fun creek that kept all the little kids fascinated and their mothers worried. But these two 'big boys', Damon and Ethan, had fun re-landscaping the area.

Kae Dawn got to take some time to sit in the shade and visit with some of Marilee's "girls" and hopefully get some of their recipes. These three are the most amazing cooks. Adam's wife, Crystal (soft chocolate chip cookies), Michelle (lucious orange bars) and Ali (some pretty amazing sweet and nutty and gooey chex mix thing that none of us could leave alone.)

"That's All Folks!"

We spent the past week up at the cabin. Dad worked hard getting the water pipes all fixed and working and we scrubbed and cleaned and played games. Kaytee and Heston were pretty tired at the end of every day - and in the morning - and in the afternoon. So lots of napping took place too. Heston is pretty obsessed with being right next to Kaytee.

Every time she moves; he moves too.

Here Heston is trying to let us know that he needs to be taken out. So we did - right away!
(Kaytee actually slept through all of this and didn't even know we were taking her pictures.)

We had a mother moose visiting with her little calf. (Of course I missed getting a picture of him.) She came a lot closer to the cabin than she would let him get.

Meeko was in heaven, of course. Although he spent most of his time looking around wondering where Heston was darting off too. Meeko is pretty content nowdays to lay in the shade and didn't even get up to bark at the moose.

Heston loved everything about the mountain. Especially running down to the creek to get a drink. Now we just need the rest of you to come join us up there.