Oompa Loompas Go For a Run (Or Two)

Last Saturday was the annual Running with Ed. (Education) relay race in Park City.  It is the Park City Education Foundation's biggest fundraiser, bringing in over $240,000 that go directly to classrooms through teacher grants.  Each year, our school chooses a theme and this year it was Willy Wonka.  We had 4 teacher teams which means we had over 25 Oompa Loompas running through Park City.   We ended up getting 2nd place for best theme/costume, 1st place for best exchange, and 2nd place for most school participation.  Even though we are the smallest elementary school in the city, that doesn't stop us from having the most fun.  

My first leg was a little over 3 miles.  Here I am getting ready to hand off to the 2nd runner.

It was a chilly day but perfect running weather.

Waiting for the handoff for my 2nd leg...

It's so fun how the race takes us all around Park City, including the Utah Olympic Park where ski jumping, luge, and bobsledding were held for the 2002 Winter Olympics.  See those stairs on the right?  That's me, getting ready to run up the stairs.  

I didn't run the whole way up the 740-some steps, but I made it to the top without falling over.  My legs did feel like jell-o when I got to the top, and I still had 3 miles to go!  

 Andy's exchange with another Oompa Loompa...

Our PTO is awesome!  This is just a taste of the exchange at our school...

Happy 2nd Birthday, Abigail!

Last Saturday, we celebrated Abigail's 2nd birthday with family and friends.  She has brought so much love, laughter, and spunk into our family.  Her vocabulary and receptive language is amazing and I can't wait to see what she will do in the year to come.

birthday breakfast

 I love these photos!  These are 2 of Abigail's very good friends from school--Francie (left) and Halle (right)

Since Abigail loves books so much, we went with a book-themed menu.

She was so shy when we sang "Happy Birthday" to her.

But she sure loved her dirt cake (Diary of a Worm)

 reading with Cousin Claire

This shows how much she loves books--she sleeps with them.

A Second Chance

This past weekend, we got a 2nd chance to finish what we started on our previous camping trip down to the desert (The one where Abigail got sick and we had to cut things short).  We camped in the same spot and did exactly what we wanted to do the first time we went down there.  A picture is worth a thousand words...

The girls did great in the car...again.

hanging out with Nana

playing ladder golf with Adam, with their own rules, of course

This picture says it all...

We hiked Leprechaun Canyon.

No complaints from this girl (or any of the kids, for that matter)!

Back at our camp...

These critters (and there were lots of them) were frequent visitors around the campsite in the mornings.

The next day we explored Poison Springs Wash...and met some very nice ladies on their horses who were going to find Butch Cassidy's name and picture etched into the rock.  They wouldn't fill us in on the "secret spot" but they did show us pictures they had taken.  Poison Creek Wash was a frequent hideout for outlaws back in the late 1800's.  

It was a perfect day for a hike--sunny with occasional cloud cover and a nice breeze. 

Desert flowers, in contrast to the color of the sand, are beautiful.

In our quest to find a cave, we missed the turn and ended up doing a little rock climbing.  

We did, eventually, find the cave and it was the perfect spot for lunch.

There were pictographs at the back of the cave

There were daddy longlegs everywhere and then there was this scary looking thing against the wall...

The kids had their headlamps for exploring the cave.  

view from the cave

These little guys are all over.  Andy also saw a snake (and I thought those marks in the sand were from lizards dragging their tails) but, thank goodness, it was not a rattlesnake.

We stopped and saw some petroglyphs.  

On the way home we stopped by Little Egypt, which reminded me of a mini Goblin Valley.

watching the sunset...

We stopped by a Mars research/training facility right outside of Hanksville, Utah.  They chose this particular site because of its similarities to Mars.  

The scientists have been known to walk around, outside, wearing their space suits.  While we didn't see them walking around, they were waving to us from the door.  (Or maybe they were shooing us away so they could come outside...)

We had an amazing time and can't wait to explore more of what Utah has to offer.