MUD BLOGGIN'

Last night it rained really hard! We got one and a half inches in only a few hours, it was awesome. My good friend Lisa came over with her kids: Lindsay, Corey and Rayce. Lucky for them I have a couple of big holes in my back yard that are waiting for trees. They are now full to the brim with rain water. Like a moth to the flame, the kids just couldn't resist!! As you can see they had a great time!

I am the only me!!

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IT'S DONE!

For the past year, I have been wanting to enlarge my back patio. Some may say that I have already enlarged my back patio and if I enlarge it anymore, it won't fit in my pants! Though that may be true, I was really speaking about the patio in my back yard. I've wanted it bigger so Crue and Addi can ride their bikes, push trucks and roller skate , ya know, things like that! Like I said, I've been waiting for a year and I just had a hard time hiring someone to do it when I knew that Josh could just hire a couple guys that work for him to do it and we would save some money. Well Josh doesn't like surprises and there fore, doesn't like to surprise me but when I came home from Utah he had the back yard grated out and a patio formed up all ready for the cement to be poured!! I was so excited!!! The workers and cement truck arrived two days later at 6am and Ta DA, my patio!!! Thank you honey, I love it!! (And we did it for half the cost.)

A roof for the patio is on my "Someday" list. Our yard is definitely a work in progress but I am finally starting to see a vision of what I want and within the next 20 years we should be done!

MORE UTAH PICTURES

Addi had a lot of fun in Utah. I think her favorite part was running around with out shoes on. It's hard to do that here in AZ since we live in a Brier patch!!

Grandpa showed Addi and Tayvi how to climb a apple tree in his orchard. They thought it was fantastic!

Kyson was definitely Addi's favorite cousin! There was just something about him that she was drawn to. If they weren't cousins I might think that she had "imprinted" on him!! (And if she were a werewolf.) If you don't get that, you haven't read the Twilight Series.


Even though Kyson was her favorite, she really liked Kara too! Kara was able to win her over with a little polish! Kara painted Addi's toes and fingers numerous times and Addi loved it! Besides Kyson and Kara, Addi didn't warm up to the rest of my family until the end of our trip and that made Aunt Heather very sad!! But Heather, you should be happy cause you were the only Aunt that she would allow to hold her, even if it was for brief minutes at a time! Heather (and Scott) rode home with us and Addi (and Crue) pulled her hair several times during the 10 hour drive. That's how we here at the France house hold show affection, we're very primitive!

JUST WORDS.

On the way home from church on Sunday, Crue and I had this conversation:
Me-"So Crue what did you learn at church today?"
Crue- "Just stuff."
Me- "Stuff about what?"
Crue-"Stuff about Jesus."
Me-"Well what did the teacher say about Jesus?"
Crue-"Just words."
Me-"Well did you sing any songs today?"
Crue-"Yeah but just one"
Me-"What song did you sing?"
Crue-"Scripture Power, the power to win! Scripture Power, the power to win!"
Me-"Oh, that's a good song."
Crue-"Yeah but you forgot 3 more, Rock-a-bye baby, Row Row Row your boat and the ABC Song."

This looks like a classic case of child abuse but don't worry she did it to herself! Like most little girls, Addi loves to put on make up and while we were at my moms she snuck away to the bathroom to freshen up a little. When she was done she yelled for me to come see and I immediately started laughing cause she's so freakin' cute! She did not like that! She got mad at me and told me to go away. I stopped laughing and then told her how beautiful she was and what a good job she did. She was very happy after I told her that!!

My First Triathlon

I did it! This last Saturday there was a triathlon held at DC Ranch in Scottsdale. Those of you who know me through volleyball know that I hate to run! When we had workouts for volleyball and there was running involved, actually any conditioning involved, I would moan and groan but I especially hated running. I wouldn't step on a tread mill unless it was the only exercise equipment available or I was told that I had to do a work out on a tread mill! So a lot of you may wonder how I was able to do a Triathlon. Well....I better clarify. Proceeds for this triathlon benefit the Special Olympics and there were many Special Olympians that participated. I know what you're thinking and Ha Ha, NO I was not participating AS a Special Olympian but Josh's brother Matt was and he asked me to be on his Unified Triathlon Team. A little more info on Matt. He is 27 and an awesome athlete. So awesome in fact that he traveled to Shanghai several months ago to participate in the World Special Olympics! While there he participated in the 100 meter, 200 meter and the 4 by 100 meter relay. He won two silver medals, one in the 100 m and 1 in the 4 by 100 relay so yea, he's pretty good. For this triathlon Matt was the swimmer (down the pool and back), his dad Warren rode his bike for 2.5 miles and I finished up with a half mile run!! OK so it was only a half mile but I did have two goals: don't stop (for heaven sakes it's just a half mile) and don't get passed. I couldn't stand the thought of being passed since it was such a short run. I'm happy to say that I accomplished both my goals! Who knows, maybe some day I'll move on and do a real triathlon. You'll just have to wait and see but don't hold your breathe!

YUMMY!!!

The real reason that I went home...authentic Navajo Tacos! If you ever make it to the Emery County fair, you must have a Navajo Taco made by the Begays! I've known them as long as I can remember and have been eating this masterpiece every time I've been to the fair since 8th grade. At least that's as far back as I can remember.

When I first started eating them, I would only have the beans, cheese and sour cream on top. Little by little, I was more daring. I added lettuce next, then olives, tomatoes and this year I threw caution to the wind and added onions. I know, quite the dare devil!


I LOVE YOU NAVAJO TACO STAND!! SEE YOU NEXT YEAR!

WE'RE BAAAACKK!! More posts to come!

Fishing Trip to Grassy Lake.


Here's Grassy Lake. It's about 40 mins. up the mountains from where my parents live in Orangeville. It was beautiful!







Photo opp. for Crue and Addi. You would think I could have wiped Addi's face off but no.


My mom made campfire dinners. If you don't know what that is then you're probably not much of a camper. For us it's hamburger, potatoes, carrots and onions wrapped up in tin foil and cooked in the ashes of a camp fire, hence the name "campfire dinner". That's my brother Scott and his wife Heather. She loves fishing so much that she asked to be the official fish head basher and gutter. I couldn't keep here way from those fish. She loves to kill them. LOL!!!!!


This is my nephew Kyson with his albino fish. He is an awesome fisherman!!

This is my brother Doug and his son Logan, daughter Tayvi, Kyson and Crue. They caught a ton of fish.

My dad took us all on a fishing trip up to Grassy Lake. It's only about 40 min. from my parents house and we left at almost 6pm to go up there so it was a very short trip. Nonetheless, it was nice to get up into the mountains and enjoy the fresh air. I had to beg my sister-in-law to come with because she hates fishing. Once we got there I realized how much she actually hates fishing, I'll just say that next time if she doesn't want to go, I won't beg her. I'm glad she went though! Crue's cousin Kyler, which is my brother Scott and his wife's son, was so good to Crue. He helped him catch a fish and if you watch the video you will see how excited Crue was.

There were a few things that I wanted my kids to experience like I did and one of them was the parade on main street in Castle Dale. Of course they thought it was awesome that peope were driving by throwing candy and toys at them. My sister-in-law Heather and I were just laughing since half of the parade consisted of emergency vehicles. There was at least one from each town in Emery County.