Miner Family Reunion

We returned this week from a 19 day drive to California and back. The reason for the trip was to attend the biannual Miner Family Reunion. This year the location was Lake Tahoe, California. We decided to drive out there so that we could also visit Danny's family during the same trip. We started our drive on July 9th, arrived in Utah on July 10th(making a stop in the middle of Nebraska somewhere), spent a day there in Utah, and arrived in Lake Tahoe on July 12th. On the first full day there, we spent some time at one of the beaches on the lake. Ashley loves this yellow floaty and spent at least an hour in the freezing cold water.

On the second day we all went on a hike. We were under the impression that it would be an easy hike and dressed accordingly. Here is Alyssa at the beginning of the hike.

Here she is again with the cousins who are closest in age to her -Tamma and Connor.
We apparently found the wrong trail head and ended up doing a hike that was much more difficult than we expected. Alyssa was a trooper and walked the whole way. Danny carried Ashley in the hiking backpack which wore him out by the end of the hike. The last quarter mile of the hike was all rocks that we had to climb up and down. Here is Alyssa at the end of the hike.

The hike ended at a waterfall, which Ashley wanted to jump into. Danny found a calm spot in the middle of the water for the three of them to sit.

One of the highlights of Miner Family Reunions for the grandkids is "Grandma's Bingo." Grandpa is the caller and the kids all get to play until they win. As they win, they get to go pick out a prize from Grandma's suitcase(which Grandma so diligently fills throughout the year of the reunion). Here is Alyssa playing next to her cousins Connor and Tamma.

On Tuesday night of the reunion, Grandma planned some fun things for the kids. They got to do Tug-o-war, 3 legged races, regular races, a water balloon toss, and a candy hunt. Here are the little ones racing.

This is the beginning of the 3 legged race.

We don't have any pictures from Wednesday nights activities because that was the day that most of the grandkids came down with a 12-24 hour stomach flu. It started with one kid early that morning and by bedtime that night at least 12 of the 19 grandkids there were feeling the effects of it. At least three more came down with it after the reunion. Strangely enough, only 1 of the adults caught it at the reunion. Fortunately, our family avoided it altogether. I don't know how we were so fortunate, but we were very grateful to be able to enjoy the rest of our vacation without dealing with throw up.

On the final evening of the reunion, we celebrated Grandma and Grandpa's 50th Wedding Anniversary. It isn't until next June, but we took advantage of everyone being together. The grandkids sang a song.

After the song, Grandma and Grandpa played a game where they had to guess who wrote down what memory. We had all written down memories with them. They did pretty well with most of them. We had a nice week with the Miner Family and we were sad that it wasn't a little bit longer (and without sickness). We will especially miss this:

On the second day of the reunion Ashley attached herself to cousin Bridgette. We couldn't tell who was following who, but they became good friends and we didn't have to keep such a close eye on Ashley after that. We only wish that we could have taken her home with us until she goes off to BYU in the fall. We are grateful to Mom/Grandma and Dad/Grandpa who plan reunions for us and find such fun places for us to get together. Lake Tahoe was beautiful and we especially miss that crisp mountain air now that we are back in Missouri and suffering in such heat and humidity.

Firecracker Race

For the past 10 weeks I have been training to run my first 5K ever. The race was on the morning of the 4th(which happened to be on Sunday this year). I trained and ran with my friend, Rachel, who acted as my trainer in a way. Here we are at the beginning of the race. I wish I knew how to circle myself. I'm just to the left of the lady in red and blue. I'm wearing a white shirt and black shorts.

Here we are towards the end of the race.

Crossing the finish line. Our goal from the beginning was to just be able to run the entire race. Our hope was to finish under 30 minutes. We knew the conditions would have to be perfect for that to happen, which they weren't. Sunday was the most humid day of the week and that really made it hard. We did, however, run the whole race and my finish time was 31:17. I was very happy with that.

Here are my little cheerleaders.

Rachel and I have been excercising together for a year and a half now. At first we just walked. Then she introduced me to Turbo Jam(that one didn't last long). Next she talked me into P90X, which I finished BTW. After finishing P90X, I figured that running couldn't be any harder than that. It's been really fun training. I always feel so good on the days I run. This is coming from the girl who about a year ago said to Rachel, "I think you're crazy to run. I could never do that."

Thanks, Rachel, for introducing me to running. I can't wait for the next race.

Weekend Festivities

The Parade

The City of O'Fallon had their 4th of July Parade on Saturday morning which was kind of nice because it made it so that we could go. It was a beautiful morning if you can't tell from the pictures. I had planned on taking just Alyssa at first, but Danny got guilted into going (he hates parades). Alyssa loved the parade.

Ashley loved the flags they handed out and the CANDY. After the first candy was thrown and collected, she spent the rest of the time in her seat, at the candy bag, or somewhere in between. I don't even want to think about how much sugar she consumed that morning.

As you can see from the picture below, the girls were in the shade, thanks to Danny holding up our big umbrella the entire time. My seat however, did not fit into the shade so I got some nice tan lines from the morning.

The Carnival

The City also put on a carnival for the weekend. After Ashley's nap on Saturday, we went to check it out. They had a free kids area with inflatables, face painting, games, crafts, etc. We spent some time there, but were eventually drawn away by the pleas to go ride the Ferris wheel.

We let them each ride 4 rides. Here is the Ferris wheel...

the tea cups...

and the Merry-Go-Round. This, by the way, was a pretty terrifying experience for Danny and I. We were too cheap to pay an extra three bucks for one of us to go on with Ashley. I have never seen her let go while riding a Merry-Go-Round, so I figured she would be okay. As the ride started, I noticed that it was a little rougher than any other Merry-Go-Round that she has ever been on before. We watched as she came around each time and seemed to be gradually slipping off to the side. We kept yelling at her to hold on tight which was useless since she seemed to think that it was the perfect time to dig a booger out of her nose and started to ride one handed. I kept having visions of her falling off of her little bunny and I felt like the worst Mom ever. That ride couldn't end soon enough and we were glad that she made it through safely. As a result we cursed the rip off carnival rides that don't let parents ride for free just to assure the safety of their children. I mean, at least a seat belt around her would have been nice. All right, I'm done venting. At least she enjoyed the ride, even if we didn't.

The Fireworks

Or should I say, lack of fireworks. On Sunday, after church, we went over to the house of our closest friends in the area for a BBQ. We didn't put the money into a bunch of fireworks this year. We got some champagne poppers and used up the rest of the sparklers we had left over from last year with the hope of enjoying a great fireworks show that night. Here are the girls with their sparklers.

We headed off to the fireworks show about 45 minutes before it was scheduled to start. We thought it would be plenty of time, but it wasn't. Everywhere we went was super crowded and we finally ended up just stopping on the road in what appeared to be a good spot. After almost getting rear ended two different times, we got scared up onto the curb. And after all of that, the fireworks only lasted 10 minutes. We were very disappointed. We were even more mad when we got the girls loaded back into their seats and spent a good 10 minutes waiting up on the curb for the line of cars to have enough of a break to allow us to drive off of the curb. That's what we get for going to see fireworks on Sunday instead of Saturday.

The Tractor

One morning, at 6:00am, as I was driving to the place where I run, I drove by a house that had a bunch of stuff sitting in their driveway. There was a sign next to it that said "Please Take," so this is what I took...

It didn't work, but it didn't have a battery in it so we had high hopes that it would work once we got a battery hooked up to it. Fortunately, it did. Unfortunately, the battery cost much more than we had expected(still less than a new power wheels just like this would have cost us). The girls love having it.
Alyssa calls it her "Tractor" and has now passed her little bike on to Ashley. Notice the similarities between the two.

We only wish Ashley knew how to peddle and steer her new tricycle. She does love to sit on it. The "tractor" is one of those things that we would have never bought from the store, but we were glad to be able to find one for them to enjoy.