Travel and Family

My niece, Amy and her baby daughter, Aspen are visiting from Utah this week-- staying with Heidi and her family. On Saturday a bunch of us hit the road and headed down the 15 for a day of fun in San Diego. We started the day at the Mormon Battalion Historic Site. http://lds.org/placestovisit/eng/historical-sites/san-diego-mormon-battalion-historic-site Ella was the biggest kid on the tour and, therefore, got to have the heavy gear loaded on her tiny shoulders. After the tour, we all went outside to get a sampling of life in early California -- we got to do laundry, pretend to make bricks, and pan for gold. Boppie pannin ' for gold. Prospector Ned lookin ' to strike it rich. April makin ' her way thorugh that never ending laundry. Amy and Aspen. Heidi's got the right hat on, but she's makin ' it look way to easy. Ned and John took this pretty seriously! Asher and Ella looking so cute at the brick making a

I was still tired from running that half marathon last week, so last week's "new thing" was just renovating an old bench. It had been sitting in the middle of my front flower garden getting sprinkled every day and it was either the trash or the paint brush. Before After It's not much of an ambitious project and I still may take some dark finish to it for an antique look. But, for now, it looks better and, after my recent physical challenges, I have nice place to sit and relax and just read!

Several months ago, I decided it would be a great accomplishment to complete a half-marathon. Why? I really haven't figured that out -- but I will say there is a great sense of accomplishment having now finished one -- the Fontana Days Half-Marathon on Saturday, June 4 th . The training was tedious. I've been waking up early and running on my own on weekdays since January and doing long runs with April every Saturday. Some of these training runs were great fun. We ran for miles by the orange groves and beautiful homes along Victoria Avenue in Riverside with Sarah and her friend, Jessica. A few times we ran with Heidi from her house through the hiking trails to Lake Perris and then across the top of the dam watching the birds, fishermen and water skiers as we did. We were all looking forward to the run on one hand, but, I have to admit, I was pretty scared. There was a posted minimum pace to keep and I wasn't sure I was up to maintaining it for 13.1 miles. But, hey, if I d