Olympic watching

 One part of summer that I was most looking forward to this year was the 2024 Paris Olympics.  For two weeks the TV was left on all day as we watched these amazing athletes do amazing things.  Nathan sent us an Olympic care package with a mug, banners, a rally scarf, and we all had official Paris Olympic shirts.  It was so fun to feel like we were part of the action.  We watched all of the gymnastics for McKenzie.  Cambrie learned that she is totally in love with ruby and is now following a couple members of the US Women's Rugby Team.  She is also starting to look for opportunities to play rugby herself.  Kelton watched all of the sports climbing and is inspired to get good enough to go himself one day.  Daxton watched it all with us, even spying through the kitchen window when I insisted the boys have some outside time.

During some of the swimming events we started placing bets on who was going to win each heat.  The losers had to give the winners a foot or hand massage.  I won a lot.  It was wonderful!  

Spartan

Jeremy, Chuck, Bruce, Brody and Dantley all signed up for the Spartan Beast at Snowbasin.  Since there was also a kids race that weekend both Kelton and Daxton signed up, so it was a full day of racing and fun.  We stayed at the cabin with my mom and I love the fact that the cabin hasn't really changed in the last forty years. 

Race morning was early for the big boys.  Ultimately Dantley was sick, and Brody changed his mind so it was just Jeremy and Chuck in the first competitive wave, with Bruce following behind an hour or so later.  This race looked incredibly difficult.  The elevation was straight up the mountain, and it was going to be hot.  I was worried about all of the racers up there on the mountain.  As spectators we couldn't really see the racers until about mile ten or so as they were coming to the end.  When I caught my first glimpse of Chuck and Jeremy they looked completely spent.  They had pushed themselves hard up top.  They still had enough strength to do well down at the lower obstacles, but it was not easy.  

While Bruce was up out of reach, it was time for the boys to race.  Daxton was registered for the 1.5 km race first.  He was so tough.  I love knowing that my boys have the strength and fitness to be able to do something like this well and enjoy it.  He placed fifth in his heat.  

Kelton went next and did the 3km race.  He absolutely killed it.  With his climbing strength he flew up and over every single obstacle.  He also had more endurance than I expected and ended up passing a bunch of kids towards the end of the race, coming in fourth.  

Watching them crush their course was so awesome.

At this point Bruce was still on the mountain so Jeremy decided to go up and keep him company.  He rode the gondola to the top and started hunting for him there.  Things were not going well for Bruce. The elevation was killing his knees and he was in rough shape.  We waited for him at the bottom only to find out he decided to cut off the last couple miles of the race and headed straight for the finish line once it was in site.  He could barely go under a fence to avoid the last obstacle.  I was definitely worried about him.  But everyone made it down and they were all pretty pleased with how the day went down.

Spartans

11th birthday PARTY

Kelton's birthday was just a warm up to his birthday party.  We invited over some of the boys from his class for an epic backyard water fight.  Luckily it has been toasty this weekend so a water fight was exactly what we needed.  We rented a huge inflatable water slide, picked up pool noodles, water guns, and hundreds of water balloons.  The boys got to work right away battling with everything we had.  Eleven year old boys have so much energy!  They ran around like crazy for hours without stopping.  

Jeremy decided to join in on the fun and quickly became the boys' prime target for their guns and their balloons.  Trying to get him down the slide became quite the battle.  

Of course the boys couldn't let it stay there, once Jeremy dumped a bucket of water on me letting the boys know I was free game, I because the target.  I took off running through the neighborhood but those boys were persistent.  They caught me and dragged me back to the house.  I managed to wrestle the sprayer away from them just long enough to attack and escape.  

By this point in the afternoon though a thunderstorm rolled in.  Suddenly the boys were shivering and we brought everything inside.  A few brave souls stayed outside doing tricks on the waterslide while those inside scored their skills. 

 Eventually the boys realized that a water slide in the rain actually sounded like a fabulous idea and they headed outside again.  

It even warmed up in time for cake which was perfect timing.  As Kelton was blowing out his balloons his friends started chanting, "Long live Kelton!  Long live Kelton!  Long live Kelton!"  I don't think Kelton has ever been celebrated like that before and he was on cloud 9.  

No one was quite ready for the party to wrap up.  Those four hours flew and I wish we could've kept all the boys over longer.  Our wet and wild crew.

(Kelton, Colin, Daxton, Tai, Garrett, Kai, Max, Elle.)

Once they left though, Cambrie and McKenzie returned from their activities and we could start the playing all over again.  Moki may have been forced to participate but he eventually warmed up to the idea of the slide if not the splashdown pool at the bottom.  

Happy birthday dude.  I hope this day of celebrating you was a fabulous one.