The Big Fun Weekend

The Military definately pays off, like the once a year free pass we get to Busch Gardens. We all played hooky on Friday, and it was the only day of the week where it wasn't pouring rain. The flowers in the park were gorgeous, and our moods were too. One of the kid's high school friends had died in a car accident the night before, and it was hard for them, and very depressing at school, so going to the park helped all of us! We also saw our good friends the Lines on break in Williamsburg getting ready to have their baby - they normally live in Mexico City.

I was very happy to spend the morning with Cecily and Sesame Street Characters - We went on the mini rollercoaster over and over because there were no lines. In the afternoon, I went on the tallest roller coaster "The Griffin" with the kids. My face in the pictures looks terrified. Cecily wanted to go on each ride by herself. Today is Garrett's 16th birthday and tomorrow is Rhett's 35th (plus 10). This morning

we went with 500 other happy Mormons and people of other faiths at the 1st annual Stake Fun Run. It was official - traffic blocked off through the streets of Old Towne - Police & everything! Becca was grumpy about waking up at 6:00 to get there, and then when she saw her friends running and the excitement of the crowd, she took off - with her old slip ons. My race was faster than I thought because I was chasing Becca who was chasing her friend Cassidy. Rhett had the men organized as Race Marshalls, and it was awesome. The

race was built around the speaker, the author of "Running With Angels", who talked to all the women in our exercize clothes after the race. She lost two children, and gained over 150 pounds from her depression, then slowly became motivated to change her life - finally losing the weight and running marathons. Her talk was more about running life's race, especially when things happen to change our plans. I loved her analogy to getting on a plane that goes to Italy. You have been planning on going to Italy for years, and when the plane lands, you are in Holland, but you learn to appreciate the tulips, the Rembrants, and the beauties of that country. Madison was asked to fill in for the musical number that was not able to be there, and she did a great job!

Tonight Garrett is having a movie night with some friends, and after a long discussion, they have settled on a movie. He and I are going on his first date next week, and I plan on getting him his first suit.