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Well, I’ve pretty much been working out a ton this month—getting ready for Fitness Ridge in 2 weeks! The first Saturday of this month I ran my first race ever—one mile at Jordan Landing. Irene invited Rachel and I to run it with them, I thought she was crazy at first, but after some persuasion from mom and Rachel I decided I’d try it. So Rachel brought Katie, Sarah, and Hannah and we all did it! We ran the whole thing in the pouring rain. Sarah and I ran together . . . it was very fun. I found that I enjoyed running with a bunch of people, so when I got a flier from a store about a 5K at Thanksgiving Point—through the gardens—I didn’t hesitate to sign up! The second Saturday I went on a long hike with Becca, Irene, Rachel, Hawk and Hunter. It was AWESOME! I have to admit that over the years I’ve wondered what the fascination was that Becca and Dad had for hiking, but I found out quick just going out once! I LOVED IT!!! I can’t wait to go again. Then the third Saturday was my first 5K race. I ran with Alexia and we had a really great time. And, NOW I’ve signed up to run my first 10K next Saturday—from the mouth of Provo Canyon up to Bridal Veil Falls and back. I think Hobie and Irene are rubbing off on me or something. . .?!! I’ve loved running every morning—I’ve run three miles with my friend Christina, Irene, or by myself almost every morning. I really enjoy working out with Rachel, Irene, and Affy either at the park or in Rachel’s backyard where we work our legs/arms every day. AND, now I’ve started attending a Bikram Yoga class as often as possible! It’s CRAZY!!!!!

OUR POOL IS OPEN! We’ve been swimming twice now and I love it as much as ever. The kids are all big enough to swim around by themselves and I’m sure they’ll almost always have cousins to swim with! We played on our slip-n-slide in our backyard for a couple weeks before the pool opened and the kids LOVED that! We got a bunch of flowers planted in our yard and it’s been fun keeping the lawn and flower beds all pretty! I even planted a few tomatoes. . .we’ll see if I can get any to grow! We had a little “Johnson” campout over Memorial Day weekend; we pitched tents in the backyard, cooked smores, slept outside, cooked and ate breakfast on the patio, went fishing, and then cooked the fish for dinner! We all had tons of fun! I’m sure we’ll do it again soon. For some pics of all our fun check out my personal blog! (yes, even YOU dad!)

Dave taught the Special Forces guys again, and said it was a lot of fun. He’s still teaching the kids jiu-jitsu class twice a week and the adult class at the gym twice a week. He loves and does great with both! He goes up to Ogden a couple weekends a month to train with a group of guys, and on the other weekends he stays home so he can teach Gospel Doctrine at church.

We are so excited for Hobie and Irene to move two houses down from us! And, I CAN’T WAIT for the family reunion in July! I love having fun family things to look forward to!

A Mothers' Windowsill

I imagine that all mothers' window sills look something like this. Am I right? My kids have always brought me flowers (usually dandelions or the neighbor's flowers they are not supposed to pick) and asked me to put them in a cup with water. I'll leave them in the window as long as I can and then secretly throw them out. Well, now that my kids are a little older (little being the key word here, as they still bring me weeds and stolen flowers--except now some of them are actually from my own yard!) they put them in cups with water by themselves and surprise me with them. They are SO excited to watch me discover them and tell them "they are the most beautiful flowers I have ever seen" and that "I'm so lucky that I get to look at them everytime I do the dishes"! I'm sure this is one of those things I'll miss when my kids are all grown up and my house is spotless and stolenflowerless/weedless! Oh, and I'll miss these precious little faces too. . . .
Now I'm just wondering if I'll miss them getting out of bed 10 times after I've tucked them in?!

Camping. . ."the Johnson way"!

OK, seriously--who needs the mountains? My kids and Colby were thrilled with our backyard!we roasted marshmallows and made smores over a little camping burner (much easier--and safer--than a campfire!) we had all the blankets and pillows we could need/want and the kids slept great!Dave, Danny, and Doug made us all breakfast on the burner and the grill!and we ate it on the back porch (Mark wanted to go inside to get warm, but we insisted he stay out and eat because, after all, we were camping!)Then we went fishing. . .at the Trout Farm where you're basically GUARANTEED to catch a fish! And CATCH fish, we did!!! Kyra caught the biggest one at 5 LBS! Darci caught the first one (with grandpa's help), Mark caught the most (3) and Colby had the most bites that got away, but also caught the last one! Yay, everyone came home happy!Our catch totalled over 20 lbs of trout! Check out the size of these fish. Whew!We returned home and cooked some of the fish. The kids loved eating what they had caught. Kyra especially wanted to make sure she was eating the fish she caught!I'd say our first "campout" was a success! I'm sure we'll do it again. Special thanks to Doug and Evelyn and Danny and Colby for joining us on our campout and grandpa Mark for coming fishing with us. We loved having family to share this with!

Some misc. Funnies

So, I downloaded a full gig worth of pics and vids tonight and came across a few that made the kids and I laugh and laugh, and LAUGH--these are usually things the kids come to me and ask me to take a picture of or to record, so I forget about them until I download and edit everything. Darci wanted to know why I was crying and I had to explain to her that sometimes things are so funny that they make you cry--she REALLY didn't get that! Anyway, just thought I'd share them with you, I'm still laughing, and it probably isn't really that funny, I'm probably just tired, but whatever. Enjoy anyway. :)

my little rockers!root boost trial gone bad! hee hee (sorry Irene)

OK, so this was after working with it, not too shabby! She's adorable, right? :)

don't even ask about this one, because "I DON'T KNOW?!!" (whose kids are these anyway?) lol BTW, it's even funnier if you watch it about 10 times in a row!

Yes, that is me...(I guess I may have to take a little credit for the silly girls above) running the 5K last weekend (and maybe being a little too excited about it)!

Here's how Darci and Elizabeth do the slip-n-slide:

OK, so on a "not so funny" note, my dad and Mary gave us a kitchen table that they couldn't use anymore. I LOVE IT! Here's our kitchen--from DRAB to FAB!! (I know I'm corny)

Change. . .What brings it on?!

So, I've been jogging about 3 miles a day now and I'm loving it!! Yes, you heard me right. . . JOGGING--ME--3 MILES!!! (yes, this is Liesl writing this post) Who knew I could/would ever get out and jog, let alone LOVE it? I'm not sure exactly what got into me, but one morning I woke up and announced to Dave "I think I want to try running this morning". (I wish you could have seen the look on his face. . .it was awesome!) I didn't know what to wear, where to go, or how far to run, but (with a little confused encouragement from Dave) I headed out. Next thing I know, it's been a month and I've been doing it almost every day since my first urge to try it! I cut some old capri's into shorts, dug out a few T's from my drawers, bought a new pair of running shoes that I transferred my inserts (made by my awesome bro-in-law) into, and Wah-Lah. . .I have something to wear! I love going out first thing in the morning while the kids and Dave are still in bed. But what I love the most is going with friends! Anything is fun when you have someone to chat with, right? Well, maybe that is the key for me. . .I have actually gone a few times by myself, but I've mostly been lucky enough to have friends who can go with me. The only problem I'm having is my knee is swelling/hurting a little. I learned quick that I really need to warm up before and after running. That has helped a bit, but. . . ! I hope it (my knee) won't stop me from being able to jog! So, what changed? How did this happen? I really don't know, but I'm really glad it did. . .I just hope I won't wake up one morning and decide to quit! lol No, but seriously--has this ever happened to you? I mean, with trying anything new? Do you just wake up one day and "feel" like doing something you've always despised? I'm just curious what might happen next. . . !

So, over-all, I've been more active this year than I have in the past 10 years (since I had my first kid)! I've gone skiing again, started running AND working out with my sisters every day (arms or legs), AND I just went hiking for the second time this spring AND I LOVED THAT TOO! What has gotten into me? Is it just that I CAN now that my "babies" are older? Is it that I just turned 35 and realized that I'm not getting any younger? Is it that I'm going to Fitness Ridge in June? I suppose it's a little of everything. . .whatever it is though, I just want to make sure it doesn't go away as fast as it came! Don't get me wrong, it's not that I'm surprised that I'm being active--I've always loved playing lots of sports--it's just the activities that I'm choosing to do now! Running, hiking, and weights/intervals? What the. . .?! Anyway, if you're still with me after all that rambling, I hope you enjoy the pics of my (5 1/2 hour) hike today. . .IT WAS AWESOME!

Here we are just heading out

it got pretty steep in some places

Hawk and Hunter were troopers--they ran circles around us for the first half hour!

We had some great views of the valley.

And some gorgeous views of the hills!

Comment!

When I first started reading everyone's blogs I NEVER commented. I liked anonymously reading what people were up to and seeing pics of their families/activities, etc. . .kind of felt like I was a fly on the wall (enjoying w/o their knowing!). Anyway, I didn't really think much of it, I would just read and move on. . .well, now that I've started my own blog (and have actually kept it up for 5 months--thank you very much!) I WANT TO KNOW who is following my posts! I know it's not really fair, because I didn't do it for so long, but. . . ! OK, I don't have a good reason, I'm really just curious. So, when I realized that I wanted to know so much, I figured that others would too, and therefore started commenting. I L-O-V-E keeping up on your families through reading all of YOUR blogs (if you are reading mine and have a blog that I don't know about . . . oooooooooooooooh!) and seeing all of your pics/videos, and I hope you've enjoyed keeping in touch with me/my family a little more through mine too. I admit, I still anonymously follow a couple blogs, but for the most part, you all see me there at least once in a while! Anyway, if you want to make my day, comment! Even if you don't have anything to say, just leave a smiley or something so I know you stopped by! :) Come on, you feel the same. . .don't you?!

Call Home!

Can I just say--I'VE HAD THE FUNNEST MONTH E-V-E-R?! So, first of all, it was my birthday, so of course I "partied it up"! It all started with WICKED! Rachel, Katie, Sarah and I all went to the broadway play Wicked and had the best time. I loved it! I sat by Dan and Stacy (Gordon's) and we had a good time chatting--not during the show, of course. :) Then I went skiing with Robert and Sarah. I can't believe how fun it is to ski again! We even had pretty fresh snow. On my actual b-day two of my friends went with me to get pedicures and lunch. . .LOVED that! (my nails are now orangish) I caught a glimpse of Kim and Jon as they arrived late and left early for MO, but it was fun to see them anyway! I went to the temple with Edyn--and of course, out to lunch after and then enjoyed a fun "girls-night-out" with a bunch of my friends/neighbors where we played games. The next day Rachel, Becca, Irene, and Af (of course, with Boston, Reed, and Robyn in tow) took me bowling and again out to lunch! We had so much fun. I bought myself a new pair of running shoes (as I think I can say I am officially a "jogger" now)! I've been meeting up with one friend or another, or just going by myself, almost every morning to jog a 3 mile loop that I'm so proud I can finish! I went hiking with Becca, Hobie, and Irene and found that my knees didn't do so well coming DOWN the mountain. But, I loved it anyway--it's SO refreshing to be in the mountains. Vicki and Dennis took us out to dinner for my b-day and I got to have crab legs! Ooooooh, LOVE it! I had friends over last night for scrapbooking--even mom and Gordon joined us before it was all said and done. The kids LOVED watching Hannah get baptized and confirmed this morning, we're so proud of her. And, we'll be having everyone who wants to come over tomorrow night for dinner to celebrate before mom and Gordon fly out to visit Chrissy and Jared! I also got to slip away for a couple hours today to make some more cards with my friends. We've been to the park a bunch this month--the weather has been PERFECT for that (it's been great to actually have SPRING weather this year), and we had two HOT days where we got out the slip-n-slide. . .need I say more? I took Kyra to kindergarten orientation and she was soooooooo excited, she can't wait for school to start. It's nice to see her be so ready! Mark is looking forward to going back to school too--we are SO excited about the Montessori school. We had a great Easter-- full of egg hunts, baskets, candy, toys, dresses,and get-togethers. Dave had a fun weekend in CA where a bunch of guys on his team competed in the jiu-jitsu tournament and did well. I enjoyed watching conference while he was gone and not having to get the kids through church by myself. We loved having Walden and Michelle and family here for a weekend--the kids enjoyed playing with those cousins that we don't get to see too often, and I loved having everyone get together, of course! Kyra had dental work done TWICE and was a trooper both times. She had to get a crown and two fillings--yikes, sounds like she got the Simmons teeth like most of the rest of us! :) (well, ok, either that or I'm just horrible at flossing her teeth. . .hmmmmmm.) I'm still on FB every day and still blogging--I love getting to know some of our cousins that we've never had a chance to know, and it's such a fun way to keep in touch with friends. I love both. Sorry if this is repetitious to those of you who keep up with my blog--but I know that's few (hint hint) so I'm not too worried about it.