Swim and Click.

Lily finished out her Synchro season with her team at the Western States Regional.  She and that cutie to her left will be moving up to the full time competitive team this summer for there first foray into full time competition next year!  I am so excited for these girls and the memories they are making.

Dad totally crushed the hair this time because I was of course in Colorado doing my wedding photography thing.  So grateful for what we do and that our family thrives on living loudly!

 

Cardiac King of the Mountain Attempt

Many parts of life are uncomfortable. 

The better you can deal with pain and suffering, the better you can do in life's uncomfortable moments. Running teaches how to suffer, so I decided to go for the King of the Mountain on Cardiac hill by our house. 

The current record is held by Travis, who I claim is 70% calves by body weight. He just floats up hills and set the record in 2013 and no one has been able to beat his time. You only have to run 7 Minute pace up a mountain with some steep steps and big turns. 

So, I trained for 6 weeks to beat him. I lost 14 pounds. I did hill repeats, and ran cardiac so many times I became the local legend. 

When race day came, Bridget had invited some friends to line the trail and cheer me on. I took off running as fast as I could on the lead up, hit the bottom of the trail and sent it. 

I honestly don't remember much from those 2 minutes. I kinda blacked out during it. I remember hurting. I remember hands shaking. I remember hitting the flatter section and having to kick up the pace and feeling like I was running through cement. I remember going so hard I spend the next 10 minutes coughing up stuff. 

After 6 weeks of training, 14 pounds lost, and the worst 2 minutes of my life, I missed the King of the Mountain by 1 second. I'm now officially the second fastest ever. I can live with that until this fall when I give it another try...

 

Mother's Day Mahem

It is never a dull moment over here at the Longmires.  Its good, and a lot. I am so grateful to be a Mother to these two girls, and even more grateful for the mothers that surround me.

Mother's Day week was filled with a lot of wonderful things for me.  Having Dutch Bros with my dear friend Stephanie was a start.  I adore this woman and we just simply don't see each other very much so any time spent is amazing.

The other really exciting thing was going to see The Music Man at the Hale Theatre!  Grandma Jill and Grandpa Steve bought me tickets for my birthday and I was waiting for the Music Man to cash them in.  I am so glad I waited too because Lily is SO into theatre after her experience with Dig it Jack!

We had dinner at Joes BBQ before heading to the stage.

The Hale Theater is one of my favorite places by far and everyone loved the show.  Lily particularly was inspired to one day audition for a Hale show, "Mom, will you audition with me?"  

In true Longmire fashion the week of celebrating motherhood wouldn't be complete without some mayhem caused by an errant 2x4 supporting an epic fort.  I"ll never forget that message.  I was attending a yoga breathwork circle and came out to a text message.... "Well, I'm gonna test that breathwork practice, everything is okay, but I broke something."

The TV.  

 

So to Costco we went.  I am a lucky lady!

I sang in church on Mother's Day and then Bob and I went to a Diamondbacks game.  We were gifted 2 tickets and had a blast.  We are at the  can-leave-our-children-alone-for-4-hours-stage and let me tell you...it is awesome!

It was especially awesome to run into my dear friend and fellow Mom warrior Melissa by chance at the game.  So grateful for the Mom's doing this big thing called Motherhood with me.

Fun in the Sun!

The weekend following our Grand Canyon adventure, Grandpa Bob and Grandma Lynn came for a visit!  The girls are about to go and spend a week by themselves with them, but we got a pre vacay, vacay!  

The girls went to school the first Friday they were here so we took Grandpa's new knee out for a spin on our hiking trails.  I am so grateful for our trail system and we were fortunate enough to have amazing weather and a spectacular hike.

Grandpa did so great and it was so wonderful to have him able to hike again!  Grandma Lynn, of course, absolutely crushed it and she and I had a blast catching up on the trail.

Our hike was every bit of 4 hours and we got back tired, but ready for the girls to come home!  Afterall, we had the river to do!

YES, we took everyone down the river for an afternoon paddle.  The river is gorgeous this time of year but cold.  Its a wonderful experience considering its hot enough to really enjoy the cold water.

We spent one evening at Fat Cats bowling and playing mini golf.

Our final day was spent at Hurricane Harbor Waterpark.  We had never been there before so it was so much fun to go as a family and we had a blast riding all of the water rides.

We always have so much fun making memories with these guys and I cannot wait to hear about all of the adventures the girls have in Florida!

 

Williams Adventure Part 4

On our last day in Williams we decided to go explore the Cinder Cone at the end of the Red Mountain Trail.  I am always up for discovering new and exciting places.  This one did not disappoint.

A Cinder cone is formed through volcanic activity.  Its almost as if the volcano erupts slowly through its side rather than the top.  It was fascinating  and even from a distance you could see this interesting geological mountain.

As we approached the cindercone there were just mountains of ancient gravel ash piles and the girls and Bob couldn't wait to attempt to climb it!

Meanwhile, Grandma, Grandpa, and I kept moseying down the trail closer to the cone.

Thankfully the trail wasn't very long, and the trail was filled with interesting places and super fun climbing opportunities.

Bob, the girls, and I found this really fun cavern area that you could only access through some tricky climbing.  Bob helped me and the girls up and down before seeing it for himself.

Getting down was the stressful part, to be sure, but it was fun to watch the girls solve the problems, breathe, and figure it out.

Such a fun spot to find and explore all together!

 Our entire trip was amazing and such a fun time!