Triathlon

Jace saw pictures of our friends' kids on Instagram doing a toddler triathlon.  He said he wanted to do one also.  We signed him up for one.  The kids swam 50 yards, biked 1/2 mile, and ran 1/4 mile. He practice his swimming, biking, and running.  He had to use his puddle jumper and training wheels, but he was so cute.  He seemed to be a couple years younger than the next youngest kid (the age group went from age 0-11).  The younger kids got a 5 minute head start.  He was the last one in the pool while the older kids were waiting to go, and they started cheering for him.  It was very sweet.  I was proud of him because he didn't stop in any of the sections.  At the end, one race organizer commented that he smiled the whole time. He got a shirt and a free breakfast after (which he didn't eat). He also won a free race entry to any other race this next year. I think it is awesome that he set a goal and worked to meet it.

Illinois

My mom and I went to Illinois in August.  We arrived on Saturday and went to a nice restaurant for Henry's birthday dinner.  On Sunday, we celebrated Henry's actual birthday with a Harry Potter family party.  We got to see baby Adeline get blessed at church, and Chris was the high council speaker in sacrament meeting so that was a bonus.  We played with Jane and held Adeline while the big kids went to school on Monday. We also got to see the solar eclipse at 90% in Illinois.  Back in Utah, Jace went with Grandma Mayne, Lucian, Kolten, and Talan to see the eclipse in totality.  It took hours for them to get back to Utah- not until 1:00 in the morning! On Monday night we did Henry's birthday piñata. On Tuesday Chris took the day off.  We went to lunch at a wood fire pizza place and on a walk at a nature reserve. On Wednesday we came back home.  Our connecting plane in Chicago got delayed 3.5 hours so we got home much later than expected.  I was very glad we got to go see Chris, his family, and especially the new baby. I am also posting a few pictures of Jace and Violet playing around at home around those same dates.

Bear Lake

At the beginning of August we went to the Hulse family reunion. It started with a family "Thinking Society" (book club), dinner, and talent show.  Jace showed off some basketball dribbling skills for his talent. Before we checked into our condo at Bear Lake, we toured the Minnetonka cave in Idaho.  It had stalactites, stalagmites, and other interesting rock formations.  It is 40 degrees in the cave year round so we had to dress warmly. During the week we rode wave runners, went swimming, went on the boat, played at the beach, played mini golf, had family dinners, and played volleyball, basketball, kickball and dodge ball. Amos and I took turns playing games at night with the adults. Of course we went to La Beau's for shakes and Bear Lake Pizza.  Violet seemed to like going on the wave runner.  When Jace and Amos went on the boat, Amos tried wake surfing and Jace went on a tube ride. At the pool, Jace went down the slide into the pool by himself.  He was wearing a puddle jumper but his face still went into the water for a second.  He loved it and went down the slide a ton.  He also went off the diving board a couple of times but wanted Amos to catch him. Raspberry Days was happening while we were there.  I went with some of the ladies to the booths of people selling things.  I also went on a walk in the mornings with some of the ladies. Jace was very into the playground near the beach this year.  He wanted to play there a lot.  We had a great time!