The next *Star of the Week*

Onto the second of my Star of the Week series:

Here we have Drew.

Things Drew loves to do:

* Help his mom

*Work with his Dad

*Swim

*art

*ride his scooter/bike

*play soccer

*play with his sisters

*Learn--especially loves math

*Loves to do a good job with everything he does

*Read

*to play the Wii with his best buddy from school

Things I admire about Drew:

*He is a very hard worker--He worked and earned money for the above razor scooter

*He is so unselfish--he has an amazing ability to understand the feelings of others and always wants to help

* He loves to have fun

*He is determined--this year in his swimming lessons, I was sure on that first day they were going to put him in the class just lower. His classmates were doing stuff he had never done.....on the very first day! But they didn't switch him. Instead, Drew got it in his mind that he was going to pass this class and move on to the next level. And he did!! He did so amazing, seriously.

* He is so kind. One day our family was going for a walk. I asked the kids what the most beautiful thing they could see was. Drew said, "You!" Awhhhh, he will be such a great husband!

Drew you are such a great example to your younger siblings, and such a pleasure to have around! We love you tons and tons!!!

The RUSH

So this last Saturday some friends and I joined together and did the Rush triathalon in Rexburg. We had a blast and I'm so glad we did it!! My friend Heidi did the swim, she is in the picture below in the sea of yellow heads. She swam so awesomely and got us off to a great start!!

Since my friends and I serve in the Young Women together, we invited the Young Men leaders to go up against us. Well it ended up that only one took the challenge and he did the whole thing himself--he is not new to this sort of thing. This was actually a picture of Heidi running out of the water, but she is the yellow capped girl in the background. Sorry about the random person dressing in the forefront.

Our transitions were pretty quick, since we were doing the different legs separate. This is my friend Tiffany in the pink running with her bike to start her 13 mile leg of the journey. There she goes! It was a tough course, lots of hills!

Here is my transition, we swapped the timer chip and I was off!!

The run was fun, hard-but good. Everyone kept warning me about a killer hill--I didn't really pay too much attention to it. I thought I was doing pretty good on those hills, until I saw what everyone was talking about. It is actually a killer cliff!! I was running up a dirt path up the cliff for the better part of one mile. I ran my hardest-we were all really trying hard to beat the YM leader and he hadn't passed us yet!! I was so paranoid I kept looking over my shoulder every time someone came up to me.
I almost threw up, but I kept going. :) At the top it was so steep that my running steps were just barely one foot in front of another so I decided to use less energy and walk with big steps for a few strides up the steepest little part. Then I kept running. We finished and we came in one minute before our iron man friend! We never thought it possible!!! So yeah, we were pretty excited! Our transitions were definitely easier and we started fresh at each leg...so he did really awesome!!

It was so fun! Heidi is going to do it all by herself next year, she has done it before but had a baby in May so she let us tag along this time. Now Tiffany and I want her to teach us how to swim so we can all do it separately next time! They sure were great teammates! Thanks for a fun time girls!!

*Star of the Week*

I thought I would take a week at a time to recognize my children--just for fun. In the midst of summer craziness, it is hard to carve out time for each child, so I thought I would write about each child individually for something fun for them and for me! So I will start with Miss Madelyn.

Things Madelyn loves:

*Barbies

*Cooking

*Doing her own hair

*Playing with her brother Drew

*Taking care of her little sisters

*Reading

*Dancing

*Singing

*Piecing together outfits--she loves clothes

Things I admire about Madelyn:

*She is an amazing reader. She reads accurately and fast. This summer she read her biggest book ever, Charlotte's Web. First thing in the morning-very often she is the first of the children to wake up-she is usually reading a book or reading the friend.

*She tries to do what is right-just the other day she told me that she needed to tell me the truth about something she had been avoiding. I was proud of her for doing something hard and for initiating doing what was right.

*She doesn't like to be pushed into something she doesn't want to do.

*She remembers to pray about things that concern her. She will often be the first with the idea to pray if we have any sort of trouble/problem. I hope she will continue that wonderful practice!

*She loves to pose for pictures! :)
Madelyn is a good girl and is getting way excited to begin school! We love our big girl and we are so happy she is in our family!!!

You get a line, I'll get a pole

I always get picture order WAY mixed up on here. This should have been more of the last picture...but ya know..

Lately we've been trying our hand out at crawdad fishing up at Ririe Reservoir. It has been a pretty fun family activity. . . especially the time when the boat quit when we were with my brother and his family. We ended up being towed back to the dock. :)

Our last trip though, was less eventful as far as technical difficulties, and way more eventful on the harvest of crawdads. We caught 10! a record for us.

See? They are strange little creatures, but that is part of the fun of it. We catch them with bacon and reel them in very slowly. I think the anticipation is a little greater fishing for these guys than with fish .
Cute little girlies in their life jackets.

Lily can be a wiggly mess on the boat, but she is awfully cute!!

Drew had the best luck and would catch 2 crawdads at a time in his net.

Lily loves to drive with her dad!

First catch of the night.

Anticipation is brimming.

Madelyn striking a pose!

What keeps these little guys entertained is mostly food and watching the crawdads crawl around in the bucket.

I was worried that we had so many crawdads and no one would want to eat them. I tried some with Jed the last time we caught a couple, they taste a lot like shrimp. But I don't like shrimp or anything that lives in the water for that matter..... But Drew and Madelyn surprised me. Madelyn loved them. Drew liked them. Hannah did not like them. :) When they are cooked those little crawdads turn bright red (refer to first picture). They look a lot more appetizing when they are cooked!

Following our crawdad adventure, we all packed up and went outside to sleep on the tramp! The kids have been so excited to sleep on it ever since their dad and I related our stories of sleeping on the tramp growing up. We finally did it.

Setting up. It turned out to be a rather chilly yet clear night. The stars were beautiful, and we enjoyed star gazing together. Drew and Madelyn like to find the Big Dipper. It was pretty fun to all be bunched up together on the trampoline.

Lily was pretty hyper and hit her second wind. Hannah thought it was funny to randomly get out of her sleeping bag and jump. Finally, everyone dozed off--except for me. I discovered I would be the world's worst pioneer. I could not sleep a wink because I kept thinking that Hannah and Lily were freezing. I constantly was checking them and feeling their cold cheeks and pulling up their blankets. I witnessed 8 shooting stars, studied the milky way, and watched as the stars slowly moved across the sky in my solitary waking hours. That night sky really is beautiful. Finally Lily started being a little fussy and Jed told me to take her in. I did. And I saw on the clock when I got in the house it was 3 AM!!!!!!! Oh my goodness.

But with kids as excited as this to sleep on the tramp, of course they are asking to do it again! And I will probably consent, when I am able to catch up on some Zzzzzzzz's. :)