May 2024!

On May 2nd, Sophie and Lindy performed in a piano recital at Dayne's Music.

Lindy is entirely eclipsed in this photo by the boy dressed in black, positioned right in front of her.

Casey took Lindy and Sean on a short trip down to Ephraim with Doug and Ilean to place this headstone for Mary Ann Howe.

On May 3rd and 4th, Sophie and Hallee competed in the PACS BYU Invitational, the longest running and most prestigious track and field invitational in the Intermountain West. Only the best athletes are allowed to complete and there is a high standard for every event that must be met at a previous meet. Sophie raced 99th in the 1600 meter race with a time of 5:28.68 and Hallee placed 24th (5:11.21).

Hallee finally met her goal and hit the qualifying standard to run at state in the 800 meter race on "the Lord's track" with a time of 2:18.38. She placed 20th overall in that event. Sophie was 80th (2:26.88--a big PR for her).

Sophie, hitting a new PR in the 800.

Hallee, coming in hot in the 800 meter race.

Sophie and Sarah, chasing the competition.

The kids, roasting brats in our fireplace. We kept getting late season cold spells and epic snow storms.

On this Mountain Monday, we drove up Millcreek Canyon until we ran into this! A tree fallen across the road. Once the trees start to leaf out, snow storms are pretty damaging. We had to turn the car around and hike a trail much lower down.

Kimberly, Heidi, Shannon and I

Hiking up Rattlesnake Gulch on a snowy May day.

May 8th and 9th were the Regional Championship track races at Alta High School. Hallee had pre-qualified for all of her events except for the 1600 meter. Hallee took 2nd with a time of 5:16.68 to another freshman. Sophie placed 9th in that race (5:30.47). Sophie was hoping to place high enough in the 3200 meter race to advance to state, which she did--6th with a time of 11:55.27. She was ecstatic! Her teammate, Sarah Nicholes, collapsed on the final stretch of that race although she and Sophie ran the entire race together. That was rough!

Hallee, Grace, Sarah and Sophie in the 1600.

Sophie placed 9th in her other event, the 800 meter (2:28.82). She put her heart into qualifying in the 3200, so she was content to be running 2 events at state (since she'd pre-qualified to run in the 4x800 with the team early in the season).

Birthday breakfast for Grandma at Finn's Cafe with Karen, Dewey, Ron and Marilyn and Cupcake and Leroy.

Hallee had pre-qualified to run at state in the majority of her events so she got to hang out and spectate.

Sophie, qualifying for state in the 3200 with a big PR--11:55.27--at Alta high school. She was so excited!!

One happy kid!

Sophie and Grace at track regionals.

Lindy and Sean on a May trip to the Ogden Dinosaur Park.

Lindy.

Cute Sean.

On May 11th, we met up with Kimberly Baker, Sarah and Amauri and the Sundbergs in the Aragonite for a red-neck fest.

Shannon, getting ready to deploy "Baby Bertha."

Setting up our outpost amongst the sagebrush and cow pies.

Bill with his long meat stick.

Casey, swilling on a tall, cold Liquid Death.

Sean, collecting cow bones.

Things ramped up when Casey trotted out the firearms.

Shooting in the west desert because that's what rednecks do for fun on the weekend.

Sean, getting his first lessons in proper rednecking.

Sophie and Hallee, lighting it up!

There was a solar storm happening that night and the Northern Lights were visible from Utah after the sun went down. We could see a bit of the green glow as we drove home to Salt Lake.

Bear at sunset.

A perfect west desert sunset.

Zeke, deploying one last rocket before we drove back to Salt Lake after a full day of rednecking.

May 12th was Mother's Day. This year, Sean was the one that wouldn't smile for the obligatory picture. It's always someone.

Grandma with Zoe's baby--Robin--at Newel's house on Mother's Day. For the past few years, Newel has been organizing a big blowout Mom's feast at his house where the kids work in the kitchen sweat-shop-style and serve the moms elaborate multi-course meals.

On May 16th, Sophie and Hallee ran in the UHSAA State 5A Championships in both the 3200 meter and the team 4x800 meter races.

Hallee was ranked 7th in the state coming into the 3200 even though she had only raced it once during the season (and only one time ever, since it was her first ever season of track). She qualified to run it based on time and Coach Porter didn't have her run it again until the state championship (since he was trying to get her pre-qualified in her other events). Hallee placed 9th with a time of 11:11.85 and brought home a medal. She was disappointed, but for only ever racing it one time previously, we were all amazed! Sophie came in 22nd with a speedy time of 12:04.13. We were so proud of them!

Hallee, cruising to the finish line in the 3200 meter race.

Sophie in her heat of the 3200 meter race.

With a big gap in event times, I took Sean, Lindy and Zeke and walked across campus to the Bean Museum.

We also hit a nearby trampoline Park to burn some afternoon energy since the 4x800 meter race wasn't until later in the day.

Zeke

Lindy

Zeke, airborne.

Sean, catching some air.

Later that same day, Sophie and Hallee ran in the 4x800 along with Grace Callister and Sarah Nicoles. They shattered the school record in the event and placed 2nd overall in 5A. A huge accomplishment!! Sophie ran the 3rd leg and Hallee ran anchor. They clocked a 9:23.83. Amazingly, the Skyline boys ran to a 2nd place finish as well. It was an awesome night for the Skyline distance runners. They have a small team and only one coach so for them to pull that off with both the boy's and girl's team was phenomenal!

Here's the Skyline 4x800 meter dream team before the race: Hallee, Grace, Sarah and Sophie.

Grace, pulling up on the lead runner.

Sarah, chasing the lead runner down.

It was such an exciting (and close) race that I somehow missed getting a picture of Sophie's leg but here is Hallee, closing in the anchor leg.

The Skyline 4x800 team on the awards podium!

Skyline boys and girls with matching 2nd place medals in the 4x800 meter races.

On the 18th, Hallee had two more events: the 1600 meter and the 800 meter race. She powered to a 5th place finish in the 1600 meter race with a time of 5:08.45 and a 6th place overall in the 800 meter race (Grace placed 5th) with a time of 2:17.63, taking home medals in all 4 of her events.

Hallee, cruising in the state 5A 1600 meter championship race.

Hallee, claiming 5th place in the 1600.

Hallee with a 6th place finish in the state championship 800 meter race.

Hallee and Grace, 6th and 5th place in the 800 meter.

Zeke with his Blast 2010 soccer team, coached by Tyler McIntosh. Right after this, we found out that this team was dissolving so Zeke joined the other Blast 2010 team coached by Jayce Swenson.

I knew that our neighbors, the Nelsons, would be out of town the first half of the summer, visiting Brigitte's parents in Norway, so I got this big blow up water slide to increase the neighborhood fun.

Hallee, trying out the new slide.

Lindy's end of year class play.

Hallee, posing with her banner at Wasatch Charter School.

The kids at the Layton Temple open house.

Sophie, Hallee, Casey, Zeke, Helen, Sean and Lindy at the Layton Temple open house near the end of May, 2024.

This cute Western Screech Owl nested inside the tree across the street all summer.

Since we knew that we'd be on a road trip for Zeke's upcoming birthday in June, we decided one Sunday afternoon to let him open his presents early (and have a special birthday dessert).