5K & Play on Saturday

There are times that, as a family, we want to just get out and do something - we don't care what, we don't care where, we just care that we are together and not at home. This past Saturday was one of those days.

The day started when my sister Amy and I participated in the 5K portion of the 9th annual Ogden Marathon. All of the sisters did it last year, but with new and soon arriving babies, and other conflicts, this time it was just the two of us. We had a great time! I love the feeling at the start of the race with so many people gathered together, the excitement is contagious. Our 3.1 miles ran through a really pretty part of the Ogden Parkway and it really was so much fun. With a time of 27:46, I placed ninth in my age group, 50th out of all females, and 188th overall. Amy had an "incident" (a funny one) and ended just 30 seconds behind me. With almost 1000 people participating, I think it's safe to say that we rock!

We were so fast the photographers could not catch us -haha - that's me in the pink, Amy was to my left. The next two are of us at the finish line - me far back in the pink, Amy in the left picture wearing red. (The time shown is the time from when the race started, not the time from when we personally crossed the start line)

After I got home and showered we were off, to who knew where! Seriously, we had no idea where we were going. Our first idea was the zoo, but it was a Saturday and a beautiful day and we knew it would be packed. We also thought about heading up to a nearby ski resort, Snowbasin, to ride the Gondola and hike around at the top of the mountain. Chloe was opposed to this idea, and kept insisting that she just wanted to go to the park. We go to parks almost daily, so that was an idea us parents were resitant too. Luckily we were able to accomplish a variation of all three of these ideas when we headed up to Logan.

We started at the Willow Park Zoo. This zoo is very small and the kids favorite was the first thing we saw - the monkeys. These were animated monkeys and I think Chloe and especially Noah would have been happy to watch them for the rest of the day, but we did also get to see come cool birds, turtles, and a couple of wolves. The zoo adjoins a very large playground complex, so Chloe had her wish fulfilled and got to play at a park! This playday also marked a very big accomplishment for Chloe when she braved a twisty slide (and a pretty big one I thought) by herself for the first time. After being opposed to trying for almost a year, she is now officially addicted to all slides twisty. Noah found himself pretty contect to just play in the bark.

We finished at the zoo and park and headed out for ice cream cones, deciding to take the kids for a drive out to Hardware Ranch. This place is great in the winter when you can take sleigh rides and see hundreds and hundreds of deer in the snow. This place is just as beautiful in the summer monthes and we enjoyed the views, throwing rocks, and just hanging out.

(Side note - I can't believe we got all four of us looking AND smiling in the two family pictures below)
When the kids had had their fill of the ranch, we called it a day and headed home to go to ward activity. The day was long, but we had a great time on our mini Saturday family adventure.