AF Canyon Half

I wasn't sure I would be able to do my favorite race this year with my hip still giving me trouble, but I decided to train for it anyway and hope for the best. Thankfully my hip didn't seem any worse when I added in longer runs, so I decided to do it. The AF Canyon Half is by far my favorite race and I run it every year. It just feels like home-- probably because it sort of is. At the end of the course I can see our backyard in the distance! It's just a beautiful run that is for a good cause and it is always a good time. 

Group shot at the start!

And at the finish!

I had a great race overall. It wasn't a PR or anything, but I ran it in 1:46, which I was really proud of considering my very laid-back training. My favorite part of any race is always seeing my family at the finish line.

I even ran into an old friend from EFY a million years ago at the finish!

The kids had fun with the face paint and the photo ops :)

Boys trip/girls weekend

Our ward cancelled the father and sons campout this year and there was some major disappointment in the Ricks household. Sean vowed to do his own trip in its stead, and he made good on his promise. He took the boys camping in Moab with our friend Preston and his son Kru. The had a great camp site and had a blast off-roading. They were really excited about the deep-fried peanut butter and jelly sandwich they tried at a restaurant and even brought me some home to try. Surprisingly it was still tasty! While the boys were gone, Molly and I had a fun girls weekend. We did some shopping at Fashion Place and went to dinner at Cheesecake Factory with the other half of the Gray family: Krista and Presley. Glad to have good friends and glad to have a husband who will do things like this with his kids!

Alpine poppies

There is a field in Alpine where wild poppies bloom each year and I have always wanted to find them (well, at least since finding out about them several years ago). This was the year we finally did it. We went on a Sunday afternoon after church and after hiking around and getting lost for a bit, we found them! They were so pretty and we were lucky to have some time there by ourselves. I left Molly in her church dress hoping she would let me take a few pictures. I managed to sneak in a few pictures with a couple of the boys at the end, too!

Baseball 2019

Life has been sort of unreal busy this year. I have major catch up to do! I'll start with a post about this year's baseball season. Both Jackson and Bode played again this year. Jackson played in the minors on the Cubs and Bode in the rookies on the Angels. Jackson had another successful year pitching and had a lot of fun playing ball with so many of his friends on the team, even though in all honesty we didn't love the coaching this year. Bode had a lot of fun with his dad as his coach again. This is Bode's last year in rookies and he'll move up to minors next year. Bode had a great season and primarily played pitcher, and sometimes first base. Both Jackson and Bode went on to play on all-starts teams and in the all-stars tournament after the regular season. Bo's team ended up taking second place! Next year, Davis will be a new rookie and get to finally be on Sean's team! Sean started coaching the rookie Angels back when Jackson was in minors and it has been a lot of fun. 

I don't think there is anything cuter than boys in their baseball uniforms!

Jackson in play

Jackson's all-star team

Bode in play

Angel rookies 2019

Bode's all-star team

Charlie became the official mascot of the Angels this year :)