Pioneer Day Temple to Temple 5K Run 2014

Today we're celebrating Pioneer Day in Utah.  And today I'm fortunate enough to not have to be at work at the hospital.  This morning we choose to participate in the annual Temple to Temple 5K Run/Walk her in Provo.  

I have to say, this year's event is definitely bigger than last year, although over half of the nearly 8,000 participants didn't register (for FREE) until the week of the event.  In any case, there was a lot of excitement at the run this year and there were so many people just excited to be here.

So, with so many people running our little family decided to cheer on the first wave of runners and we waited about 2 minutes so that the first few thousand runners to sprint down the road and we could have some breathing/running room.  We were excited to be joined by Grandma Petersen and 3 of the Boel kids (Devin, Haley and Vivian).  Aleky decided this morning that he wanted to run to so we brought him along and they let him register at the last minute.  Grandpa Petersen was very kind and dropped us off close to the starting line and then met us at the finish line with Quinten and Gidean.

The race starts on the North side of the Provo Temple, at the top of the hill.  Even with all of the foot traffic I still ran faster than a 6 minute mile (12+ mph, a personal best).  Since I had my own personal timer on my phone I had to start it at the Starting Line so the rest of the family got a head start.  That means I passed them all as I flew down the hill.  However, before I reached the stadium I pulled a muscle in my hip and that made the remaining 2 miles a bit painful.  In spite of the injury I was still able to finish the 5K in 22:04!

Devin and David ran together and finished in just under 25 minutes.

Donovan and Michael finished their run in about 26:30.  Donovan has already crossed the finish line and Michael is about 3 seconds behind him!

Aleky sprinted away from Michelle and Grandma.  However, Norman Thurston (a long-time neighbor) caught up to him on the final sprint to make sure Aleky didn't get lost in the crowd.  Thank you Brother Thurston.

The ladies all finished around 35 minutes.  In the picture we see Haley (who finished first), Vivan (right on her heels), Michelle (waving to the crowd), with Grandma on her heels (behind another runner). 

While Grandma Petersen had sworn of running any more 5K's after the Barrus Memorial 5K on July 4th, she still came down with the Boels to run and have fun!  We have the best family EVER!  We wanted to pose in front of the unfinished Provo City Center Temple at the finish line of the race.

After the run we headed over for a pancake breakfast provided by our (Provo Bonneville) Stake.  Since the breakfast started at 8:00 we probably missed a huge part of the stake members but we still were able to visit with many of our friend from around the neighborhood.  And I have to say, the breakfast lines/serving was amazingly organized and very impressive!  Thank you to all of the stake members who help provide this wonderful breakfast.

New Year's Eve at Grandma's House

We ended up going to Grandma and Grandpa Petersen's home for our New Year's eve celebration. Originally we were going to make a trip up for a "Grandma's Christmas" but one thing led to another and it didn't quite work out like we expected. So turning lemons into lemonade, we had a New Year's celebration with Grandma and the cousins! I love it when we can get together with all of the little cousins, they always have a blast playing together.

We met at the bowling ally in Tooele for family bowling. Grandma got the babies and the bigger kids got to bowl.

David could not be separated from Devon so he joined their family and we got Cynthia in our family. The Petersens didn't share any of their kids. After that, the bowling balls went flying, some better directed than others. But we all had a good time.

Our family had a pretty close game but Aleky clearly came in 2nd place! He's getting pretty good throwing those huge balls down the lane.

After bowling we had a rendezvous at Grandma's house for dinner. After gathering everyone in for a blessing on the food the kids were sent downstairs to eat.

It wasn't completely unsupervised but they did have the run on the place. Really, it was all we could do to get a time out for the food. These kids were playing non-stop and having a blast playing with each other.

Going to bed wasn't any easier but we finally were able to calm to crowds and they went to bed just a couple hours after there regular bedtime. None of the adults stayed up to see the new year come in; we trusted that everything would happen just fine without any supervision.

We are very grateful to have such a wonderful family. We are looking forward to the next family gathering.

Thanksgiving with the Family

We are truly blessed to have such a wonderful family and we look forward all year to each opportunity to gather together with our extended family. The Petersen's side of the family has quite a few cousins who are all very close in age. Each time we get together the cousins will do everything together and they go non-stop until the late hours of the day. While cooking a Thanksgiving meal that comes in handy since all of the kids stay occupied. I find it quite amazing how few accidents and crying actually occur with so many little children in such close proximity for an extended period of time.

In any case, we had a fabulous Thanksgiving meal hosted at Aunt Melissa's house this year. We created a table for the kids and most of the cousins (3 families represented - Boels, Joneses, Kims) were able to fit. Now eating was not a high priority item for the kids (especially my boys) but they stayed put because they had to wait for their cousins to continue playing.

These kids were found hanging around.

Cynthia heads up the nail decorating activity while the mommies work on dinner.

Parent enforced curfew, the boys decide to camp out in the family room so they can all be together.

My boys discover the Nerf cannon. They set up a sniper nest at the bottom of the stairs.

We had a very enjoyable time visiting with family. We certainly appreciate the Boels for allowing all of us to visit their home and share in their hospitality.

Halloween 2009

Our boys have been very excited for Halloween this year. David has been talking about it all month long. He is old enough now to remember the various holidays and to get excited about them. Donovan is also getting very excited about the holidays too. He picks up on the enthusiasm from David and it multiplies. Michael is excited that his brothers are excited and he wants in.

This year Michelle decided to to Star Wars costumes. She was able to put together three young Jedi costumes; Aleky's costume was about half done so he got to be a Musketeer instead. We decided to stay in our neighborhood this year and visit our friends here. The boys were just excited to knock on the doors, say "Trick or Treat" and get candy. Of course, we were excited for our boys and to visit our friends and neighbors.

Our longest stop, by far, was at the bishop's house. They decided to hand out cooked hot dogs and hamburgers instead of candy. We stopped and had dinner there, along with the nice hot chocolate they provided. It also gave us an opportunity to visit with other neighbors who stopped to share the food.

However, in spite of the food already shared we ended up with a lot of extra candy as the bishop carefully unloaded his bowl of candy into Donovan's bucket (behind Michelle's back--he was very sneaky!).

It was a lot of fun running around the east half of the ward. We ran out of time before we could visit the west half. Regardless of the shortness of time I think the boys got more than enough candy for a single night.

We're still trying to decide how best to handle the influx of sugar. We've heard some parents let their kids eat as much candy as they want on Halloween night and they dispose of the rest. Other parents distribute the candy over time to even out the sugar to a manageable level. Some dentists (I've heard) will trade toys for candy. So far, we've decided to go with the even distribution of candy over time but haven't settled on this option as the only option.

Family Reunion (part 5)

Family Reunion (part 4)

This morning there was a somber mood among all the kids. I think they knew that their time together was coming to an end. Of course it may have just been the cooler mountain air and overcast skies and the fact that the fire had been put out by the rain. But this morning the kids did everything together. You couldn't separate them.

The first activity of the day was to try and get the fire started again. I think the chances for success would have been greater had the matches actually lit when you struck them. We finally resorted to using a lighter.

The camping experience was starting to wear on some of the kids. Katie hadn't had a shower in days and this was a real problem. Most of the other kids didn't seem to mind missing that important aspect of civilization.

Aaron seemed to be content simply eating the topping off of his muffin. After all, these are healthy muffins so the best part has to be the topping.

Michelle caught me in her picture as she tried to capture the scene for her panoramic picture stitching program. (I moved to soon and the stitching program chopped my arm off!)

More breakfast under the canopy (to avoid the random rain drops)

The kids were playing some sort of treasure hiding/finding game. Then they played red light green light but with dragons! I'm sure they played some other games as well. They spent the morning together and would hardly even separate when called by their parents!

I'm not sure why they started rolling the logs. These logs were originally set up for a family photo but were never actually used for that purpose. The kids found them more exciting to roll across camp.

Next came the thrill ride of the day. We all loaded up on top of James' new suburban rack and went for a ride up to the main road and back. This is a bumpy road and would have rivaled any ride at Lagoon, especially since this one doesn't have seat belts or safety gear!

After the roller coaster ride we went on a treasure hunt. We were working fast because the Kims had to get on the road and head for home. The kids went to work following clues like they were stars in National Treasure or something. Once they read each clue they were off at a sprint to find the next one. There were 10 total clues.




The kids finally found the gold at the end of the hunt. It was a glorious moment. All of their staunch determination had finally paid off.

It was sad to say good bye to the Kims. These several days had been wonderful to be together. But all things must end and the Kims were the first to leave. Jared's family would leave next but not before they had a chance to defend our camp from the attacking squirrel.

With the camp secure and safe we finished packing. I happened to catch this candid moment as Hailey helped David bring up the high chair to be loaded into the jeep.

This camping trip / family reunion has been an awesome experience. The kids had a blast playing with their cousins for 4 days! We got to see each other all together for the first time in a couple years. As the family spreads across the country these times will be more and more precious.

I am certainly grateful that I was able to spend these 4 days with my family. We had a fabulous time and we've made many great memories.

Family Reunion (part 3)

Our boys were awake at first light and couldn't understand why we wanted to sleep a little longer. After all, 6:30 am is still early, even while you're camping. Somehow we managed to keep the kids still and quiet for almost 30 more minutes. But kids can't burn daylight and they wanted to get up. But what do you do while you wait for breakfast?

The boats turned out to be a hit once again. The little inflatable row boat seemed to steal the stage. I suspect that a large part of the appeal was that the kids could go into the lake unsupervised (at least directly) and could row under their own power. It took a few tries but the kids really began to get around the lake in this little boat. We only had to tow kids back to shore on a few occasions.


Jared managed the "save of the day" when he plucked Aaron from the lake's grasp. I didn't see what happened except Jared was grabbing Aaron by the ankle and pulling him out of the lake. Apparently Jared's "snatch" occurred just as Aaron slipped and fell into the lake and Jared caught the ankle before it slipped into the water. As a result, Aaron had one dry shoe but everything else was wet.

By this day the kids were having a great time playing together. You would see three or four kids running around playing a game here or there. It was so much fun to see them getting along so well.


With the arrival of Jared at camp, the chain saws were unleashed and several dead trees were relieved of the stress of standing tall in the forest. As a result we had a massive wood pile. With so much wood everyone seemed excited to take a turn trying to split the logs. Some managed impressive, single swing explosions while others needs a couple of extra swings to split the logs into burnable size pieces.

Chris Kim(Cynthia Boel & Chris Kim)(Janeil Kim)(Cynthia Boel)(Kaylynn Meyers)

(Random cute picture of Troy Kim and Milly Petersen)

One of the best activities of this camp out was when our entire family went back to our tent for a nap. I couldn't hardly contain my excitement, not so much that even David was tired enough to go to sleep but that I got to go to sleep.

When we finally were aroused from slumber we discovered that the camp had been deserted! Finally a lone cousin wandered through camp and after careful interrogation we discovered that everyone had gone rappelling off a nearby cliff. David was off like a shot! Aleky and I finally caught up only to discover David hanging on to the side of a cliff (Michelle and the other boys took longer to wake up).

Okay, I'll admit it...I was very proud of David for going over the cliff on his own rope! Of course I was also happy to note that Aunt Tosha was there to talk him down the cliff and make sure he didn't fall.

David made 3 different rappels gaining confidence each time he went down the cliff. He was one excited boy!

Meanwhile, the other boys woke up from their naps and they joined us at the cliff. Donovan decided that he wanted to go down the cliff too.

Donovan and I went up the cliff to get into the rappelling gear. We decided to let Donovan try going down the cliff on his own rope. Well, let's just say he wasn't quite ready for that experience just yet. He was close enough to the top that Grandpa Petersen just hoisted him back to the top. Having already started down the cliff I quickly descended and ran back up to the top to try again. This time we decided to try a tandem (on the same rope) decent. Donovan felt much better about that idea.

While I am excited that my boys were helping at the bottom of the cliff I think I would have been a little more confident with a little more experience (and weight) and the end of the ropes. But everything went just fine so there's really nothing to worry about.

Once we reached the bottom I had an excited boy on my rope. Donovan was thrilled to have gone down the cliff. I think he would have liked to have gone again but it was time to put the gear away and get ready for dinner.

Devin wins the award for the most descents. He had to have had at least 6 descents while we were there and I have no idea how many additional descents he had before we arrived. He was having a blast going down the cliff face.

Since my boys were the last ones down the cliff I helped pack up the rappelling gear. When I finally made it back to camp I was in for a little surprise! My boys were swimming in the lake...in just their underwear! Michelle was quick to point out that the instigator of this experience was Uncle Jared. In the end, I think this ended up being one of the boys favorite memories.


Janeil was able to get all three of her children to help prepare dinner. Tosha was left all alone while her three boys went swimming in the lake. In the end, the dinner turned out amazing! Great food is pretty much expected at any Petersen camp out.

I think everyone enjoyed the food. Although, some of the kids found it difficult to eat everything on their plates.

Aleky discovered that he was partial to the rolls and honey butter and he downed 2 of them but didn't make much progress on the rest of his food.

David and Michael also struggled through dinner but Donovan actually did a fantastic job clearing his plate.

After dinner was another round of s'mores. Even though the kids didn't eat all of the dinner we let them have treats. After all, we're camping!

After putting the kids to bed the adults congregated around the fire. The discussion seemed to revolve around politics and vehicles (and the politics of vehicle manufactures). It was probably as good as the conversation from the previous night which was on kids and pregnancies. It was an enjoyable evening in the outdoors, at least until it started to rain. That broke up the campfire talk and everyone immediately headed for their tents and for bed.

I enjoyed listening to the rain on the tent roof. There was enough rain to give the relaxing background noise but not too much rain to get everything extremely wet. The ambiance was soothing as I drifted off to sleep.