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.

Visit to the Dinosaur Museum

The other day we received an open invitation from my cousin Jessica that she would love to go with us to the Dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point. I think she was just a little surprised when we called her up 2 days later and said we wanted to take her up on that offer. They didn't have previous plans so they agreed to meet us there.

While most of the museum was dedicated to dinosaurs, there was a opening exhibit that we were able to visit first. The exhibit was hands on and talked about light (including the physics behind light, light rays, reflection & refraction, etc.). I don't know if the boys are experts on light but they had fun checking out each station in the exhibit.

But the fun really began with the big dinosaurs. They boys could hardly control their excitement as they raced around the museum.

Having their cousins along made it that much more fun. Here they built a dinosaur from the various heads, legs and tails that were hanging on the wall. Who knew this dinosaur would turn and eat them!

We spent a significant amount of time learning about errosion in this hands-on exhibit. The kids built dams and canals, hills and valleys and then watched them get washed away. I'll admit I had a little fun myself at this exhibit.

Here the boys learned all about digging up dinosaur bones. They had fun getting in lots of practice, using paint brushes to carefully excavate these ancient bones from the sand.

This was a shocking exhibit, especially coming around the corner and not expecting it! Definitely a big fish.

Another dinosaur dining experience.


It's no wonder why the dinosaurs were eating our kids. They weighed in at a whopping 300 hundred pounds! Not bad for 6 energetic boys.

We had a lot of fun at the museum and want to go back. We loved it so much we started calculating costs of a year family pass. We didn't buy the pass but we are certainly glad that we could have a fun family outing with our Wycherly cousins.

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.