June 2020

Pelicans up Logan canyon at the mouth of the Temple Fork Sawmill trail.  

Not sure what is going on here, but I found this picture on my phone.

Ethan is starting his second year of XC summer running.  Since he has his license he has been on his own getting up around 5:30 am and heading off to early morning running that starts at 6 am.  

Our weather has been up and down between hot and cold.  Due to COVID-19 the runners have had to meet in two different groups and then split from there.  The girls and boys each meet in different places for their runs and from there they are split into two groups.  They also have a symptom and temperature check when they arrive.

In addition, they've had some cold morning runs in June.

I am not cut out for the dance mom stuff, but we are working on getting better at make-up and fake lashes.  Ellie's group had pictures so we spent an hour or two fixing hair and make up for a 5 minute photo session.  SO . . . . we took some more pictures of our own.

Ellie thought painting rocks sounded fun so we painted rocks and then planted them on a few local trails. Prov Canyon.  

and Deer Fence trail south of Prov

Finally a hot summer day encouraging us to head to the Sports Academy pool.

The city aquatic center is closed this year.  With COVID they decided it was a good year to be closed down for the summer for repairs.

Ellie and friend Jessi delivering some Father's Day gifts to dads in the ward.

More random things from June

Stanley, the rabbit is litter box trained for the most part.  He has mistaken a few throw rugs as litter boxes.

Ellis is still an incredible artist.

Summer hail storm

Ellie's Marathon --> 26.2 miles in 26 days

One of my friends who now lives out of state set up a challenge for her kids to run a "Quarantine Marathon" by running 1 mile a day for 26 days.  I loved this idea and after a lot of encouraging I was able to talk Ellie into doing the challenge.  It turned out that she started on a date that ended up having her run her last 1.2 miles on Global Running Day (which the running nerd in me LOVED!!).

Ellie liked to run her mile in the evening when it was cooler (early mornings were not an option for her).

Some times her friend Jessi would join us sometimes not. 

At first her goal was to be able to run the full mile without any walking by the end.  Some days were harder than others.  She had a lot of side aches and other body parts that hurt randomly.  Although she had lots of complaints, any time I said, you don't have to do this you know.  You can stop and not worry about, she would say, "No, I already started.  It's too late now."  I love that she didn't want to give up on the goal of completing the marathon.  I'm hoping that through this she learned that she can do hard things.  She can finish things even when she really doesn't want to do them.  She's stronger than she thinks.  I don't know that there was any kind of love of running that happened.  I learned more about patience.

She ran her last 1.2 miles at the high school.  We started in front of the school, ran along the river, then up around the school and finishing with a couple of laps around the track.  It was an almost full moon and a very warm summer night.  

Way to go Elisabeth!!! #globalrunningday

5th Grade Graduation during COVID 19

Woodruff had a little drive by 5th Grade Graduation for students.  

Ellie's last year at Woodruff Elementary, but because we live in a different district she will actually have one more year of elementary school.  She will attend our neighborhood elementary for 6th grade before heading to middle school.

Mrs. Anderson and Elisabeth.

Ellie had a great year until the dismissal.  Mrs. Anderson is one of her favorite teachers.  They both have a huge love for animals and art.  I know that she is a teacher that Ellie will always remember.

A small addition to Ellie's artwork in my office.