Going Private

I've seen many people go private on their blogs over the years. Frankly, I've never felt the need. I understood why others chose to, especially with children, but I didn't think I'd want to do it. Mostly because I know what it's like to find a blog and follow it-- whether you know the person really well or not. I hate being blocked out by that private notice. Total hit to the blog-stalkers, right? :) However, the day I didn't think would come for awhile (at least until I had children) has come. I've been thinking about it for the last couple of weeks. Thinking about how personal my posts often are. I want to be able to disclose personal thoughts, feelings and information about me on this blog because lets be honest-- this blog is mostly for me (just like everyone's blog is mostly for themselves). Yet, I've recently realized I'm not sure who is reading these very personal feelings and I'm just not very comfortable with it. SO... here we go. I'm jumping on the private bandwagon. Please if you want to read, occasionally look or just be included... let me know. I'm not trying to cut anyone out that I know. I just want to know the people I include! :) Either comment or if you feel more comfortable...send your email address at megan.g.mansfield@gmail.com and I will do whatever magic bloggers do to make you able to see but make us private. ;)

So thanks for your understanding! I hope you choose to continue to read-- it's not nearly as fun if no one reads your rants, romps and raucous. So here's to that--happy reading! :)

Rafting the Green

A couple weekends ago we were finally able to go home to visit our family in Vernal. I love going to Vernal! It's alway a fun getaway with lots of activities, family and laughs. This trip out we did something we've never done before-- raft the Green River! I was so excited because I've never rafted any river, ever. Amber and Thomas get the credit for coordinating this excursion and I am impressed with how quickly they planned it and we carried it off. Let's hear a wahoo for new adventures. Check out the pictures of our rockin' fun day!

Love being outdoors! This is us getting ready to launch.

We had a little picnic lunch at the push-off site.

I think these monsters are ready to get rowing...

Sandwich, anyone? :)

Baby Max

We are rocking the shades and ready to rock the river.

Off we go!

Kameron & Ben

What you doing allllll the way back there boys?

My boy- oh how I love him.

Chloe & I!

Look how beautiful this is! Floating on this scenic scape was serene.

Kameron, Stephanie & Ben. Once in our raft we caught a rock, steph fell forward and knocked Ben out of our boat right into the rapids! He did a great job at staying calm and pretty much went round and round till the next boat got him. That was about as much excitement as we saw that day.

Raft #2. Big Mike literally had bloody blisters the next day from rowing so hard.

Wyatt took a few dips in the river. This time may or may not have been my fault for not getting a bottle throw quite to him in the other boat.

Alys & Chloe

It's a rafting train!

Boat #3

Abby working hard...

Maddox at the end of the trip

Abby resting from her hard work

Brinlee playing frisbee

I just thought this picture was so cute of Chloe frolicking in the water. ;)

WE LOVE OUR VERNAL TRIPS AND LOVE OUR FAMILIES!!

24th of July

My dad planned our 24th of July activities this year and he did a FABULOUS job! It was so fun to get out and do something different. Here are the day's festivities...

All the family (minus Jonny, sadly, because he had other things he needed to do) started out meeting at Thanksgiving Point's cafe where my dad bought us all a delicious lunch and ice cream for the kiddos.

Mike and I outside Thanksgiving Point

These two are besties!

Goofballs!

All the kids at the ice cream bar

After we ate, we walked around the gardens. They are incredible if you've never been. My parents have season passes so we've been before but every time we go it's always amazing to see the perfectly manicured flowers, bushes, trees and paths. We stopped at one point on some benches and my dad gave a brief talk on the sacrifice of the pioneers telling us how many thousands of miles they walked. It was so neat because as we hiked later in the day, Christian my 8 year old nephew was sweating and chanting quietly to himself, "If the pioneers can walk thousands of miles, I can climb this mountain..." over and over. It warmed my heart and gave me the encouragement to keep going too! This visit to the gardens was even better though because they recently put a huge collection of Angela Johnson's bronze statues of Christ on display. She is from Alpine and has never had any professional training which is absolutely remarkable. The statues are breath-taking. She has smaller depictions of Christ and events in his life and right now there is one massive statues of Christ walking on water. Apparently all the smaller statues will be recreated to life size like the one of Him walking on water. They will all be permanently placed inside Thanksgiving Point gardens. I cannot wait to go back and see them all in life size. They were absolutely incredible and it was a spiritual experience to walk around looking at them.

Marisa, Dustin & Lexi

View over the gardens

Can't go to the gardens without feeding the fish!

These fish are fascinatingly freaky!

I think one of my new fears might be falling into this fish pool. I have no doubt these giant feeding-frenzied fish would just start going at me. Piece by piece...with their giant sucking mouths... Anyway...

They had a ton of lilly pads on the lake. They were beautiful.

Look at that face-- London is just too cute.

My favorite statue-- Christ walking on water. Also my favorite story in the scriptures!

Lincoln checking out the statues. It was so cute to see all the kids staring at the statues of Christ and asking what the story was about.

From there we drove to the bottom of the Timpanogos cave where my dad had made reservations for us to hike up and tour the caves! I was so excited. I've never hiked Timp and I've never been in a cave anywhere. The hike was long and hot (high 90's)-- the kids were super troopers to go the whole way. I loved the hike. Yes, it was steep and uphill the whole way but there's something satisfying about getting the top. At the top we entered through a little door and were able to have a tour guide show us all the areas of the cave with different stalactites and stalagmites, stories about how the cave was discovered and the different formations that looked like animals. Inside it's cold, damp and I never realized how many different colors were in a cave's formations-- green, orange, purple, yellow. It really was very neat and I totally recommend it!

Hiking!

And they walked, and walked, and walked, and walked....

Almost to the top!

We made it!! Sweaty and all--we are proud! :)

After the hike we went back to my parents and starving... ravaged a whole lot of delicious food while sitting on the back porch chatting. Classic summertime evening. Afterwards we went out to the street and did our annual box fireworks. They are so lame and yet I am so fascinated with them. I love trying to get them lit before your eyebrows get singed off by the next one that's already started, I love racing away to turn around and watch the sparks, I love the ones that make your ears ring because they "crackle and pop" so loud, I LOVE the purple and gold shower ones (my favorite), I love setting up the finale and then singing "I'm Proud to be an American" (even though it was Pioneer day).... I love summertime and I love July!

And most of all, I sure love my family! It was so enjoyable spending a whole day with them-- all thanks to my dad! Happy 24th!

Seriously?

So I've been running 5 to 6 days a week for the last 3 weeks straight-- sometimes running morning and night. Over this time we've also gone on hikes, lifted weights, played tennis and rode our bikes in the effort to increase our activity level. To help on the nutritional end... I've cut processed foods almost entirely and primarily eaten whole foods. I'll admit I haven't been perfect because we've eaten out a few times. However, on the whole, I've made huge changes to our eating lifestyle. SO guess how much weight I've lost?? Go ahead, guess! Oh... 3 lbs. Three. Tres.

Seriously? I have been killing myself for three measly pounds? When I was working I worked out maybe twice a month and we ate out probably 4 times a week! Now we're eating out maybe 4 times a month and I'm running 4-7 miles a day. But how much less do I weigh? 3 pounds. 3 pounds??

How discouraging. With all the changes I've made, whether it be right or wrong, I had higher expectations. No, I didn't expect to lost 5 pounds a week or anything. I know it comes off slow-- but really? THAT slow? Perhaps my reality is jaded by my husband Michael, who can eat 5 Guys Burger & Fries for lunch and still drop weight the next morning. Oh, the injustice.

So anyway, needless to say it was hard for me to jump back on the pony this morning. I was so frustrated I just wanted to sit on my sofa and watch the Olympics all day. However, digging deep (very deep) I did go and do 4 miles this morning. Now I'm sweaty and tired and just thought I'd communicate my feelings to all you wonderful people. Does anyone else feel like shooting the scale themselves?? :)

This one below also made me smile.