Tooth Fairy stops by

So Maddie lost her first tooth! She is only four, so I figured she still had a couple of years. It is early for her to start losing her teeth, but the dentist said that it was fine. Maddie was worried when I told her that all of her baby teeth fall out, because she thought that they would all fall out at the same time. She was excited though for the tooth fairy to come, however, she was a little dissapointed because my brother told her that the tooth fairy leaves $5. My mother told her that she leaves $20. I told her that she needs to be happy with $1.

Finally!

It doesn't feel like summer to me until I go boating, and we finally got to go! My uncle Tyler invited us to go out on his boat and we had a blast! Tony and I both went wake boarding, Tony tried surfing. The highlight of the day was tubing! Heather, my aunt Lisa, Lisa's friend, and I went first. It was so much fun! Thanks guys for making my summer happen!!

Here we are trying to do the pyramid. We were trying to do it backwards! We realized too late that we should have had to people on bottom and one person standing on our backs!! DUH!

Swim Lessons

Maddie did so good this year in her swim class. She loves the water, but has always been too scared to go under water. This year her teachers were amazing. They taught her to feel more comfortable in the water. She has so much fun jumping off of the diving board. She tells me "Just watch, but don't help me. I can do it!"

During her swim lessons, Sophie and I would sit on the lawn chairs and watch sister do her thang!

Red Cliffs

The other day we decided to go to Red Cliffs. The weather was perfect. We brought some food and had a barbecue then went on a hike. Maddie was amazing and never complained. She would point out bugs and lizards, and we would try to distract her with other things like different trees or rocks. But she would spot the smallest bug and avoid it at all cost. Sophie was a good sport too, even though she had to spend the entire time strapped to Tony's back.
We didn't have a camera, so we had to take these pictures with my phone.

Happy 4th of July!

To celebrate our Independence we traveled "all" the way to St. George! We went with our friends and stayed at the Green Valley Resort and Spa. We had so much fun! The condo that we stayed in was amazing. We relaxed, went swimming, played the Wii, and ate! What more could you ask for?!


Cute Kids!

The resort offered a kids night where they teach the kids tennis then have pizza and watch a movie. I know Maddie had a blast! I wondered how she was going to act being the only girl with three boys, but they all got along perfectly. Kason, Dallin, and A.J. were perfect gentleman always looking out for her! I loved it! I know that Maddie soaked it all up and liked her only girl status!

Kristen took this picture of Sophie, and I think that it is so cute!

One night we did fondue. Of course, everything is good dipped in chocolate!
Fondue recipe
3-3oz. squares of Toblerone chocolate
1/2 c heavy cream
Stir over low heat.


We decided to pass on the fireworks, so we just lit sparklers on the back patio.


Dallin, Kason, Kristen, Jason, and AJ


I love this picture of AJ!


We had such a good time with our friends and it was nice to get out of town for the weekend! I am glad that we have such good friends to make fun memories with, and put up with me even when I'm in a foul mood!! :)

Triathlon Day

My triathlon race was on Saturday and I had so much fun. I did it with my friend Rachel and my aunt Amber. This was my first triathlon and I wanted to do it in under 2 hours. My final race time was one hour and fifty minutes. I am a little disappointed in my transition times (the time between swimming and biking, and then biking and running) I took way too long during that time and it really brought my final time up. But for my first race I guess I shouldn't get too down.
Tony and the girls were there cheering me on. Jared and Heather came during the swim. I was so grateful for all their support and cheers!

The swim was the first leg. I was a little worried because I have only been training in a swimming pool, and it is totally different in open water. You can't see because it is lake water, so I got kicked a lot, and people swim into you because there is no lanes! The swimming was 750 meters and I swam that in 29 minutes. I was pretty proud of myself! I just learned how to swim at the SUU pool 3 weeks ago, and I was incredibly nervous.



This is the transition point. I am taking off my wet suit and getting ready to bike. Amber is on the left she has her helmet on.

The second leg of the race was the bike. It was 13 miles and my time on that was 43 minutes.

Finally the 5K. My legs felt like rubber, and it was hard to transition from biking to running. I felt like I was running in slow motion. It was like my legs wouldn't move. I ran it in 25 minutes

"We did it!" Me, and Rachel, and Amber after the race! You girls rock, and I am glad that we did it together!

Benson Family Reunion

This last weekend we went to my family reunion. My parents were in charge of it this year, and they decided to do a "Survivor" theme reunion. It was amazing! The first night we had a "luau" in my parents backyard. We broke up into "tribes," and had our first challenge where we had to come up with a name for our tribe and make a flag to represent us. Our tribe won with the best flag! During this challenge my mom got Polynesian dancers to entertain us! My favorite was the "fire dancers!"

The second day we went up Provo canyon, and continued to dominate in the challenges! :) I don't have pictures of everything that my parents did for these challenges, but it was incredible. First, they had huge puzzle pieces that my dad had cut out of plywood. These were scattered around the Provo river trail and we had to gather all of them by using clues that my mom had made. Once we gathered all the bundles of pieces the kids had to put the 4 foot x 4 foot puzzle together. The other challenge was just as amazing, but hard to describe, I really should have gotten more pictures! Basically it was a memory game using tiles, and one person had to ride their bike 3 miles round trip to a legend that had 16 different tiles, memorize it, then put it together on a wooden frame. My uncle Mark is an animal, and totally won this challenge for us! Mark, you are our hero!
That night we went to Rock canyon and my parents had set up this huge slip n' slide. It was a blast! Unfortunately, there was a few injuries, but it is bound to happen when you have a 100 ft slip n' slide!

Tony and Sophie

My dad, Tony, and my brother Jared

I love Maddie's' face in this picture of her and my dad going down the slide!

Me, my mom, and Heather getting ready to go down the slide


This picture of us girls at the bottom of the hill makes me laugh!

Madilynn with some of our cousins.

It was a wonderful weekend, and I am so grateful for my parents and all the work they put into it. We will never forget the memories that we made. We love you!

Sophie is doing a new trick that she learned!