Adventure is the name of the game

April is a happy month. My birthday is the third and Stephens is the 26th not to mention my brothers and niece and nephews too. This year Stephens birthday wish was to complete a bucket list item: to participate in a water ski race. His cousin competes at a professional level and his uncle Bud pulls him in the most beautiful sparkly purple boat. They do a lot of races, this year we decided to meet up with them at Lake Havasu in Arizona. There is a "beginners" race that Stephen entered. We decided to break up the 15 hour drive so first we drove to highland Utah and stayed with some friends who have twin girls that are just 3 weeks older than Bear and Charlee. It was fun to watch them discover each other and bonus they all slept great and didn't wake each other up! We had some good laughs catching up with Jake and Erin. Then in the morning we headed to see our favorite Jr. Murrays! (We are the Jr. Jr. Murrays) Nathan and Sherry, hazel and Claire, and James Quinn and Wilson. It was quite the house full! I wish we could have stayed longer at each stop. There just was never enough time! After our quick chat with them we headed to st George and had lunch with my favorite aunt! She loves my little family so much and I'm so grateful for her. Onward we trekked to boulder city (just past Vegas) to see Stephens Grandma and her husband Chuck. They were thrilled to finally get to meet our lil babes. Grandma Katy will be 82 this year so it's always special when we get to see her. This last part of the journey was probably the hardest. It was 530pm we had been on the road since 10am and we had 2 hours till our destination. The babies slept for about half an hour then we were ALL ready to be out of the car. I entertained and fed them rice cereal for the next half hour and they cried for the last hour. They were champs the entire way so we can't complain. I just felt bad:( the next morning was race day! Stephen finally felt a his nerves. He had been so worried and focused on getting the babies TO Havasu he wasn't thinking much about what he would do when we got there.. The boys left for the lake around 7am and Grammy Pammy helped me get the kids ready and we headed down at 9. I don't really know what I was expecting, maybe I was like Stephen in just hoping to actually make it to Arizona! This was an amateur race but it sure didn't look it. All the skiers were in full crash attire, wet suit vest helmet neck brace... Intense right? And there were 8 skiers in Stephens race. They all looked way too close together. And next thing you know the boat hits the gas and off they go! Stephen popped right up! The thing with them punching the gas is that it creates a wave that Stephen wasn't quite used to. They prepared him for it but with all the adrenaline I guess he wasn't thinking and he locked his knees and tumbled over this wave:( no big deal! He can try again! I have never seen a boat whip around so fast! By this time the other skiers are coming around for a Lap and its looking like my husband will surely be run over! (He wasn't but they were too close for my liking and going 60 mph) uncle Bud takes off right as another boats wave hits Stephen and the pull was too much for that poor little ski rope and it snapped:( Race over, husband sad. Such a bummer. He wasn't the only one, out of 8 racers only 5 finished the race. But the thing about having your family name so famous among the ski racing population, you have a certain reputation to uphold. So even though there were 3 skiers who didn't get up, Stephen MURRAY was the only name announced over the loud speaker. Ouch. So not only was he feeling bad for not getting to race but now he has tarnished the family name. Hahaha so sad. There was another race the next day so that afternoon they went out to practice more and he broke another rope. It was just not meant to be folks. We still had fun, or I guess I did. Babies didn't care much for sun sand or water (WHAT? Who's kids are you?) but they napped and we took them back to the hotel when it got hot but the weather was actually beautiful. I think it only got up to like 91. That night we got the babes to bed and Grammy offered to babysit so we could go to dinner. It was lovely. Quick trip, we were back on the road in the morning and babies slept for 4 hours, we stopped in st. G again to see my aunt uncle and cousins. Then we stayed at my sisters house in Lindon and she made us a yummy dinner and we stayed up till 4am chatting. Sister stuff. We got to have lunch the next day with one of the greatest girls I know miss Lauren Browne Mair and she was excited to see us. I always wish I had more time with her. Just one last stop at my grandparents house so they could get some sweet baby snuggles then home again home again jiggity jig. It was so wonderful to see so many people and get to share our sweet babies. Plus all that time in the car to talk and laugh and bond with my sweetheart. Nothing beats that. I'm so grateful for him and his crazy ideas and adventures. How boring life would be if he did the same old thing day after day. He is always wanting to try things and learn things and better himself. He is such a great example of someone who lives life to its fullest. Thanks for bringing us along, love you Stephen Murray.