Saturday with lots of STEPS!!!

Our Saturday morning started with walking lots of steps from our parking spot at the Salt Palace in Salt Lake to the area where the Gigi Cross Fit event was being held.  From 9:30-10:30, Jena and a group of people with Down syndrome exercised together doing different types of exercises.  It was part of a huge event called FITCON.

Jena and Emily

 And it turned out that Scott and Chantel wanted us to watch Scarlett in the morning because they wanted to attend this same event.  They got there at 10:30 and were able to take our parking spot when we left with Scarlett so that was a great plan.

On the way home it was so beautiful that I decided we needed to do some more walking and exercising so we headed to the North Shore Bird Preserve in west Layton.  Jena's friend, Emily who also had done the exercise with us lives close by there so we called her mom on the way to the preserve and they came and dropped off Emily to walk with us.  It was a fun morning walk and Scarlett walked about 3/4 of the over a mile walk which I thought was great.  She also did a great job spying birds in the sky or the bushes.

At the start....still snow on the mountains to the east.

And off Scarlett goes.....she loved walking on the boardwalk and hearing the sounds of her shoes on the wood.

Checking for fish or tadpoles in the marshes but no luck

Wasatch mountains to the east.

 The view from the back of our group...

Emily and Jena
Good sports to go for a walk after an
hour of exercising!!

They had built an overlook and Scarlett and I went to the top.  Jena is not a fan of open stairways so she didn't climb to the top.  Emily didn't the first time but when Scarlett and I came down, she decided she wanted to go up so the three of us went up together.

 We sat on the edge of some stairs and watched two little ducks swimming around in the pond.  They were fun to watch.  Scarlett couldn't see one of them and said, "Where is his brother?" and was delighted when the second duck returned to view.  It makes sense that she decided the ducks were brothers, because after all she had a brother, too.

We decided that we need to go back at the end of May.  Things were still very brown although you could see bits of green here and there.  We did see and hear lots of birds so that was fun.  Stay tuned for green pictures in the future.  Scarlett wants to bring James in a stroller next time.

Then we dropped off Emily at her house and Scarlett with her grandmother Berenyi and Jena and I headed down to usher at Centerpoint for the matinee of Oliver!.  We are now going to do the matinees as that will fit better into our schedule.

AND THAT WAS A LOT OF WALKING AND STANDING FOR ONE DAY!!! ESPECIALLY FOR JENA!  Good job, Jena.

PS:  As part of the fitness event, Jena has taken part in a fitness program for the past five weeks, including wearing a fitbit and tracking her food choices.  She lost one lbs, but two inches off her waist and hips because of her walking regularly.

PSS And I spent the rest of the day/evening sitting at my computer and finishing my second to last assignment for this semester--a 14 page paper.  Whew--I was happy to click submit last night about 10 p.m. on that one.  I really love school and I am going to miss it so much but it has been hard to keep motivated these last few weeks with so many other things going on in life.

PSSS:  I mean I like school so much that the idea of getting a PhD in social work so that I could teach college came into my mind briefly the other day until I reminded myself that I am almost 62 years old and that will simply be crazy....I mean more crazy than getting another masters degree was!!!