TOU Half

I ran the Top of Utah Half Marathon with my friend Ann on August 27th. I was really worried that I wasn't going to be able to keep up with her because she is training for the St. George Marathon and is an awesome runner. I'm running on average about an 8:20 pace, so my goal was to be under 8:30 and beat my last half marathon time of 1:55. Well... I kicked butt!! I finished in 1:43:08.  13.1 miles friends. Thats an average pace of about 7:50. I was thrilled to say the least. I was a little tired the last two miles, but overall it was an awesome race and awesome to see my bestest friend from forever, who I don't see nearly enough.  By the way, I lost Ann in the bathrooms at mile 3 and she ended up finishing about 3 minutes behind me, hence the reason I am by myself. 

Can't wait for next year! But next up... Ogden Marathon in May... we are going to try to qualify for Boston in 2013! Wish me luck!

P.S. These are pictures from the website so they have the name all over them but they are half decent otherwise and they are all I have :)

Crafts

My little sister left in August to be a nanny in California.  All of her bedroom decor was outdated and filled with memories from her high school years.  We spent the week before she left updating everything so she could actually have a cute room in Cali.  Way too many late nights, but so much fun!  I swear that there was more than this, but apparently I failed to take pictures.  Love that my sis is one of my best friends.  Miss her!

Hogle Zoo

Matt and I took the kids to Hogle Zoo over the 24th of July.  The last time we went they were really little and mostly just scared.  This time they loved it.  Their favorite was the giraffe's we spent a long time looking at them.  Brooke had been saying all summer that she wanted to get a pet giraffe to keep in Grandpa's pasture, but I don't think she knew how big they really were until she saw them.  Cole was scared of all the dinosaurs but fine as long as nothing got too close.  Even Bailee was mesmerised by everything.  Next year I plan on getting a membership since we'll be so close.

Lagoon

Annie, Nate, Kels, Chris, Bla, and I took the kids to Lagoon in July.  We spent the first half of the day at the beach (with Mama Shawnie) and then went to ride rides.  The power went out for about an hour... ugh it was a pain, but we had fun overall.  Brooke is ALMOST tall enough to ride the big rides and wanted so bad to go on the big rollercoasters.  I'm sure she'll be able to next year.  Cole on the other hand is scared to death!  He only like nice, gentle rides.  That is exactly how Brody and I were as kids.  Funny.

not so sure...

LOVED the swing

Best buddies at the pool... you'd never know Bentlee is a whole year older.

They spent hours on this slide

Not quite as brave as the girls, but content as long as Chris is there to catch him

Choo Choo train

Mama Shawnie stayed at the pool with Bailee while we rode the water rides.  We came back to find her zonked.  She stayed asleep for a couple hours under this chair.

Bentlee Brooke

Cole Matthew

Grumpy Brookelyn Rae

Kelsey and Chris

Nate and Annie

LOVE THIS!!  Kels is the best.

Blair and Bailee

She found some nerds the big kids spilled...

and shoveld them in as fast as she could :)

SO tired!  Zonked out while we were waiting for the power to come back on.