Back to School

We did our annual back to school shopping trip with Grandma and Blair to Salt Lake and Park City.  It was lots of fun!  Even Cole likes to try on new clothes and shop.  Brooke is very picky and takes a long time to try everything on.  Bailee just likes anything you show her!

Mom went back to work part-time this year as a Speech Technician at Canyon Elementary so she started a little earlier than the kids with new teacher training.  Brooke is in 3rd grade with Mrs.  Romrell, Cole is in 1st grade with Mrs. Stringham, and Bailee will be starting the Child Development Lab at USU in a couple weeks.

We are sad to see summer end, but excited for our next year of learning and adventures!

Activity Days Camp

I was lucky enough to have the calling of Activity Day Leader so I got to attend all the summer activity days with Brooke.  Our big activity was at Camp Fife in July.  The girls got to try shooting guns, bmx biking, zip lining, rock climbing, and lots of fun things.  It was fun to be there and watch Brooke with her friends.  She was pretty nervous about the zip line, but loved it in the end.  

We also had a mother-daughter luau in August that we were able to attend together.  We had a nice dinner and the mom's filled out questionnaires and the girls had to guess who was their mom.  It took Brooke a few questions before she figured out it was me.  She sure is growing up!

Family

Morgan Valley Marathon

When I signed up to run this race, it was going to just be a training run for St. George with Meridith.  Then I looked up times from past years and realized there was a chance I could win it, so I knew I had to try.  Kelsey ran 20 miles with me a few weeks ago and has been wanting to do a marathon for a few months, so I talked her into running it at the last minute.  We were able to stay at Kelly and Shelly's the night before and it was nice to be so close!  The race starts at 5:30 before it gets too hot, so we had to be there early!

Our goal was to run 3:20, about 7:40/mile.  We started out right at the front and there was one girl in front of us.  We knew if we could just keep her in sight that there was a good chance we could pass her at the end.  For the first 13 miles we averaged 7:14.  We came across the half in just under 1:35 and at this point I was thinking if we could maintain pace we were going to beat my PR!  At mile 14 the girl in the lead started to really speed up and get ahead of us.  At this point we slowed down to about 7:30/mile.  The last half of the course was harder and we knew that, but figured we'd still be ok to slow down a little.

Miles 14-18 we averaged 7:36, but it all went south from there.  At about mile 18 Kelsey was getting tired.  Her body isn't used to running that many miles all at once.  About this same time my left side started cramping and tightening.  From my butt all the way down into my foot was just killing.  I just kept breathing through it, but I was hurting.  By the time we hit the last 10K, we had slowed significantly.  We were both pretty miserable and had to keep stopping to stretch.  We caught up with the half runners at about mile 23.  It was encouraging to pass people and to have more volunteers cheering for us.  We were just trying to hold on now.  When we hit .25 to go I knew my family would be at the finish and found a little left in the tank to speed up.  I came across the finish in 3:22:24 and Kelsey was 3:22:30.  We did it!

I was 2nd place female overall and Kelsey was 3rd.  Not bad considering Miles 18-26 we averaged 8:29.  The top female came in 3:10.  She must have been holding back the first half and just took off after we lost sight of her!

Today (the day after) my left foot is pretty swollen and sore.  My peroneal tendon is not happy.  I hope a couple days of ice and rest and it will heal.  Kelsey's right side is tight and sore, but overall we are both happy!  So glad we got to do it together.

Meridith came with us too and came in 3rd in her age division with 4:08.  She actually liked the 2nd half better because it was more flat, but Kelsey and I liked the rolling hills the first half.  It is not the downhill courses we are used to in Utah, but I thought it was fun for a change.  I am excited for St. George!

Cache Cup

Brookelyn decided to try out for a competitive soccer team with her friends this year.  Their first tournament was this week.  Somehow, they ended up in the highest division, so they got killed -- every. single. game.  BUT--- it has been so fun to watch them come together as a team and learn and develop.  You can really see their training paying off and I have no doubt by the end of the year they will be a lot better.  They had a lot of fun together and it is fun to see them all play and get along!

4th of July

This is one of my favorite holidays of the year!  Family, food, and running are my kind of holiday!  We had a fireworks party at Kelsey's on the 3rd and then the kids got to sleep over at grandma's.

The morning of the 4th Matt and I ran the Freedom Run with Catherine.  This is a 15K (9.3 mile) race that runs down Blacksmith Fork Canyon and into Hyrum.  It was so much fun!!  One of my favorite races to date.

I was super surprised to find out I was the 2nd female overall with a time of 1:03.  I knew I was close to the front, but I was thinking I was in 4th or 5th.  My goal was to run it in 65 minutes and I ran the first couple miles with my friend Stephanie but I was feeling good so I sped up and she slowed down.  I chatted with a few running friends along the way but once I hit the hill in Hyrum at mile 7 I was all business.  As I came to the top of the hill I could see my friend Travis up ahead and I knew if I could just catch him he would keep me going until the end.  I passed one girl at mile 8 while I was trying to catch him.  I finally caught up with about a mile to go and Travis was trying to talk to me, but I was focused.  He asked me a couple questions but when I gave him totally wrong answers he knew I didn't want to talk.  (in my defense I thought I was answering right -- I was just totally tuned out)  Anyway... he was kind and let me cross the finish line first and I was thrilled when I found out the results!  After I finished I waited at the finish line for Matt and Catherine and cheered for lots of friends coming in.  I love my running family!

Matt and Catherine finished in 1:25 and 1:31.  Neither of them had really trained.  Matt said his toes started hurting at mile 4 and he walked up the hill.  He still finished faster than I thought he would for not training, but he still said running is just not fun.

After the race we came home and showered and I left to go meet Kelsey, Annie, and the kids for the Hyrum Parade while Matt took a nap.  This is the first year we have been to the parade and we really enjoyed it!  We came home and had a quick nap and then headed out to my parents for our water party.

Annie rented a water bounce house and a regular bounce house this year so the kids had a blast swimming and jumping.  Nanny Peg was bound and determined that she was going down the slide and it was pretty scary to see her climb up there.  We all thought for sure she'd break another bone!  Luckily Blair followed her and helped her up.

We ended the night with dinner, a pinata, and a few fireworks before it got too windy.  Sure love our family!!

Boating

We were able to go boating with the Anderson's while Carrie and her kids were here visiting.  The kids all had a blast!  Cole didn't want to go on the tube, but he did like jumping in and swimming.  The girls are dare devils and thought the tube was awesome.  Bailee was standing up and jumping and kept asking to go faster.  Brooke wanted to be knocked off.  They even managed to get me on a couple times -- and off, I might add.  The first time Matt and Brooke held my hands so I couldn't hold on and would have to fall off.  It was a super fun day!

Ragnar

I was so sad last year when I couldn't run Ragnar.  I was excited for this year!  I love spending time with these people who have become such dear friends.  Jane had a baby this year so she wasn't able to run, but Glynn took her place and was a great addition to the van.  It was quite the adventure!

We were van 1 this year and I was runner 2.  When we exchanged at Mountain Crest and went to get in the van it was dead!  We found someone to jump us and were on our way again.  Well, by the time we got to Paradise it was acting funny.  We ended up turning into a driveway and it just flat out died!  We were a little panicked because Michael was running and we didn't know how we were going to get to the next exchange.  Glynn just took off running and went to catch up with Michael and said to pick him after the next leg.  We ended up flagging down another van for Mickel and just asked if they could get her to the next exchange.  That left Tyler, Cyrus and me.

We were able to find the people who owned the driveway were we stuck in and they were super nice.  The wife went and got her neighbor who was a mechanic and he looked at the van.  He was pretty sure it was the alternator or the battery or both -- and we weren't going anywhere anytime soon.  We called a tow truck and Boo and settled in.  We were very lucky that Boo happened to be headed to Bear Lake with a friend and was able to bring us another van!

The 3 of us hung out in the driveway -- with all our stuff -- for close to 5 hours!  In that time, only 1 other van stopped to see if we needed help!  Crazy!  The people who lived there were very nice to come out and check on us frequently and couldn't have been more accommodating.

Once we got a new van, we were able to meet up with the rest of our team who had managed to all make it to the major exchange in Liberty.  We picked them up and were on our way again.

My first leg along Hollow Road was incredibly hot and tiring.  Average pace was 7:57.   I think of the 5 years we have run this one was the hottest.  My next leg was in the middle of the night and was about 8 miles up into east canyon reservoir.  I was super stressed about this because I knew it was a lot of uphill.  I told my team to fully plan on me walking.  Well, apparently running uphill in the middle of the night is a good thing.  I ended up with an average time of just under 8:00 per mile on a tough run.  I was super happy!  My last leg was Saturday mid-morning and only 3 miles.  I thought it was going to be great, but I wasn't expecting it to be as uphill as it was.  My legs were toast and I was so grateful it was short.  My average time for that one was 7:32.

We made it to Park City around 11 and handed off to the other van.  Team ended up decided to take Glynn and I to ride the train home instead of waiting at the finish all day so I could make it for dinner at the campout.  Totally made the whole weekend worth it!  I was pretty bummed that they changed the days of the Jardine campout to the one weekend all summer I was going to be gone!

I got home, hurried and showered and rushed up to Franklin Basin.  Dumb me, I assumed they'd be the same place they are every year.  After 2 hours of driving up and down and searching, I finally decided to drive to the summit and try to call someone to see where they were.  Kelsey didn't know and everyone else I tried was already at the campout!  I finally ended up calling Kortni in Colorado and she didn't know where they were, but her parents were home!  I called Rog and found out they were back in behind another group of campers.  I had walked into the campers camp when I was looked and couldn't see any horses so I figured it wasn't them.  Ha!  Next time I'll be sure I know where they are BEFORE I go!

Sure feel blessed to have such good friends, awesome family, and a healthy body!!