Top of Utah Marathon

Last Saturday (Sept. 18) my friend Elizabeth and I ran the Top of Utah Marathon (26.2 miles). Here we are coming into the finish after 4 hours and 55 minutes. You can tell that we aren't tired at all :). Our running time was actually around 4:38, which was right around our goal time, but we ended up having to spend more time in line for porta potties than we had anticipated. All in all I was glad that we finished in under 5 hours, and by the 22-23 mile I just wanted to be done so bad that I didn't care what time we finished as long as it was over.

Right after the race-holding my medal. I decided that the medal is not enough compensation.

And the sweaty friends! So glad Elizabeth was there running beside me the whole way! I am SO glad I didn't try to run it on my own.

Toward the end of the race I just kept thinking about how much I wanted to see my family. I saw someone that I thought was Chris holding Isaac a little ways before the end and was so excited, but then realized it wasn't him. It made it even better when I did see them! After the race the runners come out in the "runners coral" where families aren't allowed, so I talked to them through the fence and shared my ice cream sandwiches.

I really really love this guy! I can't tell you how much it means to know that he is always there to support me, even when I decide to do crazy things like run a marathon. I don't know what I would do without him.

And he must really love me-because he hugs me even when I am sweaty and gross!

Not long after we stopped running I started feeling pretty terrible, especially when I was standing in the hot sun. I was really light headed and nauseous and would have to sit in the shade for quite a while before I started feeling better. Then I would get up and think I was fine for a while, just to realize that I wasn't. This face is a really good indicator of how awful I felt!

The nice thing was that the park where the race ended was mostly nice and shady and had this fun little creek for the boys to play in, so I just sat down in the shade for quite a while and recuperated while William and Sebastian ran around and had a great time.

I love their cute rolled up pant legs!

Isaac had fallen fast asleep with his mouth open in the stroller and slept the whole time we were just sitting around trying to recover.

I decided that for me, running a marathon was a lot like childbirth. I did my best to prepare, but didn't really know what to expect. For the first quite a while it was exciting and fun because you know you are doing something really cool. Toward the end it gets really really hard, and you really just want it to be over. And then it suddenly IS over, but the difference is that in childbirth you have this beautiful little baby that totally compensates for all the pain you just went through. When you are finished running a marathon--it is just over. Afterwards with both you feel somewhat miserable, except with a marathon you don't have this sweet little baby who is dependent on you for everything and makes cute sleeping noises. You just have a medal and the knowledge that you did something really hard.

All in all I was glad I did it and I don't regret it at all, but I seriously doubt I will ever do it again!

Hail the Conquering Hero!

Tim's Home!!

Here are some of us waiting Monday evening for his plane to arrive. His plane was scheduled to come in at 5:45, and my dad had checked that it had left on time. We were of course trying to get the last bit ready at home and hadn't left yet at 5:00 when we got a call from Lyndon and Bonnie at the airport saying his plane was now coming in at 5:21. My parents jumped in their car and went, and Chris and I grabbed the kids as fast as we could. We arrived at the airport at about 5:23 and ran inside to find that the plane was now scheduled to come in at 5:47, and actually didn't come until about 5:50. It was pretty funny, and we were all relieved that we hadn't been late. :)

My cute little sister and my baby.

William had heard us saying that we had to grab our cameras and so he insisted that he had to bring his camera too. It's a good thing it was already in the car, because there's no way I would have taken time to find it, and we probably would have had a very mad 2 year old on our hands.

Here he comes!

Of course Mom gets the first hug :)

With Dad

Who are you?!!!!

Meeting Isaac for the first time

Lyndon and Bonnie-Our wonderful adopted grandparents

The Adams

Travis and Zach Grant

Matching Scottish plaid ties. That's for you uncle Aaron!

It's so fun to have Tim home, even though it adds to the already considerable chaos at this house! And of course my kids already love him!

One Year Old!

My sweet little boy is a year old today!
I love this kid so much I can't even stand it sometimes.


Some things about our chubby baby:

-He has the squishiest most delicious legs you've ever seen

-He can give the cheesiest grins and the most melodramatic cries

-He loves to give hugs and snuggles (not terribly long ones, but they are sweet all the same)

-He crawls all over the place, gets into everything, and stands up on anything that is above ground level

-He has an amazing amount of hair! (I always assumed all my children would be bald forever)

-He is very even tempered and good natured

-He LOVES bananas

-He adores his older brother

-His belly laughing gives him the hiccups


Happy Birthday Little Man!

Teton Dam Half Marathon

June 12, 2010
Finishing Time: 2:08:38

I've been training to run this race for the last 10 weeks and despite extreme nerves it turned out to be a really great experience! I tried to convince myself that I would be happy if I just finished, but I was hoping deep down to finish in under 2 1/2 hours. And even DEEPER down I was hoping to run it at a ten minute mile pace which would have put me finishing in 2 hours 11 minutes. However, since the course is very hilly and I hadn't trained a whole lot of hills, I was trying not to get my hopes up.

However, the hills didn't turn out to be that bad, and since I had really tried to hold back for the first couple of miles it was fun to pass a bunch of people later on. I did have a bad case of the nerves right before I started and suddenly felt the need to use the rest room. However, I didn't have time, so I ended up stopping to go around the 7 mile point. Luckily there was only one person in front of me, so it wasn't very long. And even then, I still beat my goal time!

I was really glad to run into a girl that I knew just before it started because I was so nervous, and there all by myself and it was fun to get to run the first part of the race with her, and also to see some other people that I knew. And I was VERY glad to see my darling husband, my kids, and my dad there to cheer me on at the finish!

Next stop: Top of Utah Marathon (maybe...) ha ha!!

Two Kids Later...

And we finally decided to Tie the Knot!






Just Kidding.







But we did get some wedding pictures taken.





Random, I know.



It's like this...

Our friends from our old ward the Rognons (check them out!) were looking to try some new ideas with their wedding photography, and we thought that since we really didn't love the pictures that we had from our actual wedding (which happened before the 2 kids, just for the record), and because it's fun to dress up and get your picture taken every once in a while...well, why not?

So I pulled my wedding dress (which I hadn't seen since the day of our wedding) out of storage, washed it and pressed it, and Mary hooked Chris up with a tux (complete with a huge hole in the shin) from the ballroom costume closet.

Seeing my wedding dress again seemed to trigger some kind of anxiety attack linked to my actual wedding (not the getting married to Chris part, just the stress of the whole event) and I almost canceled the whole thing, but after a sketchy nights sleep I decided to go through with it anyway. Getting ready that afternoon was pretty crazy (the 2 kids thing really throws in a twist!) and we wondered what we had gotten ourselves into. But finally we dropped the kids off with Chris's mom, drove to the temple...

And we had a TON of fun!!

I think the best part was when the High Priest Group Leader from our ward and his wife walked up to go to the temple and saw us. They must have been so confused!

Thanks Rognons! If only we had had you to begin with!

Fun Stuff

Here's some fun/random/new things that we have been up to lately.

Chris started school again this week. Here he is bright and early Monday morning getting ready to make the trek to Pocatello for Anatomy and Physiology. He has decided to start doing the prerequisites he needs for Physical/Occupational Therapy . It's kind of cool because his Anat and Phys Lab teacher is going into that program, so he was able to give Chris some more information and some pointers. Isn't he so cute?!!

We bought a bike trailer so we can take the kids on bike rides. I haven't been able to ride my bike since the first summer we were married because I've either been pregnant or had a kid I couldn't take with me so I was really excited about this. Unfortunately the weather has been...well, lets just say we've only been out in it a few times, but the kids sure have a lot of fun! I think it will be great once the weather decides to become nice for real.

Last weekend my friend Kristel and I ran a 5K. It was a lot of fun and we shaved 6 minutes off our previous running time!

This picture just makes me laugh every time I look at it! If you can't tell, William is hiding in the closet with a bag of frosted animal cookies. Sneaky little bugger!

A couple of weekends ago my little sister Mary went to her first dance. It was a masquerade ball--hence the mask (which my mom made). She had a friend who was going to do her hair, but it didn't work out so I ended up doing it. I was rather proud. I thought it turned out quite well. Doesn't she look pretty?

And here's a random cute one of the kids playing together while we were getting ready for a (very chilly) bike ride.

And last, but definitely not least, a video of our cute squishy baby!

Singing

William loves to sing. Lately he has been using the antenna on the cd player as a microphone. I have no idea how he even knows what a microphone is, but he does. :) Here he is singing one of his favorite songs, "I'm so glad when Daddy comes home." Sorry about the terrible quality. We are not happy with this camera, to say the least. :(