I. LOVE. THIS.

UEA/Fall Break

This year we got to spend our fall break with cousins at their condo in Park City. This was really fun for the kids because it seems like all we do on the weekends these days is drive back and forth between our two homes, so it was great to break from the monotony and head somewhere fun!

The White Barn Scarecrow walk.  The kids loved this.  In fact, I’ve decided that if I make it back to M.G. by next October, I’m starting one in the Cottonwoods.  We have the perfect fence & walking path for it!

Swimming at the Condo.  Yes this pool is outside.  Brrrrrr……

Twin baby track suits.  Janna & I had packed the same sweat suit for our little ladies. We thought it was so cute- but they refused to sit still for a picture- even after we gave them suckers!

The playground at the condo

Shopping on Main Street

A beautiful morning run on the mid-mountain trail

A tree that insisted on being climbed……

and played in

A picnic at the beautiful (& really fabulous!) trailside park

And last but not least- a fabulous fall family portrait.  (or as fabulous as you can get when you take it spur-of-the-moment with your own camera, with tired kids, when you have missed your “window” of sunlight.  Oh well…..)

Thank you Bailey family for a great weekend!!!!

Last Weekend

Last weekend………OH, where do I begin?  It was Seth’s birthday, and he had planned long ago to spend it doing his favorite thing- Mountain Biking in Moab with his friends.  I teased him for awhile about who he was inviting to his “birthday party”- as though he were eight years old and sending out invitations with an r.s.v.p.  But truly- he was as excited as an eight year old!

So, about 7 of his buddies came down for their bike-love fest, and I received the pleasure of 1 biking wife coming to stay the weekend with us rejects here in Price, complete with a couple of kids in tow!  Made our day!

But, first- back to the biking adventure.  Here are some pics.

Blair, Trevin, Rich, Seth

Um, Nate, I believe?

Blair, Jason, Rich.  Riding “The Whole Enchilada”.  Only, it turned out to be about 3/4 of an Enchilada because the top was closed due to early season snow.

Not sure what’s going on here.  Rich crashed???  I really should let Seth tell his own stories I guess.

A Better picture of Rich :)

Seth’s self portrait.  Oh dear……

 

Anywho- as I said before, while the boys were off playing, I got the privilege of having the rest of the Whitemyer clan come stay with us for the weekend.  Yipee!

I love having visitors!  It makes me so happy.  I was really excited to entertain them and take them out to see fun things around the area, but Amberlee took one look at me, and one look at all the kids who were happily jumping off the walls and said “Do they look like they need entertaining?  C’mon, lets scrapbook!”  OH- what sexy words!  Now I was really excited.  So, basically we spent the weekend lounging around crafting and whoopin out scrapbook pages while the kids jumped on the tramp, played wii, had wiggle car races down the driveway, and otherwise made gloriously huge messes.  Did I mention it was really, really great?

One ginormous downer I must mention:  Saturday morning I had to take the kids to a soccer tournament down at the elementary school.  Amberlee & the kids were happy to tag along and come watch, so we all took picnic blankets and sat on the grass watching the games.  Kenni came running over to me crying, saying she got hit in the head with the ball and it hurt so bad.  I assumed she was overreacting (a common occurrence) and sent her back out onto the field. As we were driving home, she started complaining again that her head hurt really bad.  We had decided to stop at a local pumpkin patch and let the kids choose pumpkins, so as we were walking around looking for just the right ones, Kenni started barfing all over the place.  Amberlee took one look at her and said “Uh oh- I think she has a concussion!”  I had absolutely NO experience with concussions, but I knew enough to know that throwing up is not a good sign.  We took her home and had her lay down.  She seemed to feel better, but a few hours later she started puking again.  I had just decided to take her to the emergency room when Seth called me.  Luckily, he was riding with a few doctors and a few doctor wanna-be’s. One doc said he had just experienced this same thing with one of his children and he walked me through a list of things to check/look for.  After confirming that she passed his “checklist”, he said it was fine to keep her home.  He said the E.R. doesn’t really do anything for a concussion unless you request a C.T. scan, which would probably be normal and would cost a fortune.  Anywho- that whole situation was a huge bummer- both because Kenni was in a lot of pain and I was so worried about her all day!

These are some of the great pumpkins we picked up from our neighbor’s patch.  They are absolutely the kindest people.  Every year, they donate pumpkins to the ward, to the elementary school, and whatever they have left they sell at their patch and all of the proceeds go to raise money for the Angel Tree’s for Christmas.  It was great to pick up some fun pumpkins and donate to charity at the same time!

After the boys got home from their biking adventure, we had a nice big family dinner & dessert for Seth’s birthday before sending off the Whitemyers.

I made Seth apple dumplings for his birthday.  He doesn’t like Chocolate and he doesn’t much like cake- so we always have to improvise. I lost my number “6”, candle, so all he has is a “3”.  But for the record- he is now 3-6. (Although he thinks he is 21).

Well, it was a great weekend, and we were sad to see the Whitemyers go.  Now, who is going to come visit me next??????

A Frightmares Birthday

My little Noodle absolutely adores Lagoon!  We went there once this summer for stake lagoon day and he has been begging ever since to go back again.  Somehow he got the wild idea to have his birthday party at Lagoon, and I couldn’t seem to dislodge it from his head.

I was highly concerned about this because I didn’t want to let him down, but I knew there was no way I could afford to take his friends to Lagoon!  My friend Michelle offered a fabulous solution.  Their family all has season passes, and her son is Noodle’s besty, so she said they would be happy to come with us, and somehow, a birthday party was born!

We were coming up to Layton for my nephew Ben’s baptism anyway, so we made a weekend of it, and spent our Saturday at Lagoon.  I had to take a second mortgage and offer them my left arm to get my own family in the gates, but we managed it!

And since Noodle has an October birthday, Lagoon had all of its festive Halloween decor out.  (I know, its no Disneyland, but the kids thought it was great)

The Besty’s.  Noodle’s other friend Jaxon also came along (he also has a season pass.  You can see how I had to discriminate against friends who don’t own one of these magic little passes.  Rude, I know, but we gotta eat!)

This is Noodle’s favorite ride- Bombora.  He made a poster this summer saying how he was going to go on it 7 times when he got to go there for his birthday.  He spent hours coloring it and then hung it in his room.  Every night before bed he would ask me how many days it was going to be until he got to ride Bombora?  I’m telling you- this boy is obsessed!

I love this picture of Michelle and the kids on the Tidal Wave.  There were these crazy ladies sitting in front of them that had us laughing hysterically.

Trick or treating

The Witches.  By the way, you may notice Sparky is absent.  He decided he would rather spend the day playing with his cousin Ben who he doesn’t get to see as much anymore.  He had a great day and I loved it because that was $40 less I had to spend!  (My sister B.J. was also so nice and volunteered to keep baby J- WONDERFUL!!!)

Happy Birthday Noodle!  You’re growing up too fast!

(Just lost his first tooth!  The day after his birthday!  Thanks for making sure that one held on Michelle- I didn’t want to miss it)

A Fall Drive (compliments of you-know-who)..

Seth came home from work last week and announced that we absolutely must hop in the car right away and go for a drive up into his beloved Forest to see the fall leaves.  He had been up on the Mountain the day before at a “meeting” and was overwhelmed by the beauty of the leaves.  The only problem, if you recall, was that the temperature had plummeted in the last 24 hours and snow was currently falling in said mountains.  However, he was insistent that the beauty must be beheld by all, so into the car we went.

There was definitely a lot to see.  The kids loved it.  (For awhile…..)

We saw several deer on our drive, as well as several hunters.  We were up Huntington Canyon on what is known as the Energy Loop.  Its really beautiful up there, all year round, but this time of year brings an especially large crowd for hunting season.  The Elk hunt was going to start the next day and there were hunters camped out everywhere.  As we got further up the Canyon, the weather got worse.  Several hunters had slid off the road with their huge trailers, and one jackknifed in the middle of the road, making it impassible. This was up in the Miller flats area.  There were some forest service campground manager/volunteers up there handling traffic and Seth stuck his head out the window and told him he was the Forest Engineer.  It was so funny to see the immediate look of respect on the other guys face, and he started talking to him really nice right away.  I was so proud of my Sethy. :)

Ironically this was just 3 days after arriving home from the marathon in St. George where the temp. was over 90 degrees.  Also, as most of you know, since then, the weather has warmed back up considerably, and this last weekend, we enjoyed temps. in Northern Utah in the high 70’s again.  So, I believe this was just a random early frost- but I guess quite typical Utah weather.   Anyway- it made for a fun mid-week drive and some beautiful sights to see!

St George Marathon

WE DID IT!  26.2 miles.  On foot.  Running.  Craziness!  This is something I have always wanted to do, but wasn’t really sure if I was capable of.  Seth, on the other hand, is plenty capable, but has never had ANY desire to run.  So, we make an unlikely running team :)  BUT, ALAS, WE DID IT!!!!!!

 

This all started back in April, when my brother Marty asked if Seth and I would be willing to sign up for the St. George Marathon with him & his wife, Lisa.  They had run the year before and were entering just so they could get a “strike”.  (The St. George Marathon is pretty hard to get in to.  If you don’t get chosen by their lottery, they give you a strike.  3 strikes gets you a guaranteed entry the year you choose, so they are good to accumulate).  I actually already have a strike, so I thought getting my second was definitely a good idea.  I was SHOCKED when Marty called me and told me we had been selected by the lottery as a group.  I didn’t really want to do it!  This year ESPECIALLY!  I was really nervous about training over the summer because um, hel-lo!, we were mo-ving!  The whole move took a ton of time and energy- what with packing up our entire house, finding a place to live, and all.  Also, we had a pretty full summer schedule with family functions, vacations, etc.

OH Dear…….

So, we reluctantly began training in June, shortly after finishing the Ogden 1/2 marathon.  I had a few friends from Mountain Green that had ran the 1/2 with me, so I asked if anyone was interested in continuing on with the training?  Liz Polad had just dropped out of crossfit for the summer and was looking for some good exercise so she volunteered to come along. I don’t thing either of us ever thought she would go all the way, but somehow, when it was time for that 20 miler training run, Liz was still on board.   Also, around this time it became apparent  that I couldn’t keep up with Seth or Marty & Lisa and I was going to need someone to run the Marathon with, or I would end up slowing down the other group.  This didn’t offend me in the least- I know my own limits and I am not a super speedy runner :)  We realized that Liz was fully capable and fully trained to run the St. George Marathon, but there was one problem- she didn’t have an entry.

BTW- this race is not like the Ogden Marathon.  You can’t just buy a spot off of someone else on the internet.  There is seriously no way in if you didn’t draw a lottery spot.  But if you know Liz, you know she is perserverent, and she really wanted to do this! With the help of a neighbor who is a fellow runner and learned of her plight (and who apparently has friends in high places….), Liz secured a spot at the ninth hour.

And thank goodness she did.  I would not have made it through this race without her.  We had so much fun together!!  It was an amazing experience and I will cherish it always.  Don’t get me wrong- it was also hell on wheels, but Liz kept me going the whole time.  That girl has serious endorphins.  She was riding a high for, well, pretty much the whole weekend. 

OH, and lucky for me, she also made sure to document the entire weekend, so I have a plethora of pictures to share with you.

The night before the race.  We had just arrived home from the expo. (where we picked up our packets & enjoyed an all-you can eat pasta buffet!)

Boarding the pre-race buses at the crack of dawn.

And riding the 45 minute bus ride to the top of the canyon.  (I told you she took pictures of everything :)

Standing in line for the porta-potties.  (still pre-race, as I’m sure you can tell by the darkness…..)

Our shoes.  We all run in hoka’s, which are absurdly expensive, but worth every penny if you are planning to run distances.  I am certain that these shoes saved my back as well as my feet!

And now for race time.  We’re off! (Do you love the “proof” photos I hijacked off the marathon website???)

Marty, Lisa & Seth ditched us within the first 2 minutes, which was fine.  Like I said, they have a much faster pace and that’s ok.  Liz and I spent the entire first 3 hours chatting with everyone we saw.  We met some pretty great people.  There was an entire family of siblings running with their mother who has MS and was in a wheelchair.  They were taking turns pushing her.  There was a young mom who was running for her 6 year old daughter who had Leukemia.  There was a great guy who I (LIKE AN IDIOT!) asked if he could open one of my goos for me, and then noticed that his hand was crippled.  AGGGGHHH!!!!  But he just smiled and chatted with us for a few more miles. 

Liz and I also started a fabulous “outfit” contest.  (Are you surprised?)  We looked for our favorites, and the serious no-no’s (you know who you are, geometric hot pants!)  We also looked for cute bums (male and female), great hair-do’s, nice legs- you name it.  We were seriously having a ball!

My knee started hurting pretty badly about 10 miles in, and I had to stop at the aid stations a few times to get it re-wrapped and some icy-hot rubbed on there- but other than that, we were making good time!  At one aid station, we lost each other in the bathroom line and I was so panicked.  I could not run alone!

At this point, we hadn’t even turned on our music, we were just enjoying each other’s company, but about mile 17, we were getting tired and decided we needed a pick me up.  In went the headphones. 

I should stop here and mention that it was an unusually warm day for St. George in October, much to my brother’s chagrin. He was positive that the reason for their slow time the year before was due to the heat, and that this year they would be able to do better.  The problem was, it was ridiculously hot, again. We had been warned to drink and eat a lot more than we thought we should.  I kept pouring water over my head to cool off, and at one point, my earphones completely died.  I was crying to Liz about losing my music when this seriously hot guy rode up on a mountain bike and offered me his headphones.  It was like the movies!  Such chivalry!  I’ll likely never get a chance to thank hot guy, but he really saved me.

So, from there it was just the last 6 torturous miles.  They were really awful.  I had my music cranked, but it was getting so hot and I was running out of juice.  I kept thinking we could stop and walk for awhile, but then Liz would grab my arm and make me keep going.  She was amazing! At this point we had been running for over 4 hours.  Isn’t that absurd- I never thought I would torture myself in such a way for fun.

We crossed the finish line in 4 hours and 49 minutes.  The last 2 miles were the most grueling of my life- but we ran them hard.  I crossed the finish line and dropped to the ground.  My legs literally gave out and I couldn’t stand up if I wanted to.  Seth, Marty and Lisa were there waiting for us.  Seth had finished in 4 hours and 6 minutes.  He was a little bummed because he was shooting for something with a 3 in front of it- but I thought he did amazing.  He was shocked at how hard it was- and this was coming from a guy who has ridden LOTOJA twice, a bike ride that has you on your bike for 10 hours!  I have to give serious props to professional marathon runners- that is a crazy sport!

Post race with our medals and our bags of ice!  I made the mistake of taking off my shoes before walking to the car and I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to get them back on.  My feet were covered in blisters and my toenails were a mess.  Several have since turned black and are preparing to fall off.  (Doesn’t that make you want to run a marathon?)

Which brings me to this picture.  Liz saw this poster and wanted a picture with it because it is so true!  Who needs toenails when you can run a marathon instead, right?

Then she noticed that the poster was reversible and made Seth pose with the reverse side……

You can see that he was all too pleased to oblige her. :)

 

And with that, we headed back to the car to begin what was to be the sorest three days of my life.  WOW.

I must thank Liz, my trusty running partner.  You inspire me, girl.  Also, my dear husband.  We had to do a lot of our training alone here in Price and I was struggling without my girls to run with.  He always ran at my pace without complaint, even when I wanted to kill him (I’m not always friendly when runs aren’t going well for me……)  To Marty and Lisa, who dragged us into this mess- thank you for inspiring us.  You are true runners.

And last, to all who helped us along the way.  To my friends for all the great runs, to Grandma Lesli for babysitting while we went for those LONG early morning Saturday runs, and to my kids, for putting up with all the time daddy and I had to spend doing our training.  We owe you some special family time!

In Closing- sorry this post is so dang long.  But I really wanted to document this experience because it meant a lot to me.  I am so proud of all of us for this accomplishment, and although I swore never to do it again, I do hope someday to try to beat that time.  I think I can do better.

Just not someday soon. :)