4th of My Favorite!

Gabrielle & I started the day off great with the Kaysville 10k.  We ran it together and took it easy.  It was really fun and I hope a new little tradition!

I then skipped over to my mother's for breakfast with my family.

It was then parade time!  These last few years I have been asking myself, why do I love this so much?  It is hot, sweaty, and not that great of floats, but let's be real....it is still fun to be with family and enjoy it.  I especially like watching the little kids.

Rodger & Gabrielle were in the parade for work, so Cole hung out with my family.

I love my Charley Mae.

I got to take a sweet ride in Jacki & Kevin's new car on the way home from the parade!  It was pretty awesome.

Colty Boy and I were matching all day long.  Love him.

We had a BBQ at my dad's in the afternoon.  He got Lindsey a cougar statue a couple of years ago, because Lindsey loves BYU, for some odd reason.  The boys thought it would be a great idea to hang it up in a tree, on the Oakridge Golf Course.

It looked awesome.  It lasted about a week and then someone took it down. 

We then went to the Davis Fireworks!

Kenny was in town, Lindsey's boyfriend.  He's a sweetie.

Love my Rodger.  Love the 4th.

Lava Hot Springs

My family decided to do a small getaway, since it has been forever since we last did one.

We settled on Lava Hot Springs in Idaho, because the distance is short and the fun is endless!  We went the last weekend in June, a Friday to Sunday.

I found a little bed and breakfast that we rented out.  It was a treat, to say the least.  The property was beautiful, the house could use some updating.  It has massive amounts of potential, all us girls kept saying how we wanted to come in here and re-decorate/paint, to spruce the place up.

All in all, it was a great trip.

Rodger and I left early Friday morning, while others had work obligations/children.  We checked into our place and got the 45 minute tour of how things ran.  We then went and grabbed some lunch and played 9 holes at their small little golf course.  It was fun, I always love time with just Rodger and I.

I text my family a little note on which Belt Route to take.  It went something like this,

"At the fork, take Pocatello.  Don't pull a Max and take the left turn at the last minute.  "Stand Out Above the Crowd!"

If you understand my quote and humor, I congratulate you.

 Here are the fans watching the boys play Football.

 I joined in for awhile.

As you can see, the place we stayed at was beautiful, loved the yard.

One night we chatted around the campfire while listening to music and dancing.

We went to the local pool with the high dives and slides.  We didn't stay too long, because we realized we wanted to do the river for longer, we didn't plan that out very well.

The river was a blast.  Only Rodger, myself, Lindsey, Ashley, and Dave participated.

 Rodgie and I took a pretty bad fall at one of the waterfalls.  We didn't get hurt, but I was hating every minute of trying to find our tube and get back on.

A few weeks prior to our trip, Rodger was playing in a Men's Softball Game.  He made a great play and had to slide and tore up his leg once again (same spot as the last time, a few years ago).  It healed so much better this time around, he is convinced its because of Lava Hot Springs pools.  We sat in the hot mineral pools and although it nearly killed his leg, it healed it very nicely.

I love Lava Hot Springs.  Walking down Main Street into the little shops/restaurants is much fun.

Look at Char Bar.

I don't understand why these next two pictures went sideways.  I tried to correct them a couple of times and gave up.

Sarah Beth, myself, and my mom were having some fun on the couch taking pictures before bed time.  In every picture, Sarah would close her eyes, little stink.

Char then decided to join.

I love my nieces (and nephews).

We had an awesome time, it was short, but well worth it.

I LOOOOVE my family.  They mean the world to me.

My First Half Marathon-June 9, 2012

12 weeks of training and the day has already come and gone.  Looking back, it went by so fast.  When I injured my foot playing indoor soccer, I was 2 weeks into training and all I could think about while laying on the floor, not able to feel my entire leg at all, was my half marathon.  I was so devastated.  I understood that I was ahead of my 12 weeks training but with this being my first big race and half marathon, I was thrilled about being so ahead of schedule.  I am not a runner, I never understood how people could love running so much, its funny to say now, I understand why.  Anyways, my foot healed greatly, I was in a boot for about 3 weeks.  The boot was off for a few days before we headed on our cruise in March.  It still hurt at times, especially when wearing heels, but I was extra careful with it.  The week we got back from the cruise, it was exactly 12 weeks away from my half.  Perfect timing. I can honestly say I stuck to my Hal Higdon's training schedule 100%.  I didn't run a few days because I was sick for a little bit, but other than that, I was very committed.  I couldn't believe the progress I was making.  Running became so easy and the distances I was going, without stopping, was a great feeling.  One thing that was a little bothersome was not seeing a difference in my body.  I have toned up a bit, but not as much as I would have liked.  Oh well.

I had butterflies a few weeks out and the week of the race, I was completely excited and anxious for it to be here.  I had zero percent nerves the days leading up to it.  We stayed in Provo Friday night, because we had to board the bus between 3:30am-4:30am.  The race started at 6:00am on the dot.  Gabrielle did the race as well, I don't think she'll ever do one again.  I told her we should do it, months and months ago, she agreed, with pressure from Cole, and was terrified up until the moment it happened.  We went to Spaghetti Factory Friday evening, got our carb load in, and then headed to Provo.  We picked up our packet and went straight to our hotel room.  The boys left for an evening on the town, they didn't come back until 2:30am.  I slept awful, just awful.  It took me about an hour to finally fall asleep (totally not like me).  I wasn't nervous, I was just going over in my mind how the race would unfold, how would I do, and where the crap Rodger was.  3:00am came and off we went to board the bus to take us up to the starting line.  We had to wait up in the canyon by camp fires and porta potties for about 2 and a half hours.  That was the worst part of the entire experience.  The wait was long and all I wanted to do was take off and get running.  I didn't even realize that I was sitting next to John Rhode, the Biggest Loser Season 12 winner.  Once I realized who he was, we talked for a little bit and I got my picture taken with him, nice guy.

I took one last tinkle at 5:30 (I literally went 4 times while waiting up by the canyon) and Gabs and I walked down to the start line to stretch and get ready.  Before I knew it, it was time to run.  I turned my music on, tried to get around people to get a good pace, and lost Gabrielle in the meantime.  We ran together for probably 20 seconds.  My goal was to be under 2 hours.  I could see the 2:00 hour pacer with their big sign ahead of me.  I kept them in sight and kept up with them, until about mile 9.  Everything was going great, I felt wonderful, my pace was right on track, if not better, and I couldn't believe how fast it was going.  My mistake was drinking too much.  I took a cup of water at every aid station, which was every 2 miles.  This was a big mistake and I found that out at about mile 10.5-11.  I was literally going to pee my pants.  There were no more porta potties.  Every single step I took I was going to explode.  I was almost near tears.  I kept powering through, doing everything I could to not wet myself.  I feel that if this didn't come over me, I could have been near the 2:00 hour mark.  In the end, I finished at 2:09:13.  I saw Cole and Rodger right under the "finish arch."  I smiled and ran on through, grabbed my metal, and sped walked to the bathrooms.  It was so refreshing.  Poor Rodger didn't know where I went but we eventually found each other, after I grabbed a Creamy, of course.

While we were waiting for Gabrielle to come through, the first marathon runner came in at 2:28:56.  It was a very cool thing to experience.  I got chills.  Soon after, Gabrielle came running in at 2:33.  I was very proud.

Our boys were such great supporters.  I left Rodger a cute little note beforehand explaining where to go for the finish line and that I loved him very much so.  I couldn't wait to see his face at the end.  I kept thinking about that those last 3 miles.

I had so much fun.  I keep thinking back on it and I loved it.  I loved the atmosphere and the energy you felt.  I can't wait to do more races.  In fact, I just signed up for a full marathon, September 29th.  I'm crazy.

Enjoy the pictures!

Mr. John and I patiently waiting for the race to start!

Silly me with all my gear ready to go for when I woke up.

Awful picture of me finishing, but it's the only one Rodger got.

I love this boy for his awesome support.  He was a trooper.

I'm hooked and can't wait to do another!

The Dirty Dash-Spring 2012

 Oh, the Dirty, the good old Dirty.  Lindsey, Gabs, and I had such a good time last Fall, that we made the others join.  Ashley, of course, would have joined back in the Fall, had she not been pregnant with Charley Bucket.

 

The event was Saturday June 2nd.  It was located in Midway at Solider Hollow.

Waiting to start and getting each other dirty.

Before I took this picture, the boys had to remember to show that they were not having fun, when indeed they were!

 Cole brought a water proof camera, great idea, and then we realized it was not so great. 

The pictures are quite blurry due to the mud.  At least we had something.

 

 It was a lot of fun!!

Rodger, myself, Cole, and Gabs stayed up in Midway that evening at Zermatt Resort.

I love staying up there, it is so much fun.

We went to a concert playing at The Homestead outside on the grass.

We rode the motorcycles up and enjoyed crusing around Park City and Midway.

The boys matching, with their new shorts they got at the outlets.

We always have a great time with them!