Home Sweet Home Both Ways

When I stepped off the plane and in to the cool, crisp Utah air I thought, "Ahh. Home sweet home." Especially after I ran in that cool, crisp Utah air the next morning. Then 10 days later when I saw Scott waiting for me at the San Antonio airport I thought the same thing, "Ahh. Home sweet home." Utah will always be our permanent home, and it's so fun to go back and visit, but right now Texas is our home and we love it.

At the airport waiting for our plane. This picture melts my heart. I love his big blue eyes and blond hair!

Growing up I had an obsession with monkeys. I had a collection of monkey stuffed animals, socks, pj's, clothes, etc. I no longer collect monkey things for myself, but as you can see Boston is wearing monkey pj's and a cute monkey backpack with a handy dandy leash. That came in handy at the airport! Best Target purchase ever! He happily ran around the airport for 1.5 hours feeling independent while I chased him a few feet behind holding his leash.

I had the best time in Utah for 10 days! It was the perfect trip! It started with a family BBQ in the backyard, and some watching of family home videos.

I got to meet my new niece Ella while I was there. She's a sweetheart, and I love her name.

Isn't she adorable? I got her that cute puma hat and some puma outfits, but I think it will be awhile before she grows in to them. She's so tiny and dainty!

We had to give Boston this baby doll to play with because as soon as he saw Ella he freaked out and wanted to hold her, and squeeze her, and play with her like she was a little doll. He was very passionate and persistent in wanting Ella all to himself, but the only problem was he couldn't control his passion enough to be able to hold her gently. So we gave him this doll and he was happy.

He's really taken a liking to baby dolls lately. Uh-oh. My dad said he's trying to tell me something.

I also got to have a girls night with my childhood best friends while I was in Utah. We've been best buds since sixth grade, and there's nothing like all of us getting together again! It's guaranteed laughter and fun all night long no matter what we do. I love these girls to death. We've been through a lot together, and I'm so glad we started the reunion thing! Can't wait til Christmas for the next one!

Another best bud reunion with Sherstin. I got to hang out with her and her husband Trevor a couple times while I was in Utah as well, and I got to see their adorable new apartment.

Boston sure had fun hanging out with Trevor and Sherstin!

Mmmmmmm. Why can't they have a Zupa's in Texas? Why? I shouldn't have taken this picture because it just makes me want one every time I look at it.

I got to eat at Zupa's for lunch and meet up with a couple of my old roommates.

After lunch and naps we went to the new park in Spanish Fork.

This is a new day, different park. My mom and I took Boston to the castle park in Kaysville one morning. Boston loved hanging with the big kids on this tire swing.

My dad took a day off work so we could go to Boondocks with Boston. It was really fun, and we had the entire place to ourselves because all the kids are in school now. This is a virtual roller coaster. I guess Boston thought it was pretty fun!

Boston also thought this little merry-go-round was pretty cool. I think he rode it at least 5 times.

They had a fun playground to climb all over, and although I was clearly above the height limit I figured it would be OK if I helped Boston play on it a little since there were no other kids there. It was a blast, especially the slide. Ha ha. I felt like a little kid again, even though I literally had to hobble up the play place because I was still recovering from the marathon.

My Utah trip couldn't have been better! Can't wait for the next one!

Relief

It finally came after months of anxious anticipation, hours and hours of sweaty training, and weeks of paranoid hand washing to make sure I didn't get sick! I crossed the Top of Utah marathon finish line with a Boston marathon qualifying time! For months I tried to imagine what it would feel like to cross that finish line in time to qualify for the Boston marathon. That thought kept me going during the long sweaty hours on the treadmill, and the long suffocatingly hot runs in the humidity of Texas. That finish line moment finally came, and rather than being overwhelmed with happiness like I had pictured so many times in my mind, I was overwhelmed with a feeling of relief. Pure relief. Relief that I made it in time, with 1.5 minutes to spare, rather than 1.5 minutes too late, and releif that I could finally stop forcing my body against it's strongest will to keep going. (My time was 3:38, and I needed a 3:40 to qualify)



I don't understand how one minute I was running toward the finish line, and the next minute I could barely walk. If there was a wheelchair available I would have gladly taken it! It's three days later and I still can't walk normally! I have sore muscles in my feet that I didn't know existed. The pain after a marathon is so hard to explain, but basically it feels like every teeny tiny fiber of muscle in your body is damaged, and if you move too fast or contract those muscles more than the slightest contraction, they will pull or rip.



The happy feeling I had been imagining didn't come all at once, but gradually built up over the next few days as my muscles slowly started to recover, I got some sleep, ate some food, and thought about how fun our trip to Boston and New York will be this April. I felt like the stars had aligned and everything went so well that day in order for me to be able to reach my goal of qualifying. When I think back on how hard that race was and how easy it would have been to miss my time by a few seconds, I know I definitely had help. I think if one thing would have gone a little wrong that day I wouldn't have been able to do it. I had put in the work and preparation for this race and did everything I possibly could to make sure I would be able to run my time goal, but I noticed little things during the race, things I had no control over, like wind to my back for a couple hard miles, that helped give me the little extra push I needed. Thinking about friends and family was also a huge blessing. I really didn't want to give bad news to all the people who had sent me texts or messages on facebook saying they were thinking of me. I'm so lucky to have such awesome and supportive friends and family! Especially Scott. He let me fly to Utah for 10 days while he stayed home all by his lonesome and worked, and now he's happily planning a trip to New York and Boston this April. He's amazing. I can't thank him enough for making the things that are important to me important to him.

I just really love running. I learn so much from it, it makes me stronger, it introduces me to awesome people I wouldn't otherwise know and be friends with, it makes me feel good, it makes me happy, it helps me feel and be more productive, I could go on, but I'll stop there.

Life's Little Puzzle Pieces

It's fun to look back on different events in my life and think about all the little puzzle pieces that had to fall in to place to make that event happen. This picture has a fun little story behind it that started with a little puzzle piece 33 years ago!

I'll start the story in 2006 back when I was tripping all over Scott (literally and figuratively). We signed up to play on an intramural soccer team together at BYU. Sadly the very first game was the only game I would play because I twisted my knee really bad. I thought it was the end of the world because that meant I couldn't run anymore. I believe that was my first thought after, "Oh crap, that hurt and what was that awful nosie?" It seems like most of the big events in life start with a puzzle piece that consists of a trial or a big change that we wouldn't normally choose for ourselves. I guess that just means we have help putting our life's puzzles together from someone much smarter than us. One thing led to another and I ended up on a physical therapy bed in Ned Bushnell's office. I found myself watching the physical therapy techs during my therapy sessions thinking I would enjoy their job much better than my current job as an MTC cafeteria worker. Something about not having to wear a cafeteria apron and not smelling like food after work just seemed appealing to me.

One thing led to another again and the next thing I knew I was working as a physical therapy tech in Ned Bushnell's office. Not only did I have a job that I actually liked, but I realized what I would want to do post-mommy for my career. I worked for Ned the rest of my college career and up until the day before Boston was born. Every Christmas all of Ned's employees were invited to his house for a white elephant Christmas party. The last party I went to I ended up with one of Ned's used elbow braces, and not just any old elbow brace, but a signed elbow brace. It was funny to the techs, but it's kind of an inside joke. Little did I know at the time that that used elbow brace signed by Ned was a key puzzle piece to the fun story behind the above picture.

I stuck the elbow brace in my closet and thought several times that I should just throw it away, but for some reason I never did. Maybe because it was a reminder to me that it's actually possible to like your job and your boss. I loved working for Ned. He was an awesome and inspiring guy.

About a year and a half after that white elephant Christmas party Scott and I were getting ready to move to Texas. I had given my mom a bag of clothes from my closet for D.I. She was looking through them and somehow the elbow brace ended up in that pile. She saw it and asked, "Andrea, who's Ned Bushnell?" I told her he was the physical therapist I worked for. She said, "I think that's the missionary that baptized me!" My mom is a convert and grew up in California. After she said that I remembered Ned mentioning that he served his mission in California. When I told her that she went upstairs to check in her journal. Sure enough Ned Bushnell, my favorite boss, had baptized my mom! Talk about little puzzle pieces coming together!

Since I was moving to Texas in a few days I settled for a text and an email to tell Ned the news my mom and I had just discovered. He emailed back after checking his journal as well and thought that was pretty cool. The puzzle wasn't finished until i came back to Utah this week. My mom and I decided to spend a day in Salem at my aunt's house on Monday, and I thought it would be awesome to go visit Ned while we were in the Provo area. So, 33 years later my mom and Ned Bushnell meet again! And that's the story begind all the little puzzle pieces that came together to make this picture!

The Last of the Vermont Pictures

Here's some Vermont beauties. I saved the best for last.

These two were taken on our cruise of Lake Champlain.

I want a tricycle like that! Isn't that awesome? I love the cute small town feeling of Vermont!

GORGEOUS sunsets every night!! We took this the last night at dinner when we ate on the deck of a beautiful country club. This was our view, and the weather was PERFECT. It was an awesome way to spend our last night!

This is right outside my Grandma's house. She lives right across the street from the lake. I LOVE this picture! It reminds me of a blissful summer night with perfect weather. This is Uncle Kyle and Kristen on two of Uncle Kyle's old fashioned bikes that he restored.

This was taken from the backyard of our cabin where we stayed for the week. It was really fun to fall asleep to the sound of water, and then wake up and see this gorgeous lake right outside the window.

I was in love with all the cute houses in Vermont. They all have huge yards and big porches. This was no where near the cutest of the houses, but it's the one we took a picture of.

Another pretty sunset from the cabin's backyard.

And another.

This is the cabin we stayed in.

We trashed it. Actually, the three little Vermonsters under the age of three trashed it. Don't worry, we got it spick and span by the time we left.

Boston with his Great-Grandma Billings our last night in Vermont.

Eating dinner at the country club where we saw that gorgeous sunset. It was dang good food too. Probably one of the best restaurants I've ever eaten at.

Covered bridge!

My cousin Katie and her family.

The three Vermonsters. That's what their shirts say. (I'm a little Vermonster) Cute eh?

The end. Oh, I can't blog about Vermont and not even mention one of the biggest highlights of the trip just because we didn't take a picture of it....So, in Vermont soft serve ice-cream cones are called creamies. The maple blackberry twist creamie was so good that Scott may have eaten three of them in one day. I had two the last day we were there and would have had a third if my stomach wasn't threatening to pop. It's so sad to think that the only way I'll ever taste of that goodness again is if I fly clear across the country. Anyway, I'm happy I can stop blogging about Vermont now because I finally got all my favorite pictures up.