Random August

 

Mike owns the record for the fastest game of Monopoly (according to him), and he now owns the fastest Clue record. He managed to guess correctly his first attempt. Yes, it went straight to his head. 

I wanted to earn some race credit, so I volunteered at the Timp half marathon starting line. Sarah thought it would be "Fun" to go with me and wake up at 2:30 AM to be there by 3:30. I was grateful for the company and they let me use her credit. ;) After the race I ran the course plus a few more to get 16 miles. Sarah stayed at the top and read. My dad was a champ and picked me up and drove me back to Sarah. 

Nothing says fun like dressing in drag. The girls talked the boys into wearing make up, and then they tried their hardest to look like boys and then walked to the gas station. I'm not sure if they fooled anyone, but they had fun doing it. 

It's been a while since I've found gems like this on my phone. 

I don't normally take pictures of my kids looking cute on Sunday, but this was a big day for us. After not going to church in person for a few months we were finally able to meet in person. (wearing masks and social distancing) I can't wait until this pandemic ends so we can meet, smile, hug and stay healthy. 

Mt Nebo Full Marathon

 I have been talking about running a full marathon for YEARS. The thought really intimidated me and I took a long time before I decided to sign up. The main reason I didn't do it sooner is the training. (or so I told myself) I didn't know what training plan to choose, so I hired a coach named Mark Sekelsky. Hiring Mark made a huge difference in my training and race. I had to be accountable to a person with my training, so no matter what my day was like, I trained. I didn't slack off at all, because I was paying a person to create a training plan for me. 

I chose the St George full marathon as my first marathon. It was a well balanced course and I've heard the support is always amazing. Since Covid is stupid and ruins everything, the marathon was cancelled in July. Since I had already done a lot of training, I decided to cute off six weeks of training and run the Mt Nebo marathon. I was signed up to run the half, but switched to the full before I could rethink my decision. ;) Since I was cutting off six weeks of training I had a whole list of reasons lined up for why I may not "Kill It" in the race. I wasn't going for a BQ, I just wanted to get under 4 hours. I had already done and 18 and 20 miler, so I wasn't completely unprepared. 

The week before the race we look the kids up the canyon to do a scenic drive and drive the course. This helped a lot. There are a couple big hills and I needed to mentally prepare myself for them. (I tend to overthink things if you don't know that about me)  

On Friday I combined my "shake out run" (I hadn't done one before) with my Dad's 6th annual, "My dad is super old and just got a year older" race. I look forward to this every year and am grateful my dad is able to do this. Hopefully we'll be able to do a 30th annual race someday. Happy birthday Dad!

Race recap: Morning of the race I rode the bus up to the top super early and it was cold. (as it usually is) We all had to wear masks, which is how the company managed to not have their races cancelled. Race started well and I felt good. The first have has some hills, with two of them increasing over 200 ft. I needed to use the bathroom and figured there would be one at the mile 5/7 out and back. I didn't see one on the way in, so I asked where one was on the way out. They pointed out the porta pottie in the field that had blown over. Thankfully I just ran on to mile 9. (Up a hill) I didn't push myself too hard because I was worried about hitting the wall I've heard about so many times. My pace down a canyon is usually around 8 min/mile and I kept it closer to 9 to be conservative. I finished in 3:54:17. My goal was to finish in under 4 and I was glad I did. In hindsight I wish I had pushed harder, but I didn't want to run out of reserves. All in all, it was a great first marathon. 

Back to School...FINALLY!!!

 Want to know what I love? My kids! Want to know what I also love? My kids GOING to school. It's glorious. After the longest summer ever our kids finally went back to school. Thankfully the kids were all looking forward to going back, since they can only handle so much family love and togetherness. ;) 

We helped "Chalk the Walk" again this year and Audrey was helpful as I'm sure you can imagine. ;) I think a lot of children and parents were grateful when school started back up. 

Audrey rides a pony

 The first time we took Audrey to ride the ponies at Thanksgiving Point she didn't want to. This time she absolutely loved it and wanted to keep going. 

Boys backpacking trip

 Mike and Andy took the boys camping in the Uintas for a few days. It's something he's wanted to do for a while and we spent a small fortune preparing them for the trip. (Now we have the gear for the many trips they'll take in the future) ;) Since I wasn't there I can't give specifics, but I did here it was fun, hard, terrible, awesome, and something about Mike melting Adam's shoe over a fire to dry it off. Hopefully it's like childbirth amnesia and they'll all forget about it so they can go out a second time and have more fun. ;) 

 Sarah and I sacrificed to stay home and watch TV together. Win/Win. ;)

Hike to Cecret Lake

 It had been a while since we'd gone to Cecret Lake, so we introduced Audrey to one of our favorite spots. The kids may have resisted going, but they always have a lot of fun and don't want to leave. Nap time is a very important time of day, so we have to plan morning activities to make sure we're home on time. (This momma always has a to do list while baby naps)

Mike and I at "Our Spot". We had our picture taken here for family pictures in 2009.

The boys took off and went hunting for salamanders. Of course. We heard their population is decreasing, so the boys were only allowed to look at them. 

They found a little cave on the descent that we hadn't noticed before. It was man made and had water, but we aren't sure what it was. 

Happy 7th Birthday Erik!

We went to visit Erik's grave on his birthday. It really is crazy to think that seven years have passed since he joined our family. Every birthday means we're one year closer to seeing him. Either we'll get super old and die (I am 40) ;) or the Second Coming will finally be here and he'll be resurrected. Either way, we wait. Patiently, impatiently, hopefully, boringly. (Is boringly a word?) We weren't able to do our regular tradition of a movie, so we visited him and brought flowers for him and Lilly. Audrey was very interested in "helping" to arrange the flowers and the jury is still out as to whether she'll become a florist when she gets older. We also made him a cake and the kids helped decorate it. (As I'm sure you can see.)

As things in the world get crazier, I just think, "Okay, maybe this means I'll get to see Erik soon." We miss him. Every. Single. Day. My faith keeps me from despair, and I am so grateful for a loving Savior that made it possible for our family to be together forever. For now, like always for the past seven years, we wait. Happy Birthday Erik, we all love you very, very much!