Halloween Half

This past weekend I got to run in the Halloween Half. If you remember, I ran it last year and thought the race itself was awesome. This year I wanted to run it, but didn't want to wait 2 hours to pick up my packet and drive out to Prove on a Friday afternoon in traffic. So I checked the website to see if any improvements had been made. Luckily, there had been improvements. This year they had packet pickup for 2 days and in Lehi instead of Provo. They also had 3 different wave groups for the start which helped a lot with the congestion we experienced last year.

 

 

Last year, if you don't remember, I dressed up as Mr. Good body. The body suit worked out so well that I decided to do something along the same lines.

 

This year I was a robot.

 

 And I ran with these lovely ladies.

 

 The Avengers even showed up...except for the genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist.



That morning I woke up at 4:30 to get going. I put my face on, got my costume ready, threw back some oatmeal, brushed my teeth and waited for my ride. We arrived in Provo at 6:30 and waited in line to load the buses. Once we got up to the start, we only had to wait for an hour. We took pictures, used the Honey Buckets a few times and stripped off all our warm clothes. This is how the race went.

Mile 1-5: It was freezing. Even after running a few miles I still felt cold. My face was so cold and my nose started to run a little. My fingers were numb and I moved them as much as I could. My toes were also cold but they seemed to warm up faster than the rest of me. We were running in a little bit of ice and there was no sunshine. I felt pretty good and 5 miles flew by fast. It's always so entertaining to watch other people run. I'm sure they said the same thing about watching me run and in that ridiculous costume. ;)

Mile 6-8: I was finally warm and actually felt really comfortable in this temperature even without the sun. Since the race had to start a little lower down the canyon this year, we had to run uphill for about 1.5 miles and then run back down. I don't think many people planned for this as many people had to walk. It was tough, but I wasn't going to walk and I was proud that I didn't.

Mile 8-9: I forgot to take my GU at mile 7 and I knew that I was going to need it soon. Fortunately I remembered as I was passing a water station and I was able to down that thing fast. I was feeling pretty good up to this point, but 4 miles seemed like a long ways away. Anything could happen.

Mile10-13.1: Still running and I hadn't walked once nor was I going to. I was really starting to feel some pain in my right knee. I had this pain prior to this race so I was worried about it, but it went away in the last couple of miles as I kept going. A lady and I were running right next to each other for a while and we began to talk. It's amazing how fast time goes by when you have someone to talk to. I never thought I'd like to talk while running, but it actually helped. The last stretch was so fun as the shoot was lined with tons of people that always gives you that extra push to finish strong. My finishing time was 2:14:58. Not my best, but I will happily take it.

 

I loved seeing my family at the finish. It always makes me feel loved and supported to have people that I love there watching me achieve something difficult.

 

Anyone want in next year?



Pumpkin Carving Party

This past Sunday we had our annual pumpkin carving party. We always look forward to this and I think it gets better and better each year.

When we were younger, we were always so excited to get pizza for a weekend dinner or for a special occasion. That was, until my mom would pull out a huge pot of potato soup. We knew the rule was that we had to eat 1 bowl of soup before we got any pizza and we hated it. I remember all of us kids complaining about it. In the end, my parents only had to buy one pizza for the 6 of us because we were so full of soup.

This year as we were planning the party the potato soup story came up. We all had a good laugh about it and I even admitted that sometimes I want potato soup when we get pizza. So that is what we decided to do for dinner. We ate potato soup, bread sticks, BBQ wings, pizza, Carmel dip with apples and skeleton cupcakes. This time around, no complaints.

Wendy made the coolest little cupcakes. They were a hit!

 

 And then the pumpkins. The kids all chose their pumpkin and started the de-gutting process.

 

 

 

And then the carving. Some of us were better than others at this part and some were just down right scary with a knife. 

 

 All of us posing with our finished pumpkins.

 

Jonny: The Quasimodo pumpkin

Spencer: Narrow face pumpkin

Oliver: Both have the same mouth pumpkin

Wendy: The I'm-going-to-eat-your-boob pumpkin

Lilia: Didn't make a pumpkin but had a pumpkin made after her

Jack: "The Pumpkin King" for having the biggest pumpkins

Luke: Another Look-a-like pumpkin

Kim: The My-pumpkin-didn't-turn-out-so-I-had-to-carve-a-little-one pumpkin

Kat: The coolest/biggest pumpkin award

Kenzie: The What-is-that? pumpkin

Ethan: The it-started-out-as-the-cutest-pumpkin-but-quickly-turned-into-mess award

Tayten: The strictly scraped pumpkin

Taleesha: Best over all pumpkin for being so dead on with it looking like Lila

Kade: The puking pumpkin-only because that's what he did most of the night...luckily not IN his pumpkin.

Phia and Ashlyn: No pumpkin pumpkins

 

Already can't wait to put this together for next year. Growing, carving and displaying the pumpkins are one of our favorite parts of Halloween.



Trunk-or-Treat

Our ward has never done a Trunk-or-Treat so when Wendy invited us to go to hers, we were excited. Oliver had never been to one either so he didn't know what to expect. When he saw that he was going to get from all the cars there, he was SO excited. The kids just kept going around and around to all the cars until everyone ran out of candy. These people were giving out not only candy. They were giving out root beer, apples, hostess cupcakes and bags of chips. It was awesome.  

 Luke did such a great job manning his trunk. This was exactly what he wanted to do and listening to him joke around with the kids was so funny. Let's just say a lot of people don't quite pick up on his humor.

Thanks for the good time.

 

 



The gospel is true, families are forever and we love St. George

This weekend we decided at the last minute to drive down to St. George and spend Conference weekend there. And I'm so happy we did.

We left on Friday after work which is never a great idea due to all the traffic. We usually make sure that Oliver goes to the bathroom right before we walk out the door, but somehow failed to do so this time. So, as we were driving into Utah County, we heard a small voice say "I have to go potty". There was no way we were going to pull out of the carpool lane in traffic to take him to the potty, so he peed in this little bottle.

And I think he really enjoyed it. What little kid wouldn't??? He then asked if he could play with his bottle of urine. I had to draw the line somewhere, so I said no.

After a quick 4 hour drive, we arrived and so glad to have made it to our Happy Place (St. George).

That morning I got to go running with my Father in Law. Call me a weirdo but really, since that passing of my own dad, I think Larry is the next best thing and I'm so happy that he is such a great father figure to me. I felt like it was a special moment.

Oliver enjoyed looking for Lizards on the rocks.

Luke was nice enough to watch Oliver out. He took him to the Crack (pioneer Park) and others joined in on the fun.

 Val and Jared's first time through.

 



And they all played around the park.

Meanwhile, This is what I was doing with Amy after a little bit of shopping...

Hitting up happy hour at Sonic, which we had no clue about and then took about 10 different pictures to get the "right" one to post on Instagram.

After the priesthood session, we all met up to have some delicious Thai and Sushi at Benjas.

 Oliver especially loved this because he got to play with "Magic Beans" and use chop sticks for the first time ever.



We also finished the 1000 piece puzzle that we started working on back in January. That sky was killer.

And spending time with family is the best...

 Although maybe Sue didn't think spending time with OUR family was the best ;)

We also enjoyed listening to conference of course...the parts that we caught. I'm not going to lie, I'll have to go back and read the talks, but what I caught was excellent and what a more relaxing place to do that than in St. George.

Happy October

So happy October is here. This is one of the reasons why.

Our pumpkins are ready for picking!

Oliver was so excited, he put on his gardening boots to go help Luke cut the pumpkins.

Luke was a little creepy, but it's okay it's almost Halloween.

 Oliver was so excited with all the pumpkins. He was even posing with them.

 They washed them all off

 And helped set them upon the porch...under my direction of course.

Happy pumpkin picking and happy October!

Lake Mead 2012

Last weekend we were able to get away for the weekend and extend our summer just a little more by going to Lake Mead.

Our friends, the Kitchen's invited us to stay with them at their family home down in Logan dale (aprox. 30 minutes from the lake). It was two full days at the lake and it was all so much fun to be a part of.

This is where we parked for the 2 days.

Oliver just wanted to be on the boat the entire time. He didn't want to ski or tube. He just wanted to ride in that boat.



Luke was so much fun to watch and be with on this trip. This was just his thing.

Since I am so accident prone, I was more nervous than Luke, but still had a blast.

And then there were the Professionals. These guys were so fun to watch. Top to bottom, Left to right we have

Tiffani, Becky, Bret, Karen, Amanda and Jeremy. I didn't get a picture of Captain Dan, but I know he's good too.

One of my favorite things from this trip was watching Luke in the Tube....and his many faces.

And we had a couple battles. I quickly learned that the longer you hold on, the rougher they get with you. After 3 times, I was done.

Jeremy vs. Brett

 Tiff vs. Kim

 Amanda vs. Emma

Joshua vs. Luke

Joshua vs. Brett

And a few more shots of the trip.

On the first day we had to rescue a cute couple from the Netherlands, Patricia and Bart, who locked their keys in the car when they got out to take a quick picture by the lake. It took a few phone calls and a few  hours to finally get someone to where we were to unlock their car and be on their way.

We also enjoyed some great food, lots of laughs, hang out at the house and making new friends. And a huge thank you to the generous Kitchen family for inviting us and making this trip possible.