A trip to the Hogle Zoo

Oh my goodness, what a week we have had.

Monday, Lexi, Abby and I (also Colton still had a lingering fever from the stomach bug he had been fighting off for several days) came down with the stomach flu.  Thank goodness Cameron offered to stay home from work cause I think it would have been near impossible for me to take care of three sick kids while being sick myself.  This bug was brutal, and totally knocked me and the kids out.

Come Tuesday morning, Abby still had a fever, and nobody seemed back 100%, so we made the tough decision to cancel our trip to Colorado that we were supposed to leave for the next day.  I didn't want to risk passing this awful bug to my family in Colorado, and I just wasn't in much shape to get the whole family packed and ready to go.  We felt horrible.  The girls had been looking forward to this trip for a long time.  So we readjusted our plans for the week.  My Mom had planned on coming back to Utah with us, so Abby and I are flying to Colorado on Friday, then driving back home on Saturday with my Mom.

We also decided to take the kids to the zoo.

Birds nest sculpture

Sitting on the Tigers

On the train

 
I think everyone had fun.  There was still some lingering grumpiness from being sick and tired, but it seemed like a fairly successful outing :)

Glow in the Dark Half Marathon

Friday night, I ran another half marathon.  This was another one held right here in Eagle Mountain, so I couldn't pass it up.  This one had a fun glow in the dark theme and was held at night.  Once again, my friend Marci ran it with me.

We had planned to just go easy and have fun, but I tend to get a little competitive, so we ended up pushing it pretty hard, oops :)

We lined up near the front because we were running this race on the trail, and we were afraid there might be some major congestion at the start, so in order to avoid that we lined up near the front, and took off pretty fast to get ahead of the pack.  This course was a pretty challenging course, lots of hills, especially in the last half, luckily I run these trails pretty regularly, so I was pretty accustomed to all the climbing.  It was, however, way different being out there running in the dark.  We both had little head lamps on to help us see, but you could only see right in front of you.

We cruised through the first 6 miles pretty quickly, there were some good little stretches of down hill that helped us keep our pace pretty fast.

At the turn around (it was an out-and-back course), we were able to count the number of females in front of us, and we were #11 and 12.  I think we both had hopes of holding that position, but there was a couple of girls that were right on our heels pretty much the whole race.

There was a pretty major climb at about mile 9, and it really took it out of me.  I had a major side ache that I couldn't shake, and that hill had me huffing and puffing pretty hard.  Once we reached the top, I was ready for the race to be over, I still had the side ache, I was having a hard time catching my breath, and was feeling close the puking.  But I kept pushing as hard and as fast as I could.  With only 3 miles left, I kept telling myself that it was down hill to the finish, so it should be fast and easy (relatively speaking)  to the end.  Except for, somehow I totally spaced that it was actually a good 1 mile climb to the finish.  I was not expecting that, and it took all I had left to keep a decent pace.

About half a mile from the finish, a girl was starting to pass us, and I guess she was right on Marci's heels and it kind of ticked her off, so Marci just took off and was able to shake the girl.  Sadly, I was wasted and didn't have enough in me to kick like she did.  A couple more girls were able to pass me the last few tenths of a mile before the finish.  I was so frustrated, I don't like being passed, especially that close the end, but I just had nothing left in my legs.

I finished in 1 hour 57 minutes, about a minute slower than my PR, but this was a really challenging course, so I wasn't expecting to come that close.  Marci finished about a minute ahead of me.  I think I ended up being the 14th female finisher, Marci was 11 or 12th.  When I crossed the finish line, my one and only goal was to sit down as fast as I could, because I knew if I didn't, I was either gonna puke or pass out.  The lady handing out the medals asked if I was ok, but I just waved my hand and kept on walking, no time to talk :)  After several minutes of sitting on a curb, I was able to pull myself together enough to walk to the car to come home.

We had such a blast, and I'm loving these smaller races, it's fun to be in the front of the pack.  If this was a larger race, I'd have no chance of being so close to the front.  However, this course was brutal, all those hills and I didn't enjoy the whole out-and-back thing.

Now it's time to rest up and recover, cause I'm doing another marathon in a week.  I think I might be losing my mind, all this pain and suffering in the name of fun :)

More pictures and updates

For lack of anything substation to post, I'm doing another quick overview of what we've been doing :)

Colton is walking.  He's all over the place with his stiff legged walking :)

Only recent pic of Colton, so just imagine that cute little guy walking :)

 More trips to the park.  We've started exploring many of the parks here in Eagle Mountain, because the girls are getting bored of the usual ones.

This one had monkey bars that were just Abby's height.  She hopped on and just started going across.  Also this one had some random little boy in a Spiderman costume :)

Ever since we moved Lexi into Abby's room, I've been meaning to make something with both the girls names on to hang in the room.  Up until now, just Abby's name has been hanging on the wall.  I finally got around to doing it.  I was happy with the way it turned out.

Also, both Colton and Lexi seem in need of switching up their naps.  So Colton is down from 2 daily naps to just the 1, and Lexi is showing signs that it's near time to get rid of her naps all together.  She still enjoys taking a good long afternoon nap, but then she also enjoys staying up and playing in her crib till 9 or 10pm.  As I would rather her sleep at night than in the day, lots of times I don't put her down for a nap anymore.  I'll be honest, I'm kinda bummed.  I was hoping that nap time for her would last at least till she was 3 years old, but, oh well.

And lastly, Colton has been one sick little kid.  I can't really figure out what his deal is.  About 2 weeks ago, he had a little cold, which, as always, turned into an ear infection.  A few days after he got that and started antibiotics, he had a stomach bug, and was throwing up for half a day.  Then a few days later, he threw up, but just once, then last night, he was up throwing up several times again.  And finally, today he has a fever.  It's just the most bizarre thing.  I don't know if he has just been so unfortunate to catch three bugs one right after the other, or if there could be some other cause.  Anyways, we've spent a lot of time hanging out at the house because of this little guy.

Recent stuff

I've been slow putting up some posts and updates, so I'm going to just put all the new and exciting stuff in one post.

About the fire, the first day, the wind was blowing the fire in our direction, and it was getting kind of close, but then the next day or two, the wind was blowing in the other direction, so it wasn't much of a threat after that.

The first day

The second day.  It spread a ton overnight.

Colton is getting so close to walking.  It started with this toy, he loves to push it around.  Slowly though, he's gaining confidence in taking a few steps on his own.  He's even been practicing standing up on his own with no support.

 Fun summer activities!

We took the kids to see "Brave".  They loved it, it was super cute.

One day Abby spent the night at Grandma and Grandpa's, so me and Lexi had some quality time by making cookies together. (Really all Lexi did was turn on and off the mixer, but she enjoyed it)

 Playing in the sprinklers.  This has been happening a couple times a week because it is so darn hot this summer.

Lexi got her glasses.  She has been amazing with them, we'll put them on in the morning, and never seems to mess with them all day.  I'm have been shocked at how well she's adjusted.  The first day or two, she took a ton of spills, I'm guessing they might have messed with her depth perception a little, but she seems back to normal now.

These are her "pink ones" that Lexi picked out, and are her favorite.

 And lastly, Colton got his first hair cut.  It was getting a little long in the back, and over his ears, so Cam busted out the shears and gave him a little trim.