Playing outside

On Saturday, my friend Marci and I went and did a trail run up Battle Creek canyon in Pleasant Grove.  We ended up going to the top of Mt Baldy, 5 miles nearly straight up, then 5 miles down.  It was SO much fun!  I took some pictures of the amazing view we had going up.

At the top.  I wish I had one of those panoramic cameras to show the view all around us. 

Also, we took the training wheels off Abby's bike a week or so ago and have slowly been trying to teach her to ride her bike.  She's not very confident, and get's discourage easily, so it's been only about 5 minutes of practice a day.  But today, we hit the street to try again, and she did pretty well, there were times where I could let go of the bike completely (for a few seconds), so she's slowly making progress.

Lexi also learned to ride her tricycle earlier this summer.  She loves to ride her bike.  

Cam's birthday

Last Saturday was Cam's birthday, he had to work, so we celebrated it on Sunday.  I invited his family over for dinner and cake.

I made a chocolate cake, that ended up taking two tries, and two batches of frosting.  It seemed like everything just kept going wrong.

Happy birthday, babe!!!

Painting project

I have yet to decorate Colton's bedroom, and a couple of months ago I mentioned to Cam's mom that soon we would need to buy a dresser for his bedroom because it would be time to get rid of the changing table.  Then she mentioned that she had this upright dresser that we could paint and put in his room.  Last week she came over for two days (they ended up spending the night cause they didn't have water at their place cause a pipe had broke and it was still in the process of being fixed) and we worked on painting it.  I love the way it turned out.

I chose a navy blue color

Michelle comes for a visit

A day after my Mom left, My sister and her family rolled into town.  They had some appointments here in Orem that they needed to be here for, so they came and stayed for a long weekend.  It was great to get to know Ryan and the kids better, and I know my kids loved having a bunch of new kids to play with.  We mostly just hung out at the house and watched the Olympics (my absolute most favorite two weeks of television, talk about American pride!).

The only picture I manage to capture.  All the kids, left to right,  the back of Gavin's head,  Lexi, Madaline, Abby, Lexi.  Yes there are two Lexi's, and they are very close in age too.  Many times while they were here, I'd yell for my Lexi to come to me, and the other one would show up.  It was just slightly confusing.

Deseret News Marathon

Marathon #2, complete:)

A few days after we returned from our trip to Colorado, I had another marathon to run.  Cam had to work, so my Mom watched the kids for me.

This marathon was so much better than my first.  I won't bore anybody with the details of the race.  I'm afraid I might loose my handful of readers if I keep up the long recaps of all my races :)

Anyways, I rode up with my friend Marci and her husband (he decided to run the marathon just a week or two before), but I had planned to run this race by myself.  Marci was going to run with her husband, and they are both faster than me.  I was nervous about being out there for 4+ hours all by myself.  Almost all of my long training runs had been run with Marci, so I was a little nervous if being out there alone, I'd psych myself out and have another horrible marathon.

At the start line, we parted ways, and I was out there by myself.  I'm happy to report, I kept it together quite nicely.  I was enjoying the perfect early morning temperatures, and the pretty views, talked to a few other runners, and just kept putting one foot in front of the other.  At the half way mark, I turned on my music, and that gave me a little boost. 

At around mile 18, the fatigue and aches started up.  I popped a few Exedrin, and just kept going. 

I finished in 4:14, 30 minutes faster than my first marathon.  My fueling was right on, and I felt so much better prepared for this race. 

I'm proud of my improved time, but even more than that, I'm proud that I stayed mentally tough through out the entire race.  Even during those painful last miles, I didn't stop running even once.  Going into the race, I felt like that was where I was really struggling, mentally being strong.  Powering through the fatigue, and heat, and all the elements that can beat a person down during long runs, was my weak spot.  I was SO proud of myself, to finish this marathon all by myself, have fun (I did not any fun during my last marathon), and finish strong mentally.

After the race, I came home, and pretty much parked it on the couch for two days.  That course had several miles of steep down hills.  Even though running down hill is easier at the time, it really beats your legs up, and you pay for every downhill mile later.  I could hardly walk or go up or down stairs, my legs were so unbelievabley sore.  My mom had planned to return home the day after the marathon, but she felt bad for me to have to be home taking care of the kids alone in the sad shape that I was in, so she graciously stuck around another day.  It took me a good 3 or 4 days before I could move around with out grimacing with every step.

I'm so glad to have this race under my belt.  It helped boost my confidence in my running, and now I have a more accurate marathon finish time.

P.S.  In related news, I went to see the orthopedic doctor that specializes in the hip injury that I have a couple days after the race cause it seems the cortisone was wearing off.  I had hopes that I could just go in every 6 months or so for several years and get cortisone, but when I went in and asked for the shot, they informed me that they will only do 3-4 injections max.  They gave me the injection, but I'm scheduled to get the surgery in mid September.  I have two more races that I've already payed for, and right after the last one, I'm going to get this thing taken care once and for all.  My hopes are that I can be fully recovered and given the green light to start running again by January, and that should give me enough time to get in shape for the summer racing season:)  I'm nervous and worried what the recovery is going to be like.  They doctors have already warned my that I'll need lots of help with the kids cause I'll be on crutches for about 4 weeks.  Luckily Cam's family is willing to help out, and my Mom plans on coming out to help too.

Overnight trip to Colorado

Oh wow, I'm a little behind on my blogging.  So much has been going on, so lets start with where I left off.

As I mentioned in the last post, Abby and I flew out to Colorado early Friday morning.  Abby was so cute, she was excited, and I think she was feeling really special to be able to come with me while the others stayed home.  We actually flew out of the Provo Airport, which was AWESOME!  It took us like 5 minutes to get to the gate once Cam dropping us off.  Way less stressful.  Anyways, Abby just loved the airplane ride.  She was quite the stickler for keeping her seatbelt on at all times.  One time she wanted something from her backpack that was under the seat, so I unbuckled her so she could get down and get it, and she had a minor panic attack.  She's a rule follower, for sure.

My Mom picked us up from the airport and we had planned to spend the day in Denver so we could visit my sister and her family that recently bought a house in Aurora.  We had talked about going to a movie (we actually had thought to go the the movie at the theater that had the horrible attack the night before we arrived but had to rethink that) and Abby wanted to see "Brave" again, so we found a theater close to my sisters house.  It ended up being a pretty awesome theater.  It was like a dinner theater.  You picked a seat in the theater, then a waiter would come, take your order and bring you food, just like a restaurant, but all while you watched the movie.  We thought that was pretty cool.  After the movie, we found a trampoline place for Abby to play at.  When she said she wanted to go to a jumping place, I reminded her she would be there alone, without any family/friends that she knew to play with.  She's so funny, she kind of furrowed her brow, and said it was ok, she would just find a friend there to play with.  And she did find two girls that she played with.  I wish it was that easy for me to make friends :)

At the movie theater.  I took the picture with my phone, and the flash is really bright, and she kept closing her eyes, so I told her to keep her eyes open, and this was the picture I got.  Also, check out that yummy milkshake, I might have snuck a few sips.  That's definitely the way to watch a movie.

At the trampoline place.

Climbing the wall

After a couple hours jumping around, we headed to Michelle's cause she was going to be getting home from work soon.  The kids all played, and I was given the grand tour of her new house.  Then we all went to dinner.

It was getting late, so after dinner we headed back to my parents.  Abby had been looking forward to playing on my parents swingset all day.  My dad had bought some new swings and stuff, and Abby just had to play on the set, so I let her stay up playing on the swings till it got dark.

The next morning, we loaded up the car to head back here to Utah. 

It was such a quick trip, but it was an awesome chance for me and Abby to get some one-on-one time, and she really enjoyed having a day just for her.