09.18.10 Top of Utah

Somehow, I did it!  I completed a marathon...26.2 miles.  Jenny convinced me back in March to begin training for this race.  She tried to convince all six of us sisters to run the Top of Utah Marathon together.

However, due to injuries and distances too far to travel, Jenny and I were the only ones at the starting line on race day.  Actually, we weren't even at the starting line when the gun went off.  We were up at the port-a-potties.  Since the race was chip timed, we weren't too worried about hurrying.  The group of mountain men who had stayed the night at the top of the canyon were kind enough to give us our own gun shot start.  After waiting over an hour in the dark and cold after being dropped off by the bus, we decided that next year we are going to make friends with these mountain men and camp with them the night before so we can sleep in and have a fire to stand by to keep warm.  At least we were able to find an old tarp to wrap around ourselves.

I really enjoyed the race overall.  They are right when they say training for a marathon is much harder than actually running a marathon.  And I didn't even train like I should have either, which probably comes as no surprise for those who really know me.  Before this race, 13 miles was the farthest I had run.  I was able to run a good pace until about mile 16, then I made Jenny go ahead of me and I slowed down a bit.  Around mile 19 or 20 I began alternating my running and walking.  By this time, most of my muscles had hurt like never before.  I would try to find new ways to run that would use different muscles.  I looked absolutely ridiculous but I didn't care at that point.


I was so grateful for Marc and his mom, sister, and niece who were there to cheer for me and walk/run with me for even a short while on a couple of points of the course.  Caitlin, my sister-in-law ran the whole last mile with me.  This was good because by then I was a feeling a little insane.

When I saw the finish line all I could do was smile.  I couldn't believe I had done it.  I'm so grateful for Jenny for getting me started in the first place and running the long runs with me for the last month.  I had decided a long time ago that I did not like running and that I could still be a good person even if I never did a marathon.  Yet, I have really started to enjoy running and plan to continue doing half marathons and perhaps another marathon sometime.  Codi was also a great motivator the beginning of this summer. We did our first half marathon in July (which felt harder than the marathon).  I don't think I could have finished that race if it wasn't for my amazing friend Megan Rowe, who stayed with us the whole race and paced us.

This is beginning to sound like an award ceremony speech, but I do have to recommend Christopher McDougall's Born to Run.  Reading this book helped me to learn how to run just for joy of it as well as getting rid of my fear of failing.

It was a miracle I finished but I'm glad I started in the first place.

And I just had to post this photo of the lady in the yellow shirt.  It just makes me laugh to myself every time I see it.

09.03.10 one year

...and he's still my very favorite!

So how did we spend our anniversary? Driving for nine hours in my little cadillac (more details to come later).  It is amazing to me that I found someone I love being with 24/7, but I guess that's why I married this boy.

I love you, Marc!

7.04.2010

Have you been to The Pioneer Woman blog? I discovered it about a year ago, and I'm sure most of you did long before that. I love this blog so much...especially because everyday I realize more and more that I'm married to a cowboy...one that just hates riding horses.

I'm planning to make this 4th of July cake for our family bbq this Sunday. We'll see if it actually turns out.

















I heart the 4th of July! One of my very favorite holidays!

5.24.09 This was my day...

Both Marc and I woke up sick this morning. We called in sick and spent the day on the couch the way Charlie's grandparents laid in bed. It was pretty much miserable, but we're just grateful we don't have sick little kids to take care of at the same time.

09.04.09 Costa Rica

These are some shots from our honeymoon in beautiful Costa Rica...

A few of the resort...

The pool was a series of connected pools. Marc's favorite was the swim-up bar.

And the Manuel Antonio National Park...

We saw quite a few of these huge lizards in the park.

They blended right in with the foliage, however, so each time we found one was a surprise.

We also encountered some monkeys eating nuts in the trees high above us. No photos good enough to post though.

We hiked for a while to find this hidden cove. It is was pouring rain by the time we found it,

so we didn't need to get in the water to get soaking wet.

And some of the crazy drive through the mountains from San Jose to the coast...

Our trusty little Suzuki "SUV".

And of San Jose...

What is a little more interesting about these photos is how they were lost and found.

Sometime in September our camera went missing. The last time Marc and I remembered using it was when we took it down to a Juab High School football game to show his family some photos from our honeymoon. We had his mom and sister look everywhere in their cars and called the Mexican restaurant in Nephi where we ate that night to ask if a camera had been found, but we had no luck anywhere.

We weren't so disappointed about losing the camera as we were about losing the photos from our honeymoon. I hadn't taken the time to upload them on my computer yet so all we had as memories were the three or four photos I had taken with my fuji instax.

But it is what it is, so life went on until one day in March...

I got a text from our friend Travis while I was at work. "I have your camera," it said.

Travis and his wife Alison live down in Cedar City but just stayed the night at our house the night before, so I assumed that my new camera had accidentally been mixed in with their stuff while they were packing. However, I had brought my camera to work that day to take some photos of one of our tax programs. I checked my purse, and sure enough it was in there.

I replied, "No you don't. Its in my purse," thinking they had mistook the camera they had with mine.

In response, Travis sent me a photo of Alison holding a blue Nikon camera. It was the camera we had lost back in September! I was beyond happy but confused about how they had wound up with it.

Apparently they had gone to lunch at the Mexican restaurant in Nephi that day while they were there visiting Travis's family. One of the waitresses brought out the camera and said she had been waiting for them to come in because the camera had been left and she had recognized Travis from some of the photos. Apparently when we had called back in September that specific waitress wasn't working at that time.

One of the photos on our lost camera...Marc, Travis, me, and Alison.

Thank goodness that Nephi is small enough that everybody knows everybody!

09.03.09

I admit that I am "one of those" girls who has been planning my wedding my whole life.  My sisters and I have pored over wedding magazines together as long as I can remember.  And yes, I did have my "dream wedding" in mind when Marc and  I began progressing towards engagement.  Yet, as soon as it was official, those dreams didn't matter so much anymore...I simply wanted it to be a day where we could celebrate the blessing of beginning a family while remembering our family members that had come before us and made us who we are.  And thanks to many people, it all came together just how I hoped.

The guest book was probably the most controversial thing about the wedding but it was one of my favorites!  I used one of my favorite books, it showcases a 1959 Museum of Modern Art Exhibit called the Family of Man.  These photographs are from all over the world and they portray the life cycle of humanity.  But apparently some were confused as to where to sign (there was plenty of white space) and others were offended by photos of African tribes with topless women.  However, my brother-in-law Matt loved it ;)   

Old photographs of our ancestors' wedding photos.

And the best part  of it all was knowing without a doubt that I married the man I want to always be with and will always be with.  

The stunning photography is the work of Kate Benson, my dress was made by the amazing Melissa Blackburn, and the flowers were by Flower Affair - Jana Lynn Kofford and her sister Wendy.  Thank you, thank you, thank you all!  You were all so perfect to work with and went above and beyond!