Gardner Village

 We've made it a tradition the last few years to go to Gardner Village in October with my sisters and mom to see the Halloween festivities. This year we debated quite a bit whether this is a tradition we want to stick with or not. It gets busier, and more expensive every year. But we finally decided that we may as well, and it was totally worth for the pictures if nothing else.

 Jackson believes with his whole soul that he IS Spiderman, and he's got the face to prove it.

 I would also never pay for Meili to have her face painted. It's expensive, and it lasts for a few hours, before we just have to fight about washing it off. Lucky for her, I give in to peer pressure easily and couldn't stand for her to be the only one not to get her face painted. And I'll admit, it was beautiful while it lasted.

After Gardner Village, we went to the family favorite: Noodles.

Pretty much when this time of year hits, I get giddy with excitement. College football, Halloween festivities, fall leaves, traditions, family, treats. What's not to love?

St. George Marathon

 In March of this year, I was talking to my sister-in-law, Grayce, and she said (enthusiastically) "Are you planning to run the St. George marathon?" I laughed and said (emphatically), "No." She looked at me like I was crazy because the way I answered was as if I didn't understand why she would even ask. So I pulled back a little, and said, "...why were you wondering?" Anyway, she and my other sister-in-law were planning to run, and since the St. George marathon is a lottery to get in, the more people you sign up with, the greater your chance of getting in. So I decided that for the sake of the two of them being able to run, I would sign up, and leave it up to fate whether or not we would actually get picked. However, I definitely had a mixed reaction when I got the email saying that I really was going to run the St. George reaction. Then I got another email saying that everyone who signed up was able to run this year, and they were even taking more entries. Blah! They didn't even need me to sign up! But that's okay. I decided to make the best of it, and I do feel like the St. George marathon is well-known enough that I should try it once just to cross it off the bucket list. 

Training went okay for this one. I did the triathlon in July, and that helped me stay motivated till then. I had some people in my ward offer to drive me up the canyon early in the morning, so those runs are always more pleasant than roaming aimlessly through neighborhoods for 12 miles. I got up to 15 miles pretty well, and a couple weeks later was supposed to run 18 (which I had timed perfectly in line with the marathon) and I can't even remember what excuse I came up with for not running, but needless to say, the farthest I ran before the marathon was 15 miles-which sadly, is not that unusual for me. 

So as the marathon got closer, I got more and more nervous about running it. I really wished that I gotten that 18 miles in, and I decided that this was probably going to be my last full marathon for awhile at least. I never train well enough for them, I hate feeling like I'm not well-prepared, I don't feel like it's really that great for my body in the long run to just run long miles, and I really loved the triathlon so much that I would rather direct my efforts there. The closer it got to the marathon, the less I actually focused on the marathon too. I was just excited to go to St. George with my family, and I decided that it would be fun to go to Vegas for a night as well as doing some hiking and sight-seeing in St. George.

We started our trip on Thursday night, and stayed the night in Springville with Jake and Kami. It was fun to see their family, and Kami was a trooper to let us come stay even though she has a new baby, and had just come home from a long vacation with her family. She made us dinner and breakfast and even offered to take our kids for the weekend-like I said, "A Trooper." But we declined that offer. On Friday, we left in the morning and drove MaryElizabeth with us. We were in St. George by lunchtime. We picked up my packet for the race, ate lunch, and took MaryElizabeth to her cousin's where she was staying. The evening, I thought it would be fun to find a family-friendly hike. After doing some outlet shopping, we drove around for an hour and a half trying to find an old cave where they mined some of the rock that they used for the St. George temple. We found out later, that we were really close, just misunderstood the directions, and took a wrong turn. So disappointedly, we made our way to Mesquite where we were staying. That night it all just kind of fell apart for me. Josh wasn't excited about going to Vegas the next day, so I was frustrated with him. We didn't eat dinner till late because I was too focused on getting everything set up in our hotel room. I realized that I didn't have music on my phone for the race. (Did I mention that Grant didn't sleep well at all Thursday night?)
I really wasn't excited for the race, and didn't feel prepared. 

The next morning I did my best to put all of that behind me. Cherilee was kind enough to let me use her phone for the race (and her music was way better than mine would have been.) I drove with Greg and Cherilee to the bus drop off, and on the drive, I realized that I was being kind of ridiculous and selfish about the whole Vegas thing. And I always like the adrenaline that comes at the beginning of the race, so things were starting to look up.

I didn't feel like we waited for very long for the race to start. In fact, Cherilee and I, were kind of scrambling at the last minute to get to where we should be at the starting line. Josh had made a bet at work about my finishing time for the race. The bet was over/under 4 hours and 20 minutes. Josh said that he bet that I would be over. I know, my husband is awesome. (Sarcasm). So I decided to show him. I wanted to start in front of the 4:15 pacer, but since I got in line at the last minute, when I figured out where I was, I had started behind the 4:30 pacer. So I cruised for the first little bit, to get where I needed to be. 

I really liked so many things about the race. The elevation of the course is awesome. The second half as a lot of downhills, to get you through the end. There's a pretty significant hill at mile 7, which didn't really bother me, but the 2 or 3 miles after the hill, is a gradual uphill, and that was harder than the actual hill itself, because I just needed a break after the hill. Luckily, miles 15 and 16 are an awesome downhill-so I felt like I finally got my wind back at that point. The whole race is run really well. I loved that there were great big mile markers and clocks to show me my pace, so I could really focus on one mile at a time. I would tell myself, "So the goal is to be at the next mile by..." At mile 16 when I was feeling really awesome, I started to get emotional, because I felt like I was finally doing as well as I thought I should in a race. And compared to the night before, I was shocked that I was still even able to run. But as the miles continued, I got slower and slower. When the 4:15 pacer passed me, I whined (in my head) "Come back!" But at the end, I felt like I was able to keep running for longer stretches at a time, than I have been able to in the past.

When I crossed the finish line, my time was 4:32, which was not as good as I had hoped for, but better than I thought I was going to be able to do (if that makes any sense.) When Josh came and found me, he was so excited. "Did you see how well you did?" "Well, the time said 4:30 when I crossed the line." "No, you're time was actually 4:25 because of when you started!" So in the end, I got a PR with a 10:08 min/mile pace. Still, like I said, not as good as I was hoping to do, but I'll take it. And Josh's reaction at the end made me feel even better about it. 

After the race, we drove back to Mesquite and at lunch with my parents who had come to support me. That night we swam in the pool at the hotel and ate dinner in Mesquite. It wasn't quite Vegas, but we felt like in the end, we would have rushed through Vegas so much we wouldn't have really had time to enjoy it. (But Josh promised that we could take an actual trip to Vegas to show Meili the lights and Bellagio, and the stores etc.-so I'll hold him to it.)

On Sunday, we watched Conference in my parent's hotel room with them, then headed to St. George. We went to the temple, and a park in St. George that has a river running through it, and a splash pad. Then we headed home in time to listen to the second session of Conference on the road.

 

 This is Cherilee coming in to the finish line. Even though she said she started getting leg cramps around mile 7, she still killed it!

 ...And then there's me. Not quite killing it, but still running at least.

 Blowing Josh a kiss when I noticed him.

 Josh is awesome to support me in my habits, and make it even a possibility, and I thought it was so nice of Josh's mom, and my parents to want to come support me. Plus, I love being with family, so it made the trip so much more enjoyable to have them all with me.

Random picture of Grant enjoying Paw Patrol in the bed in the hotel. It's always so fun to take our kids with us on trips. They're so excited about everything. It was not fun sleeping with Grant at night-just ask Josh.

 The children at the temple. I do want to try again sometime to find that cave. The missionaries at the temple told us about it, gave us directions, and gave the kids one of the rocks that we would have been able to get, had we found it.

 

 

 I also really liked being able to listen to Conference while we were in the car. I made Meili and I both a Conference book, so we were able to focus better, and I felt like I was less distracted than I sometimes am at home.

 Meili and Grant obviously loved the water. The sad thing is, I ran right past this park, and the temple, and the tabernacle during the race, and didn't even see them because I was so focused on finishing.

 Oh yeah, and that whole thing about this being my last marathon? I wouldn't count on it :)

The Random Continues

 These are more of the random pictures that I'm just unloading off our phones etc. beginning with this not so great picture of Grant riding Andrea's sheep at the Box Elder County Fair. We've made it a tradition the last few years to go to the Box Elder and Cache County fairs.

 This was one of the city's displays. I thought it was a clever idea.

 Another tradition is going to Cherry Hill with my family on Labor Day. For some reason we feel it necessary to try to take all the kids miniature golfing together in an effort to test our patience and the patience of everyone around us. Someday, we will all be able to go out in public as adults and not embarrass ourselves, and we will probably long for these days that seemed so chaotic in our lives. This was the first year that I truly felt like there was no one who even attempted to keep score. We were all just on a mission to finish without losing any of the children.

 With Josh's company, we had the chance to go to Rocky Mountain Raceway and do some drag racing. I'll admit that I was terrified to begin with... until I got in the car and realized that it was just driving-only faster. Josh and I raced three times and I (ahem) beat him twice. Then they had everyone race each other, and Josh and I both got eliminated the first round. What can I say? We are just both such cautious drivers, that it's hard to be so reckless. :) (Right... That's why.)

 The best part was just getting to be the two of us again, and not being parents for a little while. Every time Josh and I go on a date (if that's what we are calling work parties these days), I think to myself, "Oh yeah. I do like you."

 Just a random day at the park that my kids were acting especially cute.

 The older Grant gets, the more he steals my heart. Meili and I were talking one day, and she struggles with the idea of marriage. For about a year, she was convinced that she was going to marry Shasta in the temple. So we talked about all the reasons that that can't happen. So then just lately she asked if she could marry Grant, and I said, "No. You can't marry Grant, because he's your brother." And then I added, "And besides, if anyone in this family is marrying Grant, it's me." Yeah, someday, he'll think that story is totally gross. But I'm telling you, right now, he'd go for it.

 Yes. I'll admit it. Life is not bad with these two.

 This may only be hilarious to me. But Meili made a little strip of paper for each person in our family, and drew pictures of all the things that each of us love. This little scene, was part of Josh's strip. Yes, that is Meili, smiling, sitting behind Josh, while he's laying down, watching TV. Yep, that is life through Meili's eyes. (And her depiction is uncanny.)

 Grant got in to some of my lipstick. Let me tell you: that stuff was Perm.A.Nent.

 Another event Josh was privy to because of his work... A car dealership was hosting a hoopla to show off their new location. So Meili got her face painted, played on some bounce houses, we ate some hot dogs, ice cream, and popcorn...

 Josh won a $50 gift card in a pie eating contest. I'll say Way to Go for him, but for me? No thank you.

 Just a random picture of Meili that shows her beautiful face.

 More pictures from mini-golf.