Utah Valley Half Marathon

I did it! My first half marathon! I can not imagine doing that twice. Hats off to you full marathon runners out there! You're a little crazy in my book.

Anyways, 1-800 Contacts paid for Josh to run the race. I planned to run it too, but kept procrastinating on the registration. When I finally went to register it was full! So I kind of halfheartedly trained thinking I might run part of the race with Josh and our friends, Mindy and Tyson. Then about a month before the race a spot opened up for me to take. So my training was not fantastic and I had terrible shin splints for a good chunk of our training. However, I did run the whole thing, walking only to drink water at the aid stations. It was such an awesome experience and we're planning to run another one in October. I was hoping for about a 10 minute mile average pace and finished in 2:15 so I was pretty much right on with that pace. It was what I expected. Next time I hope to beat it though. Josh finished in 2:04. He ran with me for the first 1 1/2 miles but my pace was a little slower than his and we had agreed beforehand that we would rather stick with the pace we were comfortable with than stick with each other. Isn't that sweet? :) So I had no problem with him leaving me in the dust!

I was pretty nervous before starting the race. We had to leave at about 3:30 am for Provo and then took buses up to the race start. I got nervous when the buses just kept driving and driving and I kept thinking about how I was going to have to run the whole way back. The farthest we had run before this was 11 miles. Fortunately, this race had a bit of downhill (though I could have gone for a little more of that) and it was nice and cool in the early morning and we had a pleasant breeze at our backs. It was a pretty ideal morning for running.

I discovered two products of which I am now a big fan. KT tape saved my shins during this race. I saw a guy taping a girl's knee with this stuff at the expo when we picked up our race packets. So I asked him to tape my left shin where I've been getting terrible pain. It didn't completely cure the pain during the race but it helped significantly. The night after the run I took it off and almost immediately regretted it. I didn't realize how much it was helping even hours after running! I bought new running shoes a week after the race and a bunch of that tape and my shins have felt much much better.

The second thing is Sport Beans made my Jelly Belly. Way yummier than GU and they didn't make me too thirsty. I just took a couple at each aid station and they helped quite a bit I think. I still got very hungry while running. Right around mile 8 I started feeling hungry and by mile 11 my stomach was growling. Those half bananas they handed out at the last couple aid stations seemed to make my stomach more angry because it just wasn't enough. I guess I'll try to eat more breakfast next time.

Well, it feels awesome to accomplished this!

Sunday photos

I have a picture frame that needs to be updated in our living room. And several other frames that still need to be filled! So we headed to Gardner Village on Sunday so I could have a little fun with my camera. Some days the kids just don't cooperate. Oh well we'll try again another day. This is another reason why I don't think I'll ever become professional. It would be stressful to have a one hour set time and be expected to get great pictures when kids just might not want their picture taken that day. You just can't force them to smile or look at the camera. And the weather is always to be determined as well!

Well the weather was beautiful on Sunday but I just didn't quite capture what I was hoping for. This one is my favorite I think.

And this one is a pretty cute father's day shot.

And then there are these...

No matter how many tears or how many times the baby wanders off I will always love these shots. And soon I'll get the perfect picture to fill that frame. But it doesn't really matter because they grow up so fast it will just need to be updated again soon.

First Day of Summer!

A couple weeks ago we had an relief society night about fun cheap things to do in the summer. One of the best things we got out of that meeting was a schedule for the whole summer with something special about each day like "fly a kite day" or "national frozen yogurt day". Well the first day of summer break happened to be the anniversary of the first US spacewalk. So my sister and I took our kids down to the Gateway mall to the planetarium. The kids had a lot of fun walking around and learning space things. But the highlight of the afternoon was definitely playing in the fountains afterwards. We will have to do that a few more times this summer.

Even Camryn got really into it. She wasn't scared at all and even wandered off while I was helping the other kids, which put me into a panic for the whole 10 seconds that I didn't know where she was.

It will be nice having Sydney around for a few months. She takes good care of her little sister.

The boys were really excited that we let them take their shirts off. They were just dying to impress the ladies with their big muscles and farmer tans.

What a fun afternoon! Great way to start off the summer. This summer will be filled with fun things. A few weeks ago my brother Nate and his girlfriend Sarah decided it would be a good summer for a wedding.

So we will be heading to DC next month! We're really excited about that. Now we have a half marathon, birthdays, bridal showers, new babies, family reunions, some great sightseeing and wedding to look forward to!