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Makenzie's First....

...trip to LAGOON! Well, to any amusement park, for that matter. It was a total blast. Justin's dad had his work's annual Lagoon day there, so we got a really good deal on tickets. Justin's grandma saved the day and watched Jarom for us all day, so we got to take Makenzie on a lot of rides.

This was the first time I've been to an amusement park since I had kids. It was a really different experience. Yet again, I've learned from parenting that life really isn't about me anymore. Don't get me wrong, Justin and I got to go on plenty of rides, but it just wasn't the same as it used to be (gotta hit all the big coasters twice and the rest of the rides once). The best part of the day was watching Kenzi's face on all the rides. Way better than any roller coaster. I think my favorite was watching her do the bumper cars. She was smiling and going along and then she hit somebody. "Sowwy." She said sorry every time she hit someone. Then some kids hit her and she would just give them this "It's okay" smile. So cute. Wish I had a picture. Another lesson learned - don't ever leave your camera behind when taking your kid to the amusement park for the first time.

But I did have the camera for part of the time. Here are some pics!

All drenched after Rattlesnake Rapids.


Me ticked off because I was the only one who got totally drenched on Rattlesnake Rapids. I know I'm kind of a baby for getting mad, but who wants to walk around soaking wet for hours? I'm not into wet jeans. Justin says I'm getting old.


One of Kenzi's favorite rides.


The carousel took the cake for Makenzie's favorite ride. She rode it 5 times over the course of the day.


Justin really liked it, too.

My 10 Mile Story

6:11 a.m: I SLEPT IN. The alarm didn't go off. Mad rush to Provo. Stomach kills. Happened to get a stomach ache the night before. Go figure.

6:45 a.m.: Get there. Grab my bib and jump on the last bus that takes us up the canyon. Get really nervous as the bus keeps going and going and going. Justin's brother Jake, who ran the race with me, reassured me it wasn't as long as the bus ride made it seem.

8:00 a.m.: Got running! I wasn't sure what my plan of attack was for this race. Did I want to start fast since the first part was all downhill? Or did I want to save energy for the end when {hopefully} everyone would start getting tired?

I decided to just take it easy for the first few miles. I got passed by what felt like EVERYONE. That's sort of a discouraging feeling. Sixty year old couples were passing me. Kind of large people were passing me. And of course the people with the fanny packs that hold little bottles of sports drinks were passing me. One girl had a Camel Pak. How thirsty do these people really get? They give you drinks along the way. I'd rather toss some water down my mouth and lose 2 seconds on my speed than carry a backpack the whole way! The good thing about everyone passing you is you get to do some fun people watching.

Mile 4: Feeling GREAT. Trying to catch up to Jake. That lady behind me had gray hair. I think she ended up beating me.



Mile 6: Caught up to Jake. We were running so fast. I don't know where this energy came from mid-race. It was fun. Jake said, "I don't usually run this fast." I said, "Neither do I!" But we kept it up for the rest of the race. I couldn't have done it without him. I kept thinking, "Just keep up with Jake." He later told me he was just trying to keep up with me. That's some weird psychology.





Mile 8: Getting less fun. Must finish race. Must keep up pace. Put thumbs up so it looks easy.


{Look how BEAUTIFUL.}

Finish: This was a humbling moment. I'm on my TENTH mile. The farthest I've ever run. I barely have the energy to keep a decent pace. I want to sprint but I can't. And then I see her. She's about 30 feet ahead of me. She must be close to sixty. She doesn't look particularly "fit" at all. Kinda saggy skin, maybe she was once very overweight. As if her age and physique alone didn't make me want to beat her, she was SPEED WALKING. Yes, go ahead and laugh. I know you're wondering how slow I really am. But this lady was freaking FAST. Maybe it was a little more than speed walking, but it was close enough. I gathered every ounce of strength in my tired body and I BEAT HER!! Yahoo! But Jake still beat me. By 2 seconds.



Final results:

I finished 24th in my 25-29 age group. There must have been several hundred in my age group though, so I'm happy with that. Jake finished 2 seconds ahead of me and was 6th in his 19-24 age group. There were SOOO many girls. I think everyone wanted a reason to get fit for summer.

I also didn't throw up. Thank goodness for prayers. They work.

My overall time was 1:27:02. That's 8:42 per mile.

Anyone want to join me for the Park City Half Marathon in August?

(I won't tell you how sore I am.)

Thank You Dad

For learning how to make a ponytail.


For letting me help you with your projects.


For teaching me to eat from a spoon.


For changing a gazillion diapers.


For being so funny.


And so fun.


For taking me to cool places.


For helping me carve my pumpkin AND dressing up like a cowboy to take me trick-or-treating.


And including me even though I was too little to go trick-or-treating.


And most of all, thank you for being YOU - a dad who always brings home laughter, who teaches us to be better people, who provides for us and who will get down on the floor with us and make us feel like the most important people on Earth. We love you. Happy Father's Day.

Big Week for Justin

Justin had a busy week. Besides going to his masters classes 6 hours a day and doing more homework every night, he managed to do some major landscaping efforts to our yard (gotta build that shed) and he and Reed did the fireknife as the pre-game entertainment for the Utah Blaze on Monday.

He got a couple of burns, but nothing that couldn't be healed by a big hug from one of the Blaze dancers. "I think she thought she knew me from somewhere." Haha, what do you do when your husband is such a hot fireknife dancer?

Anyway, they did GREAT. I was very proud. Those 20 minutes of practice really paid off!

A few notes. Justin lit the second side of his knife with his MOUTH (hard to do). Sorry for the lack of zoom. We will upgrade our camera someday. Also, if you're not familiar with fireknife dancing, when it's not moving for a while, it's because the knife is on their feet.

Ducks and Such

We went on a little trip to feed the ducks today at Gardner Village with my friend Shannon, her cute 2-year-old Weston, and darling little baby Davin. There were some ducks, but some other little visitors kind of attracted our attention more. There were some nasty, humongous fish in the water that probably got 90% of the bread we threw out. I tried to get a picture, but they were the icky muck-colored fish that blended with the water. There was also a random dog running around. So it was an animal experience all around.

(hmmm... boy or girl?)

Then Kenzi and Weston played in this awesome bookstore that had the coolest Thomas train table I've ever seen. Kenzi liked the soccer table, too. She's really good at throwing the soccer ball in the goal.=)

Then we headed over to good ole McDonald's for some grub and somewhat private conversation time while Kenz and Weston played. It was a nice little trip! Ahhh the joys of summertime.

Life Lessons I've Learned From Running

#1 - I can finish what I've started, even if I have a good excuse to quit.

#2 - Strong wind and uphill climbs really suck, but they feel a lot easier when I remember they're making me stronger.

#3 - I am amazed at how much more I can do when I set goals. When I just do whatever I feel like, I inevitably do less in the long run. (no pun intended.)

#4 - Drivers are not always watching for pedestrians. Be careful out there (yes. I did almost get run down).

#5 - If my husband's going to be home in an hour and I still haven't showered, I might as well wait til he gets home and go for a run first! lol

My longest race so far, the Provo Riverwoods 10 Mile, is this Saturday. I just started getting ready for it last week, so I'm not expecting a fast time or anything. But I WILL finish it. Race day will actually be my first time running 10 miles, so it should be interesting!

50 Posts Already??

Wow. This is my 50th post. Obviously I am addicted to my computer. I created this blog seven months ago and my posts seem to be getting more and more frequent, regardless of whether or not anyone is reading them!=) (thanks to the few of you who read my blog for your comments. It makes me feel like I'm not a total loser).

Well, post #50 is worth a monumental moment, so here it is:


Jarom's First Haircut

Date: June 10, 2008

Performed by: Dad

Place: Basement bathroom sink

Notes:
-He kept turning on the water, soaking himself (we didn't really think that part through).
-This will be one of many haircuts by DAD, as mom has been warned to "stay away from my kid's hair." (no objections here!)
-Justin is going to have to start cleaning his trimmer better - Jarom had black hairs all over. (they don't exactly blend)
-Overall, I think Jarom liked it. He always enjoys a change of pace and attention from mom and dad!

It finally happened...

I got pulled over. I've never been pulled over and have always been proud of that (because it's not like I don't speed). WELL I guess technically I didn't get pulled over because I was already in my driveway when the cop pulled up.

He was a scary cop. Not one of the nice ones. One of the ones who wants you to be scared. The kind of cop whose alter ego "mean guy" comes out when he puts his cop uniform on.

"Do you have insurance for this vehicle? I ran your plates and it says your insurance is expired."

"Uhh.. yeah. We just switched our insurance provider a few weeks ago so the old policy is expired. But we have a new policy. [this is when I should have shut up] AND I did register it online, it's registered."

He looked confused. Then looked at my expired registration sticker.

"OHH. Yeah, well I need proof of your insurance and the paperwork for your registration."

CRAP. I hadn't really registered it online yet. But I had gotten it inspected and know it only takes 2 seconds to register online and print out your temporary registration. So what did I do? I BOOKED IT downstairs and registered that dang car! I printed out my temporary registration and of course it said registered on "6/06/08" {today}. It was probably really obvious what I had just done, especially since it took me a little while to get back outside. But he checked it all out and I was SAFE.

Whew!!!

I was shaking for a while after that. So... can I still say I've never been pulled over? And should I delete this post since I'm totally incriminating myself?

And so the Adventure Begins

It's yard sale time, ya'll!

Who doesn't love a good yard sale? I have been to MANY, MANY yard sales... some are good, some are gross, some are overpriced and SOME... are like hitting the jackpot. Every Saturday morning, all summer long, I lay in bed thinking I won't go, won't spend money. But my thoughts always drift to the possibility of hitting one of those glorious yard sales with tons of nice stuff for practically nothing.

And Saturday was one of those days.

I shouldn't have gone. We were on the way home from the doctor's office, for goodness' sake (me and Kenz have both been a little ill... she is actually better, but her ear drum burst from an ear infection last month that just never went away, even with antibiotics).

But the sign said "Model Home Furnishings Garage Sale." How could I resist?

To make a long story short, I actually went back to the yard sale two times, because I kept thinking of other things we needed. And, as any yard sale frequenter knows, if you go at the end, things start getting cheaper. And yeah, they got cheaper! The last time I went, one of the ladies came up to me and said "You just walk around here and if there's anything left that you like, just take it." I felt like I had won the decorating lottery. This was nice stuff! There wasn't a lot left, but still, I was in heaven. Here's some of my loot!


Table, red mat and lamp


























(needs greenery)


Pretty cool huh?? I also got some Pier 1 curtains for free, but I forgot to take a pic. I love yard sales.