Jarom Totally Ate it Today...

...RIGHT as I was taking a picture.

How hilarious is that??

Park City Marathon

Watch out, Usain. Here I come.







Go ahead. Laugh. It is probably the dorkiest picture of me in existence (well.. since middle school). Justin insisted I make the "lightening bolt" pose, and as if it weren't embarrassing enough, he kept making me do it over because I wasn't "doing it right." Obviously he was right. And obviously I am a huge nerd.

Well, I was no lightening bolt, but I did finish my first half marathon at 2 hours, 8 seconds. That's 9:10 per mile. I was 18th out of 70 in my division (female 25-29). I was 155th overall, out of 447. So not bad for my first one, but with plenty of room for improvement for next year!


My poor freezing children. We pulled them out of bed at 5 a.m. only to drive them to an elevation of 7,000 feet to freeze their little tushies off! If you're thinking "Poor Justin," you are right. He was one of only TWO dads to bring their kids to the start. Justin's awesome like that.



Where's Tara? That tape was there because they started us in 3 phases (the trail was kind of narrow). We had these chips velcroed to our ankles so you got an exact time. Check out that incredible sunrise.




I think this is the first mile. It was beautiful up there. Doesn't it just make you want to wake up before the crack of dawn and go run 13 miles?



Just getting started.



Just finished mile 10... 3 more to go!



All done and sharing peaches with Jarom. My medal is blue glass with wire swirled around it.

Okay, a few thank you's:

Thank you to the girl in the pink tank top for passing me, slowing down, and blocking me so that I was forced off the path. You inspired me to kick it into gear and beat your butt.=)

Thank you to the nasty bleeding blister that appeared on my heel on mile 9. You helped me decide that the faster I finished, the faster the pain would be gone.

And lastly (this one's for real), thank you to my mom and Sheena for all your great tips, and thank you to JUSTIN for being so supportive and cheering me along! Love you guys!

Halloween Really IS Scary

You try to keep your toddlers from seeing the gory violence all over the place. Justin and I learned real quickly that as soon as the eerie, scary music comes on shows like CSI (when they are going to show a shot of... say, some guy who has been impaled by an ice sculpture), Makenzie immediately gets glued in by the music and we have to switch the channel with lightening speed.

I don't even let her watch some Disney movies, because they can be a little freaky.
(By the way, I loved the movie Monster's Inc. until I had a toddler. She doesn't get the moral that monsters are really cool. She just remembers the part when they're hiding in the closet, ready to attack).

So in all my efforts to keep the nightmares away, we took an innocent trip to Michael's today, and saw something that resembled this:




Thanks a lot, commercialism. Now my 2 year old is permanently scarred.

No Night Running

Girls, please. I don't care how many cupcakes you ate, how big a race you have to train for or what kind of stress you're trying to release, PLEASE don't go running at night.

I have always been a big advocate of not getting unnecessarily attacked by being dense enough to slip into a little tank top and booty shorts, put on headphones, and then run around in the dark like a victim waiting to happen.

But it was an ACCIDENT. We had some of Justin's work friends over for a barbecue, so I pushed running as late as I could without being totally rude to my guests. But I HAD to run... my half marathon is this SATURDAY.

When I left, I thought I had plenty of light. But I didn't. It got really dark. I came cruising down 700 West/Main Street, which if you know where I live, then you know that is S-C-A-R-Y. No street lights, scary factory places, scary gravel yard place, etc. I was getting spooked.

So of course, scary weird guy had to POP out of nowhere. There is this trail by my house that goes along a river. I never run on it because it is so secluded that I don't feel safe. This weird looking guy in his 40's or so, kind of the geeky weirdo look with greasy straight brown hair and glasses, pops out of the trail head and whips himself around by grabbing the gate pole so that he is now running about 3 feet ahead of me. THIS MADE ME VERY UNCOMFORTABLE. So what do I do? I run to the other side of the street. What does he do? Run to the other side of the street, too, now about 15 feet behind me.

OKAY THAT'S IT SCARY WEIRDO. I started booking it. I mean, like the literally running for your life kind of running. Have you ever done that? It is awful. And kind of embarrassing, but I'm not willing to risk it for the sake of saving face. Yes, serial killer look-alike, I am scared of you and I am running for my life.

This is when it gets even scarier. I'm running as fast as I physically can (and praying all the way) and I notice no cars have gone by in a while. I turn around and he is GAINING on me. Do you know how fast this guy must have been running to gain on me? I know I'm not that fast, but I was sprinting at full speed. I was so scared. Finally I made it to my neighborhood and lucky for me, we have a lot of Mexican people in our neighborhood so there were tons of people outside=). I don't know when I lost him, but I do know that I will NEVER EVER go running that late again.

Our Bilingual Children

Ahh, yes, there we are. Two college-educated individuals who have dedicated their lives to the study and instruction of the Spanish language.

And let me tell you... there is no greater joy than to hear our lovely 2-year-old scream her Mexican neighbor friend's name across the yard:

Buweeto!! Buweeto!!

That's right. Makenzie thinks little Juanito's name is Burrito. I have TRIED to help her get it right. But she just loves her little Burrito. I don't know how many times she has said it in front of his parents. I'm just hoping and praying they can't understand her.

The Tri-Baby Luau

Baby #1: Ka'aulani


Baby #2: Baby John


Baby #3: Dakodah

Look alike? Yeah, they're cousins. Our good friends Reed & Tasha just celebrated their baby's first birthday. And when I say celebrated, I mean celebrated.

Believe it or not, Reed's sister Jodi had their baby THE SAME DAY that little Ka'aulani was born. And Reed's brother Rene had their baby just a couple of months before, so they decided to have a super duper, unsurpassed, TRIPLE BABY LUAU.

I am not kidding you when I say they probably spent 50 times what I will ever spend on my poor children's birthdays. But it was a TON OF FUN. It was basically a carnival. Makenzie loved it.


And this was just the beginning. They also had fresh popcorn going and...


Snow cones of course! Justin got pretty pro after a while.


Just look at those happy little hula dancers. Samoans are "the happy people" of Polynesia. I would also like to note that the chic has BLONDE hair. But then again, she does look more like a tourist.


The good ole "what the heck are you doing to me?" face. I thought face painting using stamps and markers was a great idea, but I'm a little nervous what that turtle is going to look like at church tomorrow.


Just enjoying snow cones with buddy, Caleb. They were practically gourmet, too. Makenzie's was guava strawberry. Mmmm...


Gotta love Lexi. The Touhuni girls are always helping me out.


One of the many games. Kids Makenzie's age just love stuff like this.


Okay, moving indoors, we sang Happy Birthday to the kiddies. There they are, with their moms. We were then all stuffed with some Hawaiian deliciousness.


They each had their own little cake. Tasha made this flip flops cake for Aulani and it turned out SOO GOOD! I am impressed.


Goodbye, beautiful cake. She even shared with her cousin.


Caught a cute moment with dad. Okay so each family all had matching outfits. Geez these people are cute.


And of course, what's a luau without an impromptu haka? If you can spot Justin, you win a prize. (no not really. who do you think I am? Sheena? j/k)