Bored

I actually just google searched "What to do when I'm bored." I have plenty of chores to do. I'm just....bored. Google has lots of suggestions.

More Moab Fun

Sick Justin in Moab on his 3rd Birthday.

Grandma bought them new glasses. Stylin!

Trying to hike Arches with 2 babies on tired legs is not the easiest.

These girls are amazing hikers. They had a great time.

Riding in Grandma's convertible. That alone was worth the 15 hours in the car.

Half Marathon

The race in Moab went relatively well. I took the very first set of buses to the start line and was lucky enough to find Emily from nursing school on the bus and was able to spend the 2 1/2 hour wait time with her catching up. I lined myself up with the 7:30 pace group and off we went. I bought a GPS watch and looked down to realize I was going a 6:15 mile. Way too fast. So I slowed way down and did the first 6 miles in 45 minutes. Then about 6 1/2 miles I crashed. I was thirsty and hot. I slowed way down and finished the race in 1:43. About a 7:50 pace. Not bad considering I did the last mile in 8:40. Extremely slow. My GPS watch said I ran 13.2 miles. I wonder if that was all the swerving back and forth on the road? And I burned 156o calories it said. Wow. Anyway, I feel okay about it since I did a hard training run the Tuesday and Thursday before the race. But it made me nervous for the Marathon and to go twice the distance. I also had expected Moab to be downhill. Not so. At all. It drops 77 feet in 13 miles. Not downhill. And there was quite a bit of uphill. So I have been training on hills all week this week hoping it will make a difference for Salt Lake. I sure hope so. Overall I enjoyed running Moab. I will sign up again for next year. I want to try the 5 miles again. I ended up placing 22nd in my age group and 95 overall for women. Not bad considering there were over 2500 women running and over 600 in my age group.

I did leave Moab feeling a little bit like a bad local bar band compared to U2. I need therapy, I think. The kids did great waiting for me and cheering my on. We lost Justin at the finish line, which was extremely scary. My mom found him at the lost kids booth. A nice lady turned him in. He was off in Moab. He didn't sleep at all since we were 6 of us crammed into two double beds. I took him to the doctor when we got home to find out he had a bad ear infection. Poor kid. Sick and lost on his birthday, which he spent watching me run. He told me on the drive home, "Can I still have a lightning party even though I already had my birthday?" Broke my heart. Of course we did. It was awesome.

Moab

We had a great time in Moab. I love that place. It is incredibly beautiful and warm. It took us 6 1/2 hours to get there and the kids did wonderfully considering the DVD broke 1 hour into the trip. We checked into our hotel on Friday early afternoon and took the kids swimming and enjoyed seeing my parents there. They spoiled the kids. Then we went to dinner and my parents drove the 3 bigger kids around in the back of their convertible, which was very exciting since Grandma brings blankets to keep them warm back there. Here are some pictures!

I will post more later.

WHY?!

I am feeling like I have too much to do. But I'm not sure what I'm supposed to be doing. Why is it that when I feel this way I also feel like now is the time to be bleaching baseboards? Help me!

Almost 3

I love Justin. Everyone does. He doesn't just have a mother's love, lucky boy. But I'm pretty sure I'm not going to miss much of the twos. SO here we come 3!! We're having a lightning Aqueen cake. And inviting 4-5 of his friends. Pretty much if Andy is there, his 4 year old friend he idolizes, he'll feel celebrated. He told me he wants a motorcycle. So if anyone wants to buy him a Harley, get it in Hans' size. Thanks!

Ashley

I love Ashley. She is the sweetest, nicest girl I know. This morning she said, "Mom, do you want to know what I love the most? I love cuddling with you and praying." This from the girl who

at 3 years old said to me, "I'm a good prayer, want to know why? Because I pray from my heart." I am in awe that I get to have this girl and to learn from her. She is good. She has no guile. And she already has learned to make other people happy and to care for other people's feelings. It's amazing. And so you can see why I would miss her when she is at school. I really do. Quite a bit, actually. And it doesn't help now that she is so busy after school and developing her own life. I miss her just writing this. She has started ballet again. She loves it. She is not the most graceful girl around, but she is amazingly flexible and enjoys it completely. She also goes to art class on Wednesday afternoons. She also loves that. She has a gift for art. We're taking a 2 month break from that to do soccer again so she can exercise (her words). I'm confident she'd rather do art and told her she could, but I know she wants to please my by exercising since she knows how important that is to me. She is a good little soccer player. It's fun to watch. I'm trying to keep her activities closer to home so we spend more time as a family. She is such a great first child. I hope the kids want to be like her. I do. Oh, and she lost her other front tooth and has a cute toothless grin.

17.5 miles

On Saturday I ran 17.5 miles, I think. I ran from the park at Palmer Lake to the Woodmen end of the Santa Fe Trail. It was warm, sunny, and beautiful. I love running outside. At least for the first 10 miles or so. Same old routine. I took sports beans at an hour in, but dropped a few of them. It's hard to eat those and run. I had gu at 2 hours and it was so gross. I think it was razz flavor and maybe it was a cliff shot. Don't get those. Yuck. I'm not sure how long it took me since I was having issues with my phone. Melanie ran the first 5 with me and it was about 40 minutes even. But I know I did the next 7 in an 8:20 average but then my phone stopped working. I stopped at REI after the run and bought a GPS watch. I'm excited to run with it in Moab this weekend. Last week was a hard running week. I ran 9 on Thursday and the long one on Saturday. That's it. My leg hurt too much to run before that, but after a visit to PT and for a sports massage, which was beyond painful, I felt awesome on Thursday. And this week I feel okay too. I did a fast 9 yesterday and will do it again on Thursday. Then Moab on Saturday. I kind of want to place. Everything I read says not to because I can't afford to lose the last 2 weeks of training. But I'm not sure I care. SO now I have one 20 mile run left. Hooray!!

Katelyn and Graham

Don't you think they should get married? Want to arrange it Tamzen?

Sweet Mia

I love Mia. A lot. She's a cute girl. She is so small, but just so full of personality. And so I hate it when she gets sick. On Thursday she got really sick with a fever. On Sunday she still had a fever. I wanted to take her to the doctor on Friday, but decided against it. Finally I took her today. I'm not sure why I was dragging my feet. I knew she had ear infections again. Maybe I just didn't want it to be true. They want me to get her tubes. I think I will wait until fall and see how the summer goes. She's had 7 ear infections this winter. This one was so bad since I waited so long that it perforated her ear drum. Nice. But now I can expect in 2 days for my sweet Mia to be back. Hooray!!!

Katelyn's Birthday Party!

We had a really great time at Katelyn's birthday party. We had everyone come in and color a picture and then change into their leotards and do yoga kids. They were so cute. Then we ate pizza and chips and soda and did some tricks on our balance beam. Then we did the pinata, had an obstacle course Katelyn had made up and ate cupcakes and ice cream. Then we opened presents and watched 12 dancing princesses until mom and dads came. It was crazy. We had 13 kids. And Hans was at the Doctor with Mia or Justin, I can't remember. Maybe both. But Ashley and Kaylee were a great help and the kids all seemed to have a great time. Especially Katelyn. She said she might invite less people next year since it was crazy. But she can't possibly imagine leaving anyone she plays with out. So I'm sure it will be crazy next year too. It's one of the things I love about Katelyn. She does an amazing job, even at 5, of making sure everyone feels included and loved. What a skill.

Katelyn is 5!

It's hard to believe that my beautiful Katelyn is 5! (Well I've gotten used to the idea in the last 2 months.) I'm a little behind on scrapbooky blogging. But she is 5! And just so darn cute and fun. She adds so much to our house. She is filled with joy and energy and is a positive influence in our home. She is always enthusiastic and ready to play. I just love her so much. And feel grateful to have her. Some of my favorite things about Kate - She has the best smile ever. It lights up the room. She loves to make me lists so I won't forget things. I forgot her at pre-school once. This morning I woke up to a list of - buy milk, chiken, drt bike, and dogk. She thought it was SO funny that she spelled dog with a k at the end. And funny that she had added dirt bike for dad. She is a stellar writer and reader. Above average in everyway, if I may brag. She is awesome at gymnastics. She can land a cartwheel on the skinny beam, do 11 pull-ups on her own, and do beautiful backwalkers one after the next across the floor. Last thursday she won the contest for best cartwheel that ends with an archback thing. She does at least 100 cartwheels everyday. And is getting braver. She has gotten so reverent lately too and loves to give the talks in primary, sing songs, and plan FHE for me. I love to hear her sing. It is just pure joy. Seriously. Call her to sing to you if you need a pick me up. Works every time. I promise. What else can I say? She is beautiful Katelyn Grace and we can't imagine our lives without her.

Katelyn was due on my birthday, but came 3 days late after a very unsuccessful VBAC attempt. She was my heftiest baby at 7 lbs 11 oz.

Katelyn at 1. She could crawl at 5 months, walk at 10 months. She looks so much more grown up in this picture then Mia does even now a little bit older.

At 2. She could talk in completely legible sentences and was potty trained. See what I mean about above average in every way?!

I can't believe she was only turning 3. She seemed perfectly grown up to me. We even had a craft party since she was really into arts and crafts and invited a lot of almost 3 year olds. I realize now how much older I thought she always was. It makes me feel badly to look back at it because I didn't let her act like a typical 2-3 year old. She was definately acting 5 by then.

Isn't she cute?!

Here she is at 5. Need to call Rachael for some new photographs, but this is how I see her most days - In a leotard doing projects or upside-down. Gosh, I love her.

I am a Celebrity!

Check this out over at Robin's blog.

It makes me feel like a celebrity when someone who is so incredible is admiring me.

Wow! Thanks!

20 miles

I think I went 20 miles anyway. I ran more for time. It's been ridiculously beautiful here the last couple weeks. This morning as I passed the bank at 6:45 it was 42 degrees. So I took advantage and started my run outside. I think I ran 10.6 miles outside and then ran into the YMCA onto a treadmill and ran 9.4 more. I'm sure of the 9.4. I stared at every tenth of a mile as it passed by. I did the last 9.4 miles in an average of 8:06 minute miles. I think I did about 8:30 minute miles outside. Which means the run averaged about 8:20 for the 20 miles. I'm unsure about outside because I felt like I was going slow, but not 8:30 slow, and my time - 1:31 - I thought I'd be more like 11, at least. So how accurate is google maps for a runner? And why do I care? Because those last 5 miles are all mental and I didn't want to go 1 step more then I had to.

So there it is. 20 miles in about 8:20 pace and I think the run was about 2 hrs and 48 minutes. 2 minutes slower then last time. But half was outside and I forget how hilly of an area I live in until I'm running. I'm hoping I can knock my pace down to 8 minute miles for the whole marathon.

I ate sports beans at an hour and power gel stuff at 2 hours. And drank 20 oz of water and 10 of gatorade. Couldn't weigh myself first so I'm not sure if I lost less weight. I weighed myself after so I'm hoping I lost less. I felt WAY better then last week when I only did 16. I did that quite a bit faster. Running outside slowed me down, I guess, but it was so much happier. Which matters. But I have to convince myself it's more important then the pace. I'm crazy. I can't wait for this to be over. Note to me:If you're reading this considering doing another marathon. Don't. It's annoying.