St George Marathon.

Oct 2ND I was able to go to St. George and Run the 26.2 grueling marathon. It was so hot!! We started running at 6:45 am , at that time it was already mid 70's in the canyon. Once the sun came up it really heated things up. It was MISERABLE. This was the hottest year ever! Go figure, the year I draw out.. When we finished before noon the temp was 98 degrees. You could not get away from the heat. Runners were dropping like flies. The DNF Vans (Did Not Finish) were full every time they went bye. Out of 9000,00 Runners only 5640 finished and only 2600 were woman. I finished in 4:36:07. I was kinda disappointed about my time. I was really wanting to finish around 4 hours or slightly under. Because of the heat, I started cramping at mile 20 and couldn't maintain my pace to get me in at my goal time. I dropped back from my Awesome running partner ( Dave Astile) who kept me on track and busy with conversation to think of the pain I was in. My last 6 miles Was really hard. It took me over and hour to finish those last 6 miles. The finish line was AWESOME! There were people lined up everywhere to cheer you on. As soon as I seen the finish line I couldn't help but to cry. Its such an amazing feeling to push your body so hard, but at the same time your in so much pain that you can not wait to cross that line and be done. Its a love hate relationship.. I'm so glad I was able to push through all those doubts I had and finish. I won't be doing any Marathon's anytime soon. I will stick to half marathon's , they are much easier on the mind and the body. .

Dinner with my Sisters. We were all lucky to go down and enjoy some peace and quite a few days before the marathon.. It was nice. Might I add, we had been driving all day, yes we are aware that we look like CRAP!

The house we rented was So nice! This was the slide off the pool. Of course we all tried it, more than once, and yes we probably woke up the neighbors while playing! :)

You go first, No you go first.. I'll go after you. We had a blast. Not sure this was the best thing to do the day before the Marathon. Notice how nice and cloudy it was the day before? That would've been perfect running weather.

According to Dave this wasn't a smart choice either. Oh well, it's only 26.2 miles. The hot tub can't be that bad? Can it?

Thanks to Shane, we had a personal Chef. He cooked us the best meal the night before the Marathon. Your Awesome Shane. Thanks for putting up with 4 girls who thought they needed to be pampered.. You did a great job. :)

Finally done! Yeah, need to call my family and friends to tell them I'm alive. Notice the Ice on the knees? That's the first thing that happens when you cross the finish line. You get rubbed down with ice then Ice packs wrapped around your knees to try and help prevent you from being so sore. Doesn't really help. It took me a good 3-4 days before I was walking normal .

Such a great feeling!! We all finished. So glad I was able to go through this journey with my sisters. They are the best! I am so lucky to have them. Thanks girls, you ROCK!

My parents surprised us and came down with Randy the night before. It was a great surprise. It was neat to have them there, to watch us complete this. Specially my dad. He is so busy this time of year and was able to take time off from the harvest to be with us. Thanks Mom, Dad, and Randy. Your support was HUGE, for all of us.

The race crew. We are all sick and feeling near death but we can fake a smile for the camera cause WE DID IT! Dave, Alicia, Me, Shay and Dana. The Fab 5.

Nothing like a Kiss to say Way to go! Thanks for all your support, and for taking care of the everything while I did all those long runs each week. I'm lucky to have such a great and supportive husband.

Camping!

Over Labor day we went camping with some of our friends.. Maybe our only friends that will put up with us for so long.. Thanks Love family! We had a great time, the weather was great, the four wheeler rides were long and dusty, and the guys scouting trips got longer and longer as the days went on. Luckily I had great company that I didn't even notice my husband was gone!!

Ash and her daddy hanging out in the Love's trailer. They rented theirs so we might as well hang out in theirs inside of ours.. Not to mention, it was bigger than ours.

Ash and Erin having a beauty day in the trailer. Ash loves to be all pampered. Erin was so cute to do her nails and make her feel special. Thanks Erin, Ash really loves you and little Hal.

Ash and Hallie. They are so cute together. They tell everyone they are twins. They have such a fun time together. Ash bosses Hallie around, and little Hallie does whatever she says. Friends forever!

Bennett, Kobe,and Dawson going for our long truck ride into town to eat.. ARE WE THERE YET?? Then on the way home we had to go and scout for deer, as if they hadn't scouted enough..

The guys getting back late from one of their many scouting trips to eat what was left over from dinner.

Boating.

This year we were able to go and do some boating with our friends Jake and Erin Love. We had a great time. Can't wait for next year. Here are a few highlights from one of the many boating trips we did.

Kobe, Bennett and Dawson Love being crazy on the tube at Willard. Love these boating days~ Thanks Love family for sharing your boat with us. You guys are great!

Randy, Ash and Hallie Love. They rode the tube longer than the boys. You could hear their high pitched giggles and squeals the entire time. It was very cute.

Randy wake boarding for the first time. He did really good, but I have to admit I was better. Maybe next year babe you can get in and out of the wake.. :)

Jake, getting some sweet air. He was amazing! He made it look so easy. He was really fun to watch.

Erin Love, being a pro. She is really good, and like Jake makes it look so easy. Too bad I didn't have a good camera. Notice how dark it. Rand and I took all the time. Sorry guys! You are so nice to let us keep going and going. I'm sure you bored to death.

Kobe's first time wake boarding with the help of Jake. He did really good. Next year he will go by himself, right Kobe??

We love to go boating! Thanks again to the Love Family for letting us tag along all the time. We had so many laughs and major wipe outs. Can't wait for next year.

First Day of School

First day of school. Its always exciting to go back to school. You get to wear all your new school clothes, get to meet your new teacher, see who's in your class, eat school lunch for the first time. My kids were really excited to go back to school.

Kobe is in 4th grade this year. He is in a 4th/5th grade split class. We are really excited he was able to be in this class. There are only 13 kids total in the class so he has lots of one on one time with his teacher. He was embarrassed mom was in his class taking pictures!

Bennett is in 1st grade. It was really hard for me to let my little Buddie go to school ALL day! Its hard to believe he is old enough, and he doesn't need me anymore. He was really embarrassed I was taking his picture. I took his picture, then gave him a kiss, and told him I loved him. He came home from school and said, " Mom don't ever do that again. I said do what? " He said first of all you took my picture in front of everyone, then you gave me a kiss and told me you loved me. That was way embarrassing mom! Who knew that 1st graders got embarrassed by their mom. I thought I was still considered cool at that age.



Ash is in kindergarten. She loves school. Her kindergarten teacher was Mine and Randy's kindergarten teacher. She is the very best. We love Mrs. Thurgood. Ash is a social butterfly. She only goes 1/2 day, in the afternoon. She gets mad when the boys are leaving for school, she wants to be able to go as long as they do.

Its nice to have every afternoon to myself. I get a lot done. Its very nice and quiet. By the time they are getting home from school however I am ready for them to be home. As soon as the fighting starts 10 minutes later I am ready for them to go back!

Bennett's 7th birthday.

My little Bennett turned 7 on Aug 15th. We had a great day. We spent his actual birthday at Bear Lake boating and enjoying the warm summer weather with some of our good friends! Do you think I would've remembered my camera, NO!! We came home from Bear Lake and had cake and Ice cream with my family.

Bennett is very easy going. He does not need a lot of things to make him happy. He is very simple, easy going, and very caring. He still loves to snuggle with his mom, he gets his feelings hurt if you talk in a higher tone of voice. He is a NAG! As soon as we get in the car to go anywhere ( doesn't matter if its around back ) He is constantly reminding us to put on our seat belts. He does not stop until everyone is buckled up. He is very cautious and safe. He freaks out if my phone goes off while driving, for fear that I will text and drive. He still looks up to Randy like no other. He goes to work with Randy quite a bit and absolutely loves it. He loves to go hunting and fishing, he's an amazing soccer player, and I can always count on Bennett to give me a hug or a kiss just cause he wants too. He is my special little guy. We love him to death and we're so glad he is apart of our family.

Going along with loving to fish, Bennett wanted to go fishing for his birthday. So we woke up at 5:00 am ( We left Ash home, she didn't want to get another tick) and drove up to East canyon and fished. Kobe was certain he was going to catch more fish than anyone else cause he bought his own special power bate!

Let me just say, Bennett caught the first fish, the second fish, the third fish and the fourth fish. Finally Kobe realized his power bate wasn't very good and switched. Kobe eventually caught a fish, but Bennett was definitely the bread winner that fishing trip.


Here's Kobe's great catch. He was a little disappointed it took him so long to catch it, but at least he wasn't skunked all day.

The entire day they had to keep checking the live well to make sure the fish were still there and of course to measure and see who had the biggest fish.

The end result of our fishing trip. We had a great time. I don't go very much. Its too early, and Ash doesn't like to sit on the boat for that long with nothing to do. I am very glad I went this time, it is priceless to see the excitement in their faces as they are reeling in the fish! I love my boys!

Still catching up, part 2.

January of 2010 was pretty quite. Randy had his 33 rd b-day. He doesn't like his b-day so we really kept it low key. We are thankful for him and all he does for us ..

February we went to St George for the Presidents Cup soccer tournament with Kobe's comp soccer team. We had a blast! They did so good, up until the semi final game. We hadn't lost so we were feeling pretty good. We ended up losing the semi finals 1-0. Talk about a heart breaker. They scored off a dumb error! We were all pretty bummed. We should've been in the finals! The regular season started shortly after that tournament and we got revenge! We only lost 1 game out of 10. We had a great season. These boys are so much fun to watch, the level of soccer they are at right now is AMAZING! I love having them all come and hang out at our house afterwards, we have a great group of boys!

March was busy with Bennett's indoor soccer games. We had him playing on a U-8 team. ( keep in mind he was only 6) . He did so good! He was the teams leading scorer! One game he was going in really hard against a bigger kid, and the ball kicked him in the face. Rand and I yelled to him to get up he's was ok. He looked up at us with blood all over his face. He got hit right in the nose. Bleeding everywhere! I felt so bad! We cleaned him up, and off he went. He was a little timid at first but that didn't last too long.

April, we GOT IN!!! MY sisters and I decided to enter to see if we would be lucky enough out of 10,000 runners ( they only let 7000 runners do it) to draw out for the ST George marathon. Yup 26.2 miles, are we crazy? I think so. I didn't think we would get in, its just the luck of the draw and i have no luck so I wasn't worried! The one time I am lucky is when I don't want to be lucky! So looks like we get to start pounding the pavement soon. The marathon is Oct 2, 2010

Its a huge race! I'm really excited! We are going to make a fun little trip out of it. Other than the April was fairly slow compared to the last two months! I subbed a lot this month. Its nice to have a option for some extra money, and its always nice to get a little break, makes my kids love me more when I'm gone a few days here and there!

May We ran the Ogden Marathon Relay race! It was fun, but we felt kinda lame just doing the relay. Specially when you are running in with people who ran 26.2 miles and you only ran 6 or 7 miles. It was fun, we had a great team. ( L to R) Jake and Erin Love, Jon and Dana Tesch, Rand and I, Scott and Brittney Berritt, Brady and Shay Manning For some this was a first time race. They did awesome! Next year we will be doing the half and some the full marathon! Randy said he would run the full marathon with me next year. It is so AMAZING watching all these people run that far, its amazing what your body will do when you push yourself! I think watching all the runners complete the Marathon really helped me get excited for my Marathon in Oct. I love to exercise and love to be challenged so this will be good.

June , Ragnar time! We had a blast! It was so hot! I was runner 3 this time, Randy was Runner 4. My total miles was 18.5 Randy had 14. My first run was so hot, I wanted to die! We had a fun team. Our team consisted of : Van #1 Randy and Brooke, Brady and Shay, Dana and Dave Astil, and Jon was our van driver. Van #2 Mike and Stacie Merrill, Shad and Nat Stromberg, Brian and Maryann Carlson, and Amy Martin was their van driver. Here are some of the highlights from Ragnar!

I am a huge biggest loser fan, I was a huge Sione fan. We were standing at the start line and I was shopping standing next to this guy. I kept telling Rand and I know that guy from somewhere. I told my sis I think that is Sione off of biggest loser, she said no I think he's from saved by the bell. Anyways, we went up and talked with him for a while. He is super cute, and super nice! We were star struck for a while!

Finally we finished! Logan to park city, 188 miles between 12 people. Its a lot of fun. Its amazing what a warm shower, tooth brush and some sleep will do for ya! Those late night and early morning runs are pretty challenging. Can't wait for next year.

Ash also had her 5th B-day! I can't believe she is growing up. She is such a little sweet heart. We love her to death. She is totally a daddy's little girl. She loves to snuggle with him and give him loves. She loves diet coke and any kind of treat. She loves to wear hats! She is always wearing these little hats, she hates to have her hair combed. She loves to be girlie but hates to put the time and effort into being girlie.

JULY I turned the big 30!! I can't believe I am 30. I use to think 30 was so old, now here I am. My friends surprised me and took me out to dinner and then shopping. We decided it would be fun to be young again, so we went and toilet papered one of our friends, hee hee! It was a good times. It was fun to be young again. Its hard to recover from being out all night when your old. I use to be able to do that every weekend with no problem.

Kobe's team played in the La Roca tournament over the 24th of July. La Roca is one of our biggest rivals! We beat them in the championship game, in double over time! It was AWESOME! We were down 1-0 within the first 30 seconds of the game. We held them the entire game, then with 5 minutes left of the game we scored, sending the game into overtime. We scored the winning goal with 2 minutes left of the 2nd overtime! It was so neat to watch these boys play as a team.. It was AWESOME! Good job Rampage boys, and awesome coaches!


Kobe and Colton. Two cousins on the team. Kobe is offense and Colt is our defender. Colton scored our tieing goal off a corner kick header.

This is Braulio. He is my adopted son. I wish, he does spend a lot of time at our house. He is an amazing player. We love this little kid to death.


This is Gil. He spends a lot of time at our house. They are great boys. We love them to death.

Last but not least, THE VICTORY DANCE! Nice jobs boys. Way to go. Can't wait for many more victory dances! Ash changed my setting on my camera so its not the best picture.

Catching up!

After Ragnar, we got our hands a little dirty and did a lot of hard work. All the grand kids helping grandpa kill turkeys. The boys love to get in and help whenever there's blood and guts involved.

In July we spent most of our time at soccer tournaments with Kobe's soccer team. We went to the Rampage tournament, The La Roca tournament , and the Park city tournament. We have a great group of boys.. They are so fun to watch!



We went down to visit my little niece Brittany. She spent a week in primary Children's hospital. She found out she is diabetic. The kids loved watching her give herself shots. Brit is a great example to all the younger cousins . They all love her and look up to her . We love you B!

Next was Bennett's 6Th BDAY!! Wow, how the time flies. I can't believe my little buddy is growing up. Where does the time go? I can remember holding him when he was a baby. He use to love to cuddle with me. We would cuddle and rock all day long. He still loves to sneak into our bedroom at night and snuggle up with mom. He knows to come to my side, cause dad always says no.

Bennett wanted to go bowling for his birthday. So we all went to spare time in Syracuse. We went bowling, golfing and played laser tag. Isn't this the cutest little face?A few things about Bennett, He is such a sweet heart. He is still very proud of his brown eyes. He is very loving and tender. When I get mad at him I just have to give him " the look" and that's enough for him. He tries to do everything Randy does. He tells everyone when he grows up he is going to sell lumber. Bennett is a really good soccer player. He scored all his teams goals and was the top defender. He loves dogs. He loves dinosaurs. He always wants to wear long sleeve shirts and pants, even in the summer time. He hates sweat pants or any type of warm ups. He will not wear shoes if they don't lace up. He is unique, and we love him very much!

BACK TO SCHOOL

Bennett's first day of kindergarten. He was so nervous to go to school. He did great, he met lots of friends and was well liked. His teacher told me at the first parent teacher conference that she didn't know kids could be popular in kindergarten. She said Bennett was definitely popular!

Ash also started preschool. She went to youngster university, in west point. She went three days a week, ( I had some freedom) Mon, Wed, and Thursdays. I worked at her school every Wednesday. It was a lot of fun to be there with her and see how she interact with all the other kids.

Notice there is no picture of Kobe on the first day, no this is not his first day of school picture. He was way to cool to have his picture taken. He went into the 3rd grade. He is such a little jokester its not even funny. He is the class clown every year. He was going to wear this hat for his hat day at school, it was Ashtyn's Halloween costume when she was 6 months old.

In September, over labor day weekend we did another relay race in St. George. We had a team of 12. Six people per van. We were van 2, in our van was; Shaylee and Brady, Dana , Rand and I , and Dave Astin . Van 1 was Brian and Maryann Carlson, Shad and Nat Stromberg, Andy Patterson, and Nikki Frost. Our team name was Hooligans on the run.


This was after Dana's first run. It was nice and cool. The weather was perfect, little cloudy but no one thought anything of it. We were just glad it was 100 degrees or more.

The great guys in our van. They were always taking good care of us, making sure we had water, food and were comfortable. Not to mention, they pulled over when they were told too! :)



The divas of the van. I Love my sisters. So glad we have been able to do all these races together. It has brought us so close together. Its amazing the things you tell each other while on a long run.

There were so MANY CRAZY things that happened on that trip. Lets see, every time our team took over the running, it would start to down pour rain, lightening, wind, etc.. We had soggy gross food, we ran out of food, I about pooped my pants, then Denny's, the hot house we slept in with the loud dryer, the trianchula, the lady Randy didn't even know but tucked her in bed anyways.. It was CRAZY!!

Randy's favorite time of year: FALL.. Bring on the hunting and fishing trips!

Kobe is old enough now that he goes to go with Randy on the week hunting/ fishing trips. They went up to Idaho . They stayed in the Patterson's cabin at Bear Lake. They hunted, fished, and whatever else boys do while they are away. Kobe had a great time.


Kobe is going to be quite the little hunter. He is already looking forward to his next hunting trips with his Dad. He was gone hunting with his dad over his b-day so I didnt get any pictures of him. He did have a good birthday. He was able to hunt and fish all day long. We love you Kobe!



We went to the airport to welcome home the MLS CHAMPS, Real Salt Lake! It was a blast. We made signs, the kids got autographs and their pictures taken with a lot of the players. It was such a great atmosphere. Nice Job REAL SALT LAKE!!!

We got to meet Robbie Findley ( he plays for the US men's national team during the world cup) , Robbie Russell, who scored the winning penalty kick. Javier Morales, Jason Krise ( the coach) , and Fabian Espindola..


Ash had her Christmas program. She did such a good job. They went to the Peach tree Assisted living and sang to the residence there.



Last but not least ... CHRISTMAS! We had a great day. Lots of fun toys, good food, and great company. I am so thankful for my family, my husband who works so hard for us each and every day. I am so thankful for my kids. It would not be the same without them. They are so special and so sweet. I love them all. I am thankful for my savior and for all the great sacrifice's he made for us!

We had a great year. One of my favorite sayings is; "We may not have it all together, but when were together we have it all. "