26.2 Miles...

John's fam with one of the signs his sister made for me

This is the back of me at mile 23. They got one pic of the front of me but it's pretty bad so instead, you get to see the back

My mom and sister waiting in the rain to cheer for me

Blake, Ry, and T-dog the day before with their cousin Gavin. I had to put a picture of Gavin because he was hands down the most excited for me. He just knew I could win the race!

I did it. I ran the St. George Marathon and it was awesome. It was a really cool experience and I was so glad to have my family there to cheer me on. John's mom and step dad came from California and his sister and her kids came from Grantsville and my mom, my sister Heather, my sister Jenna and her husband Steven all came to root for me. John's sister made these awesome signs for them to hold and they all dressed alike so I could spot them. Just knowing they were all there for me and they were all so excited for me made it a very emotional experience. As far as the race goes, we got up and it was pouring rain and freezing!! Then we got to the starting line and there were thousands of people there all dripping wet and waiting to start. I felt really good the whole race. I had been so worried and I was so nervous up till the race started but once I got going I knew I could do it. I worked my butt off training and I wasn't going to suck! It rained the entire race and even though I was running I was freezing my butt off but I finished in 4 hrs and 24 min. I'm happy with my time and the whole experience was something I won't forget. After I finished it was so great to see my family waiting for me and I am so happy they came!! I also have to say I couldn't have trained alone. The girls (and justin) and all finished and did great. Props to Rachel who puked all night long and still finished with a great time.




The fam waiting at mile 23 in the rain

The fam after I was finished

John and me after I finished

Tyson took this picture of my medal and I thought it was pretty cool

MARATHON

It's here. After months of getting up at 4 in the morning and sweating my butt off. After knee pain and shin splints. After all the blisters, ibuprofen, and glucosamine . It's here.
I run in the St. George Marathon on Saturday. It's my first and I'm scared. Wish me luck.
Actually... forget the luck. You better pray for me. Seriously. Really, really hard....



*pictures to come. Hopefully they aren't from the window of an ambulance....

STAR WARS........again

Don't ask me how I have a picture of them in their Halloween costumes already but I still have never taken a "first day of school" picture. No. Seriously. Don't ask me. I don't know.

*not pictured is Tate. He is going to be an ewok I just don't have it yet. So....anyone know where I can get an ewok costume?

Warning: Husband/Football Vent

Yesterday after a few errands in the morning, we came home and John turned on football. He took a nap and pretty much just hung out all day watching the games. I was busy unpacking the last of the boxes and hanging stuff up so I didn't care. I knew he needed a break and we had a babysitter for later that night so I knew we were gonna get to hang out together later.
Today we had stake conference and 4 kids for 2 hours is a nightmare so we planned on staying home all day. Now, I'm cool with football being on all day but I'm not super cool with having your butt glued to the couch and being unable to do anything else because of it. I have to admit I was already a little grumpy because I had been up since 2am. I woke up and I just could not go back to sleep. When I tried to take a nap today the kids came in 50 million times, they know how to unlock my door and long story short, after an hour of being interrupted every 10 min I gave up. I stormed down stairs and stomped around the house. John was too busy watching stupid football to profusely apologize for not keeping the kids away and well, I wanted him to know I was mad and that I thought he sucked at helping me today.
Anyways, being the amazingly mature wife and mother that I am, I took the vaccum and plugged it in right behind the couch where he was watching t.v. Then I turned it on and left it there and walked away. Don't worry, it took him 10 min to realize it was just sitting there. By itself. Turned on.

He is currently still watching football but now he has 3 loads of laundry he is folding and putting away (imagine that, a man multi-tasking!) while he watches. And as an added bonus Tate and Ryan are "helping" him. I'm cool with that.

Labor Day Weekend

Labor day weekend we wanted to do something fun as a family. John had been worked all weekend and he was finally able to stay at home on Monday. We decided to pack a lunch and go hike or explore or whatever. I wanted to go to Mt. Charleston (just remember that as you continue to read). We (and by we I mean John) thought it would be too crowded so we (again, John) decided to head to this really cool place where they had the father son camp out. Apparently there are all these cool rock formations to climb on. Too bad John couldn't remember how to get there. We drove around forever!! We kept going on all these tiny roads to see what was around the corner (so not my idea). The kids were starving so we finally just stopped and got out to eat. Then the boys figured they should shoot the BB gun for a while. When we ran out of bb's they decided they wanted to hike. No big deal until we realize we are at an abandoned mine. With mine shafts. Huge, deep, mine shafts. John and the boys thought it was awesome. I, on the other hand, was hyperventilating.......Don't get me wrong, it was cool and we didn't let the boys get very close but just being there stressed me out. I finally convinced John to get the hell out of there.

The boys walking up the hill right before we discovered what it was we were actually walking to.



I pointed this sign out to John and the boys several times. No one really cared but me.

The door to a mine shaft. Not blocked off. Just chillin'. My boys thought this was awesome and wanted to throw things down it. Ummm...no.

John driving on a tiny little road while pretending to know where he was going...

Ryan, after bonking his head on the window while John was driving on the bumpy tiny little road.

Why go outside if you can't shoot some sort of gun? Welcome to my life.

Standing in front of the deepest, creepiest mine shaft I have ever seen. This was was fenced off. It had this rickety little ladder that went all the way down. SCARY!!

This is where we ended up. Literally, the middle of nowhere.

So Cal

Dinner. Notice there are no high chairs at our table. Whoo-hoo!

Of course we had to get pedicures. I am pretty sure they were talking about my feet to each other. I got some stubby toes and training for the marathon has left me with two dead toenails. It's all good though b/c we were texting each other about them too...

We had to search but we were able to find the beach house we all stayed at together for our senior trip 10 years ago (yes, I am old).

Jenny did all of our hair and makeup on Sunday. I'm still not sure about the half curly, have humid frizz that I got going on. The beach and my hair do NOT mix..

Us in front of the property where we stayed.

This past weekend Alisa, Jenny, Rushelle, and I headed to San Diego for a few days. There were no kids, no husbands, no agenda. It was awesome. We hung out at the beach, ate a ton, went to Ikea and had some laughs. The best part was the fact that Alisa's dad's company owns the property we stayed at so it was FREE!! I know they have both posted all about it on their blogs and since I am the last one this is all old news but....I posted a couple pictures anyways. We hope to make this a yearly event but someone is always pregnant or nursing or something so who knows when it will happen again but we had a great time!!

I am alive!!!

I know the three of you who read my blog have been wondering if I am still alive....Yes, I am. I even found the camera and took some pictures. Yay me. I have a really great post that I just have to think of and then I will post it. I still haven't taken pictures of my poor neglected children right before they go to school. Between shoes flying, the baby hanging on my leg, and trying to make lunches I just keep forgetting. Maybe I'll start the tradtion of taking their pictures on the last day of school. That will still give me some more time....
I guess I should get on with the posting now. The boys are all back in school and I love it. I mean they love it.
Tate has become obessed with our gecko and can now say the word lizard. He says it about 50 times a day. The first first time he held the gecko he was squealing. I took a video the 2nd time but he didn't act like he did the first time. He is still pretty cute about it though.

Get ready for some more posting cause I have some catching up to do. I think things might be unpacked enough to squeeze in a little blogging time.