Race For The Cure

Well, I'm a little late posting this since it was the Saturday before Mother's Day, but I can't skip blogging about such a great tradition!  We have gone to the Race For The Cure every year since the first year it started [since that was the same year my mom was diagnosed] and it's been so fun to see how much it has grown!  This year, however, there was a 25% drop in registration, which I assume is from the whole Planned Parenthood issue...  I think it's very sad that people let politics get in the way of donating to a great organization such as this one [this is not to say that I agree OR disagree with what happened!].  But regardless of the smaller crowd, it was still a ton of people and it was still a lot of fun!

My mom just passed her 16 year mark on May 21st [the day before my birthday] since she found out she had breast cancer, and I'm so grateful that she has conquered such a great feat and has now been cancer-free for so many years!  MooMoo, you are my hero!  Since the rest of my family didn't end up going [where were all you slackers?!], she tried telling me that we didn't need to go, but there's no way I was going to let her off the hook!  We have gone every year, we were most certainly going to go celebrate her remission again this year!  It's such an amazing celebration for my mom and for my family and I am SO glad we went!

Go MooMoo!  She only finished 5-10 min after we did!!  [that's either really good for her, or really bad for me ;) just kidding]

Bein gansters in our gangster hats!

I love you Moo Moo Rae, you are my hero and I'm so glad we get to celebrate you every year!

Lake Blanche

Hiking Tip:  If you find yourself in the middle of nowhere in knee-high snow, you've probably gone the wrong way.

Oh goodness, this was one entertaining hike!  Yes, I think entertaining is the perfect word.  Not only did we get completely lost and have to hike up the side of a snow filled mountain to get back to the trail, but I almost got eaten by a snake and both of us almost fell down the mountain multiple times.  Aaamazing!  ;)

We decided to do a longer, more challenging hike and found ourselves hiking up to Lake Blanche, about 6 miles round trip.  This hike wasn't as beautiful as Bells Canyon since absolutely everything was dead, but I can imagine how absolutely stunning it would be in mid-summer.  I for sure want to go back! 

See that snow? That's our destination!

We've come a long way!

...and now we're lost.  This is my "what the f are we doing" face.

Grouchy Jared kept falling through the deep snow  :)

See all that snow down there??  That's where we were when we saw people on the actual trail where we are now!  Yes, we had to climb up the side of the mountain to get HERE!  I couldn't stop laughing.

Grouchy Jared!  Finally on the trail!

Exhausted...!  Stupid mountain!

Yep, kind of a lot of snow!  Poor sign is buried!

We've arrived!  So pretty!

This was so crazy!  We were sitting by the lake, taking in the scenery, when we heard this loud rumbling.  We looked over and actually SAW an avalanche!  It was pretty eerie and really crazy to watch!  I was able to pull out the camera just in time to get the last of it falling off the cliff [you can see where it broke off and it coming down the mountain].

My favorite!  It was so pretty at the top!  I love my camera  :)

Hiking UP slippery snow is so much different than hiking DOWN slippery snow!  Oh my goodness, we might as well have just sat down and slid on our butts!  Jared enjoyed the skiing though  ;)

The way back was pretty uneventful...  I mean, we didn't get lost this time.  Haha!  But halfway down, I stepped over a rock and almost stepped ON a snake!  I screamed and jumped away as it slithered out from underneath the rock and it just kept coming, and coming, and coming!  It was huge, I really almost pooped myself!  Of course it happened as we were passing other hikers so they were laughing at me.  What can I say, I'm pretty hilarious.  ;) 

6 miles is a long way [particularly when you get completely lost] but given everything that happened, and probably because of everything that happened, we had SO much fun!

Bells Canyon

I have decided to do a LOT more hiking this summer than we've done in the past.  I absolutely love being outside and I don't want to take it for granted this year.  My goal for the year is to hike Timpanogos...  I guess you could call this my "fitness year" since I am already training for a second [and yes, possibly third] half marathon AND wanting to hike Timp!  I am in the zone!!!  Haha!

This was our first hike of the year and it was beautiful!  Very steep [I was definitely sore the next few days] but very fun!  Neither of us have hiked up Bells Canyon before.  The whole trip was about 4 1/2 miles, and consistently up hill.  Only about a mile up the trail was a small lake and it was one of the prettiest lakes I've seen!  It was easy to get lost, the trail got really narrow and there weren't many people around so we were just praying we were going the right way, but we finally found the waterfall!  So fun!

Just a little ways above the start of the trail

Seriously, how beautiful is this?!

Jared surfing the rock! Ha!

It was such a fun and pretty hike, I can't imagine what it looks like when everything's not dead!  We'll for sure have to do this one again.

SLC Half Marathon!

I just want to say...  I can't believe it's over.  How many blog posts have been about my training?!  And now it's all over.  Crazy!

I am most certainly going to be running at least one more of these this year to redeem myself though!  Let's just say that I had a good long cry once I got home from running this race.  I don't think there is something that could go wrong with my body that has not already gone wrong!  I kept thinking yesterday, Why does my body hate me so much?! 

The first 6-7 miles of the race, I felt absolutely amazing!  I kept a consistent 9:15 pace [which I'm telling you is extremely good for me!] and was thrilled that I was going to finish the race WAY before my goal time!  And then...  My knee started bugging me.  And the best part...  It was the knee that I've never ever had problems with.  Not the knee that I missed my last half marathon for--not the knee I went to physical therapy for; my perfectly healthy knee!  I just ran through it thinking maybe it was because I was unconsciously favoring my bad knee, but it just got worse and worse.  Basically, I had to run/walk the majority of the last half of the race because of the shooting pain.  Once I finally finished, I honestly thought I was going to fall over.  My knee and leg was shaking soo bad from running the last half mile or so, I just wanted to die!  Haha, you would have thought I had just finished the FULL marathon with the way I went limping off the course clutching onto Jared!  What a joke, right?!

But you know what...  After I got home and had my 10 minute pity party, I thought to myself what a joke it was that I was actually upset with myself.  I just ran my very first half marathon, and I know it won't be my last.  I shouldn't care what my time was, and I certainly shouldn't be upset that given my injury I only finished 7 minutes over my original finishing goal!  Seriously?!  I limped the last half of the course and I only finished 7 minutes over what I wanted!  Why am I being such a baby?!!  I DID GREAT! 

So, this race was just my practice race.  ;)  I'm already trying to think of ways that I can strengthen my knees so this doesn't happen again.  I know I am capable of SO much better--the first half of yesterdays race proved that to me, and it gave me so much more confidence!  For the first time in my life, I was passing people!  What?!!  Amazing.

I will do better next time.  And my body will not determine how well I do!  My mind will!

Crossing the finish line literally took everything out of me...  I had to forget how bad my knee hurt and I just pushed it!

I'm so lucky that I have my whole family to look up to; they're all such amazing runners!

Jared literally could have finished in half the time I did, so I'm SO grateful he stayed with me the whole way.  He's always been my support system!

And...  The aftermath.  Ouch.

Pretty cool medal, eh??  ;)

Now, which half marathon to sign up for next?!!  :)



[okay, it's now story time.  We're around mile 10.  We run next to a manhole in the ground at the same time as we smell this awful, awful stench.  Jared gasps and puts his hand over his mouth and stops running.  A girl in front of us stops running, turns around, and starts dry heaving.  I think to myself, "what in the world people?! That was probably just a sewer drain!"  Oh no.  No, no, no.  This teenage guy had ran past us at the same time, with what I thought was mud ALL down the back of his leg.  Are you catching on yet?  ...yup.  This poor guy shat himself.  Not. Even. Kidding.  Diarrhea allllll over.  And he just kept on running like he didn't have a care in the world!  Why would you not stop?!  

"Oh, I gotta poop...  uhh...  okay, I'm good now, just pooped myself.  No big deal, just keep on running folks!"]

Our Home! :)

I know it's been a while, but I actually took pictures last week!  And yes, I'm now finally going to show them!  ;)  However, keep in mind that I haven't done hardly any decorating yet.  But considering that we had only been here about 3 weeks when I took these pictures, I think we've come a long way! 

We ABSOLUTELY LOVE our new home!  I am so glad we chose the home we did.  I was afraid I wouldn't like the location, but honestly...  I love it!  We are so central to everything, it's so nice.  I am very glad we didn't choose the house in Draper.  More prestigious maybe, but too far!  We're loving everything about our new home!  :)  And thank you so much to everyone that has come to visit us--we are so blessed to have the wonderful friends and family that we have!

The front of our home!  We were lucky enough to get the end home [the previous model home!], even though someone tried to bribe us into picking a different town house!  ha!

The view of our amazing neighborhood from our bedroom deck.

One of my favorite parts of our house-- THE BIG KITCHEN!  Who ever thought that I'd have so much cabinet space, that some of them would be empty?!!  A-mazing. 

Our living room.  Still lots of decorating to do, but I love all the space!

The first thing that sold me on this house--the 5 foot wide staircase!  You can't tell in pictures, but they're abnormally wide.  It really opens everything up, I love it!  [Eventually that mirror will be hung on the middle of that wall and we'll put a hall-table underneath]

Our bedroom...  Just imagine a picture hung on the wall or something haha.  Oh, and this is the monster fan that Max is certain is going to eat him some day soon.

Our deck that I have already used so much!

Mirror that also will eventually be hung and closet door to our huge walk-in closet!

Our master bathroom, which also needs to be decorated.  But this tub is seriously more than twice the size of any tub I've had!  Oh goodness, I can't get enough bath time!

I didn't take pictures of everything [our home consists of 3 bedroom, 2 1/2 bathrooms and an unfinished roomy basement], since we do still have a lot of work to do.  But for being here about a month now, I think we've done a heck of a lot!  This is the first weekend we've had that we haven't spent every waking minute fixing up our new home!  It's been so busy lately!  But so worth it.  I just can't wait until they get our backyard landscaped so we can spend more time outside. 

I need to express deep gratitude to my wonderful, extremely knowledgeable and helpful brother-in-law, Kelly, who did our mortgage for us.  As first time home buyers, we obviously knew next to nothing about mortgages or buying a home.  Kelly was so, so patient with us and answered all of our questions so simply so that we were comfortable with what was going on.  And not only that, but we had the loan funded and closed on our home only about a month after first seeing it!  It was so quick!  And I absolutely could not believe the loan rate he got us...  I don't know anyone with as low of a rate as we have!  So seriously, RidgeView Mortgage is the way to go!  He won't disappoint!  Thank you Kelly!

And when it comes to my INCREDIBLE sister-in-law Jody...  Oh my.  We 100% absolutely could not have found our home without her.  Seriously.  We'd probably still be looking at places if we didn't have her!  We were lucky enough to not only have a mortgage company owner in our family, but my sister-in-law is a real estate agent!  It couldn't work out more perfectly than that, right?!  Jody was soo much fun to look at houses with, and I couldn't believe all the little things she pointed out that would either make or break the house!  I wouldn't have seen HALF the things she saw without her.  We walked through our home on our first day of looking, and since of course we wanted to be sure this was "the one" we continued looking for 2 more weeks...  Jody drove us everywhere from way-south Draper to South Salt Lake and Bountiful!  And then of course we ended up closing on the second house we saw, on the very first day.  Jody, thank you, thank you for your patience with us!  We love you!

I also can't speak any higher about our builder, Troy Ferran [Ferran Construction].  He has been so helpful and accommodating, it has been amazing.  When we were trying to locate our keys after closing, he answered the phone immediately when we called, and he was at his birthday dinner!  Who else would do that?!  The first few days after moving in, we had a few problems [front door lock was ridiculous, it sounded like it was grinding against the lock when you'd lock it, and a few tack boards were poking our feet where the tile and carpet met] and when we emailed him about it, he had someone here to fix everything in a few hours.  It's very nice to know that if we have any problems that they'll get fixed ASAP.

Anyways, we truly love our new home and again, thanks to everyone who helped us move or even just came and visited us in our new place!  We are so blessed!   

YAY, WE'RE HOME OWNERS!

"Hi, my name is Max, and I approve...  of everything but the monster fan."