Spencer Second

This little boy is simply heaven... a little bit of crazy heaven.
We are all infatuated with what he will do or say next.
He is so cute, so unpredictable, and yet so predictable all in the same breath.
It's hard to remember life before him
(although I'm sure I wasn't running as much).
Ah, our Tiny Bug... quickly becoming not-so-tiny.
Love him.(and yes, he is very protective of his ball)

Dallin Date

One of my favorite events of the year happened a couple of weekends ago... the mother/son dance at Dallin's school. I love going out with Dallin. I don't know if it's because he is my first-born and we had quite a bit of time together... just me and him, but we have a special bond.
I LOVE him.

Here is how we spent this most fabulous date night together (all Dallin's choosing):
1- busted out our Rock Band t-shirts (the dance was a Rock n Roll theme this year)
2- showed off some of our mad "guitar" skills in the backyard to get our rock blood pumping3- hopped into our rockmobile (okay, Dad's car)
4- headed to Claim Jumper for some delicious dinner (Dallin info update... this is his new favorite restaurant)5- went to the dance
6- got our picture taken (which I'll have to post later)
7- got our groove on
8- ditched the dance a little early
9- went to the Chaparral High School basketball game to see Tucker play (a priest/buddy from our ward who Dallin has been dying to watch)10- finished the night off with some dessert fondue at the Melting PotYep, we fit all of that into about 4 hours. It was a wonderful whirlwind of a date and we were both fabulously giddy from our adventures together. Rock on Dallin.

Memorable Marathon

Growing up I had a bucket list, if you will. Things that I knew I wanted to do in my lifetime. Things such as: finish college, get married, have my heart fixed, have children, visit Europe, go skydiving, experience New York, etc. etc. etc. I have been able to cross a lot of these things off. The weird part, however, is that I am crossing off some of the "what never needs to happen to me in this lifetime" list such as swim with sharks or run a 1/2 marathon (both of which I have done in the past 4 months). I guess I am crossing things off, right?!

If you wish to learn more about our shark adventure, visit our Tahiti blog posts from November 2009. As for the 1/2 marathon, I don't even know where to begin. Well actually, it started at LA Fitness over a year ago. I have been going to the gym 3x a week for over a year now with a few of my girlfriends. It is so great to have their support. One day, we decided to finish our workout with a run. The word "run" to me ranked right up there with "pouring salt water into an open wound", or "drinking mud". It was a 'hate' of mine. I attribute this hate to my childhood when I had to go to Seattle Children's Hospital to have treadmill tests done (I had a heart condition). They would hook me up, put the treadmill on the steepest incline and make me run... run up that incline at an impossible speed. I would hold on for dear life and hate every second of those tests. The treadmill was my enemy, my fear.So now, 15 years later I was standing on that treadmill sweating like a pig and we hadn't even started the machine. I was full of fear. We ran together and I hated it. I did it, but I hated it.

The next day, I decided to go back and face my fear head on... just me and that stupid treadmill. I told myself that I was going to run a 5K that day, no excuses. Just run. I ran... all 3.1 miles. It literally took everything out of me. I did it and it felt good (not the running, the part afterwords).

I then knew I had to blow this fear out of the water. I jogged here and there until a couple of months ago, my friend Amy decided to take me with her on a Saturday morning run. We ran 10 stinking miles! It was out of control. I was dead and alive all at the same time. I felt like a new woman empowered with some super-human abilities. We ran another 10 miles the next Saturday. Another Saturday we ran 10 again at 6 in the morning. Who am I? It was last Saturday morning that I ran 13.1 miles. Another "never want to do" part of my list that I crossed off.

Now that I've gone on and on, here is how the Diamond Valley Lake 1/2 marathon on Saturday went down...

I ran it with Peter, his buddy Ryan and my friend/trainer Amy. We sat in Ryan's truck in the parking lot of Diamond Valley Lake that morning at 8:56 am knowing full well the marathon started at 9 am. The problem was, we didn't want to get out of the car because it was freezing, the wind was blowing like crazy and it was raining.

We finally sucked it up just in time to race to the race. We were off... and I wanted to die. Within a matter of seconds, I was soaked, muddy and out of breath. The whole race was on dirt (which normally would be great for the knees, but was horrible because it had turned to mud and puddles). We spent the entire 13.1 miles soaked, dodging and trudging through mud puddles.(Okay, it wasn't as bad as this photo, but pretty darn close)

The wind was out of control and at one point, we were running up this hill (which was enough for me to cry) and the wind was fiercely pushing against us. I have never experienced such physical opposition. I cried, but the tears flew off of my face.

At a different point in the race, we ran across a bridge over a dam. It was the only paved/unmuddy part of the journey and it lasted for only 5 minutes. We thought this would be a relief, until the wind literally blew us sideways. We could hear other runners saying "what are we doing?!" Just as I was figuring out how to run sideways, it began to hail. I used my hand as a shield, but it didn't help. We were still running sideways getting pelted by hail. What did I do to deserve such torment? As if running a 1/2 marathon wasn't enough? We trudged on.

So here are my complaints about the race:
it was muddy, wet, and completely miserable at moments
-my pants were falling off (because they were so wet)
-my iPod stopped working at mile 3 (just me and my thoughts is a little scary)
-the wind ate at the endurance I had trained so hard for
-at one point I had a rock in my shoe that I didn't want to stop for (but did)
-it took us longer to finish than we had hoped (2 1/2 hours)
-my final complaint would be that there was no one there. Usually there are lots of people running and waiting at the finish line and this time there was the photographer, the lady handing out the lame dog tags they called medals, and a few other workers braving the weather.

Here are the parts of the race I loved:
-Amy's husband and kids did greet us at the finish line in the rain
-when I actually took the time to look up and not worry about the mud puddles- the hills and the lake were gorgeous... like a scene from Ireland-around mile 5, the rain halted for a few moments and we witnessed the most incredible rainbow EVER!
-I was able to run in these horrible conditions next to my sweet husband (it was a metaphor of our life... muddy, but doing it together)
-it was a sweet reward to run with Amy (it was both of our first 1/2 marathons)
-WE FINISHED IT!!!In your face Seattle Children's Hospital treadmill.