St. George Marathon

Mine & Jamie's First Marathon! 

We got into the Lottery for the St. George Marathon. After very long several months of training we ran together on Saturday, Oct. 1st, 2011. Saturday morning we woke up at 4:30 am (mind you, you can't sleep the night before anyways) and Jared drove us into the city and dropped us off to load the bus. We waited about a half an hour to load the bus. Waiting in line to get on the bus felt so intiminating. I just kept over hearing people saying this is my 5th marathon or I've been doing this for 20 years and haven't missed one. I just felt like a little girl with a bunch of grown ups trying to play the part. Once we loaded the school bus we drove 23 miles up the canyon where the race would start. The busses were running late so they actually made our bus go 3 to a seat. Mind you me and Jamie were a smaller compared to other people so a 6'6 guy seeked us out and sat with us. We enjoyed our conversation with our friendly giant taking up the whole seat. 

We got off the bus and went to go find the bathrooms one last time. The lines were too long so we had to find a spot behind the shade trees. Jamie was too embarrassed at first until we wondered off in the trees and passed several women popping a squat. There is no shame. 

We found our pace leader of our goal of 3:45 and we got behind them to follow for the race. At 6:45 the gun went off and the race started. Moments after you hear the most amazing sound of 7800 runners hitting the pavement. I just thought hearing all the shoes was a very chilling sound and it gets your adrenaline pumping. The racing experience is just so much fun. I believe this is what get runners to keep running for this high! 

The first 7 miles went by in a flash and then at mile 7 they like to give you a mile or more just straight up hill. It was rough! Everything went well though and we kept running. At about mile 12 or 13 my feet really started hurting but kept going (when i finally took my shoes off I had blood blisters all down my feet, very ugly)...Everyone talks about hitting the wall, I didn't feel I couldn't go on anymore but at mile 17 things got harder and then at 21 I thought if I just keep running I will be done sooner. At about mile 21 we stopped to get water and Jamie need something for her legs and we got seperated. The last five miles were very lonely and emotionally. Every time I started to think about crossing the finish line I would almost cry. At mile 23 you are out of the canyon and now you are running in the city. It it really encouraging to have people along the streets cheering you on and all the little kids just want to slap everyones hands. 

Well finally after 26.2 miles and 3:34:17 I crossed the finish line. I was able to finish 8th in my aged group and actually got a little plaque for being in the top ten! I ran the entire thing and was even able to give it my best across the finish line. They put a medal on me and then you walk through showers. All I wanted to do at this point was to cry. Finishing the marathon was just so emotional and I feel like I honestly could say that this was the hardest thing that I could ever do on my own. Yes I trained a lot with my sister but in the end its all up to my mind and body to finish what you want. 

When we signed up for the marathon our goal was to finish around 4 hours or so. A month or so before Jamie kept saying she wanted to qualify for the Boston marathon and I thought she was crazy. I didn't feel my training had gone good enough and I didn't think I could finish in 3:40. Well to my astonishment we actually both qualified for the Boston Marathon on our first try! This was the cherry on top of it all. 

I don't have very good pictures from after the race because I felt as good as you could running for that long but after I felt awful. My stomach hurt so bad and I couldn't even really eat. So that makes for really bad pictures. 

My family was really sweet and Jared, Eric (Jamie's husband), Landon, Rylee, Mom, Jacquelyn, and Jess & Kyle came to cheer us on. They had beautiful flowers and Jared gave me a large cookie with frosting. It was delicious once I could eat it. 

-PS Jared balled when he say me cross the finish line and when he gave me a hug. I just held on to him and cried. I wish I would have felt better after the race so I could have enjoyed it more but it was truly an amazing experience! 

Updating...Finally

These last few months have just been no stop for both me and Jared. For just a short list we started looking into buying a house, we went to Colorado to see Stacey & Kevin, volleyball season started again, I went back to work (school), Jared started school, Jared started clinicals (he just loves them), we went under contract for our house, marathon training, school, volleyball, no sleep, Bought our First house!, working on our house, ran my first marathon, parent teacher conferences, dear hunt, moving our stuff into our house, demolition of the 2nd bathroom, late night clinicals, finally really moving in and sleeping at our house, and Halloween.

Its been crazy and exhausting but it has been a really exciting and glad it has all happened. Jared is loving nursing school and is so glad he has picked going into his career. He comes home with the stories when he's at the hospital and it sounds really neat but also I don't know how he does it.

Jared fishing at a pond very close to Leadville

We went on a very beautiful Four wheel ride with Stacey & Kevin up in the mountains to look at the beautiful mountains & flowers

Summer Tennis - if you can tell Jared lost his temper and broke his racket 

Parade of Homes - The UP House 

the kitchen was adorable

Donkey - the new toy 

Stocktons 1st birthday 

(we were very sad when we had to miss his birthday) 

10 year anniversary of 9/11 

I still remember sitting in my Utah History class with Mrs. Erickson and first learning of the attacks. We just sat their the whole period watching the news in disbelief. 

Our first Real Game - we went with the newly married Walker & Whitney! The game was so much fun & intense. We can't wait to go again. They also had the One Republic concert afterwards. 

Congrats Jared!

Jared got accepted into Nursing School and we couldn't be happier. This past year he has worked so hard and you would have never thought he was the same person the year before. He has done so well and worked so hard. He is enjoying school and is loving what he is learning.
A couple of weeks ago he said this and I thought it was so funny, "I can see way you like doing good in school, it's just so addicting and you don't want to stop!" He said this after he got all A's on his midterms.
Congrats hun! One step closer to your goal of becoming a nurse anesthetist! Love you

4th of July in California

This was to be mine and Jared's first 4th of July home and we were so excited. He wouldn't have to work all day we could see fireworks and maybe even go to Riverton Town Days like I did growing up. Well some even better plans came up and we decided to go spend the holiday with Jordan, Nate, and the Blackwells. We tightly all squeezed into Jamie and Eric's car and drove down. It was a fun little adventure and no one really fought too much besides the boys kept telling me to duck down so they could see the movie:)

 On Thursday night we went to an Angels and Dodgers game at Angel stadium. We had lots of fun sitting all around a bunch of dodger fans. The Angels got killed which was a bummer. But we did see a guy get kicked out of the game. 

We bought a refill cup for $12 bucks at the stadium. It was totally worth it when you have a nephew who never stops drinking. He probably went through 2 of them himself. 

They had fireworks after the game that were great. It only took them about 5 minutes to start up which was so much faster compared to the Braves game we went to last year for the 4th. 

The boys boogie boarded forever trying to catch the waves. Nate kicked their butts. 

We went to Seal's Beach which is the closest to Jordan's place. The beach was so crowded that when we went to go park Jordan pulled a Hollee (mom) and went and stood in a parking spot until the car could make it back around. Me and Jamie wouldn't do it but we were really grateful that she was willing to do it and be embarrassed. 

This little girl, Rylee, thought that the sand was for eating instead of playing. Lets just say I had to change one of the sandy diapers and it wasn't pretty. 

For the 4th we went to Hunington Beach. It was even more crowded but the water was even nicer and we had lots of fun playing games on the beach. We played lots of smashball which was Jordan and Nate's game which was a blast. Around 9 we watched fireworks from the beach. Where we were sitting we could see about 6 different firework shows going off. It was really neat and we didn't get stuck in too much traffic leaving. After we went to Jack in the Box and got the most delicious food with shakes. I think this trips theme was SHAKES. We ate one almost every night. 

Our last day we went to Knott's Berry Farms Soak City. It was a blast. Me and Jared didn't really care to go at first and we had so much fun in the end. We went on ride after ride and was in the wave pool non-stop. It was great!

We had so much fun on the trip and we are so glad we could finally come and see Jordan and Nate!

Not so smart Jared

A couple of weeks ago Jared got a sunburn on his shoulders and then he started to peel. Ok it happens. Then when we went boating 2 Mondays ago he was still peeling and wanted to rub oil on his shoulders. The wise wife suggested sunscreen instead but the husband decided to use the oil instead. He was outside for at least 3 more hours with no shirt on. That night Jared had trouble sleeping and the night day he was covered in blisters everywhere. Jared was miserable for days and pretty much never wore a shirt. We put every type of aloe, lotion, neosporn, to egg whites on his back. He finally ok now but his shoulders are now very pink with lots of freckles. We took the picture after a couple of days and these pictures don't to justice of how nasty it was. 

We moved...again

At the end of June we moved out of our very spacious basement apartment. We are really sad to leave our place was amazing and our landlords & neighbors were even better. I forgot to take pictures before we moved anything or before it was dark but oh well. I will miss this place and this treadmill, we have had some good memories. With moving comes bittersweetness with we moved into my parents so we could buy a house. We are really excited with this next step in our lives and we will see where it takes us!

June Birthdays

Last Monday we went Boating with our friends Tyson and Bridgett. Jared was able to wake surf without the rope and I had no chance. 

That night we celebrated June Birthdays at Jonathan and Katie's house. Mine and Jordan's was the 1st, Samuel the 15th he turned 4, Olivia the 30th she turned 6, and Drew the 30th and he turned 7. June is a big month for my family. We had a great dinner with Katie's delicious homemade root beer and lots of dessert. Each person had their own cake and then lots of ice cream on top of it. This year I asked my mom to make me her carrot cake with everything added. When I was little me and Jordan got mad at my mom for making us our birthday cake and she added raisins to it. We both hated raisins and were upset at my mom for making our birthday cakes the way she wanted them not the way we wanted them. Now it's a joke and I really enjoyed the cake with everything in it. It was a great night and it was really fun to spend time with the family.