New Cousin

The kids were so excited to hear Aunt Jody was having her baby! On June 30th cousin Ashton was born. Here are the kids meeting the new little guy!

Sophie's B Day

What a better way to spend a birthday!

Bubbles Cupcakes
Ice Cream

Presents & FamilySophie picked out new sippy cups for her birthday & bubbles!

After dinner, we enjoyed cupcakes and a walk to Baskin Robins for ice cream. Grandpas & Grandmas came too. Lucky girl!

I love my baby! 2 years old-and still wonder where you got those blue eyes!

Cars 2

After we planted the garden, we rode the FrontRunner train to the Gateway to watch Cars 2.
Then got on the Trax car.

Now the only sequeals Jimmy or I see are mainly kids' ones. Ask me how many sequeals we have seen......its not many.

Sophie was happy to be going home......

The last ones......

By the end of June, we were probally the LAST people to plant a garden. Here is the picture after we spent one Saturday morning planting the garden spot. Now it is full of plants that are growing and weeds (ugg...but I am pulling them-the kids help too). Corn, pumpkins, bell peppers, watermelon, cantelope, and carrots.

We have enjoyed some fresh peas. We keep trying to pull a carrot up, and the deer have eaten the tomato plants. Its fun to help out in the garden!

Dance

Ashley took a hip-hop dance class this year. She had a performance the night after the mom & daughter activity. (this is also the week after Ragnar so it was a BUSY time!) She had fun in the class, and did great at the performance. It was fun to see her grow and groove just from taking this class.

Then we celebrated with ice cream after! Yum!

Mom & Daughter Night

Ashley & I had a night out together. It was a mother-daughter activity. We had a dinner and made dresses from newspaper. Then we walked the 'red carpet' modeling our designs off. It was fun to spend some time with my girl!

Run Summary

I wanted to document my runs. Again, I blog to document things.

As runner #6, my first run was 6.9 miles and described as very hard. Traffic approaching this exchange was SLOW & crowded. I ended up walking maybe 1/4 a mile to the exchange so I would be there before Jimmy got there. I beat him there-we learned because #4 beat runner #5 to the exchange.

I did not have my watch for this run. I just run with a cheap watch, just to keep time. No fancy Garmin or anything.....So it threw me off not having a watch.

I expected the downhill & dirt road. At the start of the run, it was a little uphill and I felt the higher altitude. After the uphill was over, I felt fine.

From when we drove the road the end of May, the road had been filled in with road base, so it wasn't as bumpy and messy. But it was hard finding a good spot to run with the rocks & ruts. It wasn't too dusty, I just remember a time or two it got bad. The views were nice but it was getting warm!

The pavement was a longer and harder than I expected. I only passed one person and it was on the pavement section. At about 1/2 of a mile to go, Cafe Rio handed me a sombrero, and I put it on and finished my run. Some of my teammates from Van 2 almost didn't recognize me because of the hat, but I heard and saw them. I was passing off to runner #7. This is called a major exchange, when the two vans meet (example when runner 6 meets 7 and runner 12 meets 1 are major exchanges) I called Staceys' name when I got in the chute, and luckily found her pretty quick. It was a CRAZY place with LOTS of runners trying to find each other. CHAOS. Runner #8-Ben, was there to take me out of the crowd and lead me to my van 1 people! Ben is tall-so he was a GREAT help. REALLY-THANKS Ben!

Ahh-first run done. We drove to the Maverick, found some grass, and had some food & relaxed until we needed to go to the next major exchange.

(meanwhile runner 7-12 were running their legs, then 1-5 started their second run)

Map of my first run:

Run #2 8.1 miles-very hard

Its about 8pm at night when I began this run. It was 'night time running hours' so I was required to wear my reflective vest, head lamp, and rear flashing red light. It was also going to get cool, and I was running up a canyon. I went for the running long sleeve shirt, and shorts. Good call. I also wore a hat because I didn't want to feel the light right on my forehead. I didn't practice running with it on.

The run started in Morgan. It was fun to see the small country houses getting further and further apart. We always ran facing traffic and luckily there wasn't too much traffic for me to run into. There was a CONSTANT stream of Ragnar cars driving up to the next exchange. Their headlights helped the run not feel so alone & isolated. Occasional cheers, and decorations also helped the mind! My van stopped every 2 miles to check on me, and luckily they did. My headlight was having issues (battery not properly in), then my Ipod died. So my sweet husband was there to give me water, trade me headlights, and get the kids' Ipod (backup) for me. LOVED it! So I rocked to the kids' songs! This run was UPHILL. Here, I passed more people, but I forgot to count and I FOUND MY WATCH! So I was much more comfortable! It was hard, especially with all my downhill I just ran earlier in the day! I was happy with myself and my pace. I did take a few walk breaks, and I walk thru my water stops, but I didn't walk much. Oh, there were some good hills! It was DARK when I got done. I didn't see the lake, but the mist from the dam was a pleasant surprise! Major exchange, (got to hear the team name announced, which is fun) and found Stacey. Again, Ben was there to help me post run.

I followed Ben, meanwhile Jimmy was looking for me, didn't find him. This East Canyon exchange was CRAZY. LOTS of cars, DARK, and how was I going to find anyone. Ben took me back to his van then we tried to call my van to meet with them. I eventually got to my van. I was greeted by tired teammates. It was late and we were TIRED. Then we drove ahead to a resting place. I took a little nap while driving-MISTAKE-I couldn't sleep at the school because I had the power nap. oh well. Trying to rest was fun.......

Here is my run #2 map:

Run #3 3.1 miles-easy

By this time, we were all done. We didn't really care to much about what our last run was. Lets just get it OVER with! We were all TIRED. As each runner completed their last run, they were relieved! I told myself, its just a 5K on a Saturday morning in Heber. It was hard and kinda slow, but not horrible. Heavy legs. The kids' Ipod died, so I had to enjoy the surroundings. I was happy to get stopped at a stop light. That was a nice break. I didn't pass anyone on this run. Oh well. I was happy to get to the exchange, find Stacey & hand off to her! AHH! I was done! I was HAPPY! This exchange didn't seem as busy, it was at an elementary school, so there was room, and the teams had spaced out even more by this point. Ragnar-COMPLETE!

Here is my run #3 Some teammates were D O N E. They had someone meet them in Park City and went home, while 3 of us waited to see the finish.

The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly finished.

32 HOURS

I ran 18.1 miles in a 24 hour period (out of the total 192 miles)

Shirt, medal, and sticker for the car!

AHH!

Loved it-Can't wait for next year!

Many Ragnar Thanks.....

The Wastach Back Ragnar Relay 2011 was a great experience! It was SO hard to grasp the magnitude of this race prior to the actual race. It took lots of planning, and training. I am now forever in dept to my uncle who registered a team & got this crazy thing going! Ahh-i love my uncle gene! Don't worry, he paid to register a team for next year-so how many days till Ragnar Wasatch Back 2012?

Thanks to my dad and Aunt Tammy (Gene's wife) who drove our vehicles. It was SO nice to have my dad worry about driving us smelly, sweaty runners from one spot to the next. Van #1 was my suburban. He drove so Jimmy or I didn't have to worry about a single thing!

The two vans crossed paths a few times, but it was really two separate experiences for each van. (if you are totally confused.....look online at www.ragnarrelay.com ) Some of our teammates were done-so we don't have one really good team photo-but here we are at the finish with our medals!

Thanks to Cassie for helping with my vinyl order. Here is my DIRTY windows post Ragnar.

Thanks to Jimmy's folks, my mom, and my friend Jen G for taking my kids-(We split the kids up for the two nights we were gone). That is one of the hardest parts-finding a place for the kids to go while Jimmy & I did this race.

Oh-BTW Sophie was getting over a sickness and Sarah got sick while we were gone. nice huh?

Lets see....I had a whole list of people in my mind.

Oh-Dixon family for asking Cynthia's parents if we could crash there in wellsville prior to our 6:15 am start time.

Jann-personally thanking her for watching my 4 kids for a few hours while I got my last LONG run in prior to the race.

Lori-my Tuesday/Thursday aerobics teacher at the church-FREE exercise group-LOVE the workout I get.

Jimmy-THANKS for attempting to be a runner so we could experience this together! It was so fun to have my best friend there and SEE the same things. We talked about Ragnar SOO much our kids got sick of it--- hehe! :) But really, it was a fun experience. We cheered each other on. We were proud of each other for our accomplishments. Jimmy was kind to trade me headlights on my long night run. Then get me a different Ipod when mine died-I was just happy to have him there and appreciated his kindness and chance to cheer and cry tears of joy together !

VERY tiring-oh lets not forget the 'hang over' the next few days from the lack of sleep.
Thanks to our team volunteers-even if we didn't see you, you still helped us and contributed to the entire Ragnar experience for everyone! and my bro Trent stepped up and volunteered for another team just so he could be part of it.

Ragnar Self Portraits

I loved seeing so many friends at Ragnar. Here is my collection of self-portraits from Ragnar! Andrea & I

(She grew up across the street from me in Kaysville. Its fun as 'women' we are both into running! I LOVED seeing her along the race! Always be my baby.....)
My sexy man & I

Melissa & I (Melissa was runner #2 for our team)

Becca & I

(She graduated a year before me in high school. We both did track together & crossed paths when we both lived in Woods Cross. Our boys went to preschool together this past year.)

Regena & I

(I lived down the road from Regena in Woods Cross-she is awesome-any runner is awesome! She is becoming a good friend and is very friendly.)

I am finally getting him trained to smile with me on these silly photos!

Rachael & I

(Runner #4 Rachael was in my Woods Cross ward and she was a LAST minute sub for my injured sis in law. Rachael rocked her leg. Beautiful runner & great teammate!)

Ashly & I

(Ashly is in my Bountiful ward now. TOUGH chick-seriously. runner #11 for her team-physically strong & a personality EVERYONE loves. She is a good woman!)