How's your butt?

The question on all of our minds watching thousands and thousands of bikers ride hours to conquer the famous LOTOJA bike race. Seriously, they are sitting on those tiny little bike seats for HOURS- Like between 10 hrs or longer. Yeah, I get through a 45 minute spin class and I'm walking like there's a bowling ball between my legs for 2 days. That's gotta hurt.

Here's our little road-biker at our first feed zone! As a support crew you can not miss a feed zone. If you do, your biker will be up shiz creek, literally. The pressure is intense! And every time we would get there in the nick of time- he was way faster or we were way slower than we thought. ( It was both.) Let's just say a certain someone waited until the line was a mile long to finally decide she wanted an ice cream cone, and then another certain someone ( this may or may not have been the same certain someone) decided that it would be a good idea to try find people to take a stray cat she had picked up instead of driving to another important feed zone. And who knew that every house in Smoot Idaho is abandoned and people you can find are just horrible. And, who knew, that it feels much better after they scold you about picking up a stray you didn't want, to run away yelling: You people are awful awful people!! Let's just say we made it, but it was a close one.

Braden's mom, being awesome.

Braden, after conquering the King of the Mountain, still going strong! Half way done!

Waiting for Braden to come in, we also got lost and ended up in Jackson when we were supposed to end up somewhere else because that certain someone was driving and didn't see the turn off. Cathy and Mardee sporting some sweet T's with Braden's shining face on them to show our support.

Whoo-hoo!! Crossing the finish line with amazing time, you're the bomb honey!!

Ah, Victory!

Proud wife and Proud mom! I seriously have the best road trip hair. How do people look good when they travel? Cathy? How do you?

Next day, after a very restful sleep, besides being woken up by drunk bikers hollering at the exotic dancers next door-it sounded like a great show, at the Bull Moose saloon! I can't imagine why we got such a good deal on it! ;) Hey, they had smoke-free rooms! And moose shaped lamps! And free ice, next to the liquor.

Posing with our sweet ride!

Speaking of moose . . . Braden was so excited when we stopped at Bloomington lake, the whole way up he's saying Everyone think moose! They know you are thinking about them and they will come. Yeah rrright?? It's a moose! How excited we were to learn our minds had the power to command moosen? meese? meesen? mooses! That moose had no idea why he was there. Poor thing. We should have told him he could go home. oops, probably still standing there.

Cathy's first time swing roping- nice form!

Cowabunga! ( isn't that what you say when swinging on a rope? I don't know, or it just something you say if you're a ninja turtle . . . )

This lake was so stinkin' pretty! What a beautiful place we live in.

So much fun! Let's do that again!

Why do I keep doing this?

Ran the Top of Utah half marathon ( again ) on the home front. It was just as fun as I remembered- oh wait or was is as miserable as I remember? They say running a marathon is like going through labor, it's the worst, but then there comes a time shortly after that you seem to get amnesia about all that misery and want to do it all over again- while I was running, pretty much the entire time I was thinking- why am I doing this again? I must be the stupidest person ever, look at all of us running like crazy people. It seems weird but there really is a great sense of accomplishment when's it's over. And it's good, for me, to be working for something and achieve a goal. I almost reached my goal time, it was so close! It's kind of stinks when it's that close, y'know? I wanted to maintain a 9 minute mile and so I would be breaking 2 hours but I came in at 2 hours even. I watched the time change from 1:59 to 2:00 and I was so disappointed. I hadn't done enough. But it is what it is, there were alot of factors that went into it- mentally I wasn't there. I was very overwhelmed with running 13 miles and just didn't feel prepared because the last two weeks I wasn't feeling motivated or didn't really have the energy to train. My last long run was a disaster, I finished 11 miles with a 9:50 pace and my optimism was gone after that. It happens sometimes. Running all summer, I may have just been a little burned out. I didn't eat that much and got a bad stitch in my side after mile 2, but that's didn't slow me down too bad. Just ticked me off a little. It always feels better when you can do your business before a race but no matter how many times we visited those handy huts, it just wasn't happening. I thought for sure I wouldn't get a side ache because I didn't drink any water that morning but it happened anyway. I usually would take some shot blocks or something with caffeine or sugar to feel energized in the morning. I noticed I definitely felt more sluggish this time around without it but I didn't want anything like that -I just wanted my body to be able to do it's thing. I felt pretty good until mile10, when I hit mile ten, I was under a 9 minute/mile pace, I finished the first  6 miles in about 51 minutes but I hit a wall big time at mile 11 and I could not talk myself into running 2 more miles, you would think 2 more would be nothing but when your body is done running, there's almost nothing you can do to convince it otherwise. I walked several times and slowed way down. Once you hear the crowds cheering it gives you a little boost and I was able to pick up the pace to a 9 the last half mile or so. The fact that it was downhill finally may have helped too. The whole atmosphere of a race is just really fun, all and all it was definitely worth it, we did it as a family and we have great support and they get excited and happy and they encourage each other, it's great. The weather was great. My shins didn't hurt. And I did improve my time a little so alot of improvement to be done in the future but it feels good to have done another one, even if it I didn't feel the greatest. I'm still happy I did it!almost

Do I look wasted? It's because I am.   ( Braden, my supportive and wonderful husband, and I after the run)

Look at all the runners in our family, and we are missing Cathy, Danya, and Mardee in this picture. No, I didn't run with them, they are all so fast. Michelle, Shay and Linsey all finished in around 1:50 and Kaylee finished her first half ever today and was done in less than 2:30- So impressive! Everyone is so awesome and inspires me to be better.

Here's Braden's aunt Mardee who didn't even train and managed to pull off around a 2:40 finish- crazy lady!
A little shout out to my friend Nikki who is hard core and gave me some great tips for improving my time- I'll take your advice  more serious next time and maybe we can break that 2 hour barrier I seem to be in. Thanks for all the support!  :)

Bear Lake and the cutest kids you'll ever see

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'Twas a beautiful, gorgeous, and very quiet Tuesday at Bear Lake. It's really nice that, since we don't really get to go anywhere exotic, that we do have this great lake just up the canyon. The water level is really high this year so we had to go all the way up to north shore to find a beach but it was worth it.  I mean, look how much fun everyone's having!

The water was perfect!

We built sand castles, and it's serious business. Not really, but kind of.

Can you spot all the pudding on Mallory's face? It's hard to eat a pudding cup with no spoon! Don't look too close or you might see some on mine too!}

Malyse has her posing down! I have such pretty nieces.

Brade LOVES the camera! He is especially happy when I whip it out just as he's trying to eat. PS the food in Bear Lake is awesome too. The best fresh raspberry shakes and fries ever, a perfect meal after a long day in the sun.

Kambria's into rocks lately, did anyone else go through a big "collecting rocks" phase? Geek alert- I still have my rock collection, don't you worry.

And get ready for some seriously cute 3 and 4 year olds, there are no words for these two, they are best friends and it melts my heart, I mean seriously!!

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It was great, and so much better then being at work, I think every Tuesday should now officially be, take-your-family-to-the-lake-day. The world would be a better place.

Yay for middle of the week trips to st george!

See? We really did go! We had/go to drive to St George for Braden this week and I was happy to tag along. It is hot hot hot down there! Every inch of me was sweating! But it's such a fun little town. My favorite thing about it is this gorgeous temple! The white stone against the red rocks of St George is just breathtaking. Also I love that I am still in Utah and standing next to a palm tree. :)

{A note about this picture: for some reason it's distorted and I didn't photoshop this, I'm also not wearing tons of make up- the camera I was using has this skin softener feature and it makes us look pretty fake and scary. Oh well.}

This is my good friend from college an her new baby, baby number 2! She had him the very day we were in St George! What amazing luck! I was excited :)

This Nielsen's custard is some dang good custard! Let's go back. And that is also some dang good traveling hair I have going on. We sure did a lot of driving in 24 hours but I still felt like it was a great little break. Brooke, we are coming to visit you again soon!

It took foreverrr to load these pictures and now I'm too tired to write about our day at the lake . . .

Pretty fun day!!

out in the garden

I've really enjoyed our yard this year. It's all Braden's doing. I didn't help one single bit. Not that I wouldn't, he just usually gets things done when I'm not around :) I'm grateful for the work he's put into it this year, it's really coming along nicely. Great job honey!