Mesa Falls Half Marathon

So, I have started this tradition for myself to do a big race of some kind after having a baby to help me get the extra weight off.  After I had Austin I did a triathlon with my brother Tyler and my Aunt Beth and Uncle Gheen.  After I had Kaleb I wanted to do another one but I don’t have a bike and I don’t have access to a pool in Rexburg.  My friend Amy and I decided to run.  We signed up for the Mesa Falls Half Marathon and began training in April.  We were having a lot of fun training and were beginning to love running.  In July Amy found out she was pregnant and couldn’t do the race.  I was all alone.  There were times when I definitely wanted to throw in the towel and not do the race, but I had already paid my $50 and told everyone I was doing it so I couldn’t back out now.  I am so glad I stuck with it.  It was so rewarding to set a goal that seemed unattainable at times and push my body harder than I have ever pushed before to meet that goal.  Saturday was the race and I had a really great time.  The first 7 miles were really great.  It was a beautiful coarse and I was thinking to myself, “this is so awesome, I am loving this.  I want to do it every year.”  I was definitely feeling the “runners high”.  At about mile 10, I was really starting to hurt.  During miles 12 and 13 my legs hurt so bad it was all I could do to just put one foot in front of the other.  But I made it.  I completed the race in 2 hours 47 minutes.  My goal was to be under 3 hours and I met my goal.  Three days later, my legs still kill and I can barely walk down a flight of stairs, but it was worth it.

It doesn’t look like I am going very fast because I am not.  I was in so much pain during the final stretch, I thought my legs were going buckle from underneath me.

As soon as Austin saw me running down the final stretch he broke through the crowd and started running with me.  It was so fun to have Austin cross the finish line with me

It was so fun to see Austin and the boys cheering me on.  I am so glad they were there to support me!

10 Year Class Reunion

It’s hard to believe, but Vance has been graduated from high school for 10 years!  Crazy how time flies.  We had the opportunity of attending his class reunion last week.  We joked because we went to a class reunion to eat dinner with the friends we hang out with all the time.  I tease Vance all the time that he hasn’t made a new friend since high school (not entirely true, but close).  Although we did sit at the same table as Erik and Amy, I was very impressed with how social Vance was with his other classmates.  I practically had to force him to go, but by the end he was saying how fun it was to see everyone.  

We LOVE these guys.  Erik and Amy live in Rexburg as well, so we get to see them a lot.  They are some of our best friends.  We have so much fun with them

Pace, Erik and Vance.  These guys have not changed all that much from high school.  They still get together every chance they get to save the world from zombies (a video game they could play day and night if their wives let them, and no, we do not let them).  FYI- That is sparkling cider in Erik’s hand.  After all, they did graduate from Sugar Salem High School. 

After dinner, they gave away awards for different categories.  Vance won the 2nd place award for the: “Who has lost the most hair” contest.  

A Reuniting of Friends

One of the biggest down sides to my parents moving from Boise to American Fork is that I don’t get to go back to Boise very often.  Which, in turn, means I rarely get to see any of my high school friends.  One of the up sides to living in Rexburg is that it seems everyone spends a little time in Rexburg eventually whether they planned it or not.  Through Facebook, I found out that three of my good high school friends are now living in Eastern Idaho.  We decided to have our own little high school reunion at Millhallow.  We kind of laughed because we all friends just not in the same circles. 

Kathryn Williams Ririe and I were good friends in choir.  She is an incredibly gifted musician and we spent lots of time together on choir trips. Her husband now works at BYU-I and she has a little boy Austin’s age.  Leslie Clark Rasmussen and I met each other at the home school co-op we were in called A.S.A. in seventh grade.  We were reunited in high school through similar class schedules and mutual friends.  She recently got married and her husband is now working on his Bachelors Degree at BYU-I.  Jessica Jensen Ricks was one of my very first high school friends.  Since I didn’t attend a conventional middle school, I didn’t now very many people when I got to high school and Jessica kind of took me under her wing and made me feel included.  She is a social worker and is working as a PSR worker in Idaho Falls while her husband attends BYU-I.  It was so fun to get together and catch up with these awesome friends.  We decided to get together for lunch once a month so we can stay in touch while we are all in the same area.

Leslie, Kathryn and me.  Jessica left before we took the picture.  She is 8 months pregnant and was really tired.