Lake Powell

Andy and I went on a little 3 day trip to Lake Powell sans kids...which was a little weird going there without them, because they love it so much...but I got over the weirdness pretty quick. We took long boat rides, played on the jet skis, ate dinner at the marina, did some awesome hikes, watched movies in the houseboat, read and relaxed. We went with Will & Tracy, the Nybergs and the Campbells.

Andy always forgets to bring his sunglasses, and always wants to borrow mine.

Andy and Will

Andy jumped in to show us how deep one of the cracks can be. SCARY!

The rest of the crew


Andy and Eric tried to body surf together. One of the funniest things ever. We were all crying we were laughing so hard!

The Tooth Fairy was a "No-Show"...

Last night, Andy pulled out one of Cael's front teeth. He's lost 6 now. He's always so brave to let Andy do it, even though he does get quite scared before. So, they got it out, we all went to Sonic for ice cream after our FHE lesson, then Cael put his tooth in a baggy and put it under his pillow. After dealing with all the kids, and cleaning up before I went to bed, I completely forgot to go put a dollar in the tooth's place. Uh-oh. Cael was so sad this morning when he woke up to see his tooth still there. What bad parents we are. I felt so bad. While he was in the bathroom, I quickly put a dollar into the crack of his mattress and bed frame, and then told him to come look a little harder to see if he might have missed the money somehow. Once he found the dollar I had hid, he said, "oh, this is just the 'pink' dollar that I must have dropped here last week"...I guess the one I hid was actually Ava's, which does have pink nail polish swipes on the back of it, and so it's pretty recognizable. I had to just leave the room instead of trying to make up another story, because I couldn't help smile about how this situation wasn't getting resolved, and how observant my kids are, aaAAAaand how my plan B failed. So then Andy steps in and fixed it all by telling Cael that sometimes the tooth fairy can't get to some kids the night their teeth come out, and that sometimes she comes a day later. He was fine with that explanation and placed the tooth back under his pillow, and was able to go to school happily. I'm actually kind of hoping one of his friends breaks the news to him about the tooth fairy, because he's starting to think she's a real flake!

SGM

So, I did it. I ran the St. George Marathon last week, and it was quite the experience. It was one of my New Year's Resolutions and so I had to follow through with it. Anyone who was with me soon after I finished heard me say, "I'll never do that again", but, I'm totally disregarding how hard it was, and am currently planning out my next year, and will soon be signing up for another one...I guess it's kind of like having a baby, you just forget how bad it hurts, and that's why we can do it over and over again. As good as it feels to be done, I am so disappointed with my time...I finished in 4:17 (which isn't great, it's like a 9:48 average pace or something). I finished my half-marathon in 1:49, and so my plan (and I was on track until mile 16) was to finish around 3:50. I was able to hang with the 3:45 pace guy up until this huge downhill section, and then instantly after we finished mile 15, my IT band in my left knee started hurting SOOO bad. I knew I was in big trouble. Soon after that my right knee started giving me the same problem. I never really trained on any down hills, and I keep hearing that's why my knees were giving me problems. So needless to say, I slowly started to increase the gap between myself and the pace guy, who's back I'd been staring at for the past two hours. At that point it hurt so bad I could just get up enough motivation to run a mile and then walk a few minutes, run another mile, then walk a few minutes. It was just as hard on me mentally, knowing I was going to be so far behind the time I was aiming for, and had so diligently trained for. I could've cried so many times...and actually did break down to Andy at the finish line. It was amazing to me how many people needed medical attention throughout the course, and how many ambulances would come speeding by me, taking people to the hospital. Apparently it was considered a hot day compared to past years. It was a pretty surreal experience running through the finish line, having so many people cheering for me, but at the same time being in so much pain, and feeling disconnected from my body. Maybe these are all thoughts and complaints of a first-time marathoner, I don't know...that's why I need to try it again to see if I can overcome all of these obstacles. Anyway, it was so fun to see Andy and the kids at the end. I was so glad to be done. I could barely walk down the stairs for the next few days, due to my knees, but the sore muscles I had, sort of felt good. It was definitely one of the hardest things I've done, but I think I'm hooked and can't wait to do another one.