Is This A Nightmare?

So I had this dream the other night that my alarm woke me up very early in the morning.  I got up, looked out the window, and noticed there was frost on the ground and the wind was blowing swiftly.  I proceded to get dressed, not really knowing how cold it was outside, I put on several layers of clothing.  The next thing I knew I was on an old school bus heading up the canyon, the road seemed to go on and on for miles. I realized that the further we drove the more snow there seemed to be on the ground.  I was getting very nervous.  I kept wondering, "where in the world was this bus driver taking us?" And then suddenly he stopped, somewhere in the middle of Snow Canyon St. George, he turned the bus around as if he were going to drive back down the canyon. Much to my dismay he didn't drive down the canyon, instead he opened the door and told everyone it was time to get off the bus.  The minute that door opened I could feel the rush of the cold wind on my face and I thought, "this guy is crazy, no way am I getting off this bus and going out into the dark, cold, windy, outdoors!!  I sat and waited until every single person got off the bus and then I realized I had no choice, I had to get off the bus.

Once I was off the bus I ran to the restroom.  (Cold air seems to make me have to do that.)  As soon as I walked out of the restroom I heard a gun go off and someone yelled on a loud speaker that it was now time to run 13 miles back down the canyon to where we started!!!  What?  Was I in some kind of nightmare??  Yep, turns out I was!  Although I wished I was asleep, I wasn't, actually I was very much awake.  Do you know what the worst part of this nightmare was?  I actually paid THEM for this experience!

Joe and I ran the Snow Canyon Half Marathon this past weekend, since we had ran the Halloween Half just the week before I was not really feeling like running that far that soon. My body quickly told me that it was tired, my quads and calves were feeling very fatigued from the week before.  Another difficulty was as I mentioned, it was cold and windy.  It is very unpleasant to run with cold wind blowing in your face for two hours.  On the bright side, this half marathon is officially our last race of this year!  Thank heaven I have my Saturdays back until January! 

AND WE'RE OFF TO THE RACES!

Well it has taken two weeks to get around to this but I supposed I should right a bit about Joe and my big accomplishment a couple of weeks ago. We ran and finished the St. George Marathon! Yep all 26.2 grueling miles. This was Joe's 9th full marathon and his 4th St. George Marathon. Considering I started out this year undergoing surgery on my left knee, and I really didn't get to start training until the end of March, I feel pretty good about it.

After the race!

Now I have to say, I didn't finish in the time that I wished I had, I was really hoping for a 4:30 finish. Unfortunately, I didn't finish until 5 hours! Yikes! Joe was nice enough to run the first 10 miles with me and then he got too impatient with my slow running, so he took off on his own. He finished just after 4 hours. I feel bad because he most likely would have finished 20 minutes earlier if he hadn't ran with me for so long. He did run back a mile and a half and then ran the last mile and a half with me. (It was good because I was starting to feel the onset of heat exaustion.) He was sure to let me know that his marathon was actually 29 miles!

Before the race...it was cold!

I have been running half marathons in less than two hours lately, however I quickly learned that the second half of the marathon is MUCH different that the first! I really started feeling some intense pain in my hips at about mile 16 and that is when I decided I didn't care about my time anymore, I just wanted to finish. So I stopped every couple of miles and stretched out my hip muscles for a few minutes, it helped me keep going. I am hoping that in my training this next year I will do what I need to in order to strengthen those muscles so I won't have that problem again. . . Did I just say next year? Yes, I have signed up for it again. The trap that novice runners like me fall into is that you run one race, and then you want to see how you much you can improve in the next race. At least now I know what to prepare for, I was kind of running blind. Even though Joe and I have been training a lot and running up to 20 miles, I have never run that far before and I wasn't sure how my body would handle it. Now I know, PAIN!

We went to St. George on the Wednesday before the race and rented a big house with all of the Ballstaedts, it was quite a bit of fun and I really enjoyed spending time chatting with my nieces and nephews and their families. Kamryn was especially delighted to have so many little girls to play with all day. It also didn't hurt that she got to swim pretty much all day, every day. The only down side was the stomach flu spread through the house like wild fire! I was hoping that I had escaped it but low and behold yesterday morning I woke up with it! I am just grateful I didn't get it the day of the race, that would have been horrible!

Anyway, I am very grateful for the marathon experience. People always ask me, "why would you EVER want to run a marathon?" My answer, "because I like to to prove to myself that I can do hard things." There is something very satisfying in knowing that you have disciplined yourself enough to do something that only 2% of the population has done. I know that if I can run a marathon, I can do pretty much anything I set my mind to.

This is Kamryn's "starfish" impression.

This is almost everyone who stayed at the house together.

ALOHA!

Our family recently returned from the Big Island of Hawaii.  We had an opportunity a couple of years ago to visit the island of Oahu and our kids had so much fun that they have talked about it non-stop since then.  Therefore, Joe and I decided that we would surprise them this past Christmas with another trip that would hopefully be just a memorable. 

It was memorable indeed!  Since we feel like our children are growing up so fast, (Kaylee is almost a senior in high school) we feel like we need to take advantage of as many opportunities to spend time with them all together as possible. 

We had an absolute blast in Hawaii.  We rented a condo in the Waikoloa Village about 20 minutes outside of Kona.  This is the dryer side of the Big Island.  It was an amazing resort village that had several miles of walking trails, golf course, pools, and of course...the beach!

Thanks to some good advice from my sister Lori, and some good friends of ours the Kurihara's who are from Hawaii, we had a lot of inside information that helped make our trip as enjoyable as it could possibly be. 

One of our favorite activities when we go to Hawaii is boogie bording. Our favorite beach was Hapuna Beach just about 5 minutes from where we were staying. Tanner was a little disappointed the waves were not as big as the ones on the North Shore of Oahu but nevertheless, we had great time playing in the ocean.

Of course a trip to the Big Island isn't complete without visiting the Volcano!  As you can see...it was very rainy and cold that day, still pretty neat though.
 

Another amazing thing we saw was this water fall. (Akaka Falls)  This picture doesn't quite capture how amazing a beautiful it was!

No trip to Hawaii is complete without enjoying some authentic Hawaiian shave ice.  Mmmmmmm.

Can you believe this guy is going to stick that in his mouth?  For some reason I am afraid that Tanner may try this at home.  (Hide the matches!)

Kamryn trying on her hula wear.

Just hanging out with some turtles on the black sand beach!

Is This Life After Death?

I had to laugh the other day when Kamryn and I were driving down the street and we passed by a cemetary.  She suddenly got so excited and yelled, "mommy look!"  A bit startled I turned expecting to see something extremely exciting as she continued, "I found heaven, there it is!"

I told her that the cemetary is just where our bodies go when we die. Heaven is where our spirits go and it is a much better and prettier place where we can live with our families and friends.  She sat quiet for a minute and then she said, "I wouldn't want to go to heaven if I couldn't be with my family." 

It is amazing to me that a four-year-old thinks so deeply about things.