Allie's Birthday Trip

Last weekend, I asked Allie what she wanted to do for her birthday.  I assumed she would ask to go to get ice cream or bowling or a movie.  Her response?

"I want to go see Natalie!"

Good idea!

So I called DeAnn, and we planned a trip north to Ohio!  We left on Friday afternoon, stopped at Denny's for dinner, per Allie's request for chocolate chip pancakes, and arrived late Friday night at DeAnn's.

We spent all of Saturday just hanging out and playing.  The kids had fun playing with cousins, we played games, DeAnn and I got excited about our coupon apps, and of course we watched a horribly awful Hallmark movie.

But most of all, we celebrated Miss Allison!  DeAnn made her a funfetti cake (which sort of fell apart!), and we sang and opened presents.  She got to play with Megan and Natalie, her birthday wish!  I love it.

We left Sunday morning to beat a bad snowstorm that was coming in. Our route takes us straight to Kirtland, so we swung by and saw the temple.  Next time we will do the tour.  I did it last time I was there, but I am excited for Nate to have that experience!  I talked to the kids about what happened there and read from the Doctrine & Covenants about Christ appearing.  It is true, and I felt that confirmed to me once again!

We came home and couldn't wait to see the kitties.  Our sweet neighbor, Lisa, had taken excellent care of them for us.  We really are so blessed with a wonderful neighbor here!

October Life, Part 2

Pretty much a repeat post from two weeks ago.  Still no job, enjoying pumpkin patches, running and trying to increase my spirituality.  My dad and I attended the Provo Temple together last week.  I needed that!  I haven't been to that temple since I've been married, so it was nice to go there again.

Cam and Nate ran the Salem Witches 5K on Saturday.  My dad went and ran with them.  They did great!  Cam told me he wants to run a half marathon with me one day.  I am so excited that he loves running!

I ran the Howloween Half marathon on Saturday night.  I've decided that I will NEVER do a night race again!  They are terrible!  I just prefer mornings.  But I ran with Shaylee, and we helped each other finish.  Our time wasn't great, but I told her I wasn't going to leave her behind.  There was this sweet deaf man who we kept seeing along the course.  Whenever he would see us, he'd give us a thumbs up, to "check in" that he was doing well.  Shaylee signed with him afterwards, and turns out he was all alone.  No one to cheer him on.  I'm so grateful we could be his support.  Sometimes races have NOTHING to do with yourself.  Sometimes you are meant to be there for someone else.  I am grateful I could do that for Shaylee and this nice man because I can't even count how many times someone has been there for me. When he finished, he came up and thanked us and wanted a picture.  Made my night!!!

I also spent some time with Cathy this week.  We always laugh when we get together because we have 8 kids between us and it's just nuts.  I love this girl.  She is a blessing in my life right now!!

Life Update (LONG post!)

Okay.  I have been slacking on my blog, and I don't like that!  This is my family journal, and I need to do better.  I'm going to try and sit down every evening and write down our day.  That's the goal.

So here's a quick recap of what I haven't blogged lately.

1.  The kids are doing great in school!  Cam had a field trip to Silver Lake yesterday and said it was a blast.  He's learning multiplication and division, and it feels like yesterday he was in Kindergarten learning addition!  Roo is loving Kindergarten.  I love her little homework worksheets.  She LOVES riding the bus, and I'm sad that the chances of the kids riding a bus wherever we move to are pretty slim.  Bear and I always have fun at home together.  She misses the older kids, but I'm loving have that time with her.

2. Still no job.  Trust me, you'll know when we get one.  He's had a few interviews though, and the IHC job is still in the running.  Our official move-out date is September 27, so the plan is to move to Salem if nothing else happens by then.  Sigh.

3. I have started a new workout program and clean eating, so be ready for that update each day.  I LOVE it!  The goal is to workout an hour a day, NOT counting running.  I alternate arm/ab day with leg day, and I feel so amazing already!

4. Nate did his 2nd Triathlon on Labor Day and rocked it!  SO SO proud of him!  He wants to do a half ironman next.  Woot!  Such a stud.  And hot, might I add...

5. Yesterday, I met up with my friend, Cindy, at City Creek for lunch.  She is part of our running group, but we had never met, since she lives in Southern California.  She came to Utah to run Big Cottonwood this weekend.  It was such a treat to meet her.  We walked over to Temple Square, since she'd never seen that before.  I hope she had a nice time and felt something special there.

6. My awesome running friend, Ty, invited our family and Joshua over for dinner last Sunday.  It was SO MUCH FUN.  We seriously laughed for like 3 hours straight.  I don't think I've seen Nate laugh so much!  Also, I got to snuggle baby Ginny.

7.. Nate is HOT.  That's all.

Ogden 26.2: Week TWELVE (Temple Run)

I already blogged about how not so great my mid-week runs went.  I've gotten some rest since then and am feeling a little better about things.

Yesterday was a complete BLAST!  We ran from the Draper Temple to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple.  We thought it would be a great way to start Conference weekend!  It turned out to be a very special, meaningful run.  It was difficult, but we were able to find so many gospel correlations as we kept our focus on getting to the Oquirrh MountainTemple.

Nate had work off, so he was able to run with me!  We stayed the night at his parent's house and got up early to meet up.  We left our van at Oquirrh and rode over to Draper with Christy.  Our group was a tad late getting there (thanks, Joshua), so we didn't get to be in the BIG group picture, but we got one of our own!

The BIG group:

Our late group:

It was pretty dark when we started running.  The views from the Draper Temple of the valley were amazing.  I spent most of the run with Nate, Joshua, Shelley, Katheryn and Christy.  We saw others here and there, but the group was pretty strung out.  I loved getting know Shelley better, she is a riot!  It never ceases to amaze me how quickly runners hit it off with each other.  Best friends in a matter of minutes!

About 5 miles in, we ran past the state prison.  Christy is a big Walking Dead fan, so she took our picture and edited it.  Josh is a zombie!  Hilarious.  And gross.  I love Christy!

Probably the BEST part of the run was about halfway through, we passed these two signs.  They said "RA" on them, and we were a little confused.  But then we saw ROBERT MERRIMAN!  He couldn't run with us, but he had come to cheer us on and make us smile with funny signs!  He took some pictures and gave me a hug.  It was such a treat to see him!  He's so awesome.

Running to Robert Merriman!  I was so happy.

 Katheryn, me, Nate, Joshua, Terri, Christy, Marsha, Shelley

Nate's Crohn's started acting up, so he was forced to slow down and walk.  I didn't want to ditch him, so Joshua and I would run for a bit, and then let Nate catch up.  I felt so bad!  Stupid Crohn's.  As always, Joshua and I had some great conversations.  We came up with ways that this run can be related to Gospel principles.  Keeping our focus on the temple.  Pressing forward when the hills seem like too much.  Enjoy the journey.  He would also burst out into "Come, Come Ye Saints" and other pioneer songs at random.

At the end, there was a huge hill leading up to the temple.  It was REALLY tough, but we refused to stop.  The reward of the temple at the top was SO worth it!  I love the temple.  All of the temples!  I love being a member of this Church.  I love being a runner.  It was an amazing experience.

Haha, oh Joshua.

Twenty miles next weekend!  Bring it on.