Marathon Training

I made an actual spreadsheet of my training for the last 8 weeks.  It's going to be tricky with all of the Vacations, but I think I can do it!  (At least that's what I'm telling myself.)

Beating Summer Boredom

It's gotten to that point in the summer that I can tell the boys get bored easily.  Chandler is constantly asking to play the ipad and computer and watch TV.  Rowan is always asking to watch TV or go to the store to buy a new toy.  As much as I love summer, I think I'm feeling ready for the boys to go back to school.  It's crazy to think that Chandler will be in school all day and Rowan will be going every day as well.  Rowan will continue his 2 afternoons a week with the school district, and I've also got him enrolled in a friend's preschool the other 3 days of the week.  My boys both really thrive on structure.  Structure is one of my biggest weaknesses, so I appreciate when the school year enforces that. :)  Because we are trying to beat summer boredom, I'm pulling all of the tricks out.  On Friday we went to the movie, got slushes, played at the playground, and made dinosaur crafts.   I have to think of some more fun things to do over the next week, because after next week, it will be anything but boring. ;)  August is going to be a really busy month for us.  Marshall has 2 business trips, I am going to Blogher in NYC, we go to Disney/California for 8 days, and then up to Idaho to spend time with Marshall's family at a cabin for 3 days.  Chan will actually have to miss the first couple days of school, we've got so much planned. 

Glow in the Dark Half Marathon

This year was the first year that Eagle Mountain hosted a glow in the dark half marathon.  One of the fire fighters put it on to raise some money.  Avry and I decided that we wanted to run it a few months back and signed up.  The day of, we had a barbecue with chicken, fresh fruit and veggies.  Then we waited until it was time to go up to the starting line.

 The marathon route is in my area, right by my house, so I've run the paths before, just never all together.  About 2 miles past my house, there is a place called unity pass.  It has a pretty huge hill and is fun to come down, but an absolute beast to come back up.  The race was a bit disorganized since it was the first year.  It was supposed to start at 9:00, but I don't think we really got going until 9:30.  I felt really great the first mile.  As soon as mile 2 started, I got a horrible side stitch.  I didn't want to stop to walk so I was trying to breathe through it, but it was so sharp. I slowed my pace way down and after 15 minutes, the pain subsided.  Before the race began, we had a pretty big storm so the air was incredibly humid for the area.  Not only was it difficult to breathe, I could feel the insides of my thighs starting to chafe.  I've only ever chafed one other time, when I was wearing a cotton t-shirt.  It's normally dry enough in the area that I don't chafe ever, I didn't even have any on the marathon I ran 2 years ago.  It was uncomfortable but I kept pushing on.   As it got darker, it was increasingly hard to see.  The paths weren't very well lit there were multiple times I felt like I was going to trip and fall because I couldn't see the ground below me.   I was feeling really pretty good until I hit mile 9.  We started to climb back up unity pass and the next 1.5 miles was that hill.  It was SO hard.  Once I came down from the hill, the side stitch came back.  By the time I finished, I was so grateful to be done.  Below you can see what the elevation looked like. (Green)

It was definitely the hardest course I've ever run, and it's really difficult to run a half marathon at the end of the day when you've already been up since 7 that morning.  It was a good long run though to help prepare me for the Denver marathon in September.  I finished in 2 hours and 15 minutes, which is about 18 minutes slower than my last time, but I felt pretty good about it considering all of the side aches, humid weather, chafing, the dark and hills.  After Avry came into the finish line, neither of us were feeling very well.  We came back to my house and basically had a puke fest.  I threw up a few times and was so unsettled that I didn't really fall asleep until 5:30 am.  2 days later, I am so so sore.  My legs, knees, hips, back and shoulders are where I feel it the most.  The concept of the race was fun, we were all decked out in glow in the dark bracelets and necklaces, but I'm not sure I would do it again!  I'll chalk it up for good experience.  I have longer runs in the future including a 15, 17, & 20 mile run, but I will make sure to do those in the morning when there's good light, it's cool and dry and my energy levels are higher.

They Are Home!

I mentioned in the 4th of July post that the boys stayed up in Idaho for a week to be with both sets of grandparents.  Although it's nice to have a break from my kids and some extra time with Marshall, I missed them so much.  Marshall had a co-worker lose his 4 year old boy in an accident just over a week ago.  He attended the funeral this week, and he said it made him realize that much more how grateful he is for the kids. 
The boys came back home with my mom on Friday evening and it felt like I hadn't seen them in forever.  They both looked older...funny how only a week can do that.  Within hours of them being home, the house was a mess, and there was the sound of little feet running all around.  I wouldn't have it any other way, life is precious.

Married for 8

On the 9th, Marshall and I celebrated 8 years of marriage! I honestly don't remember life without him which is definitely a good thing. I'm so blessed to have him. The day of our anniversary, I came up to his work. I brought some dipped fruit and then we went to Red Robin for lunch. That night, we decided to go out as well. I was on call at the hospital, so we had to stay close. We did some restaurant hopping, some shopping and just enjoyed each others company.

30 Days!!

30 Days until Disney!!!! ------------------------------------------------------->>>>>>>>>>> Just excited. That is all.

5 Years

This month marks 5 years of blogging and 505 posts. It's pretty fun to see where it's gone and to go back and look at old pictures and videos.  I also find it funny that the pictures that come from my phone now are much better than the pictures that came from my digital camera back then. Blogging is essentially the only way that I journal so I'm really proud to have kept it up this long.  I thought it would be fun to show a flashback of what I was blogging about 5 years ago...

Chandler announces that we are expecting Rowan with his big brother shirt.

 Marshall and I celebrated 3 years of marriage.

 Chandler and his friend Carson playing in the pool together, they are still good friends 5 years later.  When this picture was taken, we lived in the same apartment complex.  Even though we've moved to Utah, he only lives a mile away. :)

Chandler and his cousin Claire.  They look so little in this video!

Smiling because he got a new chair.

Back Yard

Marshall had been talking about wanting to do something around the back yard since we've kind of just let it go.  There were a ton of weeds, thistles and the boys were also getting splinters from our deck.  We decided that we would finally do something about it.  I didn't really get that great of a before picture, but I came out one morning and Marshall had torn out all of the weeds and thistles and even cleaned out underneath the house and deck.  The picture below is actually after all of the weeds are out, it was really bad before.  Marshall worked for a few summers during and after high school doing landscaping.  I remember him taking me to see some of the projects he had done and worked on, so I knew it was excited to redo this area.

I painted the deck and Marshall did the rest.  He put weed fabric along and underneath the deck and then filled it in with small pebbles.  He then tore the grass out by our window well and created a patio area.  I won a small patio set last summer that has been sitting in storage, and I'm excited to finally have it out.

It ended up costing more than originally planned but I absolutely love how it turned out.  It's nice to have a sitting area and we even got a new propane grill.  I got a fantastic deal on it and it's been fun to grill and spend some time outside.

We also finally got a cover for our window well. It's a bit unnerving to say the last when you have a deep window well and small kids. I found someone local who made this one for pretty cheap and it turned out nicely.

 

It's been fun to redo a few things and make improvements on our home. Our kitchen is about to get a nice appliance revamp. I'm part of a Maytag blogger campaign and will be getting about $4500 worth of new appliances. I'll be sure to post before and after pictures when they are swapped out at the end of the month!

Zoo

A few weeks ago, Grandma Snedaker and Parker came up for a few days.  We went to Hogle Zoo with them.  We saw a really fun bird show and all of the animals.  There were some new exhibits like the polar bears and penguins.

Grandma Snedaker, Parker, Chan & Rowan

 

 

 

The boys were excited to ride the carousel while we were there.  Of all of the animals that Chan could choose to ride on, he chose the Praying Mantis.  Total boy.

 

4th of July

This year the boys and I headed up to Idaho for the 4th of July.  Marshall only had the 4th off, and has so  much time off in August, that he needed to stay home and work.  The only problem is that when I was halfway up to Idaho with the boys, Marshall called and we realized that  the keys to his car were on the seat of my car.  It's a good thing he can work from home, but he was basically stuck at home for 2 days while we were up here.
We arrived on Tuesday night and jumped back and forth a lot while we were here.  My parents & Marshall's parents live only 10 minutes from each other, so trying to balance time between both homes is tricky sometimes.
Tuesday night, we went to Marshall's parents house and visited and did fireworks.  The boys were so excited to start out with Sparklers with their cousins.  A few minutes into it, Chandler started crying and said he hurt his foot.  It was then that I realized that neither of the boys had shoes on. Chan had stepped on a hot sparkler and it instantly burned and was starting to blister his foot.  Grandma Snedaker went inside to get a cool rag for him while I went to grab their shoes.  Just then, Rowan started crying too.  He had burned the bottom of his foot too. :(  We kept cool rags on them for a while and the boys didn't seem too bothered, but they both blistered now.  Lesson learned.

After Snedakers, we went back to my parent's to do fireworks there too.
The morning of the 4th of July, we went up to the Rexburg parade with Snedakers.

 Because my boys hadn't gotten a lot of sleep, Rowan was so SO whiny and kind of unruly.  It was a trend that continued on throughout the day which was hard.  I totally missed having Marshall with me to help with the kids.  I never realize just how much he does until he's not there.  After the parade, the boys got their faces painted and some cotton candy.

We then headed home to go to Rigby Lake with my mom, sister and the kids.  It's a lake that I grew up swimming in and they've done some nice improvements to it.  The boys had fun building sand castles and playing in the water.

Later in the afternoon, we went back to Snedakers to barbecue and had a really fun big water fight.  Good food, family & fun.

 We finished off the night with my family at the Idaho Falls Fireworks.  They always are amazing and I love coming up here for the 4th.  I'm headed home tonight and have a busy work week ahead.  The boys are going to be staying for the week to visit with grandmas.  I'm going to miss them but they are so excited to stay!