Cheers to Jenn and Allen

Wow. You know it's been a long time since you posted when your back ground shows fall leaves and since September is only a few days away. I don't need to change it. Lots of things have changed in our lives. Lots. However, I don't want to get into all that since my whole reason for blogging was to tell about our recent camping trip.

This summer we have had a lot going on with trying to sell our house and then ultimately pulling it off the market. During the whole house selling process Jason and I realized how much we wanted a camping trailer. We started getting the low down on owning a trailer in June from our friends Jenn and Allen. We started looking soon after and finally decided in August when we officially pulled our house off the market that we would take the plunge and buy one.

Since we are NEW to the WHOLE trailer thing, we pretty much owe the success of our first camping trip to Jenn and Allen. Not even kidding. Thank goodness Jenn was in the truck the first time we towed it up Parleys because I'm pretty sure Jason would have killed me if we were alone. On top of that if Allen hadn't had a shovel (which they told us we would need to bring, but we forgot) we never would have leveled out the trailer, among other things. Hell, I wouldn't have even been able to wash dishes. They were such a huge help with this whole process, I'm pretty sure that they saved our marriage that started wavering a bit when we picked up the trailer from the dealership and pulled out of the parking lot with an extra 25 feet behind the truck.

Anyhow, we left work early on Friday a couple of weeks ago and headed up to East Fork of the Bear. Can you say Beautiful! It was up in the middle of no where. Just how we like it. It was a wonderful trip and we had a blast. Met new friends and had a great time. Now we are looking forward to heading up to Strawberry for this weekend and next....with Jenn and Allen Of course! We can't wait.

Beautiful eh?

Jenn and Allen's sweet girl Bella

Jason and I after a "relaxing" drive up what I'm pretty sure was an ATV trail...

The meadow outside our trailer.

Oddly, the only picture of the camp with all the trailers set up.

While we were away

Last week was so nice and relaxing. Jason and I just laid low and hung out which was so nice. Camping was a little crazy because of the weather. So we called it quits early, which was sad but worked out because Jason's knee was really bugging him (Yes, we are still dealing with the leg problem from when he broken his femur at the end of February).

While we were off work, we did lots of movie watching and eating lunches at our favorite places. I really enjoyed spending time with Jason. I aways feel like we are running and running, so that was really nice. Thursday was our 5th Wedding anniversary and we started the day with a visit to Jason's doctor and it was determined that surgery is necessary. They are going to scope out his knee, but it will be a little more invasive, because he has a tear in his meniscus that they will fixed. Hopefully this surgery will fix the problems and the pain Jason is having and help him get back to running, hiking and skiing because I know he has missed it terribly. Wish us luck, he goes in on the 22nd of this month. The rest of the afternoon we spent hanging out at home and then we headed down to the Gateway for dinner, shopping and a movie. It was such a great night.

Friday we went and got new phones, which was good because we were having problems with our old ones. That was a lot of fun for Jason and myself because we have finally joined the rest of the world with smart phones, so we played with them all afternoon. That evening we went over for the early preview of sniagrab. We looked around, but decide to wait until the morning for the door buster sales. So we got up REALLY early and headed over. My Christmas was done in thirty minutes. I'm so excited! I got the works, ski's, boot's, bindings, and our passes.

The rest of the weekend was wonderful and then Tuesday we headed back to work. That was really hard after the time off, but what can you do. I'll post pictures soon.

It's time

I can't even tell you how excited I am. Starting this afternoon Jason and I will be taking a little vacation. We'll call it a staycation if you will. Sort of........... Tomorrow morning we are heading up into the Mountains for a few days of mountain biking and hiking with Greg and Kristi. I can't wait to sit by the fire and eat tin foil dinners. I can't wait to feel and smell the crisp cool air. I love it!

Then next week Jason and I have a few ideas of how we are going to spend our time off work. The biggest and most exciting thing maybe the fact that SNIAGRAB is starting and I'm on the look out for some ski's. Oh wait...... just kidding that would be the second to biggest.

The biggest being that we will be celebrating next week is our 5Th wedding anniversary. It's shocking really. I can't believe how the time has flown by, but I have loved every second of it. I really and truly got lucky and married my best friend. I love Jason more each and every day. I'm one lucky girl.

Okay, no more sappy stuff. Back to SNIAGRAB!!! I've really....no joke been counting down the days. It all started last year when I decided that I wanted Jason to teach me how to ski, and I loved it. I spent way to much money renting ski's last season. So next week will be an Early Merry Christmas for me!!

The fun starts tomorrow.

Tour of Utah

Sunday Jason and I headed up Little Cottonwood Canyon to secure a spot to watch The Tour of Utah, but mainly Levi Leipheimer. Jason loves all things cycling, so we went up and parked the car, rolled down the windows and read for a few hours until it was almost time. The weather was so nice, it felt like fall and was even raining a bit. I can't tell you how excited Jason was for this and we have been planning doing this for months. While Jason stood on the side of the road cheering with everyone, my mission was to get photos. I made Jason so frustrated because I wanted to park in a spot to secure great pictures where other people won't come stand since our car will be there. So I was getting ready standing next to Jason with my camera and people kept getting in my way and standing right in front of me. I was so annoyed since we had been there all day waiting. Plus really....I don't know you so please don't come and lean up against my car and stand in front of me. I would move to a different spot and then they would too, so up on the Xterra I went. It worked out great since I was able to get shots without a million people in them.

I was so fun to watch Levi pass even though it was mainly with the lens on my camera, but it was worth it to see how happy Jason was. I'm excited for next year already.

Happy Birthday!

Today is Jason's 25th Birthday. Today he woke up to an amazing birthday present. Lets just say he really wanted to call in sick to work today.

Happy Birthday Jas.

I love you!

Okay, Okay

Even though I'm so bad about posting, I did in fact finish the race. I had a blast! I never paid attention to the clock at the finish line but my watch had me about 2:15ish. I was shocked at how fast the time flew by. My goal was to come in under 2:10 minutes, but I'm still very happy. Next time I will get there.

During the whole training process I always felt like I couldn't run faster than a 10 minute pace. I guess I was wrong. My pace was all over the place and afterwards when I downloaded my watch I was shocked. I can run faster! I didn't even feel like I was pushing myself that hard during the race. Here were my times.

Mile 1 -8:59
Mile 2 -10:51 (Lots of people!)
Mile 3 -9:06
Mile 4 -8:52
Mile 5 -10:36
Mile 6 -9:33
Mile 7 -9:04
Mile 8- 10:18
Mile 9- 10:23
Mile 10 -15:06 (story below)
Mile 11 -14:03 (again below)
Mile 12 -9:54
Mile 13.1 - 9:57

Crazy eh? I wasn't kidding when I said that I was all over the place!

The first mile I was shocked because it wasn't as crowed as I thought it would be and then all of the sudden we hit mile 2 and I was moving all over the place to get around people. Mile 3, 4 and 5 were uneventful. I tossed my jacket, wishing that I had put on a tank because it got hot fast! Mile 5 there was a bit of a hill that I slowed down for. Mile 6-8 were good. I felt great and I was excited to keep going. Then I hit mile 9 and I started to feel like I was getting a blister. I kept thinking, "Damn! I never get blisters!" By mile 10 I knew for sure that I had one bad, so I keep going and then I remember that last minute I decided to put mole skin in my sports bra just in case. So I stopped and put that on. Then Mile 11 was a big hill and let me be the first one to say that I did NO hill training for this race, so it kicked my butt and I had to walk. Once I got to the top I just wanted to stay strong and feel great! It was so awesome to see my family and friends as the finish line cheering me on.

I took a Sunday and Monday off and tested the whole running faster thing on Tuesday. Just to see if I could do it when I wasn't in a race. It was no problem. I can't wait to see where I'll be towards the end of the summer.

I have a few races that I would like to sign up for, but I'm going to give my self a couple more weeks to decide. Plus, Jason give me the best birthday present ever! A road bike! I'm really exited! I've wanted one for a while since he got so into it. Tomorrow is the day that the doctor told him that he can get back to riding (he still has a month or so before he can try running). Since he hasn't been able to ride since February, hopefully I won't slow him down to much. I would really like to start riding my bike to work, but we'll see. I'm nervous since Jason getting hit last year, so I need one of these.

Here we go again

Why is it that I sign myself up for these situations? I'm freaking out people! The Salt Lake Half is this Saturday. I feel like I am all over this place. One minute I'm so excited and then the next I feel like throwing up. I need to stop. I just don't how too.

I'm trying to stop and think about the fact that I have trained harder for this race, then I ever did for the Park City Half last year and I finished that one. This is a much faster course than Park City. I keep reading this quote "It's very hard to understand that the whole idea is not to beat the other runners. Eventually you learn that the real competition is against the voice inside you that wants to quit." -George Sheehan

I don't really have a problem with wanting to beat other people. I know that I'm not the fastest runner and I could care less who finishes before me. The part that really means something to me is the whole not listening to your voice in your head that tells me to quit or to slow down my pace. I tend to get really comfortable with running and sometimes I don't push myself and I would like to change that with this race.

For some reason today I keep seeing this:

It's not helping. I need something more like this: