A Fourth full of fun

Fourth of July can mean many a thing to each of us. As for me what comes to mind is Lewiston, Utah. For the past few years now, my fourth of July starts out in the center of town promptly at 7:00 in the A.M. a whole herd of people start to scramble in three different directions depending on the distance you choose to run. There is a 10K, 5K or 1 mile. You can find me in the herd that is heading north participating in the Annual Patriot Border 5K Run.

(That is my 'two road kills with one shot' it was awesome)
I choose to do the 5K because it heads right up to my parent's property and the whole gang comes down to the border to cheer me on at the half way mark. This year was a little different though. I had a few more people running this race with me. Let me give you the background on each of them...

Heather Adams-

When I started to train for the TOU Half a few years back, I ran my first 5 mile run EVER with Heather. She had done a half the year before and was in town and agreed to go for a run with me. I really think the world of Heather, you wont find a nicer, more sincere person around.

Julie Stewart-
I have done Julie's hair for a while now and she trades Sensty with me (I feel pretty good about that trade!) About 6 months ago I gave Julie a running book and told her about this fourth of July race. It's pretty easy and you have a good cheer group half way through. She said she would think about it but never did commit to me for sure. The night before the race about 9:30 I gave Julie a call and asked her one last time if she was interested. She called me back a while later and gave her definite YES. This was her first race EVER!

Mary Ann-
(as we all know Mary Ann runs like the wind blows so if you look really close you can see her there in the distance!)
She had been up to my parent's house for a while and I really enjoyed having her around. We started out her trip with a race and ended her trip with a race. This was her first 5K and she did great!

Audrey--
Mary Ann's oldest daughter, a bit on the crazy side, but it was really fun to run with her, she is a seasoned vet when it comes to 5K runs on the fourth of July, she participates in Swiss Days annually.

And last but not least,

Jonathan--
(because he was so fast, I don't have a photo of him actually running!)

All I have to say about Jonathan is that he is a crazy good runner. He had been feeling a bit under the weather so he didn't want to set his goals too high, he was shooting for a 22 min. over all time... What-Ev!

Family Fourth of July Fun!

I love to recruit people for running, this was a great race with fabulous friends.

I do have to insert here that I got a new Personal Record for my 5K, my time for this race was 27:50 and I felt pretty darn good about that. Also, check out the super sweet shirts I made for me and Mary Ann, on them it says "God Bless this HOT Mess" And I got us Stars and Stripes crowns to wear.
We were festive AND fast!

Who needs more cowbell?

I do! I do! Well, maybe a little break from cowbell would be okay. I know that everyone has heard about the Wasatch Back, but here is my contribution to it all. It was Freakin Amazing!! Our team was great, the course was great and the race as a whole was...great!

It all started with a van decorating party the night before. I wish we had cow hides and horns to attatch to the vans, that would have been sweet, but window paint was nice too.

Our van (#2) left Logan a couple of hours after our van #1 started the race. We met up with them in Eden where Mary Ann began her first leg...

This is our van #2 Jason Turner (who wrote a great article in the Herald Journal about our team, check it out if you haven't yet), Joyce Littlewood, Me, Mary Ann, Jonathan, and our cousin Cathrine Phillips.


This was Mary Ann's first leg through Liberty, she said she wanted more Cowbell, and I gave it to her. Does she look a little annoyed to anyone else?


This was my first leg climbing up Snow Basin, all I can say is that it super sucked! I did better than last year, I just hate that dang hill!


This was my night run. It started at about three in the morning. Landon was sick, but rode with me anyways. When we started the leg, he was sure to say to me, 'Any time you think I'm not romantic, just remember I did this for you--and I'm sick.'

During our night runs, we all said to eachother--Who does this? Who stays up ALL night long to run, and above all of that, we paid money to do this? This isn't forced upon us, we chose to do this?!? Really you must be a little on the crazy side to do this race.

This is somewhere along the course, I'm not sure why there is a smile on my face, sleep deprivation really does something to you.


This is Jonathan's last leg, it was so fun to run with him! When we started he said that he hadn't really ran in 20 years! That is crazy-he was amazing, I really don't know what else to say about it, he did so so good!


This was me starting my LAST LEG!! Yay! Twenty Seven hours of really no sleep, eating out of the car, two other legs, plenty of hills and a few tears behind me already, all I had to do was run to the finish line.


And I did.

everyone else is doing it...

So there are a bunch of little things that happen throughout my day that I think to myself 'Oooo I could TOTALLY blog about that' Then comes time to blog and they seem so lame. Well, I have been thinking to myself for about a week now that I need to post, then all of a sudden everyone and their dog posted yesterday! I am not one to be left out so here we go... Things in the new place are going great. Wilson is right at home he has his favorite sleeping spots

and his favorite hiding treat spots and loves to run up and down the hall. Him and Landon spend hours just staring out the window,


it is really exciting when they spot something worth pointing at.


The neighborhood here is GREAT!! I have joined a running group and it has been so fun! For those of you who know me well, you might want to sit down for this next part. I am up and running by 6A.M. That's right, me who does not like mornings is dragging her sleepy butt out on the road. I'm telling ya, turning a whole new leaf here! The ward down here is awesome too. There have been so many people that have made us feel right at home. I went to Enrichment a couple of weeks ago and it was a service auction. I, for the life of me, could not think of what to do on such short notice, so I baked. I made the cutest cupcakes ever! I have to give myself a pat on the back! They were a hot item at auction too, so that was nice. I made two kinds, Smore


and Strawberry Creme


Both were delicious but I think the Smore batter was better, but the Strawberry cooked was better.

They have planted our front lawn, and a couple of trees. I can't tell you the difference it makes!! We have yet to mow the lawn, we were told by our neighbor who has an immaculate lawn that we need to wait a few weeks, so that is what we are doing. I planted some flowers in the front and also in some pots out back.


Wils really likes them.

We have had a few visitors, last week Penny and Colby met us in Layton for dinner at our favorite place Tepenyaki. If you haven't been there, you must go, it is fabo! We all caught shrimp in our mouths but not a lot of great pictures to document.


It was so fun and we LOVE having friends come visit, so everyone do it more!!! This is how we can tell who really likes us and who was glad to get us out of Cache Valley! And Courtney, I again must appologize for cutting your visit short, it was so good to have you come down and see us, and I hope you come again soon! All in all everything is going great! Gearing up for the Wasatch Back in a couple of days. I can promise you all a post on that, it is the funnest race EVER! I am so excited to have more family on the team this year, maybe just maybe one of these years we can get an entire van FULL of Nelsons...that could be scary!

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

Our annual Girls Trip Weekend has come and gone and fun was had by all. It started out with an over the shoulder bolder holder intervention. Mary Ann took us all to Nordstroms and like she said, changed our lives! Big big difference, when I was telling Landon about the experience, I had him guess what size I was and he responded with "A+". Nice. Next we made our way through the canyon to Park City and ate at Baja Cantina, the usual dining experience. But I think that will change next year, our waitress was not very pleasant but we did manage to get a couple of photo ops.

I would post the mentioned photo ops, however, our computer is gay and is not letting me. That's okay... I have been working on this post for about a week now, I have hit what I like to call a Blogger Block. The trip was super fun, I am just having a hard time figuring out what to write. I know that my faithful blogger sister will step in at this point. Mary Ann has photos and I am sure details about this whole weekend. Please refer to the farmgirl's life.

This trip is always fun. I really look forward to it and am really glad that we take the time to get together and sista-bond!

Landon is starting to get into the groove of his new job. He took a day trip to Phoenix last week and has been going to the Lehi office so there is more travel than we would hope for, but that is A.O.K. Not complaining, just grateful for a job!!

Other than all of that, I have just been training my little heart out. I ran 8.5 miles on Saturday and although hot, it felt great. I even got a tan line from my heart rate moniter and arm band! I know that 8.5 is nothing compared to you Christy, but I'm getting there. I have to say that I am SO SO SUPER EXCITED for the Wasatch Back!! Only like three more weeks!! YAY!

Okay, this post must come to an end, it feels so wrong writing with no photos. I hope to have this problem fixed soon and will make the commitment to you all now, next post will over compensate for the lack of in this.

Hello Mr. Graduate

Well, lookie lookie guess who is FINALLY done with school? That's right, SIX years done right! Thank you Utah State.

San Jorge

So our last Hurrah before we get all settled into a real job. It was such a nice trip! Landon is so fun to vacation with.

We hung out by the pool,

went on some bike rides,

I introduced him to a new hike in Red Cliffs,

I had a few really good runs - Thanks Mary Ann!! Oh and for anyone who knows me well, knows that sometimes I have a hard time really getting on board with going to too many movies, but we happened to see a few GREAT ones, Star Trek, Ghosts from Girlfriends Past, and Wolverine. They were all awesome and I totally recommend them! Especially Wolverine, there are PLENTY of shots with his shirt off and that is all I need to say about that...

Wilson also had a great trip too, probably his best vaca yet. His life is pretty tough, so he really needed this break...

He found a whole new love for sticking his head out the window whilst driving

Also, Mary Ann, I don't know if I talked to you about this or not, but Wilson also went for a swim...

We were able to tend our nieces and nephews too. Well, let me define tend--we showed up at bed time and left right after breakfast pretty much. My only job was to make sure all five kids were still alive and kicking when the parents returned and they had a house still standing when it was all said and done. If that is what tending is, then I am awesome at it!! Here is probably my favorite story from that part of the trip...

The kids all ate dinner at their neighbor's house and one night juice was served as a tasty beverage. Elsie, the youngest girl, decided that she wanted milk to drink instead, so she asked for it. No Big Deal right?!? When the little angels returned home that night, Audrey- for any of you who know her, I'm sure can picture her saying this-- Sat Elsie down and had a heart to heart about her behaviors that night. It went something like this 'Elsie, I CAN NOT believe how you acted tonight, it was totally unacceptable! You need to drink what they serve. How would YOU feel if we had someone over for dinner and they asked for something different to drink. It was incredibly rude!' It is really good that those kids have an eleven year old mother to keep them on track.

One night we were out back of the house and there was a rumble in the bushes and all of a sudden this big ole DUCK flies over my head and into the neighbor's pool!!

We went over to check out the bush and it had a whole nest with eggs, it was pretty cool!


One more thing... I went to the St. George Running Store and got me new pair of Running Shoes.

AWESOME! I forget how much of a difference it makes to have new shoes. Also, on my last run before I left Sunny San Jorge, Mary Ann and I went on a doosie of a run. On that particular day in the year of our Lord 2009, I discovered a little gem I like to call goo. For reals all of you runners, if you haven't already, try it. I am almost ashamed to say that was my first time using it, but it was. I felt like I was going to run out of road to run on before I was going to run out of energy to do the running. It made a HUGE difference! I am now a GOO addict.

Well one and all, that was my trip, now on with real life. Oh dear, it has been so long since I have been there I am a little afraid to go back. Well, ready or not here we go...

Welcome Home

So, we are all moved in and trying to get settled. I really hope that once we get into the routine of things, I will have more time to blog. We had a painting party with the Webbs and got the whole house painted in one weekend (it was a long weekend). I do have to say, my sweet mother and father in law are troopers. They painted their little hearts out.

this was after 10 hours of painting...don't they look great?!?

I was a little nervous about a couple of colors, but I bucked up and did them anyways, and in the end, it looks mighty fine!

No one ever told me how to own a house and I apparently need a crash course in it. So far I have started a fire in the kitchen, flooded a little in the basement, tried to clog the toilet--with my phone, almost burnt out the motor on the dishwasher, AND turned in my house key, instead of my apartment key, to my landlord in Logan. This house business is tuff stuff! I hope it gets better with time.
*The fire was the first incident, I was pretty upset about it until I realized it would make for a good blog story*

I need to admit, I have started to worry about my unborn children's safety. If I can barely keep a house from fire, water or whatever the damage, how am I going to be in charge of another life?!? This really concerns me.

Wilson is pretty pleased with his new homel. We have the perfect hall way for playing with his squeaky toys! He still is a little, well, a lot skiddish around here because it is all new, but somehow he finds time to take a nap, sneak out and go for a run down the street, he has even met a couple of neighbor dogs this week.




I know it has been forever since I have posted, and if it wasn't so long between them, I would expound on the info, however, I am trying to get all of my stuff in in one post, so don't judge me. I too Mary Ann have found myself in a blog funk.
Big hot mess blog funk.
So this is me getting out of that spot. Wish me luck...