What Champions are made of

"Defeat, retreat - those are not in my words.

I do not understand those definitions.

I do not understand when things go wrong.

I do not understand mistakes.

But I do understand this -

I understand victory and I understand never surrendering.

No matter how bad things go, my heart and my mind will carry my body when my limbs are too weak.

Who am I?

I AM A CHAMPION!"

A little piece of a great inspirational pep-talk that Bry loves.

And it fits him.

Bry started training back in January for the Ogden Marathon.  He did it back in 2010 and wanted to beat his time.  But, like we continue to learn in life, sometimes life throws in some road blocks and you have to take a detour.  Things don't always go the way you've planned.  He ended up getting a foot/ankle injury that set him back.  We talked about it and knew that the full wasn't going to be a good idea.  I definitely didn't want him to injure his foot more. 

Luckily, we were able to transfer his full over to the half marathon.

And he did AWESOME! 

He had set a goal for himself and beat his goal by 30 seconds!

The kids and I stayed up the night before and made posters for the big man.

Brynlee's brought tears to my eyes.

(How gorgeous does she look?!)

 

It poured all morning!!  I felt bad for all of the runners.  But most of them looked like it didn't bother them much (except after the adrenaline wore off - they were freezing!)

And somehow, Heidi avoided being in any of the pictures!!  Dang her! 

She was there screaming with us, too.



Colten finished 1 minute before Bry.  Carli ran across the finish line with him.



The poor kids were freezing, but Bryn was a champ and held her sign and watched for her dad.

She cried as he ran past us.  We know how hard he worked for this.

And then we waited 2 more hours for Uncle Rod.  He was running the full.  Bryn made a sign for him, too.

Stef kept watching the tracker to see where he was at.  We were anxious to see if he was going to reach his goal too - and he did!!



A sweet moment - Stef was trying to keep her man warm.

Great job Bry!!!

Way to Finish Strong!

We love your guts (and everything else)!

Race for the Cure

Cancer sucks.

Breast cancer is a high risk in my family.  My grandma, 2 of her sisters and now my Aunt Margie have had it.  My Aunt Margie is in the thick of chemo right now and we're all rooting for her! 

And my beautiful Grandma is a survivor. 

I remember her staying with us after she had her mastectomy. 

She had such a great attitude which has stuck with me.

A bunch of us got together to support my Aunt Margie at the "Susan G Komen Race for the Cure" in Salt Lake.  Some walked, some ran.  Bry didn't even hesitate when I asked him to do this with me last minute.  There were thousands - literally thousands of people there.  Running was like an obstacle course. 

But I loved it.

I found myself choked up on several occassions just seeing all of the people supporting loved ones who are fighting, those who have won the fight and those that have now left their families and friends.  It was an incredible thing.

I know I've said it many times, but I completely love and adore this darling lady. 

I love how she kisses my cheek and squeezes my hand every single time she sees me. 

I love her laugh.  I love how she likes my kids to call her Grandma Cougar. 

I love how she still calls me Ambie.

And I love how much she loves her family.

Bry and I never saw the family as we were running, so after we crossed the finish line we turned around and walked back to find everyone.  I was surprised to see my cousin Becki who lives in Florida!  I didn't even know she was in town!  I miss seeing my cousins like I did when we were growing up.

And this man.....

My darling parents.  My mom has some issues with her legs and feet which keep her from being able to walk for very long.  My dad pushed her in her wheelchair for 3.1 miles.  What a great example of love I have to look up to.

This got to me - My grandma and Aunt Margie got out of their wheelchairs right before the finish line and walked across it together.  This is what beauty is people.

Finish Strong!

We love you Aunt Margie!  You're a survivor!

All It Took Was 1 Fish....

Rod found the sweet spot of the day. He got into some awesome fish!

Jesse- he is a stud! Witty sense of humor and a dang good fisherman.

Him and Russ were challenging each other on who knew the words to the movie "Silverado" the best. I think he may have one.

Cody is a fishy man! He is always where the fish are. Legend has it that he thinks he is kind of a big deal. He backs it up, that's all I can say!

This picture reminds me why I love fly fishing. We hit the Green River the first night. A little storm was brewing and we hiked up to find a spot for a few hours. The fish were boiling- BWO's were coming off like I haven't seen before. I just knew I needed to catch a fish on the Green. It was windy, it was cold but we fished. This is the only fish I caught, but it was a prize to me.  I was looking forward to this fishing trip. I need to 'get out of Dodge', away from work and just chill. And all it took was 1 fish..There seems to always be something to learn and take away from the river and from the fish.  I can't wait to take my boys out and watch them land a brown one day.

Check out this fish Rod caught. What a beauty. The fish ain't bad either...

We woke up to a blue bird morning, after a snow storm the night before. It was beyond chilly, but there were fish to catch, so we went to work. We found a great hole holding some fish and it was ON! Rod, Russ and myself- we all got in on the action. It was fun to see Rod get into flyfishing this trip.

We weren't sure if we were going to fish the next morning because of the weather, but once we got into these fish we knew we made the right decision..all it took was 1 fish. :)

I feel pretty selfish, I didn't get any pictures of Russ really. Guess we'll just have to plan another trip to ensure we can get some good shots of him, his Sage and some fish! I look forward to our fishing trips!

-Bry