I FINISHED!!

Welcome to the Top of Utah Marathon. I --along with my brother, John, and my sister Holly, ran our first marathon last weekend. It was quite the experience, one that I'll never forget. I can't quite say that it was everything I expected. It was definitely a lot harder than I thought. I had a goal in mind to finish in a certain amount of time, and once I knew there was no way to achieve that, I was just hoping to finish. The race was beautiful, the first 14 miles were down through blacksmith fork Canyon in Logan, UT. It was the easiest 14 miles of my life. And then came the end....

Here in these first couple pictures were just some of my supporters when I came out of the canyon. It was such a great feeling to see all of them. The weather couldn't have been better, nice and cool, and a few sprinkles here and there, and then followed was a beautiful rainbow as we came out of the canyon!

Blake and Jaclyn(Mike's sister)--my sister Sarah--and My Dad and Mom

Halle, Natalie(Mike's sister), Luke and TylerThis is my brother John, as he came out of the canyon..looking good bro!(It was even his birthday and he ran it. he had a t-shirt his wife made

for him that said..Today is my birthday, so let me win!-I think he had a big group of runners circle him while they were all running and sing Happy B-day--how nice is that!)
I was feeling pretty good at this point, notice I was still smiling

some of my support team(I don't know what I would have done without them!!!! Thanks so much for being there guys!)
my cute little niece, Halle
This is when I was about to fall over, and of course they put a hill right before the end. Well it may not look like a hill to most of you, but when you're on mile 25 it's HUGE!!! Thanks to my sweet hubby Mike, and my brother-in-law, Brandon, who ran up the hill with me trying to give me encouraging words, but I totally ignored them and wasn't very nice. I was about to die!

need I say more....no smiles here!(mile 26)


coming in to the finish, I found some bit of energy left to
sprint(well at least I thought I was, even though I probably wasn't)
Couldn't even feel my legs here--totally numb!

Finally, then END!!!!!!

I couldn't believe how tired I was, it took everything inside of me

to make it to this sign, and boy did I wish it had come earlier.

But I did it---I FINISHED, and that was all that mattered!!!

just making sure I could breathe and was still alive...

taking it all in, after I had some food in me, I felt much better!

My cutest sister, Holly. She did so great, I was so proud of her and she didn't even act like it was hard, she had a strong race and felt great the whole way, maybe I should find out her secret! Way to go HOLL!

This was me and my siblings standing on the podium that we officially finished the TOU Marathon! What a great accomplishment, it was our first and maybe our last....who knows?This was some of my fans...they were awesome. The best feeling of in the race is when you see a familiar face cheering you on and telling you that you can do it, it was so great to have them there--I couldn't have finished without them! It was so fun to have most of my family together! They all had fun making fun of us 3 as we limped around the house and pretty much hobbled up and down every step. I felt like my muscles were going to blow up they were so tight and I couldn't move, I've never been so sore in my life---wow what an experience! Sounds fun-huh? I'm sure I've convinced every one who has even thought about running a marathon to think twice, but it's really not as bad as you think, I might have just been a little more wimpish than most of you out there... but best of luck to all of you future marathoners!!

Here are my 3 brothers, Glen, John, and Eric. We never have any pictures of the boys, so we thought we would snap a shot of them all together. What great brothers I have..I love you guys!

Here we GO!!!!!

We did it....we finally gave in to FOOTBALL!! We always knew this day would come and once it did-- there was no turning back. Drake started his first year of "flag" football. He is especially excited, not only to play football like his Dad's always dreamed he would do, but he gets to play FOR his Dad. Yep---Mike is the new Junior Buffs Flag football COACH!! Oh and what a team they are. Mike seems to be questioning his coaching abilites after watching the team run the offense they practiced, but yet it was no where to be found, or how to teach the boys how to pull a flag, he just thought everyone knew how to do this. Well let's just say that we are glad that nobody keeps score and Drake thinks every game they tie. Drake's had 2 games and there's definitely been a slight improvement from the first 10 minutes of the first game until now. But the buff's are looking at a double header coming Saturday and watch out, they've installed a NEW offense. The coach has figured it out, you're not going to see that flag pulled before we even start the offense, but we are going to see some major runs to the endzone(I don't know if they even know what it looks like)!

They really aredoing much better and is pretty fun to watch. Most of them this is there first year of football and are new to everything. Mike is a great coach and very patient with each one of them. I think he really is enjoying watching and coaching his first boy. We are so excited for Drake, he is really enjoying football! It is so fun to see the excitement in his eyes when he acts out his run to the endzone when he scored a touchdown in practice. Hopefully he'll remember what he did in practice and score a touchdown in the game!

Good Luck Buffs!
Drake's biggest fans!

Charly and Gabbie
resting on the sidelines

Wesley's New Preschool!

Wesley moved to a new preschool this year. We have loved Miss Melody, but for a bunch of reasons, we switched to Miss Karin. The Bonus is that she is LDS and centers the whole curriculum(if there is one in preschool) around gospel stories, and yet still teaches the letters and numbers and all of that. It's great--it's like they're getting primary 2 more times a week. She is awesome and he really loves her. He is getting smarter and smarter each day and always ceases to amaze me with the things he says. We love our little Weasle....I mean....Wesley!
Charly is the lone ranger at our house when Wesley heads to school. Mom and Charly have some fun girl time while all the boys are gone. She sure does miss her brother though, because every other day when he's not in school he is her best friend. He is the nicest brother to Charly and plays dolls and house with her without ever putting up a fuss.
Wesley and Miss Karin
Getting to know you....