Running in the buff

Today I was looking at my little boy and I had an overwhelming feeling of gratefulness to be a mom come over me. He is so small and sweet. I was looking at his little sticky hand prints on the window and a quote I have hanging up came to me, it says, "enjoy the little things in life for one day you will look back and realize they are the big things." I feel so lucky to be his mom, watching him grow, and learn He is my little bud, making me laugh constantly.

The other day was no exception. We were coming home from the pool so I stripped Isaiah down, and put a clean diaper on him for the way home. While I was loading everything in the house, I let Isaiah run around in the backyard. When I came back out to grab him he was totally buck naked, digging in the sandbox. I found out later that while he was running around naked as a jay bird he tapped on my renters window to say hi, she looked up to see a little boy in the buff squatting in front of her window. We had a good laugh.

Summer has felt like a familiar friend returning home. I love the warm nights, and carefree days. It is so fun to play outside, go to the pool, eat watermelon on the back porch, bike up the canyon, and go for long runs without snow on the ground! Being a mom in the summer is way cooler than being a mom in the winter. Isaiah is learning to say a few words and by far truck is his favorite. He loves to spot them, you would be shocked how many trucks there are in this world. Today we were reading a book and it had a picture of a truck in it. The story stopped there, we had to look at the truck picture for a good five minutes. After the book, I tried to put him down for a nap after and put the book away, but he wasn't having it. He kept yelling for the truck, so I propped the book up next to his crib with the picture of the truck open. He was content to go to sleep after that. Being a mom is the best job. I hope I can remember these precious little moments that make my heart smile. Time goes by so fast, and I think I am ready to add another little bundle of joy to the mix. My running friend told me she is pregnant today. She inspired me to stay running when I get pregnant. She is still running so fast! We did speed work outs today and she was leading us with a 5:40 pace for the minute pickups. It made me realize that I can still run and maybe even race pregnant. Obviously not fast, but I can still not totally loose all of my endurance and lungs. I think I am going to train for the Xterra race in September, it is a mountain bike, trail run, lake swim triathlon. Unless a little bambino changes the plans, which I would change happily.

Scott's Project

Scotty had a brilliant idea to damn up the irrigation water rushing past our house to water our lawn. We recruited the help of our neighbors metal boards, our weights, and whatever random boards we had laying around. Needless to say we ended up creating more of a swimming pool, but we did manage to water half our lawn. Isaiah was loving it, he kept trying to drink the water, so gross, so I gave him a sippy cup with clean water. He took the sippy cup happily and dipped it in the dirty water, and then drank from it. At this point I just had to laugh. Scottie's brilliant idea turned sour when we got home later that night and had a written out complaint from the city left on our door step. Turns out people don't appreciate a swimming pool in the street.

If You Want a Good Laugh Watch This

Kids do the funniest things. I decided I need to start writing more of the day to day things, because there are so many funny things that happen that I want to remember, this is one of them. Isaiah wanted to play in the Vics Vapor rub so he kept handing us the jar to open it. To which Scotty would pretend he couldn't get it open, because we didn't want him playing in it. Sweet little Isaiah took his turn at opening the "tough" lid.

Utah Valley Marathon

This is the finish line of the Utah Valley marathon, I made it! What a journey. After months of training for the Salt Lake Marathon only to pass out at mile 24, I had to tackle this beast one more time. So I decided to do the Utah Valley marathon, six weeks more of early mornings, a lot of long runs, and tired legs paid off. Quite honestly I am really going to miss training, I enjoyed getting up early, the chatting sessions with Amanda, and Melody, and the sitting in the river after long runs. It is so nice to have time as a mom to yourself, and time to talk, even if it comes at 5 in the morning.

The marathon turned out even better than I had hoped for. My goal was to pace myself with the 3:10 pacer for as long as I could, and hopefully keep him in site. (The winner of the marathon last year volunteered to pace the men who wanted to qualify for Boston, men have to have a 3:10 to qualify.) I was worried about going out to fast with him in the beginning because my fastest marathon, before this was a 3:35. The Salt Lake marathon was faster, but we all know what happened there. I started running with the pacer, and to be honest it felt like a training run in the beginning, we were all talking and having a good time. I ran with him for 16 miles, 7:15 minute miles. After mile 16 I still felt really good, so I picked up the pace a little bit and started running with another guy. We kept right on talking until mile 20. At that point I saw a couple of my friends that had run the half marathon and had come to cheer, they told me my other friend Amanda was right up ahead of me. I picked up the pace and ran a 6:45, and kept running 6:50 for the next six. It felt so good. I didn't look at my watch I had no idea how fast I was going, I just felt really good. My family and friends were there cheering, I think that made me pick up the pace. The last two miles my friend Marie ran with me. It was funny because I was so zoned out, that I didn't recognize her, she was jumping up and down waving her arms, and it didn't click in my brain that it was her. It was nice to have her there. At the end I could see the time clock and I couldn't believe it, 3:06!!!! My goal was 3:15!! It was such a fun race, for the first 20 miles I was just talking and having a good time, the last six were just getting it done.

Honestly the time didn't matter as much, the most empowering thing to me was to set a goal and finally realize it. I am so glad that I didn't give up after Salt Lake, because I knew I had it in me. It taught me that really you can accomplish anything you set your mind to, with goals, hard work, patience, and the belief that you can do it. That might sound so cliche, but it taught me such a powerful lesson. In fact I wrote Jesse on his mission about it, because it reminded me of my mission, and life in general. Training and running a marathon taught me that you have to have an end in mind, a point that you are moving towards, and with that focus and direction everything falls into place. Because you will naturally start doing things that will bring you to that end goal. Most importantly if you have the whole purpose of this life in mind, to return home worthy, then naturally you will start making the choices necessary to align your life with that end realization. It isn't always the easiest choice, or the most convenient, but the Lord knew we were capable of hard things, and that accomplishing hard things refines us and makes us more empowered to accomplish the things that await us in the future.

My sister in law Jen, this was her first marathon and she finished strong!

I finished third place in my age group, and tenth overall.

Hard Work Pays Off

I look like I just ran a marathon in the rain!

My friends that I have been training with. Lot of EARLY mornings with these fine ladies. When I say early, I mean middle of the night early. A lot of long runs at 4:45 in the morning so that we could be back in time for husbands to go to work.

Wow!! Don't know these people but they are definitley blog worthy.

Running with my friends that I picked up along the way. The one in the black was trying to qualify for Boston, and the other one I ran with for a good five or six miles. They were so nice, and since my Ipod did not work, thats right 26.2 miles sans music, it was nice to have company. We talked about kids, missions, and how he got into running because his mom would drop them off a couple of miles from home and make them run home, apparently he had a lot of energy. Good idea mom, I think I will try that in the future.

Green Smoothies with Dad

This is a typical day in our house. Isaiah LOVES to be outside and the minute he wakes up he is handing me his shoes. That makes for pretty early 7 am, backyard hangouts. Lately since it has been warm we have been hanging out on the back porch eating. This is breakfast, green smoothies. I finally found a cup that works really well for kids drinking green smoothies. I have bought a couple, and the smoothie is too thick to go through the straw. I finally found this one at Shop ko, of all places. It has a wide straw and a top that doesn't come off easily. Up until this point I would just give Isaiah sips of mine, resulting a huge adorable green mustache, and not so adorable a green mess all over my shirt.

Anyway, enough about my new find. I wanted to make an early fathers day post. A little tribute to such an amazing dad. As you can see Isaiah loves hanging out with his dad, mom is not near as cool as dad in most cases, unless I am cooking and he is hungry. It is so fun to watch Scotty as a dad. You never know what sides are going to come out in you as a parent. Scottie's tender side has really come out, it is so cute to watch him rock Isaiah to sleep, and try to console him when the world is coming to an end because you took his favorite lawn mower away from him. Yes you heard me, Isaiah's favorite toy in the world is a plastic lawn mower that we have to take everywhere with us. Another side of Scotty that has come out is the little kid in him. He loves to wrestle around and play with Isaiah. Whenever I see Scottie's coming home from work, I will tell Isaiah papas coming, to which he immediately responds by crawling up on the top of the couch and to look out the window that faces the street. When he sees Scotty walking up he will usually yell papa, and jump down from the couch and run to the back door where Scotty comes in. It is always a blessing when Scotty comes home, for mommy and Isaiah.

And the last side that has come out in Scotty is his manly side. Well that has always been there but it is so fun to watch the two of them work on projects together. Isaiah insists on "helping" him screw in the bolts, or whatever manly thing they are working on. I think he is going to be a handy man like his dad, because he watches and mimics everything he does. If Scotty screws in something, he will take the screw driver and try right after him, it is so funny.

Wow that was a long post, I am used to waking up and running in the morning, and wake up automatically at six, so I have a lot of time on my hands right now,it is kind of nice to catch up.

Fun at the Cabin

I love watching my Dad with Isaiah. I am so grateful to have a Dad that is still a kid at heart. This weekend we went to my Grandpa's cabin. I really shouldn't call it a cabin, because it is three stories, six bedrooms, and has a hot tub. My grandpa recently bought it through his work as a company cabin. Generous as they are they let us use it, it is becoming a family tradition that I love. This weekend compromised of lots of good food, games when the kids were in bed, hot tubbing, steep trail runs, Thomas the train, and lots of laughs. It is so nice to get away with the family and have time to just hang out.

Here we are on a little hike, right down the road from the cabin.
This is Matt, my brother in law, Christy, my sister in law, such a trooper, trekking down the steep hill pregnant. Zachy her son, and me and Isaiah. I know you were probably thinking that must be some famous person behind those big sun glasses.
Little kids find so much joy in the smallest things. What a good reminder to enjoy the little things.

Riding Thomas the train with grandpa. Isaiah was so funny, he kept waving out the window and yelling bye bye. He loved it.

Here he is not loving, getting taken back to the cabin. He wanted to stay and throw rocks for another few hours at least.

Zachary helping Isaiah walk up the steep hills. He is the best cousin, he is always looking out for him. Isaiah is lucky to have so many fun boy cousins. I think they are going to have a lot of fun when they get older.