Rimrock Marathon

Tyson has gotten this fitness bug and has something to prove to himself.  We all know he is an amazing runner, but he's determined to show us. So he took on his first marathon at the first of November.  It was the Rimrock Marathon, a brutal one, but right in our backyard so why not?  I could give you 1000 reasons why not, but not him!

Looking good at Mile 22.

About 100 yards before the finish line.  You can see this didn't end so well if the kids were able to walk beside him. :) 

Time - 3 hrs. 39 minutes.  19th place - amazing!

And this is Collin taking pictures in the car as Daddy goes into shock after his run.

 

Tyson really did amazing and we are super proud of him.  He had hoped to win :) or at least come in 10th place or better, but his body had a different plan.  He didn't refuel along the way well enough and he "bonked".  His body just literally starting shutting down.  He was in 4th place all the way to mile 22 or 23, then he slowly lost his lead, and could barely even make himself walk the last mile.  It was brutal.  He was in so much pain and I felt so bad.  He vowed he would never do another marathon again!  We hope not, but I have my doubts.  We are still so impressed.  He finished 19th place which is still quite impressive, but he doesn't even want to talk about it...not too proud of that moment.  He is running a half marathon in Moab this coming March. 

The kids had a good time playing with my camera while we waited in the car for other friends to finish the race.

Halloween Fun

Mackenzie's school does a Halloween Parade every year where the parents can come stand out on the field and the kids walk around to model their costumes.   

Mackenzie wanted to wear one of her pretty dress-up dresses she got for her birthday, so I told her that one of them was pretty close to the Glynda's dress from the Wizard of Oz.  So with a little accessories, she looked like the prettiest witch out there!  And she still has no idea what the Wizard of Oz is.

Mummified at her class party!

Of course Mr. Collin had to be Mario, even though he had been saying for a solid year that he was going to be a ghost. 

Getting ready to trick-or-treat with Kamryn, Kolton, and Landon (who is missing).

I think he's ready to sneak off with some candy!

Bright and Beautiful

We have to go for at least one fall drive through the mountains, its just tradition.  And we have to dress up and take some cute pics while we are at it.  The fall colors are just beautiful!

Tyson is scoping out his elk hunting country. 

Soccer in the Fall

A few pics from an amazing soccer season again.  Mackenzie is a super soccer star!

 

Having a good ol' time with her teammates after another victory!

Imogene Pass Run

There's been a running bug that has gotten into Tyson's system, and it all started with the Imogene Pass Run.  He's naturally a runner, and quite motivated, but he hasn't really ran since high school, and this was no ordinary race that he decided to take on.  A few friends of his got him to start training for this race back in the spring, and it paid off.

The race started in the town of Ouray, CO at 7800 ft.  It went up a jeep trail road for 10 miles to a 13200 foot pass.  Then down the other side of the mountain for 7.5 miles into the town of Telluride.  It is rough and brutal!

Those mountains in the background are the ones he ran over the top of!  Telluride is just on the other side!

The morning of the race, we went to Telluride to cheer him on, but he didn't even see us at the finish line since he went bolting past us!

 Waiting for Daddy!  They really thought he'd be #1 to come down the mountain, and they were quite disappointed when he wasn't the first runner we saw.  Maybe next year! :)

Here he comes!

And there he goes, never even seeing us!

 

 

His goal was to finish under 3 hours, but never running at that elevation before, or this race, we didn't really quite know how it would all turn out.  He did AMAZING!  He finished in 2 hr. 55 min., 37th place overall, 6th place in his age division.  And there were over 1200+ runners.  He has become a little running phenomena in his circle of running friends.   Way to go!  We are so proud of you!

 

Here's a video that a friend of his made of the race.  Tyson's only seen at the beginning when he is deciding to head to the front of the starting line.  And then we had to take off out of Telluride as soon as he finished the race, so he never saw any of his buddies at the end.

Dream Birthday Party

For Mackenzie's 6th Birthday party, we struggled to figure out what to do, and the one and only day that we could do it was fast approaching.  Nine days before, we were looking online and she got super excited about cake decorating, so of course I google it and find about the cutest idea that could possibly be out there and am determined to make Mackenzie's just as cute.  I looked on the Hostess With The Mostess blog (www.hwtm.com) - check it out for all parties.  It is over-the-top amazing!

So we did our version of a Cake Boss party and I worked and sewed and worked and sewed until the wee hours of the morning every night all week to pull this off.

The Invites...

The Decor...

 

That darn dum-dum ball took a lot of time!  And it didn't turn out right!  It was supposed to be a topiary tree, but when I went to put the stick in, it nearly toppled over since it was so heavy with 4 packages of dum-dums hooked up!  

 

I made some garland out of some fun cupcake liners.

  

Prep and Set-Up...

The cakes...

A little spray paint on some candlestick holders,

a dash of Mackenzie's help,

 

and put it all together and we have cakestands with all the cakes frosted and ready to go!

 

And a whole lot of colored icing and fun piping tips!

Next...The Attire...

I took hundreds of cute cupcake liners,

 

folded and glued them all to make...

corsages for the baker's hats!

And then I made these ruffles with velcro backs, and sewed velcro onto white aprons so the girls could pick out their ruffles and attach them in any way they liked.  So time consuming, and so fun, and so adorable!!! 

 

And Voila!

 

The Birthday Cake...

This didn't exactly turn out how I'd planned.  I was literally piping on random frosting and patterns while the guests were showing up.  But it still turned out pretty cute and they loved my messy work!

 

 

The Party...

Cake Decorating

Fondant, sprinkles, candies, and lots of frosting provided for some fun cake decorating!

 

 

And I caught her!!!

 

Games..

Next Mackenzie made her own game up.  She made 40 paper cupcakes, all colored differently, and we taped a piece of candy to each.  We hid the cupcakes outside and the girls had a cupcake treasure hunt.

 

 

Cake and Presents...

 

This little present is a Grow-A-Frog kit.  She looked at it and was happy and said Thanks without knowing what it was.  Then when we told her, she was in disbelief and so excited.  Thank you Clara for the frog kit!  There's nothing better than a live animal for your birthday, especially when your mom won't get you one. :)

 

 I couldn't have been more excited and happy about how this turned out.  Mackenzie had an absolute ball and loved all my efforts, which made me so happy!  It is sooo fun to have a daughter to do all this girl stuff with.  I had been dreaming about doing a cake decorating party where I could made all the aprons, etc and thought 8 years old was the perfect age.  But we couldn't settle on anything else and so somehow I pulled it off.  I don't know who had more fun, me or her!!!