Ragnar Relay - Wasatch Back 2009

After many months of training, shin splints, tendonitis, and sore legs the day we had been waiting for has finally come and gone. On June 19th and 20th we ran the Wasatch Back Relay Race. It was 188 miles from Logan to Park City. Each team has 12 runners who each run 3 different legs to total the 188 miles. The race was 30 hours of fun and partying and 3 hours of running here and there mingled within all the fun.

Tiffany, Ben and Amanda at 7:30 am waiting for the race to start.

Ben was the first runner for our team, so he is waiting at the starting line for the gun to go off.

Amanda running through Paradise (the city in Utah, but it did feel like paradise).

Ben at Snow Basin waiting for his second run of the day.

Tiffany cheering the runners on and getting ready for her second run.

Ben running down Trappers Loop towards Morgan. He had 8.5 miles of downhill running, sounds like torture to me.

Spraying Ben off and getting him a drink of water while he was making his trek down the mountain.

The Honey Buckets - we were great friends for 2 days.

Rock on Dude - final run.

Sandi, one of our team mates, and my favorite picture from the whole race. Check out that serious running face.

And we are finally done and home and ready for some sleep! We had such a blast and running a race like that puts you on such a high that we decided to sign up for next year already. There is still space on our team for a few more runners. Any one want to join us?

A Car Ride

We went to the park last night, this is how our conversation on the way home went:

KIYA: Mom, what you eating?
ME: Gum.
JAYNIE: Want some. (So I give her a small piece)

A few minutes later (okay really about 30 seconds)

JAYNIE: WOW! ( I turn around and she is stretching the gum out in a long string.)
ME: Jaynie, put the gum back in your mouth our I will take it away.
KIYA: Jaynie, put the gum in your mouth.
ME: Jaynie your going to get it all over the car, put it back on your mouth right now, or I will take it away.

Jaynie stretches the gum further, so I maneuver around so that I can get the gum away from her (don't worry Ben was driving). So Jaynie starts to cry and then comes my favorite part.

JAYNIE: Kiya, mommy take a gum away.

Isn't it great when a one year old tattles on you to a 2 year old.  I love my kids!

A very Merry Unbirthday to Me!

So my birthday was back on the 12th, and of course I am late on it just like everything else.  It was an exciting day for me.  I was at girls camp most of the day, and then came home in the afternoon to spend some time with my family and go to a rehearsal for a dance recital the next day.  

When I got home Ben surprised me with a cake that he made all by himself.  Amazing!  I was so proud of him, and he knows that I love fun birthday cakes and pigs so naturally he combined the two.

Also he got me some of the most beautiful roses I have ever seen, you can kind of see them in the background. What a great husband I have.  Every time I get a card from him for any reason I just cry.  I don't know why and I try not to cry because it is not my favorite thing to do but I just can't control it.  So Ben's goal this year was to get me a card that did not make my cry.  Sorry honey, that you were not successful.  He gave me some quirky little card and I still cried.

Dinner was something else because we took our girls with us.  I ordered some cheese sticks for all of us and Kiya and Jaynie thought that was the greatest thing ever.  They were very stretchy cheese sticks.

Jaynie's First Haircut

This is Jaynie last week at my birthday dinner.  Notice her hair.
This is Jaynie yesterday morning.  Notice the knot in her hair.  She has this habit that she inherited from her mother of playing with her hair.  Many mornings she wakes up with a huge rat's nest in her hair and we spend a great amount of time trying to get it out.  Well yesterday try as I might, I just couldn't get it out. So . . . . . 

 . . . . we got the scissors out and I tried my best to give her a nice even haircut while she wiggled all over and played with the toothpaste.

I like the new look, but it did take me a while to get used to seeing her with a new do.  Hopefully this will help keep the knots under control.

Girls Camp

Last week was our ward girls camp, and I LOVE girls camp.  Many of my favorite memories from Young Women's were at camp.  It really is tons of fun and the girls actually get along for once.  The only down fall was that we left on Thursday and it rained the whole day.  And since it had been raining for almost a week strait everything was so muddy.  I don't think I have ever since so much mud in one place before.  Our clothes were so soaked that I decided to dry my shoes and socks out by the fire.  I felt like a true Hobo roasting my socks :)  

The creek was just so tempting to the girls.  We were already soaked through to the bone from the rain so they just played in the creed in their clothes and shoes.  I think they actually ended up much cleaner than the rest of us.

And here is the whole group of us in our fabulous matching shirts.

 Our theme was SURVIVOR, so we had buffs that we wore, I think they made us look like we were cancer patients, but they came handy keeping my hair under control.

Memorial Day and Birthdays

Well I'm way behind on all the events going on at the White House, but school is out now (Hip Hip Hooray!) so maybe I'll be able to stay caught up with everything that is happening.  It has been wonderful to be home with my girls and and be a mom.  I actually got my dishes done and my bed made the past couple of days, so I feel like I have accomplished tons.  

For the summer vacation I have several projects planned, so at the end of the summer I will have to see how many of them I actually completed.  The first is a throw for my couch that I am crocheting.  I really don't have that much experience crocheting besides a scarf that I made at Women's Conference this year, and attempts at a few hot pads during my jr. high years.  But I saw a picture of this blanket in a craft magazine, and it looked like a challenge I could handle.  So far it hasn't been to bad but I think that it will take much longer than expected.

Now to catch up on the past few weeks, Memorial Day Weekend was a nice break for us.  We got to spend an evening at Mark and Emily's house with Mike and Carly, and Phil and KaDee, and all of our little kidlets.  Visiting with all of them was highly overdue, and we enjoyed every minute.   Then on Memorial Day Ben and I ran from Grandma Smith's house to the Annual Paradise Breakfast, then had lunch with all of the Smith's and Grandma and Grandpa White.  We don't see all that clan often so we had a nice visit.  Kiya thought it was great to have lots of kids to play with and she even got them all to play Ring Around the Rosies on the trampoline for quite sometime.  Watching her tell them all how to play and what to do was absolutely hilarious, because they all did exactly what she told them.

After lunch we joined all the Bradfords for a pool party at my Grandma's house.  All day long Kiya had been telling us "My mouth feels sick."  I wasn't sure if she was getting more molars in or was car sick or sick.  But after eating a hot dog she confirmed to us that she really was sick when it all came right back up (sorry I tried to put that as mildly as I could), then like the trooper that she is she decided to go swimming any way.  What a tough kid.  Jaynie is going to be our little fish.  Once we get her in the pool we can't get her out,  she loves the water as much as her dad does.

Jaynie with Aunt Aubrey and Cousin Hayley

Kiya and Daddy

Last Friday was Tiffany's 23rd birthday and to celebrate we (Tiffany, Ben and I, my Mom and Dad, and Grandma and Doug) all went to Texas Roadhouse for dinner.  For a gift to herself Tiffany went and bought a camera.  Maybe I should take lessons from her and start buying myself a birthday present :)  After dinner we all went to Mom and Dad's house for Rice Crispies in the shape of a 23, instead of cake.  Tiffany has had that for her Birthday for as long as I can remember.  What a fun tradition.

Smithfield Health Days

On Saturday Ben and I ran our first official 10K (6.4 miles)! It was 3 miles up Smithfield Canyon, and then 3 miles back down with a small loop to get the extra little bit (which was up a super steep hill after 5 miles) to make it a full 10K. The temperature when we started the race was a balmy 33 degrees, which eventually warmed up to around 41 degrees by the time we finished. Ben completed his run in 56 minutes 24 seconds. Oh how I wish I could run that fast, but I wasn't too far behind. I crossed the finish line after 1 hour 3 minutes 19 seconds. We both enjoyed the run much more than we expected, and plan on running the same race again next year. It was the pick-me-up that we needed in our training to keep us going for the Wasatch Back in June. The sad thing is that I forgot to take my camera up so we have no pictures to show you, it was amazing to see over 200 people all geared up to go for a run. I'll have to remember for the next race that we do.

We did get our garden planted this past week.  Our garden includes things like tomatoes, peas, green beans, corn, peppers, zucchini, cucumbers, pumpkins, and my personal favorite eggplant.  We've never planted eggplant before and I don't think I've ever eaten it, but it came in a pack of starters that we bought so we'll see what happens with them.  Kiya and Jaynie had a great time digging in the dirt and putting the seeds in the holes, and getting their hands dirty.  They're just a handful of fun and make everything more exciting, because I even enjoyed planting this year.