The Move

So, some of you may have noticed that I haven't been blogging lately. I got a very unwelcomed notice from blogger saying that all of my picture space was filled and I needed to pay to continue to add pics to my blog. After looking around and finding out several other people got the same message, I decided to move on over to wordpress.com.  I also took this chance to start a new kind of blog. It's a running blog. I'll still post all the same things that I did here, but I will talk more about running,food, and of course family. I hope you will continue to read about our adventures over at Theblondehairblueeyedrunner

Tacanos and Granddaughters

Last week my Grandpa Dickson, Aunt Christy, and my cousin Callie came down from WA for a quick UT trip. My sister Leah thought it would be a great idea to get all the granddaughters together that are here in UT. We all headed out to Tacanos (perfect choice for my Grandpa, he loves meat!)

Luckily we headed out at 5pm so we pretty much had the restaurant to ourselves. No seriously, the waiters and servers were hovering over us and were so attentive. It was a wonderful night. I love spending time with my family and getting to see my Grandpa. He's always been such an amazing example to me. I can always talk to him and hear the advice that I need. I was very grateful for that chance to be around him.

Here the group shot(minus Cydnie, she was unable to make it)

All the granddaughters who live in UT minus Cydnie=(

Grandpa and cousin Marissa with her daughter

This weekend I'm hoping to get in a wonderful long run in tomorrow morning with Lindsey, and then I get to walk a 5k with my sister in-laws to raise awareness for domestic abuse.

What are your plans for the weekend?

House upgrades

 Josh and I decided to replace the stair banister and railings a couple of weekends ago. We had been planning to do so for awhile, but didn't know exactly what we wanted to do. When you walk into our home, it has a cabin-like feeling. But as you continue throughout the home, it seemed disconnected. The railing didn't match, the carpet was awful and white(not a good color when you have a child), and the walls were pretty bare.
So, our plan was to get new rod iron banisters, wood railings, paint the walls, and get new carpet.
We really love how it all turned out. I think our house looks more cohesive. The carpet makes the house look totally new! It was a long process and difficult since we didn't have railings for about a week. Jackson and I were pretty sick of being stuck in one room all day so we had tried to stay away from home as much as possible.
 Without further ado, here are the photos:

Before

 During 

After

Weekend Shenanigans

 Lately I have felt like my life was going a million miles an hour and that's too fast for my personal taste. I like to be busy, but I really enjoy/need those times where I can sit, relax, or play with Jackson one-one-one. Luckily, Friday I had nothing planned and that's how I wanted it. I started out by being lazy and staying in my pj's while I got J ready for the day. Unfortunately, I realized he didn't look like he was feeling well so I brought him to the pediatrician, where we learned that he has a virus=( which meant I need to go to the store to get him the essentials.

Don't worry, that didn't put a dent in my lazy plans for the day. I joined J and put my sweats on and we cuddled and hung out on the couch most of the day as the snow continued to fall. When I woke up, I wanted to get my run in, so I jumped on the treadmill and did 5 miles while J ate some snacks and played next to me. Josh came home and had the same idea as me, he had got Kneaders for dinner and stocked us up on all of my favorite treats=)

Sweaty miles

Saturday we all woke up feeling good, so I brought J downstairs with me while I did a quick 3 miles. I looked out the window and saw snow, a whole bunch of it! I had planned on running a Crazy Course 5k with my friend Vanessa. I was pretty hesitant since I don't have very good cold weather gear. Fortunately, Vanessa encouraged me to take on the adventure. I wore 2 pairs of pants, 3 shirts, gloves, a beanie, and a hood. The Crazy Course Turkey Run in Draper is a 3.3 mile run over trails, road, neighborhoods, and some train tacks. Ya, it was wild.

Before, waiting in my car where it was warm

part of the trail, covered in snow

train tracks and mud

A big hill of about a foot of snow, Vanessa rocked it!(and a sign that we're supposed to be able to read)

I ended up winning my age group and getting a turkey! That was my goal, and had told my mom I really wanted to win the turkey haha Once I realized how crazy wet, snowy, cold, and bizarre the course was I didn't think I'd win. Fortunately, my age group was pretty small=)
It was a great local race with awesome raffle prizes, long sleeve tech shirt, and the opportunity to win a turkey or pumpkin pie! I had a great time with Vanessa! Pile on the Miles: 43 miles

Good thing apples are in season

This boy loves apples, but you can't cut them up for him. Nope, he wants the whole thing.

He clutches the apple in his fist, don't try and take it from him

ate it down to the core

The other day we headed down to see Whitney and Calvin. Whitney showed us a park nearby where we had a picnic lunch. It was so beautiful out. The boys loved running around, going down slides, and playing in the dirt, ya know boy stuff.

they were trying to 'give hugs'

Calvin hugging J

walking in the crunchy leaves

I love days like that. Just doing the simple things and enjoying what's around us. 

Jackson was a very sour pumpkin last night. He wanted nothing to do with walking around the neighborhood, which normally he would be over joyed to do. He was distracted by my in-laws horses and only wanted to go and nay at them. Fortunately, after  2 of 4 houses he realized he was getting candy and became a bit more excited about it.

power stance

My MIL made homemade Cafe Rio, it was bomb, enjoyed dessert, and like most of our nights, we were entertained by these two.

Now that it's a new month, I wanted to reflect on some of my monthly favorites:

Favorite run:
Easy, the Haunted Half I ran with friends. I'm really proud of this race because I really felt like I was strong enough for the hills. I never felt defeated and kept on running.

Favorite food:
Definitely the apple crisp cheese cake bars I made. I rarely step out of my baking box and make something other than chocolate chip cookies. They were a success!

Favorite fall event:
 Going to the Cornfield/pumpkin patch with my parents and sisters. I really enjoyed having my mom stay with me and see family every.single. day.

I'm ready to embrace November. Here are my goals:

Run 100 miles-*Pile on the Miles*(Nov. 1-Dec.1), if you want to join and walk/run more miles than pounds during the holiday season, do it! Tell me in the comments your mile goals=)

Spend more one-on-one play time with J

Listen more than talk

Enjoy every bit of San Fran with Josh and J, even if J doesn't sleep well. . .

Questions for you:
What are your goals for this month??
Any Favorite from October?

Girls night and biting off more than I can chew

Winter is here or maybe it's just giving us in UT a sneak peak? Snow, ice, and cold mornings have been going on in these parts and even though I professed my hate for snow only a few days ago, it's actually inspired me in a couple of ways.
Josh and I have been talking about doing some upgrades in our home for awhile now. Finally we felt like it was the right time and so we've been carpet hunting, paint shopping, and banister/railing exploring. I'm so excited to see the finish product. It's happening a lot sooner than we expected(very good thing) but it's left us trying to paint before Monday*edited to add: we finished painting, but still have one wall to touch up*. Luckily, it started snowing and it's inspired me to stay inside and get as much done while J takes his naps or when he goes down to bed. I hope we're not biting off more than we can chew. Cross your fingers that all will go according to plan!*more edits because I forgot to publish this, our carpet is back ordered till next week! Now our stairs and hallways have exposed nails, blah!  Only a few pics for now, I'll post the finished work next week.(or the next...)

before

During

Moving on, lately I get up and crave to run on the treadmill because it warms me up. I turn the heat on, run, and J plays and we get all toasty. During the other seasons I always hate running on the treadmill because I think about how I could/should be outside running in the beautiful weather. I have no such feelings when it's snowing and freezing outside. I hope I find some new ways that snow can be a positive force in my life because if this is no sneak peak, then I'm in for a long winter.

And on a totally random note, but definitely worth noting, Wednesday night the girls all got together. We met at Liz's new apartment and caught up on each others' lives. I was sad because I could only stay for a bit, but I love getting together with these crazy ladies.

Pile on the Miles

I follow a running blog called Run Eat Repeat where the author, Monica, is having a 'Pile on the Miles' challenge. The challenge runs from November 1st - December 1st. You can read all the info and sign up here.
I joined not because I think I'll win(but if I happen to win some of the giveaways go me!) but because I love the thought of moving more and piling on miles instead of pounds during the holiday season. The challenge is simply run or walk as often as possible and whoever does more miles wins. I aimed high(for me) for 100 miles. That's about 25 miles a week. I usually only do about 15-20 miles on a good week so I'm definitely going to try and push myself. I hope you are inspired to join even if you walk all your miles, it's still a great accomplishment.
Here's to moving more=)

J is doing the 'bike more challenge' haha becausei'mobsessedwithhim

ps you can add the widget to your blog too, just click the link above. It'll bring you to Monica's blog and she has posted the code.

The Haunted Half race recap

#4 is down in the books. It was my real last half of the season because like I mentioned in my last post, I hate the cold. I am doing a turkey trot 5k with my friend Vanessa, but I'll bundle up.
Let's get down to the nitty gritty of the race. I woke up at 6:15 bright eyed and bushy taled because to me, anything past 6am is not too early. Dressed in my borrowed bumble bee costume and waited in my car for Amanda. Hmm, she just called and said she was outside, but no one was outside. . . I quickly call her back and tell her she's at the wrong house and don't try and walk in(I had told her to just walk in to my house). Whew, luckily she didn't but was just about to! haha oh Amanda. Moving on, we finally met up, picked up Lindsay and were on the road to Salt Lake City Capitol building by 7am. Found parking super easy, used the bathroom and waited about a half hour for a bus to shuttle us to the start (6 miles up Emigration Canyon).

Can I just say what a beautiful morning it was? Seriously! The canyon was gorgeous, and although it was a bit chilly, it warmed up quite a bit throughout the course. I was really hot in my long sleeve. Luckily, a very kind bus driver let us sit on his heated bus until the start, heaven sent! Ate half a banana and then it was go time.

Miles 1-3
Flew by. Lindsay and I chatted away and took in the beautiful houses, canyon, and weather. (Amanda cruised on ahead after mile 1, she's a rockstar).
No seriously, she was an 80's rockstar

Miles 4-6
Again, they really just flew by. We were chuggin along, had a great pace. No worries. Until. . .

Miles 7-10.5?
HILLS! There were exactly 5, yes I counted them, hills that were steep hard hills. They just wouldn't quit. At mile 10 Lindsay stopped to stretch and she politely told me to continue on. Luckily the hills decided to stop*note to self, read the fine print of race course details, sheesh

Miles 10.5-12
Felt great, picked up the speed and realized if I really pushed it I could beat my time of 1:53. So I kept pushing it and then I came upon a car? There was a car in the middle of the race just driving along at like 2 mph. what? really? There wasn't much race support, road blocks, or anything so that was pretty annoying. Luckily I found a way to squeeze by and move on.

Mile 12-13.1
It was downhill so I just started to sprint. By the last yard to the finish my legs felt like complete jello and I was worried I trip. I didn't. I beat my time by 1 minute! A min is a min to me. I'm so glad I could end my race season on a high note. I felt really good after and just really enjoyed the race!

You can see me in the middle of the pumpkin mouth, crossing the finish line

The race itself: the aid stations were great, had enough water, gatorade, gu's. But the website said there would be fun activities like bobbing for apples, a donut eating contest, etc. There were no such things. No zombies chasing us, and they promised a big party at the finish with delicious grub. Nope, not even a water bottle. You had to pour your own water that was quickly running out. I didn't even get any free candy or granola bars. All they had left were animal crackers and apples, really? VERY poorly done(there were still so many more runners to come and the water was practically gone when I got there).
But I loved dressing up, being with friends, and it was just a great race. Hopefully next year it'll get better.

My boys, the best fans=)

Lindsay(Superwoman), me(bumblebee), Amanda(80's rocker)