Another Two Races Down

I ran the Long Beach Marathon three weeks ago with a time of about 4:34ish. (Pace 10:25)

I ran the Women's Half Marathon in Tempe today with a time of 2:06ish. (Pace 9:35)

I'm super happy with both those times.  The marathon was 23 minutes faster than my previous one and my half was about 6 minutes faster. I think I may have maxed out on increasing my speed, but I'm still having fun.

Today's race was fun, especially since almost everyone I was with got PR's so we were all super happy. Now I just wish Lisa would run some more races with me :). Come on Lisa!!! I need you!

Have a great week.

Halloween Present

Here they are! Lyndsee was a beatiful Christmas Present. She got sooooo many compliments and extra candy! The costume was her idea and she was so proud of it. Logan is a crazy man in a straightjacket. I'm not sure this is a costume...I'm definitely keeping the straightjacket around in case of emergencies. :)  Brianna is a nerd, complete with duck tape suspenders and goofy glasses. It was a nice Halloween. Scott and I really enjoyed trick or treating with the kids. We kept it a family affair and we all enjoyed a nice night out together.

Happy Fall!

I also had to add this picture of me and my girls from our church party. Can you see how thrilled they are to be with me.  I guess they didn't like my costume...By the way, yes, that is a live goldfish Lyndsee is holding. We came home with three!  They are still swimming despite thier names. Logan named his Dead. Brianna named hers Turd and I think Lyndsee's is Sunshine - thank goodness for little girls.

Halloweens Past

I don't want to buy my kids Halloween costumes this year. We have so many, they are really expensive and I am really hoping to encourage them to come up with something creative. Unfortunately creative sometimes means less money, more time, which is short. I thought I would post some past Halloween pictures for your viewing pleasure.  I do love Halloween.

Sweet Snow White (4)

Bad Spider (2)

Garden Fairy (5) Pirate (3)

Tink (1) Army Man (4)

Mermaid (6)

Chefs!

Hermione (7) - with Colten stock as Harry :)

Snaggle tooth Pirate (5)

Pooh (2)

Love this pic! Spider Man (6) Snow Fairy (8) Butterfly (3)

Butterfly (3)

Pirate (following in her brother's footsteps) (4)

Troy Bolten (7)

Gothic Fairy (10)

My all time favorite costume - made by Grandma Baxter - Lyndsee is so sad to have outgrown it! (5) 

Egyptian (11), Wearwolf (8), Bumblebee (6)

Witch (7)

Penny (12) and Bolt

Too Much Candy (10)

Trampoline

Lyndsee has been doing this for at least an hour.  I wish I could work out that hard and just think it is fun!  I'm so glad we got a trampoline, even though it takes up a lot of the yard the kids love it.

Whooo Knew Turning 39 Could Be So Fun?

My 39th birthday has a theme! "Whoooo" knew? I have a bit of an owl fetish (not sure if that's the right word, but I really LOVE owls.) My friends know me well and cooperated this year! Check out the cupcakes made by my talented friend Nicole...

And what about this cute guy?

The face of a 39 year old! I should be proud of those laugh lines, right?

So far a great birthday overall. Lyndsee and I went for Krispy Kreme donuts (a free dozen on your birthday), then I went out to lunch with friends. I've gotten lots of calls, texts and emails from friends and family wishing me well. Thanks so much!

I will "Owl-ways" love you all! (couldn't resist:)

We're Home!

We spent a week in St. George with Scott's parents, sisters and their families. It was a great time! We hiked, mountain biked, ran, swam, played at the park, went to the sand dunes and more. Scott and I were glad to have an extra day at home to recover from a busy vacation before jumping back to real life.

Our biggest adventure during the week was hiking Orderville Canyon through to the Zion Virgin River Narrows. We brought Brianna and Logan with us on this one. It was gorgeous and breathtaking and some parts were scary! I'm glad we went. Scott's mom had her hands full with all of the 8 year old and under grandkids that day (six of them.) They had a fun day and she was even brave enough to take them out to lunch and swimming. We really appreciate her doing that for us! Scott and Brianna also hiked up to Angel's Landing one day. I sat this one out due to my fear of heights. :) I'm glad they went though, I enjoyed doing that hike in college with my roommates one year, but I've never forgotten the scary, steep dropoffs at the top.

This week Brianna will be going to swim team, doing her lifeguard hours and starting FlowRider camp. Lyndsee is finishing up swim team. Logan will have guitar and a week to mostly relax! Lucky boy.

I'm trying to get running again (I only ran once in St. George) but my knee is really giving me problems. I was hoping that by taking it easy on it during vacation it would heal, but apparantly not! I'm going to yoga today, trying to see if some gentle stretching will do it good.

Have a great week.

The picture above is actually from when Logan and Scott hiked the Narrows a few weeks ago with thier scout troop. The water was running higher and faster then, I can't even imagine hiking through the river with more water. It was challenging. I'm glad they made it home safe.

Busy Summer

School got out last Thursday and we had a long weekend with not much going on, but on Tuesday that all ended!

Brianna started swim team and her Lifeguard program. She can't swim at 100% yet with her broken arm, but the cast is off and she has the go ahead to "take it easy" and use it a bit. Two more weeks and hopefully she will have the all clear. She volunteers at the pool some days after swim team (at 7am) and will leave around 11. She is also going to be helping at a summer school a friend of ours is teaching two afternoons a week and has a busy social calendar too of course!

Logan started Flow Rider camp and is doubling up on guitar for awhile. Flow Rider is a surfing machine at a local pool here and he is having a ton of fun, even learning to stand up this week. On the guitar he is learning lots of fun songs and is especially liking playing "Iron Man". This week he is out in the wilderness with his dad and his scout troop. They are hiking Kanab Creek, backpacking for 4 nights and covering about 30 miles. I'm excited for them but nervous about the conditions (hot and dry!) I know Scott will take great care of them though, but I will be excited to get a call from them when they get back to cell phone coverage on Friday.

Lyndsee is my busiest kid! She just performed her spring ice skating show three times this weekend, and luckily we have a little break from skating. She is doing swim team, a summer reading group at her elementary school, and a summer school that our friend is teaching every afternoon. Plus she still has two more weeks of swim lessons. She did her first swim meet Saturday and did fantastic!

Luckily afternoons are pretty much free. We have been enjoying some down time and hanging out with friends most days. The pool is getting a lot of use and they are all getting sooooo brown.

Have a great week.