Schedule

As I live through different phases throughout my life, priorities change. With priorities I mean what do I spend my time doing the most, and which things dictate my schedule. It has a lot to do with the age of my kids at the time. Are they all in school, or just some of them? Do I need to bring in extra income for the family? Are we trying to sell a home?

My current normal includes a schedule that revolves for a large part on the gym's class schedule. That might sound shallow and unimportant, but getting exercise is what keeps me going. After getting the older kids off to school, Miles and I will hang out for a bit, and then go to the gym. Sometimes the classes are right during Miles' preferred nap time. However, he still plays happily, and then takes an extra good nap after we get back.

This priority means that cleaning is further down the list. As well as grocery shopping. And sewing or photography, or other hobbies. Because somehow exercise seems to eat through my entire morning. And when the afternoon comes I'm tired. But I'm okay with that. The house is still clean, maybe just not sale-worthy. But who am I trying to impress anyways?

Since the Dance Trance lady has moved on to her own studio and my half-marathon is over, my schedule had to adapt a bit. It actually gave me the chance to try out some new things and bring some variety. The following has been keeping me happy in the past few weeks:

Monday: Short run & Power Yoga
Tuesday: Zumba & Pilates
Wednesday: Medium run (4-7 miles)
Thursday: Group Power - weight lifting
Friday: Group Kick - Taebo type kick boxing
Saturday: Snowboarding conditioning or Zumba

Somehow my long run got lost in this new schedule. It's just kind of boring and really hard to keep motivated without a planned race coming up.

Miles loves all the ladies at the gym's daycare, and loves playing with all their new and exciting toys. I guess he doesn't know any different, since he's been going since he was 12 weeks old.

Disclaimer: I rarely work out all 6 days. More commonly 5 times a week.

Best Dam Half Marathon

I Ran my very first half marathon this morning. About 5 months ago my friend Lisa Calderwood asked me to join her. She had just had brain surgery, so of course I was amazed by her drive and determination. I started training 13 weeks ago. At first every step hurt. Slowly, I started getting faster. I even kept track of my progress in a spreadsheet, and it's amazing to see my progress. Of course I've never been a runner, and always prided myself on being a biking, not a runner. But at the same time always envied those who can run marathons. 

The Best Dam Half Marathon started at the Deer Creek dam in Wallburg, and went all the way through Midway up to Burgi Hill and down to Town Hall. This half marathon was a tough one, probably not the smartest to be your first. The deer creek trail has a lot of ups and downs, and after you get onto the paved road, the next 4 miles are a gradual incline. 

To get to the start line we boarded the Heber Valley Railroad in Heber City

Heber City Elevation: 5589

At the start line it was COLD. But fortunately we rode in a 1930s car of the train with a genuine coal heater so we were nice and toasty until we had to start running

Mount Timpanogos got its first snow last night!

I was nervous and excited for the race, and very thankful that I've been able to run the trail before today, so I knew what to expect.

Joe and the kids came to cheer me on at the end of the trail. It was so fun to run with the kids along side of my for a while. 

Around mile 8 my stomach started cramping up. I don't know if it's because I ate too much, or not enough, or maybe my water intake was too sudden and much, instead of being spread out like I normally like to do. (accidentally left my water bottle at the start line). I ran through the pain, with a lot of great encouragement from Lisa. At mile 10 I wasn't sure I'd be able to finish. Of course in situations like this you just keep going anyways. Fortunately the last 2 miles were down hill. 

The last 0.5 mile might have been the toughest. I could see the finish line, but we had to make a loop around Town square, and to top it off, the course was on the lawn. I almost met my goal of 2 hr 30 min.... by 1 minute. If we hadn't stopped for a potty break, I could have done it. 

Final time: 2 hr 31 min

Last night I was talking to Joe about how cool it would be to do a full marathon next. Maybe in a few weeks I might think so again, but as of right now a half marathon seems like all I could ever manage. 

 Everybody who finished got the coolest railroad "nail" medal.

Opa and Dorothee visit

My dad got remarried about 6 months ago. Dorothee is a very nice lady that he met while on vacation in Germany last year. We were able to meet her just once before moving back to the USA, so it was great to have them here and get to know her better.

They came at one of the nicest times of the year. The weather is beautiful, with sunny days and crisp nights. Also, the leafs are all changing colors and looking magnificent. One day during school we rode the gondola up Canyons resort for a little hike among the yellow aspens. 

 My dad carrying Miles reminded me of back in the day when he would carry my little sister Emma on hikes.

Dark green evergreens really make the yellow aspens pop

 Another day we took the kids into Orem for burgers at In-n-out burgers. And since we were in the neighborhood, we took a little tour of the BYU campus. Strange to think it's been 11 years since I last walked around there as a student!

My dad does mountain biking in Germany, so Joe took my dad out to Dutch Hollows for a bike ride. He did pretty good for a guy his age ;)

Utah State Fair

My mom and Roger invited us to go to the Utah State Fair with them. My kids love fairs, and we love the opportunity to hang out with oma and opa Roger.

Captain Arrr gave a great show for the kids, and Winter's even got to be first Mate.

We saw the 4-H animals

 This is the same type of cow that Old Betsy was in Texas - a Brown Swiss

 As long as Miles can chew on something, he's happy

 And probably the kids' favorite part; the rides. We don't go to carnivals often (the last time was at the Texas State Fair in like 2009) so this was a real treat for them. They have no fear when it comes to crazy rides.

Running

After 8 weeks of my running training, I'm somewhat starting to feel like a runner. That's saying a lot! Running has never come naturally to me, and used to just hurt my entire body to even run 5 minutes.

My first Half Marathon is just 4 weeks away. It's the Best Dam Half Marathon, which starts at the Deer Creek Dam in Wallsburg. The route goes along the lake and then through Midway and into Heber. The biggest advantage of living nearby, is that I actually get to train on the marathon route.

This morning I had Joe drop me off at the dam. While I started running, he drove to the top, parked the car, and rode his bike down to meet me. By the time we met up, I was at 3.5 miles. I was able to keep running most of the hills, and even outran some guy that was behind me from the beginning. The run felt great most of the time, with just a little energy slump around 5 miles.

I'm definitely not the fastest runner, but am happy with my current 11 minute mile. At that pace, I'll be able to run the half marathon in 2 hours and 23 minutes. 

Signing potty

With Ginger I did some baby sign language, which helped a lot to prevent tantrums. With Miles I'm starting him at an even younger age of just 6 months. He's not signing anything back yet, but I can tell he understands what I'm saying. When I sign "milk" for example, he starts smiling and laughing (or freaking out if he's really hungry) Apparantly babies will start signing back as young as 6-9 months, so hopefully he and I can communicate soon.

And then there's this

Yep, I bought Miles a toilet seat. Of course we've all seen the babies with that silly "poop grin" on their faces. They have to work extra hard to get their business into a diaper that's smashed up against their bum. So when he smiled like that the other day, I decided to just sit him on the toilet and see what happened. He wasn't a big fan of the hard toilet seat, so the next time I was at wally world I grabbed him a contoured cushioned toilet seat. Since we've had it in the house, he's already peed in the toilet 4 times, and pooped twice. It's so silly and yet also super exciting. Maybe he'll soon learn to sign "potty" to me, and we won't even need to do diaper laundry anymore. Can you imagine? I can't!

End of summer / beginning of school

 As the new school year has officially begun, I can take a deep breath and look back at our summer. It was pretty laid back, with only one trip to California. We kept ourselves busy around Midway.  Winter participated in cheer, to get ready for the football season. She had a lot of fun doing it, and even got to cheer in the Heber Parade

 When Joe was around, he worked on projects with the kids, including building a bird house with Ginger. Ginger goes out to the backyard daily to check if any birds have moved in yet. No luck so far.

 Miles decided he was a big boy, and learned to sit up all alone just before turning 6 months.

 My big kids still like to build castles and dig holes in the sand. I wonder how much longer that will last

 It won't be long before Sterling will be at my eye level!

 Ginger is still a very girly girl. She loves pink, and her flowery sandals. However, she also takes after her dad and loves to go moutain biking with him.

 We went for a little campfire picnic with the Calderwoods at Whiskey Springs just days before it went up in flames.

 We day-camped with the Judds up in the high Uintahs for a day. Tiffani sure knows how to get Miles to giggle!

So here they are the morning of their first day of school. 

Winter starts 5th grade at Timpanogos Intermediate school in Heber. As I dropped her off she gave me a hug, and I couldn't help but wonder if that's the last time she'll ever give me a hug on the first day at school in the middle of the schools hallway

Sterling starts 4th grade at Midway elementary. He's turning into quite the cool kid, who even wants me to spike up his faux hawk.

Ginger is starting 1st grade, which means she'll be at school all day. She's excited to eat lunch at school, and gets to walk to and from school all alone (with Sterling)

So now Miles and I have the house to ourselves. It's very quiet in here. And when I clean something up, it stays clean! That is, until the kids get home from school. Winter said she will miss hanging out with Miles all day, and I'm sure Miles feels the same way.