Ryan McDonald...the bully stopper!

Driving to Gymnastics tonight...Lucy says..
"Hey Mom...today at school we had the guy from McDonalds come and talk to us...You know the guy?"
I said..."What guy are you talking about?"
"You know...Ryan McDonald"
"Who?"
"Ryan McDonald...the clown guy from McDonalds...he came to talk to us about bullying"
This girl makes my day:)

Super Fun Fall Saturday Night!

We've had the major task looming over us to clear out the garden area in the back yard to get it ready for a REAL garden next spring. Its been the dumping ground for yard clippings, fall leaves, and chopped down trees for years at Shaun's house. On Saturday the weather was phenomenal! In fact, I dare say it was the best weather of all time in the State of Utah that day. BEAUTIFUL! We took the kids to Chubbys to have a cheeseburger, and then came home to clear the garden! We did it in a jiffy with everyone working together. Afterwards, I took the girls to Hula class and came back to Kai and Shaun using axes and saws chopping down trees! They were both in hog heaven. We decided to have a little fire pit to burn some of the massive pile of leaves that we had and some of the dead wood that night. It turned out to be one of the funnest nights we've had!



Camping in the backyard!



The girls were SO sophisticated at our campfire with their fancy fans

Skip the hot dogs...Went right for the marshmallows!

Awe! How Sweet:)

Why use a stick when you can use a 6 hot dog cooker thinger

Sheez I Love this girl!

Shaun and his impression of Tom Hanks in Castaway ....FIRE!!

Give me a kiss Kaibo!

And even more yummy sugar!

To quote Kai..."Shaun is connecting with the spirits"



It was only a matter of time before the shirts came off...crazy boys!
Kai was on LEAF DUTY, which meant that he had to add a hand full of leaves from the pile to the fire every so often so that we could start burning through the HUGE pile that we made.
Shaun had to finally say, lay off of Leaf duty for a minute Kaibo...we're smoking out the neighborhood!

 

Shaun's version of "Put another log on the fire"

And another...

Kai and Shaun SO proud of their fire and their awesome work of chopping trees down

LULU! You are so crazy cute!

Lucy bailed on the fire to jump on the tramp



Time to put out the fire...Kai is pretty worried about the amount smoke billowing over the fence and into the neighborhood...It was a flippin miracle that we didn't get the fire dept called with the amount of smoke that was looming across the street. Woopsie!
What  a fun night of fire, Shaun and Lulu Hula dancing around the fire, eating amazing hot dogs,
my kids making me smores left and right.
And just enjoying being together:)



I feel brainwashed!

If you know anything about my girls and I...we LOVE a good musical. Mama Mia...Hairspray...my latest fave Burlesque. Somewhere in my deep dark desires...I think I should have been a singer dancer performer gal...but I got jipped on the singer part...oh and the dancer part too. Bummer!

Oh well... So Shaun knows this about me and the girls and although he may not admit it openly, (that's my job to out him on my blog!) he quite enjoys a good musical as well:) Hairspray is playing at the Hale Center Theater and Shaun got us hooked up with some tickets! What a guy:)

We'd been looking forward to this for a while and the girls couldnt WAIT! We'd been listening to the music in the car for the whole past week to get ready...ya know, in case they needed us to join in the singing and stuff:) We all went on Saturday and holy cow it was good. I was very surprised at the quality of voices and how much they can do on that little stage. My girls were singing along and loving it. Lucy was commentating at every little difference betweeen the play and the movie. She loved Penny the best. 

When it came to the final song..."You cant stop the beat" I could barely contain myself. It took everything inside me to not start belting out the words singing along and stand up and dance like a crazy woman!
The girls of course loved it beyond belief, Kai...questionable. So on the way home Shaun asked, "So Kai, how did you like it?"
In a pretty somber monotone way only Kai can say, he replys.... "I feel brainwashed"

I had to laugh! What a character that boy is! I guess I need to take him to more mentally stimulating events to counteract the girls and I and our flamboyant taste in entertainment! And that's why I love Kai so much!

50 Miles? Are you Serious?

I'm training for the Squaw Peak 50 miler in June and the training is coming along slowly but surely. I just wish I could get up on the trails and get my climbing legs built. I've spent a bunch of time on the stair climber, but it just isnt the same. I did have a great run up on a trail in the snow which was strait up and strait down...that felt great to get out off the dreadmill! That was only 9 miles...so 41 to go? Oh boy oh boy! I've got some work to do.

 I can't believe that I'm going to attempt this...it seem so much bigger than me. But I'm confident I can finish. Just how long its going to take me will be the big question. When I've been at the finish line in the past, Ive been there and watched all the folks coming in around 10-12 hours...I will be more in the mid teens range! YOWZERZ! I've asked my die hard buddy Brandi to pace me the last bit. She has that crazy do or die attitude that no matter if her leg is chopped off, or mine for that matter, she'd get me to the finish line. Come to think about it...why isn't SHE doing this race?

I've got a great race line up to get me ready for this one. I've got a 18 or so mile trail race on Antelope Island in March, as well as a half marathon in Moab sometime around there too. Then in May the Timp Trail Marathon, which is 2 weeks prior and will be a GREAT indication of how I will be on Squaw Peak.

Can't wait to feel ready and have it here. Just need to get those miles logged weekly! NO EXCUSES!

St George Weekend

Since Shaun is in full blown "training mode" for the St George Ironman, we've been making a few little trips down to St George to get him on the course to train. We brought the kiddos this last time and you would have thought that we took them to Disneyland with how much they loved it.

I drove down seperately from Shaun with the kiddos in the car...they were PERFECT little angels the whole way down. I got them a happy meal...put on a movie...and all was well!

Even though it was January, it got up to 65 degrees and was beautiful! Shaun got up Saturday morning and I drove him to the starting line of the Painters Half marathon... Which was my first half marathon 4 dang years ago! I wish that I had registered and ran it since the weather was just perfect it seemed. I did have a raging case of race envy that day, but got over it:) Shaun did great of course.. came in about 10-15 minutes before he told me he would so me and Lulu missed him at the finish line.

The rest of the trip consisted of a few dips in the cold but refreshing swimming pool and some outdoor adventures! Shaun wanted to take the kids on a hike so we headed up Snow Canyon...We were directed to some Lava Tubes...so we started our hike... but since we were with Shaun, it ended up a trail run which the kids LOVED! The views were amazing and it was a beautiful sunny St George Day...was SO happy to get out of the freezing cold for a moment to thaw out.

Happy Halloween!

I was so happy to have the kids this Halloween and was bound and determined to make it a good one. Friday we decided to take the kids to Shaun's wards Trunk or Treat. They had dinner starting at 6:30 and then the Trunk or Treat started at 8. So I decided to make dinner at home and then we'd head over right at 8. We got all ready and headed over...we pull in and notice cars pulling out. We headed to the trunkers and then really noticed that everyone was really leaving! We saw one group of people sitting on their trunk so we walked to them dodging the cars that were pulling out...got a piece of candy...and that was pretty much it! Needless to say my kids were not too happy. Kai and Lucy got over it pretty quick...but Zoe?...this picture says it all...

We packed up everyone back in the car and headed back to Shaun's. I said, "how bout we have you trick or treat to Shaun's house" just trying to make it up to them for the lame trunk or treat experience. I pulled over the car 2 doors down and said jump out and wait until you see us go into Shaun's house so we can get ready and then come to the door to trick or treat.
So everyone jumped out of the car...and Zoe b-lined it to the door of the house that I dropped them off in front of! I started panicking saying No No! Don't go to their house (since it wasn't actually Halloween). Shaun was laughing and said, Don't say anything...just let her go to the door! HA!
I guess Zoe was a little confused about what we were trying to do.
So...we drove down to Shaun's ran in and were ready...
Then here they came...

Zoe eventually got happy and we had a great night on the ACTUAL Halloween night. Boy oh Boy they looked so cute!

Nike Women's Marathon Recap

I wish SO bad that I was able to blog along the way of my race....it would for sure be more insightful than blogging about it 2 weeks later. I had the RACE OF MY LIFE that day. Even though it comparably wasn't the fastest of marathons...it was perfect for me. So here it goes...

We started the morning by heading down a couple of blocks to Union Square in San Fran..I've done this race before so I knew just how crowded it was going to be. I told Nicholle and Cody where to meet us which is where two years before I met up with Mandy and Brandie...about a block back from the starting line. It was warmer than I had anticipated. I was SO excited for this race to start. My first time around the block I remember being nervous and not knowing what to expect. This time, I already had decided I was going to have a great race and just ENJOY! No worries along the way was my outlook going into this race. I did have a goal of finishing under 4:20...but it wasn't set in stone. I had no idea what was reality for me to do since all of my long runs were on trail and gave me NO indication of what I could really do on a road. I felt very trained based on distance...but unsure of my speed. So the plan was, just go with what feels right.

Kristin, Shaun and I met up with Cody and Nicholle and waited for only about 20 minutes before the race started. I got VERY excited and all pumped up when I heard Joan Benoit come over the loud speaker...she is VERY inspirational to me. For those that don't know, the first year women were allowed to run a marathon in the olympics was 1984...and she brought home the gold for the Americans. A HUGE moment in Olympic history...and she paved the way for women's marathons. Anyway, sorry about the side note...Youtube her olympic finish...you wont be disapointed. She gave some great words of encouragement and it got me even more excited.  The music was pumpin and it was a total party! Then the gun went off...it only took us about 4 minutes to get to the starting line. But then to find out later from Shaun, it took about 30 minutes to get all 25,000 women accross the starting line! SHEEZ!

So this isn't a marathon that lots of FAST people come and do. Dont get me wrong, there are some very fast ladies, but it isn't the majority of the participants. AND the ladies that do this aren't necessarily race savy. Meaning...the slow slow ladies were right at the start of the starting line...so when the gun went off we were weaving our way through masses of people that should have been further back, and yes...there were walkers right at the start of the starting line. REALLY LADIES!?

I was so excited to be at this race with my friends Nicholle and Kristin. It was both of their firsts...Nicholle's first marathon and Kristin's first half. I was just so excited for them to finish this awesome milestone and that I got to be here with them.

As I got going, the miles seemed to be moving along quickly. I was keeping a close eye on my Garmin to make sure that I was staying below my goal time, but not pushing it too hard. I had some great tunes and felt pretty amazing. I was nervous that some pain was going to set in later so I was cautious. I hit the BIG ole hills and ran up every one...no walking was my goal. It's pretty evident that I SUCK up hills, although I was running, I was getting passed and passed and passed up those things! I didn't really care too much because I knew I could pass em all down hill...and I did! Just sayin:)

I decided that I was going to smile and enjoy this race...every step of the way. When it started to feel hard, I would smile and just feed off of the energy of the spectators. It worked better than I had expected. There were big sections of spectators that were cheering along the way, I would have LOVED to see someone I knew there, but knew that Shaun and Cody were most likely going to just be at the finish line. So I decided to pretend they were in the crowd and that made me happy enough. I was so so excited to see them eventually...having someone cheer you on just makes all the difference in the world...well I think at least.
I got to start thinking of how very lucky I was to be able to run and feel this great. I felt SO blessed and got very spiritual and said a few prayers of gratitude. What a feeling! I made a couple of friend along the way, we talked about our outfits and where we got em...and stuff like that. HaHa!

Early on...around mile 5 the 4:05 pacer caught up to me. She had a little crowd with her and was running at my pace so I just decided to hang. I spent nearly the whole race with her in view, either a little ahead or behind. It was seriously messing with my head....I kept thinking...I am NOT a 4:05er! I am a 4:44er! I was so elated beyond all belief that I was actually keeping that pace and feel so great. But I still had about 10 miles left and didnt know how those would be. I got teary eyed even, thinkin, "I am actually doing it! I cant believe I am running with the 4:05 pacer for this long!" I knew that she was a little behind and would be kicking it in gear in the end. The pace that we were running was actually more of 4:11 pace..but still! I was doing it!

I ran out of Golden Gate park and onto the Great Highway, and thats right where I saw Shaun and Cody...YAY! It was like heaven seeing Shaun there! All I could think of saying was telling him what pace I was running and when to expect to see me at the finish. So I yelled...4:15!!! 4:15!!!! He kindof laughed and gave me the keep going motion with his hand...

Immediately I thought...CRAP! Why did I tell him that! Now I have to do it! What if I cant do it! Oh CRAP! I let it bug me for a couple miles...and then I realized that I still was doing it and if anything it pushed me to keep my new goal. Then the run around the dreaded lake...it was never ending I swear. But the chocolate mile with some Ghiradelli chocolate was a nice reward. Once I got back onto the Great Hwy...I knew it was almost over. Only a few more miles...this is where pain started setting in. It was SO hard to keep going those last two miles. I could see the finish line clear down the road and it didnt seem like it was coming any closer.

Finally! I hit 26 miles...just .2 left! I saw Shaun and Cody...gave em a thumbs up and then I ran through the finish line at 4:15:30!!!

Now...this race...the BEST! Once you come through the finish line you are handed your little blue box with your Tiffany's necklace in it...by a handsome San Fran firefighter in a tuxedo...on a red carpet. Then they hand you a bag...a cute bag...then they just start chucking it full of food and drinks and chapstick and your finishers shirt and more treats and bars and water bottle and swag swag swag. For what you pay for this race...you get your money's worth! The support along the way is awesome too! There were sections that just had crowds and crowds of volunteers, the aid stations were awesome and every volunteer treated you like you were amazing! I have never done a race quite like this before...and I have to say it is one of my most favorite races.

After I got loaded up, I went strait to the bathroom...which was my one and only pee stop that morning. I did a marathon with no potty breaks?! Who am I? Not typical for me at all. I loved it! After a stop at the pot, I headed down to meet up with Shaun and Cody to watch Nicholle come in. As we were standing there, I said, "I LOVE marathons. I want to do that again!". Shaun said, You still have some runners high going on:). We were looking for Nicholle, and I thought I saw her a couple of times, but then as the person got closer it was an Asian lady...both times! Which was very ironic and funny considering a previous statement that Nicholle had made the night before.  I finally got it right and spotted her. She looked mad at first, but then when she saw us she got happy.  The first words out of her mouth were, "I want to blow my FREAKING LEGS OFF!" I know that feeling all too well! She did awesome and I am SO proud of her!

We met her at the finish line and SLOWLEY made our way over to get Kristin who was shivering to death at a gastation since she had finished a couple of hours before us. She was all seized up and frozen solid. She did awesome too. It was perfect running weather...a little rainy, misty, and cool...but it was crappy spectator weather. I am so thankful for Shaun...he was a great spectator and supporter that day and actually on the whole trip.


All in all I could not have asked for a better race or felt any better. It was simply awesome! Now...my next goal...Marathon under 4:00. I know I can do it now! I am no longer a 4:44er!

St George Weekend/Marathon

We had a great little jaunt down to St George this past weekend to go support Shaun running the St George marathon.  First of all...if you ever want to go down to St George...rental houses are the way to go! We got the sweetest house for as much as a hotel room. Pedro and Carol came down with us and shared the house. This house had the coziest bed I've ever slept in! It is for sure in the top 1 in regards to the comfiest bed ever! Not to mention the pillows! Oh heavenly! I stripped down the pillow cases to even check out the brand but stupidly forgot to write down the brand. Oh well...

Anyhow... the kids were in immediate heaven when we pulled up. There was a killer tramp and playground in the back yard. It made it such a great weekend for the kiddos to play and not get "bored" like they would be in a hotel room.

We went to packet pickup...and to be honest...I was SO sad that I wasn't running. I still feel that way actually. I wish I would have registered! I am the WORST at having race envy. I've just learned that I better register and do it so I don't feel jealous of those running. The expo was pretty awesome...got myself a great running racer back tank...Black of course! I really need to branch out.

The next morning the boys headed out super early... this is the point where I have NO race envy:) Carol and I headed to the finish line, while the kids were already asking for snow cones at 9:30 in the morning. We got a pretty good seat right at the finish line in the bleachers which I was happy for since I was worried about Carol, she wasn't feeling very good with some morning sickness and nausea. It started getting HOT fast! And man oh man was it crowded. We watched some of the top runners come through...they make it look so easy! Shaun said he would be coming through at about 3:30...which I knew meant probably around 3:15 so we were ready and waiting. Then at 3:05...there he is! He always underestimates is races by a LONG shot and then kills it! I was so impressed and proud of him. I mean...3:05!! That is so freaking fast...about a 7 minute mile average. I can't even imagine being in the 3's let alone being so close to the 2's. Jealous!

I ran over to the exit of the athlete's corral thingy and gave him some great CONGRATS!!! He was drenched in sweat... it was really hot by this time. It was time for some snow cones! My kiddos deserved it...they were being so good and it was a dang heat wave.

Now time for Pedro...while we waited for him we watched some great finishes...and some very scary finishes. It was amazing to me how people would get 30 feet from the finish line and their legs would give out to the point they would fall right to the ground. Then they would try to get up...and nothing! They litterally couldnt get up...their legs were just not working. It is a true testament to the power of the mind. As soon as they would see the finishline and were almost there...they were DONE! Their mind carried them through until the finishline...or 30 feet before or after the finishline.
One girl in particular was hard to watch...she fell and couldnt get up. She was embarrassed and people were just yelling for her...saying "you can do it"! She just couldn't get up. Finally the national guard volunteers came running out and helped her up. Once they got her up...she still tried to use her legs and they were just dragging. That ended up being a pretty typical situation as the day went on.
We saw lots of our friends come through and got to cheer them on. Pedro came through at 4:35...which was fantastic for his first marathon! Nice job Pedro!
We got some more snow cones...and then headed home to Sandhollow. Oh what a beautiful lake! It is officially one of my favorite lakes...no I have never been to lake Powell:)

Shaun talked me into doing a little open water swim accross to the big island thing...it was SO refreshing and nice! The water was crystal clear and beautiful. My kids had a GREAT time exploring and rowing around our little raft. It was hillarious to watch them try to figure out how to manuver it around.
I dont have a life jacket for Kai so he had to use one of the girls pink barbie jacket. While Zoe was rowing him around, he said "Dont go on the other side of the rock, I don't want the teenagers over there to see me in this pink life jacket". HAHAHA! He was totally ok with us seeing him in the pink lifejacket...but by damn those teenagers better not see him!

All in all it was a great weekend of relaxing...watchin movies...eating good food...playing...and just enjoying life with the kids:)
We drove home to Shaun's house and was met with a hot yummy dinner from Ryan and Mercedes! What a treat! Now time to get my butt in race mode for my San Fran marathon in two weeks! SO excited and have goals in mind!

Amy...the Master Aesthetician!

So...for many of my past posts I have gone on and on about being in school and how long it took me. Well the day finally arrived in April...and I graduated! I could barely believe it myself. I was able to complete 100% of all of my state boards and tests prior to completing my hours so that when I walked out that door...I was done! I passed my boards which seriously I had my doubts. They were more nerve racking than I had thought. I am SO relieved to be done and licensed. This is something that I have had on my "bucket list" for many years and to actually accomplish it...you have not idea how great it feels.


So yes...I am finally a Master Aesthetician! Now...to find a job!