Saturday, July 9, 2011

I'm a Hobbler

It has been a few years since I have done a half marathon, so I figured it was time again. I signed up to do one in Springville Canyon called "The Hobbler". I found this to be a very appropriate name, see that I am now walking like a Hobbler!



I followed a very strict schedule for twelve weeks trying to prepare, but I wasn't quite prepared for the downhill. Who ever thinks... Hey, I better go out and practice doing some downhills today?

Yeah, I know.

So I did plenty of miles and speed workouts, but I didn't train on the hills. I am pleased with my overall time, but my knees are super stiff and I have some pretty crazy blisters to show for it.

The best part of the day, besides the fact that the half marathon was over... was that these beautiful flowers came to my door. Two dozen beautiful roses. Scott couldn't be here for my race and he knew that I was super nervous about it. What an amazing guy.



I'm an Aunt... Again...

Welcome Baby Grant! I am now an aunt to 22 little ones. I am so blessed.



Where in the World?



My brother Jordan and his wife Lina live in Newfoundland, St. Johns, Canada. For those of you who have no idea where that is, follow a map as far East as you possibly can and you will locate St. Johns. Since it is in Canada, I figured it couldn't be that far away. I was wrong... It took me four planes to get there. St. Johns is so far east, that if you were to go directly south from Newfoundland down towards Florida, you would still be about 1,000 miles into the Atlantic Ocean. Newfoundland is much closer to London than it is to Utah.

I had many fantastic adventures while I was there. It was really fun to be on the Atlantic Ocean. One day, Jordan and I took a whale watch boat ride and saw tons of whales and birds.









We went to various parks and coastline view that were fantastic!



















One day we went to an outside natural bird conservatory where over 700,000 birds live. The birds could be heard from over a half mile away... you could smell them too!









There were two sisters in Jordan and Lina's ward that were originally from Uganda! I was very excited about this since I spent my entire summer in Uganda last year. We had them over for dinner and they brought some Chapatti and Beans with them, which was one of my favorite Ugandan meals while I was there. I was so excited!







The trip was awesome!

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Long Distance...



See the handsome man pictured above?

Handsome man = Long Distance

On the 24th of June, I flew out to Newfoundland Canada to visit my brother and his wife. This was a fantastic adventure and one I had been looking forward to, but it was also a rather bittersweet embarkment. While I was gone, Scott (the fantastic guy pictures above) moved. Not to another house...

No, that would be too easy...

To another state...

He started a Physical Therapy Graduate program this week. This means that when I returned home from Canada, he was no longer here. Long distance is not fun, but it can be done. Thank goodness for skype. It's nice to be able to see his face every day, even if it is two-dimensional.

We have many fun adventures planned for the months ahead and I will still get to see him as much as our schedules will allow. Until our next adventures, here are some photos from our last big trip. We went on a road trip with four other friends to Yosemite National Park. It was the first time for either of us to go and the trip was amazing. We hiked to the top of Yosemite Falls, which are the highest falls in the United States. I would love to go back some day. Here are some pictures to document our trip.