Running

Sometime in my second year of living in California there was a girl in our ward named Maria who started a work out group.  We started off by doing something called couch to 5k.  Every week you would run for 20 minutes but you would run for 1 minute and walk for two minutes.  You did this several times a week.  Then the next week the running went up and the walking went down.  Just a little over a month or so I was running 3 miles without stopping.  It was wonderful!  I loved it.  We lived in the perfect place to run because we lived around a lake and if I went out my front door and run to the corner and went all the way around the lake back to my front door it was like doing a 5k.  Every chance I got I would go run.  Our work out group would get together 3 times a week normally.  We would do lots of cardio and about once a week we would run.  Then we started meeting at the kids school and running to the house we worked out at and then running back to the school.  Did I mention it is really freaking hot in the high dessert!  haha  Sometimes it was awful.  Then it is really windy there too.  Sometimes my ears would get so achy.  I usually shoved toilet paper in them.  Any ways.  The first run I did was a 5k mud run.  We trained really hard for it and I had NO idea what I was in for until we got there and started running.  HOLY COW it was SOOOOO hard!  By far the worse one I have done to date.  Not only was it super challenging because about every 100 yards or so they had some kind of obstacle you had to do but when I had about a mile left I fell on a rock and hurt myself.  I sliced up my hand and arm and busted up my thigh.  I had the HUGEST bruise!!  They only way to see it fully would be if I took a picture naked and since that wasn't going to happen I tried to get some close up ones.  I had bruises every where though.  I even had some on my ribs!  Here are some pictures from that run.  Sorry the quality sucks but I stole these off of my friends Facebook page :-)

Here we are before the race started all nice and clean and still smiling! haha

Here we are just starting the race.  Right as you cross the start line they have firemen hosing you down!  Did I mention this was in late August and it was probably 100 degrees when we raced?

Notice the smile is gone?  haha

This is my friend Amanda and I crossing the finish line.  She fell too and busted up her knees and hand really bad.  We were the klutzy ones of the group apparently.

Here we are shooing off our injuries

This is me with Natalie and Maria, my work out girls.

And here is my arm…I had dirt all in my cuts.  For about a week I would scrap the dirt off of the cuts while watching TV.

And here is my thigh….it had a huge lump under the skin…it was so gross….

For my next running adventure I signed up to do a Monster Mash Halloween 5k but then I broke my toe so I didn't get to do it.  That was a bummer.  So my next one ended up being another 5k mud run.  I was a little nervous since the last one was so awful but this one ended up being a piece of cake!  We decided we wanted to make t-shirts and put something funny on them.  We decided on "Sister Wives"  Because all of my friends at church call each other this.  We knew some people would not like this but we decided we didn't care.  haha  And on top of that to make it even worse on the back of our shirts we wrote "We share EVERYTHING"  haha  We also had capes which I was not a fan of and will never wear again while racing.  Here's the before pictures

Then we have some during pictures.  Amanda and Chrissy were way ahead of us this time and so Chrissy took pictures of Carol and I along the way.  She was carrying a water proof camera.  

 That's me at the bottom of the huge net we had to climb.  I totally accidentally kicked someone while climbing it.  Opps

 Gotta love having muffin top in your high socks!  haha  My calves are huge

After this we treated ourselves to In N Out.  It was so much fun!

The next race I did was another 5k.  I haven't worked my way up yet to anything longer then that.  One of these days I am hoping I can.  The next was a color run that Amanda and I did by ourselves.  That was fun too.  A totally new experience for me.  Again my friend and I made shirts.  Her's said, "I'm with Awesome" And mine said on the front "Who needs boobs" and the back said "When you have a butt like this"  heehee

Fun fun FUN!  And lastly just a couple of days before moving to Texas I did one last mud run.  It is ironic because it is the same mud run that I started with.  The one that was SOOOO hard.  However this time it was perfect!  I am assuming they got complaints about their being way too many obstacles because they had about half of the amount this time and it was perfect.  There were a few things I didn't like.  They had several fire pits you had to jump over which wasn't bad but then they had a huge slide you had to go down that put you straight into a huge pile of dirty water.  I got so much up my nose it was gross!  But I preferred this one to the first one any day!

Here are our before pictures 

And the after pictures…

It was very fun times!  I miss my California running girls!  It's not quite the same without them.

I'm hoping to do many more races in my days….Crossing my fingers

4th of July

We had a fun fourth of July!  Normally we don't do much but this year we decided to smoke some meat and invite the missionaries over for dinner.  We also invited the Snow family over.  Cody made us some super yummy food!  We ate and had fun.  The kids ran all around and the missionaries gave us a good lesson.  After the missionaries left Gina helped me clean up the kitchen and put the food away and then we headed to Victorville to watch the fireworks but first we went to get ice cream!  We had Gina take a picture of us in front of our house because Mommy made us all 4th of July shirts!

Here are the kiddos while watching fireworks 

I hope everyone else had a happy 4th of July….you know….6 months ago!  haha

Going Away Party

When we found out we were moving to Texas we decided to was the perfect opportunity to have a BBQ.  Cody had been dying to smoke some meat and so we invited our friends over to share some food and fun with us.  The food was great and the company was even better.  Here are some of the pictures I managed to get.


                                     We had some live entertainment by the Shutter clan

                                                    Chris and Amanda

                                        The kids had fun running around playing

 
                                              Me and my girls!  Natalie, Amanda, Gina and Casey

I swear we don't drink but we do weird things completely sober!  

                                               They begged me not to go but alas….I had too!

Cody and Chris were the biggest party animals of all!  Chris has a door knob he was installing in another friends house that wouldn't work and Cody knew how to fix it.  They sat at the table for 10 to 15 minutes, not talking, just staring at Cody work on the door knob!  But he fixed it!  WOO HOO

Seth and Damon found the iPad's and were in heaven!  

Everyone had a good time!  So thanks Garcia's, Tobler's, Horvath's, Shutter's and Snow family for coming and saying goodbye!  We sure do miss you all!!!

San Diego Fun

When we went to Lego land we spent the night in La Jolla and took the next day to go to the temple and the beach.  The Temple was so pretty!  I took a million pictures while I was there.  I'll try not to post toooooooo many of the pictures.

Here we are

                                           We haven't changed at all in 10 years right?!  haha

After this we went to Carlsbad beach.  We got to run around on the beach for a while and take some more pictures.  I wish we had had time to play in the water but the kids got to dip their feet in.  

We had an enjoyable time.  Well, the kids and I had a good time.  Daddy is not really a beach person.  haha  After this we went home and Cody started packing for Texas.  :(  He had to leave the next day and we were going to miss him.