Bear Lake Half Marathon

On June 12, a group of us girls headed down to Bear Lake to run the Bear Lake Half Marathon. It was a ton of fun! These girls were a riot. Jesse's mom was so sweet and made us a carb load spaghetti dinner the night before.

Then we headed to our KOA cabin. Isn't it cute!

Once we got to Bear Lake (keep in mind it has only been 2 hours since our spaghetti dinner) we found a pizza place to continue our carb load!

We finally got all snuggled into bed for a good night's rest, but that didn't happen.

I honestly think I maybe managed to get about 15 minutes of sleep, so I now know I am perfectly capable of running 13.1 miles with basically no sleep. It rained all night, but luckily it let up as we began our run. It was so stinking cold though. There was one part of the run where the pavement turned into a dirt road, so we spent the whole time slipping and trying to run in the ditch. You could totally tell who ran the half marathon because they had mud up the back of their legs. We ended up with a time of 2:14:17 which was 150th overall (including the guys) and 20th out of our age group. I would say that is quite the improvement from my last half marathon which was almost a half hour slower plus this time we didn't have to stop or walk the entire time! It's just proof that a training schedule actually works! I'm so thankful for my awesome running partner. I honestly don't think I could have done that without her...I love you Jesse!

Before the race..like I said, no sleep for us!After the race!

Thanks girls for the great time! We'll have to do it again!

Viva Las Vegas

Over Memorial Weekend, Josh and I went to Las Vegas! He played in the World Series of Poker Event #3 at the Rio. It was pretty neat to see players I watch on TV all the time like Phil Hellmuth and Vanessa Rousso. I had never watched a live poker tournament and it was crazy how fast the whole thing moves. They had about 4400 people in it and Josh ended up being in I think about the top 1500.

Josh's ticket to the WSOP

This is for all you UFC fans--Randy Couture started of the tournament with the most famous words in poker, "Shuffle up and deal."

It was so hot down there that we kind of just lounged around in our hotel and didn't do too much.

We did end up going to the M&M store for the boys--nothing like paying $40 for a bag of M&Ms that would cost $8 at Costco (the things you do for your kids)!

The best part of Vegas was the Carnival Buffet at the Rio. Let's just say I got my money's worth by eating 8 plates of food (yep, that's one more than Josh had). You would think I would have been stuffed, but the sad part is, I was up eating M&Ms two hours later in our hotel room. Jesse and I have decided there is just something about Soda girls and our ability to put away the food!

We ditched Vegas for a couple of days and drove to Flagstaff, AZ to see my sister. We ended up going on a hike and eating at some really cool places.

My sister and Josh overlooking the town of Flagstaff

My brother-in-law works at Northern Arizona University and their mascot is the Lumberjacks, so they have this awesome gigantic Lumberjack on their campus, and of course, we had to go see it!

My sister was attempting to channel her inner "Lumberjack"

Our road trip back through the very long and boring Arizona desert

And can I just say that when they complete this freeway over the Hoover Dam, I will NOT be crossing it! Are you kidding me!

Missoula

Josh had a game in Missoula this past weekend, so we decided to take the boys on a little Montana adventure. My awesome sister-in-law found a hotel called the Wingate that has an indoor water park. Needless to say, that's pretty much where we camped out! The boys loved the water! Gavin loved the water slide the first day but not so much after Josh dunked him under a couple times while coming off the slide. After that he was pretty much content with just wandering around and sitting on the pool steps. Quinten has turned into quite the little fish. He would go down the slide all by himself and go completely under without a problem. I think I need to get this kid enrolled in swimming lessons.

Showing of their muscles

And it begins...Gavin has already mastered the art of girl watching

Josh played his game at the Washington-Grizzly Stadium which was pretty cool. Unfortunately it rained the whole first half and they lost 13-12, but it was still really neat. Quinten actually fell asleep for half of the game which shocked me. I guess all that swimming really takes something out of ya.

I absolutely LOVE Missoula! It is so pretty up there and I told Josh we need to make a repeat trip up there just for fun! The best part is that the kids are actually pretty darn good in the car, so it makes driving not too bad. And just a little word of advice...no matter how sick you are of making pit stops along the road, never, ever, ever try to attempt peeing into a diaper. It won't end well. Just saying.

Road Trip Pictures

Talk about mood swings!

We spent a fair amount of time doing this...

When kids have to go, they have to go, NOW!!!

I thought these were too cute. Best buds!

Holy Crazy Past Few Months!

So the past couple of months have been absolutely crazy! Sorry for the long post...this is what happens when you procrastinate blogging and have to play catch up.

Josh had his wisdom teeth out at the beginning of March. Everything went pretty good except that they hit the nerve on his left side and to this day he is still completely numb on that side. They said the feeling will either eventually come back, or it could be numb for the rest of his life. I'm just hoping it comes back, even if it takes a while, because watching him try to eat without having feeling on that side is almost sad!

Two weeks after his surgery he went to Pittsburgh to work out there for a couple of weeks. The boys missed him like crazy.

Josh at the Hard Rock in Pittsburgh

While he was gone, Quinten dropped a gigantic glass water pitcher on his toe and I had to take him to urgent care to get it taken care of. Luckily, it wasn't broken and they were able to close it without stitches.



On April 2nd, Josh and I celebrated our 5th anniversary! My awesome in-laws took the boys so we could go to dinner without having to battle the boys. All Gavin could talk about when they got home was Papa's cows. I swear that boy is going to be a rancher.


Gavin turned 2 on April 11th. I'm glad he was only turning 2 and probably won't remember his birthday, because I totally dropped the ball on that one. We were all kind of sick (poor Gav had an ear infection) so we just lounged around the house. I did manage to make him a cake, and I have yet to figure out how I screwed up a boxed cake...again! Somehow I can whip one up from scratch with no problems, but apparently 3 ingredients and simple printed instructions are just too much for me! Good thing Gavin will eat absolutely anything!


Quinten has been loving school. He misses the deadline for Kindergarten this year, so I lucked out and he'll be able to go back to his same teacher again next year. She is absolutely amazing and I'm so excited he gets another year with her.




On the 21st of April, I turned 25! Josh woke up that morning and asked me how it felt to be 26. I said I didn't know but would let him know next year when I actually turned 26! At least he actually remembered this time...yes, we've been there before. It was a great birthday though and I got totally spoiled!

So the week before my birthday I did something I haven't done in years...I blacked out! I got up at 2:00 in the morning and went into the bathroom and passed out. Josh came in and found me lying on the floor, white as a sheet, and just dripping in sweat. It took 50 minutes from the time I passed out until Josh could actually move me without me passing back out. I would come out of it for a second and then would just go back out. I can honestly say that was the most freaked out I have ever been. I just felt like my body wasn't going to come back from it. I used to pass out a lot in high school and my first year of college, but it hasn't happened in a long time. When I used to pass out I would know that it was coming, pass out, and then quickly come back and was fine, but this was totally different. The doctor I saw ran a bunch of different tests. They all came back fine except for the EKG which was a little bit odd. He said it could have possibly been wrong lead placement, but if it happens again he wants me to wear a king of hearts to monitor my heart for a month. Not fun, so I'm hoping this was just some stupid random thing my body decided to do, and it won't happen again. I really, really don't want to have to go through that again.

Josh plays for a semi-pro football team called the Arco Anarchy. They play teams from the Rocky Mountain Football League like Boise, Idaho Falls, Missoula and Logan. So far they have won their first 3 games.

The boys think it is pretty cool that their dad is playing football. They want to be just like him.



Gavin sits and points to all of Josh's bruises and says "Oweeee."
Gavin on his birthday (poor sick kid) and Josh the day after his football game in Boise.


I'll spare you the pictures of his bruised rear end, but here's a picture of one of the bruises almost a week after he got it.

So once a month for the past little while a group of us girls gets together and plays bunco. This group is a total riot and so much fun to be around.


This was our last hoorah at Applebees. Most of our group is moving away or graduating and moving on to bigger and better things. I'm going to miss this group like crazy! Good luck girls!

My friend Jesse and I have been training to run the half marathon in Bear Lake this year. I never thought it would actually enjoy running, but now that I'm past the point where I feel like my lungs are bleeding and I'm going to die, I love just getting out there and running. And I have to say, I LOVE my running partner! Not only is she the best friend you could ask for, but she is my motivation to get my hiney out of bed and actually show up to Jensen's Grove. I love you Jesse...you're the best!!!

This is what our yard looked like on April 6th! It was the first time all year the kids got to build a decent snowman.

These boys really are the best of friends.

I thought this was hilarious. I caught Halle and Gavin red-handed in the rice krispies! Their faces are priceless!

1 box of rice krispies + 2 kids = hours and hours of entertainment!