Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving this year, we headed to northern Utah to spend some time with my family. Our trip got off to a rough start, thanks to a broken dryer and a recall on our car (two+ weeks in the shop!). But we were able to stay with Riley’s sister on the way up, and that made up for the trouble we started out with. It was fun to see them and always amazes me how much their kids change and grow in just a few weeks!

We then had a few days to hang out with my family and see some of my extended family that we hadn’t seen in several years (there were 60+ people at my grandma’s house for Thanksgiving dinner!). We also had my aunt take some family pics, and participated in some of the craziest Thanksgiving-crashing-black-Friday shopping I have ever been involved in (it was like a rock concert with the crowd trying to rush the stage, inside Walmart).

The day after Thanksgiving Riley and I got to take advantage of some free babysitting and go see Catching Fire. It was really good and I’m super excited for the next one!

Saturday we managed to convince almost my entire family (minus one sister) to go bowling with us. Boston loved it! They had a ramp type-thing, so he could push the ball down the lane all by himself. He was so cute! As soon as he saw the ramp, he knew it was his turn and would take off running for it. Boston even rolled a few strikes. He was clapping and there were hi-fives after every turn! For the record, even with Boston’s help, my parents trashed all of us!

Random Phone Pictures

Boston does lots of silly, cute, little stinker type things. So many that I would be much more than a few months behind if I tried to write about each of them. Instead, I'm just going to post a bunch of pics. Enjoy :)

Getting into trouble, and using everything, including his mom, as a step stool. 

Look who finally has enough hair to have bedhead!!

Chasing birds can be dangerous if you start running too fast and fall on the sidewalk :(.

Cookie Monster!
Boston managed to pull a whole batch of chocolate chip cookies off the counter while they were cooling. He was extremely happy with himself, and sat right in the middle of the mess to taste them. I let him finish a cookie in his high chair while I cleaned up (but didn't think fast enough to get a pic of him on the floor with all of the cookies). *For the record, this was not his first, or his last attempt as a cookie bandit. 

I have cute pictures of Boston as a newborn and at six months with his bear.
When I tried to take one year pictures, he ran away.

Uncle Tyler came down for a surprise visit!
We went to Olive Garden and the boys wanted to know "Where's Aunt Jenn?"  (she works at the OG in Ogden, UT).

Ragnar!

The Las Vegas Ragnar is a team relay race that covers 187 miles in about 30 hours. I’m not sure why I thought this would be fun, but it somehow made it onto my bucket list. Since I had a friend who was putting together a team, I decided to go for it.  Because running a Ragnar is crazy, we decided to add a bit of silly fun and run wearing tutus J. I was also able to (thanks in part to the tutus) convince my aunt Brenda and uncle Jamison to join our team. We were in the second van, so we didn’t start running until about 2 in the afternoon (Van one started at 8:30 up on Mount Charleston). It was possibly the longest morning of my life! Boston did a pretty good job to keep us entertained, but it was really hard to wait around while we were nervous and ready to run.

Ready to Run!!

I was the first runner for my van, and was worried I would have trouble spotting my team’s runner (a friend’s husband) at the exchange, so the fun kicked off with him running his first leg in a tutu (sorry no picture). He started a nice trend and I think most of the guys on my team ran at least one leg in a tutu, which definitely made them much easier to spot!

Silly Ragnar Fun

My first leg/run was 5.5 miles, with a lot more and also steeper hills than I was expecting. But I managed to finish and even ran a bit faster than my expected pace. Then I got to stretch and cheer on my teammates as the rest of my teammates went for their first run.

After a bite to eat and a quick trip home to put my baby to bed, my van was ready for the next round. Because these runs were happening at night, each runner is also allowed to have a support runner. I conned my friend and running buddy Rushelle into running with me. Our run started at Spring Mountain State Park and went down the highway past the small town of Blue Diamond, heading back into Las Vegas. It was just under six miles and a great run that I plan to do again sometime! Thanks to some help from the decline, it was also a quick run. We were able to keep our pace just under 8 minutes a mile (7:45 minutes a mile if you go by Rushelle’s tracker), which was about 30 seconds faster than I was expecting, making it that much more fun J.  Because it was such a good run, and because she is amazing, Rushelle then decided to run with the rest of the ladies in my van. Her grand total for the night was something like 21 miles, like I said- amazing!

After we all checked off our second run, we were able to come home for a quick shower and to sleep for about 2 hours. Followed by a wild awakening when a teammate from van one called to let us know they were about an hour ahead of schedule and we needed to get to the exchange in Henderson- fast! We didn’t even have time to park. As soon as we got to the exchange I jumped out, and was off on my final run.  The adrenaline from the crazy exchange kept me crusin for about the first mile, then the hills got me, again (I definitely should have trained better for them).  Once I made it past the worst of the hills, I was ready to finish strong. As I started the last mile, I was gearing up to pass the only runner I could see before the exchange. I passed him, only to hear footsteps quickly closing in on me a few seconds later.  I really did not want to let him get a head of me, so I picked up my pace, until I realized I wouldn’t make it to the exchange if I had to keep going at that speed. I gave in and let him pass. He must have also realized he couldn’t keep that speed slowed down. I passed him again, and once again soon heard footsteps picking up speed behind me. I was not about to let him get the best of me again, pushing me to sprint to the finish (don’t worry, I beat him). It was a great way to wrap up my part of the race. It also pushed me to some of the fastest miles I was able to run, which was good because I needed them to balance out the slowest miles I ran during the race when those hills hit J.

Not the best screen grab, but it shows how fast,
 and slow I ran during my last leg.

My teammates then rocked some beautiful and crazy hard runs to finish out the race. In the end, my van was able to cross the finish-line together (plus I carried Boston, which he loved!).

Cute Sign Riley and Boston Made

In the end, the Las Vegas Ragnar was a great experience and wonderful chance to get to know some amazing people. This post could go on and on with their inspiring stories. But because this is already way too long I will limit myself to just a few more.

Ragnar attracts people from all over, who are running for all kinds of reasons, most of them silly, but some are inspiring. While most of us were struggling to run without carrying anything, this man kept Old Glory flying through the race. Another man did the race from his wheelchair. He hit a bump on the final stretch and lost a wheel, several people jumped in to help him put it back on, and he continued to the finish line.

These two amazing people made me proud to be an American, and also grateful for the chance I had to run the race “Micah Strong”.  Earlier this year my cousin Micah was targeted by an IED while deployed in Afghanistan. The explosion took both of his legs and left him fighting for his life.  He survived and is now working to recover with an outlook and attitude that are truly inspiring. If you need some inspiration in your life, check out this link to learn more of his story- you will not regret it.