Zion National Park

Once we were all checked out of our hotel my dad had the grand idea to drive through Zion National Park on our way back to Cedar City.  Apparently we were allowed to drive through the park, as a way to get from Point A to Point B, but not allowed to stop in the park.  Although of course we still did and so did many other people.  It was so worth taking the "long way" home. I still cannot get over how beautiful it was. 

I would really like to come back here when it's open so that we could go into the other parts we didn't see and even do some hiking here.  Just beautiful!

A quick thanks to my parents for coming down with us this weekend.  It was so much fun!!  And I know spectating a race (especially when you drive all the way to the ONE spot, only to have barely missed us) isn't exactly "fun".  And also to Grandma Robie for keeping the kids for the weekend.

St. George Marathon

Oh .. St. George.

The marathon that I pretty much didn't want to get into.  After training so hard for Utah Valley from January to June I really really didn't want to keep training through summer for another one.  I can honestly say it took a little of the fun out of running for me.  When thinking about running my first marathon I knew I wanted to train for a Spring marathon because I enjoy running through the colder months.  Summers are generally so busy for us and trying to get long runs in when we're camping on the weekends is REALLY hard.  I really went into this training cycle with the plan to "just have fun" at St. George.  I wouldn't train as hard and I was okay with that approach.  This was Jeramie's first marathon.  He trained harder and better with me for Utah Valley .. I was worried about how he'd do.

So we headed down to St. George with my parents Friday morning.  The kids all stayed home with Grandma Robie. If nothing else I was looking forward to a couple days of relaxation!

Well .. you know minus the 26.2 miles of running in the middle.

We stayed at the Desert Pearl Inn and it was a beautiful resort!  I was in awe of the beauty that is Zion National Park.  Of course it happened to fall during the government shut down, so technically the national part was closed.  But the town we stayed in was right outside the national park and just gorgeous.

Didn't I tell you it was beautiful?!

I would love to come back here and stay here again.

There were tons of restaurants within walking distance.

Pre-Race hydration.

Water and Beer.

We had dinner here and it was really delicious!

After dinner we headed back to our hotel and to bed.  We had an early wake up call the next morning.  So that they didn't have to wake up with us my Dad had rented a car in Cedar City so that they could head over to the race later.  The next morning Jeramie and I were up and ready and on our way. We stayed about 45 minutes away from downtown St. George.  The time flew by that early in the morning.

I don't have any pictures from the race itself.  We found the buses pretty quickly and before we knew it we were on one and on our way up to the starting line.  Once we arrived up there it was still dark.  I was really glad that I'd  brought somewhat warm clothes to wait in, plus my mylar blanket from Big Cottonwood a couple weeks before.  I was SO glad I had it.  It was downright COLD at the start and windy.  All we did was stand in line for the porta potties and the starting gun went off right as we had finished and were gearing up.  So there really wasn't a lot of waiting around for us at all.  Which is probably good considering how cold it was.  So we dropped our drop bags and off we went.  The plan was to run together and see how things went.  I really hoped we would be able to run the entire thing together.  We were doing really well for the first while too.  Around mile 9 I decided I really needed to pee.  I knew if I stopped now it would be the only time and I'll feel much better for the rest of the race.  So I told Jeramie and he says, yeah okay, me too.  In I go and then back out.  And I'm standing there waiting and waiting.  No Jeramie.  So I get my phone out to take a picture of the porta potties, thinking I'll be funny and post it on FB that I'm just hanging out at mile 9 of a marathon waiting for Jeramie.  Low and behold there's a text message from JERAMIE that simply says, "Go ahead.  I'm going to be awhile."

If you know my husband then you're thinking .. OF COURSE.

So off I went.  I wasn't looking forward to another 17.2 miles by myself.  That's a long way and a lot of time.  So I focused on seeing my parents around Snow Canyon.  I think that was around mile 17.  I kept thinking how good it would be to see them. I was still feeling pretty good.  Mile 17 would not be too uncomfortable yet.  And maybe I could hang out and chat with them and wait for Jeramie. I didn't think he'd be that far behind me, as I'd stood outside the porta potties for several minutes before digging out my phone.

But I came through Snow Canyon and my parents were nowhere to be found.  So I just kept trucking on.  There aren't very many places to spectate St. George Marathon prior to the end in the city.  So I knew I wouldn't likely see them until the end at this point.  Once of the best things about St. George is that they have every mile marked with porta potties and balloons.  At once point I could see the balloons for the next mile marker while I was passing one.  That was kind of motivating.  It didn't seem all that far and the miles kind of ticked off pretty quickly.  I started having the same pain in my right leg and hip that I experienced during Utah Valley pretty early on .. maybe around mile 18.  I was so disappointed because deep down I had really hoped that running slower and having run so many miles this year already would work in my favor for a more comfortable marathon.  I guess "comfortable" and "marathon" just don't belong in the same sentence.  It was around mile 20 that I started walking through the water stations every time.  I was okay with that.  It was part of the plan.  One of the other really awesome things about St. George is that they have people with icy hot at the aid stations every mile to the end I think after 20.  I took advantage of that several times.  My calves were starting to cramp up pretty badly and the icy hot helped a TON.

There were some pretty decent climbs in this race.  I was surprised but in a good way.  It was nice to not have the constant quad pounding like some of the other races I've done.  Towards the latter part of the race there was a lot more downhill and that was kind of nice too. When it was getting the most painful you definitely had gravity on your side.  The last mile felt the longest.  And before I knew it I was turning into the finishing shoot really hoping my parents were there.  Although I didn't hear them when I finished I saw them quickly after.  It was so good to be done!!  The only thing I didn't feel like St. George did well was the finish line food.  It was pretty lame and I was REALLY hungry.  So I headed out of the finishers area so that I could wait with my parents to watch Jeramie finish.  I hadn't seen or heard from him since Mile 9.  But thanks to the Find my iPhone app, we knew that he was coming in soon.

These hurt every time.

And then all smiles .. knowing I'm finished.

4:43:45

Overall Place:  4253/5821

Gender Place:  1777/2655

Division Place:  401/515

I'd  be lying if I said I wasn't disappointed.

And then in came Jeramie!  So proud of him. I figured that he would finish around 5:30.  I'm really proud of him.  Considering that Jeramie really only ran the long runs, and even then, not all of them this is a fantastic time.  He would have done better had he run Utah Valley with me.

5:15:25

Overall Place:  4999/5821

Gender Place:  2839/3166

Division Place:  370/384

Even though we only ran 9 miles together.

I'm still glad we got to run this race "together".

After we finished we headed to go eat.  I couldn't for the life of me remember where we parked the car that morning, so my mum and I wandered around for quite awhile looking for it.  However, we eventually found it.  Let's just say that #1, I wasn't driving that morning and #2, things look a lot different in the light than they do in the dark!  Finally we found ourselves at Red Robin!  I LOVE Red Robin!  And then it was off to the pool for some relaxation.

Here are a couple good shots that the race photographers got.  I really want to buy the one of Jeramie and I because I really like it.

Last Summer Harrah!

As I mentioned before we didn't do a ton of camping this year because between us and my parents a lot of the weekends were taken up with other fun stuff.  So this was our last time heading out for the summer.  We went to Rockport for the weekend.  The same Rockport that had had some major wild fires earlier in the summer.  It was sad to see the amount of damage around the lake and also how low the lake was because they had pulled water from it to fight the fire.  The weather called for a stormy weekend.  Which wouldn't have been our first choice for sure.  But we made the best of it.  Evan and Rachel joined us for dinner Friday night. And also breakfast the next morning. Baylee was a lucky girl and got to go back home with them to their new house in Heber to have a sleep over and then they brought her back the next morning.

As we headed down to the lake to drop the boat in the water Saturday morning Evan went to turn the radio on to listen to while they prepped the boat only to find that the battery was completely dead.

Of Course!

We had hardly used the boat this summer, so it figures we couldn't have our last trip run smoothly.  They guy at the marina was kind enough to let us charge the battery for awhile and then also lend us one to take on the boat to jump off of.  Needless to say even after driving around the lake for a little while the battery was still no good.  So once Mike arrived with his kids my parents hopped off and headed into town for a battery.  While we VERY carefully put kids on the tube off of the front of the boat so we could leave the engine running on the back.  What  an adventure!  They still had such a blast.  Especially Oliver.  That kid LOVED the tube!

I miss this hair.

So does he.

I love that these kids are back to hanging out on a regular basis again.

I also love that Oliver just inserts himself in, even though he's kind of the odd man out.

That face says it all!

So glad I brought my big camera.

I really love this shot.

Wyland doesn't "love" the tube.  But he tolerates it and has fun.

This gives you an idea of how low the lake was.

It was a long weekend and lots of fun!

Vacation, Final Thoughts

The good, the bad and the ugly.

Not sure if I actually have thoughts on all three.  But here is a short summary of some of my final thoughts.

The Good:

• We didn't run out of money.  So I budgeted well.
• Continental Breakfast is awesome!  Saves a ton of money.
• I brought all running clothes to wear while we were there and the decision couldn't have been better.  They were very comfortable and moisture wicking on those hot days. Maybe not going to win fashion awards, but they were functional!
• We didn't bring tons of "snacks" that we just ended up bringing home.
• We got to take Jeramie's mom to Disneyland for the first time in her life.
• It was nice having the flexibility to just eat out for all our meals.
• We never lost any of the kids!  I'd been worried about that.
• I think we did a really good job of not wasting money on junk souvenirs.

The Bad:

• Not having a firm plan doesn't work for me.  We wasted a day.
• Waffles get old at Continental Breakfast after about 5 days.
• We didn't bring tons of "snacks" and therefore spent money on stupid stuff sometimes.
• Food at Dodger Stadium is RIDICULOUS expensive.
• Sea World just isn't what it used to be.  Not sure that we'll even bother going next time.
• At Disneyland we spent way too much time walking from one end of the park to the other because a certain ride sounded good.  Next time we need to exhaust everything in one section and then move on.
• Disneyland food kind of sucks.

The Ugly:

• California traffic SUCKS.  BAD.
• At times I felt like I got a little ugly and impatient with the kids.  It was REALLY chaotic pretty much all the time.  Next time Oliver will be older and able to do a lot more of what the others did and that will help.
• It's frustrating to try to please a range of people with different wants and needs all the time.

Next Time:

• We'll probably need either a family suite of some sort, or two rooms.  It was cramped squeezing us all in one room.  And next time the kids will all be a little bigger.
• Balance eating out with taking food in to places.
• More snacks.
• Definitely bring in drinks.
• How can I relax a little so that I don't stress when things are chaotic?
• Make sure kids WANT to go to a Dodger game.  Otherwise don't go.
• Maybe they'll be ready for Six Flags next time!!!

California Trip - Day 7, Disneyland Day 3

Here we are at the end of our trip.

I am of the strong opinion that the Disneyland 3 Day Hopper ticket is the way to go.  It's just enough time to get to do everything, but not too much time that you start to get bored.

And on Day 3 Jackson and Wyland discovered the MAGIC of Space Mountain!

This is one of the few faster rides that Baylee really enjoys.

At lunch time we headed over to where they do the Star Wars show.  I knew the kids would enjoy watching it and we needed to sit down for lunch anyway.  The kids went and sat down in the front of the first show to try and get picked to participate.  But no go.  They didn't get selected, I guess maybe because they weren't cute enough.

Just kidding, they were off to the side.  And I was watching where they were selecting people from.  So we just sat and watched the first show.  Then when that was over we got a front table (ordered our food) and ate while we waited 45 minutes for the next show.  If they didn't get picked this time then it just wasn't meant to be.

We laid out Baylee's jacket and Jackson went and sat there to eat

 and save a "prime" spot to get picked.

We sat there watching and what do you know both Jackson AND Wyland got chosen!  Thank goodness.  It would have been heartbreaking if one got to do it and the other didn't.  Man those boys were SOOOO excited!

And they both got to "fight" Darth Vader.

He's not scary or anything...

My little Jedi's.

So of course after they had to go "build" their own light sabers.

They were so excited.

As the day wore on into evening we headed over to Space Mountain for the first time.  We wanted Robie to get to go and we had fast passes for it.  I asked the boys if they wanted to go. Neither of them really did.  But as we were waiting I basically told them this was their last chance because it was our last day.  And what do you know they both decided to give it a try.  I was a bit nervous.  Jeramie sat with Jackson while I sat with Wyland.  I could have sworn as we were actually riding it Wyland said at one point (while clinging my arm), "I don't like this so much..."  But when we got off he turns to me and says, "THAT WAS AWESOME!!!"  I think they went on at least two more times before the end of the night.  Who would have thought??

And then Jackson even went on Indiana Jones and loved it.

I swear this always happens at the end of our very last day.  All of a sudden scary isn't so scary anymore.  Not sure if it's that they get used to the motion of rides.  Or that they've done so many new things that it's just one more thing.

We were all sad to see our trip come to an end.

Even Oliver.