Ragnar Relay/Wasatch Back/Legalized Torture

Legalized and personally payed for, torture.

After many months of training, this past weekend, I participated in the Wasatch Back. It is a relay run from Logan to Park City. 188 miles total. There are two vans with six runners in each. You have twelve runners on your team and each of you have 3 legs of the race. The legs vary in difficulty from 'easy' to 'very hard'. I was #8.

My first and second legs went pretty well. I ran faster than I normally do.

At the exchange point for my second leg, I saw my 5th grade teacher announcing as the runners came in. He totally remembered me. It's been about 15 years since 5th grade so I thought that was pretty impressive. Hahaha. Random. I actually enjoyed this run because it was downhill and at night.

At 3am, after everyone had run their second leg, we slept in a middle school, in the gym on the very hard mats. Needless to say, very little sleeping was accomplished and a good 3 hours later we were up getting ready to start the torture all over again. Really? Really. REALLY.

This was probably the hardest run for me. It was 6 miles at a gradual incline. In the first ten minutes, it was over for me. I hurt. I hurt so bad. At this point, the only thing left was brain power. Freaking 60 minutes left and all I have is a fight in my head keeping me going. Some lady totally collapsed with about a mile to go, in front of me. That would suck. Seriously. You only have a mile to go and you are done? But if she would have seen the 'happy' little hill that awaited her just a few minutes more I think she would have been glad she collapsed.  I let some expletives fly when I saw that stinker hill coming up. It took me a little over 70 minutes to finish this leg and I've never been happier to be done with something in my life. It felt like the end of a marathon.

       Our ride for the run. I hated it. If I ever do this again, I will only do it if we have a 15 passenger van.

The sleeping arrangements. This pic does not even do it justice. There weren't a ton of people when we came in but when we woke up it was packed. It made me feel like I was in some movie where there had been some disaster and you had to sleep in middle school gyms on hard uncomfortable mats. You could only go to the bathroom in port-o-potties and finding a real bathroom/shower was a luxury. The only food you had was granola, almonds, craisins, beef jerky, and water. This movie sucks.

Right after our 3 hours sleep/nap. I told everyone to look pretty when I took this pic. This is pretty.

Carrie coming in after her last leg!

Paul stretching.

And possibly the best pic ever of yours truly. Yikes!

Roman conquering the Ragnar. Hardest leg of the whole race and all up hill for 4 miles. Killer.

Oh wait. No. This is possibly the best pic ever. Haha. Makes you want to cry you're laughing so hard right now. Huh. Or it just makes you want to cry.

THE team. Roman's Legion. THE END!

New development with Kelsie. She's loving sticking her tongue out. Randomly. Maybe she is just taking out a step. Instead of opening up her mouth and sticking something on her tongue to taste it she'll just leave her tongue out all the time. So efficient, that little girl. Genius really.

P.S. I really need to give Chad a big THANK YOU for watching the little stinker all of Friday and Saturday.
He even took Friday off for me to run it! What a good husband! I think I may owe him a weekend away.

Little Update

For Chad's birthday this year, I cooked up a little surprise. And by 'little' I mean I had to tell him we were staying over night at the Peery Hotel because his federal discount was way better than my IHC discount.

Unfortunately and in true Beth form, I forgot the camera in the rush to get Kelsie to her Aunt Kelli's house in Sandy. Oh well. You'll just have to use your imagination. So imagine, if you will, me and Chad arriving at the Peery Hotel, eating a nice steak and salmon dinner, walking up to the Abravanel Hall instead of the Capitol Theater (oops, thanks Kelli for the correct info), watching a couple of opera's (this song was in one of them, sound familiar? Love it!) and heading back to the king size bed at the Peery without a baby for the night. And that is where your imagination should end. I mean it. THE END.  Skipping forward to the next morning, Chad and I then walked around downtown and took a tour of the Beehive House.  We really enjoyed ourselves and by really, I mean REALLY. I love you Kelsie, but it was kind of like the old days without ya, babe.

I worried like crazy that Kelsie wouldn't sleep the night for the Lunt's but she did. She also seemed to not care much that we weren't around either. Her cousins entertained her the whole time and she loved the attention!

And now Kelsie baby.

Here is the babe sleepin' with her arm out!

And here she is spread out!

Oh and this is how I find her every time I get her from a nap. Perpendicular from where I placed her. Today, she had flipped over onto her belly. Funny girl!

I guess I should tell you about her six month update. She now rolls both ways pretty much whenever she feels like it. I put a toy just out of her reach so she would roll towards it but instead she rolled away from it. Stubborn little fart. Just like her mama. Chad and I cracked up for a while after that. She likes to do the 'crab scoot'.  While laying on her back, she pushes with her feet and moves herself back. I swear she's always going to have a bald spot.

Her weight: 18.8 lbs (95%)

Her height: 27 1/4 inches (95%)

Her head circumference: 17 1/4 inches (80%)

She babbles all day long. "Nanana's" are her favorite. She also thinks her mom is pretty freaking hilarious. I can usually get her to laugh pretty hard. She squishes up her nose and sniffs hard. The best is when her mouth is open and she does this. Hahaha. I also taught her the fishy sound. She did it for two days straight and now only does it occasionally. I'm thinking she wants to learn a new trick or it's that dang stubborn thing again.

Chad face, maybe?

First time at the pool! Screamed like crazy at first then loved it!

Don't you just love that her little toes are peaking out!

By the way, we are going un-private for a while. Chad hates logging in so we are going to try it one more time. Honestly, I hate it too. So there ya go.

Kelsie vs. The Blanket...dun...dun...dun...

And in this corner, weighing in at a substantial 18 lbs, she hails from Woods Cross, Utah and was rated by many as the cutest little baby around, with a smile that defeated many gloomy days, and a cry that could ring your ear drums, KELSIE SOPHIA NELSON!!!!

Not sure who won this battle, but by the looks of Kelsie's expression below, it was pretty intense! I was in my bathroom, getting ready for the day, when I started to hear a lot of 'ahhings'. You know, the sound they make when they are trying to shove things in their mouths?!? Anywhoo, I looked over to find my baby wrestling the blanket. I guess the blanket must have given her the stink eye or something. Take that!

'Oh hi Mom. No, I'm not suffocating. It just looks like I am. No worries. Back to your business.'

And here we have sweet little cousin Mary. She is a week and a half older than Kelsie.

Little buddies. 

Finally, she rolled from her tummy to her back this last week. Once. Yes just once. I helped her by holding a toy above her head and it FINALLY got her to roll over. It's a start.

Trip to AZ and the Kelsinator is 5 months!

A couple of weekends ago, we headed down to AZ for a few days. This was Kelsie's first plane ride and she actually did pretty well. We got her to sleep for part of it so that was good. I kept thinking about when she is a year old and we go down there again. Oy vey. She will be a handful. This is really the golden age. We had a lot of fun hanging out with the Nelson's and soaking in some Arizona sun. Oh sun how I miss you on this cold Spring day. Of course, I hardly took any pictures. That is going to have to be my new goal. Thanks to Chad's sister Heather, there are some pics below.

All the kids on the Nelson side.

The fam.

Kelsie's first taste of the pool. She did not like it at all. Hence, the crusty face in the picture above and below.

While in Arizona, Kelsie got to try out Grandma and Grandpa's Baby Einstein's Jumper. Chad and I have been looking around for one on KSL classifieds. When we got back, we decided to buy one. She's starting to get the jumping part down and I like watching her use her 'concentration face' while she grabs the other toys.

 I still can't believe she's 5 months already. The last month and a half have been the best. So happy and smiley. She's a huge cuddle bug and always lays her head on our shoulders. I've been feeding her rice cereal once a day for about a week now and she always giggles when I make sounds like "mmmmm" every time she eats a bite. We've been letting her cry herself to sleep for naps and sometimes during the night to see if we can get her to sleep the whole night. It finally worked last night and she slept from 7:30pm  to 6:30am. YEAH! Hopefully, she keeps it up. No rolling yet but we do tummy time a few times a day now so maybe she'll start. I also sit on the floor with her and have her sit up next to me and have her hold her self up for a few minutes.

And the piece de resistance.......her chubby whubby legs! Ahhhhaaa! Look at those symmetrical fat rolls. The pediatrician told me that they love seeing the symmetry because that means their little legs are growing evenly. Now I look at them all the time and say 'Oh good. There symmetrical!' :) Haha.

 Below, I added the outfit and hair thing I made for my sister-in-law Erin's new baby Mia. I really can't wait to make a skirt for Kels. It's such a cute pattern and was actually pretty simple. I just had to have someone help me start it. Thanks Kelli.

P.S. Make sure you leave your email because I'm going private in the next little bit. Thanks.

Fine. I'll go private!

I told myself that if I ever got a comment from someone I didn't know that I would go private. So here we are. Please leave me your email so you can still continue to look at our happenings. I will wait a few weeks. By the way, I saved all the emails I got and deleted them. Comment moderation is now on for your email safety. Thanks Lace.

What's going on with Kelsie

All of the following pics are the most recent of Kelsie. Oh and me too!

Here she is after some tubtime. Sucking on her bottom lip. I told her if she makes a funny face it may get stuck like that but she's already not listening to her wise mother.

Chillin' on the couch watching the sunrise.

Feeding her some rice cereal for the first time. She's been staring me down while I eat so a couple of nights ago we decided to get out the rice cereal. It was pretty funny to watch her take in the spoon and then push it all back out with her tongue.

Posing perfectly on the couch. Haha.

Apparently, we have a sports fan on our hands. Already taking after Grandma Nelson.

"I love getting ready for the playoffs. I mean...what? I wasn't watching t.v. I promise."

A little something I whipped up!

I made these for my friend Melissa's baby a few weeks ago. They are super easy to make and I thought they were the cutest things ever! Wouldn't they look so cute with a pair of corduroys and a v-neck vest? Oh maybe when I have a boy I can make some more! If you want to know how to make them, just go to crapivemade.blogspot.com or you can ask me.

This one is my favorites and I did the best sewing on it!