Lana's First Birthday June 21, 2013

I still can't believe it's been a year since I've had her. It's gone by way faster than Kelsie's first year. She is such a happy, chill baby. Anyone can hold her. Anyone. She just loves being held. Lately, she's been giving us a piece of her mind. If she wants something she will yell at you for it. The girl knows what she wants. I love on her all day. She is such a happy loving baby. For a few weeks, she has been pulling herself up to standing and walking along things. It won't be too long before she's on her own I'm sure. She's says "Mama", "Dada" and "tank too" for thank you. Her big sister loves her like crazy.

Getting some pointers from Big Sis.

Getting help with the eating from Big Sis.

That's one happy/messy baby!

 

12 Month Stats:

21.7 lbs (50%)

30.5 in tall (75%)

18 in head (50%)

 

Wrangled into Trek June 12-14 (long post...pictures to come later)

A week and a half before the Pioneer Trek for our stake, I went to the Trail Boss' house to help out his wife. They were making journals for the kids and asked a few of the women in the ward if we could help.  I over heard them talking about not having enough medical people and kind of got the look from them.

The next night I got a call to see if I could possible go everyday or any day. I talked with my mom and she agreed to take a few days off work and watch the little munchkins.

When I went to the first meeting, they told me I would be the main medical person because I would be the only one there all three days. Awesome.

I had to make up 7 first aid kids to be split between 13 Trek families. I needed to figure out what my possible problems would be, heat exhaustion, heat stroke, blisters, chaffing, dehydration, sunburns, bug bites....yada yada yada. Pretty much everything I had no experience in, well except I knew what to do if someone went into cardiac arrest.

We trekked around a cattle ranch/orchard at Utah Lake called Mosida. This was the first time I had ever heard that you could go on a Pioneer Trek not in Wyoming. When I was a youth that is where we went but I guess there are places all over. Lot's cheaper I'm sure.

The first day we trekked about 9 miles. I had a lot of kids with 'heat exhaustion' the second half of the day so I sent them to camp. We had support staff with vehicles to take them. I had someone tell me that there feet hurt and were hot. Yeah. Ditto. Welcome to Trek. The worst injuries I saw were a few blisters.

The second day we headed out and were planning to trek about 6 miles. Luckily, I had a podiatrist with me. Every trek needs a podiatrist. They are amazing. He taught me how to pop the blisters correctly and bandage people up. Oh boy. Did I need that that second day. When we got to camp, people just kept coming up to me. I was, to say the least, overwhelmed. Wondering why I had volunteered for this torture.

The third and final day came and my wonders of why were answered. Starting out, we had a girl really struggling. A group of us in the support staff were back with her trying to get her going.  We sent one of the women up to the rest of the handcart train to stop them.  Suddenly, I see two of the men running back. At least I thought it was the men. It turned out to be two of the young men running back to help carry this young women to catch up with the train. Writing this makes tears come to my eyes. It was such a beautiful, heartwarming thing to see. What great young men to drop their handcarts and run to our rescue. 

We also had the women's pull that day. The women's pull was a re-creation of a time along the pioneer trail when only the women were available to pull handcarts. The men had been sent off to help fight the Mexican American War. Traditionally, the pull is up hill simulating Rocky Ridge that is on the real trail in Wyoming. On our trail they dug up part of it and made it really sandy because there are no hills to climb at Mosida. All the men left and met up with us later. It was hard going with just us women pushing those handcarts and nearing the end the men were reciting the Young Women's theme to us.  Very spiritually touching experience.

At last of the day, they recreating the water crossing. The young men picked up every single one of us young and old women and carried us over this river. There was such a sacred feeling there and you could only imagine those saints who were so weary and beaten down being lifted and carried through the bitter cold Sweetwater River. It's hard to explain the feelings of appreciation I felt for those pioneers who sacrificed so much to get to Utah so that they could have religious freedom.

I finally realized why I had come on Trek. I did not expect to have a any sort of faith building experience so it was a welcomed surprise to me. Would I go again in a few years? Maybe. It I had a podiatrist there every day then for sure!!!

Pictures will have to be added later. One of the photographers was our Young Women's President and also my buddy/tent mate/sister wife. We joked that we were sister wives since it was the two of us being each other's family. Anways, I'm waiting on pics from her.

Chad's 35th Birthday!!!

I actually forgot to post this because I forgot to upload the photos from the camera. The day of my half, I scheduled a party for Chad's birthday. Busy, busy day. And to top of that busy day, a few days before I got asked to speak at church. This is something I haven't done since my last year at college. 7 years!!! Hopefully that holds me over for another 7 years! I could be so lucky.

Anyways, for Chad's birthday I contacted his family and friends to send me memories or a special note that I could share with him at his party. It was a task to try and decipher all the emails from his aol account. I'm sure I missed a bunch but it was seriously hard. I picked up envelopes from Staples and shaped it into a 35 as the picture below shows. It was my favorite part of his birthday mostly because I got to here all these stories of Chad. Chad seemed to enjoy them as well and was very surprised.

I was getting all this ready while Chad was getting food at Mo' Bettah Steaks, a very yummy Hawaiian restaurant.

A few friends of ours joined us and later that night some of us went out to a movie.

My borrowed tables and chairs. Thanks neighbors!

I found a couple of things on Pinterest and combined them on the table. Unfortunately the terra cotta pot filled with coals did not work. We were going to do smores but the coals wouldn't light because they were from the dollar store. We probably didn't need the smores though because Kendra made this amazing key lime cake. AMAZING. And the FROSTING! I could eat the frosting out of a bowl it was so good!!!

Chad's Third Year Doing the Rockwell Relay

Yes. I know. His third year and hopefully final!!! Just kidding. At least I'm not pregnant and almost due like I was last year. I actually think he gets better every year so I think he should keep doing it. Those relays are so tortuous. With the staying up all day and night, barely getting sleep and riding your bike in between. Yikes. The Relay starts in Moab and ends in St. George.

This year I thought it would be fun to meet him at the end. I got the kids in the car and headed out about 9 in the morning. We actually made it to Hurricane by 1:30 so we had a pretty good time. I had to stop there to buy some pecans for me and Jami. They are so good and cheap.

But I digress...When we got there, we went swimming with a couple of the other wives and there kids. Then we rushed back to Vernon Werthon Park to watch the boys come in.

 

Chad's BFF Rick!!!

Trip to St. Geezy

Over Memorial day weekend, we took a trip to St. George. Apparently, I like to go to cold places when it's cold (i.e. Meridian) and hot places when it's hot!!! Sorry family. Next year, we'll switch it up. The first night in the hotel room was pretty Hellish! Kels would not go to bed and it was way past her bedtime. Like 11:30 way. But after that they seemed to get back into sort of a routine.
The first day we went "hiking" around Dixie rock with my friend Kinsly and her fam. Then we headed to a Mexican restaurant for lunch. That night we met up with Kins again and had a bbq at their posh pad!

The next day we went on a short hike with the Johnsons (who were also in Southern Utah) around Gunlock reservoir where we froze our bums off in the very cold reservoir.

On Sunday, I took Lana to church. Bishop Denos, who was in the ward, used to be in the Bishopric in my very first ward at Dixie. I had a good time chatting with him and catching up a bit. He was one of my favorites. We used to go hang out with him and his wife at their house when we had nothing to do. Good people.

On Monday, we made the drive back home.

Hiking around Dixie Rock.

Post Dixie Rock. Kelsie's baptism by the red dust of Southern Utah!

Lana chowin' down on some buffalo wings!

Ogden Half Marathon

The end of my eight weeks at Firehouse culminated with the Ogden Half Marathon. I was peer pressured into this one since we all know how my last one went. Not pretty. That's for sure. Wake up time to make it to the buses that took us to the start of the half up the canyon was 3:30 in the am. Yes 3:30! And the torture starts!

Quite a few people in my neighborhood signed up this year, as you can see by the picture below. There were also a couple of men that signed up too.

It didn't look good for us weather wise at the start of the race. Of course, it started raining pretty much from the beginning and didn't let up. EVER! But I ran with Trish and we talked and ran and checked on our time infrequently. Neither of us had a goal. This was Trish's first and practically mine since it had been two years and a baby for me. As we were nearing the 9 mile mark, I asked Trish what our time was and we figured out that if we kicked it up a notch we may be able to hit the 2 hours mark. So we did and in the middle of it Trish said she was dying. I told her we could slow down but she said no. We kept pushing. Coming up on the end, I sprinted to the finish, which I've always enjoyed doing. Especially when you pass the guys. We missed the 2 hours by 2 minutes but I still think we did fantastic. I was not expecting that quick of a time! Woot! Woot! Hurray for us!:)

8 Weeks at Firehouse Fitness...and then some!

A little after our trip to Meridian, I started at my new gym. They offered 8 weeks free and I jumped at the chance! My friend Trish had been going a few months before I did and I had gone with her on Saturdays for free. It seriously made me want to puke my guts out every time I did it, so apparently I thought I would want to do it for 8 weeks!

 I had to work out 3 times a week there and also train the other 3 days for the Ogden Half Marathon. What did I do the other day of the week? Rest people. The Sabbath is a day of REST!!! And I did just that.

The first 3 weeks were pretty killer and I didn't know if I was going to go on with it after the 3 weeks but I did.

Coming into the 4th week I was on a high protein-low carb diet for the rest of the time. It was super hard to stay with it and eat 5 times a day but at the end of it all I lost about 6% in body fat! I think the diet was the real key. I actually really love this place now! It kicks my butt every time I go. Highly recommended if you live in the area.

This is me at the end. Not the best pic but you can see my arms are skinnier. So there ya go.