SLC Half Marathon & RAGNAR

In April, Brady and I completed the Salt Lake City Half Marathon.  It was Brady's first half marathon and my fourth.  It was a lot of fun training together... even if I got mad at Brady sometimes for going too fast ;)
We finished with an 8:25 pace which I was super proud of.  That's my PR so far!  There were a few points in the race where Brady decided to pull ahead of me because he was feeling good.  The first time, he ended up slowing down and saying that he was going to burn himself out as I caught up to him.   The second and last time was toward the end.  He went ahead and I couldn't catch him for a good mile or two, but I finally did with just 2 miles left in the race.  He had hit a wall and so we were able to push each other at the end.  We probably won't have the opportunity to run a race like that together again til our kids are all grown, so I'm glad we did it :)
Side note: I found out I was pregnant the day after our race.  Good thing I didn't know because that would have been a total mental block for me!

Then, in June I was able to run the Ragnar Relay with Brady's work team.  I was on and off the team three different times, so I'm glad it actually worked out for me to run with them!  I've done two Ragnars in Washington (Northwest Passage), so this was my first here in Utah (Wasatch Back).  Let me tell you, the Utah one is WAY harder.  So many hills and mountains to climb!  I was really impressed with all of our team members and the elevation gains and mileage they took on.  I was grateful that my legs weren't too strenuous.  I was runner number 1, so I started at 8;30 am with a 6.2 mile leg that went on a little mountain trail.  It was really beautiful.  Also, I was the only girl in our van, so that made things interesting...  Brady's first leg was brutal.  He had to run 8 miles uphill on a dirt road in 85-90 degree heat.  I felt so bad for him, but he did really well!  I think he gained 1,000 feet and probably guzzled a pound of dust from all the vans passing by him on the dirt road.

My second leg was at 9:30pm and was about 4.5 miles.  This was my favorite run.  I love to run in the dark... somehow, you can't tell as much when you run up hills and how far you're going.  My first mile was a 7:28 pace.  When I heard my phone tell me that, I was like, "Woah!! I'm the fastest runner on the planet!" But then of course, I slowed down and my average was an 8:40.  Brady then ran 9.7 miles in the pitch dark.  He said he kept hearing things in the bushes which helped him run faster! :)

After our van was done with the second leg, we had a long rest in Camas, Utah.  Brady and I were not prepared to sleep outside.  We thought that since it was so hot during the day, we wouldn't need much for sleeping bags, but being up in the mountains at night... it gets flippin' coldies!  We both ended up squeezing into Brady's mummy bag and then getting in our double sleeping bag.  Both of which are really thin bags.  Our body heat kept each other warm and we were able to sleep for a couple hours.  It wasn't the most comfortable though.  We definitely were squished! :)

I remember going to the bathroom in a port-a-potty the next morning and sitting down on a warm toilet seat.  Normally, that would have totally grossed me out, but since I was so freezing, I was like, "Hey... this is kinda nice".  Haha!

My third and final leg was 5+ miles and I started at 7 am.  I seriously had the best start times for all of my legs.  It was never too hot or too cold.  I was especially grateful for that because I was 13 weeks pregnant at the time, and so I needed all the good weather I could get! Brady's 3rd leg was really good.  He ran super fast with an 8:22 pace and his first mile was 7:35.  He only ran 3+ miles for that leg but in total he ran 21 miles.  What a stud muffin! I only ran a total of 16 I think.

We had a lot of fun together.  Once again, I don't know when we'll be able to run a Rangar Relay again together.  One of Brady's co-workers, Greg, was kind of the dad of our van.  There were a couple times where I asked Brady if he would come with me to my next exchange, and he said he couldn't because he was "busy".  So, thankfully daddy Greg stepped in and went with me.  I was glad somebody cared about me ;)

We saw some beautiful country as we ran from Logan, Utah to Midway. I think my favorite was where Brady ended his first leg in Paradise.  There were fields of grass and yellow flowers.  I want to go hiking up there sometime.

Colin/Em/Dad come to visit

We've been so lucky since living in Utah, because there seems to be different family members visiting every few months.  I miss being close to my parents and my siblings, so it makes me happy when I get to see them!  Emily came in June to watch Simon, so we were able to hang out quite a bit.  We took Sadie and Sy to story time at the library, we went to the park... and we took Emily on a hike that turned out to be a lot longer than expected.  Sorry Em!  We went to Cecret Lake up Little Cottonwood Canyon and the dirt road leading to the trail head was closed so we thought we could just walk the extra distance.... but it ended up being about 5 miles round trip.  Emily turned back early and we finally made it to the trail head, but it was so snowy that we had to turn back too.  So Cecret lake remains a secret to us (see what I did there?).  We need to go before I get too huge pregnant wise :)

We still saw some amazing views without even making it to the destination!

Oh, one night we wanted to impress Emily with a few sights, so we drove her up Emigration Canyon and she kept saying, "So this is it?" like she wasn't impressed at all.  We gave her a hard time about it, but I think she found some beauty in the views we were showing her :)  

Colin came a little later with my dad.  I didn't see much of my dad at all.  He was busy working on Ann's house, but Colin and I had some good bonding time.  Emily was kind enough to babysit Sadie while Colly and I went on a hike to Lake Blanche up Big Cottonwood Canyon.  It was such a beautiful hike!  I want to do it again this summer.  There were so many good views of the mountains, rivers, lakes, and meadows.  It's my second favorite hike here in Utah so far.  Funny side note: as we were scrambling some rocks toward the end of the hike, this woman from Swtizerland (I'm assuming) started talking to us about the route that she took to get to the top.  She came from a different trail head and she said the terrain was a little tougher and that she was glad she had her hiking boots, she kept pointing to Colin's chacos and saying, "not wis zose shoes!"  Like he shouldn't go the way she did because of his sandals.  We laughed pretty good at that. :)

We also hit up Silver Lake because it's a beautiful and a cool spot to visit.  It's at the top of Big Cottonwood Canyon, so it's a perfect place to go to get away from the heat of the valley.

Colin wouldn't be Colin without his jean cut offs.

Emily and I were also able to attend the Salt Lake Temple while she was here.  It was a sweet experience to do a session with her.  And of course, we had to walk around temple square with Colin and Sadie too.

We also went to the pool at Liberty Park one day.  Emily refused to swim with us, so we forced her to watch Sadie so Colin and I could swim ;)  jk, Emily!

Corinne and her kids came up and we met at the Kangaroo Zoo.  It was a building with a ton of blow up slides.  Sadie loved it!! It would be such a fun family activity but the weight limit is 150 and Brady is too big :(  Maybe we can go and he can just watch us!

Dennis is such a good cousin.  He always wants to play with Sadie and help her.

As always, some random pics of Sadie... She loves to jump on Brady and play with him when he gets home from work.  And we had to document her first time getting a popsicle all to herself!

Their faces kill me :)

She got bored eating the popsicle, so she started rubbing the juices all over her body

Cedar City- Josh's graduation, Kanarraville Falls

In May, we decided last minute to drive down to Cedar City, UT to see Brady's nephew, Josh, graduate from high school.  We got there way late and didn't even see him walk across the stage... but we got a picture with him and that's all that really matters :)

                                                 

Sadie was just learning to walk around this time,

 so she was loving pacing and wobbling to and fro.

The next day, we went on a hike to Kanarraville Falls.  About ten minutes into our hike, it started to downpour.  We found a tiny tree that gave us a minimal amount of shelter from the rain.  We also forgot to bring a carrier for Sadie so we took turns carrying her.  Needless to say, it was kind of a long hike considering the circumstances!  It was fun to be with Brady's family and to watch all the nieces and nephews hike and get excited about the water.  Emmi (Clint's daughter) must have rubbed up against a poisonous plant of some sort because she had bumpy rash on her arm.  I told her to spit on it to relieve the itchiness.  She did it, and the complaining stopped.  It might have just been psychological though ;)

Sadie and Grady snugglin' it up

Sadie wanted to join the boys' tramp bball game :)

I have to add some random pictures... Sadie LOVES the park now.  When I take her on runs, she sees the playground and starts pointing and saying, "yeah, yeah, yeah".  She gets super frustrated when we don't go straight there and she gets sad when we have to leave too :)

I added a pic with my grandma Lee that I forgot to add to the Yosemite blog post.  We were able to visit her for about 45 minutes on our way home.  It was so sweet to talk with her and listen to stories about my mom.  I wish we had more time to spend with her!

When Sadie was first learning to walk

Sadie loves her cousins.  Ellie and Sophi love to play with her too.  One of them even said, "Sadie loves the trampoline more than she loves her parents!"