Why I'm happy I'm so sore...

Yesterday I ran the Hobblecreek half marathon. It's the best half marathon in the entire world, I'm positive about that. We got in line to be bused up the canyon at 5:15 am and then walked about a mile to the starting line. The morning was chill, but not too cold. It really was perfect running weather. The best thing about this race it that it goes down the canyon - almost 10 miles of it is downhill. Some people don't like to run downhill, but to me it was heaven, esp after training on the blvd which has tons of hills. When the race started I felt so good I just took off. When I hit mile one I looked at my watch and it said I was at a 7:40 mile. I couldn't believe it. I was curious to see if I could do another couple miles at that pace.... So I kept going. I thought for sure I'd hit a wall at some point since I usually run much (MUCH) slower than that, but I just never got tired and never had to slow down.

Now I know it's tacky to brag, but I just can't help myself... I killed it (at least for me I killed it.). I had a great race. I ran the half in 1:42:30 - that's 7:50 minute miles the entire way. My new personal best by about 12 minutes. I couldn't believe it.... I was so happy and honestly shocked. We didn't run together, but I finished at the same time as both of my friends (which is a huge accomplishment since they are both fast, experienced runners.). We finished in the top 100 females out of 1300 runners so we got these special finishing metals and flowers.

I'm feeling it today - esp since I had to walk around all morning in church shoes, but it's the best pain ever. This is what makes all those early mornings (when I'd rather stay in my warm bed) worth it. Mike thinks in a lot of ways this is what they call the "runners high". It's a feeling of accomplishment you just can't get anywhere else.

The next race on the schedule for our family is.... drum roll please.... Mike's doing the Bear Lake half ironman in three weeks. Did you catch that - HALF IRONMAN... He's my hero. It's very exciting!!

She's 9 months!

Saying that out loud just sounds WILD. That means she is almost a year and that just can't be possible... She is the best little thing ever and I honestly can say we all love her to pieces!! She makes me so happy that almost daily I look at her and get all teary. I just can't believe she is real. (Okay so maybe my hormones haven't quite balanced out yet, but still).

Here are Meg's 9 month Stats:

27 inches - 25%

16 pounds 2 ounces - dropped to the 10% (yup she's one of ours for sure).

She sits like a pro and still loves to suck on everything. She doesn't have any teeth so she still has a cute all gums grin. She doesn't crawl yet - thank goodness!! But she does get all around the room by rolling. She can push herself up into a sitting position from her tummy and pulls herself up to standing when she's by furniture. She loves to pull herself up and then fall back on her bum and do it over and over again. She still wakes up a couple times a night, but I have faith that will stop soon... I just know it will....

Meg says "mama" and "dada" and has waved bye bye a couple times. She said "boo" the other day when she poked her head out from behind the door laughing. She loves to drop things and say "uh-oh". She started eating table food and loves Cheerios, pancakes, yogurt with baby oatmeal and fruity baby foods.

She loves playing with her brothers and sister. Here is Will playing peek-a-boo through the leg opening of her chair. I love her little toes on his cheeks.

She's a doll and she's all mine!!

Here's how we've been killing summer...

I can't believe summer is almost over. Only 3 weeks left (the kids don't start school until Sept! They are starting late this year and since the kids don't have AC in their classrooms, I'm happy about it.)

Here's a few ways we've been killing down summer starting with my favorite... Miles going off the high dive. So cute. He was terrified (watch how bad his knees where shaking), but he did it. Now we can't get Morgan and Miles out of the pool. They love the diving board and jump off over and over and over again.

Boating with the Nadualds. I have pictures of us boating together every summer for the past five or six years. It's fun to see the kids still have so much fun together.

Mike and Taylor doing synchronized swimming in their own little mini Olympics. I doubt they would medal, but they had some sweet moves.

Meg enjoyed the ride and the wind blowing through her little fuzz-hair.

Miles thought he'd attempt wake boarding. Unfortunately Mike was driving the boat and got distracted and started dragging Miles under the water before he even got started... That was enough for Miles and he got back in the boat sobbing. Maybe next year.

The big kids tubing (minus Miles who lost all faith in us that we wouldn't kill him).

Mike and Taylor.

Moms and the little guys...

Meg thought she needed her toes painted for summer. She was blessed with her moms long toes... (I like to see it as a blessing)

Shirtless Will.

Meg eating her first piece of licorice. I got to go away for a few days with just Meg. It was great to spend some time just her and I. My oldest sister was sealed in the St George Temple so we went down with my folks and twin sister to attend. Meg was great in the car and loved having 4 adults all to herself doodling all over her.

4th of July parade with all our neighbor friends.

Playing in the laundry basket...

Tons of swimming...

Miles has been trying to teach Will to play soccer.

Jumping around on the furniture is always a fun way to kill a morning...

Sometimes we are so bored we have to get creative....

Modest Really is Hottest

For some reason Morgan has started liking Barbies. I thought she was past that stage and would never really be in it, but the past few days have been Barbies, Barbies, Barbies....

Even though they are just dolls, I noticed Miles would giggle every time he'd see one of them naked. They all are constantly making naked comments - even Will.... So we decided to make our barbies a little more appropriate. We used nail polish to make our barbies modest, since modest really is where it's at! Check them out!!

We went over to my moms and dug my old barbies out of the old toy bin. I never really liked barbies, but when I did play with them, these were the two I played with. Come on - isn't his hair sweet!! (We learned a trick on pinterest - dip old doll hair in a mixture of fabric softener and water and it softens and detangles... Totally worked!! Look at their 24 year old barbie hair! These barbies say 1988 on the back of them. They don't look a day over 19... :)

I also pulled out all my old barbie clothes that I've been storing. My Grandma Thomassen knit all these barbie clothes for us when we were little. She loved to knit and made all kind of fun stuff... I especially love the blue swimsuit up top and the little purses hanging on the front of the armrest. My grandma sure had style. Look at those dresses and Maxi skirts.

She even made the guys some stylish stuff. Look at that black sparkly Michael Jackson jacket, and that green track suit. So in!

She even made clothes for me when I was a baby. I found this stuck in with my barbie clothes and I just had to try it on Meg. So sweet!!

Playing barbies with Morgan reminds me of my childhood and this sweet lady I loving call Grandma. She passed away a decade ago and I still miss her sweetness, but I feel her around quite often. My Grandpa too. I think she'd be thrilled to know all the hours she spent knitting barbie clothes didn't go to waste. (If we gathered all the barbie clothes, blankets, clothing, slippers, etc. that she knitted, I doubt it would fit into my house!) She was amazing. I found this picture of her not too long before she passed away. Man I was young... Isn't she the cutest Grandma ever!!!