Thanks Mom

I don't care how old or independent you are, sometimes in life you just need your mommy. The way you can be entirely ok with a situation and just one look at your mom's all understanding face or hearing that loving voice just makes you break down in tears. I need my mom. I've decided our moms are made for us, for these specific instances where you just need someone to cry unreasonably to and they will make you feel like its absolutely ok to cry. Thank you mom, for being made for me, and for drivng all the way from Blackfoot to take care of me. Puking in my purse seemed far less traumatic with you there. :) I love you.

A Quick Thank You Note:

Lately I have gained an appreciation for all of the strong and amazing women in my world. I'm blessed to have every single one of you a part of my life, to help me along and to encourage me. All of you mothers are nothing short of an incredible Greek Goddess in my eyes. How you can suffer so much and yet still be so entirely selfless is beyond me. Thank you to all of the mothers in my life I love and appreciate each and every one of you.

The Dirty Dash

Today was about bringing out your inner child. We, the Fighting Amish, summoned up as much energy as we could muster and found ourselves running around the ski hill at Soldiers Hollow wallowing mud, going over and and trough obsticles and wallowing in bogs and mud pits. We are proud to say that we are DIRTY DASHERS!

We hope you join us next year! Its worth every muddy minute of it!

A New Look

Take a good look at this blog and be impressed....it only took my technologically impaired self ages to get the font changed all cute. Thanks for the help Steph! I think I may have the urge to do some blogging again!
We've been crazy the past bit. With school mostly, wow has this semester worn me out! I've spent two weeks teaching 4th grade field trips and observing kindergarten classes. Its been a blast but I'm going to be glad to take a breather.
Kelly and I are about to become some seriously dirty dashers this weekend. I can't wait to post pictures for you. Its going to be a hog of a good time. If you are curious about what we've gotten ourselves into check out thedirtydash.com you'll be entirely jealous.
But I'm off for now to accomplish something worth blogging about!

Cache-Teton Epic Relay

Nothing desribes last weekend better than my blog description, "Enjoy when you can, Endure when you must" Twelve of us assembled into The Dirty Dozen for the 191 mile relay from Logan to Teton Villiage in Jackson Hole. 30 hours of Pain, Suffering, and a down right heck of a good time! We had an awesome crew and I'm proud of every one of them. This race is brutal and we tackled it.

Kelly and I each ran a 7, 3, and and 8 mile leg. Surprisingly, the 3 mile was the hardest. With very little recovery time you had to bail back out and push through a 25 minute, give it all you've got, run rather than an endurance pace. After finishing mine and enjoying the ability to breath again I bailed out and ran Kelly's last mile with him to help him forget about the suffering.

Our last legs were the dreaded 8 miles. I was fortunate to get to run the 8 miles in 40 degree weather, uphill in the Snake River Canyon, in a headwind on 1 1/2 hours of sleep. I thought for sure I would die. I suprised myself by turning it in at 75 minutes. I can officially say that I am currently in the best shape of my life. But wait untill next year...the work for 7 minute miles consistently starts NOW. (Ok...it starts Wednseday when I'm fully recovered.) I'm doing great today considering.... just a tad sore. But my toes are black from blistering and I may or may not lose a couple of toenails within the next day or two. Sounds Crazy? It is....and entirely worth it.

Kelly is impressive. He's probably gone running 3 times in the last 2 years and average about 3 miles on those runs. How any person can just bust out a relay with zero training effort....I'm pretty jealous. Talk about the potential to be a kick butt athlete! Hopefully we can talk him into it again next year. After leg two he climbed into the truck and said, "Next time I get to pick the family activity." :-) please please please pick the relay!

Tre' & Savannah: Est 8/6/10

Weddings are a happy day...beyond words. So I won't ruin it with my ramblings. We are so excited about these two...a match made in heaven for sure. Welcome to the wonderful life of marriage. We love you!

Olah Amigos

That's just about the extent of my Spanish. Aside from the "Donde esta el bano?" which is crucial to any trip to Mexico. We returned safely from our wonderful Mexican Vacation. It proved to be somewhat less eventful than our first go around but the mystery still remains the same, "Where the heck is Tulum?" The ruins still managed to evade us. The good news is this time we didn't get lost in not so tourist friendly areas trying to find them. The bad news is that we were in no health condition to even begin our quest.
We did however, manage to sneak our "weapon" through customs. Here's a little blurb of our conversation as we are hoping we don't get into trouble for it.
"Your backpack"
"Huh"
"You're still wearing your backpack"
"My what?"
"You didn't put your backpack through the xray thing"
"Uhh...OH! Should I..."
"Nope! Just keep on moving"
Yup...somehow we only got the half search at customs.

We did manage to venture over to Cozumel one day and enjoy the beaches. It was a nice cool off from the sticky humidity and heat and and that nasty helmet chin strap. Talk about the perfect ingredient to make a person irritable. We had a little too much fun in the sand and missed the ferry back that we were hoping for. On the way back we hit a nice rainstorm, Kelly enjoyed it a little more than the rest of the commuters, myself included. I got a tad sea sick with all of the rocking.

Just like always, we cut it close. We docked up at Playa Del Carmen at 4:45. Our bus waiting clear across town to take us back to Puerto Adventuras was scheduled to leave at 5:00 on the dot. We learned something in that exhausting 15 minute full force sprint in the rain. 1- you don't get heckled to buy junk if you run full speed ahead with a purpose. 2- running through crowded streets is as cool as it looks in the movies. 3- I'm a much better runner than Kelly. :) As we drug ourselves onto the bus just in the nick of time we collapsed into our seats. Me with a big grin on my face, Kelly saying "never make me run again".
And we never ran again. We stayed on the beach. Sunburned ourselves and swam. It was a gloriously relaxing, lazy and wonderfully gluttonous vacation. I'm ready for more!