Leprechaun Lope

While I was in Utah I decided to run a 10k with my friends Valerie and Sabrina who used to be my running buddies in Portland. Our original plan was to run a half marathon, but Valerie had a baby 3 months prior to the race and I just wasn't feeling up to a half marathon yet. I am so glad I decided to just do the 10k. I remember all my long training runs while training for The Suavie Island Half and I don't miss them at all. Don't get me wrong, I will probably train for another half in the future, but now isn't the time. I didn't really have a goal time for this race because I have never done a 10k before so I wasn't sure how fast I could run it. I also wasn't sure how the altitude would affect me. When we got to the race start we had no idea what the course would be like. We just prayed that it wasn't uphill. Well our prayers were not answered because the first 3 miles were completely uphill into the canyon. I remember just getting colder and colder the higher up the canyon I got. My lungs were burning within the first 2 miles of this run and I blame the altitude for that.The only thing that got me through the first 3 miles was knowing that as soon as I got halfway I would be going back downhill the rest of the race. I think I averaged about 9 minute miles on the way up and 7 minute miles on the way down. I was the first female to finish in my age group 25-29 and I was the 4th female overall to finish. I think my time was around 51 minutes.

Utah Vacation

I'm not sure how much of this trip was a vacation, but it was worth it. I loved catching up with all of my sister's, but being a single mom to two kids for almost two weeks was a challenge. Camo had a hard time with his sleeping schedule and I think he was really missing his daddy.

I started off my trip at my sister Ralina's house. It was fun to see our babies next to each other. TJ was monstrous compared to his cousin Cade who is a month younger than him.

We did a lot of fun things while we were there. We went swimming, to a trampoline place, watched cousin Creighton's soccer games, played on the hot wheels motorcycle, went to the park, shopping, made lots of treats, rode on scooters, and played games. There is always something fun to do at my sister Ralina's house. 

I was also excited to go to Utah to see our newest baby cousin Caleb. This was my sister Shalisa's first baby and we were all excited to see him. We decided since all of us girls would be together we would do a mini photo shoot as well. It was a blast and Shalisa was such a trooper doing all the jumps having had a baby a week prior. Her baby was adorable. It's so fun to see her as a mommy. 

                                                                     Camo loves Grandma!

                                                              Beautiful Shalisa and baby Caleb

The next week I stayed at my sister Larissa's house. It was filled with laughter, cooking galore, games, bracelet making,  kickball and many other outdoor activities.  I was so grateful for my sister Larissa. She helped me with TJ so much. There was one night I was up all night because TJ would not stop crying. He had a fever and was not settling down.  My sister felt so bad that the following night she heard me up with him at 3 in the morning again so she told me she would take him from 3 until 7. I don't know what I would have done without her. I needed those extra four hours of sleep so bad. Turns out he was getting some teeth in. He cut 4 top teeth while we were in Utah! The following night my other sister Tana who was also staying with Larisa, told me she would take the monitor and get up with him when he started to cry. I was grateful for her because she allowed me to sleep almost the entire night. I have the best sister's! 

We also went to Soldier Hollow to go sledding one of the days while we were there. We went on a fairly warm day so some of the snow was melting. Because of that the sledding was a bit slower. It was perfect for Camo though. He had a blast. He didn't want to go home, but I had to force him to because he was starting to shake from being so cold. I didn't really dress him properly because I didn't think he would be going down so many times. I thought he might be scared, but I was definitely wrong.  Thank you to his cousin Tyler and Uncle Topher who helped him up the hill the entire time. I had to stay with TJ, but was able to sneak away one time to go down with Camo. 

Another reason why I was excited to go to Utah was to see my amazing friend Valerie. J and her husband were in Chiropractic school together and he is now practicing in Utah. Valerie and I were great running partners/friends while she was here in Oregon so we decided to run a 10k in Salt Lake together. I will blog more about that run in another post. I decided to stay a night with Valerie in Provo to catch up with her and her family. We miss them so much and wished we all lived closer. We had a bbq and then we were able to sneak out later that night to have some ice cream at the BYU creamery. Abbey who was another good friend from Chiropractic school was also able to meet up with us, as well as Sabrina and her family another Chiropractic student. Camo missed Abbey's son Travis so much and was so excited to reunite with him. It was so fun to get all the kids together. That night was filled with plenty of laughter! I can't wait to get back together with everyone and hopefully J will be with us next time.

Easter

The older my boys get, the more excited I get during the holidays. We started off our Easter weekend with an Easter Egg hunt in Hillsboro. It was a beautiful hot, sunny day.   We like to go to this egg hunt because they always have plenty of candy for the kids. They also do a mom hunt which is an added bonus. They have prizes like spa packages, gift certificates, and I think they even do a diamond ring in one of the eggs. Camo had to go in the older age group because we didn't get there in time. Even being the smallest one he still came out with a lot of candy. When it was time for the mom hunt, my friend Nicole and I were talking strategy. It is very important to be fast in the mom hunt because if not you won't get any eggs. When they started our race I was definitely in the front of the pack, but thought it was smart to go all the way to the back and grab all the eggs and work my way forward. When I got to the back I grabbed one egg and then turned around to see all the moms picking up all the eggs I passed up. Let's just say next year I will not be using that strategy. Ha. The sad thing is, is that the one egg I grabbed only had a small kit kat in it. Not my lucky day I guess. My friend Nicole was able to snag 4 eggs. She got two foot spa certificates so she was nice enough to give me the other one. It was a super fun day. 

That night we dyed Easter eggs with Camo. The following day we let the boys dig into their Easter baskets, went to church, then had a dinner with J's family. The boys did a small Easter egg hunt later that night with all the cousins.  

                                                     Talking strategy(apparently that didn't work)

Zoo Lights

I was looking back through some pictures from our camera and noticed I never updated about going to zoo lights. Camo is obsessed with the train at the zoo,  so every Christmas we take the opportunity to ride the train and look at all the lights. I love Christmas lights and I think Camo is following in my footsteps. I remember as a child driving around to look at all the Christmas lights. It was one of my favorite traditions during the Christmas season. There is something so magical about all the pretty lights.