Park City Marathon

It came and went just like that....I felt like we've been preparing for the Park City Marathon for months and it's already over! No matter how well prepared we thought we were, nothing could prepare us for what was ahead of us....hill after hill after hill.

On Friday night, August 20th, Brady and I loaded up on carbs by eating rolls and spaghetti at my mom and dad's house and then headed up to Park City to check into our hotel. Since the race started at 6:30 am on Saturday the 21st, it was a no-brainer to book a hotel room for the night. We drank lots of water and tried to get to bed early. When the alarm went off at 5:00 am, we were so tired, but had to get up and get ready! I always get pre-race jitters that leave me feeling sick to my stomach, but I gagged down a peanut butter and honey sandwhich and a banana and out the door we went.

We started the race and were feeling great up until about about mile 18 and we completely hit the infamous "wall." By this time, we had made a steady climb up numerous hills, miles of rocky, dirt roads and climbed over 2,000 feet in elevation...quite a task if you ask me. At mile 18 there was the steepest hill of the entire marathon (a horrible place for a hill) that we had to climb. I felt like I was in San Francisco by the look of the hill, but we made it, finally. Miles 20-26 were really hard, mentally and physically. We had heard that the real marathon begins at mile 20 and boy, was that the truth!

Although we completed the marathon, we finished over an hour longer than we had planned. I felt so accomplished, but at the same time felt disappointed because I had my sights set on finishing in a certain amount of time and that didn't happen. So, we plan to run the Salt Lake City Marathon in April to redeem ourselves! Call me crazy, but I'm really excited!

Running to the finish line!

Crossing the finish line

Mmmmmm, food

Thanks Karen, Mom & Dad for supporting us!

Yay...we can finally check it off the 'to-do' list

Bend It Like Brady?

Lately, Brady has taken up soccer. Yes, soccer. My baseball-playing, golf-junkie husband is now an avid soccer lover. He was never into soccer growing up and never even had a desire to play it, but that has all changed. He now plays once a week with all of his friends and absolutely loves it! He looks forward to it every week. He has purchased a couple soccer jerseys from various thrift stores, bought new cleats and even sports a mustache....totally appropriate. I mean, why not, right? Nice soccer uniform

Weddings!

Brady and I have enjoyed going to weddings lately. I think it's always fun to go to weddings and see how in love people are! Here are some pictures of the wedding happenings as of late.

Ahhh, how I love the temple!

Playing with Bevin outside the temple in her cute dress. Brady, me and Missy watched Bevin, Mckall, Ava and Devery while they attended Ashley Moutsos' wedding. It made for a great time. After the wedding, we went to eat at Mi La Cai...one of my favorite places EVER! At Marcie's wedding

Love my girls!

Kenz-A-Bee

The beautiful bride- Marcie Johnson

Happy Father's Day

For Father's Day (this post is a little late) Gina, Alesha, Mindy and I surprised our husbands with a weekend golf getaway to Mesquite; Brady was so excited! He loves to golf and I was happy to be able to surprise him with this. They drove to Mesquite Friday after work and golfed Friday night in St. George and all day Saturday in the 108* heat! He finally came home on Sunday and had a really good time. It was the longest we'd been apart from each other and it was crazy how much I missed him--even though it was only 2 nights! Here are a few of the pics that Brady took... The boys

Even though Brady isn't a father yet, it was fun for him to celebrate Father's Day with the boys.

California Dreamin'

We took a road trip to California last month to go to the U.S. Open and decided to make a week long trip of it. We started by going to two areas that were in Brady's mission, which was really fun. I enjoyed meeting some of the people that Brady spent time with while he was in California. This is a picture of us after we finally made it to our hotel room after hours of driving.

Hiking

Besides being with me, this is Brady's favorite place to be :)

Muir Woods National Monument was really beautiful and fun. I've never seen so many gigantic trees in my life!

Don't ask. He's faking it.

The Golden Gate Bridge was amazing! I was nervous just walking on it because I'm so afraid of heights, but was really cool. Here Brady is trying to scare me by putting his feet on the railing...it worked.

The Oakland Temple is amazing. So beautiful!

Brady was doing this...golf

While I was doing this...freezing!

Time out for a pic

We decided to go to a baseball game (Giants vs. Orioles), my first ever MLB game, and I had so much fun. It was fun to sit and enjoy the game, look out onto the ocean and eat a hot dog and peanuts. Great night!

Great field

This is us on the shuttle to to the U.S. Open. We are trying to do our excited faces if you can't tell. I knew it would be fun, but I had a lot more fun than I had anticipated. I for sure want to go again sometime in the future.

This is at the entrance of the Open

Also at the entrance

Brady signed up for a golf lesson (like he needs it) from a golf pro. It was cool because they hooked him up to a computer with sensors and critiqued his swing and gave him some pointers. I could have signed up, but would have felt really stupid because there were people standing around watching. I could have used the lesson, but oh well!

It was awesome seeing Tiger Woods. He and Phil Mickelson just have this aura about them. It was really cool to see both of them!

Pebble Beach is so pretty. I was amazed at how beautiful the course is with the bright blue ocean next to it. And we had perfect weather which was awesome!

We had such a great time in California and I can't wait to go back sometime soon. It was alot of fun to spend all day, every day, with Brady. Life gets busy with work and school and other constraints, so it was great to take a whole week off to spend time with just each other. :)