Do you run?

Don't worry - we'll return to your regularly scheduled pictures of kids tomorrow...

So living in park city one of the very common opening questions when you're getting to know someone for the first time is "do you run?". I imagine it's kinda like asking if someone from Minnesota plays hockey - a local's way of trying to find something in common with a new acquaintance which feels like a pretty safe bet since the answer is so often yes.

The interesting thing is how I find that it's a very hard question for me to answer. If someone asked me "do you play volleyball" I'd answer yes without any hesitation even though I haven't touched a ball in months, yet even after running several times a week now since the snow melted, I still feel like have to qualify my yes to the "do you run" question. "I'm starting to", or "yes, but slowly".

I think I hit a tipping point today though. Earlier this week I got an email at work begging for women to run the 5K for my company's team at the Salt Lake Corporate Games. Having just come off training for a longer distance I felt fine volunteering. It wasn't until after volunteering that I read the details and figured out that times would count. I had just stumbled my way into the world of having others care how fast you were - yikes.

Luckily, my teammates were awesome.

And even though the course was bonkers

(just when you thought you were done they sent you to take a lap around a soccer field, with an ultimate Frisbee game happening)

we still managed to have a good time

and finish

in good enough time to bring home the gold :o)

I had a PR by several minutes, and while I don't know yet my actual time or place I'm still really proud of the way it went. I think I'm ready to start just flat out saying yes :o)

Sign these girls up

...for the air guitar national championships. For sure a shoe in.

You plant corn you get corn

In the next episode of my daughter is exactly like me...

Adventures in Travel

While we wait for the pictures from a fantastic trip back east to trickle in, let me tell you about the time we had getting back west...

Tuesday afternoon we took off right after rest. Swung by my grandma's house to visit and be impressed as we always are by her gardens:

We then took back back back roads to the Bighamton airport (so much so that it wasn't until he saw the water tower that Alex believed me we were even heading in the direction-ally right direction).

BHG is without a doubt the smallest airport I've ever seen in the US. The flight that we were on was quite literally the only flight of the afternoon. Security wasn't even open when we got there since we were more than an hour early. We checked in without a problem, but then pretty quickly after found out the plane we needed was delayed out of DTW. There weren't really any options since again, only flight of the afternoon, so we decided to proceed as scheduled and hope for the best.

We went through security and when I picked up my backpack I noticed two sheet pizzas came through after me. Turns out BHG felt bad about the delay and the one restaurant in the airport was closed for remodeling, so they ordered the passengers pizza. It was awesome.

So was the play area stocked with toys and books, and a note that said if you weren't done with the book when the plane boarded you were welcome to take it with you, courtesy of the local library.

By the time we got to DTW our connection had of course left, so it was off to a hotel for the night. The girls were remarkably good sports about eating the "emergency" PB&Js we had packed for dinner.

After a quick bath it was time for books which quickly turned into this

followed by this

Fast forward to the this morning... We went from this

to this

in about 20 minutes. To delta's credit they did get us seats on the first available, and after some doubt the night before when on the phone with customer service ("No, it is not ok to put my two year old in a row by herself. She's two."), we ever had a whole row.

The girls were remarkably good on the plane, and even transferred back to the car reasonably well.

The rest of the day has been a little interesting and it was early to be tonight, but we expected that. I'll take the screaming and flailing that happened in the back yard over bubbles a couple of hours after being home over screaming and flailing on an airplane any day of the week :o)

Three little pigs

Found this gem on my phone while traveling this week! C tells Nana and Saba the story of the three little pigs, act 3:

A long race

So yesterday I blogged about the barn party. Turns out earlier that same day Alex and I also had a bit of an adventure - running my first 10K! It was part of the Park City trails series (so the same series as the 5K I ran in June). We were nervous but exited prior to the race...

 ...and very tired after.

 All and all it well really well. It was a super hard and hilly course and actually closer to 7 miles than a true 10K, but also really fun to run. I was really please with how I ended up.

The only thing that could have been better would have been to avoid Alex's run in with a rock around mile four. I'm hoping by the time I get home from this work trip his poor toe will be a little less black and blue :o/

Barn Party!

Last Saturday was the annual Barn party up at the ranch. Every year it's the best excuse to bring out our best western ware

Play out in the grass

Enjoy the sunshine

And then boogie down once the band started up :o)

Happy birthday america and Avery

 We had an excellent day up at the Ranch today, including a birthday party for C's friend Avery. There were of course spectacular views, along with soccer balls...

 Ladder golf

And the most fun, a pinata