SLC 5K Race Day

We did it! Gary, Ellen, and I ran the Salt Lake City 5K today. We woke up in the early wee hours this morning to be on time for the 7:30am start time. We met up with Brigitte, Roxanne, Charie, and the lovely Davis sisters (Charie and Rox’s Mom and Aunts) just in time to have a quick chat and good luck pep talk and then it was off to the races. Ellie was all decked out in the trusty B.O.B jogging stroller. She was a little unsure about being in a crowd of people and the crowded shuttle ride to the start line was uncomfortable for us all to say the least. But once we got going and found our pace she seemed to enjoy the ride. She was talking our ears off the whole way. I’ve never participated in a organized sporting event like that and I must say I really enjoyed myself. I think the energy of the crowd helped give me and extra boost because I felt great the whole run no stopping necessary except once to help Ellie get the bunches out of her jacket. We finished just under 40 minutes. I think we did pretty well considering our lack of discipline on the training, pushing a stroller, and having to start in the way back thus causing a few traffic jams and hang ups.

The best part of the whole event was having my husband and baby by my side and reuniting with some good friends. Gary was a good sport all day. He is not a fan of big crowds and he dealt with it well all day. Gary and Roxanne’s husband Ryan were also very good to patiently wait for us and watch over the kiddos while all the ladies gabbed and laughed about the good old times we shared in the various houses we rented in college together. I had not seen Charie since our wedding and I can’t remember the last time Roxanne and I got together. All the ladies got together the afternoon before race day for some catching up. Another good friend Sara came down to join us for dinner. With a group of 9 adults and 7 children ( 4 months, 8 months, 1 yr old twins, another 1 yr old, 2 yr old, and a 4 yr old I think I have it right?). It was a symphony of baby cries, grunts, screams, coos, and gabbing ladies. CRaZy to say the least but oh so much fun. I have truly missed having these ladies in my life and am so grateful that we have rekindled our friendships through our blogs. So glad I got to talk, laugh, run, and just be with you all the last two days. Thank you and I love you girls!

Tulip Festival Utah Style

Grandma McKenney treated Ellie and I to a girls get-a-way this weekend. We met up on Friday for some shopping of course we hit two malls and found Mom a great dress that looked lovely on her for baby Tamia’s blessing day. I picked up a few goodies from the Body Shop and some new bath towels. So excited to have nice new fluffy bath towels. Anyway after the shopping extravaganza we headed to Thanks Giving Point where Mom had booked us a room at the Marriot close by. Once Ellie got settled in and asleep we pampered ourselves with foot soaks and facials. Ahhh just what I needed. Oh and we had some dessert to indulge from our lunch at the Cheesecake Factory. Yummy.

The next morning we ventured over to the Thanksgiving Point Tulip Festival. Unfortunately due to the cold weather around these parts the Tulips and such had not peaked yet, but there were a few brave flowers making a showing and it was a beautiful day. Perfect for a stroll around the gardens and a nice lunch on the patio. Ellie received many compliments on her cute yellow sweater. I must say she did look adorable like our own little baby chic. She seemed very content strolling around looking at the flower and buds ready to make their Spring time showing. I think we may have to make a trip back in a week or two so we can see the gardens in their full glory.

Now to see what it’s like to experience a real Tulip Festival go to my sister’s Blog where she has posted about their travels last weekend to Amsterdam.

Sledneckertons

Gary here. I wanted to share a clip from last night on the snowmobile. It’s not me riding, it’s WasatchSpeedGoat Scott Mason…a good friend of ours up here in TL. I never thought I would own a snowmobile, but I’m glad I had one up here for this epic winter. If I didn’t own the sled, it would be like living on the beach with good surf and not owning a surf board.

Since we’re so far away from Alta now we don’t get over too often these days. A guy I know came up to me a few weeks ago and said, “Dude, where have you been all winter? It’s been sick!” I paused for a second, then responded “I’ve been 15 miles up in the Uintas in 15 feet of untracked POWDER, where have you been!?” Was the perfect comeback. So I did get my powder this winter one way or another 🙂 And there’s definitely something to be said about throwing around a 500lb machine, in deep snow, at 10,000′ above sea level. Oh and in my case, digging out the thing every 20 minutes! ..so I actually stayed in pretty good shape.

Last Night Uinta National Forest – April 9th and BOTTOMLESS POW

[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=3UYKqKvd5go[/youtube]

Getting Off the Fence

Ok, I have an emotional grip now I think. Gary and I have decided to mix things up a bit and relocate ourselves in the Ithaca, NY area for a while. We made the decision way back in January when we were on the long drive home from our visit over the holidays. Believe me it was discussed thoroughly as we had hours to spend on the topic while watching the yellow stripes pass by. I felt good about it for a while but I will admit that once I got home I found myself getting back up on the fence and avoiding the topic. I was finding that for every good reason to go to NY there was and equally good and opposite reason to stay. Family and friends being the best example of this. My heart aches when I approach the subject with my Mom or when our friends say how much they will miss us. Then I hear the excitement in Gary’s parents voices when we talk about the real estate we have been looking at and I get goose bumps over the prospects of being close to his family and discovering a new place. (emotional grip is lost as I have a big lump in my throat now) So we had another long talk the other night and we realized that we should do this. We are in a unique situation with Gary’s job (he works from home) and we should be taking advantage of the freedom it allows us to choose where we want to be and we should be doing it while Ellie is young. So who knows maybe in another three years I will be writing about our next big move to the coast of Oregon or the mountains of Montana or the beaches of the Great Lakes. The future is wide open…

THPPPT…

…a conversation with Ellie.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t74aU2L3nzM[/youtube]