The Relativness of it All

Quck catch up since I last posted:

I ran for 50 minutes, and did not count laps, with my friend on the indoor track on Saturday. Phew, that's hard!

Sunday, we had a late start and only got up to Snowbasin with enough time to do 2 runs on the bunny hill with the kids. It was good, though. A nice little trip.

Monday I went to spin class, wahoo!!

Tuesday the air was all cleared up and it was sunny and beautiful so I went for a run outside in the afternoon! It was so great. Running outside totally makes my day! (especially when I can finish with at least a 10 min/mile pace!)

Wednesday I took a rest day and actually went to the doctor because I've been having a lot of stomach aches lately, usually after I eat. Basically, he didn't know what was going on, but he doesn't think it's anything serious. Maybe I'm sick or maybe my stomach is just irritated. Who knows. That's why I LOVE going to the doctor. For the most part I feel fine, and if I do get a bad stomach ache, it usually goes away in a few hours so I haven't missed too many workouts.

It did make me break my record for working out every day of the year so far though! Darn it!

Thursday I had a nice slushy walk to the gym where I ran on the track for 2 miles (yes, I actually counted this time) then jumped on the treadmill for the last mile. I was holding on for dear life, but I managed to do it in 9:25! I did the 3 total miles in just about exactly 30 minutes, and that was counting a few water breaks.

After taking the kids to school, I took George to the daycare and got in a pretty good swim! I need to fit swimming in more, I always love it! I made up my own workout this time and it kind of went 3, 2 1, 3, 2, 1, 3, 2, 1.

I did my first 100 in 1:27 which would have made me ecstatic last year, but since then I've done a 1:25 so I found myself thinking, "oh man, only 1:27." It's crazy how relative a good time is!

Before my next 100, I did 200 yards really easy so I was nice and rested. Then I happened to push off when the guy next to me was half-way down his lane so of course I told myself that I had to pass him, which I did on the way back on the first lap! I think that helped me a LOT with pushing myself. I finished that one in 1:25!! YAY!!

I wanted to just lay down on the deck after that, I felt like I was going to die, but for some reason I thought I should try it again when I wasn't so rested so I did another one.

This time I finished in 1:30. Booo!

Hahaha, 1:30 used to be amazing for me!

It just made me think about how we need to be really careful when we look at our speed. I really try not to compare myself to people who are faster than me. They are in a totally different class. But, I think compared to your average person, I'm probably a pretty decent swimmer. Like I'm sure some of you are thinking, "Yeah, 1:25, that's OK." Some of you are probably thinking, "Wow, 1:25? That's amazing!" (I flatter myself) And I know to some of you 1:25 means absolutely nothing! It's so funny.

So my point is, that the only person you should really compare your times to is yourself. And even then you have to be careful because you're not always going to have the same fitness in everything all the time. Someone once told me something like, "You're not going to get faster every single time you do something. Imagine how fast people would be if that happened!"

That's my little tip for the day. :)

Today is the last day of the month and I made it to spin class even though I did not want to when I first woke up! I actually had to drive because it took me so long to get out of bed and I didn't want to be late. Of course, I loved it once I got there, and it was a great workout.

As it is the last day of the month, I thought I'd post my training log for you. (If you click on it, it gets bigger) I'm sure I missed a few things, but you get the picture. The ones that say "other" are usually Nike Training Club, a walk or snowboarding. I was so close to getting at least 15 minutes of some kind of workout in every day this month!

Here we go February!

George's Birthday and More!

Oh man, I'm falling behind again! It's really hard to get back into the habit of writing on here more frequently. We had a pretty packed weekend so I'll just do a quick photo update.

Thursday was George's 3rd birthday!! I love this little boy so much! He is just so great and I'm so grateful to have him!

I took him to Toys R Us to pick out some dinosaurs to put on his cake and also so he could have something fun on his birthday. He also got to go on a boat ride with Tigger while we were there!

Later I went to the eye doctor and had to get my eyes dilated! I don't think I've ever done that before so it was kind of weird! Plus I freaked the kids out with my black eyes! Ahhh!

Friday afternoon I got to run outside with my new running friend! It was so great to run outside even though the air was starting to get bad and we knew it would probably be the last time for a while. It is really bad now. Sad face. But we ran 5 miles in 50 minutes and it was awesome and my Achilles felt good the whole time. No problems at all! So that made my day.

Friday night, Pete and I went to Nitro Circus Live!

It was my Christmas present to Pete and it was pretty much the craziest thing I've ever seen! They have a movie on Netflix you can check out if you like seeing people do amazing tricks (and crashing a lot) on everything from motor bikes (We saw someone do a double back flip which, I guess, is a really rare occurrence) to coolers (you heard my right) getting pushed down a big ramp! It was a lot of fun.

Saturday I spent the morning working on George's cake, but I did squeeze in some Nike Training Club workouts (30 minutes total and it about killed me!).

We had his party with my family in Heber that afternoon where we swam, ate tacos, opened presents and had cake. I think George had a pretty good time.

Afterwards, we rushed home to have another fun little party with some friends after the kids were in bed. Haha

Sunday everyone was feeling tired and not up to snowboarding, but I felt like I would go insane if I didn't get my weekly mountain fix so we just headed up Big Cottonwood Canyon and went for an easy little hike. Like seriously easy, maybe half a mile on a hard packed road. But the kids mostly just had a blast playing in the snow and I got to take in the beauty all around me so everyone was happy.

Monday I was feeling stressed in the morning so I ended up skipping spin class, but I did go in later and swim. Then I took the kids to the climbing gym since they were out of school for MLK Day. This is the first time I've taken them by myself and I was kind of sad not to get to climb (since I had no one to belay me), but it was also really fun to just have one on one time with each of them as they took their turns and the others ran off to play with Geroge. I call it a win!

Tuesday I got up kind of early, with just enough time for a 15 minute run. I had planned on going to Zumba later, but I ended up having a stomach ache which made Zumba not sound quite as fun so I sat and read my book instead.

Today I got to go with Mindy and all the 6-12 graders on a field trip to Hale Center Theater to see The Foreigner. That was a lot of fun and I really liked the play, it was funny and had a good story.

In the afternoon I dropped the car off at the shop (again) and Elle came with me so we got to walk the mile home together. That was nice. Ah to be 7 again! (Ok, not really, but I do admire her imagination and enthusiasm for life, I hope she keeps that!)

My Achilles is still feeling really good! Yay!

Decisions, decisions...

My doctor's orders after this last stress test were to basically do the same thing as last week, but with a day to rest in between my 50 minute run and snowboarding. So I decided I would do 30 minutes on Tuesday and 50 on Friday.

Yesterday was the 30 minute day, and I got up bright (er, dark) and early and got it done on the track at the gym. It was hard, but I feel like it wasn't as hard as that first half hour run! That's a good sign. My Achilles felt good the whole time and it felt good afterwards too. So far so good!

Then I decided to stick more to my doctor's plan and skip Zumba this week. Instead, I went home and spent a ridiculous amount of time on my nails. It seems crazy to do it, but if I don't put shellac on them, they break so badly and it drives me crazy! It doesn't hurt that they look pretty this way too. I was pretty happy with how they turned out! Sparkle!! 

I thought about going to ballet in the evening, but Pete ended up not getting home in time. It was probably better that way anyway. I need to ease into all this! On the way home from picking Mindy up from her ballet classes, I said, "Maybe I'll just forget about ballet." She was so shocked and said, "WHAT!? How could you even say such a thing?!" That made me so happy that she just loves it so much! I will probably keep going, I just need to make sure I can do this running thing right now.


Today was my nice sleep in Wednesday! I actually slept in a little too much and we had a little bit of a hurried morning, but it was ok. I reminded myself that every moment matters, and I think that really helps me stay nice and positive.

After the kids were in school, I made a smoothie for Pete and I and tried out putting some egg whites in it, since I had some handy, along with our usual stuff. It was really good and creamy. I liked it, but I don't recommend drinking it before a workout.

I did the Paula Radcliff and the Core Crunch Nike Training Club workouts (15 minutes each) and I felt kind of sick afterwards. I hadn't really planned on that workout, but just did it because I had the time. I'm usually better about planning my meals around workouts. Oh well, live and learn. I was fine after a little while. I also did my foot workouts that my PT gave me a while back while George played on my phone.

In the afternoon, I dropped the car off for an oil change a mile away from my house, and walked home with George in the stroller. Then walked back a couple hours later to pick it up, so I got 2 miles total of walking done. It's a good thing too because we didn't end up getting to go swimming in the evening like I had planned. The kids were pretty disappointed, and excited to go next time when I don't have a car in the shop taking up all our time.

Now I've been sitting here for the last hour or two, trying to decide what half marathon to do instead of spending nearly $100 on the Salt Lake City Half Marathon. It's just so expensive, I have a hard time paying that when I could do 2 half marathons or a tri for that price! I think I've decided on the Striders Winter Race Series Half Marathon on April 5th. It's the first half of the Ogden Marathon, and I've heard a lot of good things about it. Plus it's almost half the price of the SLC one. We'll see. I hate making decisions!! (I'd love to hear your thoughts if you've done either race!)

Stress Test & Snowboarding

Saturday was my doctor prescribed long run of 4-5 miles, which was to be a stress test for my achillies. Basically to see if it could handle it. FUN!

I was really happy to have a friend that wanted to run with me! Even though it was pretty warm outside, there were still a lot of really icy spots so we decided to meet at the gym and run on their indoor track. 

Neither of us had run much in the past few months so we were both a bit nervous about my goal to run for 50 minutes! But we just walked a couple laps then started running. I wore my Garmin to keep track of time and laps, but I kept forgetting to hit the lap button because we were so absorbed in our conversation! After about a mile I just gave up on keeping track of exactly how far we went. 

At about halfway, we stopped and walked for a few minutes, but we didn't give up! It was so nice having someone there to help me get through this run. Even though 50 minutes used to be a pretty normal length run for me, it was really hard on Saturday! It was also fun to have this older couple walking on the track with us who would say something encouraging every time we went past!

We stopped and walked one more time before the end, but we finished out by picking up our pace so that we really felt like we were going to die by the end! When we had one minute left, I said "One more lap!" But when we got there I said, "15 more seconds!" and she said, "You lied to me!" Haha, oops! But we did it! I hope I didn't scare her off! :)

Even though it was hard, it felt really good to do that run! And my Achilles felt good the whole time, yay!!  But later that day it did start to kind of have this warm, tingly feeling. I don't know if I would even call it pain because it was so slight, but it was just not at 100%. Still, I was able to do calf raises, stretch it and walk around barefoot without it hurting, so I figured it would be ok for me to go snowboarding on Sunday!

This time we put all the kids in lessons. The older kids just took off! George had a hard time leaving me at first, but once he got to know his teacher a little bit he seemed fine. His teacher was really awesome and it looked like George was having a fun time! He kept having George give him high-fives then he would pretend it knocked him over and stuff like that, which I'm sure George loved! There are also some dinosaurs that George got to "feed" out on the Riglet Park that they take the little kids on, and some poles that he would have George grab as he went by. He seemed to do a really good job of keeping him interested and making sure he had fun.

Once we knew George was having fun, Pete and I headed up and had time to do 2 runs by ourselves! We haven't been able to do that yet this year so it was really, really good. I am not in good snowboarding shape yet, and at the end of each run, my legs would be screaming at me! But it was so beautiful and I forgot how awesome snowboarding is! We both had a really good day with no bad crashes. We just carved it up, zooming in out and of trees and going up the sides. It was so much fun! It is so important to continue to do fun things with your spouse! Days like this, we can just feel our relationship getting stronger.

When we picked the kids up, they were all happy. George spent the second hour in the daycare and they also fed him so he was in a good mood. Mindy got to go down the bunny hill 5 times, and Ethan and Elle did 3 runs. They all felt like they understand how to do it better and felt good about the day. Ethan was a little disappointed because at one point in between runs, we saw Elle coming down, looking awesome, so we cheered for her, but we didn't cheer for him because we didn't see him. We did see him coming down while we were going up in the Gondola our first time up, though, and he looked really good as well. I'm so excited for when we can all just go up together and do the whole mountain! 

I iced my ankle when we got home because it was feeling a little bit more of that weird feeling from the day before, but still it wasn't quite painful, if that makes sense. After I iced it, though, it seemed to be worse so I was feeling a bit discouraged after that. I slept in compression socks, and it feels really good today. I would say it's still not 100%, though. It's really hard to describe, but I called my doctor today, and left a message with his receptionist, trying to tell him all that. Hopefully it's ok. I will let you know when I hear back from him...

Today, I had planned on going to spin class, but after George getting up at midnight, then again at 4am, I first changed my alarm from 5 to 5:30. Then when it got to that, I decided I needed to take the morning off and sleep until 7. Who knows if that was the right decision, it's hard to trust yourself at 5:30 in the morning! But, I went in later and had a nice swim so I think it will be ok. I got 2250 yards in before it was time to get George out of the daycare and pick the kids up from school. I did a modified version of the workout that was left on the board from Masters this morning:

400 swim

200 kick

5 x (200 pull with :20 rest, 50 sprint) 

25, 50, 75, 75, 50, 25 kick

100 breast/back

Then I stretched and did some calf raises on the stairs in the water which is my new thing to do every time I'm there. It felt good today so I don't know what's up with my ankle... 

Stress tests are so stressful.

Remembering Injuries, Dressing for the Weather, and Spin Bikes

This morning I was awake for almost half an hour before I realized that my Achilles was still feeling good! It's funny because, for like a week after it started feeling better, I would be happily surprised every time I got up that it didn't hurt! And now it's just no big thing. It's crazy how fast we forget things like that! I really want to make sure and remember how blessed I am to be healthy and able to run, and how hard it was when I couldn't. How can we remember these things? I guess I must add that to the list of things to work on. :)

I got a comment yesterday about how cold it must be walking over to the gym in the morning. 

Actually it's not too bad because I bundle up really well! 

In fact, last time I went in, the guy at the front desk said, "Good girl, a winter coat!" He said he can't believe what he sees people wearing into the gym in this weather. He says he sees people in sandals and people coming in with even just in their swimsuits! It's freezing outside, why would you do that to yourself!? 

There is an expression: "There's no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing."

That is so true, and I have learned that life is so much more enjoyable when you dress appropriately for the weather! 

Here's what I wear when I walk to the gym:

I also wear pants over my shorts, and I have been just wearing my running shoes which has been ok. Since today I knew I was going to wear my cycling shoes, I just put those into a backpack with my towel and water bottle, and wore my nice cozy boots. The backpack also helped keep my hands a little warmer because they weren't carrying anything.

By the time I got to the gym this morning, I was feeling nice and toasty!

Spin class was good, it was taught by Ellen who is new to me. It was a hard class. She did have us do some arms for about 5 minutes in the middle, but we stayed on the bike so I didn't feel silly for wearing my bike shoes like the first class I tried here. Yay! I did have a hard time with the fit of my bike today. I could not loosen the handle bars to move them farther forward because it was too tight, so that was kind of annoying. I didn't know if moving to another bike would be any better so I just stuck it out, but it made me wonder if it's worth it to go to spin class where your bike fit is probably never going to be perfect. 

I decided that, to me, it is because I have little to no motivation for getting on my trainer and working out by myself. It's just easier and more fun for me to go to the gym and take these spin classes. I will have plenty of time before my race to ride my bike with the awesome fit when it gets warmer and lighter outside and the roads are clear. 

What do you guys think?

These Are The Moments

Yesterday my dotor's office called and told me I that I was ready to test my achillies out more and try a 2-3 mile run that day, and a 4-5 mile run this weekend! WHAT!? I was so excited when I heard that! (Actually, at first he told me to do 7-8 miles this weekend, and I was like, "Are you sure?" Turns out he thought I was doing a much sooner half marathon so after I corrected that, he toned it down a bit.) 

BUT, I had already decided that yesterday was going to kind of be my rest day and that I would just go swimming with the kids so I resisted the urge to go out and run in the snowstorm.

Actually, to tell you the truth, even though I remember how much I loved my last snowstorm run, I couldn't get very excited about doing that. So I just decided to run the next day and went out and shoveled snow instead. 

I'm kind of weird because I actually like shoveling snow...

I took the kids to the pool in the evening, and had them all swim laps before they could go play. Yeah, I'm such a cool mom. :) Even my daughter's friend came with us and got in on the fun!

They were actually excited to swim laps because that meant they were allowed to use the fins! They each did some laps with the kickboard and fins and some without. Actually, Elle (7) either had the fins or the kickboard for all of her 3 laps, but I figured that was a lot for her! Ethan did a total of 6 laps, I think, and Mindy and her friend did maybe 5. Anyway, it was fun to do my warmup with them. Then they got out and played in the kid pool while I did the rest of my workout. 

It really wasn't a huge workout. Durring one of my sprints, I remember just having such a hard time breating while I watched my 10 second rest go by on the clock. I realized that I haven't swam since before I got sick on Chirstmas, so I wasn't too hard on myself. I don't know if I'm all the way better, I still have the occasional cough. Anyway, I got maybe 1200 yards in, then it was time to get out and get George from the daycare.

This morning I almost slept in because I told myself I could just go later. But then I remembered that I got to run 3 miles today which is something I haven't done in 2 months, and something I've been dying to do! So I got up! Yes, victory! :) 

I made it to the gym by about 6:30 which gave me just enough time to run for half an hour. That is between 2.5 and 3 miles for me so I figured it would be perfect per doctor's orders. I ran on the indoor track and didn't want to count laps so I just went for time, and it was really hard! I had a hard time breathing again in the first 10 minutes or so, then it got better, but I never really felt comfortable the whole run. I even doubted whether I'd be able to do it or not, but I just kept going and was able to finish out my 30 minutes! Wahoo! Then I hurried and walked home, and it was still pretty dark.

I've really been enjoying walking to and from the gym, it gives me a nice 5 minutes to warm up and cool down, and also an extra few minutes to myself to think before I begin the chaos of the day.

My achillis felt good during my run, though I was totally nervous about it, and it still feels good! Keep your fingers crossed for me that it will still feel good in the morning!

When I got home, Mindy was making a smoothie, and Ethan and Elle were playing with George. They were all dressed and ready for school and I just felt like my heart would burst because my life is just so great! I really enjoyed this morning, and it made me think about how the in-between moments like when you're just getting ready for school or whatever, are still importatant. Those moments are still part of our lives and we need to make the most of every single moment! We've sure had our share of stressful, hurried mornings when we're going to be late and everyone's fighting, George is crying, and I'm yelling at the kids to hurry, but I'm going to try to make every morning be more like this one!

I also got to shovel some more snow later on today! Yay snow!

Walking in the Dark

Yesterday was the first day of the first week of the new year, and I started it off great! I got up at 5:30 and walked the half mile to the gym in the dark. And in 17 degrees. Brr, it was cold! 

I kind of made a little mini resolution that I will walk to the gym and the store as much as possible because I've gotten really lazy and have just been driving the half mile to the gym and the, ehem, one block to the store every time. I usually have an excuse, but I've decided to be a little less liberal with my excuses. If I can walk without too much trouble (like if I plan on getting too many groceries, or I have the kids with me and am in a hurry, I can take the car. Things like that.), then I will walk.

So yesterday I had no reason not to walk other than it being dark.  It's kind of hard, when you look outside and it's just black, to want to go out into it! But it acutally always ends up being just fine. The 2 streets that I walk on to get to the gym are both very well lit and there are a lot of houses so that makes me feel pretty safe. It's so cliche to say this, but sometimes you have to take that first step into the darkness before you're able to see. 

Behold, my rec center! I don't know what it is, but it just makes me feel good to walk there. It's like one more accomplishment for the day. Yay!

I did spin class and we had a brand new instructor from Florida named Amy who lead a really challanging class where I was able to get nice and sweaty! Oh yeah! My day was great from there on out. George seemed to be extra sweet, I got the house clean, and the kids even let me take a nap!

In the evening, I went to ballet. I have been taking the "Truly Beginning Ballet" class. I decided, since it's a new year, that I would now move up to the "Beginning Ballet" class, and it's quite a bit harder! It was a really good workout, but I didn't feel like I wanted to cry out of frustration like I did last time I took that class so I must be improving, right?!

Today I let myself sleep in, I mean I don't need to get too crazy, right?! :) I just knew that I would be able to go to the gym later and take George to the daycare, which he likes to go to, so I figured that would be ok. 

I happened to get to the gym at the same time as a friend who was taking her little girl to the daycare for the first time. I tried to get George to befriend her little girl, but he got shy. :) Anyway, I ended up getting to do my little 10 minute run - 5 minute walk with her which was really fun to get to talk to her and get to know her better. I'm so excited to have found a new gym buddy! (I hope I don't scare her off!)

After I finished running, she went and lifted weights and I went to the second half of the Zumba/Ripped class that I used to LOVE to go too. And, yep, I still love it! It was so fun and a great workout. I was actually relieved I only went to half of it. I need to work back up to the whole thing!

Later today, Goerge came up to me and said, "This has my name on it." 

Oh man, what a proud mom I was in that moment!! :) I mean, someone must have told him that or he just saw the G, which he thinks is his name, but still, it was pretty awesome!

He would not hold still for a picture so you get a cute, blurry one.

Have a great night, and remember, don't be afraid of the dark! :)

Snowboarding and Run #2 for 2014

Today was another georgous day! We loaded the kids and their gear up and headed to Snowbasin for the first time in 3 weeks since we've been sick. Pete is actually still not recovered, but he decided he'd just hang out with George today so it would be ok. I took the 3 older kids up the bunny hill. Mindy took off right away and we didn't see her again until half-way down when she caught back up to us after getting on the lift herself once she got to the bottom! Yay Mindy!

Elle had a really hard time and I guess she fell on her face while she was ahead of me and Ethan. She didn't seem to be hurt too badly, but she was really mad and just wanted to go home. She ended up taking her board off and walking most the way down! Arg! She hung out with Pete, Mindy and George at the bottom while Ethan and I went up for one more run. I was excited that he even wanted to go again because he started off feeling frustrated too, but then seemed to catch on and said he wanted to go right back up.

Here's one of Ethan's really awesome moments with the beautiful mountains behind him. He had a lot of fall down and get mad moments too. He actually took his snowboard off and threw it once. Ah! But I'm hoping the good moments will start to out number the bad ones more and more as we keep practicing. He does seem like he's starting to get it, though.

Pete took George over to the little kid park where they have a little magic carpet and they did that 4 or 5 times, and Pete said he was quite the trooper!

So I got 2 runs in on the bunny hill, which was fun for me and better than nothing. I love just being out there! I am excited to go up and get some more real runs in! Maybe after it snows again.

When we got home, I decided to take my new running outfit out for a spin. I have new shoes, a new soft, warm long sleeve shirt and a cute new vest that matches my shoes! I love them all! I went for a 5 minute walk, 10 minute run, 5 minute walk, just like on Friday. This one was outside, though, so it was infinately better, even with a half-way icy trail where I had to be extra careful! My achillies has still been feeling great and I didn't have any problems on this run either!

 Oh and some old people sunglasses. :)

After my run I did a 15 minute Nike Training Club workout. This one is a reward workout by Paula Radliff and appartuntly "it's the only workout you need" to "become a stronger and more efficient runner. "

I think they might be exagerating a bit, but it is a really good, quick workout so I'm hoping it does help me!

The Ice Castles of Midway

First of all, I want to thank everyone for their sweet comments  and messages you sent me about yesterday's post. I hope it didn't sound like I don't feel like I have any friends, because that wasn't what I meant by it. I really do have so many wonderful friends, and I'm so grateful for all of you!! Thanks for making me feel loved. :)

Today was such a beautiful day! We woke up to just enough snow to make it all white and pretty outside. The sky was blue with a nice warm sun when Pete and I went out to shovel our driveway. It was so nice to just be outside. We had neglected our driveway since before Christmas because we got sick and have been pretty much just trying to survive for the past few weeks so it was good to get out and get that cleared out a little today. 

I was also happy to let that be my workout for the day since I was so sore from spin class yesterday! But, I'm happy to report that my Achilles still feels really, really good after my test run yesterday! Yay!

In the afternoon we drove up to Midway which is where I'm from, and where my Dad still lives. We picked my dad up and went over to the Ice Castles. These are really cool man made formations, that with a little money, you can go walk around in. There were a ton of people there and a pretty long line to wait in before we could go in, but it was still cool to see.

It was hard to get good lighting for a picture, but it was really pretty! It was really big with a bunch of different little hallways and rooms to go in. There was also a few waterfalls and a thrown which I didn't get a picture of because everyone was freezing and ready to go home by the time we got to them.

Here we are at the beginning while everyone was still relatively warm and happy. We forgot George's hat so we had to improvise with a scarf.

Elle also forgot to bring a coat so she's wearing one of my dad's. It didn't bother her, though, she's cute no matter what she wears.

Mindy's boots were not waterproof and her poor feet were freezing by the end! If you decide to go see this cool attraction, make sure to wear all your warmest snow clothes, boots and gloves!! I really didn't know what to expect when we headed out so we weren't as prepared as we should have been!

Poor George was crying about his hands being cold at the end so we had to make a hasty retreat to my dad's house for some hot chocolate, and then a soak in the hot tub!

Then we went to a crazy busy Mexican restaurant (actually 2 since we thought our first pick, Tarahumara, was too busy so we went to Tony's Tacos instead which was just as bad!) for dinner where everyone thought they would die before we got food! Haha, I guess we weren't the only ones who thought today was the perfect day for some ice castles and Mexican food in Midway! It was a fun day, though!

One Year Out and Looking Ahead

One of my New Year's Resolutions is to start keeping a better record of my life again. I could write in a journal, but it's really just easier for me to write on my blog, so here I am!

I didn't post very much in 2013 because Pete and I made the very difficult decision to leave the Mormon Church which we had both been part of our entire lives, and it was hard for me to think about anything else. Well, it still is, actually.

We found out some really terrible truths about the history and foundation of the church, that are kept quite hidden from the members. In fact, the church discourages reading anything about the them from outside sources so it's impossible to find this information out, even though there's a lot out there, unless you go looking for it against the "council" of the church which is something a good Mormon girl like me would never do.

To put it simply, after finding out some of the things Joseph Smith did, I could no longer believe he was a prophet, which means none of the other stuff matters. We could not continue teaching our kids things that we now know are lies, so we stopped going. It was the hardest thing I've ever done in my life. To those of you who are not members of the church, to hear that it's all made up is probably not much of a surprise, but it was quite a shock to me. It was something I had never allowed myself to think. I went to church pretty much every single Sunday of my life, and it consumed almost every thought I ever had. I now felt like my whole world was crashing down and that I could not possibly go on without this church that I have loved and been thankful for every single day of my life.

Well, it has been a year and we have survived so far! I'd say we've more than just survived, though. It has been so wonderful to finally be able to make our own decision about what we want to eat, drink, wear, do with our time and how to spend our money. It is crazy to think about just how much the church controlled every aspect of our lives! And while it was scary to not have anyone telling us what to do anymore, it is also very liberating! I've thought more this year than I have my entire life!

We have turned our Sundays into days we spend with our family in the mountains, and we have loved that so much! Now, instead of dreading Sunday, it is our favorite day of the week, and each week I feel our family growing closer together. Pete and I have grown so much closer this year as well, spending countless nights talking through all this new information, and I would never go back.

I could go on and on, but I won't. If you'd like to hear more about my journey out of the church, please let me know. I do want to encourage you to go find out the truth, even though it's very painful, but I will try not to post too much more about it unless people want me to since it's a very touchy subject. Please don't feel bad if you didn't know about our leaving, it's a hard thing to bring up so please consider this my official announcement.

Anyway, the reason I bring this up is that when I stopped going to church, I lost pretty much my whole social structure and that was really, really hard. I loved going to church and seeing my friends there. I still have some wonderful friends from church, and I really appreciate them being so understanding and willing to still be my friends, but the truth is that we just don't have that connection every week anymore so I needed to find other places to fill that void. I have started trying to build up my social structure this past year, and have a goal to keep working on that in these ways:

1. Ballet

I have been taking ballet classes, and had the opportunity to perform in The Nutcracker with my girls last month! That was so wonderful! I've made a bunch of friends from ballet classes and from talking to other parents there, and am so grateful for that! I will continue taking ballet, and possibly take part in the spring performance as well. I haven't decided if I want to commit to that yet, or not though. :)

2. Fitness Classes

I've decided to take advantage of all the classes at my gym that I can. I found out last night that they have spin classes 3 mornings a week so I went and tried one out today! It was fantastic! I loved it, it felt so good to be working hard with other people again! I didn't think we had good spin classes at my gym so I am super excited to start going to these ones and any other ones I can fit in. I am going to be sore tomorrow, though! It's been WAY too long!

3. Running Groups

I went and saw this amazing doctor just before Christmas and he gave me some Cortisone pills, which worked like magic for my poor Achilles Tendon, and told me to start planning some races!!  (Yeah, I really like him.) Luckily my Achillies Tendon was just really inflamed and we just had to get rid of that before I could start running again. And I had to get new shoes with more support. He told me I could probably do the Salt Lake City Half Marathon in April, and I had been thinking about doing that one anyway if I could, so that's the plan now! Today I had permission to try out running. He said I could walk for 5 minutes, run for 10, then walk for 5 again and tell him how it goes. I did that after spin class and felt amazing! Hopefully it will still feel amazing tomorrow morning, then I should be good to go! The Salt Lake Running Company has a training group specifically for this half marathon so I want to join that to help me get back on track and I will hopefully make some new friends and change up my long runs while I'm at it! They start training in 3 weeks, so right now my goal is to just work back up to 3 miles which will be their first long run.

On top of these things goals, I plan to go snowboarding at least every Sunday with the kids while there's snow, and climbing when there's not. LOVE!

After the half marathon, I will kick into full-on half ironman training mode with my focus on The Ogden Half Ironman in September! It should be a fun challenge and I'm so happy to be back!

I'm so excited for the year to come and thankful for my ability to think and make decisions for myself! Follow along as I start yet another journey. :)