Anniversary Trip - WPPI Party Hoppers

Tuesday morning, we took it easy and went to Rise and Shine, a Steak and Egg Place. It was a cute place. The waitresses were in pajamas, and look at this cute little pot of bread?! It was so amazing, slightly sweet with a little bit of cinnamon swirled in. I ordered an omelet which came with hash browns. It was really good, but I was only able to eat half of it.

After breakfast, we went shopping for a shirt for Pete and accessories for me, and I found the perfect handbag to go with my shoes! It was a pretty laid back morning. When we got back to the hotel, I went for a pretty easy 3 mile run on Las Vegas Boulevard which is the street the strip is on, but our hotel was too far away to really be interesting. There was actually a section where the sidewalk disappeared and I had to run on dirt off the road. It was hot and windy and I turned around at the dead pidgin.

When I got back, I ate the rest of my omelet which was perfect! Then we went down and hung out at the pool for a while. It was a little bit chilly so we were sad that most of the lazy river was in the shade. It was nice, though. Then we went back in and got ready for our night out.

We made it to the MGM Grand, which is where we were supposed to meet our shuttle for the first party, with about half an hour to spare. We went to this Italian place called Otto where we got a quick Margarita Pizza to share. I loved these doors there!

We stood around with a few other people at the entrance to MGM Grand and no one really knew what was going on or where we were going. Finally, some guys from Richard Photo Lab, who were throwing the party, came and got us and we all went outside to await the mystery shuttle. When it got there it was this awesome, huge party bus! So rad!

The bus had loud music playing and lights flashing so it was really exciting! We still didn't know where we were going, and when we saw The Peppermill, Pete said, "Please be the Peppermill!" And then we turned in! It was awesome! So retro and psychedelic! There were these pits, that you can kind of see behind me here, that were full of water with fire in the middle!

It was pretty awesome! They gave us all 2 tickets for free drinks, and they also had food for everyone which was nice, but nothing amazing. We did kind of feel out of place with all these photographers, and I must admit that I felt a little too self conscious to pull out my phone and take many pictures. Silly, I know. :) It was cool to talk to some of the people, though. They were from all over - Chicago, Canada, California -  and it was so cool to hear them say, "Instaproofs? Oh yeah, I use that." Instaproofs is kind of like our (Ok, Pete's, I'm technically not really part of it) baby so that just made my heart happy all night!

After a couple hours, we decided it was time to make our way over to the second party - The Silver Rush Party. We kind of still felt like we didn't really know what was going on, but we knew it was at the Artisan Hotel so we grabbed a cab and he took us right over. Too bad we were some of the first people there so not much was going on yet which made it feel even more confusing. We were just kind of like, "What are we supposed to do?" They did take our picture with this cool little instant photo camera, kind of like a smaller version of a Polaroid then they had an iPad to upload it onto. 

You can go look at all the photos people uploaded here. 

Here's pretty much the only picture I took so you can kind of see the decor.  

It was a lot different from the first party. It was a really cool place and decorated nicely, but there was no free drinks or food (that we knew of, like I said, we didn't really know what was going on...) which was disappointing. We ordered some stuffed figs or something off the hotel's menu and there were only 4 tiny little things on the plate when he brought it out. They were really good, but not enough for me!

Here I am on the back patio where the band played - before anyone else was out there.

Luckily, after wandering around and exploring a little, we met the band that was going to start playing soon. They seemed like really cool guys. They are the Lee Koch Trio and they were really good so once they started playing, it was a lot more fun.

When the band went on their break at about midnight, we decided to call it a night. We had to get a picture by the instaproofs sign on (or slightly off...) the red carpet first. It was a fun, though tiring, night and so awesome to be there representing instaproofs!

We stopped at McDonald's for some Egg McMuffins on our way back to the hotel! Whew, we are not party animals! LOL

The next day we made our way back home. It was good to be back, but we were also sad to leave so soon. There will have to be another Vegas trip in our future.

Anniversary Trip - Climbing at Red Rocks

Monday morning we ate, packed a few snacks then headed out to Red Rock Canyon (also called Red Rocks by the locals). I was so excited to get out there again. It is so beautiful and totally not how you picture Vegas! :)

We were both feeling sore from the day before. We totally didn't train for this trip, and do not have very much climbing endurance at all. I had also planned on it being warmer here than St. George, but it was actually pretty chilly this day.

I ended up just doing one route on top rope and it was SCARY! Sandstone is really scary to climb on since a lot of the foot holds are just friction, and I even had to do one step up with pretty much no hands! I was on top rope so I shouldn't have been scared. But I still was. Climbing is SO MENTAL. It totally messes with my brain. I did manage to make it to the top without using the rope so that felt really good! But it did take me a long time and stressed me out. :) The best things in life don't come for free I guess.

We moved over and Pete did this really hard route that was super steep and outside his comfort zone! I was very impressed! I didn't even try to top rope that one.

The beauty of this place is so unreal!

After leaving Red Rocks, we drove around a little, finding this crazy tiny town called Blue Diamond and some wild burrows on the side of the road. Both were cool to see. It is a $500 fine if you get caught feeding those wild burrows btw.

Then we went back to our hotel for a little pool time. Yes, I was the crazy lady swimming laps in the hotel pool! I was going to swim against the currant in the lazy river, and that would have been awesome! But at the last minute, we saw that there was another, oval-shaped pool that had one lane line down the middle. I decided to swim here so I could still do my Pace Club workout. It was a few strokes short of my regular 25 yard pool, but it wasn't too bad. I wish I could always do my swims outside!

For dinner we went to The Venetian where we ate at Mario Batali's restaurant. It was really good!

The Venetian is always fun to go into because it's made to look like you're outside in Venice. There's even a canal where you can take a gondola ride, complete with singing gondolier. We didn't do that this time, but that's what we did for our first anniversary, 12 years ago!

After dinner, we went to a bar called Freakin' Frog and met some guys from the party we would be going to the next day, along with a bunch of photographers from the convention. That was pretty fun, and overwhelming with new faces and names all around. But it's always fun to talk to new people, and they gave us more details about the party so we would know a little more about what was going on.

After that, we went back to The Strip and checked out The Cosmopolitan Hotel. There were these amazing pink chandeliers when we first walked in! Haha, Vegas is so Vegas!

They also have this really cool, 3 story bar that looks like a giant chandelier. Very glamorous!

Walking over The Strip to get back to our car. We probably got back to the hotel at around 1 and we very ready to rest and recover for the next day!

Anniversary Trip - Climbing at Black Rocks

This month Pete and I are celebrating our 13 year anniversary! CRAZY! We decided we wanted to do a trip to Vegas again, and it happend to fall just at the right time to go to some parties Pete's print ordering site, Instaproofs, was sponsering for WPPI. Perfect!

We drove down to St. George last Saturday where I dropped him off for an Instaproofs meeting, then went to my friends house. I pulled up and her kids were all excited to see me. I was worried they would be disappointed when they saw I didn't have my kids, but they weren't. They were so cute and sweet and all gathered around to watch me eat (they had already had dinner but saved me some), and tell me all about their day and the cool things going on in their lives. I loved it! They totally made me feel so loved! 

It was a nice relaxing night and after our husbands got home (they were both at the meeting together), we stayed up until like 2am catching up with our friends who we hadn't seen in way too long. 

In the morning, Pete and I decided to go climbing at Black Rocks since it will be closing in a couple weeks due to the fact that it is a nesting area for the protected tortoises that live down there (that I have never seen). 

It was such a beautiful day! Can you believe these colors!?

You hike out on red dirt to the canyon where it suddenly turns into black rocks. It's a really cool place and fun to just hike around in! We went climbing here last almost exactly a year ago.

Here's the first route we decided to do. Pete went first, then pulled the rope so I could lead it too. It was so scary! So much harder than the gym!

But I did it!

I came down and we both lead it again. I cleaned it this time which is still scary for me so I had a lot of practice keeping calm under pressure.

Then we moved over to find our next route, and some guys that were leaving told us this one was his favorite route out here so I guess we had to do it! Pete went up first and it seemed much harder so I decided to just top rope it.

I started out like a trooper, not using the rope, and made it over that big boulder! Yeah!

But then it got really hard and scary. Here I am hanging on the rope, talking myself in to finishing it. I  got really frustrated and almost started crying, but I eventually made it to the top! I even managed to clean it. Whew, it was hard! It was getting really warm in the sun on that black rock so we decided to call it a day after this route.

It was such a great day! We got some sun, got out of our comfort zones, and got to be together. I loved it so much! It was a perfect start to our anniversary trip!

As soon as we finished, we just stopped at a gas station for gas and snacks and headed to Las Vegas!

We didn't get to check into our hotel until 2 hours after we got there so we walked around the complex a little and hung out in the hot tub while we waited. It was a little cool to hang out by the pool for too long.

We ate at Lotus of Siam again, and I got some really spicy food again! You'd think I'd learn...

How's It Goin' 2014?

We are about to hit the 2 month mark for this awesome year! I wanted to just kind of write up an assessment post about how I think I've been doing with my goals, and also how my goals have changed over these 2 months.

I do not think changing my goals is the same thing as giving up or failing.

I think we should constantly be thinking about why we're doing the things we do. Is it because we feel like people expect us to do those things? Do these things make us happy? Do they make you healthy (physically, mentally, emotionally)? Do they work for you and your family?

I do think it's important to make goals and stick to them, but to an extent. One of the most important things I've learned this past year is that it's OK to change your mind about something if your situation changes or if you get new information about something.

So, back to the notorious first of the year post where I talk about leaving the LDS church.

Well, don't forget, there were some goals in there too! Here they are:

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. :)

The thing about ballet is that I still love it, but I'm worried that it is contributing to my problems with my Achilles tendon. Last time I went to class, the instructor kept saying things like, "be really careful when you do this because it's really hard on the Achilles..." That same day I talked to a fellow triathlete/ballet girl in my class about how she got injured, thinking it was running related. She told me it was actually from all the ballet she was taking while getting ready for the Nutcracker!

After that I felt uncomfortable with the idea of going anymore, at least while my Achilles is still my weak spot and while I'm trying to build my running mileage back up. I haven't talked to my doctor about what he thinks about ballet and it contributing to my injury, but I just feel like I have so much to do right now that it's ok for me to back out of ballet for a little while. I'm thinking I'll start back up in the fall, after my tri season is done and I don't have to worry quite so much about injury. I do still hope to keep growing the relationships with the friends I have met though ballet, and luckily I am still there most days so I still get to see everyone.

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!

I have been loving my spin classes! I really haven't gone as often as I wanted to, but I haven't done a terrible job either. I went on Friday and Monday and plan on going to bed early tonight so I don't miss it tomorrow! Two times a week is good for me. If they did it on Wednesdays instead of Thursdays, I would probably go three times, but I also don't mind having Wednesday as just a swimming day.

I also really love Zumba and had totally been planning on taking that back up, but I kind of feel the same way about it as I do about ballet. Sadly, I've decided to wait until I'm not worried about injury before I go back to it as well. As far as other classes are concerned, I feel like my time is taken up about as much as I want it to be with workout out so I probably won't do any other classes right now either.

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 Achilles 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 theSalt 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.

I did not join that running group I was talking about! Man, it doesn't look like my goals are going that well at all, does it? :)

There were two reasons why I decided not to join the group. The first one was that I decided to do a different half marathon so this one wouldn't be specifically geared to me anymore. The second reason was that I decided I would rather be able to run with my friends whenever and wherever I wanted instead of being bound to this group's training schedule. I think this has gone really well. So far I've actually done most of my long runs with friends, and it has been really good. Running is such a great activity to do with someone, especially if you haven't seen them for a while and you have a lot of catching up to do and you plan on running for a long time. I truly have enjoyed these runs with my friends, new and old, so I think it was a good decision to hang back on the group.

As far as running goals go, I think I'm doing alright. I'm up to 7 miles on my long runs, and hope to do 8 this weekend if my ankle is ok with that. (I'm icing it right now and decided to skip running today since it's still a tiny bit sore) I have 5 weeks until the half marathon (which I still haven't signed up for!) so I think I should be ok on mileage. My speed is going up and that is making me happy! I also am planning on running this half marathon with a friend who I haven't seen in a long time so, socially, it feels like a good choice as well.

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!

We have pretty much done this! Last Sunday we just ended up going for a drive because it felt too warm for snowboarding, and Pete's ankle was hurting so we didn't want to go hiking or anything either. It was still really fun and a nice day, though. The important thing for me is at least seeing the mountains and spending time with my family. We have at least done that every week!

The last goal I mentioned was writing on my blog more, and I have done pretty good with that. I haven't been writing every day, but I have been able to post at least once a week so I'm happy with that.

The World Is Just Awesome

Things have been going pretty good lately! I called my doctor last week after running a little bit of hills with my friend, Shannon, on Tuesday and told him my Achilles had been acting up again.

It had been manageable with ice and ibuprofen, but it also didn't seem to be getting better again over a week or 2 (and the hills probably didn't help) so he gave me another prescription for Prednisone, which is my new favorite magical drug! 

I started taking it Thursday morning and took that day completely off to help it out a little. Friday I just swam, then Saturday I felt good enough to go ahead and do my 7 mile long run. I chose to go with the leg warmer look again. :)

I did 2 loops, and did the first 4 miles pretty slow, then I went out for my second loop of 3 miles and just kicked it into gear. It was awesome that I was able to run fast like that at the end of my long run! I felt really good and was really happy with my time!

And I was also hot in my jacket so I took it off and finished my run in a tank top! In February. In Salt Lake. I had a little bit of mixed feelings about that because I don't feel like I got enough snowboarding in this season yet, but it did feel awfully nice!

I keep telling myself that it's not really spring though. This happens every year. We'll get more snow. I hope.

Later that day, we took the kids to the climbing gym. It was fun. I just went up one quick route before we had to leave to go get Mindy from ballet, but anything is better than nothing! Ethan and Elle both did great, and George made it about 2/3 the way up his route! I was impressed! Here he's showing off his slack lining skills.

Pete took the time to get certified for lead climbing and belaying with his friend who was there, which you have to do at The Front before you're allowed to do either of those things for safety reasons. Pete has obviously lead and belayed a ton, but has just never taken the time to get certified here. For the test, they have you take a fall, and he hurt his ankle! Luckily it was better after a few days, and his own Prednisone prescription!

Monday I made it to spin class and swimming! WIN! I also got this beautiful shot of the sunset while Elle and George were playing outside, enjoying the nice weather. I captioned it, "Another beautiful Monday comes to a close. Remember that dreams CAN come true on a Tuesday." on my Instagram. (I got this idea from that film I linked to on my last post.)

Tuesday was another nice day. I headed out with a long sleeve shirt on, but ended up tying it around my waist which is always nice! I was also happy with the time I was able to pull off! I pretty much just tried to do my middle mile fast, and the first and last mile were kind of a moderate/fun pace. I was also really excited to find my iFitness belt that has been missing for quite a while! Such perfect timing since it's just starting to get too warm to bring a jacket with pockets to put my phone in. It must be a sign from the running gods! :)

Tuesday night, I tagged along with Pete and his friend to the climbing gym where we had a great night! Look at what a stud my husband is!

I warmed up on an easy route, then tried a harder one on top rope and fell so I came down and took a break. Then I tried it again and finished it without any problems so that felt good! Then I decided I wanted to get lead certified as well so I called guy down to give me the test.

He had me go up a little past the third bolt then do kind of a surprise fall. It was not easy to make myself fall on purpose! But I did it. Unfortunately, the route had kind of gone to the left of the bolts (I think I was holding on to the black hold on that big green appendage) so when I fell I went sideways and slammed my right foot into the wall pretty hard. Of course that's the foot that's already injured and it really jolted my ankle. In a different spot though. Dang it! (I ended up about waist level with that first black hold at the bottom of this picture.) My first instinct was that I was hurt and that I should just come down. But then I was like, "No, I don't not finish my routes!" So I got back on and finished it! Wahoo! I had so much adrenaline, it felt amazing! :)

It's pretty shadowy, but here I am putting the rope into the lockers and officially passing the lead climbing portion of the test. (Actually the guy said I didn't need to finish it, I would have still passed if I'd come down after my fall, but it made it feel more final.)

Hey, what do you know, dreams do come true on a Tuesday! Am I right!? :)

I hurried and did the belay portion of the test and passed that just fine. Then it was time to head home. I was limping pretty badly so I iced it when we got home even though it was already midnight. Later I woke up at about 4am with my head and ankle just aching, and still too much adrenaline in my body to get back to sleep. I got up and ate some oatmeal so I could take my pills a little early (I just take them once a day in the mornings), then iced my ankle again before falling back to sleep. When I got up a few hours later it felt a lot better! Whew! I still wrapped it and babied it today, but I don't think it's going to be too serious.

Luckily today was just a swim day so I didn't even have to miss any workouts. I was just a little extra careful when pushing off the wall to be gentle and use both feet evenly. (I should have done that when I fell too! But what do you do but learn from these things?)

I've been doing the Intermediate/Advanced "Increase Speed Category" as my fitness goal with my Speedo Pace Club app on my phone and it's been really fun! It's good for me to have a set goal and set workouts to do. This way I know I'm going to have 3 workouts a week, and I don't ever have to wonder what I'm going to do. It goes for 8 weeks, and I did Week 3: Workout 2 today. Here's part of what my workout looked like (with just the warm up cut off), I just switched out paddles and pull buoy for the kicking just to be safe.

For those who care and are so inclined to shreak in joy with me, my fast 100s were: 1:26, 1:28 and 1:28! Not shabby, right? I did all the 100s on 2:00 so I had pretty good rests.

I went back to the pool later in the afternoon to take the kids swimming and basically just walked around in the water while George played. It felt good on my foot and I'm happy with how good it feels now. I just iced it again and I'm hopeful it will feel good enough to run on tomorrow.

It was totally worth it to take that fall, though, by the way. I am excited to start leading more which seems to kind of be an overall theme of my new life. It's a little more scary, but I love it!

Now to finish this post with more awesomeness, here is the Discovery Channel Commercial that my kids watched like 20 times in a row when we got home from swimming. And I still love it. I love the whole world!

President's Day Weekend

This President's Day weekend was really fun! Let's start with Friday:

I went swimming and had a really hard swim, but I loved it! 

Pete and I went climbing at the gym. It was the most awesome Valentine's Day date ever!

Saturday morning I woke up with a slightly sore achillies, but I didn't want to cancel on my friend for my long run so I took some Ibprofen, soaked my foot in some warm water for 20 minutes, then put an leg warmer on to keep it warm. I don't know if any or all of those things were what did it, but my ankle felt better and I was able to run 6 miles without any problems! It wasn't even sore later!

Saturday night, Pete and I met some friends at the Banff Mountain Film Festival in Ogden. This is our third year going to this, and we always love it. It's basically a bunch of short films about outdoor adventure sports. Some of the ones we watched were about: amazing mountain biking, a blind guy doing white water kayaking, some guys doing some amazing skiing, the last ice miner in Equador, a cute British girl climbing some scary stuff, a documentary about Lindsey Van (who was largely part of making women's ski jumping happen for the first time at the olympics this year) that made me cry. It was seriously an emotional, experience for me.

The last film was about a guy who did 35 climbing routes on his 35th birthday. It's called 35 and it totally made me cry. What he says about making every day of your life count is just so beautiful, I totally recommend you watch it. It's so inspiring to me. (I just watched it again and I'm sitting her practically sobbing)

When it got over, I stood up and said, "I'm so glad we're going climbing tomorrow!"

The next day was Sunday and I had to talk Pete into going through with our plan to go to St. George because he had crashed snowboarding the day before and was feeling really sore, plus our friends were going to be busy so we couldn't stay with them which turned it into much bigger of a trip money-wise. But the kids were all so excited, and I was excited, and I told him we could take the day to just relax and get a hotel with a hot tub to soak his aching muscles in. So that's what we did. We stayed at a Holliday Inn Express just off the Hurricane exit and the kids LOVED IT!

Not only were they so happy to be done with the 4 hour drive, but this was the nicest hotel they'd ever stayed in!

We got a 2 bedroom suite, and George thought the pull-out couch was so fun! (At least until we tried to get him to go to sleep on it...)

We went to the pool that was not in the sun at all so I was a little dissapointed by that, but sitting in the hot tub was nice and the kids didn't mind the cool pool. After that, we went out to dinner then got ice cream to eat in our hotel while we watched TV (What TV?!) until we got to bed way later than usual. It was a fun day and felt very much like a vacation. :)

The next day, we had breakfast at the hotel buffet which the kids also thought was the coolest thing ever, then we headed to Chuckwalla to climb.

Chuckwall was totally packed!

We kind of knew it would be since the weather was so nice AND it was a holliday. So we decided to hike about a mile down to Turtle Wall and climb there.

There is a 5.8 on that wall that was the first route I ever lead (11 years ago when Mindy was a baby! Yikes!) I decided I wanted to lead it again. We started getting our gear out and realized we forgot to bring any quck draws, but luckily a guy there let us use his so I was still abel to do it! I was suprised how scary it was! Luckily Pete and this other lady there were watching me and givng me pionters because I back clipped the first bolt so I had to fix that. I was so nervous. By the second or third bold I said, "I don't want to do this anymore!" But I finished it and everything was fine! Whew! It really felt so good to do that! I need to start leading more.

Here's Ethan taking his turn.

Mindy, waiting patiently.

George and Elle just hanging out in the desert.

Pete patiently stood there and belayed everyone.

Here's Ethan almost to the top! 

And now Mindy! They both made it and did a great job even though sandstone feels totally different to climb on than the rock in Big Cottonwood or the holds in the gym that they're more used to.

Here's George all ready to go!

He just loved swinging and we kind of taught him out to push away from the wall and bounce on his feet. SO CUTE!

After hiking back to the car, we had lunch/dinner at Pizza Factory which is kind of Pete's tradition from when he was a teenager and used to climb here all the time with his friends. No one had a problem with that. There's a fun phone booth outside so we had to go get a picture while we got the last of our wiggles out before the drive home. (Apparantly Elle's wiggles were all gone.)

So it was a quick trip to St. George, but it was totally worth it to me. The temperature was in the 70s and it was just so beautiful there! I love climbing so much, and the hike was really fun too, even though I was carrying George most of the way. I'm so glad we got to go!