And... we're Back!

So after a long break from posting anything on our blog we have much to catch up on. This post is just going to be focused on my trip to Moab with a few of my cousins in March. They decided it would be great fun to run a half-marathon and invited me along and in a moment of insanity I decided that was a good idea. (I soon after regretted it, but it was too late, I had already paid the fee). And so I was committed to running this race but in the end I have been quite glad that I did. I've never been a runner so it was a good experience and was great to bond with my awesome cousins.

Here we are trying to catch a picture of the scenery on our drive down. It's actually not a great picture of us or the scenery because as we pulled onto the side of the road to change drivers and get a picture a police officer pulled up right behind us. Everyone got supper nervous wondering if we had done something wrong but he was nice and was just making sure we were ok. He even took this picture for us.
Well after our exciting run in with Officer Funk we jumped back into the car and headed down the highway for a few miles when I realized that my phone was missing. Then Kevin in a panic realized his was missing also, and to top it off, Karen didn't know where her phone was either. Kevin and Karen eventually found their phones but we decided to turn around and look for mine.
Nope, not under the car. Not at the site we took the picture. OY!


Finally we gave up the search and kept on driving till we got to our hotel. The good thing about the hotel was that it was super cheap. (during the half-marathon all of the hotels in the area raise their prices ridiculously so we were glad for a deal). The bad part of the hotel... well, it was cheap. It made for some great memories. I even braved the shower that night. I prayed that I wouldn't get a weird fungus and so far I have remained fungus free!
(we were also comforted by the idea that we had new mattresses- we found this pile of old ones on the side of the building).

We then went to the local gas station to get breakfast and gatorade for the next morning. Here Kevin shows off his gummy hamburger that he and Scott decided to get as a light night snack.



Early the next morning we checked in with the race officials. Karen, Wendy, and Kevin were running the 5 mile race and Scott and I were signed up for the half marathon. Here they are as we waited for the time to come to load up on the buses.

Wendy and Kevin Waiting up in the canyon for the race to start. Look at that beautiful scenery. This is what I got to run in for about 10 miles. Unfortunately the last 3 miles were in town and felt like death without the pretty scenery and shade from the canyon walls.


Kevin and Wendy after the race looking quite relaxed. They did the race with good times too. It looks like they hardly broke a sweat.
Scotty coming in from the half-marathon averaging a very impressive 8.5 minute miles (for 13 miles)!
I didn't show you what I looked like when I was coming in. Those pics were not very pretty. However once I got my breath back I was feeling pretty proud of my 10.5 minute miles.


Here we are after the ordeal. We look surprisingly chipper.
To finish off the day we decided to go out to eat (after all, we had just worked off a ton of calories) and celebrate for my birthday which was the next day. We chose a fish house where our waiter ended up figuring out that it was my birthday. This is what happened as a result.