My Favorite Time of the Year!

It's no surprise that the Fall is my favorite time of year!  I love everything about it; the smell, the colors, the weather, the activities, and the food.  It's just so much fun! :)  So, here are some pictures of how we celebrated my favorite time of year...

We carved pumpkins.  This year I decided to keep it simple and went with faces.  This year Ryan decided to go difficult! :)  Yes, that is the Death Star from Star Wars...it looked AMAZING all lite up.  He did a great job!


 

Snow White and her Dragon!




The Gang heading out: My mom, the witch; Snow White, Dragon; Britt & her kids, Flashback to the 80's; Dani, Jake & Emerson, 101 Dalmatians! :)



Snow White Taxi-bike!  Ryan brought his bike and trailer in case any of the kids got tired and wanted to walk.  Every 3 or so houses Wes would come get in and want a ride to the next house...about 10 steps.  It was really funny.  He did awesome trick or treating, kept right up there with all the other kids. 



On our way back home...everyone was too tired to walk! :)




Wes was waisted!  I dressed him in his PJs while he was asleep and then he just stayed there, too funny.




At Park Farms Pumpkin Patch.  We had a blast there but you wouldn't know it by the look on his face. :)






I loved this picture of the cousins (Aulbanie, Kennlie, Kaiden, and Wes)!  This one is going on my wall for sure.  It is a great memory!  I also loved these pictures; the blue sky, the bright orange pumpkins, and red mountains.  What a great FALL day! 

 <>

Here's me and Wes getting ready to go Trick or Treating.  It was PERFECT weather.

 

Sneak Preview of our family pics...

Not everything is about Wes!

Who am I kidding? Yes it is!  Everything BUT this post.  This post is about ME! :)  I write this blog I should be able to write about myself every once in a while, right?!?

Like I've said in a previous post, this summer I have fallen in love with running.  I love it because even though I do it with a bunch of other girls it is such an individual accomplishment.  I have noticed my progress just over the past 5 months.  I've gone from barely being able to run a mile without dying to running two, then three, four and up to seven and a half.  I've also gone from running like a 12 minute mile to a 10 (just last night! :)).  I honestly never thought I'd be able to run like this ever. 

Here are some pictures from the runs/events that I've done this year:

JULY 4TH--NSL 5K.  I RAN IT IN 34 MINUTES.  I WAS VERY HAPPY WITH THAT AND STILL AM!

 MY SISTER, BRITT, RAN WITH ME.

 AND THIS IS ONE OF MY RUNNING PARTNERS, GINA.

HERE WE ALL ARE AFTER THE RACE...AND GINA'S HUSBAND.

 SEPTEMBER 16TH: DIRTY DASH AT SOLDIER HOLLOW IN MIDWAY. 

IT WAS A.W.E.S.O.M.E!!!  IT WAS A 10K OBSTACLE COURSE.  I USE THE WORD "EVENT" WHEN DESCRIBING THIS BECAUSE THERE WAS LITTLE RUNNING AND LOTS OF MUD.  WE WENT THROUGH MUDDY RAVINES, WALKED PLANKS, HURDLED BAILS OF HAY, CRAWLED THROUGH TUNNELS, SCALED WALLS, WALKED THROUGH MUCKY WATER, SWUNG ON ROPES, AND FLEW DOWN A GIANT SLIP'N SLIDE.  WE HAD SO MUCH FUN!

 IT IS PROBABLY BEST THE PICTURES ARE NOT CLOSE UP...I WAS WEARING A FULL-ON UNITARD! :)

 I ONLY KNEW ONE OF THESE GIRLS THE NIGHT BEFORE THE RACE BUT WE ALL BONDED QUICKLY AND HAD A GREAT TIME. 

 OCTOBER 8TH: 1 DAY BEFORE MY BIRTHDAY! :)

I RAN A 10K WITH TASHA, ONE OF THE GIRLS FROM THE DIRTY DASH.  IT WAS AT THANKSGIVING POINT.  IT WAS CALLED "LOVE YOUR BODY", IT'S AN ALL WOMENS RACE.  I RAN MY PERSONAL BEST.  I RAN IT IN 1 HOUR AND 6 MINUTES.  I DIDN'T STOP ONCE AND RAN A 10.40 AVERAGE MILE.  I THOUGHT THAT WAS GREAT AND I WAS SO HAPPY.  IT FELT GOOD!  I FINISHED #156 OF 280 SOMETHING RUNNERS.  MY GOAL WAS TO JUST BE "AVERAGE"--AND I WAS! :)  I KNEW I WASN'T GOING TO LEAD THE PACK BUT I ALSO DIDN'T WANT TO BRING UP THE REAR! :)

HERE WE ARE BEFORE THE RACE...IT WAS ACTUALLY PRETTY COLD AND RAINY. 

 HERE WE ARE AT THE FINISH!  RED IN THE FACE BUT STILL SO BEAUTIFUL! :)

IT'S BEEN A GREAT SUMMER AND EVEN THOUGH WE ARE STILL RUNNING 3 TIMES A WEEK IN THE MORNINGS.  IT'S GETTING VERY COLD AND DARK FOR 6:15 AM.  I'M NOT SURE HOW MUCH LONGER OUR GROUP WILL LAST.  MY GOAL FOR NEXT SUMMER IS TO RUN A HALF MARATHON!  ONE DAY I'D ALSO LIKE TO RUN A MARATHON.  I FIGURE IF THE CONTESTANTS ON THE BIGGEST LOSER CAN DO IT...SO CAN I! :)

MY REAL DREAM AND GOAL IS TO RUN THE 1/2 MARATION AT DISNEYLAND...I'M PUTTING IT ON MY BUCKET LIST!!!! 

I MISSED THIS PAST FRIDAY MORNINGS RUN SO I WENT LAST NIGHT BY MYSELF AND HAD MY BEST RUN EVER!!! 4 MILES IN 40.47 MINUTES.  AN AVERAGE PACE OF 10.12.  I THINK TRYING TO GET OFF THE TRAIL BEFORE DARK WAS ALSO A GOOD MOTIVATOR! :) 

RYAN HAS BEEN MORE THAN SUPPORTIVE AND FOR MY BIRTHDAY HE GOT ME A GARMIN WATCH SO I NO LONGER HAVE TO CARRY AROUND MY PHONE TO TRACK MY TIME, DISTANCE, AND PACE.  THE WATCH IS MUCH BETTER.  ALSO, WITHOUT MY PHONE I NEEDED TO GET SOMETHING FOR MY MUSIC AND RYAN'S GRAMMY AND GRAMPY SENT ME SOME BIRTHDAY MONEY AND A LITTLE OF IT WENT TO GETTING A NEW IPOD SHUFFLE.  IT'S LIGHT, EASY TO USE, AND I LOVE IT. 

THANKS GRAMMY AND GRAMPY! :)

AND PROBABLY THE BIGGEST MOTIVATOR AND INCENTIVE FOR RUNNING HAS BEEN THAT I HAVE LOST 48 LBS...SO FAR.  ALL I HAVE TO SAY ABOUT THAT IS...GO ME! :)

Well, that is it for the post about me. Oh, except for a few birthday pictures...32 and smokin hot! :) JK...about the 32 part! :) Oh, kidding again...it's my blog I can say anything I want.

 Happy Halloween Family!



Some People Do...Why Can't I?

 Some people make a living out of doing what they love...why can't I?  Don't get me wrong I'm not a great sewer but, I can sew a straight line and piece things together and I could get better with practice.  But, I've been so busy that I haven't had very much time to do the things that I really enjoy like sewing and digital scrap booking.  I can be very crafty and I feel I do a good job at it, I feel creative and happy.  Now, why can't I make a career of this and feel creative and happy instead of having such a time consuming, stressful job?
 Enough babbling! 
I starting thinking about this because over the weekend I made my sister this car seat cover.  She is expecting her first little baby boy in the next couple weeks. 

I thought it turned out so freaking cute!  I don't mean to toot my own horn but I really don't sew much and my experience is all from my 7th grade sewing class.  Yes, since then I've done quite a few things but, I've had to teach myself.  So, sometimes I end up impress myself as well! :)  I went to Swiss days and thought about getting her one there just because I thought I wouldn't have the time but decided against it because I couldn't find one that I liked so I went to the fabric mill in Orem and found this fabric that I fell in love with and set off to make the cover.  It turned out so much better

 than I thought it would and cuter than anything I saw at Swiss days. 

I loved the colors of the fabric and the big red buttons!  I especially loved the gray poke a dot fabric on the back and straps.  Oh, and the green Ric rack around the edges, how cute is that?  I know humility is a virtue but I feel like tooting my own horn!  :)

I loved doing it too.  It felt good to actually take time to do something that I enjoyed.  I love creating things.

So, I'm telling you...I can be for hire! I can do car seat covers, invitations, and/or announcements. :)

Here are the invitations I made for her shower.  I used the frog one because it seemed more "baby shower" but i loved the colors of the other one too! :)  I also made matching return address labels with the little frogs, dragon flies, turtles, and bugs. 

Acceptance

I am learning to accept the fact that I can no longer keep Wes safe 100% of the time.  Just in the past week he has hurt himself 3 times...all leaving marks!!  I'm wondering how many more excuses I can give my sitter before she just decides to call Child Protective Services on me! :) 

Here's the run down of injuries...

1) I was doing the dishes and I heard Wes come running around the corner so I stepped out in front of the dishwasher door, which was open, to stop him from running into it.  Preventing an injury right? Wrong!  It did stop him from running into it but while he was just standing there the clumsy little toddler lost his balance and fell right into the corner of the dishwasher.  Ryan and I were both standing there and Ry picked him up because he was freaking out.  Well, after a few minutes he had this nice little scratch across this belly.  He was so sad and cried to much.  It broke my heart.  I went to rock him while he settled down for bed and he let me ice it.  He went to bed and never messed with it again. 

Here's the scratch:

 So, the next morning the conversation with the sitter went like this:
Nici: Just so you know when you change his clothes he fell into the dishwasher door and scratched up his tummy. 
Sitter: oh poor baby!


2) The next night we went to the splash pad with our friends Arron and Lisa.  Wes and his buddy, Gabe, were playing in the water when they hit right into each other.  In the next picture you can see under his right eye a red goose bump which by morning turned into a nasty bruise. 

So, the next morning I said to the sitter, "Oh, his black eye is from playing at the splash pad with his buddy and they ran into each other."
Sitter, eyed my suspiciously (in a joking way! :)) and said, "sure".

Ok, so you'd think that was enough right? Nope!

3) Not the next night BUT the NEXT we were at my sisters house who has a kitchen made for 1 small child to be in at a time and I was in there making dinner (she's on bed rest) and Wes came in to help.  Well, he walked right into the end of the metal handle to her 1967 oven.  He had a big red mark on his temple.  By morning it was a bruise! 
So, the next morning at the sitter I sheepishly told her about the 3rd "accident" and then asked how many more "accidents" I could report before CPS was waiting for us when we came to pick him up!  She laughed knowing, well hopefully knowing, that we are not beating our child.

I feel so bad for the poor guy but man, things change so much once kids are mobile.  As hard as we try to protect him and try to prevent every little trip and fall it is just impossible.  Luckily he is a tough kid and only cried with the dishwasher incident.  The others he just wanted to know someone was there.   I just want to wrap this kid in bubble wrap but I'm thinking it might not make him friends.

BEST WEEKEND EVER!!!

Ryan had been planning this "surprise" for me since April.  All I knew was that I was told to take August 26th off, which I put off thinking that this whole thing would just "blow over" since we just took a week off for Indiana.  But, it didn't and last minute I was able to get it off...and good thing I did. 

THE "SURPRISE":  Day 1: at a B&B 1/2 mile away from the entrance to Zion National Park.  It was right in the middle of everything.  We walked to the park, the restaurants, and rental shops. 

Day 2: hiking the Narrows "top down" vs. "bottom up" which is just the day hike.  We've wanted to do this for a long time and even went once but chickened out due to the weather forecast.  But, nothing was going to stop us this time. :)  I was so excited!  This was the perfect surprise for me.  Well, the only thing that could have made it better was the hike first THEN a night at a relaxing B&B.   :)

Day 1:  One thing you have to love about B&B's is that they make use of every inch and this one was no exception.  It was a big, beautiful home but, our toilet was LITERALLY in a closet.  We took these pics messing around and thinking it was hilarious.  And, no that is not a real picture of Ryan going to the bathroom, he never would have let me take a picture of that.  :)  It was just for fun.  We had a blast though.  We got there early in the afternoon which left a lot of time to walk around town and hang out.  We walked down to the visitor's center inside the park to get our back-country permits.  Then we checked out the gift shops.  We went to this GREAT restaurant for dinner, Oscar's Cafe.  We had HUGE yummy hamburgers.  Then we returned to the room for a little R&R before the big hike.  Breakfast was very good and we met 2 very nice couples one from Italy and the other from Virgina Beach.  People are so interesting!

Day 2:  Here we are waiting for the shuttle to take us to the top.  Our driver was AWESOME!  Other than his driving almost made me puke but he was the classic "national park" worker.  He was probably in his 50's, has a short haircut that was a little curly but then had a pony tail/mullet in the back.  He wore old school, worn out TEVA's and grungy clothes.  He was super sun tanned and laid back.  He was a funny guy.

 The adventure starts.  It was hard to initially get in the water but once we were in there was no getting out or turning back.  The first day didn't have too many DEEP spots.  I got in about waist deep so Ryan wasn't even that deep.  But the water was super murky which made it very difficult to maneuver the rocks when crossing or walking in the river.  You just had to dig your stick in and try to get your footing so you wouldn't fall.  Sometime we were in pretty fast water, it was really hard.  I think I "almost fell" about 100 times.  It's like when you "almost fall" on ice but you catch yourself last minute but then your whole body hurts from the "jerk".  Yeah, it was like that over and over and over again!

 We finally got to camp after about 10 hours of hiking.  Yes, I was "crabby" by the time we got there because we had this map that had times on it to help you pace yourself but the times were TOTALLY OFF!!!  We thought we were keeping a good steady pace.  We only stopped every few times to have a snack and take our packs off for a few minutes but after 5 hours of hiking we looked at the map and we were only at the spot that should have taken us 2 hours!!!  Our map said we should have only hiked 7 hours on the first day...we did TEN!  I was just frustrated because it was very unpredictable and I was HUNGRY AND TIRED!  Not a good combination for me.  I tried to keep my crabbiness to myself and not be too much of a downer.  But, I should write those map makers and tell them to take the time off their maps.  I'm pretty sure they did that at "Ranger" pace but I guess we did it a "Junior Ranger" pace.  It just gets your hopes up just to be dashed!! :)

 I was pretty tired so I set up camp while Ryan made dinner...fettuchini Alfredo (yes it was made from a dehydrated dinner).  It was actually really good.  I was just happy I got in a few bites before falling asleep!  I was exhausted!  It rained on us during the night so we had to get up and over the tent with the rain cover.  But, overall it was a toasty night!

Breakfast was another dehydrated meal...granola, bananas, with milk.  Again, surprisingly good.  We packed up camp, put back on our wet socks and shoes, and headed back into the river. 

 Day 2: The best scenery and picture opts came in the last day but it also brought with it more DEEP areas which means the camera was put away and also just a general laziness.  We had to take "mental pictures" :).  Although, the Narrows are a photographers paradise.  No wonder people make a living just off of picture taken here.  It is truly amazing.  We were so far out there I felt like we were on uncharted territory and that we were seeing things few people do.  Seriously, you can't see this kind of stuff without a lot of work!  It was hard but well worth it!

 The second day was a blast.  The water was much clearer which made the rocks easier to see.  This also gave you a false sense of security and I used my stick less which set me up for more "almost" falls, and eventually a real fall.  It also came with 5-6 sections where we literally had to swim with our packs on till we could touch again.  The picture above was when I had to get in up to my chin.  Ryan got the picture too late.  The water was a great temperature but when I got in that far it really took my breath away.  Usually I just kept the pack on but that time I took it off and pushed it as it floated across. 

There was this one part where we had to slide down a rock to a 3 foot drop into the river and then swim.  It was nerve racking but so much fun.  We laughed so much! :)

This was the natural spring that we got water from on the second day.  It was so beautiful.  These pictures don't even capture a little bit of its full beauty!

 Here was one spot, Ryan was just starting, but it got up to my chest.  It was funny how our bags worked as floatation devises.  :)

 The pictures can't even get a glimpse of how tall these walls were and just how truly beautiful it was.  The closer we got the bottom the more people that were around and made pictures hard to get.  Although, these people were so frustrating.  The first people we saw we asked how close we were to the end they said, "oh, about 2 1/2 hours, 3 AT THE MAX!"  Well, 2 hours later we saw more people and asked them how close we were and they said, "about 2 hours", then again more than an hour later we asked another group and, you betcha, their answer was, "2 hours".  I was going to FLIP OUT!  I was at that point where I felt we were so close but still "2 hours" away!  It never ended.  I just wanted some flat terrain so give my ankles a break!  BUT FINALLY, finally after "2 hours" we made it! :) This was our "WE DID IT" picture!  We were so proud of ourselves, as we should have been.  We did something really amazing.  This was far more physically challenging/demanding than I'd ever imagined.  Every muscle in my body hurt and I still can't walk without looking like an 99 year old women.  My legs are in a lot of pain.  My chins and muscles I had long forgotten about hurt from fighting to stay standing against the flow of the river.  The front of my legs hurt because when I fell I fell forward on to a bed of large rocks.  It messed up my legs pretty bad.  I think the only reason they don't look worse is because they were being iced in water for another 5 hours.  Please, have it be said that I DID NOT CRY!  I thought I was going to and so did Ryan but I held it in and pressed on! :)

 Once we were on the shuttle we pulled out all the food we had left and ate till we got off 7 miles later! :)  We were famished.  We got off the shuttle called home to check on Wes, who we missed like crazy, and then walked across the street to a restaurant!  We couldn't wait another minute! :)

It was just an amazing weekend!  I was so happy I did it and even though it may have been one of the most physically demanding things I have ever done in my life I can say I did it! 

BUCKET LIST: THE NARROWS=check!

I will most likely never do this ever again but like I said I'm so happy I did it once.  I will forever be able to have these memories and remember the miraculous things that I saw.  The best part about it was that I got to do it with my best friend.  I know that's cheesy and Ryan will probably say, "why did you put that in there?" but it's true.  He planned this entire weekend FOR ME!!!  He knew this was something I wanted to do and made it happen.  It was so kind and loving.  He makes me feel very special!  It was a great weekend together, something that we will always share.  I'm super proud of us for this accomplishment and it's one more thing that makes me realize that I can do hard things!!!

If you want to see more picture click on my facebook album:

Facebook Album