Saturday, May 23, 2009

{Last Saturday's RACE}

Last Saturday was the Ogden Marathon. It was a beautiful, perfect day for a race! Four of us from my family ran the Half Marathon this year. It was such a great course! I ran with my sister (thank goodness for running partners!)

Here are our stats:

We finished in 1:47! Not bad! We ran an 8:13 pace, and if it weren't for the potty breaks, it would have been faster! I was 14th in my age group and 82nd out of all the women (1295 women in all). This put us in about the top 6~7 percent of runners. We were pretty pleased, especially since we didn't really expect too much out of ourselves.


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Now I take full bragging rights for my bros! Taylor ran a 1:17 in the marathon last year and took 2nd place! This year he improved his time and ran a 1:15!!! He was 5th place overall and 2nd in his age group. He is so FAST! It's crazy how fast all the runners are getting in the Ogden Marathon. It is getting to be a very popular race...Maybe they should think about getting porta-potties for the spectators and runners who have left the gated area...But that is a whole other story.

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Taylor coming in at the end. You are so AWESOME Tay!


My other brother, Patrick, also ran an incredible time of 1:30. He was also 2nd in his age group! Way to go, Patrick!!!

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Patrick coming down the home stretch!

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Me with my buddy, Bennett. Thanks to my post-race stomach ache, he got my creamie. A little later he was crying because of the mess it made.


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The Four of Us!

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Here we are again along with Aariel, my other brother Kristofor's wife. She ran the 5K. Way to go Aariel!

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Me and my cuties! It was dad's turn this year to bring the kids early in the morning to the sidelines. Afterward he expressed his gratefulness to me for last year...and he only had to wait until I came in for the half. Last year I think Bennett cried for about 4 hours straight waiting for daddy.

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Taylor winning his 2nd place award!!

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Patrick winning his!

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Yeah, my brothers are so cool!

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Cute little boys in their hats.


I also have to give a shout out to my parents. They are the BEST race supporters ever. I am not exaggerating one bit to say that they are always the first there at the finish line to stake out their place. And they stay there the whole time to welcome in the 5k finishers, Half Marathoners, Marathoners (even though we didn't have any of those this year), and then finally, the KidsK. They also are a great help in entertaining and holding the kids.

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This is my cute niece, Brielle. She is a natural runner! Yes, she passes this boy, and almost all the other boys and kids older than her to be one of the top finishers of the KidsK...And she makes it look so easy! I think the only other kids that beat her were ones that were much, much older. She's already run in a couple 5Ks finishing in about 27 minute times. You're going places, girl!

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Here's the group coming down the stretch in the KidsK. We didn't officially sign Bennett up this year, but Patrick took the little boys to run down the home stretch with the rest of the kids.

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Can I just tell you how thrilled and pleased Bennett was to run in the race and run very so fast...even faster than you, mommy.

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Just some Pics

Here are a few more miscellaneous pics from when we took some Monson Family Pictures:

My brothers always go out of their way to play jokes on my mom. She requested that all the guys wear suits. She was very specific that she wanted them in jackets. Well this is how my brothers show up. After all, they had on jackets as requested! They had changes of clothes in their cars, but after the good laugh, they ended up just wearing these outfits for the picture after all. We just made sure to hide Taylor's pants!

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Here is one of the Chase Family.

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Sisters....

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I hurried to do a little "back-lighting" practice. I snapped a couple pictures at the end. This is what I got. I wish I would have had time to try some more.
Here is my bro Kristofor and his beautiful wife, Aariel. Just took one picture and this is what I got. A little too much light, but not bad for one shot.

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And one of Russ, my very willing practice subject!

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Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Sunday, May 10, 2009

{Monson Family Pictures}

We took Family Pictures for the whole Monson group last night. Here is what I think is the best shot. It was a fun challenge to get a good picture with this many people in it. (I only changed two heads...I bet you'll never know whose!) Was also fun pushing the timer then running to get in the picture...Thank goodness we had my Grandma (Great Grandma) to push the button, too. That way Mylie wasn't always looking back at me when the picture shot. Also, thanks Great Grandma for getting all the kids to look at the camera and say "Cheese!" They did great! I can't believe how good all of them were being in the front row by themselves! I was quite impressed when going through the pictures. They were well deserving of the Twix Bars that Grandma and Grandpa brought for everyone!

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Monday, May 4, 2009

You know that distant day in the future?...

Everyone has one...That day you wait for, look forward to, dream about...Well that day for us came this past Friday. Russell graduated with his Masters Degree! We are so excited and glad that from here on out, no more school or homework forever. (At least we're pretty sure.) Don't get me wrong, we were way excited when we graduated with our Bachelors', but we always knew that Masters Degree for Russ was lingering in the future. There are certain milestones we've been excited for in our lives...Marriage, Bachelor's Degrees, babies, first home, and now we've reached one of the last ones in our immediate future. It feels great! We've been so immensely blessed in our lives for things to turn out so well. I couldn't ask for more...Sometimes I don't know how I got so lucky! Here are some fun pics from that day and also a look back:

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The Happy Family

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Kissing...Ooo Gross! Sorry, couldn't help it!


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Russ with my wonderful, supportive parents. They let me and my kids hang out at their house a lot while Russell needed quiet time to do his homework. I guess he won't be kicking us out on Saturdays anymore!


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Can you tell we are happy?!

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Miss Mylie thought she was hot stuff walking around outside on the grass. By the way, she started walking a couple weeks ago! I guess this is a good time to add that little bit of info as well. She is such a cute, tiny, peanut walking around. (She only weighs about 15 pounds or so, so it looks pretty cute!)

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Daddy and Mylie. She looks pretty darn happy, too! I think she was just relieved to get out of that boring convocation where she had to hold still!

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We were so lucky for such beautiful weather that day! That morning I went running in the rain, but by the afternoon, it was BEAUtiful! And Weber State really has such a gorgeous campus! Check out the beautiful mountains in the background!

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Daddy and Bennett!

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Dad and his kids. We love you Daddy!


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The beautiful spring blossoms were "raining" on Bennett! Oh, and thanks for the Vitamin Water sponsors that kept Bennett entertained throughout the convocation. Even though he got his head bit off by the usher at the Browning Center! "YOU CAN'T TAKE THOSE IN THERE! PUT THEM AWAY!!!" Poor kid.

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Beautiful Blossoms!

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Congrats to our sister-in-law, Kristin, who also graduated with her Family Studies Major that day. Kind of nice that they both graduated from the same college of studies so we could be there for that as well!


A LOOK BACK
I know this post is getting long, but I couldn't help but remember our undergrads that we got 5 years ago. Was it really that long ago?

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Kissing again? Sorry. I guess we couldn't help it then either.

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Here are some friends from my Elementary Education Degree class. Many of them I have no idea where they are and what they are doing now! But some of you, you know who you are, might appreciate these pics!

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Does it look my head is coming off in this picture? It probably was.

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What a goof!

Friday, May 1, 2009

{Another Preview!}

Hannah and Masen's preview is now available on my photography blog.
I promise I will put an entry about our family soon because something really great happened today...But for now, enjoy my little hobby if you'd like!

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