Zoo Day

Since this past week was pretty dreary, we decided to spend the day at the zoo. We spent a good 5 hours looking at the animals and playing in the water area. I'm so glad it's back to the usual summer weather. We are loving our zoo pass!

I love these pictures below of my mom with her grandkids. They ADORE her, it's a little ridiculous sometimes at just how much they love her. My mom once said "I don't think anybody loves me more than Cambree does." It's probably true, Cambree is seriously obsessed with my mom. It's pretty cute, but you get the point of how much spoiling is going on ;)

We are going again next week for a birthday party, we can't wait!

13.1 Miles

This morning I completed the Utah Valley Half Marathon. I have been training for 3 months and I was ready to tackle my first Half Marathon.

My friend, Ashley and I have been friends since High School and we decided to run it together. We stayed overnight in Provo at a Hotel, since we had to be at the bus stop between 3:10-4:30am. We tried to go to sleep somewhat early but the anticipation was too much. I finally fell asleep around 10:30pm. We woke up bright and early at 3:20am. We were both so excited but nervous since neither of us had run a half marathon before.

The race started at 6am and we didn't stop till we were at the 6 mile marker to use the porta potty's. The race was through Provo canyon and was beautiful. The weather actually was perfect for a race. It was 56 degrees when we started which was unusually cool for Utah and for June. I felt really good most of the way. Because we were running in the canyon, the road was at an angle which made our toes fall asleep. At around 9 miles my knee started bothering me but that didn't stop either one of us from finishing.

We finished the race at 2 hours 15 minutes and 12 seconds. I am so proud of myself for actually doing it. I've always wondered how others run that far and now I have. I still can't understand how people run twice that to run a full marathon. Maybe someday...

Thanks everyone for your kind text messages, phone calls and for my family who came and supported me at the finish line. It was wonderful to see familiar faces at the finish line.

I am really sore. My right knee is still bothering me, mostly when I walk up or down stairs. Other than that I feel great and I think I might be hooked to running half marathons. Ash, let's do another one!!!

Our 4 year old

About Cambree:

Height: 40 inches, in 50% for her age.
Weight: 32 lbs 4 ounces, in 25% for her age.
BMI: 15%

Cambree's Favorite things in her words:

Food- pickles
Animal- tangaroo's (Kangaroo's)
Color- orange
Thing to do-play in the pool
Show- Brave
Best Friend-Mommy
Bug-Ladybugs
Song- Let it go
Activity-painting

What do you want to be when you grow up? "A mommy"
What is the best part of your day? "Dressing up"
What are you afraid of? "Bad guppies"

She's really happy now that she's four years old and only one finger away from being a whole hand. Love her so much!

Somebody's FOUR!

Cambree LOVES any day that is a celebration. She loves holidays and her birthday is even better. She has been talking about her birthday for months and has already started talking about her next birthday. We had a lot of fun

We surprised her with her own bike. I think it's going to be somewhat tricky teaching her how to press on the breaks instead of peddling forward. I'm sure it just takes practice.

She decided she wanted to swim for her birthday. We put our small pool in our backyard for the girls and also let them run through the sprinklers.

Then it was the best part of the day. The part where she was the star and everyone came to "oh and ah" at her. She certainly loves attention, reminds me of myself when I was little.

She got ladybugs from her Aunt Aimee and her family. She enjoyed letting them go free that night in our front yard. This girl loves anything bug related, I wish I felt the same!

As you can see I think she had a really great day. I sure do love her so much. As we say, "I love you to the moon and back."

Arkansas

Addie and I flew out to visit my older sister, Karly and her family for a week. We left Cambree behind with Benton and our families to babysit her while Benton worked. They hadn't seen Addie since she was 2 months old, so it was time for us to visit them.

Both her boys are in school now. Jack is in second grade and Reid is in preschool. Reid was able to do more stuff with us on his day out of school. Poor Jack just had to hear about all the fun things we did.

Karly and I went to a taco truck, which served smoked pulled pork with their special sauce, cheese, avocado, pico and doritios to top it off, it was really good surprisingly.

On our way to pick up Jack one day from school, we had a little time to kill and started driving around looking for a good spot to take pictures. As we were leaving, I saw something in the distance, little ears. I decided to get out of the car and find out what it was. I was surprised to find a baby deer. It looked abandoned, hot and hungry. We tried calling the local wildlife center to see if we should take it somewhere but got their voicemail (that's why we have it wrapped in a a towel in my arms). After multiple attempts calling a bunch of places we finally got a hold of someone who told us it was normal for the mother deer to leave her fawn to go find food. I read online about baby deers and found out that during the first 5 days of their life they don't have that fight or flight response, so they will let people touch and hold them. So like I said to Karly, I doubt I will ever hold a baby deer ever again, a once in a lifetime opportunity. But it's good to know that the mother hadn't abandoned her baby.

On one of the days we spent a few hours at their local splash park. It was pretty empty since it was a cloudy day but both our kids loved running around getting wet.

I love visiting with them. Its hard when they come to town and are pulled every direction. I enjoy going to their house so I have all the time to myself!

We took a walk at one of my favorite places by their house, Tanyard Creek. We were told their was a poisonous snake on one of the trails, so we steered clear of where it was seen. Addie loved splashing in the creek.

We had a bunch of phone conversations with Benton and Cambree. I love the ability to see one another while talking and so did Addie, who didn't want to share the phone with me.

It wouldn't be normal if we didn't make a trip to the park!

And I was able to take their family pictures while I visited. For those of you who don't know, I've started to take pictures for clients. My photography blog is Maephotoblog.wordpress.com. Come check it out!

We had such a good time with their family and I am thrilled that they will be visiting Utah in about a month. I am so thankful for Karly, she is such a great older sister and has always been there for me. I've spent countless hours on the phone with her and I love that I can call her up anytime and vent, cry or just talk if I need to. Sisters really are such a blessing. Arkansas was good to us this trip, and hopefully we can come back next year!