A New Sister

My brother got engaged last Saturday to a fabulous girl. I couldn't ask for a better sister-in-law. Welcome to the fam Erin! Click HERE for the engagement story.

Provo Canyon Half Marathon

My roommate talked me into running the Provo Canyon Half Marathon last Saturday. I'm not really sure why I said yes, but I'm glad I did it. It definitely was an experience and a pretty big accomplishment for me because let's be honest, I don't love to run. I realize that half marathons aren't that big of a deal (as my brother put it, "What's so great about a half marathon? People run 13 miles all the time.") It was a beautiful run though and an experience I'll never forget. So how did I train for it? Well, let me play out for you the entire experience:

-5 weeks before the race: I decide I should probably start running. 5 miles run. My knee hurts.
-4 weeks before: Try running again. Only do 4 miles because I ate too much crap the day before. Decide to eat better.
-Later that week: 5 more miles. Feeling good. Only stopped because I was bored.
-3 weeks before: 8 miles done! And I feel great! I can do this
-2 weeks before: I went to New York and didn't run
-The week before: 9 mile run. I wanted to do 10 but lost that mental battle. Oh well.
-Rest of the week: My knee is a little sore so I decide not to run again before the race, but I do play some soccer.

Yep, that's 5 times running. I'm crazy, maybe stupid, but I finished the race, and that was my goal.So the morning of the race came along
4:00am-Hit the snooze button. No one should be awake right now
4:05am-Hit it again
4:10am-Get up, get ready
4:30am-Head over to Bethany's
4:50am-Arrive at Riverwood's, take a picture, get bib's, start to get cold
5:15am-Get on bus
5:47am-Bus hits sign
5:50am-Get off bus, get in line at porta-potties
5:55-6:30am-Freeze our butts off
6:30am-Wonder why the race isn't starting
7:15am-Finally start running
7:15-9:00am-Feeling great
9:01am-Knees start hurting really bad but there's only 3 miles left
9:38am-Cross the finish line

Boston

I got up early Monday morning when I was in New York and caught a bus to Boston. I LOVED Boston. I don't know what it was about that city, but I loved it all. I spent the day on the Freedom Trail. Once again, I didn't get the greatest pictures because I was by myself for most of it, but oh well. Sam Adams. Holocaust Memorial. Streets of downtown Boston. Paul Revere. There were some street dancers that were awesome! This little guy was in training I guess. After their show I caught him practicing. Pretty good if you ask me.

New York

A few weeks ago I got to go to New York to visit my old roommate Kristi-Lynn and meet her cute 9 month old Sadie. We had a ton of fun just hanging out. I've been to New York a couple times, so we didn't need to do a lot of the touristy stuff. It was a great, low-key weekend. I didn't do a very good job of remembering to get my camera out, but we really did do a lot of great things! Thanks Kris! Friday night we went to a free concert in Central Park by the Philharmonic Orchestra. But half-way through it started to poor and people just scattered. Saturday we explored the city a little. We went to Washington Park and people watched. It was a pretty warm day so there were sun-bathers out anywhere they could find grass or somewhere to put a lawn chair. And there were a bunch of people swimming in the fountain! Who needs to pay for a pool anyway?! We tried a couple times to win Wicked tickets at the lottery, but just didn't have any luck. Oh well. One day I'll see that play. On Sunday we walked along the Hudson and then let Sadie play on the swings. She is such a doll!

I love my job

I absolutely love my job. I really can't complain about any aspect of it. Sometimes I wonder how someone can actually get paid to do what I do. And to make it even better, sometimes I get to have experiences I could only dream of having. One of those experiences happened this week. I was invited to attend a sacrament meeting with all the newly called Mission Presidents and their wives. Also in attendance were many of the Seventy, eleven of the Twelve Apostles (President Packer was ill) and the whole First Presidency. Talk about feeling overwhelmed! As we began to sing the the sacrament hymn, I was truly humbled by the words. Imagine being surrounded by such great men sing the words of the second verse:

As now our minds review the past, we know we must repent; The way to thee is righteousness-the way thy life was spent. Forgiveness is a gift from thee we seek with pure intent. With hands now pledge to do thy work, we take the sacrament.

Can you imagine?! These men and women of God, including the Prophet himself, singing about how they need to repent. It really does put into perspective that the Atonement works the same for everyone whether you are the Prophet or just an average person.

Albertson's Parking Lot Fair

To our great delight, this ghetto fair pulled up to the Albertson's parking lot and we just couldn't resist going. Don't be deceived by this picture...there were only 5 rides and this many booths. The sizzlin' scrambler. The ferris wheel looked like it went ridiculously fast. But it didn't so we faked it.

Strawberry Days

We got our cowboy gear on and went to the Strawberry Days Rodeo in Pleasant Grove in June. So fun! Wild Cow Milking Just trying to fit in Bull Riding

Last few days in Norway

It's been awhile since I posted, I know. So I'm going to try to catch up on the last month and a half. We finished our Norway trip back in Oslo. We took a ferry ride and went to a ton of museums. One thing I wont miss about Norway is peeling shrimp :) If you look close this little guy has hundreds of little eggs tucked in his legs.

The Rest of the Week at Skei

We took day tours everyday for the rest of the week while we were at Skei. Wednesday we headed off to take a boat tour of one of the fjords. On or way there we stopped in a small town and met some trolls. Then we headed off and crossed an old wedding bridge. Back in the 1600's they used it to have weddings. At the beginning of the bridge was a rock called a "wedding ring." The middle was carved out and the bride would have to crawl through it before she could be married. If she couldn't fit through they figured she must be pregnant and her head would be cut off! I thought I'd give it a try and the good news is that I made it through. On the boat tour we saw tons of waterfalls (because it had been raining all week). These are "The 7 Sisters Falls". Directly across from them is "The Wooer." Legand has it that the 7 Sisters are all single and the Wooer keeps trying to marry one of them. But they all keep rejecting his proposals so he has turned to alcohol for consolation, hence the bottle in the rock. On the drive back to Skei we took a mountain pass and we got a surprise at the top. Oh how I wish the sun would come out. On Thursday we hiked a couple miles through beautiful landscape to another glacier. It used to be really big, but has shrunk a lot in the past few years due to global warming. I love how the ice in the glaciers appears blue. On Friday we spent the day in the life of Norwegians back in the day. We saw old buildings and churches and learned how the Norwegians survived before modern technology. In a 300 year old church there was a 200 year old mummified codfish hanging from the ceiling. Because the rope he is hanging from is made of natural fibers, it acts like a barrometer and predicts the weather. They just look to see which way it is facing. On the way back to Skei we stopped to look at the fjord pony. They were specially bread to go up and down the mountains of the fjords. They have really sweet manes.

Skei I Jolster

Monday night we arrived up in the western fjords in Skei I Jolster. We spent the week here going on day tours to different villages and glaciers. It was pretty cold and rainy but we saw some pretty incredible scenery. On Tuesday we started the day by going to a tiny little village that sells old used books. They had 10 different book shops all right in a row. This is probably my favorite picture of the trip. We also went to a glacier.