Thanksgiving

To start off Thanksgiving this year we signed up for a 5k race with Brian's mom in Cottonwood Heights. It was somewhere around 10 degrees that morning. We didn't want to get discouraged by the temperature so we bundled up the best we could. Here we are after the race. As you can see we all survived the freezing temperatures.

I don't think any of us had experienced running in that cold of weather before but we had a good time and in the end we were glad we braved the weather. It was a great experience. There were over 1,000 runners. Brian, of course, placed somewhere around 125th. I, on the other hand, placed somewhere around 825th and Brian's mom was not far behind me. All in all it was fun and we are glad that we did it!! The best part was feeling more justified in having seconds and thirds on that yummy turkey dinner later on!! :)

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Halloween

Well Halloween has come and gone yet again. Our costumes this year weren't super exciting but they were fun. My work decided to dress up on the Friday before Halloween. I was desperate for a costume and my sister came through and saved the day. She let me borrow the costume she made with a bunch of coworkers last year. Yes I was a can of Crush for Halloween. I loved how simple the costume was and how easy it was to take off if I needed to.

Brian's nursing program put on a "Run Miles for Smiles 5K" on the 30th to raise money for their program and for Operation Smile. He decided to dress up as a patient for the race. I wore my Nudist on Strike shirt because it was simple and would be easy to run in.

I don't know how he actually convinced me to run the race. I haven't been running since June and I knew my body wouldn't enjoy running 3.1 miles with no recent training. Needless to say I have been hobbling around the last two days in pain. Here we are at the finish line.

They actually gave out prizes for the best costumes. Brian won 4th place and was given a 15 dollar gift card to ITunes. Pretty good for a borrowed gown from the hospital.

Here are all of the others that wore costumes.

Vermont

For as long as I can remember I have always wanted to visit Vermont. I'm not sure why exactly, but the state has always been on my list of places to visit. Well 2 weeks ago we got the chance to go out there. Brian's sister Missy and her family live out there so for Brian's fall break we decided to go visit them. We loved being able to spend a week with their family while enjoying the beautiful state of Vermont.

I can not take credit for this beautiful shot to the left. Chase's sister Marci took this picture just before we left Joseph Smith's birth place. I think that it is absolutely beautiful.


While we were there Missy and Chase blessed their new baby girl Contessa. We are so glad that we were able to be there for her blessing. Chase's parents and his sister Marci and her family were also able to fly out for the blessing. Here is a picture of the whole clan that was there.

Funnest kid ever!! Really! Enoch is a blast to be around. His energy can be exhausting at times.

Beautiful Tessa


After the blessing and some delicious lunch we drove to Sharon, Vermont where a monument stands for Joseph Smith's birth place. It was a really pretty place.


The next day we had breakfast at the Shelburne Inn located on Shelburne Farms. This place was beautiful. Here is a shot with Lake Champlain in the background.

Here is the Inn with everyone posing... I mean relaxing in front of it.

Here are some pictures of the gardens they had outside the Inn.

Here is Brian. I think he is trying to connect or reconnect with nature. :)

Another gorgeous view. I really can not get over how beautiful with place was.

The next day we drove to Stowe, Vermont where the Ben & Jerry's factory is.

They had a graveyard for flavors of ice cream they no longer use.

While in Stowe we also went to a cider mill where we got to sample cidar. It was yummy of course.

The next day we decided to take a trip up to Montreal. It was definitely an adventure we weren't prepared for but we had a good time together. :) Here are some photos of our trip.

Montreal was a neat city. Busy and crowded, but neat. I'm glad we got the chance to drive up there and see a little bit of the city.

The next day we flew home on the 6am flight and got back to SLC just after Noon. It was nice getting back that early but we were exhausted. After we picked up Stu from Grandma's house and ran some errands we went home to take a nap. We layed down at 4pm with full intentions of getting up at 6pm. When we woke up at 10pm we realized we had over shot our goal of 6pm by quite a bit. Oh the joys of traveling!!

Stu

So I just realized that we mention in our profile that we have a cockatiel named Stu but we have never introduced him officially on the blog. I think that he is feeling a little left out.

So here is Stu!

He is quite an adorable bird. Let me tell you a few things about him. He loves whistling/singing in the mirror. He loves it when we rub his head. He makes us smile everyday. He is completely driven by his desire for food (it gets annoying every once in a while) and he is determined to get what he wants. He waddles around our apartment like he owns the place. He likes to take naps and snuggle with Brian.

He puts himself to bed around 10:30 pm and is very grumpy if you try to play with him after that time. He loves flying around the house. And one of his favorite toys is one of Brian's flossing Plackers as you can see in this picture.

He is a very social bird and I'm afraid he annoys our neighbors because he loves to chirp so much. Well there you go. That is Stu. We purchased him from Bird World last December and he had his first birthday in August. So he is still a baby but he is definitely a delight in our home. I hope you enjoyed meeting him. :)

The Dirty Dash

Is it not every boy's dream to play in the mud? The problem is as boys become men it's not socially acceptable or mature for boys to fulfill their desire to be dirty. Well Brian finally got a chance to fulfill his inner boyish desires. On Sept 25th Brian and some friends ran a 10K race called the Dirty Dash. It is the first "mud run" type race put together in Utah and I think they said they had over 4,000 participants for their first year. Brian, of course, hasn't been running since April because he hurt his knee in the spring, but you couldn't tell he hadn't trained because he ran the race like a champ.

The race was held at Soldier Hollow where the Olympic Cross Country race took place. You could run the race as an individual or as a team of 5. Here is a picture of Brian's team before they got all muddy. I think their team name was Riot.

This is where the race started. They had several heats of runners that went every 20 minutes. Team Riot was in the 3rd heat which is nice because we didn't have to wait around too long for them to start the race. I was amazed at how many people were there. That place was packed. This picture doesn't really show how many people were actually there.

This is another angle of the start. I went up a little ways so I could get a picture of them running towards me.

And they're off!!

I admit that I was afraid there for a moment that I was going to get trampled, but everything turned out alright. :)

The neat thing about this race is that they had random obstacles placed around the course. They had hay bails, tunnels, walls, tires, swamps, etc. I wasn't able to get a picture of all of the obstacles but I got some of the good ones. Here is Brian climbing over one of three sets of walls.

Here is the longest Slippin' Slide in the world (or so they say) made specifically for this race.

And here is the huge mud pit they were supposed to crawl on their hands and knees through. As you can see some of the other teams were cheating.

And finally the victorious shot at the end!

They made pretty good time considering all of the mud and obstacles they encountered. I was glad that I was able to go up and support even though we had to be in Midway by 7:15 am. Other than that it was a beautiful day for a race and I'm pretty sure Brian enjoyed himself!

Moab

For our 2nd anniversary this last August we took a trip down to Moab and visited Arches and Canyonlands National Parks. It had been a long time since either of us had been down there so we were excited to be able to make the trip. We stayed at a really neat bed and breakfast called the Adobe Abode. We never got a picture but it was an awesome place to stay. They have a website if you want to check it out.

The first day there we went to Arches National Park where we did a bunch of hikes. The first one we did was Delicate Arch. That hike can be a little tough in the heat but the arch is absolutely amazing. Here are the pics.

Next we stopped by Sandune Arch. This is the only one I really had any memory of from coming as a child. It was still as cool as I remember it being back then. Here is a picture of Brian practicing his levitating skills.

And here is the well known Balanced Rock!

We then went over to Turret Arch and the Windows. Here are some shots we got while sitting inside the right window. We couldn't believe how amazing the view was from inside there.

And here is Double Arch. This arch is absolutely amazing. I think that it is my all-time favorite.

Our second day staying in Moab we drove out to the Canyonlands. We wanted to go to Dead Horse Point but we were turned off by the price we had to pay to see it. So we just visited the Canyonlands that day. I think the highlight of our visit there was Mesa Arch. The view through the arch is incredible.

Another trail worth going on is the Grand View Trail. The majority of the trail goes along the edge of a cliff with a view that is breathtaking. I'm not sure pictures will be able to portray this aspect but here a some for kicks.

Our third day in Moab we decided to go back to Arches and do the Devil's Garden trail. This trail is neat because it has 8 different arches you can see along the way. We only made it to 7 of them but they were all pretty amazing. We were able to see Tunnel Arch, Pine Tree Arch, Landscape Arch, Black Arch, Navajo Arch, Partition Arch and Double O Arch. The only one we didn't see was Private Arch.

Tunnel Arch

Pine Tree Arch

Landscape Arch

Partition Arch

Navajo Arch

Black Arch

Double O Arch

(from the back side)

It is incredible to me the amount of beauty the state of Utah has. I'm glad that we get to live in a state that has so much to offer. We really are lucky to be surrounded by so much beauty and the Arches and Canyonlands are great examples of this.