Yesterday we enjoyed a day of nothing to do and spent the first half doing yard work and house cleaning!  It was so great!!!  Then after nap time we went to Walnut Creek!  Why not, right?  The biggest hit, yet again, was a water fountain we found along the way.  Bryce entertained one man so much, he insisted, literally, on taking our picture.

Date Night

Ty has been asking me for over a month now if we could go out to a movie... But life has been busy and we struggled to find a night that we could.  This weekend was approaching and upon discovering our open schedule, I scrambled to find a babysitter.  Funny thing though... no one was available!  It's quite comical really, but I've never been rejected so many times!  So, instead we went into town, got the car smogged, and happened to pass a pizza place our friends have told us about.  So that settled it.  We got the biggest slice of pizza I have ever seen, it was the best pizza I've ever tasted, and there was a water fountain and a frozen yogurt shop just across the street. 

It turned into a perfect date night. 

W have only been to this frozen yogurt shop once, and Bryce remembered that the store right next to the yogurt was home to a few fish.  So... we went and said hi to the fish too!



Three Boys

 This is what we do on lazy afternoons.

:o)

Dixon May Fair!

Auntie Linda and Baby Taylor came in town and we all headed to Dixon!  The weather was perfect, the pigs entertaining, and the prices were expectantly too high!  We did as much free stuff as we could, bought a $7 hot dog to share and headed home.  I think our favorite thing was the pig racing! 

Hay bale jumping.  Bryce spent at least 20 minutes jumping back and forth

while we waited for the piggies to assemble. 

Bryce got to try out a little dirt bike coarse.  We'll see if any interest pops up later.

Thank heaven the train ride was free.  It squelched a tantrum rising in Bryce... I didn't want to spend $6 to slide down a slide they'd only let him ride once.  Mean mom, I know.

He's THREE !!!

Bryce turned 3 yesterday.  (tear)

Lots of monster pictures.  Here's a few favorites!

Tuesday night we had a monster party, and the following morning began the day when I let Bryce do whatever he wanted.  First, he was measured.  We then played with his new guitar he received from his friend, Jett the night before, then we ate cereal and got ready for music makers.  Anissa and Derek picked us up for music makers where Bryce sang his little heart out.  After we took the boys to McD's and let them play for a while.  Derek gave Bryce the one gift that Bryce has always coveted when he goes over:  Buzz.  Anissa cleaned him up and gave Buzz fresh batteries.  Bryce was so happy.  I wasn't going to make him take a nap, but he welcomed the idea... After he awoke we read books, I let him choose what we had for dinner.  With hands in the air he said, "I want cereal. How bout Rice kwispies?!"  So we had cereal and a smoothie.  We then skyped with Grandma and Poppe Carlson, then Bryce asked to go to "Chucheese games" for a bit.  Came home, took a bath, and went to bed.  It was a good day.  Sill can't believe he's three.  Love him!

This was a BIG weekend... for 2 reasons

1. I cut my hair

2. I ran my first marathon

First, I have been planning for a while now to cut my hair short, pixie short.  I have never, ever gone this short, but I realized a couple years ago that I don't have hair that will ever look good long (tear), and therefore I need to just be happy about short hair style options! 

So here I am with super short hair!

Second, and bigger than the haircut:  Anissa and I ran the Provo Marathon!

This is my friend who helped me accomplish something I never thought I'd be able to do.  In truth, I don't love running... But... I do love the way I feel after I run, and I love having regular time with one of my best friends, giving me "girl-time" that I believe every woman needs.  I have been so blessed to have Anissa in my life and to have our schedules and running styles be so compatible that we could train together and accomplish the goal of a marathon together.  Anissa has a passion for helping people get into running.  I am not the first person she has helped train for a marathon.  Almost two years ago I asked if I could start running with her.  It was a time in my life when I desperately needed a distraction.  It was an answer to prayer, an answer I didn't fully understand at the time.  With that said, running with Anissa was the therapy I needed.  So grateful Heavenly Father knows what I need, since most the time I don't.  Anissa has helped me so much, and I am so very thankful for her. 

I flew in a few days early to hang out with Emily.   I am bugged with myself I have no pictures of our adventures.  It's been a really long time since we've had time together, just the two of us without the distraction of husband or kid.  The first two days were for her... helping out in her classroom and such... And the last two days were for me... getting ready for the marathon and relaxing after.  Em was a gem!  She was super supportive throughout the whole thing.  When I first signed up for this race, I called Em first to ask if she'd be there for me at the finish line.  At the time, Anissa was not running it with me, but I felt calm knowing that Em would be there for me at the end.  I don't need a lot of hype when I run a race, but I am so grateful she was there.  I felt so supported. 

Funny story: At mile 14 Emily was waiting with my favorite water bottle to give me, expecting the weather would be warmer and I'd need it... A mile later, Anissa and I stopped at a porta potty to take care of business.  Long story short, my water bottle fell in. 
Super gross.  I said a quick good bye and that was it. 

Run 13 is the company that put the race on.  I promise it really was 26.2 miles though. 

So many people wanted to know how fast I wanted to finish.  It got to a point where I was actually a little annoyed, since most people who asked had never run one themselves.  They would get really weird when I would tell them my time didn't matter to me.  I did have goals... My goals were to not walk, to not die, and to finish.  Now that I have a time on record, I can work towards beating that time, but wasn't it ok to just want to finish?

I am not crying, just blocking the sun and relieving my legs for a moment.

I have never run any other marathon, but I thought the Provo City Marathon was perfect!  The weather was perfect!  The scenery was fantastic!  With the exception of losing my water bottle, we didn't have a single problem.  Happy.