Merry Christmas 2009

Love,

Brian, Natalie, Wes and Sydney

To Utah We Will Go...

We woke the kids up at 4:45am eastern time yesterday (Mom woke up at 3:45am and Dad at 4:15am), got in the car and headed to the airport. The kids did great considering neither slept on the plane!

Miraculously, Mom and Dad were able to get some little naps in while the kids zoned out watching Mickey Mouse's Twice Upon a Christmas. I'm grateful for portable DVD players!

Snow Slide

Love this picture.

Kiddos

I think my kids are cute. That's a good thing. :)

Pry into the chocolate anyway you can...

An art project Wes and I did one morning. I thought he turned out pretty cute! (Wes too.)





I'm not a fan of naked-baby pictures, but Sydney just thought she was hot-stuff walking around with these tights on. I was laughing because they came all the way up to her armpits.

Playing outside on the snowy tennis courts.

A little snow (and cold) can't keep this kid down.

These kids have a great time together. And an even better time when their dad's around.

Cowtown Countdown - 10 Weeks to Go

Running in the snow is hard - especially when it's 16 miles in the snow! Luckily, some of the sidewalks were shoveled, but others weren't. Saturday's long-run was one of the hardest I've ever done! After about 5 miles, I asked Jonelle if we should call Brian and have him come pick us up. She told me to give it 4 more miles and then see how I felt. And then she kept trying to keep me going with motivational quotes and such. She's a good friend! :) Thankfully, it wasn't actually snowing until the last 3 to 4 miles, but then it got really cold and windy. We still got 'er done though!

The rest of the week went well. It was so good to be out running again! Thursday was probably my favorite run because the sidewalks were clear and my easy pace was faster than I expected. I've tried to look less at my GPS watch and focus more on the run. It's nice to see my pace based on how I feel not so much on what I'm "supposed" to do.

Weekly Goals

Monday: 4 miles at 8:47 / mi
Tuesday: 3 miles at 7:37 / mi (w/ 1 mile warm and cool)
Thursday: 3 miles at 8:47 / mi
Saturday: 16 miles at 8:47 / mi

Outcome

Monday: 4 miles at 8:19 / mi
Tuesday: 3 miles at 7:40 / mi
Thursday: 3 miles at 7:58 / mi
Saturday: 16 miles at 8:45 / mi