A Feeling

Do you ever get the feeling... that craving for change? Over the last few days, I have this anxious, nagging feeling in the bottom of my stomach. I can't tell if it's the "something is coming" feeling, or the "I wish something would come" feeling.
A lot of people are scared of change. I'm not normally one of those people. I kind of like big changes like moving or getting a new job. I view them as a chance to start over. I don't know if any big changes are coming any time soon, but I've got a few little things brewing in my pot of change...
-I'm trying to improve my body (who's not?). I've learned some new things to do with weights and the ball and figured out a way to do a lot of it at home.
-I am trying to improve my overall health through healthy eating. For Christmas I received a subscription to the Cooking Light magazine, a knife block, and an apron with chickens on it. I have vowed to try one new healthy recipe each week.
-I am trying NAET www.naet.com to get rid of my restless leg syndrome. This is an eastern therapy that is supposed to reduce your sensitivity to chemicals, foods, hormones, etc. I am also being treated for a variety of emotions and my voo-doo witch doctor claims that it can help with morning sickness. I'll do a more in depth post about this at a later time.
-I'm starting a collection of essential oils. My friend Maria sent me some samples a couple of months ago. I've been studying the properties of many of the essential oils and am intrigued enough to try them out. I'll keep you posted on this as well.
Perhaps these are my little new year resolutions. Whatever they are, I hope these little changes help me to improve myself and my life.

The Mile High Half

I did it. I ran 13.1 miles on Sunday. It was awesome. Tara and I have been training for this for the last 13 weeks. It feels weird that it's over just like that...the thing I've been working for and training so hard for is finished. I accomplished my goal, but as life goes, I had a few last-minute issues to hold me up a little. I was totally psyched and felt prepared to run the race. I did my last long training run about a week before race day. The next morning, I woke up with a fever... "oh no," I thought. Over the weekend, it turned into a pretty bad case of bronchitis. Respiratory illness and running are not compatible. On Monday, I went to the Dr. and got on some antibiotics and an inhaler. I was not able to run until Friday and it was only 2.5 miles, and it hurt my lungs. I was feeling alright by bedtime on Saturday. I wanted to be sure to get enough rest, so I went to bed early. At 1 a.m., Jack (who has been sleeping through the night for months) decided that he didn't want to sleep. I fed him thinking that he would eat and go back down... no such luck. He was awake until 4 a.m. and so was I. Once we started running, I felt pretty good. I am happy with my accomplishment and I am proud of myself and my sister for finishing what we set out to do. The above picture is us at the finish line with our other sis, Carlie (who was an awesome help with Jack during the race).
Jack and I headed out to Denver last Saturday morning. We had a fun time with Tara, Rusty, Halle, Josh, Blake and Carlie. Michael had to stay home and work (someone had to foot the bill for our trip...). It was fun to hang out with my sisters doing a little shopping and lunching and movieing. Carlie went home on Monday morning and it's too bad because she missed out on the adventure to the pumpkin patch. The kids loved petting the animals and climbing around on the pumpkins.

Family Picnic and Canyon Drive

On Saturday, we went up American Fork Canyon for a picnic. We drove up to A meadow above the Timpanooke trail head (same place where Michael asked me to marry him).

After our picnic, we decided that since we now have a car that works off road, we would go on a little exploratory drive. The drive was beautiful. There were wildflowers everywhere. We found a few trail heads for hikes that we might go back to. We assumed that the road would come out another canyon, but instead, it took us a little over 1 and 1/2 hours to get to a dead end. So we had to back-track our whole trip. It was still fun and beautiful.

Jack's First Peak

I love the mountains. I have a sense of freedom when I'm hiking a trail and a wonderful sense of accomplishment when I've reached the summit. I am so happy to live in this beautiful place where I can access freedom and accomplishment so easily.

On Saturday evening, we thought we'd beat the heat and go to a higher altitude for a hike. We did Sunset Peak. The trail head is above Alta at the Albion Basin. We did get out of the heat, but we did not plan for the bugs. All three of us got quite a few mosquito bites... yipes.

Our Trip to Colorado

Well, the original plan was to hit both Thailand and Peru before having a baby, but now that Jack is part of our family, we wouldn't trade him for a trip around the world.

Anyway, our big trip for this year was a trip to Erie, Colorado, home of my sister, Tara and her family. Tara had a new baby, Blake, at the end of May, so we went out there to let Jack meet his new cousin. We had a fun time while we were there. Here is a picture of the cousins: Blake, Josh, Halle, Jack. Above is a pic of Blake and Jack. They happened to have matching outfits... we couldn't resist.

On Wednesday, Tara and I had a girls night out. We went to the awesome venue Red Rock Amphitheater and saw Celtic Woman preform. They were fantastic. They had some of the most beautiful voices I have ever heard. There was also a fiddle player who was very entertaining, dancing and jumping all around the stage as she played her instrument. While we girls were enjoying our night out, the men took the children on a little hike. Apparently there was a lot of complaining and crying... sounds like fun.

Thursday we packed up the beach bag and went to Boulder Reservoir. There is a fun little beach area. The kids played in the sand and we all swam around in the water.

Friday, Michael, Jack and I went to Chautauqua Park and hiked around. The Flat Irons Area is beautiful. After a hot afternoon of hiking, we headed over to Pearl Street to get some lunch and do a little shopping. We had gyros from a fun little Mediterranean place.
Later that evening, we enjoyed a neighborhood BBQ in the park and in the Erie tradition, celebrated our country's birthday one day early with fireworks at the golf course. The kids really enjoyed the fireworks... especially Jack and Blake who slept right through them.

Saturday, Michael and Rusty went for a hike. They summited Mt. Bierdstadt at 14,060 feet. This was Michael's first 14er, but I'm sure it won't be his last. While the men were hiking, Tara and I took the kids to a farmers market in Boulder. We enjoyed sampling delicious organic treats and walking around the park. We topped off our outing with lunch on Pearl Street from Old Chicago Pizza. Wow, was it delicious.

We just hung out on Saturday evening and Michael, Jack and I flew home on Sunday. What a fun trip.

Tulip Festival

Last week, I visited Thanksgiving Point's Tulip Festival... Twice. The first time was an activity for Dialysis patients and staff funded by the Kidney Foundation. We had a nice time, but it was windy and cold, so we kind of rushed through the gardens. It was fun to go with Kasey and Brian who also have a little baby, Sam, who was born 4 weeks after Jack.

The second time, Katie and I took Jack and Zeke for a fun filled afternoon. Our favorite part of the day was when a mother said to her crying child, "don't be sad, it's tulip time."

Afterwards, Jack and Zeke crashed on the bean bag at my house.

Jack's Busy Weekend

Jack had kind of a crazy weekend. On Saturday, he went with his mom and dad up to Park City to the Canyons Ski Resort where they were going to watch a pond skimming contest that was advertised as a free event. When we arrived, we were informed that the event was free, but that we each had to pay $15 to get up the gondola to get to the event (the worker also let me know that Jack could go up for free...thanks). We were late and would have only gotten to see a few minutes of the pond skimming, so we decided to spend our $30 at the outlets instead. We bought some new clothes for Jack because his newborn size clothes are getting a little snug. I also got some bigger shirts for myself (hopefully by summer I'll be able to wear last year's clothes a little more comfortably). Michael is the only one who didn't get to buy anything... His clothes still fit him. When we were done shopping, we headed back up to The Canyons for a Wailers concert. I think there is only one guy who was actually in Bob Marley's band, but it was fun anyway. This was Jack's first out of womb concert experience. He enjoyed it so much that he slept through the entire thing.

On Sunday, Jack had his baby blessing at our church. He looked so handsome in his little white tux vest and bow tie. We had our families over for waffles after the blessing. After everybody went home, we three Birds took a long nap. I still need to put the extra table and chairs away... maybe later.

This is a photo of our family members who were able to attend Jack's baby blessing. And I had to put just one more of Jack in his white suit.

Silver Lake

On Saturday, we decided to take advantage of the nice weather since it was probably our last chance to take a hike this season. Usually, our summers and falls are filled with hikes, but because morning sickness and hiking are not a good combination, we didn't get up on the peaks as much as we would have liked to.

We drove up American Fork Canyon, took our little Civic on an off-road adventure (really not that bad, just not paved), and finally got to the trail head for Silver Lake. It's about 2.5 miles up to the lake, so Michael had a breeze of a walk while the baby and I struggled up the hill (again, really not that bad, just not as easy as it once was... like when I was in shape and not growing a child in my belly). The water at the lake was pretty low and most of the trees were dead along the trail, but it was still nice to get out and enjoy the great outdoors. The picture is of Mt. Timp from the trail.

Oh, and Michael missed most of the BYU football game to hike with me. He must really care about me.

Children of Winter

Last Friday evening, after having a birthday celebration dinner for my brother-in-law, Danny, Michael and I went on a hot date to the annual showing of the newest Warren Miller film, Children of Winter. The movie was pretty sweet, showing many tricks we only dream we could do and many places we only wish we could go. We also each got a day pass to the Canyons which Michael and a friend will be able to enjoy (I will not be using mine... I don't think pregnant people are supposed to ski).

I am going to miss skiing this season. We had such a good time on the slopes last year. It made winter fun. But last year we didn't have a darling baby boy, so I guess that will be our trade off. Maybe in a few years, we can teach our baby to ski...

Update

Nothing terribly interesting is happening in my life right now, so here are some of the uninteresting things going on...

I guess I could tell you that we have been house hunting. We have found some nice places in the North part of Lehi and are looking in Draper as well. Now is a great time to be a buyer, not so great if you're a seller. I will keep you updated when we decide what we're getting. Maybe I'll even throw myself a housewarming party.

We went to the Weezer concert on Tuesday. When we got there, we were lined up behind a bunch of 12 year-olds. It was the first time in my life I've ever felt old. Most of the attendees were actually adults, so as the evening went on, I began to feel young again. I think Weezer is alright, but Michael is a pretty big fan (this probably goes back to 6th or 7th grade). So Michael really liked the concert, but the baby would get mad when it got very loud. It felt like he was punching my insides.

We went to Bodyworlds 3 yesterday. It was pretty cool. We had free tickets. Admission is $22 per person, so make sure you REALLY like looking at dead people before you go and drop the cash. There was one display that I thought was exceptionally cool... The baby display. It had embryos and fetuses from 5 weeks gestation through 32 weeks. By 8 weeks it is only about 1/2 an inch long, but it looks like a real baby... amazing. The whole thing was very cool, just a little overpriced (unless you get to go for free like us).

I am getting pretty fat. This baby boy is growing fast. I wont disturb your image of a slimmer me with a photo (you would probably throw up in your mouth and I don't want you to have to search for gum or a breath mint right now). It's actually pretty exciting to watch my belly grow. The baby moves all the time. Sometimes it even makes me feel nauseated again. I'm pretty sure he is the cutest baby ever. I can't wait until we get a new house so that I can start putting his nursery together.

I think that about sums it up...

San Francisco

Michael and I spent this last weekend in San Francisco. Michael has been dying to see Radiohead live for pretty much his entire life, so when he heard that they were playing at the Outside Lands Festival, he forked over the cash and we had a music-filled vacation to plan.
Outside Lands put on a pretty good show. We saw plenty of great concerts including, but not limited to Radiohead, Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals, Tom Petty and the Heart Breakers, Beck, Wilco, Jack Johnson, and several bands that we hadn't ever heard of (I can't remember the names off the top of my head). The selection was pretty diverse, so we never got stuck in one genre for too long. Here are a few pics of some of the shows.

We also did a little sight seeing while we were in the city. On Thursday evening, we visited and went on a tour of Alcatraz. We also spent some time at Fisherman's Warf. On Monday, we had a few hours before our flight home, so we walked through China Town and Union Square.

Grand Teton/ Yellowstone Adventure

Sunday morning we packed up some gear, got in the car, and made a 6 hour journey to take my true love (Michael) to my other true love (Grand Teton National Park). We were pretty hungry when we got there, so upon arrival at our campsite at Colter Bay, we immediately lit the charcoal so we could get our tinfoil dinners cooking. We took a walk down by Jackson Lake and enjoyed our time around the campfire.

On Monday morning, we headed up to Yellowstone. We spent the entire day getting in and out of the car to see the natural wonders. We started at West Thumb where we saw beautiful geyser pools, visited an awesome waterfall at Artist's Point, enjoyed our hike at Mammoth Hot Springs, watched as Old Faithful errupted, and experienced many other little wonders along the way. We saw 3 black bears on our drive over to Mammoth. Unfortunately, I don't have a three foot zoom on my little camera, so the bear pics aren't great.

Tuesday, we spent the morning and early afternoon on a beautiful hike to Phelps Lake in Teton. This is the third time I've done this hike because I am in love with the view when I come to the lookout over the lake. I would describe it as "breath-taking," and that's not a term I use lightly :). We then drove over to another area where we did another hike to String and Leigh Lakes. We polished off the Jackson Hole experience that evening by attending the Bar J Wranglers dinner and show. If you're ever in Jackson, go to this. It's quite entertaining.

Wednesday, we got up and cought a small ferry boat across Jenny Lake then hiked to Hidden Falls and Inspiration point. We had to rush down because we had to be on time for our next adventure: white water rafting down the Snake River. This river trip wasn't quite as intense as the one in Costa Rica, but we had a great time on the rapids. We spent our last evening roasting marshmallows for smores and went for a moonlight walk by the lake.

We had a great time and found so many other things we still want to do. We'll save those things for another trip.

Local Beauty

I love living so close to so many beautiful places. If I want to go up a canyon, I have at least 8 options within an hour's drive. American Fork Canyon is the closest, being only 15 minutes from my house. The down side to AF canyon is the $6 entrance fee. Despite that, last week when my friends Katie and Andrew were visiting from Kansas, we decided to go and explore Timpanogas Cave National Monument (on a guided tour). If you haven't done this, I highly recommend it. The formations inside the cave are beautiful. The picture on the right is the largest stalactite in the cave, nicknamed The Heart of Timpanogas. It's pretty cool.
Last night, we went up there again with my parents and sister and brother-in-law. We cooked delicious tinfoil dinners and smores. I love summertime.
This afternoon, Michael and I drove up Big Cottonwood Canyon. We went up to Brighton resort and did a 3 mile loop to Twin Lakes and Lake Solitude. The hike wasn't too strenuous, but I felt pretty good about it since it was my greatest physical feat in about 2 months (I've had to cut way back on exercise since I've not been well). We spent quite a lot of time skiing the area last winter and got to do a little of that on one snowy slope today, so we felt right at home. This is a picture of us at Twin Lakes.

Backpacking Mineral Gulch

For Christmas, I got Michael a Backpack from Cabella's. Then for his birthday (which happened to be the same day as the REI anniversary sale), I got him a sleeping bag, a camping stove, two thermarest pads (ok, one was for me), a tent, and some camping cookware. At this point he was all set for a backpacking adventure.

Last Monday evening, we did a little online research on backpacking destinations, and we headed out for Mineral Gulch on Tuesday morning. Mineral Gulch is just East of Zion National Park. We started hiking in the afternoon and set up camp about 7.5 miles later. After we had pitched our tent, I reached into my pack to get out my fleece. It was soaked. Turns out that the valve of my 3 liter camel back pouch somehow popped open while we were setting up camp. All of my warm clothes were soaked and I had lost about 3/4 of the water I had brought to sustain my life for the next 2 days. Luckily, we had brought some emergency water purifier tablets along and there was some water about a mile away. So the next morning, we woke up and started walking to find the Indian Pictographs that we had hiked down here to see. We walked about two miles out to a really beautiful section of narrows when we figured out that we had missed the confluence that we were supposed to turn at. So we went back to camp, ate lunch, packed up, and started backtracking yesterday's trail. We found the confluence about 1.5 miles away. We had totally missed it the day before. At this point, we filled a bottle of water to treat, ditched our packs, and headed up the wash in search of the pictographs.

We never found the pictographs. We did find 7-arch, though, at the end of the trail where these pictographs supposedly were. We searched and searched for the pictographs, bushwhacking along the base of the cliffs, to no avail.

We decided to hike a few miles back toward the trail head and set up camp for one last night before heading home. A couple of miles later, we ran out of regular water and were forced to drink the emergency purified water. It was so gross that it made us dry-heave. We decided that we would rather hike extra miles that night than drink that nasty water for another day. So after about 18 miles of hiking (7.5 with 50 lb. packs on our backs), we finally reached our car. We were both so exhausted and dehydrated. We headed straight for the nearest gas station and immediately drank $6 worth of Gatorade. We also checked into the nearest hotel when we determined that our legs hurt too much to drive for 4 hours.

We had a great time, but it would have been a lot better if I would not have lost my water.