13.1 Miles. No big deal

While many people were enjoying their morning coffee, reading up on the news, perhaps going out for breakfast or brunch...I ran 13.1 miles. No big deal. I was done by 10:30am and on with the rest of my day. Which, consisted of ice, stretching and resting.

I ran my first Half Marathon on Jan 20th 2013 at the PF Chang's Rock 'n Roll Marathon. It was a girls weekend get together that had been planned since June 2012. A group of us decided we would run it together, though we all ran different times and distances, all because one of the ladies had a birthday. What a great group of ladies I am now friends with (those didn't already know). It was a great time getting to know each other, training, talking about how we were doing and to accomplish a goal I had always wanted to do. Next on the list? More half marathons and someday a full. Here is the weekend at a glance. Oh yeah, the results. Spoiler: 13.1 miles in 2:35 min. PR for me! Avg 11min/mile. Not bad! I only walked 2.5 total miles and did great. Goal: get the time down to 2:30 and keep going down from there. 2:20 and someday 2:00.

At the Rock 'n Roll Expo, downtown Phoenix.

At the expo. Only 26.2 miles to go!

Carbing it up the night before with some fellow weather nerd ladies.

Best Gal Pal Jessica :) and fellow Weather nerd!

At the start, waiting for that gun to go off.

At the start line. New best buddy Emma!

A quick shot as we head east. Around mile 2. 

TOAST! To the finish!

Hydrating with Nuun :) I love.

A bowl of protein goodness: Choc protein goo, PB, coconut cookie dough crumble & cinnamon flatout bowl. All from Stuftmama's recipes. Yum!

Just crossed the finish and was handed a medal and asked to take my picture. Atleast I'm smiling!

And after chugging some water. 

Gal Pal ladies from work & Jackson. We are ready to rock!

The whole group of ladies that ran (minus 1). Some ran the full, some ran the half marathon and some ran the half relay. We all accomplished goals and kicked butt!

 What a great weekend. Happy Birthday to Miss Leslie. She ran her first ever full Marathon and kicked some serious butt! What's next on the list?

--------------------------------

{Have been MIA from blog world, oops! Life has gotten in the way and blogging has gone to the back burner. Hopefully I can find some time to get back into things.}

My Special Guy

"My next thirty years will be the best years of my life, raise a little family and hang out with my wife, spend precious moments with the ones that I hold dear, make up for lost time here in my next thirty years." ~ Tim Mcgraw

The man himself. Mr. Dewey.

As stated in this quote shared by my special guy, I agree. No, I'm not 30 (yet) but he is. His birthday was on Friday. We went on an awesome trip to California and Sequoia National Park for his birthday, his request. We had a blast! My brother got to come along too. The three of us always have a great time together. Scratch that, a very SILLY time together. It's great. 






Happy Birthday to my love. I can't wait to spend the next 30+ years with you by my side.

These were back for his birthday 3 years ago. We went camping. Seems that's all he wants to do on his birthday, and always. It's a fun time.

Happy Birthday to my Joshy!

It's beginning to maybe feel like Christmas? [late post]

[another 'started but didn't finish' post. here it is anyway!]
With just returning to work recently, getting the hang of taking Jackson to daycare everyday, running on little to no sleep everyday and still running around doing EVERYTHING, it hasn't really hit me that Christmas is in a FEW DAYS. 

We finally got a Christmas tree last weekend. I know, finally right?! Decorated it, got some gifts wrapped (in between other chores and while Jackson was sleeping) and semi tried to clean the house. I haven't made Christmas cookies, though I was able to send out Christmas cards at the last minute. 

I'm lucky enough to have Christmas eve and day off this year. Haven't taken Jackson to see Santa yet this year. Even though he is so small he will likely not remember it, it's his first Christmas. So I'm going to do my best to get him to see Santa. Though, if it doesn't happen, next Christmas he will be a year old and it should be a bit more fun.

I'm realizing how much there is to do being a mom during the holidays. WOW! So much respect for the other Mom's out there!


And of course, I didn't finish this post and get it out before Christmas, so I'll post it now. Who cares. Just adding more to the busy of the season.

I hope your Christmas was a very special one. I hope you spent lots of time loving those close to you and enjoying little things in life with friends and family. 


Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas & Happy New year from my little family to yours :)

Family. Vacation. Friends. Parties.

Earlier this month I was able to fit alot of family and friends time together as well as traveling into one weekend. It was so worth it! Here are some pictures to show off the weekend. It started out in Las Vegas for my oldest Nephew's High School Graduation at The Orleans Hotel. I was able to see all my neices and nephews that live in Las Vegas, that is all 5 of them (I have 7 total)! Congrats Brandon!!
Then on to Colorado for my baby shower put on by my lovely mom and best friend Kim. They did a wonderful job and I loved seeing so many great friends and family! I loved seeing my sister Steph and comparing our belly's. We are about 9 weeks apart in pregnancy, she is farther along and due July 16!

I wish Josh could have come along with me, but our schedules just don't work out like that. He will be able to take some time later this summer to go visit family in Colorado and to see his newest neice or newphew when his sister has her baby.

{Swimming at the Rio, Las Vegas My mom, dad and neice Shelbey}

{Me and Dad swimming at the Rio Hotel, Vegas}

{My Neice and Nephews swimming}

{Mom & I at Brandon's graduation, The Orleans Hotel, Las Vegas}

{Me, my brother and neice Shelbey, waiting for graduation to start}

{Nephew Andrew, my mom and brother}

{Newphew Andrew, me and Jim}

{My brother Jim, nephew Brandon & nephew Andrew and Dad}

{Oldest Grandson (my nephew) graduates High School}

{Congrats Brandon! Oldest Nephew graduates High School}

{My neice Shelbey & brother Jim}

{My youngest Neice Gracie & I}

{Brandon & his Graduation Cake}

{My Sister (in-law) Steph and I. 27 weeks & 36 weeks apart!}

{May and Ava helping me with gifts}

{Some people at the Baby shower}

{Beautiful diaper cake, made by my mom. Giraffes, think that might be the theme for Baby D!}

{Mini cupcakes: Spice cake w/cream cheese frosting, Strawberry w/strawberry frosting, Chocolate brownie w/chocolate frosting & Lemon w/lemon frosting}

{Cute baby shoes with jelly beans, made by my mom!}

{Fruit Pizza made by my momma!}

What a fun filled FULL weekend. And now I'm back in the desert to live out the rest of this heated summer before baby gets here in 12 short weeks, eek!

Mini Vaca

I'm excited for my mini vaca this weekend. I had to plan way ahead for my baby shower since I'll be going back to Colorado for it so this weekend was planned way back when. Sadly, I didn't realize it until it was too late that it is Father's Day. So I'll be doing something special for Josh when I get back :)

Since I had this weekend off we also made the most of it, by going to Las Vegas a day or two before I go to Colorado for my oldest Nephew's High School Graduation. Congrats Brandon! Then it's on to Colorado to see some family and friends. I can not wait!! 

Josh isn't able to go with me this time, but he will head out to Colorado later this summer for his sister's second baby when baby is born.

Here's to some traveling and spending time with family and friends!

Here are some fun pictures....

Action packed weekend with great friends

This weekend was such a blast! So much fun that I hadn't been on the computer to post, check, nothing all weekend since last Wednesday. Tried to take some pictures here and there but mostly enjoyed everyone. 

Josh and I were lucky enough to get a long weekend off and our friends came to visit. Josh's best friend Brian came from Colorado. It was great to see him. He'd never seen the desert or been to Arizona before (I believe?). John & Rebekah and their little guy Landon also came from Colorado to visit. We had a house full! It was so great having everyone here, I loved having the house full. We grilled out just about every night and hung out by the pool just about every single day. No sunburns here though, we did good! 

Landon is a hoot to be around! He's walking and moving and talking up a storm. He grabs things and then trys to give it to you only before he takes it away again. He was in love with chasing Lucy around the house. I'm sure she is enjoying the quietness of not having him around anymore. She was a good sport though.


We cooked up some pretty amazing things this weekend, and of course I didn't take pictures of the food. I plan to cook these again very soon, so I will post pics then. 

 We even got to go to a Phoenix Coyotes vs. Colorado Avalanche Hockey game while we were out there, little surprise from the Davis's to us. Such a great time! The Av's are our favorite team and we don't get to see them play much anymore. The Av's won too! I'm sure we were the only row of Av's fans, appropriately dressed too!


We loved having our friends come visit and can't wait to see them all again!