The Utah Valley Half Marathon

Well, I finally did it. For almost three years, I have had a goal to run a half marathon. When I was on a study abroad in London in 2009, my sister-in-law Claire told me she was going to run a half marathon in St. George, and she wanted me to do it with her. I started training by running in Hyde Park, and even ran a whole 5 miles one day (I was so proud of myself! haha) but it got cold and rainy, and Claire ended up pregnant a few months later.... go figure ;). Ever since then, life kind of got in the way, and I made up excuse after excuse about why I couldn't run 13.1 miles. Finally, this past February, I was done making up excuses. I knew I would have a little less stress and more time to train after I graduated from BYU in April, and I also knew I wouldn't back up after paying 75 bones to sign up. So I did it. A few months later, my husband Brig and his brother Abe and sister Abi and her husband Dave decided it would be fun to run it as a family, and I am so glad they joined me! Even though we didn't run together, it was fun to be together at the starting line.

I got sick about 4 times during my 16 week training, which made it really hard to keep increasing my distance. I didn't run as much as I wanted to, but I ran more than I ever had before. 

Me at the starting line

 Right before the race

 I finished!!

Doing this half marathon was one of the best things I could've done right now. (Thank you Claire for being my inspiration!) It was so much fun to run with so many people and to be inspired by all the marathoners! There was so much adrenaline running through my body that I was able to run the entire thing (even though at mile 10 I thought my feet were going to fall off...)!! I never thought I could do it. I gained confidence in myself and reminded myself that I can do hard things. 

Now I'm addicted! I'm planning on running at least 1 or 2 more halfs this summer and my long-term goal is to run the Utah Valley Marathon next year!! Here's to more training!!

Vegas

I know I know... this is a little late. But I finally uploaded these pictures from my phone and thought I'd share.

Brig and I wanted to celebrate my graduation from BYU by going on some sort of vacation. We hadn't gone on a real vacation since out honeymoon, so we were excited when we were offered a few nights at a  condo owned by a couple in Brig's parents' ward. It was a beautiful condo, and it felt nice to be able to just do nothing for a few days! It was nice and warm down there; a perfect escape from Utah.

We couldn't really afford to go somewhere far, and Brig and I couldn't miss work for very long, so Vegas was the perfect location. Although I was sick the whole time (seems to happen every single time I leave town...) we had a great time!

We didn't have the best luck with food on the trip. We went to a Chinese restaurant with great reviews, but terrible food. Nobody spoke English there, so we somehow ended up getting enough food for 5 people and didn't eat any of it.

 Eggs benedict. Better than the Chinese, but only by a little bit.

 Best part of Las Vegas! For some reason, these fountains have always been so inspiring and beautiful to me. One year, I came down to Vegas with my parents and my mom and I sat for 2 hours and watched 8 fountain shows in one night.

 Bellagio conservatory gardens

 Laying out... ignore the paleness.

 On our last day of the trip, we finally had good luck with a restaurant. A friend suggested we go to Hash House a Go Go, and it was a hit! This was my yummy banana brown sugar pancake. I could only eat about 1/4 of it, even though it was so good!!!

We were planning on going to Zion's for a few days after Vegas, but I just didn't seem to be getting better (ended up with a sinus infection), and didn't feel up to hiking in 90 degree weather, so we went home early. Kind of a bummer, but all in all a good vaca!!

Chairs

My mom bought these chairs at an antique store in Cedar City for only 12 bucks each last year, and I've finally gotten around to re-doing them! (I should 've taked pictures of them before my dad took the old seats off... they were a really ugly green and orange velvet pattern...)

I couldn't decided what color to paint them... finally landed on a pale yellow.

 The finished product! I got the fabric on clearance for $5 for a yard and a half at JoAnn's.

 Before and after...

I love how they turned out. Many thanks to my mom for helping me paint them, and to my dad for helping me with the re-upholstering! Now on to my next project...

Baby

Last week my sister Bethany had her first baby. YAY!!! I didn't get to see him until yesterday; I can thank my horrible cold for that one. He was born on March 16, 2012 at 5:56 p.m. weighing 8 pounds 4 ounces, 20 inches long. Official name: Calvin Jacob Hoyt. He is ADORABLE. :) Cheers to Jake and Beth; let's just pray they can get some sleep!

p.s. I always think newborns are a little funny looking, but Calvin really is cute ;)

Montana and the Jellystone

This past weekend, Brig and I, along with his parents, took a trip to Montana, where Brig served his mission. The purpose of the trip was to attend the temple with Helen, a 90 year-old blind woman that Brigham taught and reactivated. Brig promised her that he would be there when she received her endowments, and he kept his promise.

We left Thursday night and stayed the night in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. We woke up Friday morning, wandered around town, then headed through Yellowstone Nat'l Park, enjoying the beautiful scenery and crisp air.

Brig scaring me by standing on something small over a 1,000 ft cliff, what's new?

We stopped in the park for some lunch.

We stopped at Old Faithful, but just missed it going off by 5 minutes, so we walked around to the other geysers, taking in the wonderful smell of sulfur as it was raining.

We eventually made it to Bozeman Friday night where we stayed at the Residence Inn. We woke up at 6 Saturday morning to make our 2 1/2 hour trek to the temple in Billings. Here we are in the car with Helen after the temple (more pics later). It was a wonderful experience. Brig was able to be proxy for Helen's husband that passed away 30 years ago and they were sealed for all eternity.

We made it back to Bozeman late Saturday night, woke up Sunday and headed home.

On the way back from Bozeman on Sunday, we drove through Yellowstone again and saw more beautiful sights.

Although there was a lot of driving involved the those 4 days (1,700 miles of it), it was really fun to see where Brig spent 2 years preaching the gospel. And Montana was actually not as ugly as I expected; it was actually very pretty. Both Brig and I hope to return soon, but next time we're flying! ;)

Our First Apartment

I always said I would post about our first apartment when I felt it was cute enough, and here I am posting about it after we've moved out. It took about 6 months for me to feel settled (putting pictures on the wall, curtains etc.) and we lived there for exactly 6 months. I was so excited to move out of the place considering the sketchy mold growing, 50 year old oven/stove, broken living room window, and brown carpet that was once biege, yet it was a bittersweet move out. This was the apartment that Brig and I spent our first 6 months of marriage together. We had some really fun and growing times, and it was sad to see it go. I'm sure we'll live in many more apartments, but I will never forget our first.

We took some pictures of our apartment to post on ksl; sadly these are our only pictures of the place.

Our lovely living room

See the cutesy pictures on the wall?

Our kitchen where I (ok maybe Brig) did all the cooking

The kitchen table

I did love all the counter space, even if there was a 1/2 inch layer of dust on top of the cupboards.

His and hers closets, best feature of the apartment.

Our very colorful bedroom...

The squeaky tub

Despite all of it's faults, we loved this apartment and I was sad to say goodbye.