Freedom Run 10k

Rich's work is very big on keeping employees fit and healthy so they offered to pay for anyone that wanted to participate in the Freedom Run in Provo. Rich and I signed up for the 10k. We have never done this race and it is a HUGE one, tons of people register, in fact between the 10k, 5k and mile run there were over 5,000 people running!!
The race started at 7am and we got there at about 6:55 and they had already started going!! Luckily we had a time chip so it didn't really matter! WOW never ever been to a race that has started on time, let alone a little early!
Got a quick "pre-race" shot and we were off!! Looks like we both needed a few more minutes to wake-up!!

The course was pretty hard but it wasn't too hot til the last mile so that was a good thing. We ran along the parade route for a mile or two and there were TONS of people who slept out to get their spots, there was music and people cheering on the runners, it was pretty fun. There was also a guy with a hose to run under and that was quite refreshing!! It ended on an uphill which was not great but it was a challenge!

Here is Rich

He finished in 43:57 and was 8th in his division and 91st overall.

This is me
You can see that I got too hot and had to strip off my shirt!! I finished in 1:12, 88th in my division and 1214 overall (last of the pack, but I finished)!!
We got a cool water bottle and a finishers medal at the finish line!
We saw some of our friends at the finish line and they snapped this shot of us!! Aren't we just so sweaty??
We are tired!!
Here is a cool little collage I created on my iphone.
We went and got me a diet coke and went to meet Rich's parents to watch the parade. I am not a big fan of parades but I was already sweaty and we were pretty much locked in because all the streets were already blocked off!! It wasn't too bad, just a little on the long side!!

6th Grade Dance

Today was the 6th grade dance. I was at a birthday lunch for a friend and I said that I wanted to run over to the school and "spy" on the dance. My friends daughter is also in 6th grade and thought that was a great idea, so we did it!!
They both saw us in the doorway and came over to say "hi" they weren't even embarrassed that we were there. It was in the cafeteria with all the nice fluorescent lights on. It looked like they were all having a great time!! Thanks to Alex's friends who took pictures!!

Spring Soccer

Max played spring soccer and had a blast!! At first he didn't want to play because he said, "I just played soccer." Since he played in the fall, but I convinced him that he will play alot if he likes it!! The games started in April but most of these pictures are from his last game.

 

I was in a hurry and didn't really pay much attention to what Max was wearing until we got to the game. He had on a white sweatband and a gold dollar sign necklace!! Who is this kid?? His coach held on to the necklace during the game!!
There were only a few games that we watched from the car, because it was pretty cold. Alex and Maizee had fun in the car. Maizee thought being in the front seat was awesome!! Rich usually met us at the games.

 

Here is my handsome soccer player!! He scored a few goals and had tons of fun!!

Cutest Cuties

Miss Maizee won the "Cutest Cuties" contest in the costume category for the Utah Valley Magazine.
This was not an original category in this contest but they decided to add it because they had so many cute babies in costume!! Unfortunatly it was not in the printed magazine but just in the online version. I love my sweet baby pumpkin!!!

Tea Party

I just found this fun tea set in Maizee's closet. She got it for Christmas and Rich shoved it up in her closet!!
She is really loving it!! It sings cute songs (that get annoying really fast) and even in a British accent!! I think this was probably Rich's FIRST tea party EVER!! So precious!!

9 Months Already

I can hardly believe that my "little tweetie" (as Rich so lovingly calls her) is nine months old!! She is NOT mobile in anyway really (she can turn a pretty good circle on her tummy and she goes backwards a little). She has 3.5 teeth (the top right is just poking through) and two more on top soon to follow.
She weighs in at a whole 17.4 pounds! She is just so much fun. On Sunday at church Rich was reading her a book and she was making the cutest sounds, almost like singing. She is getting to be a handful in church cause we go from 11-2pm and that is when she naps and she prefers to just be laid in her bed for her naps.
She is a great "sitter" and she loves to sit and play with her feet and her toys.
She also learned how to clap, if you say "yay" she will clap and she can wave goodbye too!!
You can kinda see her top tooth, she loves having her tongue out!! She is just so stinking sweet!!!

Mole Removal

Alex has had 2 pretty good sized moles on his stomach for as long as I can remember. Recently, one of them has been hurting and bleeding and changing color etc. We decided it was finally time to go see the dermatologist. Today was the day. Alex was nervous. She took a look at the moles and determined that they needed to come off. She said she could "shave" them off today, or schedule a "surgical removal" that would have to be another day. Alex wanted to do that, I said take them off right now since we were already there.
She numbed it with a shot, right beneath the mole and then took a flat metal rectangular tool with a hole in the middle (and obviously some sort of sharp blade) and just skimmed the moles right off. Here is what was left when she was done...
this is the one that was fine and not causing any problems, it was just really big.
Here is the one that has been bleeding and bothering him.
You will notice he has been wearing a band aid over the bottom one (all the sticky marks). It was pretty gross and cool to watch, he was a trooper and did a great job. It hurt for a few hours after but it wasn't too bad. We went to Chuckarama for lunch afterwards. Hopefully they will heal well and he won't have really big scars!

Brace Face

Well it finally happened, BRACES!!! I wish we could have done it sooner (we were planning to do it 3 years ago and then Rich had to go and get laid off). Well better late than never! Rich and I both had braces on at this time in our high school lives so it's really not that big of a deal, easy for me to say, right??
Alex begged me to check him out of school so he could come watch, and Rich ended up coming too (guess he was excited)!! I dropped off Max so he was the only one who missed it!!
She didn't want any pictures!!
I begged her to take a self portrait (and promised I wouldn't put it on Facebook). It only took about an hour and she was all braced up. Her Ortho said he was going to be really aggressive with the treatments so hopefully she will get them off in August 2013 (right before her Senior Year)!!

Gunnison Half Marathon

Well after not getting a great nights sleep we got up and to our surprise it was NOT raining and not too cold! At least the weather was on our side!! We had to get to Gunnison at 8:15am so we didn't have to get up too early, which was nice.
I snapped this photo before we checked out and we were off, ready or not!!

It was really windy when we started running but as we were going it got better, it was actually great weather for a long run. The course was pretty good and there was a great little gradual downhill that was awesome. They had a marker for every mile and water at all the even miles. Rich was frustrated because it was The Lion's Club at the water stations, so they were seniors. They just had bottled water and little cups but they didn't fill them until you were right in front of them and they weren't fast about it!! A cute man at mile 6 when I got a drink wanted to chat a bit about the race so I decided not to stop anymore for water! I thought it was kinda cute, Rich got annoyed!
I was feeling pretty good and getting close to the end when I spotted the lady in front of me a ways going UPHILL. That was not what I wanted to end with at all. It wasn't a steep hill but a gradual incline for about the last 3/4 of the course. Rich and Jamie (the guy in our ward who convinced us to do this race) were waiting at the top. I kept going slowly but surely, my thighs and hips were hurting. I saw the finish line and was happy that I beat my projected time of 2:45...cut it a bit close though!!

Here are the "official" results from the website in our age category:

2012 Gunnison Marathon Race Results
April 14, 2012

Race Number Name Time
30-39 Age Division

Half 49 310 Rich Cope 1:41:54
Half 51 347 Clint Keisel 1:47:30
Half 52 348 Varden Hadfield 1:48:58
Half 53 342 Ralaina Taylor 1:49:13
Half 56 330 Timothy Fowers 1:53:39
Half 58 325 Kristin Keisel 2:00:05
Half 60 320 Fawntell Mogle 2:06:10
Half 66 318 Desirae Christiansen 2:12:58
Half 67 327 Mark Wardle 2:13:51
Half 69 322 Derek Wells 2:14:38
Half 72 321 Susan Thompson 2:19:56
Half 73 326 Rebecca Gridley 2:19:57
Half 74 329 Erika Stover 2:21:47
Half 77 323 Ryan Roberts 2:31:39
Half 81 311 Angela Cope 2:39:16

15 total runners
Rich - FIRST
Me - LAST

THAT SOUNDS ABOUT RIGHT, DON'T YOU THINK!!!
(p.s. check out some of those names...yikes)!!
(p.p.s. there were 43 people TOTAL that ran the Half Marathon)

We had an adventure, that is what makes doing stuff like this so much fun, and it makes for great memories!!
We headed home so I could shower, pick up the girls (Alexa and Maizee) and head to Logan to pick up the boys (Alex and Max)!!

Manti Motel

Rich and I dropped Maizee off to Janet and Todd's for a sleepover and headed to Manti. Alexa stayed with her friend Madi. We got to our Motel to check in about 6:30pm. Rich was nervous about it, it was a $25 room so I didn't expect too much. It did feel a little like we were in a whole different world though, just not used to the "small town" feel.
Doesn't look so bad, right??

We drove to Gunnison (about 15 minutes away) for our pasta dinner that was included in the $28 registration fee. Rich's work totally reimbursed us for the cost of the race because they encourage people to be healthy and stay fit. Score for us!!
We were the first ones to eat and the Lion's Club was in charge of serving the dinner so as we sat down with our food we had a handful of senior citizens watching our every bite!! The food was OK but not the best and I didn't really get full.

As we got in the car we were discussing our current situation: a)crappy room, b)expected bad weather, c)lack of training and d)just being in the boonies in general. We had watched the weather all week and they had forcast rain on Saturday morning. Running 13 miles is hard enough, the rain would just make it miserable. I told Rich if it was raining in the morning I was just going to run the 10k. He told me not to worry because he had been praying for no rain all week.
We decided to drive back to Ephraim to WalMart so we could buy a blanket to sleep with, Rich was not very comfortable with the room or the bedding. We stopped in the office to rent our free movies and got some of my favorite ice cream, Farr's bubble gum and went to the room.
Well the ice cream was freezer burned and tasted terrible and this is what we got to watch our free movies on:
Rich wasn't sure if they knew about flat screen TV's yet! Quite a disappointment!!
We took off the bedspread and got out our new blanket and settled in for the night. Oh, I almost forgot, the walls were paper thin and I think half of Mexico was next door having a party. This made us both nervous thinking it would go on all night. Luckily it didn't but when we turned the TV off to go to bed we could hear snoring through the walls!!
We are not planning on getting the best nights sleep!!!

Kindergarten ZOO Program

We're going to the zoo, zoo, zoo, how about you, you, you?? That is a song that I have heard Max singing for a few weeks now. Today was his classes turn to do "The Zoo" program for all the parents.
Max was a bear!!

 

They each had a speaking part that they had to memorize and then there were lots of songs that they sang!

 

They did a spooky song with black lights and it was pretty cool!! Max loved performing all the songs they worked on.
Rich, Maizee, Alex and I all really enjoyed the program!!