In it for the Sticker!

We did it! We got our stickers!!!  Darrik and I ran the Ragnar this year.  The Ragnar Relay is teams of 12 people running from Logan to Park City.  Each person has 3 different legs they run. Most run about 15 - 20 miles total.  CRAZY! We had so much fun. Darrik ran leg 6 and I ran leg 3.  We both ran about 18 miles each. I will definitely be doing it again.  It was so worth it, and I got my sticker. You know what I'm talking about. THE sticker. This sticker:

On the cars of those who have ran the relay race. It's a very coveted prize.  It was awesome, which sounds ridiculous because how can running 18 miles on no sleep be fun? But it was.

We met at Brooke's house at 6 the night before for a pasta party, to decorate the vans and load up our stuff.

After all the fun and getting Brock off to my mom and dad's to watch him for a few days we got home and didn't get to bed until about midnight.  We then had to meet at Brooke's at 3:00 am to drive up to Logan.  So we got about 3 hours of sleep.

Our team started in Logan at 5:20 am.  We were supposed to start at 11:30 originally, but we got it switched and I'm glad because we finished a lot earlier.

This was at the starting line.  Crazy to see so many people up so early to run.

I was third to run, so I started around 8 am.  This run was 5.6 miles.  It was gorgeous running through Logan, or Hyrum I guess.  It was the perfect temperature. I was so scared before this run.  Like diarrhea sick, but it was totally fine. Not scary at all.  I just psych myself out. It really was a blast.  I kept thinking to myself as I was running how blessed I am to live here.  It's so amazing.  It's been raining so much lately that everything was so green and beautiful.  I love to run outdoors in nature.  I can't even explain it.  It's like a drug. I'm totally addicted to it. 

I have a system that I stick to when I'm running.  I always run for 10 minutes and walk for 1 minute. This is how I keep my endurance and gain my speed.  I did this with each of my runs and felt like it helped me a ton.  I never quit, I kept running until the end.  I hope to get faster, though. That is one of my goals.

 

Here we are together in the car. I'm so glad we were able to do this together. I really like that we share some of the same hobbies an goals.  It makes it that much more fun.

Darrik's first run, 6.9 miles, was the 2nd part of Avon Pass, the downhill part. If you are familiar with Avon Pass you know that it is a dirt trail. Very hot and extremely dusty.  We stopped twice to give him water and after our second water break he apparently took off running down the hill.  We sat in our car for a little while, and then drove up a bit to find him and give him more water, but we never passed him again. We thought we did so we were waiting on the side of the road, to wait for him to pass again, like leap frog you know, and he never ran past us.  I was getting worried wondering if he had gotten hurt, or if something bad had happened.  We couldn't believe he wasn't coming.  After a good while I got a phone call from a member in our group asking where we were? What do you mean? We're waiting for Darrik.  He's down here at the exchange point... WHAT? HOW?  And our team couldn't keep running because we had their bags and flags and stuff.  So we wasted about 45 min.  I felt so bad we had missed him. He said once he was going down hill he just ran full speed. Let gravity take it's course.  Crazy kid.

Look at my boy go! He's wicked fast.

 And here's the bunny??? Seriously there was a man in a bunny suit running.What a weirdo! It was so hot.

My second run, 4.9 miles, was in Morgan and it started around 6 pm.  It was still relatively hot, but not unbearable.  Morgan is very pretty.  I had my water pouch and ipod and didn't need a lot the first run, but the second run was much hotter than my first.  I was glad that there was another van driving by me, they kept giving me water and encouragement in between my vans support.  It helped out a lot.

Darrik's second run, 8.1 miles, was another tough one.  Darrik had to run up East Canyon Reservoir.  This is mostly up hill.  He did such an awesome job.  We were chanting and singing for him all the way up.  He walked a little bit, but was a trooper.  He really is a great runner.  He's been in Kansas and has trained a little bit, but mostly on flat ground.  So he was doing so good considering his circumstances.

The scenery from Logan to Park City is amazing. I was lucky to run when it was light enough to see, but not mid day so it wasn't unbearable to run.  My last run, my 7.8 mile run, was by far my favorite. It was the hardest, and I was in the most pain, 4 different silver dollar sized blisters, shin splints, and knee pains, but it was so beautiful. I ran along Jordanelle Dam. I loved it.  I also loved my run through Morgan, but it was pretty hot. I don't really remember much about my first run other than it felt good to be out there, and it wasn't as scary as I thought it would be.

 No idea what I'm doing, but apparently I'm exited!?!

Darrik did awesome! Which I had no doubts. He is a runner.  Not that he has ran his whole life, or even trained a lot for this, but if you look at him you can tell, he's a runner.  His first two runs were very hard and his last one was easy.  It was 3.1 miles and basically flat.  He did it in about 23 minutes.  Mr. Speedy Gonzales.

 Up at the Canyons after we finished our last legs. Don't we look happy?  You should have seen us try to walk, we were so sore. ha ha ha. So funny.

We actually didn't see much of van two, just at the major exchanges and at the end. I wish we could have seen them more.  It kind of felt like they had their team and we had ours. I didn't like that. 

Crossing the finish line with our whole team.

 

 

 In front of the Ragnar van with our whole team. So cool!!

 I got plenty of battle wounds, blisters, shin splints, black toenails, etc.  But it was so worth it.  Is it bad that I want to get a tattoo of the Ragnar symbol on my calf now? I'm seriously contemplating this.

 I LOVE RAGNAR!!

THE END

Sadness...

You've seen these pictures before, but I just need to illustrate my obsession with his long hair. I LOVE it!!  I loved how it would curl slightly, I loved that i just got it wet and it combed it down and it was done, no gel required. I loved running my fingers through it. I loved how the curls just framed his face so perfectly. I love how it matched his personality. I think he is so cute with long hair. I love it!!!

Before

I still can't get over the fact that my baby boys cute little locks are gone. I know, I know, he is a boy, and I'll have a girl one day and I can grow her hair out long, and his hair will grow back, and etc. etc. BUT I LOVED HIS LONG HAIR. I don't know what I was thinking cutting it. He is still cute, he's still my baby, but he looks SO different and I don't think his new hair fits his personality AT ALL.

I had so many different comments about it. It was pretty even though, many loved it, and many thought it was time for a cut.  Some would say, "Oh, if I had a boy we would so grow his hair like Brock, I love it long." or "I'm totally in love with his mop." or "Who's this little girl? I didn't know Kami and Darrik had a girl." or "Don't cut it, just trim it, long hair is so in style right now, and it's so cute on him." or just plain "When you going to cut Brock's hair?"  The plan was to let it grow until summer, and then cut it.  Summer started, and I couldn't do it. I kept making excuses, Darrik's clippers are in Kansas, I've been busy, he won't let me, and on and on.  But I finally did it, and now I'm totally kicking myself.  LET THIS SERVE AS A NOTE TO SELF!!!  DO NOT GO FROM LONG BEAUTIFUL LOCKS, TO BUZZED HAIR EVER AGAIN.   I love long hair on boys. Not ridiculously long, just longer hair.  I was told that there is only a small window when long hair is cute on boys, so live it up while they are young. Some can pull it off when they're older, but it's mostly cute when they're young.  Well, anyway...

I cut it myself, which is most of my problem.  I started out just trimming it, but it was still too long.  I got out the clippers to us them to trim and I couldn't get them to work right. They worked fine, great even, but I wanted to use them to just trim the ends and I don't know how to do that aparently.  So I ended up putting an 8 on and just buzzed up the back and sides.  Brock FREAKED out and that small task took me 45 minutes.  I then had to finger cut the top and blend the sides.  He was far from cooperative.  He didn't let me finish so there are parts that aren't blended, and some is still long and it's not trimmed around his ears, but after two hours I decided he could be done.  I will go to the professionals next time for sure.  And I will remind myself that I HATE my baby going from long to short hair, HATE, HATE, HATE it!!!

Even if he is still a handsome devil, as his daddy called him.

After

See! He hates it as bad as I do.

Maybe not? But I'm still getting used to it. 

Here is the pile of hair we cut off.  There was more, but this is what I saved.

I need to remind myself 100 times over that next time I decide to cut his hair, think again. Re-read this post and reconsider.  I haven't cried yet, but I really, really want to. I miss his long hair so bad. It took 8 months to grow it out that long, and two hours for it to be gone. 

....sigh

Up in the Night...

You have to know this part to understand the rest of our weekend.  Brock's new obsession is the movie Cars.  He says it like cars with a 'd', dars.  But a million times a day you will hear him say it, dars mommy, dars, dars, dars... over and over.  Or you will hear him say, Mifween! which is his version of McQueen.  So funny.

He also loves his new clothes grandma Teresa got him with Lightning McQueen on them.  I got him this hat from Walmart, it was a two pack for $5, also Cars.

So last Friday Brock woke up with a fever so I gave him some motrin.  Then later that day he had a fever again so I gave him some tylenol. And later that night he was warm and not acting himself so I asked our good friend Justin Trujillo to give him a blessing.  And later that night he had a temperature of 104.2, poor guy. So off to Instacare we went, at 11:30 pm.  Turns out Brock had a sore throat virus?  I thought that was weird, but the dr. said that he was about the 20th one that day.  So I guess they are pretty common.  But he told me to keep up with motrin and tylenol and he would be fine in a few days, which he was.

We didn't get home until about 12:30, 1:00 am. And not into bed until about 1:30 for me.  Well at about 3:00 am Brock was up crying for me, so I got up and held him for a minute then tried to get him to go back down, but he wasn't having it. So I brought him in bed with me so we could both NOT sleep together.  He is so wiggly and all over the place, I'm not sure if he gets any sleep, and I know I don't because he's all over me. So we were both pretty tired Saturday.

Then Saturday night, well Sunday morning, at 2 AM, I hear this, "mommy, mommy, mom, mom, mommy, MOMMY!!!, MOM..." And I let it go on for about 45 minutes thinking he'd go back to sleep. Boy did I think wrong.  He just kept on calling for me, like a broken record.  So I went in there and he was wide awake ready to hand me his blankets, his bodies as he calls them, and said, "all done mommy, all done ni night, I wake."  Well ok then, I guess he told me.  He was done.  He felt a little cold in his summer jammies, so I changed him out of them and changed his diaper.  He told me he wanted milk, so we got him some and he had a sip. I then tried to put him back down in his crib and he just stood up and said, "dars mommy." Seriously? It's 3 in the morning. We're not watching Cars kiddo.  So I tried to have him sleep with me in my bed again, but just sat there.  He wouldn't lay down.  He kept telling me, "all done mommy, all done ni night."  And he kept pulling on my arm saying, "mon mommy, a go!" (come on mommy, let's go) "Dars mooies" (cars movies). "Down, mommy, down a bed."  He was relentless.  So I finally gave in and we went out in the family room and watched Cars from about 3 until 6:30 am.  I tried to sleep while he watched, but he kept poking my eyes and saying, "eye ball," or "no ni night mommy, a dars mommy, all done ni night mommy, sin (sing) mommy..." So there was no sleeping for me.  When it ended the first time I said, "ok bud, let's go to bed." and he just calmly said, "more dars pees mommy." I was in no state, or mood to argue with this sweet little face. I just restarted the movie and closed my eyes.  Little stinker knows how to play his mom.  We were up until about 6:15 and then I was out for a minute, when I woke up Brock was asleep on the floor with his blankie.  So I moved him into his bed and let the dogs out, so there was no accidents, turned off my alarm, and went back to bed.  We both slept until about 11:00 am.  We missed church, but I couldn't even function.  We needed to stay home and get some rest.

After we were up for a little bit and Brock had eaten breakfast he wanted hi shoes on.  "Soos, soos mommy."  So I tried to put them on over his jammies, but he didn't like that.  So I took his jammies off and put his shoes on.  He then went and found my shoes and insisted that I put them on and then ran over the the garage door and said, "a go mommy," in his diaper and shoes only.  My little exhibitionist! ha ha ha.  I was so tired I didn't even want to say no, or argue, so I just grabbed my purse and opened the door.  He climbed down the stairs and walked over to the car, I opened the door and he climbed up into his car seat and said, "buckles." So I buckled him in and off we went.  I didn't have any place in mind, I just drove west, as if I wasn't west enough already, we practically live in the Great Salt Lake.  But we found cows and horses, moos and neigh neighs.  Oh, side note, all animals are their sounds, except dogs, dogs are doddies.  But snakes are sssssssss, cats are meow,  giraffes are stick his tongue in and out, monkeys are oo oo ah ahs, and so on...  So we just drove around.  He started to fall asleep so we went home.  But was then wide awake again, go figure.  (p.s. yes, his hair is cut... :( there will be a post on that coming soon...)

My sweet sister Makell and her husband Garrett came over and watched Brock later that afternoon while I took a nap.  I was so grateful.  It was a huge help.  Thanks you guys.

Brock actually slept through the night last night, but we went to bed at 11.  This was my plan so he would be tired and actually sleep, and it worked.

So needless to say, I'm very tired today.

I'm so glad when Daddy comes home...

We had an exhausting and fun weekend for Father's day.  Darrik was able to be here for Father's Day, well for a little bit.  We ran the Ragnar Friday and Saturday... so he flew in Wednesday for that and left on Sunday.  We were so tired the day after the race that we slept in until about 10 the next morning, Sunday morning, and missed church.  I made breakfast and we watched movies, just relaxed all morning. Exactly what Darrik wanted for Father's day.  He also got Darrik got a new 100 ounce mug, some new pictures of Brock and a new hat made out of cargo stuff, from the realdealbrazil.com.  Pretty cool.  I dropped him off at the airport around 3 and then went to my parents house for dinner.

Brock made my dad, Poppy, a rock. Yep, a rock.  I heated the rock up in the oven, 350 degrees for 15 min, and then he colored on it and the crayons melted. I got the idea off some crafter blog. It was fun. The rock says, Poppy Rocks, love B rock.  He also got some new family pictures of us.  We ate teriyaki chicken and rice and other yummy food.  I was so exhausted I just took a nap after dinner while everyone else went outside and played in the giant spandex like last year.  I couldn't stay awake for the life of me. If felt great to sleep.

I am so grateful for Darrik as Brock's dad.  He doesn't get to see him as often as he would like while he is gone, but when he does see him he always makes the most of it.  He is such a great dad.  He loves his little man so much and you can definitely tell.  We had to run some errands before the race, getting this and that, and I was staying home to continue packing and told Darrik that he could leave Brock with me, but he didn't want to miss out on seeing him.  So he took him with him.

I know it's hard for Darrik to be away from our family.  He's been gone for 4 months now and has about 1.5 more. But he is so positive and knows that he is out there to support our family.  He works so hard for us and I really appreciate it. It's been so hard to be a single mom and do all the things that he usually does while he's gone, especially with the dogs... but we know he is doing what he needs to to take care of us. I really never thought about all he does around the house until he wasn't doing it. He does so much that I never even thought about.  He mows the lawn and takes care of the weeding and trimming and sprinklers and dog poop and pretty much everything outside.  He is in charge of the garbages and garbage day.  He gets the mail every day.  He is a great pet owner and feeds, cleans, plays with, brushes, cleans up after, vacuums up hair from, and everything else to do with the dogs.  He helps me cook and clean up dinner, and change Brock's diapers, and reach high things, and gives me hugs and kisses, and snuggles with me on the couch, and leaves the lights on, and cupboard doors open, and the shower curtain open, and lets the dogs drink out of the toilet, and cleans my car spotless, and saves his empty water bottles for me, and covers me up in the night if I look cold, and carries me to bed when I fall asleep on the couch, and tells me I smell nice (after I nag him about it, don't you like this new scent?), and tells me I'm hot, and plays games with me even when he doesn't want to, and wants to go to my parents just for fun.  He does so much that I never even realized.  It took me this long to find out ALL the wonderful things he does for us.  I always knew he did a lot, but never really thought about what. So needless to say, we REALLY miss him when he's gone.

Brock loves his daddy! He is totally a daddy's boy.  It's been really hard on him to have his daddy gone.  He has always been a really good sleeper, but he wakes up sometimes when Darrik is gone.  When Darrik is in town visiting he will sleep just fine, no problems at all. Brock will also wander around the house and call for him, daddy, daddy, and cry because he can't find him. It's so sad.  When Darrik is home Brock has to have both of us in the same room at all times. If either one of us is gone Brock will freak out.

Thanks Darrik for being the best daddy to our little man. We love you so much! Happy Father's day, a little late. 

I also wanted to thank my dad for all he does for me and all he's done for me over the last 28 and half years.  My dad has ALWAYS been supportive of everything I have wanted to do. Whether it be softball, soccer, basketball, art, or drawing, or dancing, or finance, or moving to Alaska, or whatever, he always lets me know that I can do anything I want if I put my mind to it. One of my favorite things he says is, 'whatever decision you make, make it the right one.' Meaning that if you decide to do something, and you've prayed about it, and it's right, then do everything in your power to make it work out. I've always tried to do that.

My dad is a super sensitive guy. I love that about him. He cries over many things, but mostly his kids.  He cares so much about his kids, and shows it often through many tears.  It's always kind of a joke of who can get dad to cry. But he cries at cheer competitions, soccer games, big tears at weddings, and many other times with birthday and father's day cards. 

My dad is so funny. He does and says the most random things some times. I get the funniest text message jokes from him all the time.  What is invisible and smells like carrots.....? Rabbit farts. ha ha ha. Dad you crack me up.  The other night my little sister was packing for girls camp and she needed a poncho. This story is funny for two reasons. My dad ALWAYS has a poncho handy. 'Ya never know when it's going to rain..' he is so funny, but we tease him all the time for always having one with him.  So he went and got the poncho and threw it to Cortney and then walked past me and punched me in the arm and said, 'Poncho!' and I said, 'ouch!' and my mom said, 'did you just punch her?' and he said, 'no, i poncho'd her, he he he' and he does this little chuckle and his shoulders bounce up and down. Ha ha ha, so funny.  And then he went into the other room to get a flash light and when he came out he had it on strobe light and he was dancing all techno-like, moving his hands in stiff motions and shifting his eyes and head back and forth. I was dying. Kacie and I almost peed our pants laughing.

My dad always gives good advice. I can always call my dad for anything, and I do a lot.  He helps me see both sides and make an informed decision.

Since Darrik has been gone my dad has taken it upon himself to mow my lawn.  He comes and does it while I'm at work, or at random times when I'm not home, so when I get home from a long day and think I still have to go mow the lawn, it's already done, and he doesn't live close. He lives about 30 minutes away. So it's an hour drive out of his way. He is such a good guy. I just love him.

Also over the 4th of July while Brock and I were in Kansas visiting Darrik we desperately needed someone to watch our dogs.  Darrik's mom was going to do it, but at the last minute she decided that she was going to come to Kansas too.  So I had no one to watch them.  My mom didn't really want to do it. My dogs are big and crazy and she has a dog and they play and bite each other and then end up smelling like dog breath. But my dad just said, 'I'll do it. No problem.' So he drove to my house, picked them up in their kennels and watched them while we were gone.  I love my dad!

Happy Father's Day!

My Besties!

My best friends, Stefani and Natalie, came to play the other day. We had so much fun just hanging out and catching up all day.  Stefani lives in Arizona so we don't get to see her that often.  It's crazy to think that we've been friends for almost 12 years, and now we're all grown up (ya right) with kids.

This is the three of us senior year I think. We were so little.

We were so weird... wait, were... ARE so weird... ha ha ha.

I think this was an m&m fight? I'm trying to hide, Stef is trying to eat them. ha ha Fun times!

Jack and Brock over a year and a half ago.  Brock was 2 months old and Jack was 7 months old.

Brock and Jack now. Look how cute they are all grown up. ha ha ha

Here is beautiful baby Ella (baby Edda, as Brock calls her). So sweet and smiley. She is 2 months old (10 weeks).

Look at this little cutie! Kenzi is 5 months old and this was the first time I met her. What a doll.

Here's one of the kids. We took a billion, and this is the best we got. Brock is wearing his jammie shorts because his medication gave him the runs, ha ha.

They were all very excited about Jack's iphone.

The two little princesses!

I love you guys!! Thanks for playing. Come again soon.