maddie's major milestone and a half marathon

 The biggest news at our house it that Maddie started walking this week.  Her doctor wanted her to crawl for at least 4 months before walking so he told us not to force it and just let it happen.  Now that she knows she can do it, she is always practicing her new skill.  She is picking it up quickly and soon will be running around!  When she walks, she looks a lot like a zombie and it's giving us ideas for Halloween.

I know this is going to sound like an exaggeration, but our field trip to Paul's garden this week was one of the most fun things we have done this summer.  It was magical.  I am so enamored by the beautiful chaos growing everywhere.  

He let us snack on the teeny tiniest you've ever seen baby tomatoes, ground cherries which come out of a husk and are related to tomatillos, and showed us his bee hive, lemon cucumbers, sunflowers that were bigger than big, magic beans that are thick green and hairy on the outside and have hot pink beans on the inside!  crazy ying yang beans that are half black and half white with black and white spots.  I was in love with the smell of dill everywhere and the zinnia's and california poppies exploding.  How I wish I could insert all Paul's gardening knowledge into my brain.

Our sweet neighbors brought us a whole bunch of their peaches and so I made the famous fresh peach pie.  Heaven!

The kids are demonstrating how to carb-load before a big race.

Waiting around for the start gun.  We had to wake up at 4:30 to get to our race which started at 6:30, 9 miles up Big Cottonwood canyon.  Thankful for the mylar blankets which surprisingly work quite well.  Soooooo many people ran this race!  Thousands of people, but it was very well organized.  Lots of nervous energy going on.

With my running partner and dear friend Elly.  We ran together the whole time.  She is perfect for me because we have the same pace.  She was also good for my training because you have to get out of bed when someone is waiting for you, even at 5:30 in the morning.

The finish at Cottonwood High School.  Big party with lots of free food!  Yay!

Benj with his bam-bam sticks.  The fam came to cheer me on at the finish but it was soooo crowded we couldn't find each other.

My giant medal!  This is the medal they give for 156th place in your age division.

I was pretty nervous about my first race.  I knew I had trained well, but I was worried I'd feel sick or that my foot would hurt, but it went as well as it could have gone.  I felt strong and healthy the whole time.  I decided not to worry about my pace too much, since my real goal was just to finish and have fun, but I did want to finish in under 2 hours.  I finished in 2 hours and 2 minutes so my only regret is that I didn't push just a little harder since when the race ended I knew I had more in me.   I definitely want to do it again.  I think I would do races all the time if they weren't so stinkin' expensive and when it seems so silly to me to pay $$$ to go running...

Dancing in the rain.

I got some of the girls in my ward together for dinner and a movie, Austenland, which is pretty bizarre and hilarious if you like movies like Napoleon Dynamite, which I do.