2nd Annual Pig Roast

This is an event that I look forward to.  Yes it is only the 2nd one, but they have both been so great and I have no doubt they will continue that way.  In fact from now on I would like my 24th of July to be Deseret News 10K and this pig roast - what else does a person need?!?!?!

There was a roasted pig again (and yes perfectly delicious after cooking ALL DAY - yum!) a live band, good food and great friends.  I even got to spend part of my evening with some real cowboys - they were so awesome and I could have talked to them all night long (sad, no picture!)

Mike helped cut up the meat this year and I realized we must not have very good knives because with these very nice, very sharp ones he cut right through his finger - oops!

At one point I was listening to the music and I heard Holly say "Keri get over here!" and I turned around to see this

This is Hollys neighbor and her pet (?????) snake.  I tried to ask Mike what he thought of this craziness, but he was long gone - no snakes for him!!

me, Crystal and Holly.  Most of my favorite moments are with these great ladies.

Mike danced again - is this going to be part of the tradition?????

We have an awesome view of the fireworks show they do over the lake to top off the evening.  Great party (as usual) and can't wait for the next one!

My favorite Race

The Deseret News 10K - Awesome!!  I did this race last year (my first official 10K race) and fell in love.  The course is really nice, there are tons of people (if you are the kind of runner that maybe sometimes gets lost......) and the last 2 miles (I think) are along the parade route so it is an extra boost of motivation and really makes you feel like "yeah thats right, I am doing this!"
This year I signed up with a bunch of people that are on the Ragnar team.  (coming in October!) It really made me laugh when me, Lisa and Dave were walking together to the start line and April turned to Brent and said "those 3 will make up 90% of the volume in our Ragnar van" HA! (and pretty accurate...) 
The starting line always makes me laugh because you have so many different kinds of people.  There are the runners that need to "warm up" by running a few miles before they start (this will never make sense to me) the runners that are VERY nervous (and probably first time racers, I know, I've been there) the majority of people are sitting around talking waiting for everything to start (this is me and my friends typically) but I swear EVERY race I have ever done there is someone in typical street clothes.  I am talking jeans and a regular shirt, umm what??? why?  They have a bib number, they signed up, what the what???
We were finally ready to start and the large group of people were making their way through the starting gate.  The "announcer" kept saying "please be careful, the mat has been flipped up, proceed with caution" and he would say it over and over.  I kept thinking - great! I am going to fall because that is what I do.  As we approached I was so focused on my feet that it wasn't until I was clear of the mat that I realized someone had fallen - I turned to make sure they were OK and saw that it was Lisa! April and I turned around to check on her - there was blood coming from her knees and it looked pretty painful.  We went over to the side where she was sitting and she looked at us like we were crazy - go! she said, you're wasting time!  Oh Lisa, you kill me!  There wasn't anything we could do to help so we started our race.
My goal was to finish in under and hour which I did (just barely, but I'll take it) and like I said this is the best race every - I will do it EVERY year.  If you have ever wanted to do a 10K this is a great one!
When I crossed the finish line I found Dave and then we found April.  We were all wondering where Lisa was and how she was doing.  We found her sitting with her parents, but she was red faced and sweaty - did she run???  She told us that she was sitting there and said to herself "this is dumb, I am fine and wasting time" so she got up and did the race - oh and BTW she finished before me and April!!  She is AMAZING!

Here we are at the finish - (Add Angi and Matt and you have Van 1 of our Ragnar team)  Everyone start training so you can do this race in 2012 with me :)

Happy Birthday Nick!

"Nick what would you like to do for your birthday?" I asked.  "Ummm I wanna go to Subway and sleepover at your house, wait no, I want to make sandwiches at your house and sleepover."
Really? ummm OK (I thought to myself)
We went to Wal-Mart to pick out his sandwich stuff and we went down the craft isle while he picked out some things and kept saying "don't worry, I have a plan."
Oh and by the way -- this boys needs a dog!  I think he picked a sleepover just so he could play with Remi and Lincoln :)

We were sitting at the counter (eating our gourmet birthday sandwiches) and I was telling Nick that me and Keith were brother and sister just like he was with Hannah.  He got a really funny look on his face and said so "Uncle Cam is my Dad's brother?" I said, "no Uncle Cam is married to your mom's sister."  Nick made another funny face and then said "Oh um this is awkward." then pointed to Mike and said "uh I forgot his name." HA!  I thought it was hilarious but Mikes said "Well, that's awesome."
Later Mike started looking at the crafts Nick had picked out.  There were bells, sticks, glitter poof ball things, glue and paper.  Mike looked at me like "what the ????"

But then Nick made us this

A Fire!  I thought it was awesome.  Mike was still confused.

Nick is the first kid that hasn't wanted to sleep on the air mattress in the front room.  He slept in Mikes office and we gave him the ipad to watch a show on.  He loved it!!  I can't wait to see what he picks next year - What an entertaining kid!

Westfest

Decided to run the Westfest 5K this year.  Dave, April and Norma were going to run it too and there was talk of "Team Hendrickson" shirts.  Ummm no was all I thought, I am pretty sure they were kidding, but still.....no.  Things have been going really well with running lately and working out with Jared has made me feel really strong.  I was excited to see what I could push myself to.  I was also excited because Clyde and Mike came to be supportive and I got a picture of me running!

My final time was 27:57 - My best ever!!  not only did I FINALLY break the 30 minute mark (which has been a goal for awhile) I beat it quite nicely!  It was a really great feeling and a fun race.

Pretend Parents - Part 2

Dave and April went to Hawaii and we got their kids for the weekend (did you know that 4 kids is a lot????) The Weeds were nice enough to suggest we all go riding and the kids were SO excited.  We loaded everyone up (after some pre packaged outfit drama lol) and headed to 5 mile.  We were about 1/2 way there when it started to rain and Mike looked at me like "really? this is a terrible idea" while I tried to distract the kids by playing 20 questions. (side note: playing 20 questions with Sam goes a little something like this -
me: Is it a person?
Sam: no
me: is it a place?
Sam: Do you need me to just tell you?)
We finally got to where we were going to set up camp and it looked like this -

Sam was NOT happy about the rain situation (and neither was Mike) while I was trying to think of a plan B.  Dallen said "let's just set up the canopy and see if it passes" Logan was being so great about the whole thing he kept finding random blue spots in the sky and saying "look Sam, those are happy clouds!"

Finally the rain stopped and we actually got some nice weather.  We got a fire going and unloaded all the machines.  I loved that while I was helping Neve get used to Pearl (the Ranger) Mike came over and said "Sam is killing me, you have to hurry and take a picture" I turned around and saw this

Just chillin by the fire waiting for everyone.  Such a great kid and so patient.

The kids loved the Ranger and we spent the majority of our time on that.  Sam kept saying "everyone, do no hands!" We rode for awhile and then did lunch over the fire.

Lyn told us that roasted Twinkies were delicious - I had my doubts (and so did Sam) but we tried them anyway.

They were actually really good!  I couldn't believe it because I don't like Twinkies, but really everyone give it a try, I think you will be pleasantly surprised!

Grace LOVED Neve and followed her around all day long.  I also think that Neve was loving the attention because she wouldn't eat her hot dog for me, Mike or Dallen, but when Grace tried she was all over it.  I love that I captured this picture - so stinkin cute!

Oh and Grace made Neve this "relaxation station" which she loved

When the day was winding down Dallen asked Logan if he wanted to ride a motorcycle - Logan got really excited and looked at me "Can I?" and I said sure not knowing how Dave and April felt about it, but thank goodness they weren't mad at me!  He did so great!

I felt this same way at the end of the day, but it was beyond worth it!  Thank you again to the Weeds!

Big Changes

This morning I got on a plane and flew to Arizona for an interview - pretty grown up huh? Yeah, I thought so too!  I was a little nervous, only because I really really wanted this job and was so excited about the new company.  We went to lunch and talked about the position and what I had been doing with Amsource.  They seemed interested, but it was hard to tell.  We went back to the office and then Gary (my would be boss) said well, I think thats it, so I will just take you to the airport.  OK I thought, but it is about 3 hours before my flight that YOU booked (not a good sign right?) when he dropped me off he said "we'll let you know" and that was it.  Once I was through security, I called Mike and said "I don't think that went very well" but then Gary was calling me on the other line so I switched over.  he said "I thought it was pretty mean to leave you in suspense so I am calling to offer you the job" YEAH!!!  I called Mike back and told him the good news, then got on the plane to fly home.  I walked in the house to balloons, friends and CONGRATULATIONS!

So cute.  Mike called some people as soon as he got off the phone with me and then headed to the store.  There was a balloon that started playing "celebrate good times" when you hit it and Mike said it kept going off in the parking lot which was embarrassing to him. (I love that story)

This is such a great memory and I am really excited about my new job!

Let the Races Begin!

The Salt Lake Running Company put on a FREE 5K and thank goodness for facebook or I wouldn't have known about it!  I am doing a weight loss blog thing so I posted about it and a bunch of people signed up.  I love that when we got there Allie called me and said "Um there is snow on the ground, is this thing still happening?" HA! love her!

Because it was so cold, everyone went into the store to wait for the race to start - WOW there were a lot of people there.  I don't mind being in a crowd, but it was actually a little much for even me.

Here are all the girls from the blog that signed up.  Yes Lyn is part of the group, but they only gave shirts to the first 1,000 people that signed up - oops Lyn!  get on it faster next time! (she was actually really nervous and didn't sign up because she didn't know if she wanted to do it.  I was really proud of her!)

Here is me and Allie at the starting line.  She thought I didn't have enough clothing on to stay warm, but I LOVE running in cold weather.  I do so much better in that environment - in fact I was deciding (probably in this picture) that this was the race I was going to break the 30 minute mark!

Here is a group of us after the race (again no pictures of me running, I hate that!) I finished in 30:20 (ahhhh so close!!) but it was a good run and I love that it was a first 5K for everyone in this picture (except me) Way to go friends!

A week later I signed up to do the Susan Koman 5K with Liz.  I have never done it before and when I told Liz that she made big eyes and said "well don't try to break any records or anything" I wasn't really sure what she meant.

Here we are at the beginning of the race.  Geez we are so stinkin cute I can't even stand it :)

OK so this looks like a funny picture of me and Liz, but I took it to show the street lined with people behind us - WOW this was a huge event and I finally understood what Liz meant because you really couldn't run, there were just too many people!

Here is the Gateway at the end of the race - AMAZING to see it this way and I loved being a part of the event.  Like the 24th of July race, I think I would like to do this every year from now on :)