::RUNNING WITH ANGELS::

It's been a little over two weeks since I ran the Deseret Morning News/KJZZ TV Marathon and I still love running and think that I may even run another one!

Donny had to stay home and work but I am so thankful that Aimee and Liz were there to support me. I drove down to Utah on Thursday because the race was on Friday morning, that night Aimee, Liz and I went to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple open house. I was so thankful for the opportunity to feel the peace that comes when entering into the Lord's house because my nerves were making me crazy. I finally got to bed around 12:30 and felt like my eyes had barely closed when my alarm went off at 2:30am Friday morning. Aimee dropped me off at the Energy Solutions Arena where the buses were going to take all the marathon-ers up to the top of Big Mountain.

(Do I look tired?...it was REALLY early! Thanks to Aimee for getting up to take me to the bus!) My shoes weren't even tied as I choked down some bananas and a powerbar before getting on the bus at 3:15am. Then came the bus ride, of course, I got car sick so I was thankful that we got up to the top of the mountain with plenty of time to let my stomach calm down. But then came waiting....we all sat, stood, slept and stretched while waiting for 5:30 to roll around so we could get started. In the mean time there was a person playing a bag pipe up on the mountain which made me smile and was....memorable.

One thought I had was that I was now stuck and the only way to get off that mountain was to run down it. When the gun finally went off I was thrilled! I was smiling so big as I started running, there is really nothing like that feeling when running with a large group of people! It was a beautiful morning and running through Parley's Canyon was incredible. Around mile 9 I began to realize that we were all crazy people because the course started to go back up the mountain (which I wasn't overly thrilled about!)

Throughout the race there were many bikers that were enjoying the course because it was blocked off and was safe. There were multiple times that I was tempted to ask one of them to trade me and let me borrow their bike to get down that mountain!

One of the thoughts that kept me going was the fact that it was July 24, Pioneer Day. I thought of those many pioneers that had to conquer those mountains as well as the rest of the country. I was so thankful to have sturdy shoes and had air conditioning to look forward to.

I'm so thankful for the many people that I became friends with along the way. Many people were running with a cause, I saw one shirt that said "I'm running for my Dad" and there was a couple that had shirts that said, "In memory of...and the phrase at the bottom said "If you can't you must." When I talked with the couple more I found out that they were running in memory of her father and the phrase was something that he always used to say. Each person I met inspired me and gave me confidence that I could keep going. I thought of my Dad and Mom, Donny and my siblings and my friends here in Boise...and how excited I would be when I could tell each of them that I had conquered this marathon. It was physically straining but that made it a very emotional and spiritual experience for me.

Miles 18-20 made me wonder if I was actually going to finish....it wasn't until mile 22 that I realized that I really was going to finish the race. It was also about that time that the time went past 6 hours which meant that they were starting to take down the water stations and the police were no longer blocking off the intersections. I was getting discouraged since it was getting really hot and the parade had just gotten over and it was difficult to navagate through downtown Salt Lake. I began to just pray for help and strength from Heavenly Father, I asked for angels to help my feet continue to move forward. A few minutes later, around mile 24 I heard "Ash" being yelled from across the street and running toward me was my best friend, Liz. She had been driving by with her family when she realized that they were passing me so she hopped out of the car with a cold water bottle and joined me. I just hugged her and had to fight back tears because I was so tired. At this point I was walked and couldn't get myself to move very quickly so I just was putting one foot in front of the other. She said that she would finish it with me and was so encouraging the whole way.

As we got closer to the end we lost the course and didn't know what way to go. I could see Liberty Park (where the finish line was) but I also knew that I still had a little over a mile left to go. I wasn't sure if I was supposed to go left or right because straight wouldn't give the distance I needed. I was going to go right but Liz convinced me to go left. We continued on when Liz's phone rang and it happened to be Aimee, who was waiting for me at the finish line. She told Liz that she hadn't found me yet and that she wasn't sure where I was. Liz told her that she was with me and that we had lost the course and were just walking east and didn't know where the finish line was. Aimee told us the street and I'm so thankful that Liz was with me because otherwise, I would have not gone the right direction. Anyway, Aimee started walking towards us and we continued towards the finish line.

You can see that we were walking just with the cars at this point! I was in conquer mode!

So, the moral of the story is that prayers are answered! I was told Liz that I had said a prayer and minutes later she found me and if that wouldn't have happened I woudn't have known what way to go. Aimee also listened to the gentle nudging of the Spirit to call Liz even though she didn't know that Liz was with me at the exact moment that we needed to know what way to go.

On each mile marker through the race they had little inspiring quotes. They said things like "Success is based on personal achievement" another one said "Don't worry about what others may think of you"....they each were placed perfectly with the mood the runners were in at that point in the race. At mile 26, I was with Aimee and Liz and the sign read, "You are running with angels''. Heavenly Father placed my angels there so that I would be able to finish.

(I'm so thankful Aimee had her camera to document this significant moment)

Continuing past mile 26...I still had .2 of a mile to go. Aimee kept saying, "There's the finish line" and I couldn't see it and I was getting frustrated. We turned the corner and I saw that sign and got chills and just started running as fast as could. I felt my blisters pop on my feet and ran. I could hear Aimee and Liz cheering me on as well as the volunteers and other runners who had already finished. It was an incredible feeling. I crossed the finish line and just bent over and started crying. It is an unbelievable feeling. I had finished. I had set a goal and I had accomplished it. My whole life I had wanted to run a marathon and I finished.

Right after I crossed the finish line I lost all energy. Aimee and Liz helped me walk over to the medic tent so that I could get my feet wrapped...

And then I stuffed my face with ice cream sandwiches!...and oranges, and bananas...and lots of water! I was also so thankful to go back to Liz's house and get into the six foot soaker tub!

Here is a picture of me with my angels!

Of course I had to call Donny and tell him that I finished. I cried (a lot of happy tears) because it was such a special moment. I also tried to call my parents to tell them but they were in Tibet but it was still really exciting when I got to tell them!

But after all of that guess what?!?! What's missing from these pictures? My MEDAL! They had lost the rest of the medals so they sent it up to me after the race. I'll have to take a picture of it too because it's awesome. I was so excited when it got here, I was tempted to wear it around but I've resisted so far!

::JUST LIKE THE PIONEERS::

Just like the pioneers that have one before I'm making a trek of my own down to Utah tomorrow morning for the Deseret Morning News/KJZZ TV Marathon. (Yeah, I wish it had a cooler name too) It starts at 5:30am on Friday, July 24th, which is Pioneer Day. I'm staying with my best friend, Liz and her family and I will get to see Aimee too. I want to try to make it down to Provo but we'll have to see how it works out. If I stop by BYU I may never come back to Boise! :) I'll be sure to take pictures before and after, I don't plan on carrying the camera with me but I'll be sure to let you know how it goes! All I know is that I will have to have faith in every footstep!

::HAPPY (late) BIRTHDAY, MOM::

So, my Mom's birthday was on the 11th. I promised a birthday blog and I would hate to disappoint now! I had such an excellent idea, and the best of intentions so here it is (even though it is a bit late)



I figured that I would make a list of reasons why mom my is my favorite, one for every year that she has been alive...



1. My Mom is the best person to going trudging with to the library even when it is 99+ degrees outside.



2. My Mom is the funniest person to bottom out with on a scooter late at night (coming home from the most AMAZING massage)



3. My Mom is the greatest person to go shopping with at Kohl's.



4. My Mom is the most fantastic person to be with when eating sushi.



5. My Mom has the most patience especially when waiting for her kids to get off the airplane in Shanghai!



6. My Mom has great taste in music (even if now it is in Chinese so that none of us understand it)



7. My Mom is the most hilarious person to dictate how to spell Chinese words while waiting for facials.



8. My Mom is really good at acting awake even when her kids forget the time change and end up calling in the middle of the night.



9. My Mom has set the example to me of how to be a Cheeto-eater.



10. My Mom is the ONLY person that you'd EVER want to buy chocolate-covered cinnamon bears with...and then try out all of the patio furniture outside of the store.



11. My Mom has taught me the importance of always having cute jewlery even if it means wearing your pearl earrings to the waterpark everyday during the summer.



12. My Mom is the best photographer to capture the most outragious moments.



13. My Mom is the funnest person to share a tube with at the waterpark, she goes fast and sometimes even "catches air"



14. My Mom makes the best cheerleader at a marathon (even if she doesn't know the runners)



15. My Mom always has the best perspective when any of her kids call her with problems.



16. My Mom makes friends so easily, no matter what language they speak.



17. My Mom knows to power shop like noone else I have ever met, she finds deals that nobody else can!



18. My Mom taught me that sometimes the only thing that can make the day get better is by having a Route 44, Diet Cherry Limeade with extra cherry syrup from Sonic.



19. My Mom is not afraid of a little cold air when putting the top down on her convertible whiel driving around on Christmas Eve.



20. My Mom knows how to make any space a home, no matter where in the world it may be.



21. My Mom is not afraid of adventures and she is the most wonderful person to be with when adventure strikes!



22. My Mom knows exactly what to say to encourage me when I'm getting down about life.



23. My Mom is the best person to work on a project with, her handwriting is beautiful and she has an incredibly artistic eye.



24. My Mom has taught me the importance of a strong testimony of our Savior, Jesus Christ.



25. My Mom is the best person to it sit next to while having a pedicure, even after traveling for 24 hours!



26. My Mom has set the example for the kind of woman that I want to be "when I grow up"



27. My Mom is still gorgeous even after successfully raising all of us kids...which is impressive looking back over all that we put her through!



28. My Mom is the best mom in the world.



29. And last but not least...No matter how many birthdays she celebrates she never gets any older, only wiser and a more incredible mother...and she stays 29 (and counting)...

Mom, sorry this post is so late. I worked on it here and there for the past couple weeks...I had some good laughs thinking about all of the fun times we've had! Love you!

:: Catchin' up with Summer ::

It has been a pretty busy summer for us here. There was the China trip, Donny's Birthday, Trent's Visit, Aimee's Visit, My (Donny's) Mom's Birthday, Allan's Birthday, Stephen's Birthday, Carter's birthday, Father's Day, Ashley's Birthday, Transformer's 2, Ryan's Birthday, Swimming Parties, Fishing trips, and the fourth of July! Wheeew! You run out of breath saying all of that! I am sure that i may have accidentally missed a few things there. My appologies if the forgotten items involved anyone reading this.

China was an absolutely amazing trip. Our thanks to Trent and Tami again for making that possible. I Will blog some china memories, but i feel that they deserve thier own post, which i currently do not have time for.

I am still learning and have to regrettfully say that i don't have pictures of everything that has taken place so far this summer. I will however share with ya'll what we did manage to take pictures of.

Ashley's Birthday Party!! I made Ashley her Birthday cake. It was the first cake I've ever made and i was proud of it. I drove her crazy though cuz all i wanted was to take a picture of her and the cake. After what seemed like days of pleading i finally was given permissio to snap this one. Aagh, i'm happy now. :)

I surprised Ash with a forerunner GPS watch. She really wanted the 205 model, but i got her the 305 instead. She was EXCITED!!!


Pool days!!! Ang and the kids come over and have a blast Swimming on the hot days.


Cool treats to go with the Cool Down.



The water at Arrowrock reservoir was crystal clear and smooth as glass as Tom and i tried to catch a few fish. Fishing has become my new favorite pastime. Unfortunately i have yet to catch anything. Tom does all the catching and i take the pictures! We caught bigger fish but the batteries died!!! so this pic of this little guy is all we have. We threw him back.


The fourth of July is SOOOooo Scary! Tell me when it's over!!!

We had an awesome fourth of July BBQ at Angela's. We celebrated Ryan's birthday at the same time. Happy Birthday America and Ryan.


Happy Sparklers! Happy People!

::WRONG PLACE, WRONG TIME::

Well as some of you might of heard, good Friday turned out to be NOT soo Good Friday. I (Donny) was on my way to work when the unthinkable happened. Someone near me decided to make a Poor decision that now is affecting many people, Sorry Trent and Tami.
The Beautiful Mustang is still beautiful but now has some love scars on it. I am going to try and post some pics while explaining what exactly happened.

Okay so accident took place in the west lane on Franklin right in front of the Fast Lane Go-karts place. It was five o'clock and I was stopped about 100 yards back from the light at Franklin and Cloverdale. While Sitting there I heard an enormously loud POP or BANG! I thought to myself "wow that sounded like a gun shot... or maybe a back fire." I wanted to know what sort of cluncker could be behind me making such a racket so I looked to my left just in time to see a blown blur, and SMACK!!! A Jeep Cherokee had just hit me. After hitting my head hard on the window it took a few moments for me to collect myself. The first thing that crossed my mind was "pull over and check to make sure there is no damage" (Even though the Jeep's headlights and blinker parts were littered all over the hood of the Stang). I guess you could call that being optimistic!



So here is how it all happened. At least two cars behind me there was a blue Ford F-250 waiting to turn left out of a parking lot. At the same time there is an impatient driver driving quickly down the center lane. The woman in the truck pulled out, not looking left or thinking that anyone would be there. As she gunned out of the parking lot she broad sided the Jeep traveling 35 or 40 mph. The impact from this blew his tire (which was the loud bang I heard.) This collision sent him into a tailspin out into oncoming traffic then arching sharply to the right STRAIGHT... AT... ME!


So at some point in reading this you're probably wondered what the Mustand actually looks like now.
Well, the pictures don't look too bad but we'll let you know about estimates after we get them tomorrow...it could be totaled because there is most likely body frame damage. The hinge to the door is over extended to the point where the door hardly would open (but after a little bit of pounding...now it hardly shuts!) Every little thing on the left side the car now seems to be at least a half inch out of place. We're just thankful that nobody was hurt, it is not my fault in any way because I just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

I and my head am fine by the way, just a little sore from being hit by a car. =)

::BETTER LATE THAN NEVER::

I looked through some files and just had to take a little walk down memory lane with it being Aaron's birthday last Friday. As you can see from the previous post, I didn't blog on Friday because of we were busy taking care of car stuff after the accident.
I just wanted to share some of my favorite moments with my brother that have been caught on camera. (in no particular order)

It took me a long time to admit that one day Aaron would actually be taller than me. But this was one of the days that I realized that it was actually happening...
These were treasured moments in our house...Aaron and Dad. I think that this will be a picture that Dad will want to remember because now I think Aaron may be able to take him!
Aaron has always been an amazing musician. He plays the piano, guitar and fiddle so well.

Aaron is also athletic. He's an awesome snowboarder!
I don't know what is going on in this picture...but it made me laugh so hard!
Aaron also has killer muscles!

He always kept us up on the all of the latest gaming systems. This picture was taken on a trip to the Oregon Coast and we played Mario Party the whole way there. It was awesome.

And thankfully his manners have improved in the past couple of years.

He's always been a flirt too...I'm pretty sure this picture was when we went out to dinner for my seventeenth birthday and he flirted with the waitress.
Aaron has an awesome sense of humor...and always knows how to make us laugh!
This picture was taken at Christmas, Aaron was always in charge of vacuuming the stairs on Saturday mornings. So for Christmas he got a new vacuum...he tried to be thankful but then bordered on wondering where his real gift was. I don't think that any of us actually remember what he got that year but we always joke around about his vacuum.


Aaron and Dad used to always watch the Red Green Show. I always knew that they would be watching it together when I got home from being out with friends on Saturday nights.

Of course through all of this Aaron was still a little brother who would tease me and throw things at me...like nasty things he finds on the beach...


But at the end of the day we were always buddies and always will be.


Buddy, happy birthday! We are bringing you an AWESOME gift for your birthday/graduation when we come (in a month!) We can't wait to see you. I'm so proud of you and love you so much!

::HAPPY 18TH BIRTHDAY::

Aaron is turning 18 (today in China) but tomorrow our time. We're so sad that we can't be there to celebrate this big and exciting birthday but we can't wait to come next month!

I looked through my computer and realized that this is one of the only pictures I have of him on here...I'm going to have to dig through some old files to find some good ones. I just wanted to do a small post tonight so that he knows that I'm thinking about him. I'm going to do a bigger post tomorrow (which is his birthday, Idaho time)
Buddy, I'm so proud of you! You're an amazing person and I'm so happy to be your sister! Love you! (come back to the blog tomorrow and see what else I come up with!)

HAPPY 18TH BIRTHDAY!

::REAL LIFE::

So the past couple of months have been a huge insight into real life. Donny and I have had a lot to handle and it all has to do with being adults. I've been really sick for a few months now and have had to figure out how to handle working full time and keep my body somewhat healthy. I've been in and out of multiple doctors and even ready for surgery with an IV in my arm. Thankfully, with a lot of faith, prayer and blessings I am feeling better than I have since Christmas. I've felt like I'm barely keeping my head above the waters of life...especially with trying to find the energy to train for the marathon. So...each day I have basically two goals: Have a successful day at work and have a successful run when I'm off work.

Then, Donny hurt his wrist at work and has been in and out of the doc before they finally concluded that he may have fractured it (they at first thought it was just sprained). How he can't lift more than 10 lbs. with his left hand until they figure out what to do further. But on the bright side, he is on Spring Break this week!

But you know what makes it all worth it? I got up this morning and started getting ready for work. I pulled open my closet doors and looked for something that was comfortable but that was also nice enough to wear to the office. I looked longingly at a pair of brown pants that Mom bought for me the day that Donny and I went on our honeymoon. As embarrassing as this is...I haven't been able to fit into them in months...like since last fall. I tried them on in January and couldn't even get the top button to touch...yeah, awful. This morning I was feeling brave and decided to give it a shot...AND THEY FIT PERFECTLY AGAIN (and no don't worry, no muffin top nasty and no buldging!) The amazing thing is that I haven't really been "dieting"...I've just been running and drinking a lot of water. And so I sit here, at work, wearing my brown pants. Thanks for sharing in my joy!

::Christmas 2008::

It's Donny Again! (I posted one right before this one. Ya'll should check it out.)

It was Soooo Fun to have the kids over on Christmas! They brought joy, laughter, and giggles to what would have a been a somewhat mellow and quiet house. I don't know how to add writing in between each picture very well so i will just post a column of pics for everyone to look at.

The first night that Ryanna, Dawson, and Carter were here they had fun making their own stockings. it was a very intense process making sure all the facial body parts found their rightful places on santa's face! Oh what FUN!

when the stockings were made they were left out to let the glue dry and we were off to my parents place. At the Lloyds dawson made a new friend named Alex, Carter loved watching everyone in what ever they were doing, and Ryanna feel in love with the Dogs; chasing them around the house.

After whatching Rudolph the Red-nosed reindeer the kids all went to bed. It was not long after that Santa visited our place. I knew that he wouldn't forget them! I think that Santa did a pretty good job arranging their toys.

Christmas morning was fun and full of surprises. We were bumbed (i don't know how that's spelled!?) that our communication with China didn't work out. Unfortunately we had to open presents without them.

Here are the pics that were taken that day.

I love this Look!

Ryanna said that this looked too much like Aunt Ash's hand writing.