Another Fun Racing Day!

Today was the Painters half marathon, 5k, and tough kids run! Most of my friends had a great day at the half-marathon! My friends are AWESOME!

I had a great time running the 5k with Bree. She did so great! She had a goal to complete the run in under 30 minutes! We ran a 29:22! When we finished she said she felt sick - I was so proud!!!

Lainee and Ellie ran the half mile tough kids run! They are so cute, about the same distance in age as Bree and I. I love watching them together! Lainee looked so cute with my hot pink super runner head band on. They had a blast!

"My" Sweet Little Ashtyn ran the 200 meter with her mom! Aren't they so cute with their medals? I love all the kids stuff St. George offers! We are so lucky to live here!

Bloopers!

Family Pictures with a ONE Year old are extremely fun!

Family Pictures with a sick and cranky one year old - well that's just a BONUS!!

Here are a few of the "outtakes" from our family photo shoot!

We told the older kids to just keep looking at the camera and smiling -

no matter what Linc was doing! They did a great job!

This pic was close to the beginning and he was all ready trying to escape!

I think we tried to take his binky out and just take a picture of him, not to happy about it!

This was when he stopped believing that I had gum in my

hand and just decided he wasn't going to be a part of our family!

And OF COURSE!! in the 1 picture, out of 162, that he was actually looking at the camera, smiling, and looking really cute - MY eyes are closed!

This one just makes me laugh! He was SOOO done!

How about a close up of that face in case you can't see it:

And this one makes him look so innocent!!

I guess he is,even if he does make family pictures difficult -

He's still my favorite little dude and can melt my heart with a single kiss!

He's not the only little dude that can melt me -How sweet is this!!

Thanks to my awesome Photog friend Kris Stanger, we made it through two hours of smiling, bribing, chasing, and posing with a sense of Humor!

And believe it or not we got a few pics that might actually make a cute Christmas Card,

so check your mailboxes in the next few weeks!

Turkey Tri!

It's been a fun crazy saturday at our house! Thank goodness Ty arranged his work week to have today off! A hubby on Saturday is not a luxury I get very often!

Ty took Cam to his soccer game at 9 and then Lainee to her game at 10:40 while Morgan and I enjoyed a fun Activity Days brunch at the church! Then we all met at Sand Hollow Aquatic Center for Morgan and Cameron to do their first triathlons! It wasn't without its drama, but it ended up being a great experience for both of them.

We encouraged both kids to do it but gave them the choice and also told them they would have to pay half of the $15 entrance fee. We wanted them to sacrifice a little bit so that they'd want it more and wouldn't quit if it got a little hard. Cameron forked his money right over. Morgan took a little time but decided at the last minute she wanted to do it.

We took them swimming 3 different times and they kept improving each time, they are both great little swimmers. We did one bike ride and then a run. The run was the hardest part for Morgan! We would have done more running training but they both got sick this week.

Cameron signed up for the kids sprint distance which was a 100 m swim, 2 mile bike ride, and 3/4 mile run! He was a little nervous at the beginning because the lady wouldn't let Ty cross the line to give him his goggles, then when he finally got them, he dove in and they came off. While he was swimming I realized he had forgotten to pack his shoes. He had a little meltdown in transition one but we got him off on the bike ride (in flip flops) and he had a great time! He crossed the finish line and I quickly ran inside just in time to see Morgan's start! She did a 50 m swim, 1 mile bike ride, and 1/2 mile run! She was a great sport and kept smiling even when it got hard!
Morgan's good friend Megan did the same distance as Cameron. After she had already finished she ran in the finishing stretch with Morgan! What a great friend - Aren't they cuties!

Post race with a medal and an organge! What could be better!

So, I really can't believe it's been about 3 months since I've posted. We've had a lot happen since then, Lainee's birthday, some fun trips to lake Powell, 2 marathons and I'm sure I'll think of more when I look through my pictures. So stay tuned for another of my famous mass blogs coming soon!

A crazy long post about a couple of crazies!!

I have been accused of being crazy! Many people believe the way I like to spend my free time is a little nutso! I've also been accused of being crazy for the things I "let" (I really don't like that word) my husband do. Maybe we are a little crazy but we're loving life. Here's a glimpse into our crazy summer...and you can decide which one of us is more crazy!

My Summer has been all about training and I've loved every minute of it! I've pretty much had at least one race a month since May and I've got a few more to go. I started out the with the St. George Triathlon in May that turned into a duathlon due to strong winds cancelling the swim portion. The Summer Games Triathlon in June made up for it. I had a great day, beat my goal time by ten minutes, ended up 4th overall and got a gold medal in my age group!

In July I went to Bryce Canyon with my friend Natalie Slemboski and we ran the Bryce Canyon half marathon. I got a personal record with a 1:34. What a beautiful race...I highly recommend it, especially if you like downhill!

Post race with my super fast friend Natalie

All of this was just leading up to what I had seriously been training for all summer...the biggest event I'd ever tried to tackle...the Utah Half Ironman! That's a 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike ride, and 13.1 mile run! And yes, the swim was in Utah lake! People's reaction to that gave me a stomach ache all summer!
It ended up being a super fun girls get away weekend. We headed up to Provo Thursday night, Trisha, Jamie, Natalie S. and I. We enjoyed a yummy dinner at P.F. Chang's! Natalie's brother in law had a nice home in Springville they weren't using at the moment so we had a great place all to ourselves!

Friday we got a private swim lesson and triathlon nutritional training from Natalie's coach. Then we drove the bike course so we wouldn't have any problems on race day. After packet pick up we headed to the movie to see The Time Travler's Wife! I had been anticipating this for weeks, after reading the book in July, and was definitely not disappointed!

One of the best parts of the weekend was phone calls from husbands who were realizing how hard our jobs as mom's really are! This text I got from Ty Friday night says it all....

"Ya so went to the river and we got home i had all the kids hop in the shower i stripped down linc and left him alone for 30 sec and he decided to take a dump on the floor, then he smeared it up and down his arms and he was about to put a piece in his mouth when i caught him. He thought it was pretty funny. Do u miss him!!?"

Race morning we got up early and headed to the lake! After a pre-race meeting we were all walking to the water to start the swim and the wind came up! We were going to swim in the enclosed portion of the harbor and it was pretty nasty. You could see out into main part of the lake and it was even worse with humongous waves! After post-poning the start for a half an hour they announced we had a small window before another storm came in and they would allow us to do half the swim!

trying to keep warm and happy while waiting to hear if we got to swim or not!

A few minutes after the women started, the wind picked up really bad again and I was having a hard time keeping my face in the water. There was a kayak right in front of me. People were grabbing on and lots of people quit. It took all the will power I had to keep going...I had trained to hard to quit at that point, it didn't matter if I doggy paddled for an hour, I was not going to quit! So I was on and off side-stroking and swimming for 25 minutes and when I got out and got on my bike the whole thing seemed surreal - like it hadn't really just happened!

transition and off on my bike ride!!


The bike was a blast...for a little while! Being one of the last people out of the water I got the rush of passing a lot of people! About mile 15 It started to get really windy! One part of the course took us around the lake and I felt like I was in California looking over the ocean, the waves were so huge! At one point the wind was coming in so strongly from the side I felt like I was going to get blown over! I had to hold tight to keep my handle bars straight! With about 15 miles to go it started hailing! I was riding with a girl I knew and we were just laughing and saying owe, owe, owe! We had to be a little cautious because the last part of the ride had a lot of turns and the ground was very wet! I still finished the bike in just under 3 hours so I felt pretty good about that!
While we were out on the bike the finishing area got completely blown down!

The run made up for all the other stuff with perfect running conditions! It was overcast, cool, no wind, lots of shade trees, and some occasional sprinkling! Plus I had Jamie to run with me, she hadn't done the whole thing so she was fresh and full of positive things to say! She was taking lots of phone calls cuz people were checking on how we were doing and it kept the runners around us laughing and asking her to order pizza and stuff! It's so strange how your legs just don't run like they normally do after you've biked. 1:52 was my half marathon time, and overall time was 5 hours 22 minutes!

I got really emotional at the end. I had trained so hard, it was so fun, it was almost over and it had been one of the hardest things I'd ever done...and I did it! I had to control myself so I could breathe down the finishing stretch. And I needed every breathe I had to complete this sprint finish!

To see how this sprint finish ends click on this link to the professional photographers at the race! They took about 9 pictures of our finish and the ending is hilarious!!!!http://www.zazoosh.com/events/searchPhotos/227?evtId=227&query=48

Once the finish was over I was able to get emotional again. It's crazy how the physical strain brings your emotions to the surface! Then when Trisha finished and was emotional, it all came back again! I love these girls and I'm so proud of us!!!

And now for a glimpse into Tyler's crazy life...have you all heard about or seen his ultralight? It's a power propelled hangglider! He and his buddy Sam have been taking lessons in Vegas and are certified to fly. After Tyler luckily walked away from a crash in May that practically totalled their first ultralight, they bought a pretty sweet yellow machine complete with cruise control and emergency parachute!

The view in Zion before he crashed in May! It may be crazy but this makes it worth it...Beautiful!!Ty's leg from the barb wire fence he crashed into, he also had a small fracture in his wrist! I hope he has more lives than a cat cuz he's burnin' through them quickly!

Sam has also gotten certified in skydiving so last Thursday morning Tyler took off from his "runway" behind our house. He picked up Sam in Hurricane and they flew over Zion. On the way back to St. George Sam Jumped out over the Hurricane airport and Tyler flew home! Enjoy the video....Sam being scared is just a great acting job...He's totally stoked and he really wins the crazy award in this post!

On Saturday Tyler took the kids to Richfield with some of his hiking buddies and their families and they floated down the river a few times on this boat and some kayaks. I loved hearing the kids describe their day! They had a blast!!!

While Ty and the kids were in Richfield I did my first century ride in Panguitch! I hadn't ever gone farther than 67 miles on my bike and I wasn't quite recovered from the half ironman the week before but it was amazing! The first 80 miles were awesome! We got in some fast groups and it was mostly downhill or flat and awesome weather! At mile 80, half our group stopped at a rest stop and about 6 of us decided to keep going. It wasn't long till my overworked legs couldn't hold onto the draft anymore and all of a sudden it turned to a gradual climb in a headwind and I was all alone! 26 miles usually seems like nothing on a bike but these were going by so slow and I was so happy when it was finally over! 106 miles...woo hoo! Even with the really hard ending I still averaged just over 20 mph :) And if you're wondering how bad the end REALLY was I heard a guy say...

"If HELL is anything like that last 26 miles, I'm going to start going to church!"

Staci took this pic of some the beautiful scenery!

So still to come on my racing schedule is a 180 mile 12 person relay that I'm really excited about, the St. George Marathon in October, and the New York Marathon in November! Time to switch to running mode! Ty is still in flying and canyoneering mode and the kids are just hanging on for the ride!

Annual Christensen Lake Powell Journey!

Every Year we spend a week at Lake Powell with Tyler's Parents, All his siblings, and all their children! (about 26 people this year I think) Only, its actually been two years, since Clark and Kassie were in Kirtland last year, so all the grandkids were even more excited to spend time together!

We spent lots of hours lounging on the top of the houseboat, reading, playing games (congrats to Abby on winning the Cataan Tournament-don't forget Grandpa owes ya dinner), watching movies, riding waverunners, tubing, banana boating, tubing and banana boating at the same time, running up sandhills, racing up sandhills, running down sandhills, filming ourselves running down sandhills, kayaking, hiking, wakeboarding, and most of all eating!!!!

Lainee loves to wakeboard with her dad! She's our fearless little girl-its so fun to watch her go, but I have to hold my breathe most of the time!

wakeboarding at sunset is amazing!

If the above and below pics were a little more clear

you could see the perma-smile on lainee's face! Nice Air!!!

And our newest Lake Powell Past Time is YOGA! My Awesome friend Staci, who is my favorite Yoga instructor, gave me a sheet of a yoga workout and this is our attempt at it! Although I had great students, I don't think I'll become an instructor anytime soon! Another fun thing we did one night after dinner was hike across the island we were beached at to some amazing arch caves! It was about a 20 minute hike! Then Tyler and his cousin Mark climbed up to the very top of the cliff. They said the view was unbelievable!!! It was hilarious to hear them push boulders down and laugh like 12 year old boys when they crashed and exploded at the bottom! It took the sun setting to make them stop and come back down to reality. While they were doing this Abby and I took another attempt at some Hot Yoga Poses on the gorgeous rocks! BLISS!!!

Beautiful Abby in a Full Piegon Pose - Amazing!!

Warrior 1

side angle!

Thanks Clark and Kassie, it was a great time!! And a special thanks to my dear friends Natalie and Brett Moss who watched Lincoln! I cannot imagine chasing him around the whole week - this was the best Lake Powell trip I've had with my kids ever!

Birthday Week and catch-up blogging!

Tyler and I have had a Great Birthday Week! For those of you who don't know-our birthdays are one day apart, mine on June 3rd and his on June 4th! But I'm 3 years younger and always will be!!!

My Birthday was nonstop but super fun! It started out with an intense speedwork run with Natalie and Trisha and then we went to Breakfast at Rise and Dine where Staci met us -she was still recovering from running the rock n' roll marathon! I was so bummed I didn't take a picture of us since we all looked so cute post run! After Breakfast I headed to bootcamp! I liked my birthday being on a Wednesday cuz it's my most intense workout day and I LOVE it!!! When I got home from bootcamp I had the high light of my day waiting for me! This sign was on the door that comes into the house from the garage!

It says Happy Birthday Mom I love you P.S. (Check in your room I did something)

Cam made my bed!! And the pillows on backwards, the sheets hanging out, and the crumpled comforter kept me smiling all day!!!

My neighborhood does a birthday lunch to celebrate the birthdays for the whole month on the first Wednesday of each month at 25 Main. It was fun that it fell on my birthday this year and I got to celebrate with 15 of my favorite ladies! We got pics of a few of them!

Kris Stanger and I - Love Her!!!

Kami, LeeAnne, and Kris
Lisa, Kris, Kori, and Heather!

After Lunch I headed to my mom's to paint her kitchen! We are redoing the whole thing and though painting isn't my first choice on my birthday, it sounded better than painting around the cabinets that were going in the next morning! It turned out really fun and gave me an excuse to spend my birthday with my sisters Shauna and Sheryl!!!

After painting I met Ty at the RoadRunner's baseball game to watch Cam's Little League Team run out on the field as the Road Runner's were announced! It was super cute. Each little guy got to run out with the player who played their position and have their name announced! Cam ran out with the 3rd baseman! We stayed at the road runner game as long as Lincoln lasted, about 4 innings or until the m & m's were gone!

It was such a great day! I got fun text messages all day and ended the day enjoying a bowl of peanutbutter cup icecream and reading all my birthday messages on facebook!

Ty's birthday was fun too! I slept in with him and made him his favorite breakfast of eggs benedict! He had to work but we met for lunch at In n Out! We went to Morgan's softball game at 6 and then went to dinner with his parents and my mom at Ruby Tuesday!

And the celebrating kept going! Friday I got to go to lunch with Jamie Holt and Bree, my BFF's since High School, then we went to dinner with Sam and Misha that night! Saturday was Natalie Slemboski's birthday so we started the day out with an awesome bike ride. Then I got to go to lunch again with my shadow mountain running girls and We went to dinner with Brent and Rachel! Finally, we got our birthday Sunday dinner at Ty's parents house of Roast Beef, mashed potatos, artichokes, Texas Sheetcake, and homemade icecream! We have the best friends and family and have been well fed this week! Thanks to everyone who made our birthdays so fun!!!

And since its been a while (April - I'll blame the busy-ness of the end of school) since I've blogged I thought I'd throw in a few catch up things!

In May we went to Vegas with some fun couples in our ward to an 80's flashback concert! REO Speedwagon, Styx, and 38 special! We had a great time going to dinner and then to the concert! The People Watching at the concert was the best part - some people really do still live in the 80's!!!

Lisa, Heather, Jill, and I

Ty and I, notice my cute new outfit Ty surprised me with!!

This girl tried to run in front of our picture and Todd Parry yelled, "You're not that cute! - Get out of our picture" That would be why we are all smiling so big in the group picture below!!


Lainee also had a preschool graduation in May! This is her friend Brooklyn and her teacher Miss Megan!

She had a great year at preschool. She even learned to count to 100 and earned a candy bar! She hasn't quite learned the value of money yet though! A few weeks ago we were eating dinner at my parents house and Morgan got my dad's wallet and asked Grandpa if she could count his money! He had over $200 in mostly 20's so it looked like a lot. Lainee's eye got really big and she said, "Oh my Gosh, you could buy a popsicle with that kind of money!"

Not sure where she's heard someone say "that kind of money" but it made me laugh so hard! How simple life is for kids!



So the update is we are all doing great and loving summer! Morgan and Lainee are still enjoying softball and t-ball! Lincoln is just getting super big and busy! If anyone want to hang out this summer let us know - we love to play!!!