Firsts of 2012

2012 was a good year. There was lots of firsts. We finally moved out on our own, meaning not living in a parents basement. Which I'm not complaining, it was actually kind of nice. But we've enjoyed the experiences that come with living away,  just the two of us together. Kurt got his first dog ever. He's always wanted one, and he finally was able to get one. Kazi has been such a fun little dog to have, leaving aside the times when she is not fun. She enjoyed her first experience at Lake Powell. She's never been in water besides when taking a bath, once she got used to it, we couldn't stop her from going in. She loved it and was such a good dog. We can't wait to take her there again. Kurt started his first semester at the U, finishing up the pre-requisites and then getting into the Marketing program. We went to Iowa for the first time to visit some family members and went to the Mall of America. Nice relaxing week. We also ran our first marathon together. A big trial for the both of us, but so many memories. We were also part of a relay team. We had never done one of those before and we really enjoy them. It's nice to take a break while other people are running and not shower for a few days, and eat nothing but junk food and snacks to keep your energy high. In April, we ran our first Duathalon, most likely our last. (at least mine) No training, biking for 22 miles ON a mountain bike, getting past by a bunch of old people on their road bikes. We might have finished last, but Kurt still got first in his age group. (that's not saying much) My job is great, first time I've ever got a promotion and worked a full time job.

There were many more memories that we had this year and are gratefull for the experiences and trials that we endured and look forward to a great year in 2013 with many more memories and firsts.

Iowa = Good Birth Control

For Kurt's fall break, we decided to go visit my sister and her family in Iowa. It would be a nice relaxing week, especially after our marathon. Or so we thought it would be. Little did we know, that 730 is sleeping in, being woken up to crying children was a daily routine, and that my phone was no longer considered to be mine. This is what comes from two adorable nephews who I don't get to see. It may not have been what is called a relaxing week, but it was one of the best weeks ever. We didn't go out and do a whole lot, but I was constantly doing something within, whether it was playing with 2 year old KJ or holding 8 month old Kolt. One of the days we went to a pumpkin patch and rode on a wagon, had rubber ducker water races, rode small tractors, went down slides, did the teeter toter, played in kernals, and feed the goats.

It was an enjoyable fun time with the little ones. I also learned how to make a few dinners and was a little crafty while out there. I sewed some stuffed pumpkins for my fall decorations. On the weekend, we drove up to Minnesota to go to Mall of America. It was so big, we had to go back the next day. It was crazy insane in there. 

Dinner at Bubba Gumps

Transformer Lego = HUGE!

We Love Spongebob and Patrick

Like I said, it was a fun week filled with lots of fun and laughter. We were sad to leave to go back to our lives. :( But we were glad we were able to take that time to go, especially because when would we ever go to Iowa after they move? Probably never. So it was a once in a life time trip. Thanks for all who made it fun and memorable.

26.2 Miles

Last year my sister in laws sister in law (if that makes sense) ran the St George Marathon and I went to go watch her finish. Listening to tons of people cheering on all these runners who they had no idea who they were and giving the runners a little motivation, gave me motivation to be apart of it. Being surrounded by the cheering and support system made me say that I was going to run the marathon next year. I wanted to be apart of that, I wanted that feeling of crossing the finish line after achieving such a great accomplishment. Six months later, I was signing up for exactly that.

For the last 6 months, Kurt and I have been training for the St George Marathon. We woke up at 6 am that first day of April to secure ourselves a spot. And that was the day Kurt said he would not cut his hair until after we had ran. I have always wanted to do a marathon when I was in high school, I just never buckled down and did it. Running is a lot easier to do when you have a partner to run with you. Kurt has been such a motivation to me through it all. It got really hard once we passed the half marathon mark for training. We had never run more than 13 miles before. I was beginning to hate running. We were running so much, I didn't get to sleep in, ever, our saturday mornings were based around waking up at 5 in the morning to go run for two plus hours. It was not the ideal weekend, that's for sure. Until Labor day weekend we were in St George and decided to run 18 miles of the course. It turned out to be one of the best runs that we have ever had. It went by super fast, our bodies did not ache, and it was just enjoyable. It made us both see why people love to run lots of marathons. If every run I had was like that day, I would run a lot more marathons too. But as it got closer to the day of the race, I wasn't feeling so confident anymore. We had only ran up to 18 miles, and 8 more miles is an additional hour or so. I had initially had two goals in mind. 1) run all miles under 10 minutes, 2) run it in less than 4.5 hours. After running the 18 miles, I thought it would be better to do 3:59, just under the 4 hour mark. But as soon as we started the race, that quickly faded and went back to my original goal time. The start line was crowded with lots of intimidating people who all looked like this was gonna be a piece of cake for them. It is always nerve racking to know you are about to run a distance that you have never done before. Even during our trainings, I would always get so nervous for the long runs of 13+ miles. You never know how your body is going to react.

Once we started I knew I was going to be in a little bit of trouble. Kurt and I both decided not to wear headphones because we have always just talked on our runs and it made them go by faster. Not this time. There were so many people around us and I think I was just too distracted by the hoards of people around me, that I didn't really talk. I was too focused on the runners and not so focused on my body, my form, and my breathing. We made a goal that we would not stop and walk, to just keep running the whole time. We made sure we fueled up at every station, even if we were running a little bit slower just to do so. Everything after mile 18 was really hard. Mostly because we had never run further than that. And I also knew that we were getting that much closer to coming into St George. Our family would be waiting for us on Bluff street somewhere. As soon as I heard them yelling and cheering us on, out of no where, this flood of emotions wanted to escape out and start crying. I had always heard of people crying during the marathon and other things, but I never understood why, and to be honest, I still don't. I don't know why I wanted to cry, I just did. Having that support system made me push myself a little bit harder and knew that I was almost there. I couldn't have done it without them. After we had passed our fans, it was only 2 miles until the finish. The last two miles was through town were there were people filling every spot on the side of the road just cheering you on. Coming around the last corner, you could see the finish line for what felt like eternity. It was not getting any closer. But somewhere inside me I had a little bit of energy left to push all that I had left. At the very last seconds of crossing the finish line, Kurt grabbed my hand and we ran through together.

What a relief it was to be able to stop running. Even though at that point, I felt like I was going to collapse on the ground if I stopped moving. All we wanted to do was go home. We quickly stretched, took some pictures with the family and then had to take the eternity long walk back to the car. Even though I was tired and I was hurting, I beat my two goals. We ran every mile under ten minutes and we got a 4:08, which is close enough to 3:59. It was one of the hardest things I have done in my life, but it was well worth it. I am so grateful that I had Kurt by my side the whole entire time pushing me and helping me continue to move my legs. I am glad that is something that we were able to do together. I think it will teach us many great things in the future because we did it together. We were there side by side during this little trial that we created for ourselves. And we both made it out alive.

Summer twenty 12

This summer has been super busy. We have had a few trips and just a lot going on. Back in July we had the Turley/Gardner Family reunion. Kurt's family all came up for the week and stayed up in Park City. During that time, we had a baby blessing and Kurt's sister ended up having her baby up here, which was very convenient so we could go see him, even though he was in the NICU the whole time. :( But it was still great. We didn't get to spend a whole lot of time with his family while the were here though, because we went to Lake Powell with my family. We took Kazi with us. We were a little nervous in how she would react to the water and people around us, but she was so great! She didn't like the water at first, probably because we just threw her in there, but afterwards she wanted to go in the water all the time. And if Kurt or I were ever in the water she would bark at the back of the boat until she finally just jumped in. She loved being around the rest of the family too. I think she just gets bored of just us sometimes. She also went on the tube with us, in which she was scared out of her mind and even got on the skurf board with Kurt. 

Kurt was also in school the whole summer. Hopefully only one more year of school. :) We are still training for our marathon, which is a lot of hard work and dedication. Thank goodness we only have a little over a month left and then we are celebrating by taking a little vacation out to Iowa to visit my sister and her family out there. We are super excited! 

Top of Zion Relay

Our Van, excluding me, I was running. 

Back when we signed up for the Top of Zion relay, we knew full well that it was a week later after our half. Which we thought we would've been okay and not hurt because we have been training so long for it. We both we the most sore we have ever been in our lives the few days following and Kurt's achilles wasn't doing so well either. So we were nervous for the upcoming race. It started at Capitol Reef and ended in Zions, a total of 195 miles for 2 days. Since we were in the second van, we didn't have to be there until around 2 on Friday. We didn't know anyone except for the girl that put it together, which was in the other car. So we didn't know the 4 people in our car. The first car started at 8 that morning. We met up with them in Boulder Utah. I was the 3rd person to run and Kurt was the 5th. So we had a little bit of time stretch and get ready. My first leg was 6.5 miles. It wasn't too bad at first, but then it got hotter and hotter as the day went on I felt like. It was scorching hot and Kurt and I don't train in the sun because I work, so we run in the mornings before the sun is even out. I felt really good for the first half, but after that I died, the sun drained all my energy out. I had the longest run out of the whole van. I thought I was going to be dehydrated because it was so long and hot. But I finally made it. Kurt's first leg was only 5 miles, but still in the sun. Our van finished at 7 that night so we were all able to recuperate, rest, and eat some real food, not just snacks. A kid in the other car had a house in Escalante and we were able to get a few hours of sleep there. (Some of us at least)

Night Run

We had to be at the next exchange at midnight. It was cold and we were all still tired. I only had 5 miles for the night run, and started around 2 am. It was a lot less cooler and nicer to run. Kurt started his run at Hole in the Rock, it was kind of a bummer that it wasn't during the day so we could see it better and take pictures. He had 4 miles that night and he did so great! Our whole van was doing so good, given a couple of injuries and the hardness of some of the runs. We finished our legs that morning around 7 and were able to get lots of sleep. The first van's last legs were really short so they ran them super fast, we started our last leg around 10. Our total number of miles on our last leg all together was 36 miles, this was our longest set yet. I once again just had 5 miles, it was around noon, wasn't very hot yet, so that was nice. But it was on a dirt/sandy road that was very uneven and had lots of sand at some places. It was my least favorite run. It was not very pretty either. Kurt's run was 7 miles, on the stupid dirt road, mostly uphill. His achilles was hurting a little bit so he was nervous about it. He ran 4 miles and took a rest, so I ran a mile and another kid ran a mile and then Kurt finished his last mile. We were really lucky that his achilles didn't start killing him until the last leg.   He did awesome on his first legs, you wouldn't even had guessed he was hurting. While the one kid was running a mile for Kurt, he hurt himself and he was after Kurt. Luckily he only had 4 miles, I ran his second mile and another girl ran his 3rd, and then we had one more mile to go, which he wanted to finish.

The whole team finally done!

We finished around 4 that afternoon. We finished fourth overall and second in the men's division. We only had 3 girls so we were able to qualify for the mens team. We were so happy to be done. It was a lot of fun, we made new friends, had a good support system. But we wont do that again unless they move it to another time of year. It was super pretty at so many parts, but the sun was just deathly hot that if you were running, it was hard to enjoy it because you were too focused on not getting dehydrated and just making it to the end. We definitely will not have any long races until our marathon is over. Too much of a risk getting hurt and the recovery.

Our Wall of Fame

In Zion after the run.

American Fork Half Marathon

Support the fight against Cancer

Back in February, Kurt and I signed up for the American Fork Canyon Half Marathon with my sister and brother. Which both couldn't do it in the end and had to get some friends to do it. This is the one that is about our half way mark for our marathon. It was really rough getting up at 3 in the morning to catch a bus ride up to the canyon at 4 and waiting at the top for an hour until it started. I was feeling really good about it too, I had just ran the Ogden half a month ago and I felt pretty good on that one. This one was 7 miles brutally down hill, and 6 miles running on a paved trial through neighborhoods. I hate running through neighborhoods while during a race. I wanted to beat my Ogden time because I felt like I was more prepared for this one and in better shape. Which I was, but the downhill was pretty steep and killed me by the time I was done with it. I didn't finish with what I wanted, but I still beat my Ogden time. Kurt did really good, he ran it in 1:43:29 and I finished in 1:56:01. Having a run like this makes me really nervous for the full. I hope though that I will be really prepared and can only pray that I don't get hurt and that my feet don't blister early on like they did with this on.

8 months of Kazi Bear

She was so little

No way Kurt could do this now.

From day one, she has loved our pillows.

Always trying to fit into everything

Kazi is 8 months now and hopefully fully grown. She used to be this cute little puppy, and now she is this cute big monster. She was her good days, and then she has her days where she unleashes(chews) on everything that she sees in front of her. We will come home to find that she has been chewing on things that she has never before wanted to chew on. It is getting hard because I feel like there is nothing that we can leave close to the ground that we don't want her to chew on. Living in an apartment with a high energy dog that likes to chew on things, is not the greatest thing for her or us. We did get her fixed (poor dog) she was so out of it the whole day. We have never seen her like that. We heard that she wouldn't have as much energy once that happened, but I think that is a lie, she still has just as much. But all the bad things that she does, there are still good things that she does. Kurt was sick last week and I had to work and she was really good for him. She just slept with him all day. She probably needed the rest just as much as Kurt did. And she still continues to do things every day that makes us laugh. She has such a funny personality, we couldn't have gotten a better dog.