June

What a month June has been! After getting home from San Francisco, we quickly got into the swing of summer. There is so much fun to be had in the summer! On June 7th, I did the dirty dash with my old Tanner friends. Of course I got there late and started in a wave behind my group, but I caught up to them, covered in mud and had a blast! Although, those novelty events (mud runs, color runs, etc.) are not at the top of my list. They are on the list, because they can be really fun, but they aren't at the top. The more fun part of the day was meeting Chase in Park City after the run to go to Oakley and do a bike ride! Sarah Diamond had invited me to be on her Ardura relay team - an all women's road bike relay. So I wanted to practice ride my leg. It was a blast! I am really loving the road biking I have been able to do this summer. Such a fun sport Chase and I can do together. He is much stronger than me, but he never pulls ahead to wait. He always lets me lead and goes my pace. He was a particularly good sport that afternoon because that morning he was in a golfing accident (yes, it's possible). He had a golf cart roll and land on him and it really tore up his ankle. He's tough and went on the planned ride anyway, only because he knew I really really wanted to go. xoxo.

The following weekend was our anniversary. My favorite holiday all year. But first, on Thursday night, we went to Snowbasin for Ethan Annis's wedding, a good friend from high school. It was gorgeous! Seriously the most beautiful wedding I have been to in a long time, and we all had fun too! We had Hudson with us for the night because it was Lauren and Sean's anniversary. Hudson is a good little date and everyone loves seeing him. Sarah and my mom also drove up with us so it was just a big party. After we had been there for a while, and my mom was getting down on the dance floor with Hudson, Chase came over to me and said, "Walk with me?" We walked hand in hand out side and over to the grass and the bottom of the mountain and Chase said, "This is our spot." "Yes it is." "It's where you said yes." "Are you glad you asked me?" "Of course. And are you glad you said yes?" "Well, I don't know if I actually said yes, I think I mostly screamed and ran around." "Well maybe I can make you do that again." And he pulls out a ring box! WHAT?! I opened the box to find a perfect wedding band. I didn't know what to do at first. I got choked up and teary eyed as I put it on. Chase's smile was darling. "Happy Anniversary." How perfect? There are moments that stick out and are seared into my memory forever. How I felt right then and how he was looking at me... I will never forget. 

We continued the weekend with dinner at The Roof and a stay at the Grand America on Friday night. We had breakfast the next morning, did some shopping, and headed up to my dad's house for dinner. We ran out to do a quick bike ride up Trappers Loop (another part of my leg on the Ardura relay) and then had smores back at dads. All while keeping on on the world cup. We woke up the next day (our actual anniversary) and went up to Pineview for an early morning Father's Day ski. I all always be grateful that my dad in so adventurous. I love that he taught me to ski and run and hike and bike and he instilled in me a desire to try new things and use my time and my body to be athletic and see the world. After the best breakfast ever, we went home, cleaned up, and went to Father's Day dinner at Uncle Jeff's and then again to Grandme Nolene's. Everyone wished us a happy three years. I love fun filled weekends. And I am so looking forward to the next year of our marriage. I love Chase with everything I am. 

That Wednesday, my best friend Emily Ann Steele became Emily Ann Bernier, a married woman. The wedding was fantastic. I gorgeous day. The sealing was intimate and personal with only immediate family in attendance, just how they wanted it. Emily's mom helped her dress in her fantastic gown before they made the grand exit. What a beautiful couple. The pictures were fun, the weather was perfect, her flower hair wreath was perfection and so her. The dress screamed her name. And the groom looked strapping on her arm. The dinner was delicious at a unique location, Sea Salt, in Sugar House. Excellent food and better company. A 95 year old sax player, an icon of Ogden, was the entertainment. The photography was stunning. And everything throughout the whole day was so on point and reflective of Emily's style. And she looked so happy. She has been such a blessing in my life, and I look up to her so much. She conducts her life in a such a genuine, caring way. Congrats dear! Welcome to married life, you will love it here. 

That weekend I got to do the Ardura relay! It was so so so fun! I had a blast. We started out with a little miscommunication about the course that got us about 20 minutes behind. But we made it all up! My first leg was from Huntsville park, over Trappers, and into Morgan. Just under 25 miles in 1:24. I was really happy with it! The thing I love about biking is that you can stay at about 85% effort for a really long time! It's a different kind of effort than running. And I love it! I felt really strong up Trappers and I made up some time. I was only 9 minutes behind our A team (We had an A, B, and C team) at the top of Trappers and when I finished my leg we had passed the B team and we were only 2 minutes behind the A team. By the time we got to my second leg (I was leg 2 and 6 out of 8), we had just passed the A team and we were just behind a handful of other teams. The Oakley ride is 12 miles up, turn around and come straight back and it is a blast! After passing a few teams, I road hard to try not to get passed again. What a fun adrenaline rush! Our team was such a fun group too. Sarah, Catherine, and Jessica (Sarah's cousin) and CF was our driver. I will definitely be doing that again!

Finally, the last weekend in June, I was a part of a Ragnar team! Friday morning I got a text saying that we were two hours ahead of schedule because one of our runners was getting his appendix removed and three people had to drop out. I learned this while sitting in a dentist chair! We scrambled to find a few people to fill in. It helps to have athletic friends! We found subs in no time. Meanwhile, a monsoon was hitting the valley where we started. But over the next hour, the rain stopped and it was a perfect 58 degrees and overcast. We hubbed at the Green's cabin. When we headed over to Van 2 start location where I ran into my mom! She did the race with a group of her high school friends. They ran for all of the people from their class that had died and were promoting suicide prevention. How cool is that? Anyway, my first leg (leg 7--first runner in t Van 2) was great! Flat, 4.7 miles. I was so nervous my knees wouldn't hold up. In fact I was so nervous, that I didn't train. I ran probably 50 miles in the last few months. Not enough. But it was a choice between training my body and hurting my knees, and protecting my knees and running on my biking fitness. So I chose the latter. I was able to do my first leg in 36 minutes. 7:40 miles. It's not great. But I was happy with it! It was faster than I thought I would be able to do. After several hours in the car cheering my team on, we went back to the cabin to clean up, rest, and eat. I was taking as much advil as I felt safe taking, rolling out, messaging my legs, and icing. But nonetheless, my knee was really sore. We got in the car to drive to leg 12, my second leg. It's 3.6 miles up Hogs Back hill by east canyon. I ran it in 31:30. Slower at 8:45 miles. But for the first half mile I though I was going to have to stop. Luckily my legs loosened up and I was able to keep moving. And I passed a couple people on the hill, that was fun! As we drove through the night cheering each other on, Kirk told radio fortunes, and I was in and out of sleep. We finally made it through our second legs and headed to the start of leg 31. We slept out under that stars for a few hours before I had to run my finally leg. I woke up to "Hey you need to be ready to run in ten minutes." Well ok! That last leg hurt pretty bad. It was 4.7 miles in 39 minutes (I think). My knee never really loosened up, but I made it. And it felt so good to be done! I was happy I didn't have to run in the middle of the night, or in the heat of the day on Saturday. We took a few more hours to finish up in Park City, and all ran across the finish line with Kirk. Chris organized the whole thing and a lot a people put a lot of work into making it happen. Thank you to all! 

After the race, I went to Pineview to meet Chase and Fowlers for a little sun, BBQ in Huntsville, swig cookies, truffle salt popcorn, and a James Bond movie. And rather than waking up for an early morning ski, my body decided to sleep and recover. Probably a good idea. To finish up June, I will be getting LASIK tomorrow. I am so so so excited!! I can't stand it. I fell really blessed to be able to have the procedure done while I am young so I don't have to pay for and deal with contacts for ten more years before finally being done with it all. Bring on July!

Real Life and Vacations

Holy Cow. Life is so amazingly fun it's unreal! I am so happy, sometimes it hurts. Chase looked at me a couple months go and said, "I am the happiest I can ever remember being in my whole life right now." What better words could I hope to hear from my husband? There are so many things that can change life dramatically, with or without warning or permission, that I just pray this overwhelming happiness lasts as long as we can handle it. I just can't get enough.

Of course, having endless fun does not mean we aren't working really hard to keep moving forward. I started a new job six weeks ago and I am loving it! I have quite a bit more responsibility than I did at my last job, more freedom, and I think I am adding real value to the company. I work for Tom Stuart Construction, technically. I spend the vast majority of my time working on the accounting for several partnerships and properties that are not part of the construction side. I really like what I am doing now, and I really like the direction that the position is heading.

In the last several weeks, Chase and I have been able to go on a few little vacations. For Memorial Day weekend we went to Jackson Hole with family. We drove up Friday night and stayed with my mom and siblings. We went on a killer ride bike ride the next morning along the Tetons. I love that Chase and I have a sport we love to do together (I also love that we have sports we don't do together-- golf, running--I think it is perfect). That afternoon we met Chase's family, did a little shopping, and went to a darling Italian place out side of town for dinner. We picked up Phase 10 and a frisbee on the way back to the hotel and made good use of both the whole trip. Then next day we did a long drive through Yellowstone. I had seen Old Faithful before, but I didn't remember it very well. I had never seen the hot pots, so that was new and really interesting to see. That part of the world is really beautiful. We saw all kinds of wildlife... including some serious people watching. I think my favorite part of the trip was when Chase asked me if it would be ok if we rented an SUV that we could all fit in for the Sunday drive. His parents had planned this trip and wanted us all to be together so having two separate cars would not be ideal for having the whole family together deal. He arranged for the car and everything. He's a sweet heart. The next day Hudson joined us while Lauren and Sean did a mountain bike ride! We went to breakfast and played at the park. He seriously has me wrapped around his fat little fingers. I didn't know being an aunt would be so emotional, and it keeps getting better! Anyway, we then went to Jenny Lake, rode the ferry across and did a lovely little hike to a waterfall. After dinner at Bubba's (yuuum), we drove home through the gorgeous terrain, back to real life.

So, let's talk about that concept really quick--real life. My perception of "real life" when people referred to it as I was growing up always had a negative connotation. But seriously, every day that goes by my real world becomes better and better. And I think that's the idea, right? Why would we live in such a way that we were moving towards a worse and worse reality? Strange concept. I think real life means getting older, one day at a time, getting more responsibility as well as opportunity, and having the chance to make it whatever you want. Real life is awesome.

Anyway, the very next weekend we took off to San Francisco! Lauren had planned the trip for Sean's birthday and invited his siblings and us (I can't wait until Ave and Zach can come with us on trips like that.... MY POINT MADE--Real world = real job = vacations). We flew out early Friday and got to our hotel in the middle of the city before lunch. Speaking of food, wow. San Fran for the win. We started off with Sushi, of course. We then walked to the Fisherman's Warf. There was so much to see! Street performers (some better than others), the ocean, the Golden Gate Bridge, the bay, etc. We picked up some fish and chips to share (sharing is key, so that we never had to pass up the next opportunity for food) that were AMAZING. We walked around taking fun pictures and taking our sweet time. We walked up to Lombard street because that is a must, through China town and little Italy. That night we went to a yummy sports bar and grill to watch a Stanley cup final game. We are Chicago Blackhawks fans (the kind that watch the game and don't even remember who won). Later, and ever night on the trip, we went to bed early and exhausted. For breakfast the next morning, I ruined my ability to eat a normal donut and enjoy it via the Cronut--the love child of a croissant and a donut. Stop reading now, and go find one, preferably at the Posh Bagel in San Fran. It will be worth it. Then we rented bikes and went all over! We meandered through the city to the farmers market, stopped at Pier 39 for fresh crab cakes, road through fisherman's ward again, stopped at the swag center for a big triathlon in the bay, and headed straight for the bridge with plenty of photo opps along the way. Did I mention we all looked special in our rented helmets? Because we looked so so special. The view from the Golden Gate was spectacular. There was a little fog, but not enough to obstruct the view. We continued on to Sausalito for lunch--fish tacos! Where we saw a very patient man stacking rocks. Big rocks on little rocks. It was really cool, despite how it sounds. Then we road back across the bay on the ferry, passing Alcatraz, and saving our legs. That night we went to another yummy sports bar because when the NBA finals are on, that's what you do. That night we RAN through the streets to the Ghiradelli shop for sundays before we realized the stupid Apple maps are unreliable and the shop we were trying to get to was half a mile away and closed in two minutes. Needless to say, we were mortified. Then, Sunday. I woke up at 2:30 am throwing up and really wanting to take back whatever it was that I ate that made me sick (I literally ate roasted brussel sprouts for dinner!). On Sunday we walked to the warf to get breakfast (toast and sprite for the sicky) and Ghirardelli sundays (see what we did there?) but I did not partake given the straight of my insides. At this point I was the walking dead and we all headed back towards the hotel via the cable cars! The driver was hilarious, asking Mallory, "Where's your boyfriend? What happened?" He then assigned her to be apart of me and Chase, welcome to the family! Upon arrival at the hotel, I laid down for a three hour nap and everyone else went shopping. When I woke up I felt amazing and hungry. We went to dinner (you guessed it, sports bar) and then headed to the most darling dessert shop--very chic and contemporary, serving drinks and desserts. Apple crumble HELLO. Monday we rented bikes again. We anxiously went miles out of our way to get to Fillmore's, reportedly the best Cronut shop in San Fran, only to learn they are closed Mondays. We were all silent while we ate our baked goods from a cute bakery around the corner which, on any other day would have been delicious and exciting. We finally made it to the Palace of Fine Arts. This was a must on my list of to-dos. It is HUGE. And gorgeous. I learned that it, and many other elaborate structures, were built for the worlds fair years ago, but they were all built out of chicken wire and paper mache. Thus, the all deteriorated and are no longer around. But the palace was saved and rebuilt out of concrete. Really a gorgeous place right on the water. Then we road to Golden Gate park. The weirdest weather phenomenon happen--the second we got the the park the air dropped 20-25 degrees. It went from pleasant to frigid very quickly, and as soon as we left the park it was warm again. Weird. Then we went to Ashbury street for the best burger I have had in a long time. And the kid at the counter was hilarious. "How is the portable burger?" "Well, it kind of looks like a foot. The foot off that Adman Sandler movie? Black and wrinkly." "I will have the Avacado burger then!" He told us that he pays $850 a month to live on someones couch. He doesn't have his own room, he has a couch to sleep on and a bathroom to share. Talk about high price of living. On our ride back we stopped for calamari. If I am honest, it was not the best I had ever had. Then we turned our bikes in, took one last run around the shopping district, and headed for the train. The train to the airport is a fabulous feature I might add, very convenient. It was so good to spend quality time with friends. No agenda, just taking it slow and getting to know a gorgeous, vibrant city. We had an absolute blast.