hello gorgeous

Summer has finally arrived and I have already forgotten what snow looks like and what it was like to be cold :). Not quite, but I wanted to show off some pictures of our yard because I’m so proud of it and of Dan for all his hard work!

When we bought the house, the yard was a big mess. We honestly considered taking out the entire yard and re-sodding it. Luckily we didn’t and we have been able to salvage the yard! There are still weeds to get rid of and some bare patches to fill in, but I’m amazed and how thick and green the yard has gotten! All the grass was brown and looked dead. There were huge weeds all over and the only flower bed (on the left) was all weedy. We added new flower beds on the right side of the porch and all the way around the whole house. We also added flower beds in the backyard. I still want to add hanging flowers and stuff on the porch, but that will come later! Luckily the sprinklers work really well and with Dan’s hard work perfecting them, they work great! On the left side of the house there was a huge bare spot with dirt and weeds. We (Dan) cleared it out and we put down a gravel parking strip. Thanks to Dan’s huge family, we pounded out the gravel in about an hour! Here is a closer look at the parking strip. Dan daydreams about it being the home of a future boat! The fire pit in the backyard is in the work and will hopefully be finished in the next few weeks! We ordered all the stone for the retaining wall and fire pit and are having it delivered on Monday. We will put gravel on the floor and have steps going down into the fire pit area. I want to build a few benches for that area as well. It will be so fun for the summer and fall!

Some close ups of the flowers in the front yard. We had no idea what we were doing so we just bought a bunch of flowers and we learned a lot! Almost everything has survived, but I’ll probably add more to fill it in and we will definitely be adding to it and tweaking it next year. Dan made this awesome drip/spray system so that is the tubing you see. With more plants and flowers, it will be hidden a little better but it works really well! In the picture above on the top right you can see two dark green stripes. Those are from March when Dan had the fertilizer sprayer on the wrong setting and it came out too fast! We have two awesome stripes around our whole front yard and they haven’t faded at all! I love it. Backyard shots. I am still planning on re-staining the back steps and painting the back door this summer. The grass looks so so so much better than a few months ago and I can’t believe it! Dan has worked so hard and I love him for it! We both go and pick weeds and spray the lawn together and I really love doing it together. There is still a lot to do (isn’t there always?), but we’re loving the house and definitely staying busy!

the big race.

Well the Wasatch Back has come and gone and I can’t believe how fast it went! It was such an amazing and unforgettable experience. Our team did AWESOME and we had such a good time.

We got about 3 hours of sleep (more than our other van got) and we were definitely beat after the race, but it was worth it!                              Here is Alan and Brandie doing their first exchange.

Here is my first run (5.2 miles). I ran through Paradise and started running up the canyon to Avon pass. I got a nice sunburn and the heat definitely made it harder.

This is Dan’s first leg and he ran down the canyon into Ogden Valley. He did amazing and it was so fun to drive up ahead and wait for him to come running by. I gave him water and made sure he was okay (we all did that for each other).                                     Lookin’ good!

  

Here is van 2 in the red suburban. We didn’t decorate our cars but we will next time for sure!

           Another exchange from Alan to Brandie. Alan was a beast and ran the furthest on the whole team (over 22 miles total!). He did great and helped us get way ahead of our projected time.              This is Dan giving me water on my second leg as I ran into Mountain Green. It was a great temperature in the evening and it was so beautiful! During all my runs, I tried to take notice of the beautiful surroundings. When I was struggling I tried to remember how lucky I was to have the health to run and I tried to enjoy what was around me. That and my good music helped keep me going!
           Here are the members of van 1 (minus Brett who was trekking up the canyon at this point). Brandie, Erik (who came all the way from California and did great despite the huge change in altitude!), Alan, me and Dan. We all got along great and actually had a a really good time together!         The gorgeous view of Jordanelle right after sunrise. I got to run almost 4 miles straight downhill into Heber Valley from here. There were hot air balloons and it was so pretty!                                      Finishing my last run! It was such a relief! Dan ended up running about 18.1 miles and I ran about 13.5 miles total. The race was 190 miles from Logan to Park City over a lot of mountain passes.                                          Dan modeling our sweet team shirts. The logo was for Kings Row Boards, which is a skateboarding (and other types of boards) company Dan’s uncle and cousin started. They also ran with us.             Marty (my father in law) battling his last run in the heat of the day! He was amazing and did so well. I couldn’t believe his strength!

Dan and I resting on the grass with Erik in the background.

This is Tyson starting up the hill on his last leg. This was 3.5 miles straight up the canyon and it was brutal. Tyson was amazing and did so well on all his legs, but by the end of his last leg, he was about ready to die!                                                                    Mike had the hardest leg, known as the “Ragnar Hill”. It was unreal how steep and hard it was. We were done at that point and just driving up the hill in the truck was crazy! I can’t believe how well he did considering how hard that was and how hot it was! He ended at 9000 feet! (This pic was obviously before he started that leg….)                       

This is me running along Mike for a bit to give him some water.

The view of Heber Valley when we were almost to the top of the hill.

The finish line! We made it to Park City and we all got to run the last hundred yards together. It was very exciting and fun!

  

The Honey Buckets became good friends and a familiar site along the way. I have a freaky phobia of porta potties as well as campground toilets so I wasn’t too stoked about using these. But I survived! Dan used these puppies at least once every. single. stop. He grew to love them and had a hard time adjusting to a real clean bathroom when we got home.

                One good thing about the Honey Buckets was that I loved the smell of the hand sanitizer they had! It was awesome.             Here are the runner’s from van 1: Brett, Brandie, Alan, Erik, me, and Dan.         Here is our entire team (plus Wellyn) at the finish line: Dan, Curt, Becky, Mike, Erik, me, Brandie, Brett, Marty, Jon, Alan, and Tyson. Our team finished in 30 hours and 36 minutes which is pretty amazing!

I’m so proud of everyone on our team! The race was something we will definitely never forget. It was so cool to cheer each other one and to be cheered on by your teammates. Everyone there was having a good time and the feeling was unexplainable. It is a great feeling of accomplishment to be able to do something like this. I’m so glad we had the opportunity to do it and I loved doing it with Dan! Now we might do the race in Las Vegas in October, but we’ll have to recover first and then we’ll decide!