Yellowstone 2013

Lots of pictures ahead! I took a lot of cute pictures on our trip to Yellowstone last week so I’m posting them all!

We had our yearly Yellowstone trip with Dan’s family this year and even though the whole family wasn’t there, we still had a lot of fun! I was just a tiny bit stressed about trying to prepare for a week long trip with a baby, including food, while training for Ragnar, and leaving 2 days after finishing Ragnar. But luckily Dan keeps me calm and we did a ton of preparation in the week before we left so it wasn’t too bad!

We rented a trailer and we were able to really see how Dan’s “new” truck handled a long drive pulling something big. It did awesome! Even though I’m not a truck person at all, I really loved how much room we had while driving, and Owen’s car seat fits in the back in the middle and we can easily look back and see him, which is awesome! This was my view of Owen playing with his toys or snoozing. Pretty dang cute. The trailer was really nice and clean and very convenient, especially with Owen. We got there on Monday evening and just relaxed and got unpacked and settled in. Tuesday we drove around the park with Dan’s parents and Owen did awesome. He slept in the car and when he was awake, he was super happy and so good.

It was pretty chilly the first few days and we turned the heat on in the trailer at night! It rained but I loved the cool weather and we were prepared with warm clothes!

We had a picnic lunch and checked out some hot pots and the river. I wasn’t able to walk a lot but luckily my foot was much better so I just tried to take it easy. Please look at Owen’s sweet cankles in the picture above. Love them.

Dan cooked us some yummy dinners on his Camp Chef that he got for Christmas.

One night we had dinner at a yummy BBQ restaurant we always go to and this picture pretty much sums up the madness. This was only about 1/4 of our entire family and it was still madness. It was so fun and crazy and there were only 5 kids out of the 17 there!

On Wednesday, we drove to Old Faithful and Dan and Owen and I had some time to ourselves. We sat on the upper deck of the Old Faithful lodge to watch the geyser go off and it was really fun. Owen was a happy camper as usual.

We checked out Yellowstone Lake and we saw a lot of animals! There was a moose right by our campsite that we saw several times, we saw an eagle, several bears (one was really close), and we saw a coyote get run over by an RV on the freeway near Malad on our way there…traumatic.

We did some wolf watching at our favorite spot. It was beautiful and we had some nice shade. Dan spotted the wolf and we also saw a bear. We didn’t stay as late as usual because of Owen, but he was pretty happy and we got to see a wolf! 

This girl is a WILD CHILD. She is adorable and hilarious and totally crazy. She never holds still and Julie finally just set her in the dirt and let her loose. She got into a bag of cheetos and they flew everywhere and of course, she had to eat one. She was killing me and I’m so impressed with how chill Julie is with her kids. Hopefully I can learn a few things .

I fed Owen some banana a few times and he didn’t really like them too much! It was his first bites of “real” food and he kept gagging and wouldn’t swallow. Hopefully we will get better at eating, although I have suggested to Dan that I just breast feed him until he is 5. It is so much easier! He didn’t go for it so I guess we will keep practicing…

We went to Artist’s Point and saw the gorgeous waterfall. We also got to try out our new umbrella stroller this trip and we really liked it! After doing a lot of reading, we decided on the First Year’s Ignite stroller. It wasn’t super cheap or super pricey, the handles are tall, and it is fairly light. The seat reclines a bit and the canopy is nice too. The basket isn’t super big but we always had a backpack so that wasn’t a problem. Success!

These crazy boys made the trip really fun. They made me super excited and super terrified for Owen to get bigger. They are full of energy and were constantly dirty and running wild! They are adorable and I loved playing with them and watching them be wild and crazy boys. My favorite was all the rocks they collected and how they called them “crystals”. So precious.

Everett let me cuddle with him while we had s’mores one night. Love that kid. And yes I have socks and flip flops...get off my back.

Mike and Hailey were there too, but I didn’t get many pictures of them. They had baby Weston (6 weeks!) and he was a trooper and slept almost all the time. I loved Dan and Mike with their Bjorn’s when we walked around West Yellowstone. Best dads ever.

We also had our usual pizza at Wild West Pizzeria and it was delish. Owen had fun play with Grandma.

On Friday we went to the Firehole River to cool off a bit. It is a really popular place because the water is pretty warm and there are rapids that you can float down and there were tons of people there. I didn’t plan on bringing Owen in the water, but of course we had to dress him in his cute little swim outfit!

Grandma and Grandpa were a lot of help with the babies. It was pretty hot and Owen wasn’t loving his life. I fed him and got him under an umbrella and he was happy for a while so Dan and I could soak in the water for a while.

I just put his toes in the water but he didn’t really love it because it was kind of cold. I love his chubby little tummy!

Baby Weston was a happy camper and just chilled and slept in his car seat the whole time!

We had a lot of fun this year in Yellowstone with the family and Dan and I already have our next trip planned over Labor Day again. It is one of our very favorite places and this year didn’t disappoint!

Wasatch Back Adventures

Dan and I ran the Wasatch Back last week and it was our 3rd Wasatch Back (Dan has also done a Ragnar Race in Vegas as well). I am so proud of both of us for doing this but I’m definitely glad it’s behind us! It was a ton of fun though and we did really well. Dan was a beast and has been getting up at 4:30 a lot of mornings to train. I had one of the easier legs but I was still nervous because I have had a lot of back problems since I got pregnant. But it was a good goal to keep me running and I’m glad that I did it!

My first leg was only 2.7 miles but it was really hot! Dan switched with his brother and ended up with a really hard run up to Snowbasin. But he rocked it. My second leg started at 2am and it was 5.9 miles but luckily it was downhill. I did really well and felt good. I alternated between being terrified of being alone in the night in the desert and loving the beauty and quiet all around me!

The people in our van were Dan’s cousin Tyson and his wife Mallory, Dan’s brother Mike, and his other brother Mark.

I was able to get a few hours of sleep at a park and then I slept another 2 hours in the back of the car so even though I was really tired, I was able to function. I think it helped that I have been awake in the night so much with Owen! Normally, I’m a mess if I don’t get sleep, but I have definitely adjusted after having a baby!

I decided to try the “run walk” method and I think it worked great. I’m a slow poke runner but for all my legs, I ran for 3 minutes then walked for 1. I kept that up the whole time and I was able to put in slightly faster times than if I had just run at my slow pace the entire time. It also helps mentally because I feel like I can do anything for 3 minutes, so even if it’s hard, I know I can rest soon. Then by the time I’m done walking for the 1 minute, I feel ready to run again!

I was pretty scared for my last run because it was in the middle of the day (hot!) and I was just tired and still had to run 5.5 miles. But I tried to practice my positive thinking and focused on doing a good job and being strong. I kept telling myself I could do it and once I got started, I felt good! There was a pretty big hill at the end of my last leg but I managed to make it up. I was so happy to be done!

Ragnar Hill was intense as always. Mark and Tyson were machines and plowed up the hill at an amazing pace.

The view was pretty awesome!

I had tons of fun being with Dan the whole time, and as usual, he took care of me and was constantly checking on me. He is the best. Since I’m nursing Owen, I had to pump every 2-3 hours which was amazingly awkward and annoying. Luckily, the van was all family and I’m not super shy, so I just covered up and used my hand pump. Everyone got used to it after the first time. We considered trying to sell my breast milk to some crazy runner people, but decided to keep it for Owen .

We finally made it to the finish line and Dan was our final runner. He run up this huge hill in Park City and did awesome! I was so ready to be home but it was fun to celebrate with the team. The team was all family-Dan’s uncle, dad, 3 brothers, cousins, sister, and brother in law. Go AnniHILLators!

We got home and our sweet baby was sleeping soundly (my awesome mom stayed with him). My foot was pretty messed up with a stress fracture (I think) so after some ice, we hit the sack. Owen cooperated and I only had to get up to feed him once in the 13 hours that he slept! Not too shabby!

The next day we had to get up and go to church and get ready for our trip to Yellowstone the next day! Sheesh, I was just a little stressed, but luckily we had done most of the packing and organizing before the race so it wasn’t too bad. A big post about our trip to Yellowstone will be coming soon!