Snowfall in Kentucky!

It hardly ever snows like this in Kentucky, and when it does everything shuts down. This snowfall caused me to get to stay another night in Kentucky since all the planes were late or cancelled. I was happy to get to stay another day, and the kids were sooooooo happy to be able to build a snowman. Here is Coen and Atlas building Mr. Frosty.

Family Time in Kentucky

We feel so blessed to have two of our kids families in the same town for a while and had so much fun getting to spend time with Brad, Jessie and Aiden too while we were in Kentucky. Here they are at one of our favorite places to eat......Red Robin. Cute Aiden!

Playing "Up and Down the River"

Aiden is such a big boy and loves anything that has to do with balls.

On Thanksgiving morning Alan, Brad and I were able to particpate in a 5K race at one of the local horse racetracks. The grounds were beautiful and it was just us and a 1500 of our new friends. It just happened to be 65 degrees and perfect for a little run. Thanks Brad, for indulging us! We love you.

Leilah is a week old!

Here is our sweet Leilah after her first week of life. What a sweet baby! We miss all our Kentucky kids, but will make it back to see you all as often as we can!

Baby Leilah has arrived!

Our newest little grand daughter Leilah Ann Zastrow arrived on November 24th at 8:25 AM in Lexington, Kentucky. Alan and I, once again feel so fortunate to have been able to make it to Kentucky in time for her arrival. We arrived in Lexington in the evening on the 23rd, and Meagan went into labor that night. Alan was able to stay at the house with the other kids and I went to the hospital with Meagan and Brent at 4 AM, and she arrived just 4 hours later. Meagan was awesome! When we got to the hospital she was already to a 6 and hardly in any pain. When it came time to push, it was 2 pushes, and out she came! What a wonderful birth and Leilah is such a sweet, content baby. She hardly ever makes a noise and then it's only if she is hungry or needs a diaper change. They both were able to come home on Thanksgiving Day! How appropriate, since we have so much to be thankful for. Alan stayed until November 30th and I will be heading home on December 4th. I have loved being with the Zastrow's and also with Brad, Jessie and Aiden. We had a lot of great family time together. She weighed 6 lbs. 8 oz. and was 18 1/2 inches long.

Cute little family.

More of Baby Leilah

Here she is only minutes old. Love those cheeks! Emy is no longer the baby.....she is the older sister.
Atlas was the most excited to see little Leilah. He couldn't wait to hold her, and every time she cries he sings "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" to her. It's so sweet and interestingly enough, it works. She loves it and almost always stops crying.

Coen is very protective of Leilah.

Adorable picture. Meagan doesn't even look like she had a baby.

Wellsville Trip

Is this the cutest picture or what!?!? Little Athen didn't quite know what to think of this outfit but it kept him warm. Alan and I were able to go to Utah to see Tawni, Ryan and Athen. We drove down on Friday and on Saturday morning we ran in the Trick or Treat Trot in Wellsville. It was just a little 3 mile run and Ryan was able to push Athen in the stroller. It was a lot of fun! This was Ryan's costume. A shirt that looked like a girl in a bikini. It turned quite a few heads!
Trey and Mary Leonard happened to be volunteering for this race for a class that Mary is taking, so they ended up being our picture takers and cheerleaders. Thanks guys!

Poppi in his skull cap with Athen before the race.

We had a wonderful weekend together and the Gerrard's even came up to see us for the afternoon. We sure love our family!

I love those big brown eyes!Saturday night we went to a corn maze that was right by Tawni and Ryan's. I have never been to a corn maze. It was fun!

Cute little family!

Athen and Carly Gerrard-Reid's little baby Hudson. They were so cute together. Hudson was making Athen belly laugh. It was awesome!

Athen loved his breakfast!

Priest Lake Marathon

So we decided that we would do one last marathon for the summer. We saw that Priest Lake was having their first marathon this year and it was on a Saturday, so we were able to sign up, and we didn't even have to drive 10 hours to Utah to do it. The race was at Hills Resort in Luby Bay on the west side of the lake, and we decided to go up the night before and stay in one of the cabins up there so we could sleep in. The other nice thing was that the race didn't start until 9:00 am. We had a lot of fun playing cards Friday night. It was cloudy in the morning, but the fog burned off. This was an interesting race. The description on the website said that their were undulating hills. What does undulating even mean??? Well I looked it up in the dictionary and this is what it said, "To have a wavy form or surface." Well "wavy" was not what we experienced. It was "mountainous".......for miles and miles. Good thing we didn't see it beforehand. It was the hardest run I have ever had, yet I was able to finish in 2 hour 19 minutes, which was 10 minutes faster than I did the Top of Utah Marathon a month ago. Wendy finished in 2 hours 8 minutes. She is my hero! We all agreed it was very hard, but we also said we would do it again.
Alan had signed up for the race, but wasn't able to run do to the fact that he just found out he has arthritis in his hip and it hurts like heck. We were so thankful for the cheerleader, photographer, clothing catcher, water getter, that he was. I know it wasn't easy for him to not run, but as I ran this race I was so thankful that he didn't do it because it would have been torture on that hip.

Racing

This is Wendy and I in our little naive state before we knew how hard this race was going to be! The next three pictures are of us at just the 3 1/2 mile mark. We were feeling good here because it was MOSTLY flat. We looped around and came back past the start/finish line and we were able to drop things off to Alan such as gloves, jackets, etc. I am glad he was there for us.

Wendy at the finish line. Alan was only able to catch Wendy as she crossed. He was busy handing out water and trying to figure out the camera when Randy and I crossed.

Marathon cont........

Wendy and I at the end of the Marathon. Once the fog burned off, this is the weather we had. Classic Priest Lake beauty!
Wendy and Randy enjoying the lake view.

I have the best husband ever! I am so lucky! I cherish these times together......

Randy got 3rd in his age division with a time of 1 hour 56 minutes. This is the only prize he got for all that hard work!!! We waited around for over 2 hours for this........

That said, we had another awesome weekend in the outdoors. Sad to see the marathon season end, but there is always next spring!

Top of Utah Half Marathon

So Alan and I were able to do our first Half Marathon. We planned all summer for this event and the fact that it was down in the Logan area made it even better. We drove down with Randy and Wendy Astin on Friday. Kristi Astin met us there and we all spent Friday night at Tawni and Ryan's house. The best part was that we were able to see little Athen! He is so cute! Ryan's parents were able to watch Athen during the race. He is such a trooper.
Ryan's dad and brother-in-law were kind enough to take a few pictures on the way. Here is Tawni and Ryan.

Had to put this pic of Tawni in because it shows that she was sort of feeling the pain. This was at about mile 10.

Alan and I between mile 10 and 11.

Top of Utah continued...

Alan, Tawni and I just went into this race wanting to finish and have fun. It was our first marathon so we took our time. Ryan could have probably finished the race at least 45 minutes faster, but he was kind and stayed with us. Alan and I wanted to finish under 2 1/2 hours. We finished in 2:29:50. How's that for just the nick of time? If it weren't for the fact that I had to stop for nature breaks 3 times we could have finished 10 minutes faster. They had 1 or 2 porta potty's at each aid station and the lines were terrible. That is not enough porta potty's for 2300 people!!!!!

Tawni and Ryan finished in 2:24:42. Randy is an Ironman and finished in 1:50. Wendy is the wife of an Ironman and finished in 2:01 and Kristi is the daughter of an Ironman and finished in 2:16. Randy, Wendy and Kristi have all done full marathon's so they were looking to improve on their times. We are just thankful for the ability to run. Last Christmas Alan couldn't even run across the room. Tawni just had a baby 4 months ago. We are so proud of you guys! What an accomplishment.

Alan and Ryan taking a break after the race.

Girls in Pink! Wendy, Kristi, Tawni and I. What an accomplishment to finish this 13.1 mile race!




Runners! Randy, Wendy, Kristi, Alan, Me, Tawni and Ryan

After we had all showered after the race we went to Bear Lake. The Piggott's were so generous to let us all stay at their cabin. First we went and ate at an awesome Mexican Food place in town. We were quite the sight in our matching green shirts. We paid a lot of money to wear these shirts!!

What a great weekend we had. We were tired, but happy.
.....we are already signed up for our next 1/2 marathon at the end of September. Must be gluttons for punishment.......