Swimming Lessons 2008

Brooklyn and Isaac once again excelled in their swimming lessons this year. We took them back to the place we went last year. The lessons are just a week long, but it's every day for that week. Isaac was a little afraid last year, but was 100% different this year. He did very well and so did Brooklyn. They really love the water and jumping off the diving board. To see some fun video clips and pictures, click on the picture below to link to the online slide show.

Swimming Lessons

Graduation

Well, a year of school has come and gone. Both Brooklyn and Isaac did very well in their classes. Brooklyn just finished her first year as a Kindergartener and Isaac enjoyed his pre-school class he attended two times a week. He will be going to one more year of pre-school before going to Kindergarten due to a late birthday. Here is a picture of Isaac with his class.

Here was his Pre-school program that he performed in.

Isaac also had a Spring Spectacular in his gymnastics class. He really enjoys going to gymnastics each week and is becoming quite the little tumbler. He's pretty proud of his trophy.

And Brooklyn also had her Kindergarten program filled with dancing and lots of singing. she made a pretty cute clown. Crazy to think she'll be a 1st grader this fall!

Ogden Marathon 2008

Well, we did it! Hard to believe that as of last August, I could barely run 3 miles. Now with a marathon under my belt, nothing can stop me . . . well except I don't ever want to run again. Well, OK . . . not that drastic. I am looking forward to several weeks without having to run though. I need to give my body time to heal. The picture above is of Tami and I and Tami's cousin Shaun who ran it as well. Here are some of the details:

We grabbed a room at the Motel 6 (yes, of all places) and enjoyed a night to ourselves while the kids slept over at the Grandparents house. Got up at 4am, on the bus at 5am, and huddled around some fire pits amongst about 1500 other racers for about an hour before the start at 7am. There were actually 1800 registered, so almost 300 decided to cop out at the last minute. They say that only 1/10th of 1% of the US population ever finish a marathon.

The weather was beautiful. A little chilly at the start, but it warmed up quickly. Unfortunately I've had some pretty bad IT Band problems with my left knee the past month. I was praying for a miracle, but I could start to feel it flaring up around mile 3, but it didn't get bad until around mile 10. That's not a good point in the race to have IT Band problems. Running an additional 16 miles on an inflamed IT Band is not fun. Tami, the wonderful wife she is, stuck with me and pushed me along as I walked/jogged the last 13 miles of the marathon. She took off around mile 22 when she knew I was going to make it. I will have to say that the last two miles were by far the longest and most unpleasant. I was really struggling. It hurt to even walk, let alone try to jog. It was getting warm and I just wanted to be done. But I kept going and happened to at least run the final 200 meters finishing at 4 hours and 51 min. I didn't think I would, but I got pretty emotional after crossing the finish line. Marathons are definitely physically, mentally and emotionally draining as those who have run them before can attest. But I finished and that's all I can ask for. Tami ended up with a time of 4 hrs and 38 min and is actually now talking about running another marathon in September to redeem herself. I think I'll pass, but Spanish Fork is hosting a 1/2 Marathon in Sept. that I think I'll run. 1/2 Marathon's are definitely more enjoyable and not nearly as hard on the body.

We got our cool (well, not so cool by Tami's standards) technical shirts and medals for finishing. It was also my 33rd birthday on Sunday. Happy Birthday! Here's a marathon for you! Looking back I am really glad I did it. My body doesn't seem to agree, but my heart is loving me for it.