MSGA

One might remember that while living in Monterey, Dan and I ran a little operation called MMA (Mealy Monterey Adventures). We lured visitors out to us with itineraries loaded with elephant seal watching, aquarium trips and breathtaking Big Sur views.

Here in STG, we have understandably harder time enticing visitors, being that we lack the awesome sea-life and instead have 105 degree weather... Yet somehow, we were able to get our friends the Streeters, to come down for a MSGA (Mealy St. George Adventure.) 

{*Note: All pictures used in this post are stolen from Leana's Blog - I was quite awful at taking any pictures. And as you can see, Leana is really good at taking pictures!}
Out MSGA Itinerary included:

Ghost town (visited Silver Reef, not as rad as one would hope)

Downtown St. George(toured the tabernacle, bought candy at Judds and rode the carousel. Which Alex didn't really care for..)

Veyo Pool

(Which luckily Alex loved! And we also scored this amazing Volcano Pie)

Aladdin (my dad watched alex- thanks again dad- and the adults went to tuachan. it was pretty rad, it even had 3D special effects!)

{alex passed out in the baby carrier, poor guy, so hot and tired}

Zion (it was wicked hot, but we got in for free, and it was still fun despite the oppressive temperatures)

Parowan for the Fourth- for the 4th of July we drove north to my Dad's hometown, Parowan. Its a quaint little town that puts on an awesome (or at least amusing) parade. We also a made a patriotic BBQ feast, purchased classy patriotic shirts from Wal-Mart, and had our own little fireworks spectacular in front of the house after Aleks went to bed.)

EATING:  There was of course lots of eating! We even hit some of my my favorite St. Geoge haunts: Samuri 21, Benja's Thai and Sushi, Croshaw Pies....

RELAXING: In addition to playing, we also spent a fair amount of time chilling at the house. Napping, reading books and of course, watching "Signing Time with Alex and Leah." I'm not entirely certain if I'll ever get that theme song out of my head. Ever. 

{streeters on the 4th of july 2010- back in monterey}

We discussed before the MSGA how a long trip like this is the ultimate litmus test for any relationship... It can end in true love, or in hating each other's guts. Luckily  - this MSGA only reaffirmed how much we love Streeters. We can only hope the feeling was mutual...

Mushrooms in the Mountains

June was a pretty crazy month. I ran a half marathon, we moved out of our house, and put all of our belongings in a storage unit - all in one day. 

Here we can be seen in our storage unit with all our earthly goods. A major thank you to Rick and the rest of Dan's family for helping us move. They were amazing! We crashed at Dans parents for a few days, and then Dan went to Army training and I went to the cabin with my family for the rest of the month.

Going to the Cabin is a Hales family ritual, a hajj, dare I say. One drives 12 hours, partially on the world's worst unpaved forest service roads, to arrive in the middle of nowhere. There is no electricity (well, we run a generator at night), no cell service, no tv... Yes, I am serious. I've been going every year since I was born (minus the years since I've been married) and was so happy this year to return! This cabin year shall hence forth be known as:

THE YEAR OF THE MUSHROOM

While driving along the switchback filled dirt roads near the cabin, it is rare to see another car. So imagine our confusion this year when we almost ran into (its a pretty narrow one car road) at least 20 other cars! Even more confusing, all of the cars were filled with Hispanic people covered in soot! 

"I bet they're picking mushrooms," said my ever wise father. WHAT?!? It turns out that after a big forest fire (which happened last summer), these special mushrooms called Morels grow out of the ashes. These special mushrooms fetch a pretty penny, we were told over $100 a pound! We decided we needed in on this action and went mushrooming on the first day. We inevitably ended up covered in soot and eventually began putting ash on our faces as war paint. Upon the advice of local hermits, we battered and fried a few of these Morels. Verdict: they are disgusting.

In addition to mushrooming, this year there were other activites such as...

FIREFIGHTING: When my Grandpa's "controlled" burns got outta hand.

SHOOTING: Because no redneck vacation is complete without it!

Celebrating: My birthday, Kiersten's birthday, Anna's birthday, and My grandma's birthday. Plus father's day thrown in for good measure.

FISHING: Grandpa taught Kiersty the art of fly fishing. I watched. Kiersten's face in this picture pretty well encapsulates how I feel about catching/eating/touching fish: GROSS.

There was also squirrel hunting (Cedric), Elk carcass finding and subsequent tooth extraction (apparently people make rings out of them?!?), Ukulele playing, and napping. In case you haven't already gathered this, I think my Grandpa is super rad, especially for being 79 years old. 

We also waded in the freezing cold river, worked on our tans while reading, held a daily Horsecreek run club, and even did some manual labor hauling logs.

I love this picture for a lot of reason: Copper is so photogenic, Katheryn's face is hilarious, and the fact that I love my family so much. 

Hopefully next year will be as rad as THE YEAR OF THE MUSHROOMS, and hopefully I will be there. 

Meet Otto

So there's a lot of things I want to blog about that have happened over the last month or so, but I've decided to skip ahead to record the most recent event. After having our friends The Streeters stay with us for a week (another thing to blog about, oh yeah, and we live in St. George now) we were inspired. We've known Streeters since our time in Monterey when they too were like us, childless and happy. But Aleks (their little 18 month old guy) seems to have made Leana and Mark's lives so much richer and happier, that Dan and I decided we too should get in on this having a cute little dependent. 

So we adopted:

May I introduce Otto Von Bismarck (named for the first Chancellor of Germany - been on a history reading kick lately). We decided to go the dog route for the obvious reason that it has most of the perks of having a human baby, with none of the draw backs (kidding). 

{stealing a straw during a "SWIG" run}

Obviously all my friends with babies (if they're still reading at this point) are totally rolling their eyes, and my next comment will only exacerbate this, but having a puppy is really hard work. He wakes up multiple times a night crying, I have to keep my eyes on him at all times, he can be super needy... etc. But then again, when I'm burnt out, I can just put him in his crate.

Overall, in the past 3 days, the pluses of having my little Otto around far outweigh the negative (though I am single parenting, Dan is at Army training.) My Dad, Kiersten and Katheryn and I even took him on his first hike up above Parowan. And he did awesome, trotting on those little chocolate legs.

In conclusion, I love Otto. 

You've had a Birthday, Shout Hooray.

Dan's celebrations began last Sunday, when we went up to his parent's house and his sister, Tori, surprised him with his favorite German Chocolate cupcakes. 

Our favorite niece and nephew were integral in helping blow out his MANY candles.

{i'm really good at taking blurry pictures}

We set forth to celebrate on Thursday, being that he had drill all day Friday (his actual bday), Saturday, and Sunday. I crafted a "Choose Your Own Adventure Birthday", you know, like the awesome 80's books. You're reading along and then all of the sudden you're presented with a set of choices to determine how the really complicated plot pans out...

Well for Dan's adventure, per the options in his "Choose your Own Birthday Adventure" book I made, he elected to go shooting. Dan's dad, Rick, had the day off so he came down and joined in the gunfire and then took us out to lunch.

We went out to barren wasteland, aka Redneck Paradise.

These were all over the ground.

And someone may have made the worst footwear choice ever. Although I do love that color on my toes, essie pink, thanks Leana!

Dan and Rick

Dan in full "Dan mode"

Nothing like guns for a good birthday. The rest of the day was low key with a few presents, more food, more German Chocolate cake, and a Redbox movie. Oh, and lest I forget, a Brazilian Ji Jitsu class. Dan's birthday request that I attend a BJJ class with him at our Crossfit gym was honored.

I spent an hour being choked out by big sweaty girls. Lovely. 

Happy Birthday Dan!

An Accidently Awesome Memorial Day

As of Sunday night, we had no plans for Memorial Day. Then, while perusing my favorite running blogs, as I am wont to do, I came across the "Run For Remembrance" 5k/10k in American Fork.

 I saw the words "Free 10k" (race fees add up fast, yo!) and Dan saw the words "Flag Shirt" and we were in!

(no, we didn't run the dino half. it was a free race - they recycled bibs)

Dan had an awesome 5k and finished in under 23 minutes! Me and the 10k struggled a bit, a mixture of a lot of up hill and a bothersome right hamstring (excuses, excuses) had me finishing slower than I hoped. But it was beautiful day and a pretty course that went right through a flag filled cemetery - win, win, wing.

[me, my short shorts, and Grandma and Grandpa Ash's headstone]

We had no plans after the race, but since we were already in the 7th circle of hell (Utah Valley), I thought it would be a grand idea to go visit the headstones of my great grandparents in the Springville Cemetery. In our running short shorts (we brought nothing to change in to, consistent lack of planning). We stopped off at Wal-Mart and purchased some white trashtastic plastic flowers. Had I planned at all, I would have brought some of the beautiful yellow roses from our yard instead... 

 After a phone call to my Dad, Mom, and Grandpa Howdy we found the right cemetery and graves.  

I was sad that I couldn't see my Granny Harward's grave (turns out its in Ritchfield, oops), but we found my Great Grandma Ash's as well as my Great Grandma Hales'. There was also a military program going on with lots of flags and gunfire! It was nice to take a moment to observe the real meaning behind memorial day, and I really do enjoy cemeteries (that would be the Grandma Peggy in me coming out, the Parowan cemetery is probably her #1 favorite spot to hang out, ever.)

Then I came across this on Pinterest: 

A cheddar filled, bacon wrapped, hot dog covered in J Dawg sauce (J Dawg's = a hot dog stand near BYU that has a cult following.)

 I knew this monstrosity must be mine. Luckily, Dan's family was game for a BBQ and my dreams came true! After eating 4.5 million calories, tomfoolery ensued:

So basically Memorial Day was awesome.

And sometimes, having no plan is actually the best plan.

the end of girls on the run

This Saturday was the Salt Lake Girls on the Run 5k, the concluding event for our season. Each school was to choose a name and costume for the race. My girls, for whatever reason, wanted to be "THE NERDS." So I spent about two days running to every Dollar Tree between here and Provo gathering supplies (had to stay within our meager budget!) to make the girls sufficiently nerdy. 

The girls all were so excited on race day, they kept smiling and giving me hugs - it was so warm and fuzzy that even Cold Hearted Coach Lauren got a little teary eyed. Though my girls weren't the fastest out there (in fact, one of them finished just about dead last!), they all completed a 5k and were so proud of themselves. I was proud of them too.

Over the course of the past few months, I've learned several things about elementary school age girls:

1) They can be motivated to do anything (including run 3 miles) if there are stickers used as a reward

2) They can be motivated to run those 3 miles remarkably fast (one girls even ran an under 8 minute mile!) if there is the offering of a Pizza Party for fast enough times

3) If you bring anything for them, make sure each one is exactly the same. Major fights will break out over the "special cupcake" (aka the one cupcake that was baked in a different muffin paper?!?)

4) They are a lot more sensitive and insightful than they are given credit for.

It was amazing to watch my girls change throughout the season. They all made great strides (pun intended) in becoming better runners, but they also became better people. All of the girls learned to include one another and they were all really sensitive to making sure our one girl in a wheelchair was always able to participate. They had awesome insight into subjects such as "choosing to be positive" and "being happy with our healthy bodies". It definitely increased my self esteem to be part of the program, even though at times I made a complete fool of myself (oh the goofy spirit award cheers)... One last time, our favorite chant:

 GIRLS ON THE RUN IS SO MUCH FUN!!!

catch up

Today I got a text from my friend Jane asking if I was still alive. 
The state of blog would indicate that I have, in fact, died sometime over the last two months. 
So, in order to assure friends and family that I am indeed around, here's a  catch up of things (at least those I have pictures for) that have happened during my hiatus:

Graduation
At long last, the day I've dreamed of for so long finally arrived: graduation. I never, ever, have to set foot on BYU property again!!! Okay, I don't hate my alma mater that much. But I still have mixed feelings about my whole BYU experience... But graduation was great. My family, including my Hales Grandparents came to support as well as Dan's parents. After commencement we all went to Macaroni Grill and toasted my "achievements". Poor Anna came but could barely keep her eyes open during dinner - she was seriously sick with mono. Early Friday morning was my convocation, which was quite enjoyable. Great speaker, spicy latin dancing, and it was short! The only scary part was when I went up to claim my empty degree holder, and the director of my program, Donna Lee Bowen aka THE DLB, gave me a hug! It was so awkward and scary  to embraced by a woman I'd spent the last 6 years fearing...

Zions/babysitting
Two weeks ago my parents went to Navuoo for a cousin's wedding. Being that Anna was still on the verge of death from mono, I volunteered Dan and I to come down and "babysit". Being the super responsible babysitter I am, I figured that hiking in Zion would heal Anna -  so off the three of us went (Katheryn and Kiersten were still in school). Nothing like making the summit of Angel's Landing to help you overcome an auto immune disease. I think it worked, because we had such a good time that we ending up going back to Zions on Saturday with Kiersten and Katheryn.  My parents had a grand time in the midwest (my dad now wants to serve a mission there so he can be the town re-enactment blacksmith!), I had an awesome time in my beloved STG, and my sisters are all still alive. Win, win, win. 

Color Me Rad 5k

No, we did not participate in this debauchery. But my little sister did, and it was her first ever race, so we went to cheer her on. Kat did awesome, both at running and getting herself completely covered in some (hopefully) non-toxic colorful substance. Our friends Bonni & Pete and Rick & Sue also participated - and incidentally also looked liked they'd been involved in a horrible unicorn accident. Bonni and Pete moved in just a few blocks from us, which is awesome because now I can show up unannounced and demand Bonni make cookies with me. 

Return of the McNultys
Dan and I are pretty excited because Dan's sister Tori and her family just moved back to Utah! Not the best picture ever, but its the only one I snapped the other day when we were at Cafe Rio. Expect to see much more of our niece and nephew - we can't seem to get enough of them.

Jill is going on a Mission!
So again, not by best picture taking skills - but this is the only shot I got that wasn't totally blurry (I'm really good with my giant camera, obviously.) Dan's youngest sister Jill opened her mission call and we were lucky enough to be able to go and see the big reveal live. She's headed to Denver, Colorado in July. Go Jill!

ultra marathon

( anna took this sweet video with her iphone)

{note that I am wearing dark pants. note that it is very hot outside}

A couple of months ago I learned of ultra marathons and was instantly intrigued. People who run 100 miles for fun? How twisted. I wanted to know more. I found out that there was a Ultra in Zions and that they were looking for pacers - people to run part of the race with a ultra runner and make sure they stay coherent. After learning more about pacing (our Crossfit coach is ultra marathoner) I totally chickened out. But I still wanted to be involved, so I volunteered Anna and I to work at an aid station. Well, they assigned us the 10pm-5am shift. Sweet. We had the privilege of staying up all night, handing out tums and vegetable broth at mile post 90. Yes, by the time the runners arrived to us, they'd already run 90 miles! Many of them were super out of it, some cried, and some looked like they were on the verge of death. Our shift was supposed to end at 5am, but no one ever came and got us. We had the HAM radio man nearby call for a shuttle pick up twice - but by 8 am, we'd had enough. Anna took of running and I followed her. We ended up running 10 miles to get back to our car in Virgin (we ran through Hurricane and La Verkin and then along Highway 9 toward Zion), after having no sleep/food and wearing improper clothing. But on the upside, now we can say we've run part of an Ultra marathon. Overall it was an interesting experience; ultra-marathoners are a different breed. Largely, they're super friendly and super cool - but still ultra crazy.

Now I can sleep peacefully knowing that such wonderful memories have been preserved. As I often say, 
"If its not on the blog, it didn't happen."