Weekend of the 24th

On Friday, July 22nd Seth I headed down to Main Street very early in the morning to save a spot for the parade that evening.  When Seth got home from work we loaded up our wagon and walked down to wait for the parade to start.  Collette met us there with her kids and with Max and Ben.  

The kids loved all of the freebies...including these T-shirts.

We packed a picnic dinner of chicken salad sandwiches, mangoes, grapes, chips and Popsicles.

The kids were like little beggars lined up for candy to be thrown.

Here is Phin part way through the parade with all of his loot.  He was so exhausted he had to take a little break.

I think their favorite thing was the otter pops that were thrown out at the end.

The next morning I woke up very early for the Handcart Half Marathon.  I was pretty nervous...I hadn't trained as much as I would have liked.  The most I had run was 4 miles.  I have been having a hard time getting to the gym...but consistently do cardio and weight workouts at home.  They had an option of starting the Half Marathon a half hour before the crowd and I jumped at the chance.  I was afraid I would take a long time...and I didn't want to run in the heat.  It was the best decision I could have made.  There was less of a crowd starting that early...and I was pretty fast compared to most of them...so it built my confidence up a little bit.  I was at the front of the pack until mile 7 when the elite runners started catching up...and passing me.  The race started at our Rec Center in Bountiful headed up to Pages Lane then to Legacy Parkway then to Glover Lane in Farmington to Main Street and back to the Rec Center.  I ran really well the first 7 miles and got to that point in about 1 hour and 15 minutes.  The second part of the race was much harder for me.  They hadn't blocked off roads so I was running on the shoulder of the road which really messed up my hips.  I was hurting but I just kept putting one foot in front of the other...whether those feet were walking or running.  I crossed the finish line in 2:19:44. I was pretty sore for the next few days but grateful that I had pushed myself.  I grabbed the free breakfast that was waiting at the finish line and then met up with my cute little family for some of the activities in the park.

Seth loved showing Phin all of the Pioneer games.

We also got to explore the teepee.

Me with the two little people that provided  most of my running motivation.

Sunday night we broke out our fireworks again.

Monday, July 25th we headed to a BBQ for Jeff and Kim at Nona and Papa's.  Jeff spoiled all of the nieces and nephews with a double slip and slide.

Jeff also picked up lots of sidewalk chalk and the kids drew away.

After the kids threw all of the self-tying balloons...Seth pulled out some of our old school ones.  He honestly couldn't tie them fast enough for this crowd.  He gave up tying and had them just hold them closed.

How grateful we are for a weekend to celebrate our heritage...to think about our ancestors and to gather with family for parades, food and fun.  I am grateful that I had the opportunity to push myself and to prove to myself that I can do hard things...just like all of those that came before me.