Christmas

What a great day to spend with family. Nicks mom and dad were able to stop by and we were able to go up to my parents as well everyone was spoiled.



Kennadee wanted american girl animals, barbies and a barbie car
Ryker wanted anything that had to do with Thomas
Bronson baby wanted anything that would make noise.

SANTA DELIVERED!

Christmas Eve

Santa's Elves brought everyone P.J.'s christmas eve. The kids were so excited to open a gift.

Every year we take a family picture in front of the tree. Will someone please tell me why I tried this year?


Bronson sure loved posing though.

Temple Square

Polar Express

GPP GNO

Its been so fun to make new friends at the gym. We had a GNO at Flemmings and traded gift cards it was a great night to get to know people and see what they look like in real clothes.

365 GPP

It all started a 365 days ago...

Everyone knows I have always enjoyed exercise it was just something I did 4-5 days a week for an hour. 95% of the time it was just cardio I would brave the weights for a few min. some days.

When I was pregnant with Bronson I worked out everyday, even the day I had him (I was trying really hard to have him. He was a week overdue)

When he was 2 weeks old I went back to the gym 3 days a week and new I needed more.. Not only for my sanity but HELLO I just had my 3^rd baby. I know how hard it was to get back to “normal” with my other two, number three would be just as hard if not harder.

There was a “gym” that was offering the entire month free so I thought I would give it a go for the last two weeks of December. I knew I needed to take it easy seeing as baby was 4 weeks old now. The first day I went part of the workout was a 400 meter run. I don’t remember the rest. I do remember I could not run around the entire building without having to walk. Sad I know, its only 400 meters. I thought If I just keep going maybe one day I can do it.

I could already see changes after only four week but the scale wasn’t moving. I was starting to get frustrated nobody will help a woman with a diet if they are breastfeeding a baby. I finally gave in and talked to Neil about my frustrations he was able to help me figure out what would work best for me in my situation. Neil then encouraged me to do a before picture and measurements the scale doesn’t always tell us what we want to see. A picture 6 weeks postpartum is not pretty, but I wanted to see where I started.

Neil and Lizz offered a class on how to use this program with success. Two thing they said that stuck with me was to “challenge yourself once a year, and you need to be here 5 days a week”. Seeing as Its all or nothing with me I was there 6 days a week for the most part and signed up for a 5K. I have never been able to run and now I could make it through the 400 meter runs and not walk. So me being the insecure person I was I couldn’t do this alone. So being the good mother I have she said she would do it with me. I went and registered us before she could change her mind. Together we successfully completed our first 5k together. What an accomplishment it was for me and to have my mom by my side seeing all the trials she had been through physically the last few years.

A few months later Neil and Lizz again offered a class on Triathlons. I decided to go because mother was more interested and Whitney was going to be there. Again the challenge was put there to “try something new” we decided to sign up for the Rec. center triathlon. Can I mention I have no clue how to swim. I have almost drowned my mother twice because I panicked. I did a few swim classes with Lizz who no joke had to teach me to blow bubbles. We all have to start somewhere. Whitney, mother and I all completed our first triathlon. I even took third in my age group. I know it was a novice you can jump farther than the swim, but it was huge to me to not only finish but to do it with mother and Whitney.

Since then I have done 3 sprint triathlons one of which was Lake Powell where mother and I both placed 3^rd in our age groups.

I also was able to participate in 2 relay runs this summer the first was EPIC from Logan to Jackson and the second was RED ROCK Brian Head to Zions. What an amazing thing to be a part of.

Thinking back on all the things I did for the year I thought I had completed my challenge for the year. I was ready to be done. Until I found out a friend was running the Mesquite Marathon. I thought I ran epic. I had continued to add to my mileage every few weeks. If she can do it so can I. So 4 weeks before I registered. Thanks to the amazing training plan of Lizz not only was I able to train for a marathon in 4 weeks and not take anytime away from my family. I was able to finish a marathon PAIN free with only four weeks of training.

The longest distance race (excluding relays) I had done was a 5k. Unless you consider the Dirty Dash 10K

People are always asking where I work out. When they say they have tried it and its not for them it makes me think what wasn’t for them. Not only have I changed physically but mentally it has taught me so much about who I am. If it wasn’t for this great community of fitness I would have never meet some truly amazing people. I am fortunate to have meet a friend who not only is an incredible athlete but had taught me how to be positive an believe in myself. If it wasn’t for the great community at GPP I would have never know how much that opportunity changed my life.

137lbs. 130lbs. 122lbs.

"It is nothing I have done for myself it was all done by my amazing trainer" -Neil Anderson

(Neil made me say this)

I can't wait for next year I have signed up for another marathon in January and two half marathons already.

Happy Birthday Ryker

TIME

Where does time go?

THREE and NINE




NINE




SEVEN

Turkey Day 10K

I was able to do the Turkey day 10K with my bestie running partner ever. It was only 5 days after my marathon so I was a bit worried but everything went great. Not super fast, but I did it.

State Date Bib Plc A Plc G Plc O Final SDRC Turkey 10k 2010 - Run - 10k UT 11/25/10 7 25 72 166 58:57

TRI STATE Marathon

4 weeks ago my friend registered for a marathon. I had done all the same races she did this summer and a few more. So I thought if she can do it I can do it. right?! Several people said I was crazy which made me want to do it more. Others were very supportive. So I decided the first step was to register, the second was to figure out a training plan. Thanks to Liz she had a plan of action right away. My goal was to finish. I had only done a few relays and the longest distance in a single run I had ever done was 8 miles. How in the world would I be able to run 18.2 more. It was now or never for me. I had come such a long ways with my running. The first run I ever did was the rec. center 5k for Valentines Day. I decided I would just stay with my moms pace because I had no Idea if I could even make it 3.1 miles..We made it about a 1.5 and I thought I was going to die, but we finished. What am I thinking I am going to run a marathon?!

As the days went by I begun to think I could actually do this. I was so lucky to have such great friends that would do my short runs during the week with me, or meet me half way on my long runs. Pick me up from my own run to meet for a group run and so much more.

Julie picked me up Friday afternoon and we set off on our trek to Mesquite.The entire way down we asked ourselves, "What are we thinking?"

First thing is first. We went and picked up our packets and meet in person for the first time an amazing friend who we had met on Facebook. A dear friend introduced us to him. I didn't know much about him other than he was running the half and wrote a book. So I bought the book to see what I could learn.

We checked into our hotel and carried all of Julies' bags into the room she may have brought more than one.

To find that our room had an awesome light that came through the window and shone right on my bed perfectly.


Julies' sweet hubby Roger was working in Vegas so he drove up to take us to dinner. We went to a tasty pizza place. They had amazing garlic knots...mmmm... We then headed to Walmart to grab some food for the run. Neither of us are keen on the Gu's or energy things so we wanted to stick with what we were used to.

We wanted to turn in early we were so nervous. I was out for the count and poor Julie couldn't sleep
We got on the bus about 5:30am and we were freaking out to say the least! Once the race started we were ready to go. I just decided since my training was short I would do this race to just finish.


5miles in it started to sprinkle I thought I can handle this...

Stacking rocks on the mile signs to keep them up from the wind.



This is where I wasn't sure what would happen next. I had never ran more than 15 miles in training so I wasn't sure what would happen then next 11...


At this point only 8 more miles to go we had encountered the last 8 miles of a ridiculous head wind that would push you back up hill when running down. It was all I could do to just keep going. There were times I would laugh out loud thinking, "seriously is this ever going to end"


only 2 miles to go....



We finished! What a great experience to have and to do it with such a great friend.

First 26.2 finished!

	Event Name & Course	State	Date	Bib	Plc A	Plc G	Plc O	Final
	Mesquite Marathon - Marathon	NV	11/20/10	291	6	75	163	4:54:22

We jumped right in the car and headed to Vegas where we would spend the rest of the weekend.

We looked so hot walking in!


We spent the next two hours sitting here. Then got ready and headed out for a night on the town. Shopping at H&M and Dinner at my favorite place Claim Jumper. We headed back to the hotel to watch a movie we were out cold by 10pm.


We headed home the next morning, I couldn't wait to see my my family. Luckily we got left early enough because they ended up closing the freeway because of a bad snow storm.