Baby Brody

Congrats to my sister-in-law, Lacey, and her husband, Mike, on their newest addition! Brody Michael Dupont was born this evening weighing 7 lb 6 oz and 20 inches long. I can't wait to meet my newest nephew!! What a wonderful Christmas present for the Duponts.

The First Thanksgiving

The Trot Tradition

Can you think of any better way to kick off Thanksgiving?

Man, I love these guys.  Love them so much!  I am truly grateful to be their mama and grateful for so many things this season.  We're a week past Turkey day now and full on into Christmas season, but still, I am thinking a lot lately about all my blessings and all the things I have to be grateful for.  My health, my family, my faith, my freedoms, and my job are my biggies of course, and I thank heaven every day for those.  But there are so many other things I have to be grateful for, and I hope I am always able to recognize those special gifts.

Last week, I was thrilled that my girls again participated in the annual Turkey Trot.  They did the 1-mile fun run and ran strong.  Next year they'll train and do the 2-miler I hope, and someday soon, I will be blessed to have them run right along side me in the longer races.

Here are the girls at the start line with a couple of their friends.

Barrett and Mackayln Cowley just after the starting horn went off.  

Post-race at the finish line.  Way to go, girls!

My good husband got a nice shot at the finish this race.  Thanks, babe.  I had my best 10k race ever by about 30 seconds.  Final chip time was 48:33 (7:50 pace) and I was happy about that for sure.

Just goofin' off with Afty Cakes after the race

One of the great things about the Turkey Trot is that you run into so many friends and people you know.  I love that.  This is Ry with his best friend, Ryan Alder, post-race.

The Mesa Browns

With fellow friends and runners, Ryan Alder, and Richard, Amy & Kourtney Garner

The Goodman Cousin tribe post-race, with our lightning fast leader, Willie, who not only beat the turkey, but ran like the wind and took 3rd in his age group (M25-29).   Way to blaze, Willie.  You are amazing!  Someday I might get fast enough to at least eat your dust!  

I'm already looking forward to The Trot 2012!

Tired & Guilty

The two littles stayed home today with hacking coughs.  I probably should've kept them home yesterday too, but I thought it would pass.  Apparently not.  Thank heaven for my mom and Ryan holding down the fort without me and taking care of the two sicklies.  I hate leaving overnight and I hate it even more knowing that the peeps are in need of extra TLC.  Even though I know everything will be just fine, it's just not the same being away from them.  Ryan texted me pics tonight of Easton doing his breathing treatment with Nemo tucked under his arm and I almost cried.  I think I'm just a wee bit sleep deprived too.  Just maybe. No idea why I decided to put off the shut eye another 10 minutes and write.  

Oh, what a long day.  As I type this, gravity is winning on my heavy lids and I've caught myself doing the classic "bob and weave" twice already.  But I'm lying here in this beautiful bed in an over-the-top fabulous cabin up at Promontory in Park City.  Just me and my laptop in a 2200 SF "cabin" wishing all my precious peeps were here with me to enjoy it. I feel a little guilty having this whole place to myself.  Barrett was hoping to be a stow-away in my bag and skip out on school, but not this time.  Truthfully, I can't wait for our next family trip up here.  We all love PC and the family is begging to come again.  Probably not until 4th of July week, but maybe we'll sneak in a couple days of skiing before then.  We'll see.   All the meetings and property tour and dinner went great, but the whole day just needs to end.  And it's almost time.  The last two nights were far too short as far as sleep goes, and this morning's wake up buzzer at 4:00 am to get ready for my crack of dawn flight couldn't have been any less welcome.  But such is life and we are grateful to have good jobs and supportive families and a truly great life.

Tomorrow the littles are visiting Dr. Leslie and Ry goes in to see Dr. Nakra.  Hope it all goes well and hope to have a safe flight home in the morning!

Goodman Family Reunion

Even though I already posted our Goodman Family Reunion pics to Facebook, I need to include them here in the history of the Mesa Browns.  Someday, someday, I'll publish by blog book and be glad I've tried to record most of the significant (and not-so-significant but real nevertheless) happenings of our lives.

The reunion festivities were held on Saturday, November 12, 2011 outside at my parents' house in Mesa.  Thanks to Dale for putting the wheels in motion so that we could all assemble in honor of Grandpa Harry's birthday (which was the day before on Veteran's Day).  This was the first year that Grandpa watched the reunion from up on high instead of from his seat at the table, but we know we was there watching over us.  What a great posterity he left!  We are grateful that Grandma Rita was there and almost all of our crew.  Aunt Katrina said the official headcount was 95, so we were probably 20-ish short of everyone.

Unfortunately, when it came time for pics, not everyone was there at the same time, so we just did the best we could.  Here are all the present-at-the-time granddaughters and granddaughters in law of Harry & Rita.  Actually, we managed to get all of the granddaughters minus Laura who didn't make the reunion, plus all  the granddaughters in law who were there (sorry we took this before Shari arrived, but she was there too).  Pretty foxy group if I do say so myself :)

All the great granddaughters of Harry & Rita that were there.  If my math is right, I think we are just missing six of the great granddaughters.  Not bad!  There was no chance of getting the great grandsons together for a photo op.  They scarfed their food and then took off into all the yards to play football and whiffle ball and skate and ride bikes and do all the things that cousins love to do.  Glad they were having fun for sure!

I know, I know, we really need to cheer up.  Seriously, Jules, are we ever not laughing when we get together?

Uncle Dale & Aunt Nedra

Michael & Craig were best buddies in their early teenage years and have so many fun memories together.

So the turnout of the male first cousins for this photo is weak, but hey, at least we tried, right?  We're missing Luke (who left after the eats), Willie (up at BYU), Van (on his mission in Atlanta), Matt & Joe who were playing football in the side yard, and Dale Jr. and Mark who weren't able to be there.

Ryan, Jeremy, Mike, Matt & Joe

The Three Amigos, Los Hermanos (Dale, Steve & Jim).  Such GOOD MEN these Goodman men are!

Note Afton in her stylie red pants right in the middle of the boys' football game, along with cousin, Elizabeth

Lots of visiting.  That's what it's all about.  Oh, and the food...lots of good Mexican food for sure.  

Second cousins Taylor & Kylie Chesley, who have become great pals with Afton & Barrett after spending a week with us beach camping last month.  So glad we did that together!

Hopefully we'll keep up with the reunions and other family gatherings through the years.  I love getting together with all the Goodman cousins.  Truly, we are blessed to be a part of such a wonderful family!

Fall Ball

Well, the girls have only been done with their fall ball season for two weeks now, and I already miss watching them play.  It is kinda nice actually being home a night or two during the week, but we've sorta gotten used to living at the ball park.  Here's Barrett's Junior Division team at the tournament the weekend before last.  

Barrett is playing for the Stapley 7th grade team now, but I just have to say that the competition is nothing like fall ball.  All the girls who are playing fall ball are there to compete and it is so much more fun to watch.  Even though the fall league has a pretty big age span (13 before the end of 2011 to 16 year olds, which means 7th graders - juniors in high school), both our starting pitchers were 7th graders.  And they are both great pitchers, both fun girls, both good friends with Barrett.

Barrett with Hallie & Jen (her two best buds on the team and both our pitchers)

Barrett at 2nd base

Hallie up to bat

Jen on the mound

And here's Afton with her Majors Division team on the last night of the fall ball season.  I didn't get many pics of her team since all the games were night games, but I was there, cheering them on.  Their team was so good - I think they only lost 2 or 3 games all season long.  It was great seeing Afton finally get her "wheels" back after her broken foot earlier this year.  It seems like she was running flat footed for a few months post-recovery, and not nearly as fast as normal. But I think she's back.  And back fast, just the way we like it.  Afton's best buds on the team were Syd Bauer (front row, second from left) & Riley Colvin (back row, far right).  

It will only be a couple of months before next season starts up, so we'll have to keep hitting the cages and playing some catch over the winter to stay in ball shape.  We're looking forward to it already!

What's grosser than gross?

All the kids were creeped out last night when Ry took off his boot and showed us what 7 weeks in a cast with no washing will do to your foot. Yes, the cast came off yesterday but the bone still shows a pretty clear break, although it is healing. Ry is now in a boot with crutches for at least two weeks with gradual increase to walking a bit in the boot, then hopefully into a special surgical shoe thing for just 2 weeks and maybe in normal shoe by Christmas!!

Shun the Sun 2011

Another great race day come and gone.  Too bad Ryan wasn't out there running with me, but we are both really hoping that the cast will come off this week and he'll at least be able to get a walking boot.  Wednesday is the big day.  I'm grateful that he was there to support me, as always, and that he continues to be my #1 fan.

Both of us were sporting pretty cool shirts.  He decided to wear his last year's Shun the Sun half marathon tee in honor of Saturday's race.  And I love the words on mine:  The faster you run, the faster you're done.  Simple but true.

Ryan and the kids got some good shots of me coming down the chute at the finish line. They made me smile :) The video made me smile even more.

This is my friend, Jenny Clouse.  We seem to meet up with each other at most races these days.  She married a guy I went to junior high and high school with, Doug Clouse, and we have gotten to be friends over the years.  She's a strong runner and usually a little faster than me, so it was great running with her this year.  I passed her up around mile 2 or 3 but didn't know it was her, then she caught up to me not too long afterwards and asked what my goal time was.  I told her I was trying to set a new PR and beat last year's time.  I wanted to run under 1:49.  She said she was shooting for 1:45, so I told her that she could be my pacer.  She laughed and said, "No, you can be my pacer." Ya, right.

We ran together for most of the race, until I started to have a little mental challenge around mile 8.  When I hit the 8-mile marker, I looked at my watch and my average page for the first 8 was 7:59/mile.  Of course you start having all those glory thoughts:  "Man, if I can just keep up this pace the rest of the race, I'll be sub-8:00.  Sub 8!!!  Holy cow."  But then I started struggling a little with the whole, "I still have 5 miles to go" and the canal path was rocky and my legs were getting tired and yada yada yada.  The usual mind game.  Somewhere around here, Jenny got about 20-30 seconds ahead of me.  But I never lost sight of her cute little red running skirt and blonde ponytail flapping as she ran.  Every time I wanted to slow down, I kept willing myself to not let the gap get too big.  She was a great pacer indeed.

Anyway, we finished the race less than a minute apart and both set new PR's.  It was a great day for running without a doubt!  Fantastic cool weather, family cheering me on along the sidelines.  My mom came and was outside the stadium video-ing the final turn off Center street into the stadium area and it was awesome seeing her there.  She must have run inside after I passed because she was there at the finish line too.   Loved it!

At the finish line with Afty

Easton and Rowan really wanted to come too (they all love coming to the races because there is usually tons of cool free stuff, bouncers, food, etc) but we had some balancing to do since my niece, Lainey, was getting baptized that same morning.  So the littles spent the night with cousins and went to the baptism (which I heard was very nice) and the olders came to cheer me on at the race.

Just stretching and chillaxing after the race with a little jamba juice.  Gotta love those race sponsors and all the free goods.

My friends, Kourtney & Richard Garner, post-race.  Kourtney ran the half too, and Richard did the 10k. 

Next race:  Turkey Trot 10k on Thanksgiving.  One of my favs!

Next next race:  Sedona Half Marathon Feb 4, 2012 (scary hilly, high elevation)  Not sure what I'm thinking, but I'm already signed up along with my friend, Robyn, from work.  Maybe we're both insane. We won't be setting any new PR's at that one, but the scenery should be fantastic!

Next next next race:  Phoenix Half Marathon March 3, 2012 - really excited about that one.  Starts at the base of Usery Mountain (under the painted "Phoenix" on the mountain) and ends at Longbow golf course.

(and maybe another one or two in between - we'll see!)