Unfortunately, due to the extreme muddiness, we didn’t take our camera on the run with us so we were only able to get a few pre-race photos prior to getting utterly filthy. By the end of the race though, I don’t think there was a single clean spot on either of us. The race weaved back and forth around the Soldier Hollow bowl and consisted of tons of sloppy mud, several snow machines to ensure that the mud didn’t dry up and lots of obstacles. We proceeded to slip, slide and crawl over, under and through multiple challenges which ended in us being muddier and wetter than we were before each. A portion of the race even went out into a pond and consisted of “running” about a quarter mile in waste deep water. We climbed rope towers, played on a rope swing, climbed through large drain pipes and ended the race by sliding down about a hundred yard water slide.

At the end of the race, Emily donated her shoes to charity and I donated mine to the trash (Nike shoe foam apparently has about a 20 year shelf life and my high school track shoes decided to give it up about 3/4′s of the way through the race). We also got to take a group shower in water which was apparently piped directly from the arctic ocean. It was actually cold enough to cause a brain freeze from the outside and the end result was a severe lack of cleanliness because we couldn’t stand it in long enough to actually get clean without fear of losing extremities to frostbite. We made up for it by having lunch in Midway though. All in all it was a fun outing and I was only sore for about a week afterward. Hopefully we’ll find some muddy photos, but until then, here’s our pre-race outfits.

For those who are unfamiliar (don’t worry, I had no idea what this thing was when I agreed to it), it’s basically a race that makes you pray there will be someone waiting at the finish line with a gun for you to shoot yourself with. The race begins in Logan and then winds 190 miles up the backside of the Wasatch to end somewhere round about Park City (Course Map). The race takes the better part of 2 days and we’ll be running straight through the night. Each of the 12 team members gets 3 legs of the race for a total of around 15-20 miles and spends all of their non-running time packed into a couple minivans which follow whomever the current runner happens to be. Basically it’ll be 2 days of tired, cramped, smelly hell. Fun, huh?

This is a happy pre-death picture

Anyway, the main point of this post is to solicit support from our dear beloved readers. Emily and I have joined up with several friends from my new job to be on one of two “Cancer Teams” that will be running the race. The main difference between a regular team and a “Cancer Team” is that all of our entry fees will be going to the American Cancer Society. The only downside to this is that the entry fees/donations for the Cancer Teams are much steeper than are those of the regular teams and this is where you, my dear readers, come into the picture. Emily and I are humbly asking for your monetary support in the way of donations to the American Cancer Society as we train for this brutal ordeal. Please feel free to donate as much or as little as you can and be assured that all donations will go to the ACS in the form of one lump sum donation that will be put together by the members of our team. Emily and I will need to come up with $700 for our part of the donation so every little bit helps. The only thing we can offer in thanks is the hard work we’ll put into trying to survive this thing as well as a promise to have someone post pictures of our limp and lifeless bodies located wherever we happen to collapse between Logan and Park City. Thanks in advance for your support and prayers for our survival. We’ll need em.

Donate for Mike

Donate for Emily

Bus to Beelzebub Team Donation

Or you can donate via PayPal below and we will include your portion with our team donation.

Thanks for being my eternal Valentine Em.

I know this is late but I just had to brag about how much Mike loves me. 

The night of the Breaking Dawn release I decided not to go get the waited for book because I was going to go to the Layers Clothing sale early the next morning.  So I was very surprised when I woke up at 12:40am to a huge thud on my chest. I opened my eyes and Mike was smiling at me and said "There’s your book!" It took me a second to realize what he was saying.  Then I had to wake up all the way to hear the story because Mike thinks that me and my books are silly. The thought of him standing in line waiting made no sense. 

He had a new part on his motorcycle and had to give it a test ride and decided that he should go drive by Barnes and Noble and see how long the line really was.  He said it was crazy. Girls in prom dresses, limos…..and a huge line.  So he drove away laughing.  Then he passed Walmart and thought he would give it a try.  So he walked in and saw a big pile on a table and no line.  So he walked over and bought it with no fan fare! 

And that is how I got my book.  So of course I couldn’t just leave it on the dresser waiting for tomorrow.  I was too curious.  And then on Monday when Mike came home and not much housework was done, I reminded him that it was his fault.  But I finished it that night and now life can go on. 

In those nine short years our lives have undergone quite a few changes. We’ve lived in six different places (seven if you count the couple weeks we stayed with the Laursens). We’ve had a combined total of eight different jobs. We’ve owned six different cars. We’ve watched out youngest siblings grow up and get married (just this last week for Scott). And we’ve seen the birth of 12 new babies in our immediate family (4 of which have been our own).

It’s been a pretty wild ride and although we’ve had our share of trials over the years, we’ve also been blessed with way more than we deserve. And through it all, I couldn’t ask for anyone better to share the past nine years with. Emily is my best friend, my greatest support and my one true love. So we decided to celebrate by heading up to Park City for the weekend (sans kids). We spent Saturday going to The Dark Knight then heading up to Park City for some shopping and fun. We spent the night at The Homestead in Midway and then went back to Park City on Sunday to ride the ski lift and stroll the fair they had going on Main Street. It was a nice relaxing weekend and a great way to celebrate these last nine wonderful years together.

A few months ago I posted about finding the perfect strawberry.  Well I have had nothing but teasing from Christopher about it. I think he is just jealous because he didn’t find it or get to eat it!  So the joke is on him!

I found a batch of strawberries at Costco and I could not believe how big they were! So here is an update…..The Perfect Strawberry!  And no, I didn’t save any for Christopher. Maybe if he is nice I will give him some of the jam I made with them. But it is hard to tell how perfect they looked when they are mushed up in jam!

So today I learned a lesson.  I need to be more for my children.  I fill so much of my time with little things that in the end won’t matter.  I think back and I can’t remember if my house was dusty or not (by the way, it was always very clean-thanks mom). But I do remember the things I did with my sisters and my parents.  I remember bed time. I remember dinner time. I remember folding the laundry with my mom and cleaning the bathrooms with my mom.  How lucky am I to have such incredible memories and now I need to be better about using my time to make memories with Hailey and Mallory and Annie and Jack.  And sitting next to a sad Mike today I could tell he was thinking the same thing. 

So off I go to tuck in my children and bring them a drink of water "from the toilet" just like my dad always did.  (He always flushed twice!!) 

It was kind of crazy to watch the taping and see the behind the scenes activities.  We want to go again when Jess comes back in July so if anyone wants to come let us know!