Utah Trip

My husband is the BEST!  This past weekend he sent me on a trip to Utah to attend some important family events.  He was such a sweetheart.  We had some frequent flyer miles, so he told me to just book the ticket, take Isla, and go.  

My brother Zach graduated with honors from the University of Utah.  He is now an engineer….. and starts his Master's program next week.  We are so proud of him.

My cousin, Janelle, got married in the Salt Lake Temple.  We are so happy for her!  And we are happy to welcome Robbie into the family.  We Gibbs girls don't settle, so we know he has to be pretty awesome to have snatched Janelle.  :)

On the many trips to Salt Lake, we drove Grandpa and Grandma Gibbs with us in the van.  Isla held Grandma's hand and it helped her stop crying.  Grandma then rubbed Isla's feet, which put her to sleep.  (Isla is so much like her daddy!  She loves to have her feet rubbed.)  I love my Grandma.  She is so sweet.

 The reception was held outdoors and it was a bit chilly, so we went inside Robbie's parent's house.  Grandma and Grandpa held Isla and snuggled with her… until she started getting fussy.  It had been a busy day.

 I saw my brother, Jens, at the reception.  He had grown a mustache during 'March Mustache Madness.'  Not only did he decide to keep his mustache, but he bought some wax to tweak up the ends for special occasions.  Oh how I miss my brothers!!

 On Sunday before church, we met Zach and Stacie to go see little  Kaisen's grave.  He is buried right next to Grandpa and Grandma Montgomery.  I started bawling as soon as Mom and I drove into the cemetery.  When I got out of the van, Zach said, "Why are you crying?"  I am often amazed at how strong Zach and Stacie are, even though I know they have a hole in their hearts even bigger than the one in my own.  We love you Kaisen and will never forget you.  You and Isla are our little cousin-twins.

Monday morning, we got up bright and early to catch our flight back home.  Isla was absolutely fabulous on the airplane ride home.    It was great!  She slept most of the time.  I sat in the window seat.  My 'row companions' also were very quiet, as they were sleeping off hangovers from a recent trip to Las Vegas.  I was able to kick back and finish reading Mockingjay without any interruption.

Andy picked us up from the airport.  Isla told him all about her Utah adventures.

Get Air!

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"Andy and the boys flying high
with Jens and their cousins at Get Air,
a trampoline park in Utah."

It's that time of year again. . .

KNOEBELS!!!

Ewan and Abric, ready to ride the helicopter all by themselves!

Morgan and Bryce, ready to FLY!

Harrison and Alexandra driving the motor boat.
They are looking much too grown up for their parents' liking.

Pappy and Zane, navigating the waters.
(Watch for the video at the end.)

Morgan, Grandma, and Isabel navigate their way through
after a bumpy ride.  Ha Ha.  (See video)

Andy lets Abric and Ewan drive the boat.

No better way to top off the fun than with a big
ol' tube of cotton candy.

Zane and Pappy's Boat Adventures

Mini-Family Reunion

Andy's cousin, Dusty, had a get-together at her house for all the cousins to spend time together.  It was so much fun to see all the next generation of cousins having so much fun together.

Catching fireflies.

Good times!

DC National Marathon

And so it began…. over 4 months ago…. my cousin, Janelle, and I started a training plan. We were virtual training buddies since she lived in Utah and I am in PA, but we had a goal and a dream to run the DC Marathon together. We emailed each other, facebooked each other, and sent each other text messages to see how training had been going.

We were stoked.

(And Jess, if you are reading this, THANK YOU for being my running buddy for those killer long runs. I could not have done it without you, your motivation, and your super-speediness!)

And then March came, and each week before the marathon seemed to just tick by.

Janelle, Nicole, and my aunt Lori flew out a week before the race so that they could get used to the time zone change and so that we could do some sight-seeing. Here they are in Inner Harbor in Baltimore with little Abric.

I love my cousins!

We also visited Gettysburg.

We seriously had so. much. fun. On the first night, Lori made a comment about the afghan my mom had knitted for our wedding present. With particular unintentional enunciation on the 'af', the quote "That's a big aff-ghan" was born. It never died, either. It still gives me a chuckle.

And now, race time. Here we are getting ready to go to the starting line. We've already been to the port o'potties, and with a 7am start time, everything had luckily come out A-OK. (Sorry for the TMI, but fellow distance runners, you know exactly what I am talking about.)

We had to take off some layers before the race started. Janelle was standing in front of a very lucky little boy. Ha ha. We have no idea who he is, but the look on his face is classic!
We crossed the start line about 8 minutes after the race had begun. (Oh how I love chip-timed races.)

We started at RFK Stadium and ran about two miles toward the Capital Building. One of my favorite parts about this race is seeing DC during the sunrise. The city glows. We were keeping a good pace. The road was crowded with runners, but not unbearably so. We were planning on staying at a 9:oo minute pace. Things were going smoothly, but for some reason Janelle started having stomach issues. We took a couple quick walking breaks, but if anyone knows Janelle, she is a hard worker, a fighter, and not a quitter. She played rugby for BYU and took first in Nationals for heaven's sake! My cousin rocks! When the nausea didn't go away, I was starting to get really worried. We were at mile 7 when she finally told me to go on ahead. I felt horrible. We always wanted to run the race together, but we knew that, when it came to it, we each had to run our own race. I gave her a hug and told her that I loved her. She gave me her Garmin to wear for the rest of the race. Did I also mention that she is one of the most generous people that I know?

I was worried about her and I knew that we would see Andy, Lori, and Nicole at the half mark at mile 13. It seemed to take forever to find them, but as I looped around the stadium, I saw them. It is so nice to see loved ones during a grueling race like that. I seems like all of your priorities fall in line and what really matters most is family.

Here I am at the half-way point. Tired, but still feeling strong. Andy ran with me for about a hundred yards and gave me an awesome pep-talk. I thanked him, told him that I loved him, and then I told him to go find Janelle.
We had planned on meeting up again at mile 18, but for some reason, I had caught my second wind and I was smokin'! I ran mile 17 at an 8:45 pace, but I was feeling great. I missed seeing Andy because he hadn't made it to mile 18 yet. I had to make myself slow down because I knew that I still had a long way to go.

Then, at mile 23, it happened. I had seen a couple runners go by the wayside due to calf cramps and I remember feeling sorry for them. I've never had that happen to me before, but it felt like something had jumped up and bit me. I had calf cramps for the last three miles. I figured out that if I just pulled my capri pants down a little bit, it helped. *Note to self, don't wear running capris during a super long run. Your calves can't get blood.*

For some reason the race designer decided to be cruel and make the last two miles be hills. They weren't super steep, they just went on f-o-r-e-v-e-r. I seriously doubted my sanity for even paying money to run a marathon at this point. I just kept telling myself that the faster I ran, the faster this would be over.

Finally, I crossed the bridge over the Potomac and climbed the last hill to RFK Stadium. My calf was screaming, but I was elated. My family, friends, and the finish line was in sight! (How's that for alliteration?) Besides Andy, Lori, and Nicole, our cousin Melanie also rode the Metro in to see us finish. My good friends Nicole and Ben and their little baby Natalie also came to support me. Thanks, you guys! That truly meant so much!

I was so happy to see everyone. I tried to give a wave and run as normally as I could with my calf issues. The clock said 4:15, but my official chip time was 4:07:37. I was so happy with that time because I knew that I had truly done my best. Plus, I had taken almost 50 minutes off the time from my first marathon where I had to hobble for the last 10 miles due to major IT band issues.

Janelle is a rock star. She came in just 30 minutes behind me and she looked even stronger than when the race began. She was finally able to eat something after we had parted. She said she didn't start to feel better until mile 15, but then she felt GREAT! Way to go, Janelle! Your very first marathon! Check that one off the bucket list.

Before

and

AFTER

with our finisher's medals

and soooo happy to be done!

We ran through history!

My aunt Lori, me, Nicole, Janelle, and my cousin Melanie.

Gibbs cousins are one in a million!

My sweetheart:

I seriously could not have done this without his love and support. He has been running very heavily for the past two years now - that's 9 marathons, people. He took 6 months off so that I could train for this marathon. He has played every part of the supportive husband and cheering section. He's the best! I love you, Andy!
After the race we drove back to our house. It was like a mini-family reunion, East-Coast style. Between my 4 kids and Melanie's 4 kids, we had to eat in shifts. The kids were in 'cousin heaven.' I love that they love each other so much!
Since we were so sore (we both almost fell down the stairs…. not at the same time), we decided to stay home from church the next day. Since Harrison was the oldest cousin, we put him in charge of taking all the cousins and organizing a lesson. He gave them each a part to read, or have help reading. It was so cute because he would put a check mark next to each person's name after their presentation.

They gave a great lesson on prayer and it was just what we needed to hear. Short and sweet and to the point. Nothing compares to the simple faith of little children.

Zane, Harrison, Tyler, Owen, Eva, Abric, Ewan, and Halle.

As soon as I crossed the finish line, I said to myself that I will never put my body through that again. But finishing a marathon is almost like giving natural childbirth--- does any woman say they want to have another baby the minute after it is all over?

Maybe someday I will run another one. For now, I'm just happy to be done with the 2-3 hour training runs and to have my life back.

Cousins

While my sister-in-law has been out of town, I've been watching her kids. Combined with my two youngest, it is almost like having two sets of twins! They are all only a couple months apart. Ewan and Morgan are 4. Abric and Bryce are 2. The nice thing about it: everyone has a friend.

They've all played really well and slept really well, which is the most important aspect, right?

Hooray for having cousins so close to us and so close in age!

Faith

To make a long story short, my 4-year old nephew Connor (on the left) was hospitalized for 22 days with an infection: HUS. Logan (on the right) was also hospitalized, but his stay was much, much shorter and his infection was much, much less severe.

It was so difficult to be so far away and to be so worried about him. We prayed every day for Connor's little body to fight for his life. Ewan, who is only 1 month apart from his cousins, was really concerned. He always made sure that we prayed for Connor.

When Connor finally came home from the hospital, I told Ewan the happy news.

Me: Ewan! Connor is coming home from the hospital today!

Ewan: (pondering for a minute) Mom, is this because we prayed for him?

Me: (lump forming in my throat and whispering) Yes, sweetheart.

Triple Birthday Bash

Tiffany had the idea to hold a triple bday party for Ewan, Connor, and Logan while we were in Utah. We had a Fantastic 4 theme because A. They are all turning four and B. because super heroes are super cool.
Jens amazed me beyond belief and made the Fantastic 4 symbol on their shirts.

Blowing out the candles.

Uncle Beau made a pinata. Yes, it is in the shape of the flag, but it is not burning. Those are crepe paper streamers. Let's just say the pinata was a HUGE hit! (pun intended).

Timpanogos Cave

The to hike up to Timpanogos Cave had arrived. This was another big CHECK we wanted to check off. And we wanted to get the stamp in our passport. (Do you have a Passport to your National Parks? Check them out HERE.)

Let the hiking begin!

We took many breaks. Although the trail is only 1.5 miles you gain almost 1200 feet in elevation. Steep in an understatement!

Jens, Tiffany, and Connor above us on a switchback.

Looking down at the switchbacks.

Daddy, Ewan, and Zane. We made sure to hold hands with the little guys. They were much too curious about looking over the edge.
We made it to the top and were just waiting for our tour to start. We were lucky to have our own personal geological tour guide. Thanks, Jens!
Ewan loved it inside the cave, in case you can't tell from his beaming smile.

I kept Abric close by in the baby sling.

Grandma was in heaven with all of her grandsons!

Andy was the official backpack carrier. I always thought he was Superman without the pack.

The heart of Timpanogos.

Taken from an article in the Daily Herald:

"Legend of Timpanogos" is the retelling of a Nez Perce Indian legend about a young Indian maiden, Ucanogos, who falls in love with a brave, Timpanac, from a neighboring tribe. Other braves are vying for the affection of Ucanogos -- one in particular named Red Feather -- and to decide who will win the hand of Ucanogos, the tribal chief issues three challenges: kill an animal using bare hands, race around the lake, and climb to the top of the mountain. As the braves race up the mountain in the final challenge, Timpanac is ambushed at the top and pushed to his death. A heartbroken Ucanogos offers her spirit to the Earth and dies in her father's -- the chief's -- arms. The two lovers are united in death and their spirits embrace, creating what is now known as the Heart of Timpanogos -- a heart-shaped stalactite in Timpanogos Cave.