Great Friends!

Halloween weekend was celebrated with some of our great friends. Sam and Penny Yarbrough invited us up to the Yarbrough Manor at Fish Lake. Until we actually got there I, Caleb, didn't think it existed because Sam always conveniently invited me when I couldn't go. :) But this time we were able to go and it was awesome! We got to catch up with the Wangsgard's as we carpooled together. It is always great being around Dave and Sarah, except for when Dave thinks I'm hitting on his wife. I can totally see why he would be intimidated by me though, so I can blame him, hahaha. Anyways, we also go to see the McKinley's who we haven't seen for ages! It was so fun to see their son Maximus Primus and their baby girl Avery. They have such an awesome family and I am very jealous of them. I got to entertain Max during breakfast the first morning by throwing grapes as high as I could and catch them in my mouth. Max loved it, but what he loved even more was when I taught him to throw grapes at his Dad :), I need someone to pick on Danny when I'm not there. Oh and there is a beautiful stream that flows right past the cabin and so Max always wanted to go and see it and I would walk out there with him and this is one of the pictures I got of him. It was mid smile. He was frowning when I told him to smile, and then I was trying to make him laugh and caught the transition face. Oh well, he is still a very cute kid. Good job Jessie! 

 

We had a lot of fun playing Quiddler, having Ticket to Ride tournaments (luckily Jessie didn't win any of these, I think she lost her edge), and Penny surprised us with a Micheal Jackson dancing game for the Wii. Surprisingly Dave was pretty good at this. Even when it wasn't his turn he was off in the corner practicing his moves so he could compete with Danny and Penny. Sam on the other hand was the same old Sam who loves to dance no matter if the game tells him he is good or not. (just playin cowboy.)

The guys were able to get away here and there and play some fuseball. I have to admit that I was a charity case in that game and that Dave was kind enough to accept me as his teammate. Danny is abnormally awesome at fuseball, Dave is an awesome defender, and Sam would just rock my face on offense. We had a tournament with fuseball and Dave and I ended up loosing the last game after many great comebacks.

Lastly, we got to go out on the lake and do a little fishing in the freezing cold weather. I guess there is a part of the lake where the mountain dips and it is called the saddle. Sam said we would catch some fish there and Dave was able to catch a humongous 10" rainbow trout. Unfortunately we threw it back in and didn't eat it.

It was such an awesome weekend to just relax and enjoy the company of many great friends we have made. Thanks Sam and Penny for putting that together. We love you guys.

This past weekend Lauren and I finally hung out with our long lost friends Billy and MacKenzie who just got back from Houston, Texas a year ago and decided they wanted to hang out :). It was so fun! We went to Zupas and then did what we do best, just talk the night away. We were able to catch up on their lives in Houston and they convinced us even more that Texas would be a great place for the future Perkins' family. It is always great when you can have friends that you don't see for over 2 years and pick up like you just saw them yesterday.

We played the game Quiddler with them, which is like a scrabble card game, and I ended up loosing by a lot because I challenged the word "zoon" and lost quite a few points. Besides me loosing again, it was a lot of fun!

Also we hung out with Trent and Erica who are hilarious. They have an awesome house, and an even more awesome dog! Bry is a boxer and is two years old and absolutely cut! His muscles bulge everywhere and so Bry, the dog, has inspired me to start working out a little more. Let's see if that happens :) We hung out at their house talking and wrestling with Bry.  Lauren learned what a boat that paddles is called, a paddle boat :). After talking for a bit we went to go see Moneyball which turned out to be a pretty good movie.  I might just watch an inning of baseball now.

Anyways, we are very grateful to have the friends that we do.  Anywhere we go we can count on great friends to be there.  Hopefully we can be friends until we're 50, then from there on who knows :) right Dave.

Good Hail! I ran 26.2 and liked it.

Mom I wrote EVERY detail, and then some, just for you.  Missed you.  :)  And please don’t ground me permanently even though somehow both camera batteries were dead.  Caleb’s phone does just as good as our DSLR right?!

Friday was crazy.  I thought running against schools like BYU and Boise State was scary, I guess I didn’t know what scary was back in my college days.  My pre-race-jitters hit an all time high and I think the people around me could sense those feelings.  Everyone was trying extra hard to show me the love.  Mr. Herzog went out of his way to make sure EVERYONE knew what I was doing the next day (great, no pressure at all to finish) and he counted down the hours more than I did.  Thanks.  All 930 students wished me good luck.   Somehow the staff was also informed, couldn’t have been Herzog, about my madness and they gave me a super cute running jacket- maybe they knew what was to come the next morning, or maybe they just jinxed me...  Some students also showed the love by bringing me way too many candy bars.  I’ve taught them so well about pre-race fuel, or maybe I was really grumpy and they know how to give me a cheerfulness fix, or maybe they just wanted extra-credit.  I have no idea who would’ve ever told them they would be my favorite students and get bonus points if they brought me candy.   ;) 

Friday night Caleb was being sooooo sweet to me.  I feel bad now because I’m pretty sure I was ornery.  And we all know what happens when I’m in a bad mood, no bueno.  We drove up to Logan to pick up my packet.  Caleb made me sphagetti for the 25^th night in a row, I drank enough water to stay hydrated for an entire year, and all I wanted at this point was for the race to just finally begin. 

My dad called me a million times through out the week, or maybe his extra nervous first-time marathon runner daughter called him a million times to get some more wise words of advice, I can’t remember now, but Friday he told me he scored big at D.I. and found the perfect clothing bag for me to keep all of his sweats in.  Yes, his sweats.  I love mine too much.  Heaven forbid I might loose some of my ten year old, bleach stained, torn sweats.  So I turned to the next best thing, my dad’s sweats.  I am so nice to him, no wonder I'm his favorite.  He brought me the bright orange trick-or-treat pumpkin bag with his sweats (which was the best idea ever because it took us all of five seconds to find that bag at the finish line), I popped some sleep meds, and zoned out.

Fast-forward to 3:15 am.  I slept like a rock, and only dreamed one bad thing, the stick on the trail turned into a giant Rattlesnake that bit my ankle and I died.   I woke up and was delusional.  I heard something really loud outside, RAIN!!!  But I was so confused because it NEVER EVER rains like that in Utah.  GREAT!!!!!!  Notice my dad's mountain man jacket he let me wear?!  He must have really liked our Halloween costumes from last year.  

Caleb drove me to Logan and I got right on the bus.  The only thing I was thinking about on the bus ride was the huge need to go pee feeling I had.  I swear I was going to pee my pants.  Seriously, enough fuel in my bladder to hydrate your mom’s cow… The bus ride up the canyon seemed like 52 miles, definitely not 26, and the long ride was not helping the mental note that I knew I was about to run down what we just drove up.  The old man next to me was really tired and didn’t say one word.  We got to the start and the bus driver stopped the bus and everyone just sat there.  I was so confused because I knew we were at the start but no one was getting off the bus.  I was at the back of the bus and was the first to stand up.  Everyone looked at me like I was crazy because I stood up, I yelled to the bus driver something like hey I am about to pee on your bus, can you please open the doors so I can get off?!  I got off the bus and realized the bathrooms were a quarter of a mile up the road, I guess that’s why no one was getting off because they knew eventually the driver would take them to port-a-potty land.  I peed in the bush and made my way to the heated tent.  

30 seconds before the gun went off, the skies thought it would be funny to pour an ocean on all the runners.  It lasted long enough to get my shoes soaking wet, and went away.  Glad you cared.  Right then I decided that if I wanted to have a positive experience, I couldn’t let the monsoon bring me down.  I turned on my music and started dancing.  (Dancing in the rain, bucket list check.)  I was completely SHOCKED when I ran past the mile one sign because it felt like I had been running for 60 seconds.  Then all of the sudden there was mile 2, and 3, and 4…I was pleasantly surprised at how fast the miles were flying by.   I got to mile 6 did a double take with the course digitial clock and my time, thinking there was no way I was really running sub 8 minute miles.  OOOPS!!  I was feeling sooo good but knew if I kept up that pace for much longer I would either die, or I would be hating life come Mile 18, so I slowed my pace.  The canyon was so beautiful and peaceful.  At mile 8 the rain hit really hard again.  It continued for, don’t even worry about it, TEN MILES.

 

 After I got over the fact that my hair was ruined, I was cold, my shoes now weighed at least 20 lbs. each, I couldn’t see, my ear filled with water and ruined my niece’s left-ear head phone I was wearing, it felt like I was wearing a swimming suit, I couldn’t feel my legs because they were so cold, I made the mental note to be the Tigger in life that my mom always taught me to be.  And started thinking something like, the faster I run, the faster I finish, the faster I get to be with Caleb, the faster I’m out of the cold rain, the faster I can go back to bed, and the faster I get to take a hott shower.  Mile 13 was at the bottom of the canyon and my time was right around 1:45ish.  I was feeling good and knew that if I kept my pace I would be in good shape for qualifying for Boston.  This was a good motivator to keep moving.  At mile 14 I saw my dad and sister and couldn’t have been more happy.  My dad must have been really worried about me cuz he kept asking me if I was okay and really wanted me to put on his jacket. He seriously has been the best coach through this entire process and he was more worried about the rain, coldness and hail than I was.  Bless his heart I've caused him a lot of stress and anxiety the past 7 days.  At mile 15 I saw Caleb and was freaking out!!  Then I noticed the scenery and road I was running on looked very familiar, it was the exact road I ran on for my first leg of Ragnar, freaking out even more.    I wanted Caleb to know he had a super hott sexy wife even in the rain, so I picked up my pace again.  BUT I guess my spirits needed a humbling fix, almost as much as BYU needed a humbling fix after they scored their one and only touch-down yesterday and were cheering as though they had just won the superbowl, they lost 5,000 to 10, or something like that, boy were they humbled, so back to my running, it started hailing!!!!  I was humbled and slowed way down.

Andy and Shay, Caleb personally made this video just for you two.

I continued to see my cheerers every few miles and was feeling good.  Then it happened, I hit the wall at mile 18, and tried to ignore the fact that the entire mile was a hill.  I may or may not have walked all of it.  :/  Somewhere a long the run a lady runner next to me told me she could hear the water in my shoes sloshing around!!!  Oh my luck sometimes, it's okay to not be jealous.  Eventually I made my long way to mile 21 and ran into Caleb and Caitlyn.   

Caitlyn was a complete rockstar and drove all the way to Logan to pull me a long the last five miles.  She seriously was my saving grace.  She just did a marathon this summer and so she knew the exact feelings I was having.  We carried on and met up with Aubrey at mile 23!!  Wahoo another person to pull me a long!!   I think the race people got confused with their distance calculations and I’m pretty sure the last 3 miles was actually 10 miles.  Eventually I finished and was quite emotional, in a good way, crossing the line.  I loved the marathon so much that despite my muscles screaming bloody murder when they come close to stairs, I can’t wait to do it again.  My time was right around 4 hours, and if your math skills are any better than mine, you know more than I know that I slowed way way down the last few miles.  But oh well, I feel good and I know I gave it my all. 

26.2.  Whoo whoo!!

Thanks to everyone who’s had to put up with my race anxiety for the past 90 days.  It was well worth it and I can’t wait to do my next one!!  And a special thanks to these people!  Best motivators, coaches, supporters ever. And as a side note, my dad told Caleb and I a few weeks ago that he heard a song on the radio that he really likes.  He started singing it and it's Beyonce's Single Ladies song. No joke!   Caleb and I have since been making bets on what radio station my dad listens to.  Apparently it's the same radio that plays LMFAO's Party Rock Anthem because all he kept saying was to just keep shuffling.   Everyday I'm shuffling...  Which was funny because I lost track how many times I listened to that song on repeat to get pumped for the race, before and during...

I wait all year for the 4th...

If there's one day in the year that I seriously know how to "live it up", it's definitely the 4th.

And if there's one holiday that completely deserves a double x-l long post, this one is it and I didn't disappoint.

I freaking love everything about the holiday.  

I especially love fast and testimony meeting during the month of July. (I'll never forget how Sarah Stelter hit it home for me this year.)

I love taking the time to think about what freedom and being American really means.  thank you chris. 

I love waking up to run an early race, cheering at the parade for who knows what just to get that one piece of taffy, barbecuing and pooling it in the afternoon, playing and acting as though no one is watching as the sun slowly fades into the dimness of the night, the anticipation for the first big boom and lit sky, the smell of smoke in the air (yep I really just said that), and of course the grand finale- the kind that in this case the city of Bay Village spent way too much money on- but was well appreciated.

Really though, I.freaking.love.all.of.it.

It's on cold long winter days that I dream and wish about the 4th.

So when it's here, I kind of feel like it's deja vu, the entire day, and I hate it when the day comes to a close.

This year was especially fun.  

Caleb and I flew to Ohio again.

Nothing beats fireworks over the lake and chasing cute kiddos who we definitely don't get to see enough of.

And extra bonus, Andy had the entire week off to entertain us, or more like make fun of someone just because they forgot how to spell the word rink. Oh wait who won that Qwiddler game?! That's what I thought.

Playing and waiting for that first big boom.  Totally feel so lucky that we got a group shot.

A NORMAL picture of the chief and me.  Say what?!!  Yep, normal, it is possible.

I seriously love my brother so much and feel like it's an honor to claim him as such.  I loved being introduced at church as Andy's little sis.

Maybe one day I'll be half as cool, kind, wise, loving, hard-working, super-heroish (any person who saves other people's lives on a daily basis should be called a super hero right?) and funny as he is.

Love her.
Can we please be neighbors?!  No more of this 2,000 miles away crap.  Texas needs doctors too.

And we had fun attempting to get a picture of me and all the spunkiness that surrounded us for 6 days.
 Notice how Caleb rocked it on the face painting this year.

Hottness. end of story.


And even more hottness.
It boggles my mind that we are standing in front of a lake, not an ocean.
Caleb thought Jaws was going to be in full-attack mode any moment because the lake is just that big.
And we decided that lakes in Utah are way too over-rated and should be called puddle hoppers.

Marin.  Couldn't get enough of her.
And please don't ever burn your fingers again.  Your mom and I might just have a heart attack.

 

We loved us some beach time and humidity time.  And Tessa and Carlee loved them some mermaid time.

 

I love summer nights.  The feel of being content and knowing that life is good.  Porter feels the same way, especially when Caleb is around. 

And it ain't no 4th of July without some funnel cake loving, horse riding, money wasting, carnival sporting, good time.   

 

I loved this trip.  It was the perfect summer recipe.  

Caleb is still wishing Tessa could've been our lap child on our flight home.  She has a good time telling Caleb your mom jokes.  We forget that she's just two.  

Buffalo wild wings, Quiddler, Settlers, and the food was a hit, just like always.  

Thanks Andy, Shay, Porter, Tessa, Carlee and Marin for adding the perfect week to our summer.

And yes I'm already counting the days til next year's 4th.

Proud to be American are we.