Whittaker family

This little girl sure keeps us busy. She gets into (and onto) everything!!! Whether it be the Ziploc baggies (and pulling all 100 of them out 1 by 1), our clothes (and pulling them out 1 by 1 as well), our toothbrushes, the dishwasher, my make up and every other content in the bathroom (including the toilet), to name a few. She has even lost our house phone and Nate's cell phone, which very well may be in the landfill by now. But we have so much fun with her and love her so much! She is so silly and makes us laugh all the time.

*Warning, this is long and may be boring to many

A few weeks ago we ran the Provo Halloween Half Marathon and it was my first time ever to run that far. And it wasn't too bad. Of course, I say that 3 weeks later. At mile 10, I would not have said that.

Why on earth would I ever run that far? I don't know. I asked my sister Candace the exact same thing in August as I watched her cross the finish line in her 2nd half marathon here in Logan. Crazy, I thought. Just crazy. But deep down inside, I thought it was pretty cool to see all those people cross the finish line having just accomplish something so huge. Just ordinary people. Some young, some old, some larger than others, some for the first time, some for the 20th time. It was sort of neat. I guess I always thought only extremely athletic and die-hards would do something like that. And I had in my mind that I am the sports type, not the running type. Yuck, not ever would I be the running type. I mean, I do run often, but never more than 3 miles and I never would have classified myself as a runner. But as I watched all those ordinary people running that day, the competitive side of me started to rise. I thought to myself, "Self, if all 'those' people can do this than surely you can do this too." But I still didn't have the desire to run a race. And then September came. I went running one morning and came home happy. Why? Because usually when I finish my runs I am huffing and puffing and feel like I am going to die. No exaggeration. I hate it. But that day it was like I finally hit a point where my body could keep going. I seriously don't know what it was. Maybe I had been running enough that I was finally used to the elevation here (or all the blasted hills I am forced to run) that I felt like I could run farther. So I tried 4 miles the next time, and it wasn't too bad. I toyed with the idea of doing a half marathon, but still not serious about it. And then I ran 6 one morning and it wasn't too bad either. Nate had been running lots too and we decided to follow a training schedule to prepare for a half just in case we decided to run one. St. George had one 8 weeks out and that was really pushing it for us (most training schedules are at least 10 weeks). And then my sister called and asked if we wanted to do this Halloween one and it really worried me because it was even a week earlier than the St. George one. But with Nate's work schedule and babysitters for kids, we decided on the Halloween one. I tried to train as much as I could, but really feel like I wasn't trained enough. I missed quite a few long runs in my training and I had no muscle training. But anyways, to move this story along, I finished my first half marathon! And I actually really enjoyed it, minus the last 3-4 miles. I could definitely tell the point where my body just wasn't trained enough. About mile 9-10. I hurt bad and really, really, wanted to stop. The first 5 miles of the race were extremely down hill, and some might think this is a good thing, but it gave me the WORST blisters ever!! I even had on some mole skin to prevent them, but it didn't help. Wow, my feet felt like I had raw flesh being scrapped and dug into. That is about the best I can describe it. And my legs were killing me. But I kept trekking along and the main reason I did was because of my sister. She pushed me the whole time. At mile 12 I stopped because I could no longer run. I told Candace to keep going because I couldn't finish the last mile. I was done. She felt bad but kept running and as I watched her run off it gave me an ounce of motivation to catch up to her. I really, really, really, wanted to finish the race with her and so I forced myself to catch up and finish with her. And I did it! We finished together! She literally pulled me across the finish line. I wish I had a picture of that. And as soon as I crossed the finish line I just stopped. I couldn't move any further. And the race people kept telling me that I had to move out of the way. But I couldn't. I forced myself once more to walk a few more steps out of the way and then I just stood there some more until I could get my feet to move again. And where was Nate you might ask? Oh, he had been finished for over a half hour already. I think he finished in 1hr 34 (or 38) min. Crazy. Candace and I finished in 2:09, which I was happy with.

And I may or may not have been able to move any part of my legs the next day.

And a big thanks goes to my brother Jesse for being the favorite uncle of the day and watching my 3 crazy kids for us. Even if his teeny tiny little dog scares the crap out of Cassie.

And I highly advise getting a massage after running that far. And a Garmin GPS running watch. Those 2 things saved the day.

And one more thing: This race was a Halloween race so a lot of people dressed up. It was so funny because we would be running down the road and all of a sudden a random spider man would go sprinting by, or a chick with a full on wedding dress that had a sign on her that said "run-away-bride". And I kept seeing random parts of costumes that people would shed on the road, like wigs. It was pretty funny. To see some more funny pictures of the runners click HERE.

And yes, I may end up doing this again to myself in the Spring. Anyone else want to join?

And no, I will never run a full marathon. Ever.

Okay, and one more little thing. It was a freezing 24 degrees when we started this race. COLD!!!!

Cassie and I went with Dylan and his kindergarten class to the pumpkin walk last week. I wasn't as impressed with the scenes as I was when I was in college, but here are some of my favorites...

A couple of weeks ago we went to the American West Heritage Center for family night. We did a lot of fun things: potato sac slide, jumping in the hay, a big train ride and a little train ride, pony rides, popcorn by the fire, stare at goats, corn mazes (which we may or may not have cheated in), hay ride, and some good bonding.

My sweet little grandma passed away last week after a 2 year battle with lung cancer and it was a bitter sweet time. The darn cancer won again. I feel a little robbed because she was only 77. Now I know a lot of people die earlier than this, but I know a lot of grandparents live 20+ years on top of that. I thought it would be easier to see her go, because she was suffering so much, but it was really hard. I have so many memories of her, which I am so thankful for, but the more I think of the memories, the more I miss her.

My sister had every family member write down our memories of grandma and she created a really cute memory book for her. We gave it to her on her birthday, just a few weeks ago. I am glad she was able to read each of those memories before she died. She really enjoyed that and I think we will do this for our remaining grandparents for Christmas. There were some pretty funny memories of her. Anyone that knew my grandma knew how funny and scatterbrained she was. She made us laugh so much, and half the time we would be laughing at her and she didn't even realize it. She was also the most caring person I knew. She was always taking care of someone and she always had random people over for our family dinners. And trust me, some of those people were rAnDoM, but she still took them in because they had no where else to go. The compassion she had for others is just one of the reasons we named Claire after her (middle name). I won't go off about all the good (and funny) things about her, but I am just so glad I was able to grow up just down the road from her and my grandpa. Oh, the good times we had.

The funeral was so good. Lots of crying and laughter. I was so impressed with the things my dad had to say. Love that guy!

My pictures will NOT reverse order, so we will start with the back of Claire. She just kept getting into my sister-in-law's bag and trying to get all the good treats in there...



Random shots at the dinner...

I am trying to catch up here. Things are going really well for us and we are as chipper as larks (that is one of Nate's sayings). We are loving life here in Cache Valley and we feel very blessed with where we are at in life and hope things keep going well. We are really enjoying the fall season, which is my favorite. Aside from the many trips south to see family, we have just been hanging out here keeping busy and having fun.

We managed to get to Price to finally see Tanya's new place. Minus Nate, he went on a fishing trip and worked some too. And wouldn't ya know, Claire got sick. Always, when the doctor isn't with us, Claire gets sick and makes my time with family a little less enjoyable. But it was okay, I just stayed awake half the nights wondering what to do with this sad and very sick baby.

Here are Dylan and Cassie with their cousins at my grandparent's place on the way down...




And since we were there so close to Canadian Thanksgiving, my sister put together an awesome Thanksgiving meal for all of us. It was so fun to be with them, all my siblings were together except my youngest brother, Chad.



Me and my wonderful sisters...

My kids are constantly wanting to color or make crafts. Dylan especially. He thinks really hard about what he wants to make and creates some very creative things. Things I had no idea he knew about. And he is very thorough at what he does. For example, I went to parent teacher conference a few weeks ago and his teacher told me that Dylan is the only student in her class who will add grass, trees, birds, and clouds to a picture. He even adds luggage and lights to an airplane...




Okay, so maybe that is normal. It is just weird that I have a child old enough to do these things. Silly kids, I sure do love them and have fun with them.


Dylan loves tape. He uses it for towing cars and holding anything you can imagine together. He also loves taping his projects to any wall or door space he can find.

Okay, so I am a slacker. Sorry. I will try to get caught up on here soon. For now, here is a picture of the cool tree fort in our back yard. Complete with a slide, rope bridge, climbing wall on the back side, and a picnic table underneath. The kids love it, and so does every other kid that visits us. Too bad this won't move with us if we ever decide to buy a house.

Cassie started preschool last Monday and has been waiting for this day ever since Dylan was in preschool. The day finally came and she was a little hesitant to go. She didn't want her picture taken either, but I snatched one anyway. She is going to a preschool in a ladies basement, which is a lot different than the huge fun classroom that Dylan went to last year. Cassie has asked if she can go to the preschool that Dylan went too. I am sure this one will be just as good once she gets to know the other kids better and gets more used to it.



Dylan started Kindergarten on Thursday and loved it!! I think he liked the bus ride the best, which I thought would scare him the most. And I only shed a few tears as he stepped on it. A lot better than I thought I would do. I really can't believe how much he is loving Kindergarten since he didn't know anybody and he tends to be so shy around other people. Yay for him.

We have spent a lot of time with family this summer and even made it to a couple of reunions. Of course, my camera only made it to one of them and I still didn't take as many picture as I should have. But we had some good times. We have an annual "Fantastic and Fabulous Folsom" (or something like that) party every summer with whoever is in the area. I think they were expecting maybe 20-30 people and over 100 showed up. It was so much fun to see cousins and aunts and uncles that I hadn't seen for a long time. And especially, it was great to see my Grandma (in the last picture) and Grandpa. They have both been battling cancer and I hope to see them a lot more often now that we both live in Utah.