Timp Half Marathon

This summer I finally accomplished a major goal that I've had for years, to run a half marathon. It was quite the endeavor first because just registering turned out harder than thought. Half marathons are way cheaper in Utah and I wanted to run with my sister so it would be more fun but trying to coordinate that with our yearly family trip turned out to be pretty hard. But in the end we figured it out and Jess and I ended up running the TIMP Half Marathon, even though Jess ran the Hobbler Half two weeks before (the one we originally signed up for but that I couldn't make it out for).

Wake up at 3am, get dressed and grab food and drinks and head out to American Fork, park and take the bus to the top. Stretch and do morning yoga and go to the bathroom and wait for 90 minutes for the race to start. It is smart that they have a bag drop so you can pick up your jacket, water bottle, etc at the end of the race.

We found our pacer, planning on it taking about 2 hours to 2 hours and 10 minutes, and got ready. Now I had injured my knee by over training and not doing strength and running downhill too much in prep. Mostly I learned I needed to vary how far I ran and do strength at least 2 days a week for my quads and hamstrings. Needless to say I did not run for 4-5 weeks and then ran for 2 weeks before the race, not having run farther than 4 miles in 7 weeks. So I was nervous.

This race was also a 1800 elevation drop, aka bad for your knees! Great. So we took off and it felt great. It was really cool outside, the canyon was absolutely beautiful, and I wasn't struggling with the altitude change nearly as much as I had thought. Mile 4, my knee starts hurting. But as long as I focus on my stride as I had read for downhill running (don't heal strike, have a good swing back with your legs, don't fights the decline, just let it take you, and relax) it stopped hurting and I was ok. About mile 8 things started to flatten out as we came out of the canyon and I felt great. We just stopped to drink at every water station (every two miles) and then kept on going keeping about a 9:15 or 9:30 pace. Not bad eh? Then mile 9 hit and there were intermittent declines which I had to walk because my knee hurt so bad, but just on the inclines. Mile 10, I had to stop and stretch and take it slower but could keep going. Mile 11, time to walk. We walked and jogged intermittently and then ran the last mile with me amazingly having some juice in me to pick it up at the end. 13.1 miles. I made it in 2 hours and 13 minutes. Not bad for having to stop and walk etc for being just 3 minutes off of my goal!! However I did have a massive blister the size of my baby toe on that toe and was extremely sore and had to go home and take a nap. But all in all it turned out really well and I plan on doing another one for sure!! I will just wear maybe a seamless shirt or something and do a few other things to prevent chaffing. Never ran far enough for that to happen before! And get some better socks to prevent blisters. But I felt great and was so happy to accomplish such a goal!!

I am so grateful to Carter who watched the two boys so Jess and I could run and especially grateful to my High School Best Friend Trisha who came to see us at the end. It was so fun to have her there even though I was super tired. Thanks Trisha! It meant so much to me! And of course meeting M was amazing!!

Here is the link to the photos they took of Jess and I running. Part of me wants to buy them, but who can justify spending $50 for a photo of me when I'm red, sweaty and stinky??

http://www.lucidimagesutshop.com/search/?c=photos&n=lucidimagesut&q=hinton

The last photo in the link is me at the finish and even though it looks like that girl is gaining on me fast I still beat her :) haha

This is Jess and me waiting at the starting line!

We finished!! 

Trisha and M. 

Who wants to run the next one with me?!?

First Day of Nursery

In June Conner turned 18 months which means Nursery at Church! Thanks goodness! It was getting hard enough just to keep him happy during the first hour of church let alone all three! The problem is church is right during his nap so no matter what it is hard. 

But Conner took it like a champ! We dropped him off and they had to bring him back to Dustin for a little bit because he started crying when they were cleaning up play time but Dustin took him in and helped him during snack time and then Conner stayed the rest of the time. The same thing the next week and then after that he's been great! On days when he doesn't nap before church (despite our efforts) he does have to come out for a little bit but give him a snack and he's usually right back in there with them! 

He does have a problem with turning the lights out however :) But he's been coloring more and doing well so we're super proud of him!

Here are pictures of him when we got home from church being such a big boy! 18 months is big!! He's our big smiler and we love it!

Epic Harper's Ferry Hike

On July 5th we decided to go on a hike at Harper's Ferry and go rappelling. Let's just say that this was the most epic adventure I think we've been on yet. At least as a family. For those of you who know Dustin he has a few that just might compete :)

The group: Two pregnant ladies and their husbands, me carrying Conner in the carrier, Dustin carrying the rappelling equipment and part of a large cooler, David carrying the other half of the cooler, Dad with the other backpack of equipment and mom who was just getting over a horrible chest cold and having a harder time breathing. 

The atmosphere: hot and humid. Temperatures in the 90s with % humidity in the 90s. 

What we thought would just be a mile turned into 2.5 miles to the top with a steep and I mean steep incline. With the group and our heavy load it took over 90 minutes to get to the top.  The hike itself was absolutely beautiful and shady and green. By the time time we reached the peak it is lunch time and the weather was stifling. And there is little shade. Not wanting to go back up the switchbacks we came back down even though we were all exhausted we decided to set up the rappel. Fastest way down right? Wrong. We had to hike down to a lower ledge but the rope wasn't long enough so we had to tie another rope on making is to the person had to unhook, move the knot and then hook back on. Here is where we should have decided it was best to all hike back down. There were three extremely inexperienced hikers, everyone was tired and Conner was done. 

Dustin went down first to take care of the rope. I came down next to sit on the ledge and help everyone with the hooking and unhooking. Mom came down. Then Dad came down with Conner in the carried on his back with Conner crying the whole way down (no nap, tired, hot and so ready to be out of that carrier!). Then Mom, Conner and I went to hike the 3/4 mile walk back to the cars to try and help Conner sleep and cool down. We ended up plopping in the river by the car and playing there. Conner taken care of and super happy. 

Then they started lowering the cooler and equipment not needed at the top and the cooler hit a bump and all of the food and water supply fell out exploding as they hit rocks falling down the 250 foot drop. No food. So Sarah played a game of grab food as you go down, trying to salvage what we had. Mistake number 2. All the experienced rappellers except for David are now at the bottom and the three inexperienced and David at the top. 

Then the harness didn't fit our friend so he was going to hike down with the remaining equipment from the top. Then his wife tried to go down, having never rappelled before and also being 18 weeks pregnant, and being hot and dehydrated, had an anxiety attack coupled with heat exhaustion. They call us on the cell phone (the only way we could communicate) and Ben is on his way down to get water and they need help. Dustin I run back to Dustin at the bottom of the ledge, we collect empty bottles (we had no water at all down there, it all was lost when the cooler fell) and fill it with River water to dump on her. Mom and Conner and Sarah go off to buy more water and drinks and Dad gathers everything else to try and pack it all up. Dustin and I head back up the descent with the river water as fast as we could go, worried that we'll have to carry our friend down. 

We meet poor Ben on his way down and he turns around to come back up with us. We end up meeting with our couple friends and David on their way up the switch backs to start heading back down so we dump water all over her which she said provided immediate relief since she had stopped sweating. They had gotten water from some other hikers and there were a few sips of Vitamin water and she had maybe half a cup of smart water and then we had a bag of peaches and cucumbers and carrots which we all sucked on our way down since by this time it was 2pm and we were all dehydrated. Hiking down we picked wild raspberries and then towards the bottom met Dad on his way back up with the water and sports drinks they bought. Then we all jumped in the river to cool down and felt much better. We headed home, getting good food on the way, showered and crashed. I think we figured that I had gone over 9 miles that day and Dustin around 8 miles. 

We learned some valuable lessons and sadly a lot of this could have been avoided if we had planned better. Lesson learned. And you can never, and I mean never bring too much water. 

Conner playing with mom at the top. Very excited to be out of the carrier but not for long since I banished him to it for the rest of the time because he wanted to climb near the edge.

Our little family! Happy and enjoying the view before getting ready to rappel down.

Conner at the end playing in the river and SO much happier and cooler. 

July 4th

Have I ever mentioned how much I love the 4th of July!? I just like to BBQ and be outside and play frisbee and be with family and watch fireworks. Fireworks are WAY more exciting with an 18 month old we discovered this year!

We spent the day with family having a great BBQ and playing frisbee. I stepped on a bee which wasn't super fun but baking soda to the rescue! Then we played games and watched some "1776". 

Afterwards we headed to Ft Meyer to watch the DC fireworks. This is the best place to watch the DC fireworks as long as you have a military connection!! Families everywhere, no smoking or drinking allowed and lots of kids playing everywhere. 

Here is Conner loving all the space to run around and the kids. 

Waiting for the fireworks. 

Conner loves Great Grandma June!

Not the best picture but here is the hole crew but Sarah. 

We are attempting to get more pictures of all three of us!! 

Conner thought the fireworks were amazing. He just kept cheering and pointing and yelling excitedly. I mean these were cool. They even spelled out U-S-A and had smiley faces and what looked like Saturn and hearts and all sorts of neat fireworks that you don't get to see everyday. Conner even kept grabbing Dustin's finger and making him point too! 

The ride home took forever but that is expected just to get out of the parking lot. But Conner "drove" Grandpa's car and played and loved being out so late. 

Visiting Sarah and Ben

This past May we went to visit Sarah and Ben in Charlotte, North Carolina for Memorial Day and we were so glad we went!

We can see why they love Charlotte so much. We hiked around a lake and picked fresh strawberries and went swimming and played games and had a great time!! 

Here Conner is taking a nap on Sarah's bed. They were kind to let us stay in their room so we could have a place for Conner away from everyone else. But Conner was SO excited about having everyone there that he went to bed late and woke up at 5am ready to play! So he crashed hard this day. 

Here we are racing ducks at the strawberry patch. What a fun place and great strawberries!! 

Conner just wanted to play in the water and got SOAKED!

So fun and glad we went!! 

American History Museum

Conner and I met my friend Jenelle and her husband Jeff at the American History Museum in DC earlier this summer. The sad thing again is the only pictures I have are random ones of Conner. But you think an 18 month old doesn't enjoy a good museum? Well Conner sure does!

There are lots of chairs to sit on and things to climb and look at. He ran around and quite enjoyed himself! 

He was so funny on this chair in the hallway that I couldn't resist!

And then there are lots of sticks and rocks and birds to chase while walking on the National Mall. 

See? Endless excitement in DC!

Melanie's July Visit

Again I need to get better at taking pictures when family and friends are in town but these are curtesy of Melanie from her visit! We LOVED having Melanie here and had lots of fun going to Old Town Alexandria, getting some shopping in and good conversation with great company!

Conner got into some dirt outside. He sure loves dirt!

Conner playing in the rain and loving the drainage chains. 

I always find the best deals and outfits whenever Melanie comes! She has gotten me addicted to Athleta, my new favorite store!! Thanks Melanie for coming out to play!

March Hinton Visit

In March we had the pleasure of having Mom and Dad Hinton and Tiffani and Rick and crew come visit. Mom and Dad came out  twice which was a pleasure and SO fun, coming out again for their Anniversary but I didn't take any pictures from that visit!! This is why I need to keep up on the blog. But here are some pictures curtesy of mom!

Visiting The British Pantry in Aldie, VA.

Playing around at the playground by our house. 

The Red Fox Inn at Middleburg, VA for lunch. 

Our puzzle we put together!

It is always a pleasure to have family come visit! I just wish I was better at taking pictures!!