Park City Half Marathon

Last May when I decided to recruit Gage, my dad, and my brother for the PC Half Marathon, I had no idea what it would be like trying to train for a half marathon while getting ready to teach school and also moving hundreds of miles across the country. Let's just say it's been a little crazy around the Arnold house the past few months. :) It's been fun though and yesterday we finally accomplished our goal of running 13.1 miles!

Here we are before the race...
Running 13.1 miles was a mind over matter experience (I can't imagine doing a FULL marathon!) and it was definitely not easy for me. The course is beautiful though and the scenery made it quite enjoyable.

My mom, our loyal supporter, was at the finish line cheering us on and taking pictures. Gage and I ran the whole way together, keeping about a 10 minute mile pace. By the way, that's mostly water - not sweat - on Gage's shirt.. ha ha.

We crossed the finish line together at 2 hours, 12 minutes, and 59 seconds. The results were posted here and we were all pleased with our times and placings.

Mitchell finished in 1 hour, 52 minutes and my dad finished in 2 hours, 6 minutes. Park City's elevation is about 4700 feet higher than Spokane - where Gage and I conducted the majority of our training - so we felt pretty good about our time! EXCUSES, excuses, right? Well, I didn't think it would be that big of a difference, but ELEVATION matters and Utah runners are TOUGH!! :)

Anyway, now that it's all said and done - it was a lot of fun. Both Gage and I were NEVER runners before this. The most I had ever run was a 5K (~ 3 miles); so to do this was a pretty big challenge for both of us. It was great to be able to do it together and it's an experience we'll never forget!

San Francisco

So I had a break in the midst of all our packing and thought I'd post some pictures from my recent trip to San Francisco. Courtesy of my wonderful mother, I was able to go on a trip with her and my sis to one of our favorite cities. We saw "WICKED," went to Alcatraz, rode the trolley, shopped, ate wonderful food, and just had a great time with the girls. Thanks for a wonderful trip, Mom!!!


LOVED the show!!!



Had some fun times on the old San Fran trolley ride to Fisherman's Wharf. :)


Boats on the wharf.

Boat ride out to Alcatraz Island.

Alcatraz Island - loved this tour... so eerie and fun at the same time. Al Capone was a prisoner here!!


We were still excited about the show from the night before.....see a resemblance??
Hanging out in the hotel after a long day of shopping.

It was a great trip and I can't wait to go back!

BTW - I am now back in Spokane, packing up our cute little one-bedroom apartment. It is SOOOO sad. :( I really am going to miss it up here and we are having a hard time packing up our lives here..... Onward and upward, I guess!! It's just difficult to approach such big changes and dive into the unknown! Wish us luck; we'll back in UT in less than a week!

Lately...

What a whirlwind the past few weeks have been! Gage and I drove down to Utah from Spokane last week and we were able to stay in Utah for a nice, long visit. We were happy to be here over the 4th of July since there always seems to be so many fun things going on during the week of the 4th. We had a few family barbecues, hung out with friends, golfed a few times (Gage), ran in the Plain City 5K, and (of course) watched the fireworks at Weber High.

Sadly, Gage had to fly back up to Spokane on Sunday in order to start school the following day. I stayed in Utah because there are about a million things I need to do before school starts!! My mom has been a HUGE help to me this past week in helping me prepare for teaching. We went to my school (Kanesville Elementary) and cleaned my classroom inside and out. It took about six hours and it was quite the job! The next day we went in and did more organizing and later went to purchase a bunch of supplies, books, puzzles, games, bulletin board stuff, and EVERYTHING else school-related. The best part about spending all that money was that it wasn't MY money - thanks to my awesome previous job, I got to spend without a conscience! :) Love that!

Gage has been working hard at school and the GU law clinic; he has been quite the trooper being in Spokane all by himself. Since we've been married we haven't been apart for more than 1 day, so these two weeks will be a little challenging! I get to go up there for the last time in a little over a week and then we will do the BIG move and finally be in UT for good. It's actually really bittersweet - I love Spokane and it will be a huge transition to be back in the Utah bubble. :)

There are many random pictures that follow.... I just decided to pack a bunch in from the past few weeks since I haven't had much time to blog.

4th of July Festivities:

I miss you, Gage!!

The Arnold boys.

Meg and Rach - we love our hammock!

The P.C. 5K - as I mentioned on Facebook, I had been battling a terrible bug/food poisoning/24-hour flu the entire day before the 4th, so we finished a little slower (24 minutes) than we hoped because I was so dehydrated. Gager was a sweetheart though and waited for me!!!




At the fireworks!

Love, love, LOVE my dogs.

Last few weeks in Spokane:
Meg, Rach, and Sam.

Rach (pictured above), one of my best friends, got me this cake when I got my job. I'm sitting by her adorable little boy, James.

Me and my good friend Steph. This was the day of her baby shower and also the day we had to say goodbye to each other! :( No fun!

The weekend before we came to Utah, we went to the Iron Man Triathlon in Cour D'Alene with our friends Heather and Tyson Dobbs (and their cute little boy, Brody). This was AMAZING. The Iron Man athletes complete a 2.4 mile swim, a 112 mile bike ride, and a full marathon (26.2 mile run)!!! It was inspiring to watch; those guys (and girls) are like superhuman or something!!

So that's about it!! We hope all is well with everyone; we are loving the summer and hope you are too!

2nd Grade

What is the significance of that post title, you ask? Well, that is the grade that I will be teaching this upcoming fall!!!!!! The best part is that I will be teaching in good old Weber County! Yes, that’s right...we are moving back to our old stomping grounds and we are SO excited to do so. Gage is a 3rd year law student at Gonzaga, so he is not QUITE finished, but since he has gone to school straight through the summers, he is able to complete his final credits for graduation through an externship in Ogden, UT. It’s actually a little spooky how perfectly things have worked out. I was broken-hearted when we first moved to Spokane and I learned of the teaching situation here...it was nearly impossible for me to get a job because of many factors and I ended up working (at a WONDERFUL company) in a job outside of the education field. So in order to get me started on the career I LOVE as soon as possible, we devised this plan during Gage’s first year of school, not really thinking it would all work out. Well, little by little things have fallen into place and we couldn’t be more thankful, grateful, happy, etc. It will be extremely hard to leave Spokane, but we are definitely excited about this next phase of our life together.

Here I am - so incredibly nervous - on the day of my interview.

My parents came to Spokane this past week and we had a great time. Here are some pics of our day in Coeur d’Alene. It was a beautiful day and the weather was PERFECT by the water. My parents really love Spokane and they are going to miss coming up here to visit. We always have a good time together and it’s crazy that this past weekend was probably their last visit.



Other than moving plans, a job interview, successfully completing a second year of law school, a visit from my parents, and hanging out with friends, we are in the midst of training for a half marathon! We are about half-way there as far as distance goes - we just completed a 6.5 mile run last Saturday. Only 6.5 more to go!! Yikes!! :) Plus, the marathon is in Park City and since there is a MAJOR change in elevation from Spokane to Park City, we’ll have to train extra hard so our lungs don’t give out! We'll see if we can hang in!!

And finally, I decided to get with the program and join the Facebook revolution, so I apologize, but I may become an even BIGGER blogging slacker than I already am...I'm still figuring it out, but it seems a lot easier to keep up on Facebook than the blog....so we'll see! We hope all is well with everyone who’s reading and we hope you are enjoying the summer! We'll be seeing some of you very soon! Wahoo!

Christmas Break 2008

The slideshow above chronicles our recent trip to Utah over the holidays. We did so much and took SO MANY pictures, so I thought the slideshow would be the best way to go. :) We had a great Christmas and enjoyed a jam-packed 10-day trip full of family parties and reunions with friends. Aside from the usual holiday festivities and spending time with family and friends, highlights of the trip include:
- going to the Dancing with the Stars Tour with my mom and sister
- seeing the Zags play the Utes at the University of Utah on New Year's Eve (Tickets to see a Gonzaga basketball game here in Spokane are near IMPOSSIBLE to obtain unless you are a student; Gage can go, but he can only get ONE ticket.)
- celebrating Gage's grandparents' 50th Wedding Anniversary
- catching some fantastic movies (Marley & Me + Valkyrie + Bedtime Stories)
- running into and hanging out with old friends

As always, it was great to see those we love and we are so happy we could be in town for the Christmas holiday. It's always hard to leave and get back to real life, but I must say that I'm getting better at goodbyes. Last year at the end of our Christmas trip, I bawled and BAWLED when I had to say goodbye to my family, but I am proud to say that not a tear was shed this year! Hmmmm.... it only took a year and a half to get to that point. ;) We hope everyone had a great Christmas and we wish you all the best for 2009!

SURPRISE!!

Gage and I decided to be a bit sneaky this Thanksgiving and tell our families that we wouldn't make Thanksgiving again this year because of Gage's crazy school schedule. Nobody suspected anything because Gage's finals are coming up soon and we missed Thanksgiving last year. Little did our families know that we had planned on coming to Utah for Thanksgiving since the first of October because Gage's school schedule actually worked out perfectly this year; he was able to turn in his final LRW paper before the Thanksgiving holiday.

So we set out on the road EARLY Wednesday morning and surprised my family that night. On Thanksgiving Day, we showed up at Gage's family's big Thanksgiving breakfast and surprised his family. It was so good to see everyone and it was so fun to see the reactions of all the people that were NOT expecting us! Both of our parents were soooo excited and so very surprised. Gage's mom even shed a few tears!

After breakfast, we spent the rest of Thanksgiving Day attending two more feasts - one at Gage's grandparents' house and one at my grandparents' (can you say WEIGHT GAIN? har har!). The food was wonderful and it was a blast to be with our families again for Thanksgiving. Here are some pics from the big day...






On Friday, my sister and I helped my Grandma decorate the Christmas tree and put up Christmas decorations. This has been a Christmas tradition since I was a little girl and I was so happy to be there for it this year! We got to spend the day with our grandparents and it was fun to get in the Christmas spirit (sadly, I don't do a TON of decorating here in Spokane since we are in Utah for the holidays).



We were also in town for Gage's mom's birthday. She was so happy to have all the kids in town for her birthday! Here she is with all of her boys...



The surprise was so much fun and the 9 hour drive was not bad at all; it's a beautiful drive and the weather was awesome. We were SOOO thankful to be able to go home for the holiday and also to get there and back safely. We are so thankful for such wonderful family members and their kindness and generosity. We are also thankful to be able to fly back in T-minus 3 weeks for Christmas! Wahoo!

Lately....

October sure flew by, but it was quite eventful....

Most recently, we attended a couple of Halloween parties with some of our good friends here in Spokane. On Halloween night, I got my husband (a Fremont alum) to dress up as a male cheerleader..... a WEBER HIGH male cheerleader! Sorry Silverwolves; you've got a traitor in your midst.

Don't worry, we didn't have to cut Gage out of those polyester pants!! Are those tight enough for you? Thanks to my mom for providing such AWESOME (and not to mention, FREE) Halloween costumes by packing her suitcase full of my old cheer stuff when she and my dad visited a couple weeks ago!!) We had so much fun hanging out with friends and laughing at everyone's great costumes!

Click on the collage to get a better view.




The night before Halloween, we went to another Halloween party and Gage dressed up in his famous SUMO suit, but the costume deflated when the batteries ran out. :( We got the costume up and running again and I ended up wearing it to our firm costume party Friday morning.




Last week, Gage and I had the opportunity to see the traveling Broadway production of Phantom of the Opera. It was my first time seeing a live show of Phantom, and I was really impressed. We debated and debated about whether we should go or not because tickets were a little pricey (for us, mind you), but Gage loved it as well and we thought it was worth every penny.

The weekend of the 17th, we got a wonderful visit from my parents! It was so good to see them even though they were only here for the weekend. We saw a local production of Oklahoma, went out to eat a few times, and I got to go shopping all day Saturday with my mom (one of my favorite things to do). On a side note, when my parents were here, we also saw the movie, "Secret Life of Bees." The cast is quite impressive and the movie is really pretty good. Definitely a tear-jerker in parts, but it did not disappoint.

Anyway, that's about it! It's been a fun and eventful few weeks! For the nine of you that read this blog ;), I hope all is well for you and please be proud that I am actively working towards decreasing the amount of time between posts. :)