Fun in the Sun

Summer is always a blast, and we have been having a great summer so far! Lots of camping. Lots of triathlon training. Lots of fun all around.

Karl's Graduation:

My little brother graduated from high school this year. Oh man that's crazy and exciting. We're so proud of you Karl!

Ballard Family Camping Trip:

During Father's Day weekend we went camping with Nathan's family. We had a great time soaking up the sun, eating amazing food (Trent and Meg are camping cook experts!), and just enjoying nature.

Triathlon Training:

We've been biking, running, and swimming as much as possible these days. I definitely need to practice more swimming, but we are all getting super excited for the tri coming up.

Jenny Lake Hike:

We went on a day trip to the Tetons with our awesome friends, the Leavitts, to do the Jenny Lake Hike. It is a beautiful easy hike along a lake and up to Hidden Falls.

Rigby Days:

Went to Rigby Days for the first time in the 4 years we've lived up here. We partied with the Wetherells and Leavitts at Rigby Lake and enjoyed the fireworks at night. (The little island they set of the fireworks off from caught on fire... That was exciting! Also I failed at taking pictures this day...)

Grandma Kae's 90th:

Nathan's Grandma turned 90 years old this summer! We celebrated at the Brick Oven in Provo with family. I got to meet some of Nathan's dad's side that I had never met before.

Fourth of July:

It isn't the 4th of July unless we run the Firecracker 5k with the Leavitts. We enjoyed our race, the parade, jet skis at the lake, BBQ, and fireworks. It doesn't get any better than that! (Karly, Wade, and Ivy have not only become some of our best friends, but they are also our Idaho Family. Thanks for letting us tag along with all of your family on the 4th! PS cute little Ivy was loving on me all day. She is the cutest!)

Girls Camp:

I was camp director again this year. It's a lot harder being camp director for Ward Camp instead of Stake Camp. Last year I didn't feel like I had to do too much, just show up and have fun. This year I had to show up and have fun, but I also had to plan EVERYTHING! It turned out great though, even with the rain! And it was awesome having Nathan there too! We went with the whole Doctrine and Covenants 4:2 "Embark" Theme. My favorite part was probably the Faith Walk where we gave the girls charms for each symbol we talked about.

Wow, how's that for an update? :)

New Year, New Goals

So it's already the end of February and Nathan is dominating his New Year's resolutions. He has been reading books, running almost EVERY. SINGLE. DAY., eating better, and just being all around awesome. He signed up for the Spudman Triathlon and I'm super excited for him.

I'm not quite as awesome as Nathan, but I am trying. I've been going to Zumba quite a bit with Karly, and I've even gotten up at 5 am twice to go to the gym. I think that's a pretty big accomplishment so far this year.

I also finally decided to sign up and do the Triathlon too... I'm 99% sure I can do it... I just need to practice, practice, practice. Plus, everyone is doing it! Nathan, Karly, Wade, Scott.... I had to get in on this adventure. If I can do a half marathon, I can do a triathlon right? I guess we'll see.

Nathan and I have gone swimming a couple of times to start training. I seriously use to think I was a good swimmer.... Ha. Not so much anymore. But it was exciting to see that I did improve a little bit the second time we went compared to the first time. I died the first time we swam laps.

We've also gone biking with the Leavitts. Pretty sure I need to train a lot more on that too. It was a lot of fun though, and I love my road bike!

So real quick here are my goals for 2015:

• Sign up for the triathlon (Check!)
• Train real hard
• Run another half marathon (That sounds crazy... But I'm really thinking about it!)
• Become more organized
• Read more books (and reread the Book of Mormon)
• Drink more water.... (I always forget to drink enough)
• Eat healthier (That's right, I'm cutting down on my sweet tooth. I've turned down sweets 4 days in a row now.)

You know. The usual goals. I'm glad I have such a motivating husband and crazy friends that get me to try things. 2015 is going to be an epic year!

Our 4th and 5th of July Celebrations

July 4th was super fun and relaxing this year! Nathan and I did the Firekracker 5k again with our friends Karly and Wade and their family. This year I ran it in under 30 minutes, which was my goal! Woot! I came in at 29:15. I shaved off more than a minute from last year. Nathan didn't even train and he still finished in about 25 minutes.... of course!

After the race the four of us decided we didn't want to stick around for the parade, so we went and got Jambas and Egg McMuffins for breakfast. Then we went our separate ways.

Nathan and I enjoyed a bbq lunch at home and accidentally took a super long nap right in the middle of the day. We hardly ever take naps!

When we woke up, we biked to the green belt, grabbed dinner from the Cafe Sabor food truck, and soaked in the fourth of July atmosphere. Then we went and found the perfect spot for the fireworks! We were so confused that there was such a big spot open still just an hour or so before fireworks.

Well as luck would have it we ended up about 40 feet away from Karly and Wade and their family. We moved on over to join them and watched the fireworks. Their little Ivy wasn't the biggest fan of fireworks, but she did awesome!

Once the show was done we zipped home on our bikes! We were home in about 10 minutes. It's the best way to travel down by the crazy crowded Green Belt.

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The next morning Nathan and I headed down to Utah for the Blietschau Family Reunion aka Crazy Germans Party! Ever since our Oma and Opa had pasted away we haven't been able to all get together. It was the first time all of us Germans were able to all get together for some fun and delicious food. 

It's so cool to see what just two amazing people could create starting their lives in America! 

Road Trip Part 2: Hiawatha Bike Trail and Glacier National Park

After visiting our friends for the first part of our trip we made a loop to head back home. We stopped at Coeur d'Alene, the Hiawatha Bike Trail, and Glacier National Park.

We didn't stay in Coeur d'Alene very long. When we got there the Ironman was going on. So we parked, checked out the lake and race, grabbed lunch from a food truck that made amazing crepes, and continued on.

We went to the Hiawatha Bike Trail to check it out, but we didn't have enough time to do the trail that day. Nathan and I found a place to camp about 10 minutes away and enjoyed the night. We did a miniature nature trail and right when we got back to our campsite it started pouring rain! We jumped in our tent and watched the sun set while we listened to the rain. It was breathtaking! Golden rays shot out of the dark rain clouds and through the pine trees complete with the soft sound and sweet smell of rain. It was my favorite!

The next morning we woke up, quickly packed up camp, and headed straight to the trail head. The tunnel was long, dark, damp, and chilly. The bike trail is super easy and the views are inspiring. Don't look over the side of the bridges if your are afraid of heights. They are pretty high up. Once we made it to the bottom we waited for the bus to shuttle us back up to the top where you have to ride through the long tunnel again to get back to your car. For some reason the second time through I got a wicked muddy fish tail up the back of my hoodie.

Right when we were done we packed up our bikes, grabbed some lunch, and headed to Glacier National Park. We found a nice camping spot with nice trails for walking and biking. We biked all around our area and checked out the lake. Then we went to bed as soon as it was dark so we could get up bright and early the next day to explore the park.

We headed up to take the "Road to the Sun" only to find out it was closed due to an avalanche!!! We were devastated! We'd have to drive for 3+ hours to go around to see the other side of the park and we didn't really have time for that! We decided to do a 1 and a half hour extra drive to the Southeast corner of the park where we did some cool hikes to waterfalls.

Before we knew it, it was time for us to start heading back home.

Beginning of June: A Week with my Sis and Nathan's B-Day!

Super behind on the blogging business... So much has been happening this summer! I think things are finally starting to simmer down and I'll get some posts up of all the fun we've been having.

The last day of school my sister, Karissa, and Mom came up to help me move my stuff into the new school.  That's right! I have a beautiful new classroom inside the school! Goodbye portable classroom! With all of their help we were able to get everything over to my new room, except for the heavy stuff like desks and such. Then we enjoyed the rest of the night eating pizza and watching a movie.

The next morning was the big moving day to the new school so Nathan and I went over to help get everything else over. I woke up bright and early to get a 10 mile run in and had Nathan meet me at the school. It was pretty crazy of me to run and then move over desks and tables, but hey, I got a great work out that day!

That afternoon my mom headed back down to Utah and left Karissa with us for the week. Here are the highlights from our week long party!

Hiking with friends by Kelly Canyon.

Photo Shoot showing off Karissa's cute new overalls. My sister is so pretty!

Baptisms at the Idaho Falls Temple! Our brother, Karl, found a family name for us to do, which was pretty cool! 

My sister was also up for Nathan's birthday. We went to Driggs because we love that area and it has lots of awesome hikes! We stopped at a cute cafe for lunch and hiked a bit at the Targhee ski resort. I was also hoping we'd see lots of wild flowers on our hike... Not as many as I had hoped, but it was still pretty. On our way back from hiking we stopped in Rexburg at a place called Karie Anne's. Oh my it was the best italian ice and custard we've ever had!  

Poor birthday boy had a bug fly into his eye... It took forever to get out... 

And of course no birthday celebration would be complete without pizza and the Leavitts! Haha my poor sister thinks all we do is eat pizza... Maybe because we had it about 3 or 4 times that week with her... 

When we left dinner there was a fantastic lightning storm over the windmills. We decided to try and chase after the storm and get pictures... The storm was moving way to fast though and we weren't able to get anything good. It was still fun chilling in the car together and opening the awesome present from my sis to Nathan.

Good times! Good times!

That weekend we took Karissa back down to Utah. Nathan took me for a 5 mile run around his neighborhood and shared stories from growing up. I loved running with him while enjoying a blast from the past. We also visited Bryan and Lauren for a bit and got to canoe around their neighborhood.

On Sunday we celebrated Nathan's sister, Carly, Homecoming from her Mission in Minnesota. She gave an excellent talk. So proud of her! Sadly, I totally spaced getting a picture with the cute return missionary...

13.1 Miles: My Half Marathon!

After months of training, it was finally time to run my half marathon!!

Nathan's parents and siblings came up the evening before the race and we went to the Olive Garden for dinner! Mmm... Mmm... Later that night my family arrived! We discussed the race route and kind of what to expect for the next day. Then it was off to bed.

I had lots of thoughts and feelings running through my head the night before the big race...

• The most I've ever ran so far is 11 miles... Will I be able to do 13.1?
• I am so excited to do my very first ever half marathon!!
• What if I can't fall asleep tonight and I'm too tired?
• What if I feel sick in the morning?
• What if my knee starts to hate me?
• I'm so glad family came up to support me!
• Tomorrow is going to be awesome!
• Karly and I are going to rock this half marathon!

As you can tell I was pretty nervous and excited for the race. Thankfully, I was able to fall asleep and the next thing I knew I was waking up bright and early. 

I threw cinnamon and orange rolls in the oven for the family for breakfast, then got ready to go. For my breakfast of champions that morning I had a small glass of chocolate milk and ate a banana and these delicious muffins I made! They are pretty healthy and oh so good! Thank you Pinterest!

When I was all set to go, Nathan and I biked over to the starting line. We met up with the Leavitts and before I knew it they were telling us to line up.

On your mark.... Get set...... GO!!!! 

No turning back now! The gun shot went off and so did we. Our boys cheered us on as we started our long run.

It was awesome having our families cheering us on throughout the race! My favorite part was when Nathan and my dad would ride bikes past us, and cheer at us, while they went to their next spot to see us run.

The race went perfectly! Karly and I ran together the entire time, beat our goal, and had a blast doing it!

The last mile was a little hard, both mentally and physically. My mind kept telling me I was done, and my body wanted to be done, but I pushed through that mental block and focused on my music to keep me going. Seeing the finish line with all of our families cheering was exactly what we needed to help us sprint to the end!

Across the finish line I was greeted with lots of hugs and prizes! I got my medal, my brother, Stefan, bought me a Gatorade, and Nathan had bought Karly and I each a peach from the farmers market! (I had joked with Nathan the night before that I was going to grab one while running the race, so I was pretty excited to see him holding out a beautiful peach for me. Best husband ever!!!!!) My mom also bought me flowers to plant as my "bouquet" for finishing the race!

The rest of the day was just a party with family! We had a BBQ in our yard, played some croquet, and watched a movie!

It's Official: I've Become a Runner

My bestie and running buddy, Karly, decided she was going to make some pretty awesome New Year's Resolutions. One of them being to run a half marathon. (13 point freaking 1 miles to be exact!) Not only did she make this crazy goal, but she also decided that I needed to do it with her.

I personally thought she was crazy at first (So did Nathan!), but at the same time I thought it would be a really cool accomplishment if we really did it. Though I slightly dreaded my decision, I told Karly I would totally train for and do a half marathon with her.

With this new goal in mind I decided I should probably start running again... The winter time is so hard for me to be motivated to run, especially on a treadmill. But if we were going to be running over 13 miles I needed to get my butt back in gear.

January- The mile or two on the treadmill were hard, but I got some in every now and again.
Total Miles: 12.8          Average Pace: 11 min 55 sec

February- I decided I wasn't the biggest fan of running and didn't really do it... at all....
Total Miles: 4.62          Average Pace: 11 min 07 sec

March- Got better. Near the middle to end of March we found a schedule and decided to try and stick to it. Even when we were on vacation!
Total Miles: 25.6          Average Pace: 11 min 03 sec

You can find Half Marathon Training Schedules all over Pinterest!

April- Running became easier and easier.  The schedule we found was awesome at building us up to more miles at a nice even pace.
Total Miles: 42.1          Average Pace: 10 min 57 sec

May- I've never ran so much in my life! I knew a half marathon was something attainable!
Total Miles: 57.1          Average Pace: 10 min 43 sec

We were the only 4 that ran the 10k for this race!

June- I got a little blah on training, because we had been training for what felt like forever. But I did the best I could to stick to the schedule...
Total Miles: 56.2          Average Pace: 10 min 43 sec

June 21- I COMPLETED A HALF MARATHON! And ran the whole time too!

It was such a cool experience to see my body improve with both strength and endurance these past six months. I might not be the fastest runner, but I'm running! I'm really glad Karly had the crazy idea to get me to run with her.

10 Things I've learned from my Half Marathon Training:

1. It is possible to get some sort of physical activity in each day. Even if it has to be quick, it's better than nothing.
2. By training and sticking to a schedule you will see results! This is probably my very favorite thing about training... Seeing the results each week of how I was able to run for a longer time and farther distances!
3. If you miss a day, don't let it get you down, make sure you get a workout in the next day and maybe push a little harder to make up for the day before.
4. It is possible to wake up earlier in the morning to get a workout in... I am not a morning person, but it was always nice to get my workouts done with and out of the way.
5. Proper equipment makes all the difference. Once I got legit/comfortable running shoes that fit, and some comfy work out clothes my body thanked me. Especially my feet! Plus I felt cute while working out so I was more excited to do it.
6. Eating well and drinking lots of water is key!  Every time I ate kind of crappy I could feel it affect my run the next day. (I decided not to drink pop while I was training and it feels good. I might have a sip here or there, but I think I'm giving up the soda pop for good!)
7. Stretching out after a run is important! If I did good stretches and a cool down after my runs I wasn't nearly as sore as when I would forget to.
8. Listen to your body. My left knee started acting funny, so we bought me a simple brace to give it some compression. At first I thought it was dumb and didn't want to wear it. (They aren't very fashionable... haha) But my knee sure did thank me for wearing it and I know it helped prevent an injury that could have kept me from racing my half.
9. Switch things up. I'd try and get on exercise kicks, but they never lasted long because they got boring. Do different types of exercise to work different areas of your body and liven things up. (Bike, Run in new areas/terrain, Yoga, Pilates, Zumba, Weights, anything and everything!)
10. Running can be fun and enjoyable! Especially if you have an awesome running partner like I do!

We tried to find matching outfits for our half... We gave up! haha

Memorial Weekend in Jackson and Teton National Park

For Memorial Weekend Nathan and I decided we wanted to do something new and exciting. We love the Teton area so we headed to Jackson and Grand Teton National Park.

When we got to Jackson we looked around the shops, grabbed a delicious sandwich and some ice cream for lunch, and then decided we just wanted to get straight to the park.

Grand Teton National Park is beautiful. You can see the Tetons stand tall and majestic pretty much everywhere. The views are fantastic.

We found a hike around Jenny Lake to Hidden Valley Falls. I LOVE hiking to waterfalls! Walking around the lake was very pretty. The weather was kind of funny because the sun was warm and comfortable, but the breeze from the lake was chilly. I couldn't decide if I wanted to wear my jacket or not.

As we got further around the lake we came across quite a few spots of unmelted snow. We were slipping and sliding and falling into spots of snow up to our knees. It was pretty exciting.

Once we got to the other side of the lake we started hiking up toward the falls. This part was nothing but snow. It made our hike a little more adventurous. There was a small waterfall with a bridge on our way up to the top.

We saw quite a few animals on our way up to the falls as well. We saw a fuzzy caterpillar, pot guts (or marmots, or something...), and a deer.

When we made it up to the falls my breath was taken away. I wasn't expecting them to be quite as grand as they were. It was an incredibly beautiful sight and I was super glad we made the trek up the snowy mountain side.

On our way back down the clouds were looking a little questionable so we hiked down pretty quickly. It started to sprinkle on us, but it wasn't bad. We decided we should probably start running back the rest of the way once we got past the slippery snow.

Just to put this hike into a little more perspective, I woke up at 6 that morning to get my 11 mile run in for my half marathon training, and then Nathan wanted to go do a 5 mile hike that we ran the last mile of in pouring rain. Haha life with my best friend is always exciting.

After getting wet from our hike we decided we needed some nice warm dinner before heading home. The view from our table was, well, perfect!

The weather cleared up so Nathan decided we wanted to get a time lapse before heading home. We found a perfect spot and it was beautiful watching the sunset.

This is just one picture from the many in the time-lapse photos Nathan got. Maybe one day Nathan will let me and I'll dedicate a post to some of his time-lapse videos and show them off. They are pretty cool!

Spring Break in Arizona: Part 3

Tuesday started off with a visit to the eye doctor. Poor Nathan had a super irritated eye the whole trip so we finally decided to go in since all the different eye drops from Walmart weren't cutting it. The doctor was super nice. He gave Nathan some fancy eyedrops and a new pair of contacts.

Then we headed over to the Gilbert Temple. For those of you that know me, you know I get a little camera happy when I'm at temples! I just love all the pretty flowers and the pretty temple and I take picture after picture. The Gilbert Temple is very beautiful!

Cutest Family

While in the Gilbert area I got to visit my cute cousin Jen and we ate at the best pizza place yet! FIRED PIE! We ate a lot of pizza on this trip and it was by far the best. And fastest! They have pizza options or you can create your own. They make it in front of you then stick it in their oven. 5 minutes later you are eating the best pizza ever!

Later that night we played some shuffle board, the girls won, and got some Nielsen's Custard.

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According to the half marathon training schedule Karly and I were doing we needed to run hills sometime on Wednesday. So we decided to go hiking and count that instead. We went to a place called Camel's Back. 

It was an amazing hike and a perfect day! The red rock, cacti, and warm sun were exactly what I wanted in a hike in Arizona. We got about half way up, but then it was too difficult to climb up the rocks with Ivy. Nathan and I went a little bit further and we are so glad we did because we totally ran into the Utah Jazz, Gordon Hayward's, cousin. We felt pretty cool. The conversation went a little something like this:

Hayward's Cousin: "You like the Utah Jazz?"

Us: "Yeah, we are pretty big fans!"

Hayward's Cousin: "You guys stole my cousin."

Us: confused... "We did?"

Hayward's Cousin: "Yeah I'm from Indiana. Gordon Hayward is my cousin."

Us: "That's so cool! We love Hayward!!"

We are such nerds!

After our hike we went to the best burger place around. Lately I haven't been the biggest fan of hamburgers, and I usually don't feel the greatest after eating them, but these were seriously so good. We went to a place called "Hopdoddy". It was pretty fancy and the cows were only fed a special diet. Nathan got a special prime rib burger and I was adventurous and tried a turkey burger. OH MY GOODNESS! They were so tender and juicy and... Just amazing! 

For the last night of our trip we got some Rita's Italian Ice and Custard and went over to the Mesa Temple to enjoy our last warm night in Arizona. 

Our trip was crazy fun and I'm glad we got to go with our besties Karly, Wade, and Ivy!