Pedal away Parkinson's 10 mile Bikeride

So in addition to running lately, I have also gotten into biking. I'm sure all of you have seen my riding through the neighborhood with Chasey in his little seat. I really enjoy bikeriding and consider it my "cross-training". Plus about once a week, we can convince Brad to join us on a ride. So as I was looking online for more 5K's to sign up for, I came across a bikeride for charity, so I looked into it. The charity was the Utah Parkinson's Disease society and the ride was 10 miles in Kaysville this morning. It was a really pretty ride through a park and some of the neighborhood's in Kaysville. The ride was geared toward families so there were lots of mom's and dad's pulling trailers, and lots of kids on their own bikes. I tried to get my whole family to join me, but only my mom and dad could get away from work. So the three of us did it with Chasey in tow! We had a great time, and finished the ride in 1 hour exactly. Pretty good for carrying a baby on the front of my bike!!

These two were taken at the start/finish line of the ride, in Gailey Park in Kaysville.
I can't decide if Chase is concerned about something here, or just annoyed that his picture is being taken!
This is my dad and Chase after the ride was over.
And here we all are celebrating at the finish line. It was really fun, and I think we'll try to do it again next year!

A little domestic

So this week Brad's schedule changes drastically at work. The routine our little family had gotten into completely changed. Brad was working 5 or 6 am until 1 or 2 pm. Then when he got home I would go to work, except for one day a week when my sister-in-law took Chase at her home for 2 hours, and one day my mother-in-law watched him at our house for 4 hours. Well, Brad's shift got changed to 11 am to 6 pm every day. So, now I am going to work early in the morning and I am off every day by 1 pm or earlier. Brad is still adjusting to this idea, but for me it is GREAT!! I finally feel like I have so much more of my day! I also finally get to be home during Chasey's naptime, which Brad had before. I get so much done during those 2 hours!! This week I have cooked dinner every night, made a fruit pizza for dessert one night, and yesterday I decided to use a recipe I found in Family Fun magazine and try my hand at baking. Judge for yourselves, but I think my lawnmower cupcakes turned out pretty cute.

I'll let you all know when I open my own bakery!! (Just kidding)

The little pool

I don't have much to say in this post except that we got a little baby pool for Chasey a couple of weeks ago and he LOVES it. The moment we get out of the van lately and I put him down to walk up to the house, he goes straight over and starts playing in it, or if it is empty, he'll look at me like, "Yo, ma, can you help me out here?" So cute!


Sorry you can see my feet in the pictures, but hey, sometimes mama's gotta enjoy the baby pools too!!

A tiny acheivement, imagine me patting myself on the back

As you all know, I have taken up running. But as a person who is in the neighborhood of 100 pounds overweight, the victories are few and far between and I have to stop and congratulate myself when I can. I have done 3 5k's now, but I mostly walk fast in those, and jog for as long as I can. Those distances are pretty short. But along with starting to do organized runs has come a lot of training. Two nights a week I go running with my friend and running buddy Meadow. Last night we did our usual, run as long as I can (she is much better than I am) and walk fast the rest of the time. My big achievement last night was running 1/3 of a mile without stopping!! I was so proud of myself!! The next time we go will be Thursday night, and I am shooting for half a mile. Wish me luck!!

Lavendar Days 5K

Well, this last Saturday, July 11th, my dad and I drove down to Mona, Utah, where the beautiful Lavendar Farm is, to enjoy a 5K running through the fields. It smelled amazing! This was our third 5K, and only the two of us did it this time. This was also by far the hardest! For one thing, we were running through rocky, dirt trails through the farm rather than the pavement that have been in our other two runs. Also, the first half of the 5K is on a steady incline, and the second half is a steady decline. Hills make for a great challenge, but it is much easier to run on level ground! With these two factors working against us, we incresed again from our last time, and ended up at 46 minutes and 30 seconds, which was almost exactly the same as our first 5K. At first I was upset about this, but dad reminded me what we had working against us, and that we should be pleased with our time, so I'm okay with it now. Though it was the hardest one we've done, it was also the prettiest!
Here's me and dad before the race started. It was a perfect day, nice and overcast so the sun wasn't beating down on us.
This is the beautiful Lavendar field we ran through. Doesn't it look amazing nestled right underneath the mountains?
It's hard to see this one, but we were actually on the route, in fact we were almost finished at this point.
Can you imagine that with 1000 people running, I would actually run into my friend Lilly Corbett? This was her first run, and she did great! Maybe we'll do another one together.

All in all I was really pleased with this 5K. Looking forward to the next one! I'll keep you posted!

Katie's Baby Shower

I think most of you devoted readers of mine know that my Fabulous Brother Adam, and Adorable Sister-in-law Katie are expecting their first baby boy in less than a month. We are all so excited for them, they are going to be such wonderful parents! So this last Friday evening we had a baby shower for Katie, and I wanted to post some of the highlights.
Here's our cute girl on the left with her equally cute sister, Maggie. Doesn't she just look like she swallowed a basketball? So adorable!!
Here's my adorable momma, on the left, so excited to be Nana to her SIXTH grandchild, with our Aunt Lana. Her husband Marv, and my dad are brothers. Lana and Marv's youngest, Kevin and his wife Lindsey, who were married the same day as Adam and Katie, are also expecting their first baby in January.
The three sisters, me, Samantha and Lindsay, here to support our only brother. I don't know why Lindsay looks so pissed off?
In this one, I'm holding up one of the outfits I gave Adam, it says "Daddy's Best Buddy" on it. And don't worry, Adam is drinking some Ginger Soda or something, not a beer like it looks like!!
While we were having the shower, all of Lindsay's kids and Chasey were playing in Katie's grandparents big front lawn.
Here's Dallin pulling Chasey around in the red wagon. Looks like everybody had a good time at the shower!

Congrats Adam and Katie! We can't wait for "Baby Boy Christensen" to join the clan!!

Brad's Favorite Holiday, aka the 4th of July

Yes it's true, Brad's favorite holiday is the 4th of July, he looks forward to it every year. And every year that we have been together, this is our seventh by the way, we have attended the parade in the morning, and watched fireworks in the evening. Well 2009 was no exception. We did do a few things differently though. This was the first year we didn't take our chances finding a spot along the parade route, or join other family members already there. No, we decided to head over at 3 pm Friday with all the other early birds and set out blankets to save our spot. We got a great spot, and then with this crazy weather we've been having this summer, Brad woke up at about 2 in the morning hearing thunder and rain. So he drove over to Provo, and put tarps over our already wet blankets. Needless to say, the parade was a little wetter this year then others, in fact we had a little shower right in the middle of the parade. But luckily that didn't "dampen our spirits." We had a great time anyway.
Another fun treat this year is that in addition to the other members of Brad's family that were there with us along the parade route, Brad's parents came along for the first time since we've been together. It turned out to be great for me for more than one reason. The biggest was that Chase was fussy since we got there so early, so Gramp Bowen walked him up and down the parade route for quite awhile during the waiting time. Then he was able to get him to sleep later. Thanks Gramp!
Here's Brad and his mom and dad waiting for the parade to start.
And here's daddy and Chasey watching the parade go by. Chasey loved it whenever there was a marching band. Maybe he'll be our little musician!!
Later that evening after a wonderful family Dutch Oven cookout, Aunt Becca and Uncle Steven joined us up by the Temple grounds to watch the fireworks at Stadium of Fire. Chase really loved it, and we all had fun playing together for a few hours while we waited. And for anyone who is wondering, the view up there to see the fireworks is really great. Traffic going home kinda sucks though!!
Daddy, Chasey, Steven and Becca playing soccer with a beach ball. Great kick Chase!!
Aunt Becca and Chasey also had a great time wresting!!
And here is the cute little Bowen family enjoying another wonderful Independence Day together!! May each of us remember every day of the year the blessings of Freedom and Sacrifice we celebrate on this holiday!!

July goal, the Caradon Diet

Well, I weighed in two days ago, as I do every Monday, and my weight was the same, still 16 pounds down. So I decided I need to try harder. I was talking to a friend the other day, she was asking how I was doing since I cut out dairy, and I had to admit out loud that I have cheated on almost everything I have cut out of my diet. The only things I still haven't cheated on are chocolate, soda, french fries, and cookies. But I've cut a lot of stuff out and I've sneaked little bits here and there of almost everything! So, my goal for the month of July isn't to cut another item out. I will start that again in August. For July I am going to redouble my efforts to stick to everything I have already cut out. NO MORE CHEATING!! I think that will be pretty hard in itself, let alone adding something else! I will hopefully have better results to post in August. I am also looking forward to my next 5K, which is on July 11th, at the lavendar farm in Mona. Doing it with the fam again, and I can't wait!! Stay tuned to hear all about it!!! And thanks for all the support!