Ogden Marathon

I did the Ogden marathon on Saturday and qualified for the Boston!! All of my pictures got deleted. I'll see if I can come up with some pictures from the web site. My finish time was 3:36! That's an improvement of 45 minutes over my last marathon finish time.

We had a fun New Years Eve with some of Andy's family. Aunt Judy and Uncle Rick live just minutes from us. Two of Andy's cousins and their families came too. We had fun playing games and visiting. Our boys made it until about 11:58pm. We woke them up to bang pots and pans but they were too tired.

Movie night

We had a fun movie night with the boys. We made a big bed on the family room floor and watched a Christmas movie. The boys were pretty excited to have a night with Mom and Dad which included popcorn and candy. We need to do more fun things like this more often. The boys thought that was pretty great!

Christmas morning 2009

We had a great Christmas with our family. We moved into our house just one week before Christmas. That gave us just enough time to unpack and set up the Christmas tree. We are grateful we were able to be together this holiday season

MOVING AGAIN!

We've moved AGAIN!! I can't believe that I haven't updated this blog since October. We've had a lot going on. Andy was offered a position within his company, Spring Mobile, in Utah at the beginning of November. They wanted us out there immediately. We took about 2-3 weeks to wrap thing up in Pocatello and headed out. We lived with my parents for 3 weeks until we were able to close on our house. We are now (after the whirlwind) living in our own home in North Salt Lake and are finally settling in. We got in just in time to enjoy Christmas. It's fun being even closer to my family. Andy is doing great so far with his new region. We are so grateful that he has worked so hard to provide for our family. I was very sad to say good-bye to my friends in Pocatello, especially my two amazing running friends, Jen and Vanessa. Aside from that, we are happy to start this new chapter in our lives!

Me, Amy Freeman, Vanessa Sutton, Carrie Davis. This is the morning of the St. George Marathon. After several months of training, it finally came down to race day! We woke up at 4:30 and caught the bus up Snow Canyon. It was an amazing and emotional experience! When we got to the top, there was music blaring to pump us up. There were about 200 porta-potties, all with at least 10 people in line and there were 50 bonfires to keep everyone warm before the start of the race. We had our timing chips on our shoes, our bib numbers pinned onto our shirts and we were ready to rock! When they announced the start of the marathon, people were rushing to the start, shedding their warm clothes and everyone seemed so pumped! WOW! One mile down, only 25.2 to go!!

WOW! That was a long run! I feel like I did great despite a couple of obstacles that I had to overcome...a bad knee and some intestinal difficulties. I can't believe how much of this was psychological. It was all mind over matter. I had to psyche myself out and repeat over and over to myself "You are strong. You can do this." And as my sister, Celest would say, "You are on a moving sidewalk. Your body is a machine." I got emotional toward the end. When I saw Andy at mile 26, it was so rewarding. He finished the last .2 miles with me across the finish line. It was really an amazing experience!


Vanessa and I finished at 4:18, just a little bit later than our goal of 4:10. I felt like I did great considering my circumstances though. The next marathon will hopefully be a little big faster.

Carrie, Jen, Vanessa, me, Amy. Our other friend finished just 15-20 minutes after us. We were all dead! When they put that medal around my neck, I was near tears. I feel like I have accomplished something amazing and that I did well at it. Those last 8 miles were rough, but I did it! I made it to the end! I thought I would never do another marathon but now that I've had 3 days to recover, I'm ready to rock and roll. We are going to start running again next week. I am going to keep a 1/2 marathon fitness level so that I'm not too far off when the next marathon rolls around.

I am so glad that my main squeeze was there at the end. Just to have him wrap his arms around my sweaty body and support me and tell me how proud he is of me, meant the world! It would have been devastating to be without at least one fan after such an accomplishment. Thanks Andy!!

Read and Gage with Aunt Jamie and Uncle Brian at Mom and Dad's house. They were helping to shuck the corn. Last weekend we dropped off the kids for two nights to stay with Mom and Dad while Andy and I went down to St. George, UT. Thanks for watching the kids Mom and Dad (and Jamie)!

Yet another marathon training picture. This is me and my good friend, Vanessa. I believe this picture was taken around 4:30 in the morning, before our 20 mile training run. It was pitch black and the stars were beautiful. It's amazing how much you can accomplish when you wake up before the sun comes up!

September 8, 2009

This was Read's first day of preschool. He was super excited. His cute little friend, Ella is going to the same preschool as well. So far he has had a great time and has been very excited about learning. Read has done a great job so far learning his letters and making cute art projects. His teacher is great!

Running buddies

Vanessa, Me and Jen. These are my two good friends who I have been training with for a marathon for the last 5 months. This picture was taken right before a half marathon that we did here in Pocatello. We had already done several more miles than the half but this fit right into our schedule. We finished in 1:54 and felt amazing after!

August 21, 2009

Near the end of August, we took the last opportunity for the summer and took the family camping. We had been wanting to go all summer but our weekends just filled up so fast. This is a great picture of Andy telling the boys a story. Andy is a great story-teller. He can tell the most hilarious stories, making them up as he goes. Andy is such a fun, loving Dad. He's always cracking jokes and making the kids laugh.

My Mom and Dad came up to Pocatello and visited for one quick night. Can you tell that baby Kate gets no love? They just adore her. It's been so nice living closer to family. It's fun to see them and have them stay at our house every once in a while. Rather than the 8-hour drive from Denver, it's a quick 2 hours to my parents and 2 hours to Andy's parents. We feel so blessed! I should mention that we closed on our home in Denver at the end of July. What a blessing that was to finally get it sold. Spring (Andy's company) has taken really good care of us and they certainly made it possible to get rid of that house. Thank-you Spring!

Read's first experience at the dentist. He was so good, I couldn't believe it! He sat more still than I have ever seen him sit in my entire life. He even let them do x-rays. He has had to go back twice to fill some cavities (totally my fault) and he did great at those appointments as well. I took him to get a toy gun and he thought that it was well worth sitting in that chair to get his gun. They had cool spiderman glasses for him to wear. He felt pretty cool in those.

August 8, 2009

Andy's brother, Troy and his wife Kara took us fishing out at a spot only ten minutes of so from their house. Troy has got all the gear. Maybe some day we will get some fishing gear and find some good fishing spots out here in Idaho. It was a fun family day. Thanks Troy and Kara!

Read thought it was pretty cool to hold his very own fishing pole and attempt to catch a fish. It was so nice outside and so peaceful out by the water. Read was a good sport even though he didn't catch anything.

Kate and I tried to fish together. She was a little bit grabby. We didn't end up catching anything between the two of us but it was a beautiful day and we had a great time regardless.

We went fishing with Andy's brother, Troy, is wife Kara and daughter Ashlynn. We took the family and out of all 8 of us, Gage is the only one who caught a fish and it was a pretty good sized fish. We took it home and grilled it up for dinner. Gage was pretty proud. He didn't want to let the rest of us eat it because it was his fish. We even asked him to eat the eyeball and he popped it in his mouth, chewed it up and spit it out. Ewe!!

August 8, 2009

Family fishing picture

August 6, 2009

My little sweetie pie Kate. She is growing up so fast. This picture was taken August 6, 2009. Today (Oct. 5) She is crawling, standing up on things, walking along furniture and saying the words "mama" and "dada" very clearly at 10 months old. She's so much fun to have around. The boys are pretty nice to her most of the time. They adore her as well.

My sweet, sweet, dear friend Lisa from Colorado. She was in Idaho for a short time this summer and I was so lucky to have her stay for a night. She's an amazing person and an incredible example to me. We served in Young Womens and primary together. I miss her. Boy do I miss her!!

Andy's birthday was not the best this year. I did make him breakfast in bed. We went to church. He relaxed even though we had company in town. Every year he wants a homemade apple pie. This year he was easy and told me just to buy him a frozen Marie Callender's pie. EASY! We played a few games and had a long talk after the kids went to bed. Maybe next year it will be a more exciting birthday.

We gave Andy a rifle for his birthday. He later bought a scope for it. Hopefully now that we live in the middle of nowhere he will be able to get some more use out of his guns.

My boys lovin' the July 4th fireworks.

Lazy summer day in the hammocks. July 4, 2009

More summer fun. Andy and Troy getting the home-made slip 'n slide all slippery with dish soap and water. My boys had a BLAST!

Two cute babies. Ashlynn (my niece) was 2-1/2 months and Kate was 7 months in this picture. I hope they will be good buddies.

Andy the chef rubbin' up some ribs for the 4th of July. He can make some mean ribs and we all benefit from it. We had a fun 4th with good fun, swimming, slip 'n slide, games and chillin' in the hammocks.

My Read man in his helmet and harness. He was so proud that he did the high ropes and zipline. Neither Read nor Gage were afraid surprisingly! They had a great time with some help from the missionaries and encouragement from family.

Gage all geared up in his harness and helmet. He had just finished a high ropes course and zipline. I was so proud of him that he dared to even attempt such a challenging and scary thing for a 3-year-old.

Some of the Arnold crew figuring out one of the ropes courses at the family reunion.

The Arnold clan at our reunion this summer. We went to a fun place that Rick found that's owned by the LDS church. It has lots of ropes courses, a lake with canoes, and all kinds of team courses to do. We stayed in cabins. It was really fun! In this picture we are all gathered together for a speech from Dad. If you've never heard a Richard Arnold speech, you're missing out!

Luke, Kirsten, Tess, Rick, David, Celena at Lagoon

Andy and the boys on the Carousel at Lagoon.

Kate and her cousin Ashlyn (4 months younger) enjoying a lazy summer day in the hammock.

My little baby Kate is growing up. This was right before Lagoon. It was a roaster that day!

Our little family before we left for Lagoon

My brother (Rick) the cook and my sister Celest helping along.

My great brother David is always up for playing with the kids. This is Uncle David and a bunch of the older cousins at Rick's house.

We did a lot of swimming in Rick's pool for the family reunion. It was so much fun! Here's a great picture of Andy and little Kate!

To start off our reunion, we all went to lunch at cafe rio then headed to the movies at Thanksgiving Point. My boys just thought it was so great to go to the theater with so many cousins. Half of us went to the new Ice Age and the other half went to see Harry Potter. After the movie we went to Rick's house to BBQ and swim. We played some great volleyball in their sport pool. My kids are water babies.

Boy do Read and Gage have a ball digging in Grandma and Grandpa's sandbox with their cousins. Tayzia was the mastermind behind this. Can you see Jackson buried in the sand? Great cousin time!!

This is my cute nephew playing a mean piano. My boys loved watching him play. Check out him and my niece jamming out on youtube!! www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zg_LsdIUzNI