3 Years Old

Our marriage is 3 years old today! Here are 3 of our favorite things that happened this past year:

1. Running the Halloween Half and staying over at Stein for our anniversary last year.

2. California trip. Chris still talks about cream cheese filled pretzels at Disneyland.

3. Going to law school. Its been a long time coming so we are glad to be here. Leaving Utah is still on my least favorite things list.

Love you Christer!

Things We Love About Utah

Chris and I realized how much we love Utah after moving to Oregon. We don't hate Oregon, we just like Utah better. I am so glad we made the effort to take time and enjoy the things about Utah before we moved. Here is a list of our favorite things:

1. Our Neighborhood. Chris and I really lucked out with our first apartment. The apartment itself was nothing to be desired, but the neighborhood and ward was awesome. Chris could be biking up one of the canyons within 10 minutes and we had great running routes beginning just outside our door. Plus, we had nice views of the mountains. We would love to move back to Holladay some day.

2. Holiday Oil. This gas station was another plus to our neighborhood. It was just around the corner and had some of the best diet coke around.

Chris went to get big gulps so often that he became good friends with Rob, the gas station manager. Too bad he never gave us free drinks :( (The gas station sells those shirts, and no we did not buy one).

3. Cafe Rio. Be still my heart. This has been one of the hardest things about leaving Utah is not having a Cafe Rio within 10 minutes in either direction. The closest one to us is in Boise, a mere 8 hours away.

4. Franck's: Hands down, one of the best restaurants we have ever been to. Its a little pricey but so worth it. We went one last time before leaving town and they gave us several free appetizers just because we were moving.

Franck himself. Great guy.

5. Yogurtland: Chris loves his frozen yogurt and Yogurtland has been the best place we have tried at the best price. They have several yogurt places in Oregon but they are over priced and try too hard to be good.

6. Sundance and the giant cookies: We love Sundance and loved it even more when we discovered the giant cookies sold in the Deli.

7. The Alpine Loop: This is our favorite drive and Chris' favorite place to ride his bike, especially in the fall. We always take a picture in this spot, usually with the fall leaves but because of the move, we had to get a picture a little earlier this year. We usually take this drive and stop at Sundance to get the giant cookies.

8. Park City: We loved being 20 minutes away from Park City. Mostly just so we could bum around for the day. We especially love Stein Eriksen lodge and are sad we couldn't go again this year for our anniversary. So we decided we would go to brunch there before we left.

Gotta love the chair lifts in the summer. We like taking the chair lift in Park City while eating a bunch of sweets from Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory (they have those in Oregon to my surprise).

9. Family: Last but not least, we miss being really close to our families. They all said they would come visit us in Oregon...right guys?!?

We are so excited to come back around Christmas time!

In case you haven't heard....

We are moving to Oregon! Chris will have his head buried in law books at Willamette University for the next few years. I will...well I'm not sure what I will be doing.

We are both really sad to leave Utah but excited for the adventure ahead of us and that we are still somewhat close to family and even closer to some good friends (right Nicole?!?).

Spring Time Adventures

Chris and I managed to have some fun during Spring despite its absence. We kicked off Spring with a trip to St. George with our fun friends Cory and Tara. We hiked in Zions including Angels Landing. I am not ashamed to admit that I chickened out half way up.

I celebrated my 25th annual birthday. It was awesome with a more than awesome dinner at Francks.

Chris and I took a trip out to the Boston-New Hampshire-Maine area. We visited the Point Elizabeth lighthouse in Maine and Chris ate Maine lobster. We had a fun trip but are glad we don't have to go back anytime soon.

Chris rode in the Iron Horse Classic in Durango, CO with his buddy Cory. Tara and I did not make it up to the finish line because they closed the road. After a few swear words on Tara's part, a couple of diet cokes, and a 5 hour wait in a parking lot, we finally met up with our husbands at the finish line.

Chris and I went on a trip to So-Cal and took a last minute trip to Disneyland with Chris' brother's family and Chris' Dad. It ended up being the highlight of our trip, especially since it had been 20 years since my last visit. (see those lovely blue shoes I am wearing...they are the Devil's shoes and should never be worn in Disneyland).

Chris especially loves Disneyland for their cream cheese pretzels. He gobbled down three of them during our one-day visit.

So, as a surprise for Future Father's Day, I made Chris homemade cream cheese pretzels. They were pretty tasty but I would rather have an excuse to go to Disneyland to get them.

We just returned from a fun-filled weekend at the Bailey family reunion and have a lot more Summer time adventures up our sleeves. Maybe I will be better about blogging them.

Cycling and running are more fun when its not about me anymore

THIS IS A POST FROM CHRIS:

I know I usually don't post on our blog but I was inspired to write about something that I love, running and riding my bike. There are a host of reasons why I enjoy running and riding my bike; endorphins, personal satisfaction, stress reliever, pushing limits, setting and achieving goals, being in nature, competing, winning, the list can go on. But there has been something that has always lingered on my conscience when I am running or the bicycle; that these activities are inherently selfish. The countless hours alone riding, away form family and friends, all for what? Spending money and traveling to run in a race all for my own personal satisfaction, why? The time, dedication, effort put into these activities can be self-centered and become a wedge in friendships, marriages, and families especially when this time is spent focused on oneself. For any athlete that loves to workout, he or she is blessed with great health that enables them to build strength, ability, and talents through consistent practice. I view my health as blessing to which I am immensely grateful. I realize that only through this health am I able to excel at running and biking. For this reason I see this blessing of health as something that I should seek to share with others. But how does someone share their health with others? I think a great example of this type of behavior is exemplified perfectly in the story about Dayton. Click here to see the video. The opportunities to share our health or talents can be as simple as encouragement, occasions to talk with friends, or inviting someone to come along fir a run or ride. When we actively take those gifts, talents, or abilities and put them to work uplifting others I believe we will only stand to gain exponentially from the experience.

One of the ways that I have tired to share my blessing of good health is through competing in various cycling races in Utah and Colorado to raise money and awareness for cancer research. I have partnered with the Livestrong Foundation and set-up a donation page, SEE HERE. The donations that I am collecting right now is for a race I am competing in in Durango, CO. In this race I will be riding with people that have battled or are battling cancer. It's staggering to think that over 40% of men and women will be diagnosed with cancer at sometime during their life. With cancer being a prevalent problem amongst our society I feel that cancer research is a worthy cause.

We will be riding on this road during the race in Colorado.

In this simple way my racing won't be solely for my own benefit yet I can already see how enjoyment has increased. This experience has reenforced an important lesson; when we lose ourself to help others lies real joy. I hope those reading this can help help contribute to the Livestrong Foundation and help further cancer research.

Finally...Holiday Rundown

Once again, better late than never. We spent Thanksgiving at the Bailey house. As always, there was lots of good food and good times. Chris carved the turkey this year. Unfortunately, my mom doesn't have any manly aprons but he wears it well, don't you think?!?.

We spend Christmas with Chris' family in Vegas. We were also able to spend a little time with Alison and crew. We went to the Bellagio to see the conservatorium and the fountains. We also had an awesome Christmas Eve dinner at Maggianos. Love that place.

We celebrated Chris' birthday in Price this year. It's always a party when your birthday is on New Year's Eve. Chris insisted on having a Baskin Robbins cake but Price no longer has BR so we ordered a cake in Provo and packed it to Price with dry ice. We probably would have been fine to just put it in the trunk as we drove through the frigid canyon.

One New Year's Day, we drove through Scofield and over to Fairview to see the snow pack with my parents. The snow banks were taller than our car. It was also very very bright and I could not keep m eyes open.

Glad that's not my house.

I guess standing in front of the snow banks to emphasize the depth of the snow just wasn't enough. Gotta love auto-tint glasses. Ha!

Okay, that's enough winter fun for me. Spring you can come now. Thanks.

Halfy Halloween and Anniversary!

This post is long over due but better late than never. Chris and I, along with his brother Al and wife Mindy, ran in the Halloween Half Marathon on Saturday Oct. 30th. It was great weather and everyone finished so it was a good day. I came in with a personal record of 1 hr 38 minutes and Chris did his in 1 hr 18 minutes. Very Speedy!


The same weekend, Chris and I celebrated our 2nd Anniversary since Chris was out of town during our real Anniversary. We spent a couple days at Stein Eriksen Lodge. We had so much fun eating fancy food for free and enjoying the fire places and hot tub while it snowed outside. It was so beautiful and relaxing. We even had Chris's brother, dad, and nephew join us for one of the best brunches in exsistence which is well deserved after running 13.1 miles if you ask me. Sadly, our room was bigger than our apartment but at least we were able to enjoy it for and few days. We can't wait to go back...whenever that is.



And last but not least, weeks and weeks ago, Chris and I took several drives, including a couple over the Alpine Loop, to see the changing leaves. Aw the days when we could be outside without jackets.


We have taken a picture in this spot every year. We'll see how long that lasts.