Shinedown Concert!!!!!

Last night Chris and I headed up to Rapid City for the Halestorm, Chevelle, SHINEDOWN, and Staind concert. The concert rocked, especially my favorite band, Shinedown! It was an all around awesome night. Halestorm puts on a great show with a lot of energy and their lead singer is a cool rocker chick so you can't go wrong! Check them out if you haven't heard them before! Chevelle and Staind also are great bands and are the definition of rockers. But of course, we all know the main reason I was there and that was for Shinedown. I have been a fan for years and I feel like their music is getting better and better. My favorite song is "The Sound of Madness" and you can see it here:



It is one of the coolest songs out there right now. I could listen to it over and over again and never get tired of it. They opened their set with this song and just kept getting better as the night went on. One of my other favorite parts of the concert was when the lead singer of Staind, Aaron Lewis, moved to the middle of floor and sang some of his song acoustic. You can see that here:



The concert was loud, my throat hurt from screaming so much, I couldn't hear anything afterwards, but it was all worth it!

Gamin' In Deadwood

Back in July at the Black Hills Round Up Rodeo, my friend, Amy, and I had won some money to use at the Deadwood Gulch Gaming Resort. We had totally forgotten about that money until we were sitting at her house on Saturday night when we realized that the cards expired on Monday! So, we made plans to head up to Deadwood on Sunday afternoon. We got up there and headed to the casino and got our official players club gaming cards with our money loaded onto them and we were ready to go. They also put an extra $5 on our card just for signing up so I was armed with $35 of money that was not mine to probably give back to Deadwood! We decided we would play the machines and then whatever we won on them, we would use for the blackjack table. The machines were pretty fun (maybe because it wasn't our money!) and we both ended up with $20 bucks to use for blackjack. I have NEVER played at a live blackjack table so I had no idea what to expect. Well, let me tell you, it's quite intimidating because they go so fast and you have to make quick decisions. Luckily, the guy sitting next to me knew I was a rookie and was nice enough to help me out. And it didn't help that our black jack dealer was NOT a nice person! But maybe this was due to the fact that we really wanted to get a picture of our blackjack experience and apparently it's against the law, but we kept trying and she was not very happy about that. She ended up telling me that I could be thrown in jail for taking a picture at the table so then I stopped. :) Anyway, the house was winning big time and Amy left the table pretty quickly. I stayed a bit longer and ended up winning $16, but then I lost $1 of it trying to win $4 more on the machine so I could leave Deadwood with $20. All in all, I left with $15 and used it to buy dinner at one of the casino buffets. It was such a fun night (again, it helped that we didn't use any of our own money!) and I hope we can go again soon! Thanks for a really fun night Amy!

Water Park Fun!

On Sunday afternoon, the temps got up to 90 degrees so we headed to Spearfish for some Water Park Fun! The kids had a great time swimming around, going down the slides and Caiden just loves jumping into the pool. We also brought their life jackets this time, so they were able to go in the big pool and swim around. They both loved that. Here are a few pictures from our fun-filled day.

CASA Half Marathon Race Report

Last Saturday, I ran the CASA Half Marathon in Spearfish Canyon. The CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocate) Program seeks to promote and protect the best interests of abused and neglected children involved in court proceedings through the advocacy efforts of trained volunteers, so it's for a really great cause. I have ran this course 2 other times and I love it because it's a gradual downhill all through Spearfish canyon. It's a very scenic course and I even saw people (probably people who don't live in the area) taking pictures along the race!

On Friday night, I had made plans with a new friend of mine who I met via Sparkpeople.com, Heather, to eat some carbs and stay the night at my house so she wasn't driving the 2 hours from her house to get to the race at 645am. We had a great time eating and chatting with each other and I know my Grandma is going to freak out when she finds out that I met someone online and then met them in real life. She thinks it's just crazy! :) But I will make sure to tell her that Heather was not some serial killer and that we had a great time! We were up bright and early at 530 as we had to get to Spearfish to get on the bus at 645am so they could take us up the canyon and then we got to run down. After getting our shirts (they look pretty much the same every year - grey and blue or white and blue - but it's for a good cause so I'm not complaining!) we were on the bus and headed up the canyon! We got there just 10 minutes before the race was going to start so we got in line for the porta-potty and before we knew it, they had yelled GO! Heather sped off in front of me as she wanted to try and run the race in under 2 hours and I pretty much knew my race would be around 2:20 because that seems to be my magic number lately! The first 8 miles were AWESOME! Not a mile was over 10 minutes. I felt like I was flying. But all that ended at mile 8 and my legs just didn't want to move fast anymore. So, I slowed it down and ran a mile just over 10 minutes. Still not too bad. But then things got really bad and all my legs wanted to do was walk. Well, I thought I would take a little walk break to give my legs a break and then just start running again but I walked for a little longer than I should have so I didn't allow myself to walk the next mile but then miles 11 and 12, I was spent and had to walk both of a lot of those miles. We made it to the bike path which is supposed to mean that we had half a mile left. But while I was on said bike path, my Garmin said that I had run 13.1 miles already and I still wasn't at the finish line! When it was all said and done, the Garmin read 13.3 miles so I think the course was a little long. Either way, my time was 2:19:06, which I predicted from the beginning that it would be around 2:20 so I was not surprised! Here is how my miles looked:

Mile 1 - 9:35 (I'll take it!)

Mile 2 - 9:26 (Oooo, even better!)

Mile 3 - 9:16 (that's what I'm talking about!)

Mile 4 - 9:37 (oops, I guess that last mile made me a little tired)

Mile 5 - 9:42 (still ok, under 10, I'm happy)

Mile 6 - 9:44 (if I could keep this up the whole race, I would be elated!)

Mile 7 - 9:47 - (thinking I could run a 2:10!)

Mile 8 - 9:58 (still under 10 - it's going well!)

Mile 9 - 10:08 (uh oh, getting tired and HOT)

Mile 10 - 12:25 (really hot now, had to start walking, not happy with myself)

Mile 11 - 11:20 (no walking, just ran a slower mile)

Mile 12 - 12:52 (I'm dead)

Mile 13 - 11:59 (yep, still dead)

.3 (not .1!) - 3:42 (where is that darn finish line?!)

So there you have it! It was a great race and saw lots of people that I know and that's always fun! The race had a great turnout this year with 250 half marathoners and 166 for the 5K. My friend Amy finished the 5K 3rd in her age group and my friend Rebecca walked the 5K with her kids while her hubby was up the canyon with me running the half. It's always so fun to see our friends at the local races.

Thanks to Heather for putting up with me and my family for the night and keeping me company while I was getting ready and on the bus so I didn't freak out too much! Let's do it again sometime! Oh, right we are on August 8th and then again on August 16th!! :)

After the race, Chris left really quickly as it was getting pretty hot and he had a 3 hour run to complete so I took the kids to Walmart and did the grocery shopping and then got some lunch and we took it to the park to wait for Chris to get done. We ate and then played and them came home only for me to leave again to go running! YES! RUNNING! Can you believe it?! :) I had 7 more miles to run as I needed to get 20 miles done today in preparation for my full marathon which is just 3 short weeks away! So, I headed to the gym because I wasn't running in 80+ temps after that race and I ran 7 more miles on the track, which took me 1:25:25. All in all, I ran 20 (.3!) miles today and it took me about 3:45, but the marathon is 6.2 miles more than that so we are looking at a potential 5 hour something marathon, but I am going out there with no time goal; I just want to finish it as it's my first one! Okay, I'm done now! Thanks for reading! :)

Happy Birthday Lauren!

Today I am wishing my little sister, Lauren, a very happy 22nd birthday! We were talking last night about how she would love to stay 21 forever because now it seems like she has to grow up! :) Just wait until she is my age turning 30 in a few months! AHHH!!! I'm very lucky to have Lauren as my sister and she is one of the best aunts in the whole world to my kids. We have not only lived together growing up, but she also lived with us in Happy Camp for a while and then again in South Dakota. I wish she lived closer to us, but maybe one day! As soon as we win the lottery and open our gym, right Lor? :) Happy Birthday!!

The Rest of the Story

The rest of our vacation consisted of stopping in Billings on the way to see our friends, Amber and Steve and their kiddos, LOTS of eating and drinking, visiting with old friends and their families, camping (in a tent!) at Painted Rocks Lake, playing with my baby niece, Megan, meeting 2 cousins we had never met before, BBQing, playing at the park, jumping and sleeping on the trampoline, running through the sprinklers, having foot races and playing "Wipeout" in the backyard, going to see Ice Age 3 in 3D, taking the kids on their bikes around town, spending the day at Lake Como (Kristin and I were stranded in the lake on a wave runner out of gas for an hour and a half!) and the vacation ended with my Grandparents (my dad's parents) 50th Anniversary party. It was so much fun to be with my family for an entire week! My sisters and I always have so much fun together and the kids LOVED being in Montana. I'm not sure when we will be back again, so I'm glad we have all of the memories from our very fun filled week!

If you want to see the pictures from our vacation, here are the links to the pictures that I have on facebook - you don't need to have an account to look at the pictures! Enjoy!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=96130&id=504308423&l=c33fee3d70

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=96177&id=504308423&l=a8c463287e

Missoula Half Marathon Race Report

The beginning of our Montana vacation started with the Missoula Half Marathon! For those of you who do not know, I grew up an hour south of Missoula, MT in Hamilton, MT and Missoula started their own marathon/half marathon 3 years ago. The first 2 years of the race, my husband, Chris ran the full and qualified for Boston there last year. This year, the whole family was able to travel to Missoula and then spend the rest of the week with my family in Hamilton. This was my 6th half marathon, but I had never ran one outside of SD, where I live now. It was exciting not knowing anything about the course. Two of my sisters, Lauren and Kelly, also ran the half and my husband ran the full again. My son, Caiden, did the kid's marathon where he had logged 25 miles the past few months and then did the last 1.2 miles with all of the other kids during the marathon. It was a really fun race and as it wasn't one of my fastest races, I really just enjoyed being in my home state and in the same town that I went to college. We started off along the river, with the sun coming up and it was really awesome. We then ran all over Missoula where there was so much more support along the course than there usually is when I run! People had written support messages on their sidewalks and in the street, they had made signs and even some of them has hoses and sprinklers on for us to run through along the course. The first year the race was run in 2007, there was record temperatures that day and people were not doing well. Because of that, there were A TON of water stations. Some were just a mile apart! It seemed like just as you were finishing your water, more was coming. This is great of course, but it also slowed me down. It's hard to drink out of a cup while running, so that is the only time I walk during a race, at a water station. As I was coming to the finish, I heard my kids, my parents, my other sister, Kristin and her husband cheering me on and I gave them a smile and finished in 2:21:38 - my next sister, Lauren, came in at 2:36 and then my sister Kelly finished her first ever half marathon in 2:49. My brother in law then took Caiden to the start of his race and they rocked it out running the 1.2 miles in about 10 minutes! Chris had a harder day than he wanted, but anyone who can run a full marathon in 3:19, is awesome in my eyes. After the race, we headed to the Iron Horse (an old college favorite) for some GOOD food and a very STRONG drink! :) I need to thank my Dad for paying for all of our race registrations to ease the financial burden of our trip too! It was a really great day and I hope I get to run this race again!

For the rest of the race pictures and pictures from that weekend, here is a link to go to and look at the rest of them!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=94976&id=504308423&l=e1d7a33ac1

4th of July Through the Years

We have been in Belle Fourche for 4 years of Fourth of July's now and it's amazing at much the kids have grown since our first one! I found 4 pictures of us from each year so you could see the difference!

2006

2007

2008 (couldn't find a family pic!)


2009

The "meat" of the 4th of July - the Parade and the Carnival!

Two of my favorite parts of of the 4th of July here in Belle Fourche is the 2 hour parade and the carnival! At the parade, we met up with our friends, Desiree and her kids, and Amy and Avryl and everyone had a great time! They all got A TON of candy that will be in our candy dish for months to come.

After the parade, we came home for lunch and then it was off to the carnival! It's really fun now that the kids are older because they will go on more rides and most importantly, we don't have to go on all of the rides with them! I do not do well with carnival rides, but I did go on the spinning bears and the ferris wheel, but that's about all I can handle now. After about 4 hours of riding rides, we walked home, took a much needed nap, ate dinner, and then went to DQ for some ice cream! By then, it had cooled off so we headed back to the carnival for a few more hours of riding rides!

The 4th of July Race - The Roundup 10K

Every year that we have lived here, Chris has ran the annual 4th of July race, the Roundup 10K. The start line is just down the street from our house and then finishes right at the park across the street from our house so it's easy to get to! There are a couple of hills on the course, but since Chris runs them in his training runs anyway, they really aren't a big deal. He finished in 40:42, which was his EXACT time from last year!, 6th overall and 1st in his age group. The kids made a sign for him and held it up as he came across the bridge for the finish. They also made signs for our friends, Tim and Amy who also ran the race. It was a fun way to start off our 4th of July!

4th of July - The Rodeo and The Fireworks

Every year, we take the kids to the rodeo at the Black Hills Roundup, which is held here during the 4th of July weekend. This year, we also went with our friends, the Haas family. Right before the rodeo was to start, there was a huge downpour that lasted quite a while. We had the BBQ in the rain, but then as soon as the rodeo started, the sun came out and it was a beautiful evening. The kids had a great time watching all of the cowboys do their thing and Caiden especially loved the Bull riding. Chloe LOVES horses so anytime there was a horse out there, she was watching. Caiden caught a Frisbee that was thrown into the audience and that really made his night!




The fireworks show in Belle for the 4th of July are actually always on the night of the 3rd of July and last year Chloe HATED them and Chris had to take her home. Not this year though! We went with our friend, Desiree, and her kids and all of the kids loved them this year! It was a great show as usual and we all had a great time!

Happy 20th Birthday Kelly!

For Kelly's 20th birthday, we had a BBQ at our house with lots of friends and their families. It was so much fun to all get together and enjoy the day. That day, we had found out that she was moving back to MT, so it was a going away party of sorts too. We will miss her, but I know we will still see her lots and talk to her even more! Happy Birthday to Kelly! We hope you have a great 20th year!

Swimming Lessons 2009

Swimming lessons went really well this year considering neither of the kids wanted anything to do with it last year. They love being in the water, but up until this year, they were still not very comfortable in the water. As the 2 weeks went on, I could see Chloe doing more in the water than she ever had before. Caiden loves to go under now and stay down there for a while! It makes me nervous as a mom, but I know he can do it! ;) On the last day of lessons, they put life jackets on the kids and they got to go down the big slide by themselves with someone catching them at the bottom. Caiden fell instantly in love with this activity and the whole hour was spent going down the slide. Chloe went down, but with her teacher, but now she will go down by herself as long as we are at the bottom to catch her. I love that they are getting more and more independent in the water and can't wait to see them really swimming soon!

T-ball 2009

Caiden had a fun year in T-ball this summer and by the end of June, you could really see improvement in all of the kids on the team. Caiden bats and throws left handed and both his batting and his fielding got better throughout their season. It was a lot of fun to watch. One of the most memorable hits of Caiden's this season was a line drive right to his coach's head where the ball flipped the coach's hat off! :) They don't keep score at this age - everyone gets a turn to bat and they get 3 chances to hit it by the coach pitching and then it goes to the Tee after that. And then everyone gets to go out in the field. They taught the kids to throw the ball to 1st base so Caiden learned quickly that he liked playing 1st base! Chris and I both helped out with the team this year during some of the games (Chris pitching, me getting the kids lined up to bat and making sure they had their helmets on) and that was a lot of fun. Chloe liked going to the games as long as she got popcorn while we were there! :) Here are a couple of videos for you to enjoy!

Long Time, No Blog!

I can't believe it's been a month since I have blogged about anything! Well, A LOT has been going on and I have a lot to talk about! I'm hoping to get everything on here in the next couple of days so be on the look out for it! Thanks for keeping up with us!