FHE

For 'family home evening' this week we planted a garden kind-of....three different varieties of cherry tomatoes:  sweet millions, husky cherry red, and moby grape. Don't worry, we will announce the winner. In the past week or so we've inhaled pints and pints of cherry tomatoes so we can't wait for our plants to start producing! Tomatoes contain lycopene which may help prevent some kinds of cancer, but we eat them mostly just because we like them :)

Zion Fun Run

The time came on Saturday to run the 10k I'd signed up for back in February. When I signed up I didn't know we would be moving to Florida so soon...so with all the packing and moving my training regimen went to pot and I got in three runs in the past 2 months. Now that my excuses are out of the way we can move on with the story, haha :) It was a beautiful sunny day...a little chilly in the morning, but running warmed us up quickly. My mind was mostly distracted from my burning legs and cramping sides by the red cliff walls and green trees springing up by the Virgin River. It was the perfect setting for a morning jog. I'm so glad everyone joined in...it really did turn out to be a 'fun run'. You should have seen us walking on Sunday tho...we pretty much couldn't...we were SO sore. Stairs were the worst. We hobbled through our pain and now it's Tues and I can hardly tell I'm sore anymore. I'm really glad we did it...go team!

We got up at 6 to make it to the starting line in time...that's me...always eating.

The Cedar Group after the race...luckily my food got cut off in this pic, you can't tell I'm still eating :)

The finish line with the Provo group. I'm so glad you moters came down!

I was so happy because I could see the finish line at this point. My goal was to run the whole way and I did in just under an hour, yay!

Do not mess with me. I'm serious. I know you're thinking that's a gold medal, it's not...everyone got one. I'm still a winner tho :)

Rock Stars all the way baby! Shena was the 'rockest star' making the run in about 45 mins, yow!!

Seesters, she's still older and faster than me. Sara did it in about 48 mins, you go girl!

For everyone that is confused thinking that I moved to Florida, and wondering why am I running in Zion? Yes I moved to Florida, but just came back to Cedar to wrap up a few things at work...and to run of course.

George - The Flying Machine

George started heli pilot school last week and is LOVING it! After just 2 days of class it was time to FLY. During his first week he logged 6 hours, part of which he had full control of the chopper. His personal flight instructor is from Great Britain and said that George is catching on fast. That's right...George the Genius.

George's first day!

About 4 hours of his day are spent here in the classroom

Our glass sliding doors have become his white board

The tango parking lot at Bristow

I've been 'inspired' with a lot of great nicknames since helicopters have come into our life...my favorite is calling George my 'hover lover'. And for the record I wish my hover lover would blog, then you could hear this all 'first-hand' but I guess you'll just have to put up with me!

We Made It!

After quite the journey we are here in sunny Florida!

Here are some things we encountered along the way:

• Cheapest gas: $1.78 in Cedar City, UT
• Most expensive gas: $2.15 somewhere in Kansas
• Best miles per gallon in our good ol' Subaru: 28 mpg
• Worst: 21 mpg (let me remind you she was LOADED, popping a willy the whole way)
• 44 hours and 15 minutes of driving!
• 13 different states
• 1 highway robbery in North Carolina (I got a speeding ticket...what freeway has a 55 speed limit?!)
• 1 murder on the beach (A seagull killed a crab!)
• 2,925 miles on the odometer (google told us it was only 2,834 miles and yes those 100 miles DO make a difference)
• 7 tunnels - we tried to hold our breath thru most of them...except for one that was SO dark until I realized my sunglasses were still on, haha
• 17 fill-ups (mind you the tank wasn't always empty at these fill-ups, in fact the gas light only came on once during the whole trip)
• 7 interstates (I-70 was a long one!)
• 4 people visited (Alethea & David in Colorado and my parents in West Virginia)
• 1 lost windshield wiper
• 4 accident avoidances (Two of which were scary ones going over the passes in Colorado...it was snowy and the car two cars ahead of us did a 720 (yes that is two 360's!) amazingly he didn't hit anyone and kept on driving in the right direction.)
• 10F lowest temp
• 71F highest temp (and that was at night) Florida and I will get along just fine :)
• We saw more dead animals than living ones (as long as you don't count all the animals we saw at Alethea's vet tech school)
• Longest stretch of driving: 25 hours...we beat the storm in the midwest, whew!
• 1 complete stop on the interstate and it was only for a few minutes
• Best bumper sticker: "Honk if I'm paying for your mortgage."
• George and I still love each other after those 44 hours
• 1 trip to Florida...priceless :)