MARATHONER MAMA!

Nixon's dear old grandma (I know she will LOVE my 'old' comment) is quite the woman if you ask me. He is very VERY lucky to have such an amazing grandma! (However, every time he is around her Nixon wants nothing to do with me. Grandma has to do everything which may or may not make her a little coo coo!) Well, one of the many reasons that Nixon's Grandma Connie is such an amazing gal is the fact that she is such a hard worker and when she puts her mind to something she never quits! She started running during her lunch break with her co-worker/friend. At first it was tough for her to run the straight on the outside track. Little by little she started going farther and farther. Well, this past weekend we were able to cheer Grandma Connie on as she accomplished something not many people can do. She ran in the ST. GEORGE MARATHON!!!!!!!! 26.2 miles is not an easy task. I think everyone can agree how stinkin' proud we were of her as we watched her throughout the race and then crossing through the finish line. It was an emotional and exciting day! We love her so much for the person she is and the example she has set for all of us!

My parents got a condo for all of us to stay in for the weekend. My mom drove down to St. George early Friday afternoon with her running friends and Kaydee and I followed a couple hours later with a car full of FIVE carseats!! My dad, Launey, and Conner drove down to St. George late Friday night after the Juab Homecoming football game.

When Kaydee and I got to St. George we decided to just hang out the remainder of the evening in the condo since it would be a bit challenging for her and I to tackle the city with 5 little rascals. Tanner had some big monster trucks, (monster trucks are Nixon's fav lately) and since Nixon doesn't get the whole sharing concept yet we had to make a late trip to the store to get him a monster truck! We also picked up some milk and cereal for a delicious and healthy dinner!

Kaydee, Luke, and myself stayed up until 2 am making posters for our dear mom. (My mom stayed in a hotel with a friend so she could get good sleep because we all know that would be next to impossible if she stayed with us!) Once the guys got to St. George we made a plan for the morning and went to bed!

Bright and early in the morning my Dad, sister, and myself left to pick up my brother at his in-laws so we could make it to one of the early stops to cheer my mom on. Since the roads  were closed all around St.George we had to take an hour detour in the middle of no where to get to where we wanted to be. We went to mile 7, right before the big Veyo 4 mile hill climb. We parked the car and ran to catch the race. We were in a small town where there was a little band playing to cheer on the runners. I was quite surprised by all of the people at this town supporting the runners, but with 8,000 runners I guess that's not a huge shocker. Surprisingly enough (NOT) I got pretty emotional right when we started watching the race. (I got emotional seeing the Top of Utah runners here in Logan so I knew that watching my mom would be a whole different story) I was SO proud of my mom for running this race and was just super happy for her and accomplishing something so great!
While waiting for my mom, we stood on the side while my dad was giving everyone (on our side of the street) high five's, Karson was cheering on the runners, and Kaydee and I were holding up our pretty awesome signs! ;) At mile 7 it was still quite early in the race so everyone had so much energy and would laugh at our posters and make comments thanking us for being there. It was pretty cool! Kaydee was EXTREMELY proud of her poster. "WORST PARADE EVER". A TON of runners commented on how funny it was and two runners even stopped to take a picture of it. My poster. "CHAFE NOW....BRAG FOREVER" for some good remarks too, but no pictures. I guess it was kinda a competition to see whose poster was best...I guess she won. I wanted my dad to hold up a poster that said, "ALL THE HOT ONES KEEP RUNNING" thinking that it would be fitting for his wife running the race. But then I got thinking it might be a little odd for all of the runners to see this  50 year old man holding that sign! HAHA! Oh well, people got some laughs out of it too which made it fun!

Once I spotted my mom running towards us my eyes filled with tears (as they are now) and so did hers. She threw her arms up in the air and acted so excited to see us there. I seriously can't even explain in words how happy I was to see her and especially how proud of her I was!

My FAVORITE picture!!!

After we got back into St. George we had a little time to stop and get some breakfast at McDonalds. Then we headed for our second stop to watch the race. I am not sure exactly what mile we were at but somewhere around 21-24. At this stop Conner and Launey came with the all the kids and we met up with Linzy, Madden, Nash and Linzy's family (Linzy's older sister Jami ran in the race too!) When we got to this stop we knew it was some of the first people in the race because of their fast speeds. These guys were serious! Kaydee and I held up our posters that we thought were quite great, but we got no laughs or any attention from anyone. It was very clear that these runners were FOCUSED! (Can't blame them after having ran 20 miles!) The kids played in the dirt by the sidewalk until we got the call from my dad that my mom is rounding the corner. We got everyone gathered and help up some posters (we had 13 posters in all!). I think my mom was really excited to see the kids there this time rooting her on.

We ran to our cars because we heard it is hard to make it to the finish once you are past mile 16. We got to a good spot about 1 mile away from the finish line. We weren't quite sure if we had missed her or not but soon into our walk to the finish line we noticed her two running partners run by. We asked them where my mom was and they told us she had been cramping up pretty bad. My dad, sister, and myself took off to go find her and see if all was okay. This was another emotional moment seeing my mom SO close to the finish line, but yet in so much pain and still going strong. Most of us ran along side her for awhile encouraging her and cheering her on. My dad and nephew Luke ran by her side close to the finish line while I ran on the side walk barefoot cheering for her, crying, and taking pictures. About 1/2 mile to the finish line she couldn't go any farther because her leg was cramping so bad. My dad massaged it and helped her get through it and then she continued to the finish line. My dad was so cute the whole time yelling, "Come on baby! You've got this! You're doing so good baby!" :) I ran until I couldn't go any farther because of the bleachers, but I was able to watch my mom cross the finish line holding her arms up in excitement as the announcer called out her name! I was so concerned to finding her after the race that I didn't even notice she kinda collapsed as a worker caught her and helped her with her leg cramps.  There were TONS of people so it took a while to find her, but once I did I was so happy to see her and tell her how awesome she is! She really IS so AWESOME and I am so proud to have her as my mama!....my MARATHONER MAMA!!!

And for the remainder of the weekend in St. George we swam, went out to eat, and watched conference. Sunday afternoon we got back to Nephi and had dinner and played outside....Karson and Conner were being weirdos and made a 'game' where the had to throw a ball on the roof and try catching it by the listening to it because their eyes are suppose to be closed. Like I said, they are weirdos but at least they had fun doing it!

My dad giving it a try...