summer happenings

I guess summer is finally over. I hate admitting that cause in Utah that means goodbye warm weather and on to the chilly fall. 

But its been a good summer and I feel like we got to do a lot of fun things. 

We spent the 4th of July in Provo with the Svendsens. Fireworks in Sugarhouse. 

We enjoyed a lot of Bees games and RSL games. 

I made 3 cherry pies. 

Watched a lot of the World Cup. Saw the final US game at Energy Solutions. 

Laura came to Utah for a week and I got a mini vacation in Ogden. 

Went to the Ogden Temple Open House twice. 

Raptors game. 

And a lot work on our house. Which is dedicated to a whole other post!

#swiftliketaylor

As I am still on major blog catch up, lets rehash more of June. 

Two weeks after the wedding my dear husband already let me leave him for two nights to run Ragnar. 

{in reality, I gave him no choice. I was running. We may have even fought over wedding dates cause I was not giving up Ragnar}

I ran on a team that Nick Lombardo put together. It was with a lot of the same team members from when I ran Napa with him but this time I recruited AubDawg to run it with us.

I love Ragnars but always get a lot of anxiety about it the night before and always.always.always. am second guessing my decision to be doing this insane running game.
I was in Van 2 this time which always makes for a different running game.

I was runner 11 this time and so I felt like I always had a lot of time until I had to run, which I didn't really like.

Wasatch Back is absolutely beautiful to run through. It was tons of tiny little towns with the big mountains right along side of us. It was pretty scenic the entire time. The bad thing about these towns was that they were not built to accommodate hundreds of vans. We got stuck in traffic a lot and made us late to a couple of the exchanges. Everyone had hilly routes at Ragnar. Which obviously makes sense since we were running through the mountains half the time. But it was so so pretty.

We signed up for Ragnar right around the time I was running my marathon last year. So I think Nick assigned me to the toughest routes. Which at the time I was pumped for. But I didn't realize that after my marathon I would be burned out of running, planning a wedding, buying a house and then never finding the time to run. And like I have mentioned previously, I never ran in preparation for any of my summer races.
That being said, I think I did decently well for not running. And wasn't even that sore Sunday morning.

Leg 1: 7.7 miles. Straight up hill, one mile downhill, then back uphill again. 

Leg 2: 5.5 miles. Rolling hills 

Leg 3: 9.8 miles. Now this one. This was suppose to be mostly downhill which I figured I could handle. It started off with a big hill, then went downhill then another HUGE uphill. Everyone walked it. More downhill. Then we got to the base of Park City resort and had to go back another uphill. Everyone was so mad. Then a downhill through a ravine full of huge rocks. Almost fell twice. And then don't forget the stairs I had to run down then the slight uphill to get to the exchange. 

It was so gruesome. Half way through this run I realized that it was like 5pm and I never ate lunch and I forgot my gummys in the van. So not only was it really tough considering the leg and my two previous legs but I was running on empty. I came into the exchange and wanted to die. It was the most difficult thing I have ever run. 

In all I clocked in 23 miles. The most of anyone on the team. 

Some things to remember from Swift Like Taylor:

Our Van never being able to decide on what to eat and how to get there

Taking a mini shower in the Wal-Mart bathroom and feeling homeless

Always showing up late to my exchange.

Aurby threatening me if I was going to be late to the last one. 

Van 1 taking forever to run

The really cold night that non of us were prepared for

Everyone asking us if we were big Taylor Swift fans, and their disappointment when we told them we weren't

Parker checking out every girl while running

Everyones long running being like 6 miles, and that was my "easy one"

Aubry always screaming about her straight uphill run

Our team being so behind that we asked if we could send our 7th runner before our Van 1got to the exchange. 

Then sending Parker before Lynsday got there and being sneaky about it

And then we still finished Ragnar at like 8pm

This was my 4th Ragnar. And at this moment I was way done running Ragnar. I felt awful. 

But looking back at it, I think I can always be convinced to do it again.

A Dodger Honeymoon

Back when we thought we were going to get married in April, I came up with the idea of doing a honeymoon in SF. Only because the Dodgers were playing the Giants that same week. I thought it would be so cool to go to Dodger away games. 

Once that plan didn't work we thought that wherever the Dodgers play after our wedding--thats where we will go on our honeymoon. But they were playing at home. I suggested that it would be fun to stay and just go to games but Rudy vetoed that idea saying we had to go somewhere "cool."

So we then  decided on Hawaii for a honeymoon, Rudy has never been. 

But flights were reallll expensive. 

So we switched to the Florida Keys. 

Booked a hotel, started making plans. 

Then we flew home during my Spring Break so we could get our marriage license. We touched down in LA and immediately started feeling sad (upon the realization that I don't actually live here) and said to Rudy with tears welling in my eyes...

"This will be the first year that I never go to a Dodger game"

See...they were out of town this week and the only time we were planning on coming back to LA was for the wedding, which would then be busy and then off to our honeymoon. 

Rudy comforted me by asking,  "would rather spend our honeymoon in LA so we could go to Dodger games?"

My spirits were lifted!! I could see my boys in blue play this season!

But Rudy likes to pretend it was his idea to stay, but we all know from reading above--it was my original plan. Although you would think that it would be flip flopped. The boy wants and begs to go to baseball games on their honeymoon and the wife obliges. 

However, I couldn't have been happier with our plan and just made traveling easier for us. 

We got a hotel in Santa Monica and decided to just spend a week in Southern California, enjoying all of the things we don't get to anymore since we are stuck in Utah. 

So on the morning of the wedding I bought us Dodger tickets for Sunday (hey, we were on vacation!), Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

I was so excited that I got us seats in different sections around the stadium each day.

{view from our hotel room}

Sunday

It was an afternoon game, so we headed to the stadium after we woke up. 

It was HOT. and we didn't eat anything before leaving. It was miserable getting to the stadium.Rudy's friends Brian and Brendan dropped off their present to the hotel on Sunday and gave us "Dodger bucks," money to be spent on anything at the stadium. It was such a smart and generous gift since they knew we would be spending so many days at the stadium. We didn't have to pay for any of our food and felt like we could splurge on some treats at the game that we normally wouldn't buy. 

Sat in the 1st base side Reserve.

Monday.

We went to get breakfast at this place on the beach that Rudy had been to before. It was really fun eating right on the sand.

Then we just laid out for a bit and took a nap. Rudy went in the ocean by himself because I refused.

Although, first day out in the sun for these living in Utah peeps, we got burned. Bad. 

Kinda ruined any other potential beach day for the rest of the week. 

We went and got dinner before hand at Phillipe's French Dip Sandwiches before the game. Rudy had never been! And its a great place to go before a Dodger game!

Went to the game! And sat behind home plate on the Reserve level.

Tuesday.

Well, since we were pretty badly burned, I think we stayed inside most of the day and watched the World Cup. 

That night we sat out in the Pavilion, Rudy's favorite place to sit in the stadium.

We got to take a picture with Dodger legend, Sweet Lou Johnson.

We grabbed food in the Lasorda's Italian Eatery, which was so good! And enjoyed some new upgrades to the stadium.

Wednesday. 

We headed to the Ronald Reagan Library for their new exhibit all about baseball! We both kinda loved that we were going to a museum on our honeymoon. I am sure not a typical honeymoon activity but we love museums and really wanted to go.

It was soooooo cool. Its all about the history of baseball. We saw early mitts, baseballs, catchers gear and baseball cards.

I learned so much!

Then the best part. 

The history of the Dodgers!

I had no idea we were in for such a treat! 

There was a big focus on the Dodgers of the 50's and 60's and their World Championships of those years. 

They had past jerseys that were so cool!

I wanted all of that memorabilia for my home. 

There was an exhibit downstairs that was more of current Dodgers. 

Including the jersey of my all time favorite player since I was 8 years old. 

Hideo Nomo. 

I was in awe.

I am sorry, I have a tendency to cry over the Dodgers.

Then we headed to the stadium. We had just experienced Dodgers past history. We had no idea we were about to experience present Dodger history at the game.

In the 3rd inning I called that Kershaw had a no-hitter going. He had already struck out like 6 players. 

Rudy told me to not talk about it. So we just kept watching and hoping in silence of what we were watching. 

We enjoyed some carne asade nachos, spending the last of our Dodger bucks. Well worth it.

Hyperventilating probably started in about the 7th or 8th inning. It was real nerve racking. At the end of the 7th & 8th innings when Kershaw ended the inning and got off the mound everyone gave him a standing ovation.  When Kershaw came up to bat in the 8th (which you never seen, since usually a pitcher still isn't in the game that late) everyone cheered and went crazy. 

I personally loved that the stadium was still so full going into the end of the game. No one wanted to leave and miss what was about to happen. 

Kershaw retired the first 18 batters in a row until...

Hanley Ramirez ruined Kershaw's perfect game in the 8th with a throwing error to 1st base. I screamed the ugliest scream in my entire life. It was a heart breaking moment. But he still had the no hitter. 

The 9th inning. 

I was so nervous. So much tension and worry of what was going to happen!

I hyperventilated even more, screamed, jumped up and down. I got light headed and thought I was going to pass out! I had to sit down for a bit to get collected. 

And then he did it. Strike out number 15 to end the game. I will never forget Clatyon Kershaw throwing his arms straight into the air in triumph!

I may have mistakenly told Rudy that it was the best moment of my life.

I quickly corrected myself. Second best to the wedding of course. 

It was so awesome and so exciting. Everyone was going crazy. 

It was the perfect way to end our Dodger honeymoon. 

Thursday. 

We were finally ready to hit the beach again after our sun burn. 

We walked down to Cha Cha Chicken for lunch. Made us feel like we had a more tropical honeymoon.

However this was the sad day in which Rudy lost his wedding ring in the sand. That put a damper on things! 

And I felt some emptiness as we had no Dodger game to attend that night. I thought I would get sick of going to games every  night but I really loved it and didn't get old. I loved that we also already had plans for every night! 

For dinner we walked down the street from our hotel and got some really good pizza. And then walked to the grocery store and got a movie. 

Friday. 

We didn't do much. Just watched World Cup and then cleaned up and ready to go. 

We headed down to Newport to meet my family at the beach down there. 

I was happy to be able to spend some more time with them since that week was kinda their family vacation but I missed it. 

We went back to Laura's and opened all of our presents and then went off to another baseball game!

This time for the Angels. Not nearly as exciting but fun to be with my family.

Saturday. 

Off early in the morning to make the drive back to Utah.

We caravanned with Kelly and the kids so it was fun to see them during the drive. Rudy took a turn driving Kelly's car with the all the kids so Kelly and I got to drive together for a bit. 

Once we got back Rudy and I were up till midnight moving him into our house!