It is always fun to look back on a year in terms of the word I chose as my theme verb. This year is especially exciting because of how poorly my word went! 😂

I’ll start this post with the really pessimistic view of the year: I started out in January great. I worked really hard to make running a priority and got many miles in–something like 23. February got a little worse, March a little worse than that, and so on through the year. There were times throughout the year that I would try to recommit myself to running and it would last for a week or two and then fall apart again. And my grand finale of the year is that I have run a total of ZERO times in the month of December. All of this is totally true. And there are times in my life where I would have looked at this year as a remarkable failure.

But even during the down times this year, I feel like I learned a lot of things. I’m going to do some bullet points to kind of explain this.

• I learned that I probably chose this as my year’s verb too soon in my life. I still have little children at home during the day, and not so little children home in the afternoon and all day during the summer. So I’m probably not as free as I was feeling I might be at the beginning of the year.
• I learned from the fact that sometimes I wanted to do something good for myself, but didn’t feel up to running, and since running was what I was “supposed” to be doing I wouldn’t do any exercise at all. I’m proud to say that when I recognized that pattern, I tried to change it.
• And on that note, there were MANY times this year that I saw that something wasn’t working and I decided to lower my expectations and/or change my definition of success. That was probably the best thing I could have done, because it was doing that which gave me the motivation to try again all those times during the year. I would recommend that practice to everyone!
• I didn’t listen to myself in my beginning of the year post. You may or may not recall that I mentioned there was NO WAY I ever would have been able to successfully run that marathon back in college without my running buddy (thanks again, Asael). Well, I didn’t have a solid running buddy this time. Sometimes I ran with Josh (which was great! He’s a better runner than me); but a lot of times he and I find ourselves exhausted and unmotivated at the same time because of the same (5) things, so we had a hard time being a complementary force for running to each other.

Because of these things I learned I feel like this year can still be called a success. Plus here are some other ways I succeeded this year.

• I ran approximately 90 miles this year. I know that’s nothing close to what I set as my goal this past January; but it is also nothing close to 0; so I still feel pretty good about it.
• I DID run a race this year. I had considered training for and running a half-marathon with my brother and that obviously didn’t happen. But I DID run a 5K on Thanksgiving morning and it was super fun! I’m glad I did it!
• My running efforts rubbed off on others. Josh ran with me, Carter ran with me, Portia scootered with me on a run, Helen biked with me on a run. Those were all fun activities with people I love that were good for our bodies and minds and spirits!

So that is how my year looked. At least concerning my Run2024 initiative. I have also had some AMAZING spiritual experiences this year that have changed my life (hopefully forever)! But I really don’t see much of how they could connect with the running theme; so I’ll pass on sharing them.

I have already selected my verb for next year, and I can tell you right now that it’s going to be life changing! I’m so excited!

I thought it would be nice to post some of what we’ve been doing for the past couple months. This post won’t have a cohesive flow; it will just be pictures with explanation. Enjoy!

Our pear tree became ripe enough for the kids to start enjoying pears in late August. Here they all are with their yummy pears! My kids are rarely all in one place together unless they are eating, so I have lots of pictures of them at the table or up to the kitchen counter or with snacks or stuff. I just love seeing them all together! They’re so great!

Also in August, Josh got surgery for a hernia. The surgery went great and he has healed very well. But I have a funny anecdote about surgery day I wanted to share. When I arrived, Josh was still very slowly waking up. We were in the recovery “room” for over an hour before he felt like he was ready to go. The nurse walked us out to the curb and waited with Josh in his wheelchair while I went to get the car and bring it to the doors. When I returned with the car, I saw the nurse chatting away to Josh … who looked literally dead. It was such a funny sight to see her just talking merrily as Josh hung limp and pale in his wheelchair. 😆 (Am I creepy for thinking it was amusing?) Anyway, he had passed out, so we went back to the recovery room for a while until he was truly ready to go and then everything was totally smooth after that. So don’t be worried about Josh. But it was memorable for me.

Then the kids went back to school. Since Helen is now a big first grader who goes to school all day, it is just Bianca and me at home.🤯 The first week the kids were back in school, we took Bianca’s baby doll (Ella is her most recent name, I believe) on a walk every day. Bianca is a sweet little mommy and made sure that if she wasn’t able to attend to all of Ella’s needs, I did it for her. I wanted so bad for somebody to ask me what I had been doing since the kids went back to school. I would reply “Oh, just babysitting my granddaughter.”

But finally, after Labor Day, it was Bianca’s time to go back to school as well! She loves going to Miss Karie’s preschool and all the fun crafts she gets to bring home. Here she is in her horse mask from the week they learned about farm animals. 🥰

Fay started junior high this year and is working so hard at all her classes! One afternoon, I walked into the house from picking up the elementary school kids to find Fay like this. Something about her school work spread around her, her focus on her laptop, and the soda she had saved from lunch just made me feel like she’s so so big and grown-up. Thank goodness she’s still Fay!

With the new school year came the return to after school activities. Carter is doing soccer again, Helen and Bianca are trying ballet this year, and Fay is giving tumbling a go. Portia decided she didn’t want to dance again this year, but instead give tennis a try. She is SO CUTE playing tennis and I think she is making good progress. But it’s hard to know if she likes it or not. She really wishes she had a friend to do it with her. If your daughter is Portia’s age and wants to try tennis, let me know and let’s sign them up together!

So, Josh is the funnest dad ever (I don’t know if I’ve ever mentioned to you all how great Josh is. 😉) and one day when he mowed the lawn he mowed part of it into a maze. The kids got literally hours of fun out of that maze over multiple days. They were excited to show it off to their friends when they came over, and they were devastated when it got mowed away. But Josh assured them he would make another maze some day, maybe with the entire yard next time!

One Saturday, Fay and Portia decided to dress all matching. Even down to their black socks with pink toes and heels! Then they decided to do as much stuff in sync as possible. They would whisper to each other what they planned to say and then count to three to say the same thing at the same time. It was so cute! And then Helen and Bianca wanted to do the same. Helen even did hers and Bianca’s hair the same! I just adore my girls!

And my boy!

Fay really wanted to bob for apples in celebration of the beginning of fall. We all went out and had a grand time bobbing, but Carter’s bob was the best! He put on his swimming goggles and just plunged his entire head into the pot of water. He bit so fiercely at the apple, apparently, that each time he thought he had the apple, a bite would come off into his mouth instead of bringing the entire apple. He probably got 5 bites of apple before he finally successfully extracted the apple itself. We all had so much fun watching the battle and Carter’s ultimate triumph!

And speaking of the beginning of fall, we had a fall kickoff party on the autumnal equinox this year! We decorated the whole main floor as autumny as we could and ate soup and pumpkin pie and pumpkin tres leches (provided by Mary)! We were grateful for Camry (Cameron and Mary) and Morgan who came to celebrate with us.

We’ve been really enjoying the spoils of our garden the past two months. A huge thanks goes out to Hyrum and Becky who provided almost all the plants for our garden this year! We got so many glorious zucchini, tomatoes and cucumbers! The only plants they didn’t give us were our pumpkin plants. But those have also done so well! I planted two plants–one orange Jack-O-Lantern pumpkins and one smaller white pumpkins–and each plant produced 5 beautiful pumpkins! I had been watching very closely and was sure we were going to get 9 pumpkins altogether. But then, one day, Carter found a whole jack-o-lantern size pumpkin hiding in the weeds at the very back of the garden behind the corn. (The weeds are, indeed, that big.) It was still green when he found it, but now it is ripe and beautiful and harvested and sitting on our front porch!

I have no recollection as to why this occurred, but a few weeks ago the kids all unanimously decided we needed to have a ball. Everybody got fancy for the occasion (I think Carter put a bow-tie on with his soccer uniform) and danced around the house for a good half hour. Everybody loved it! Except maybe Charlotte (the dog). 😂 Maybe one of our kids will grow up and follow in their father’s ballroom dance footsteps!

I’m grateful for the opportunity this post has given me to look back and see how beautiful our crazy little life is. I tend to let myself get bogged down in the surviving of each day and lose sight of this sacred season of growing up that my family is in. But there really is so much simple joy to be had in every day; and each joyful moment is a gift directly from my own loving Heavenly Father.

For the 4th of July weekend, we finally made it up to visit my brother Joseph and his family in Billings, Montana. Everything we knew about Billings before we went we had heard from Joseph and Maren and it was basically this “Billings isn’t much of a tourist destination.” But here’s the truth: we weren’t really there for Billings. And Joseph and Maren’s house is a glorious family-tourist destination! Every one of us had a wonderful time with good food, fun adventures and magnificent company!

What you ought to know about Joseph’s house is that it has just about everything a kid (or adult) could dream of! Their yard is equipped with a trampoline, zip-line, swing-set, swings hanging from trees, garden, fruit-trees named after Greek gods, ropes course, natural cliffs (known as rims, I have learned), deer galore, bunnies, turkeys, and other exciting wildlife. They also have every electric gadget you can think of, including (but not limited to): Lawnmower, Tesla, bikes, and smart-home devices. And, alas, I was too busy enjoying myself that I forgot to get pictures. Just know that whatever you’re imagining, reality is probably cooler.

And, as if just being with them in their magical every-day-life wasn’t enough, they also took us on some great adventures!

On July 4th, we piled in their 15 passenger van and went to see a firework show that a local arena was providing. We found a great place to watch them at a Target parking-lot. It turned out to be the place where a bunch of people were setting off very impressive personal firework displays as well, so we got to see about an hour’s worth of great fireworks.

Another day, we packed a picnic (Did I say “we”? I mean Maren packed us a picnic, because she’s the best ever!) and drove to a beautiful waterfall hike. The hike was short enough that we survived carrying Bianca 7/8ths of the way, but exciting enough that we felt like we really got some decent mountain goating practice in! The waterfall was really cool too. Instead of all the water flowing over a cliff as with most waterfalls, this waterfall came rushing out of a cave.

After the hike and some delicious local pizza, we enjoyed another thing that makes life chez Joseph and Maren extra cool: the electric bikes. We took a bike ride down the road and then up to the tippy top of the rim that overlooks downtown Billings. This was my first ever experience with electric bikes and it was glorious! Even though we were biking up a mountain, the bike helped so much that I just zipped right up without breaking a sweat. Although, I feel I must acknowledge that Atlas beat me to the top. 🙂 And the view of the valley from atop the rims did not disappoint!

On our last full day, we finally got to visit the “grotto.” To get to there, we walked to the top of Joseph and Maren’s street and started trekking through the brush. We were impressed to learn how Joseph’s family discovered the grotto from above, and then how they cut and mowed a trail to get there from the road. They also added a cool rope swing that everybody enjoyed (even me)!

We had been waiting to visit the grotto until the trail would be less muddy as Billings had received TONS of rain that week. (Frankly, the weather on its own was a highlight of this trip; it was 70s and overcast the whole time!) And while we were playing in the grotto, it started to rain and hail on us! It made for an even more fun adventure.

After the rain and hail cleared (about 8 minutes), we took the over-the-rim route back to the house. Christine had, apparently, heard that you could eat the kind of cactus we kept trying to not step on as we walked and she wanted to try it out. Joseph obliged by picking one and cutting it open with his pocket knife, and my kids are very proud to say they have now eaten real cactus. Call me lame, but I opted against trying it.

Later, we got a tour of the whole city of Billings and enjoyed more hiking up on the rims and more spectacular views. We could even see the Billings Temple from up there! Then we drove down and got to visit the temple grounds as well as see the famed hospital that brought Joseph and company to Billings in the first place.

In between these “official” adventures, there was lots of delicious food (again, Maren is the best ever!), playing of games, enjoying the aforementioned wonders of the yard and house, more electric biking, chatting chatting chatting, reading books, sleeping in, and the making of many wonderful memories. I personally couldn’t get over how there was a whole wilderness to explore right outside the house! I loved the deer, the rocks, the wild growing plants, the rims, and all the natural beauty that was literally right outside the door! It truly was magical.

A topic of repeated conversation during our visit was that of Nicholas’ hair. I get the sense that he is like my boy and would just prefer to avoid haircuts if at all possible. But he was very kind and allowed me to braid his hair twice. Once, it was just to get his bangs out of his eyes for the day, but the second time we tried to see if we could get him some sweet waves by sleeping in braids overnight. That one didn’t turn out so well, but it was still fun to try.

Our final Billings adventure was to church. I love going to church on vacation, and especially with family. It was fun to see Maren sustained in her new calling (good luck, Maren!!) and Lexi leading the music in Sacrament Meeting, and Nicholas pass the sacrament, and to hear about what everybody learned in their classes. It was a delightful cherry-on-top to our stay in Billings.

This trip was certainly a highlight of our summer. I’m so grateful for Joseph and Maren and how marvelously well they took care of us for the weekend. I’m very rarely a house-guest; but Joseph and Maren made it downright sensational for us. If you’ve been considering visiting, allow me to tip the scale for you: Billings was a fabulous tourist destination!

We celebrated this gorgeous girl on May 7 as she turned 12! She is such a joy and gift in our lives; we’re convinced that everybody who has ever encountered Fay is better because of it.

Fay is an absolute party of a big sister! She is super creative and loves to lead her siblings in all kinds of grand schemes! Sometimes it looks like impromptu story time on the kitchen floor; other times it is marching around the back yard in formation halting and turning on Fay’s signal. She reminds me quite a bit of my own oldest sister who was just as creative and adventurous as Fay. If only all the world could grow up under the magical direction of a Kathryn or a Fay!

Fay is also so loving and giving to her siblings. This past Christmas, Fay worked hard to make or buy a very thoughtful gift for each of her siblings (all of her own volition and funding), wrapped them, and lovingly placed them under the “kids’ tree.” On their last day of school before Christmas, she had a sweet little event of bestowing her gifts on her adoring siblings.

Fay was also in the school play this year, and even had a line to say! She is still (mostly) enjoying playing the violin. And she always loves learning new things! Her thrill for learning is an enormous blessing to our whole family. Fay has been known to pull out her school notebooks and just read off bullet-points of interesting facts she has recorded. She sometimes insists that siblings or parents sit and listen as long as there is more to read.

In the school play this year, there was a skeleton named Lucy. Fay was DELIGHTED to meet a replica of the OG Lucy skeleton at the Bean Museum.

In 2020, we turned Fay into “Rey Fay” for May the 4th (be with you). And apparently it is now an absolute must. So here she is in the 2024 iteration of Rey Fay.

This has been a big year for Fay, because she is now old enough to attend the temple! I have loved the opportunities I’ve had to go with her to the baptistry and see her testimony of temples and covenants grow. 🤍🤍🤍 This most recent time we went I, myself, was even baptized! That was the first time for me since being endowed in 2011!

I owe it all to Fay!

Yesterday we celebrated the best boy I know as he turned 10 years old! It’s always very exciting to move to the realm of double digits!

Some things that Carter loves right now include:

• Star Wars (especially light sabers!)
• Reading–Big Nate comic books, Wings of Fire graphic novels, Alcatraz vs. the Evil Librarians +
• Sports–soccer, basketball, four square, cross net, swimming +
• Building–legos, kiwi crate style stuff, stuff with Dad, light sabers +
• Video games–Super Smash Bros, Star Wars games, Mario Party with the fam, Hogwarts Legacy +
• Hanging out with friends
• Pokemon cards
• Riding Bikes, scooters, skateboards and taking them to the skate park
• Playing trumpet (he reports that it is far superior to piano)
• Doing math

Some things that we love about Carter right now include:

• Watching him get excited about all those things he loves
• That he does his chores just about every single day
• That he cares deeply about his people–family and friends
• That he wore shorts 95% of the days of winter
• Going to his soccer games, listening to him practice trumpet, and going to band concerts
• Hearing him call up the stairs and say “start my time!” when he has earned his screen time
• That he is still the best brother to all his sisters and the best son to his parents

We love Carter a million million! He is such a fun dude to have around!

Yesterday was a magically celestial day for the Monson family. Our magnificent Portia Eve was baptized and confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and received the gift of the Holy Ghost. 🤍🤍🤍

It was so special to be there for this ultra-important day in Portia’s life. As I mentioned in her birthday post, I feel like she really has prepared for the sacred promises she made with God yesterday and that she really does want to follow the Savior to the best of her ability for the rest of her life.

I’m so grateful for myself and my children that President Nelson has taught us so much more clearly about the power of our covenants with God. (Maybe the rest of you understood better than me.) And I’m grateful that Portia wants to be part of God’s covenant family and that she wants to have a covenant relationship with Him. I joyfully look forward to watching how she continues to come unto Christ and set a good example for me throughout her life.

Happy Birthday to our BEAUTIFUL little Bianca! She is truly such a little gem and joy to have in our family that I’m not confident I’ll be able to adequately put it into words. But I’ll try my best.

First of all, Bianca just loves. She loves everybody in her life—parents, siblings, grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles. She just loves everybody. But she also just loves each day of living her adorable little life. She finds joy in all the little things—like coming with me to pick up Helen from kindergarten or wearing her hair in a bun—and all the big things—like planning and celebrating her birthday! Her love and joy are so contagious that everybody leaves Bianca’s presence happier and better than when she found them.  I’m truly grateful for her example of love and joy.

Some more specific things that Bianca loves are as follows:

• Being fancy, royal, beautiful, or any kind of grown up
• Deer. Her birthday was themed “deers and flowers.”
• Helping at home. Though this love has limitations (such as doing her assigned chores)
• Babies and dolls to whom she can be a good mommy.
• Everything about preschool!
• Choosing outfits and laying them out for the next day.
• Having curly hair.
• Baby Shark.

Bianca is the perfect little caboose to our family; she makes sure we can’t help but continually see the magic in life. We simply adore her!

Happy Birthday, Anker Bonkers!

Helen celebrated her 6th birthday this past Tuesday, March 12. She had a grand and magnificent vision for her birthday, and she lived up every moment of it!

Helen wanted a St. Patrick’s Day themed birthday party this year. I loved that because, since having two birthdays within a week of St. Patrick’s Day, I have kind of given up on planning much for the day itself. With her birthday being St. Patrick’s-y, I felt like I totally got my fill! (But Josh made sure we partied today as well, because he is the ACTUAL best person ever!)

Just a few days before Helen turned 6, she lost her first tooth and was richly rewarded! That week she also made some good progress on something from school and she jubilantly declared “This is my growing week!” She loves getting big and doing big girl things. I love watching her enthusiasm for all these big girl things.

What you ought to know about Helen is that she is good to her core. She just wants to do what’s right and learn and grow and make people happy and have fun. She also very clearly loves the Savior. We frequently casually say things about this or that family member being the best ever (see above 😂), and often Helen will say “No, Jesus is.” And she’s absolutely right. She also will mention gospel principles that apply to things every day situations, such as “I shared with Bianca, and that is following Jesus.” I am truly so grateful for her desire to follow the Savior and for her example of joyfully loving Him. Loving Helen is also a very joyful thing to do!

Helen also loves being fancy! She loves the days where she gets to dress up in some way for school; she loves making dress-up out of just about anything she can find; and she loves pretending that she’s a princess or a grown-up going somewhere fancy, or just embracing a fancy moment. I must confess, I find myself wanting to follow her example in creating fancy moments more often.

Helen got high heel Sunday shoes for her birthday as well as this very fancy fur stool. This picture was the fancy moment she created when she was trying on her Easter dress. We might have to get some more official versions of this fancy moment photographed some time.

Also for her birthday, Helen received a MUCH anticipated set of Easter bunny accessories. She loves them, and I get a decent kick out of ways and times she decides to become an Easter bunny.

Around the end of January, Helen determined that she NEEDED a Valentine’s Day outfit. Here are some of the contenders. I made the dress/skirt for both outfits. (Feel free to be impressed)

Helen also just loves to play and have fun! She is six, after all!

Helen is such a fun part of our family. One thing I loved about her birthday was that she was so excited and ready to have a fun celebration that nothing anybody did or didn’t do could phase her on her day. If somebody got grumpy (which definitely happened because we were still slowly recovering from daylight savings), she just happily ignored them and went on with her birthday plans. And that is kind of how she rolls in general as well. She likes to be happy, and I would even be so bold as to say this sweet little girl already knows how to “live after the manner of happiness.” She certainly makes my life happier.

Birthday season has begun for the Monson family! And today we got to celebrate a super exciting birthday with Portia! Turning 8 is an especially big deal because now Portia can be baptized and receive the gift of the Holy Ghost! She is super excited about making covenants with God, and understands what it means so much better than I did at age 8. I have seen in Portia, her whole life, a desire to do what is right and to serve the Lord, and I am so grateful for that about her.

Some other fun things about Portia right now include:

• She still loves beavers
• She makes up funny songs
• She loves crafting, cooking, and all kinds of creating
• She loves makeup and fanciness (see her makeup she did herself in the above picture)
• She is on an adorable dance team
• She’s friendly and fun to be with
• She’s still as precocious as ever

Here’s some pictures with captions that help explain how cool Portia is!

Last week, I got to go on a field trip with Portia’s class. It was so fun to see Portia with all her friends. And I felt super cool that she even wanted to sit by me on one of the bus rides even though her best friend was there.

I also took the opportunity to get a picture with Portia and her “twin” Owen. They are both spunky little blondes with the last name of Monson in the same school class. Portia says that whenever there is a substitute she’ll ask if they are twins. I tell Portia she should just say “yes”, because that’s the closest I’ll ever get to having the boy/girl twins I always wanted.

Also, Portia is on her cute little dance team! She has been working so hard all school year on her routines and yesterday was her first dance competition! It was a long, busy day; but Portia rocked those dances! I was so proud of her! Her team even got a “white diamond” rating for one of their dances which is the highest diamond rating you can get!

And today, we celebrated all the wonder and beauty that is Portia! She picked out her meals, activities, and decorations. And, in spite of an exhausting day yesterday, losing an hour of sleep last night to daylight savings, and a two-hour break for church, she had a great day of fun celebrating!

Of course we adore this girl! We think she’s just about as terrific as 8-year-olds come!

Pictures for this post will be things I made in the year 2023.

I’m so excited to share my theme word for 2024! I knew exactly what I wanted my word to be for this year even back in October, and so far I am having a lot of fun with it! My word for 2024 is … Run! When I mentioned this to my sister, Mary, she asked me “So how are you defining that word?” And my response is:

“Physically go running.”

It’s as simple as that this year! I think it is fun to have the really nebulous words like I did last year, where there’s a jillion ways to interpret them. But I also like years of the very clear-cut, easy to not overthink words. And #Run2024 will definitely be that!

Now, you may be wondering the background for my choice of the word run. But even if you weren’t I’m about to share it!

It all began back in the year 2000. That fall, I began 5th grade. My older sister began 6th grade (Shout out to Kathryn Muhlestein Lyde!). Her 6th grade teacher was the new, young, cool, way fun teacher who everybody really wanted to get. (Shout out to Liz Lyde Smith!) One thing that Miss Lyde did with her class was have them all run in the afternoon. They worked all year to be able to run a mile. And Kathryn, being the enthusiastic and eager learner/doer she is, relished this opportunity for growth. I’m pretty sure my brother Michael–who also had Miss Lyde–also had to run the mile, but probably just tried to block it from his memory. But Kathryn got super excited about running that mile, and her excitement was contagious to me (at least somewhat). I don’t know if I actually ever went running because of all this; but I certainly had good feelings about running because of it.

I didn’t get to have Miss Lyde for 6th grade; so I never got to run the mile at that point in my life. But I still always had good feelings about the idea of being able to run that far. I went on a few runs with my sisters in junior high, and they were honestly not at all fun. But nobody was making me run, so I didn’t have to resent being forced to do it. Plus, I still just figured that if I were willing to practice, it would get more fun.

Then came high school. In P.E. we had to run 1.5 miles, and I don’t remember having any strong feelings about it. Though I do remember the teacher telling us “Don’t think of it as a mile and a half. Just think of it as a 15 minute jog.” and that actually did help me. So, thanks Miss Tippets! But I happened to be friends with a lot of people on Cross Country. They talked all about how great Cross Country was and how I should totally join because the people were so great. I acknowledged that the people I knew who were on Cross Country were great, and I still had those residual good feelings about running, so I signed up.

I was absolutely terrible. Unlike the friends who suggested I join, I was in my first year, I wasn’t in the conditioning class, and I had some kind of conflict after school, so only came to practice some of the time. I only ran in two meets, and I did so poorly I don’t think I ever cared to know what my times were. But, even with all that, I had seen some improvement that little season, and I was proud of it. And those good feelings managed to linger.

I had little running goals through my first year or two of college; but something bigger was coming! Somehow, I signed up to run a marathon. The whole 26.2 miles!

I genuinely don’t remember the details, but my sister, Christina and I along with our cousins Asael and Benson, decided we should all run a marathon together. I was excited about it. But I can promise you, I never would have run that marathon if it hadn’t been for Asael (Shout out to you, Wigwam member!) showing up at my apartment every morning at 8:00. He was seriously the best, because by the time he arrived chez moi, he had already run a mile, and he literally woke me up with his knocking! If he hadn’t been my running buddy, the marathon seriously never would have happened. Or even come remotely close! And he tolerated all those hours of talking to me while we ran way. too. many. miles. I have one fond memory of us taking turns reciting paragraphs of The Living Christ together while we ran.

I also had a FANTASTIC room-mate that summer (shout to Meg Andrew McNary!) who loved running. And even though I was running in the mornings to train, we would go for runs together in the evenings for funsies! And we kept running for fun through the rest of the summer, long after the race had passed.

But, anyway, I ran that marathon! And I even did it in less than 5 hours, which was a big deal for me!

The following autumn, I met this fantastic guy named Josh. (Shout out to the best husband ever!) And his family was pretty into exercising at that moment in history. So he was happy to run with me! Plus, we were poor college students who would use any excuse to spend time together doing things that were free, so we ran together a bunch. There was one Saturday where we just started running, and ended up running all the way to his grandma’s house, visited a while, and then ran home. It was just so delightful to run with my love!

After we got married, I ran a lot less (#babies). Josh and I did decide to run a half marathon when Fay was 1. We only kind of trained for it, and our time showed that. But it was still fun to say we did it. And after that, I really didn’t run for a LOT of years. We always had a baby, or I was pregnant, and we had lots of little kids that couldn’t be left alone, etc, etc, etc. Plus, having 5 babies did a number on my pelvic floor, and I had my doubts if I would ever be able to run again.

But, starting in 2022, I slowly tried running again. I bravely took time away from my children (it is SO helpful that Josh works from home), I figured out what I could do to manage the incontinence, and I started small. Thanksgiving 2022, the Monsons did their traditional turkey run and I joined in for a 5k. I walked a lot; but I did the whole thing, and I was really proud of having done it. And then in September/October of 2023, I decided I was ready to get serious again! And I’ve been running multiple times most every week since then!

My brother (Shout out to Jordan!) is an avid runner, and I really like the way he sets his running goals. He simply sets a goal of miles to run during the year. He has very exciting and high numbers of miles he reaches for and surpasses each year; but I am a renewed beginner, so my goal is not so lofty. I will feel like a complete success if I run 300 miles this calendar year. That is approximately 25 miles a month. So far, this month, I have run about 21. So I feel like I’m on track for now! Another goal I have is to do at least one race. Jordan said I could join him on his half marathon this September, which sounds exciting and daunting. We’ll see if I make it!

I’m already really enjoying the running I’m doing this year! And I am looking forward to, hopefully, making running a big, positive part of my life again. I have even had a chance to run with Josh a couple of times this year (big deal for him, because he hasn’t been able to run since breaking his foot in 2020), and he’s still the best running companion! I’d go running with him regularly forever!

And, truthfully, I’m looking forward to seeing how the Savior teaches me more about Himself and His love through running!