Rodeo, Rodeo, Wherefore Art Thou, Rodeo?

Something that may surprise a few of you: Eric LOVES rodeos. More than popcorn.

Whoa! I might not want to take it quite that far... Maybe they come in number 2 after the popcorn.

Anyway, when we passed a billboard for the Pleasant Grove Strawberry Days, he told me we were going, no questions asked. It's his favorite one.

I haven't been to a rodeo in YEARS, but I was pretty excited to go. Here are some pictures from SATURDAY NIGHT!

His cowboy hat--I think he would make a pretty sexy cowboy, circa Marlboro Man ;)

The "homemade" belt buckle:

The rodeo clown was obsessed with a guy in the crowd named Junior. His jokes weren't very funny, but his back flips on top of stilts were pretty sweet.

I'm not so sure I belong in a cowboy hat...

This was the "world-renowned" show that they did right before the bull riding. Basically, the chick got on her horse and ran around in circles while the buffalo thought a reeeeally long time about getting up onto the trailer like they were supposed to.

They finally got up there, but the biggest cheer came when one of them dropped a huge poop right up on top. Oh and the truck pulling the trailer was pretty sweet too.

I think my favorite part of the whole thing was the strawberries and cream. I could eat that every single day. And in case you're wondering, they don't take cards at S Days... cash only please. Next year Eric and I will try to remember that to avoid the uh... heated discussion... we may have had ;)

A Little Scolding...

Several people have been getting on my case lately for not blogging in such a long time.  Yeah, yeah, I know... I'm busy, OK?

But then, the other day, it went to a whole new level. My husband--that dear, sweet man who teases me for always reading blogs--got on my case about it. He told me that if "we" don't blog about our adventures, everyone will think we're really boring people and no one will invite us to do anything. How yellow of you, Eric!

When I mentioned that he could feel free to update the blog anytime he wants, I got a flat out "no."

So here's my attempt at getting Eric some play dates.

I'll start with the most exciting news: WE RAN A HALF MARATHON!!!!!!

I have always wanted to do one. I even signed up for one two years ago and started training with the lovely Laura Wilde. But alas, I caught a terrible cold, I had a bad break-up, and the training went down the drain. But ever since Eric and I got married, we've talked about wanting to do one together. So when we saw the Utah Valley Half Marathon was going to debut this year on June 12th, we jumped on the opportunity and signed up. And good thing we did because that race sold out QUICK!

Before you get too excited or anything about this adventure, let me just preface the rest of this story by saying that I AM NOT A RUNNER. I have never considered myself to be a part of this elite group of individuals. I always wanted to be, but I never classified huffing and puffing to maybe run the whole 2 mile route around my neighborhood instead of walking half of it enough to give myself that title.

Anyway, my 3 goals for my first organized race EVER (no, I had never even done a 5k before this) were as follows:
1. Finish the race
2. Run the entire time (i.e. no walking breaks)
3. Finish under 2 hours, 30 minutes.

I was a little iffy on the last 2 seeing as on my long training runs, I always had to walk and couldn't even finish 11 miles in under 2 and a half hours. However, I am proud to say that I accomplished all 3 of these goals.

Toot! Toot!

(That was me tooting my own horn, in case you were confused.)

Anyway, I finished #65 out of 107 in the female, 19-24 division with a time of 2:19:11. That put me 298th place out of all the 533 women finishers! That may not seem like much of an accomplishment, but when you refer back to my list of goals, you should be just as excited as I was. And lucky for me, I finished 2 whole minutes before the winner of the FULL MARATHON! Haha.

Eric was much more impressive than I was, finishing at 1:51:26! Woot! That put him 15th out of the 28 men in his age division (19-24) and 81st out of the 248 men who finished the race. Good job Eric!!!

The best part of the whole thing was that my Dad and brother flew in just to cheer us on. And anyone who knows Scotty knows that him getting up to be at a finish line by 7:30 am is a BIG deal. But it sure meant a lot to have them there! Nikki joined them at the finish line and Eric's parents came too. They actually found me up the canyon somewhere around mile 7 and cheered me on there too. Boy did I need that boost!

We haven't gotten the pictures from Jon and Stacie yet, but here are the ones my dad sent that he took of us.

Me about to come around to the finish... That's why I'm smiling :)

Here I come!!!

Eric had to get a bandaid for a blister afterwards. I was chowing on some Little Caesar's pizza... That stuff never tasted better!

Me and Eric with our finishers' medals!

And our SWEET running shoes... These made all the difference for us.

Pulling into the mall parking lot at 3:45 am on Saturday was the coolest thing ever! There were so many runners all over the place and tons of buses. It was pitch black and cold and rainy and we were all crazy enough to be getting ready for a major run.

Remember that whole thing about me not being a runner? Well, I have to say that just a mile or so into the race, as I was cruising through the green, wet canyon at 5:30 in the morning with a hoard of other people, I felt like I was right where I belonged. As cheesy as that sounds. I've always heard that half marathons are addicting... I already can't wait to do another one!