Love/Hate Relationship

So I have decided I have a love/hate relationship with running. As I ran in the Salt Lake Half Marathon yesterday miles 1-7 I thought, "this is great, I'm having a good time." Miles 8-10 I thought okay I can finish, but I'm never doing one of these races EVER again. Mile 11 I wanted to quit and I got so discouraged and wondered why I put in so much time training just to get beat by a hill. Mile 12-13 I felt challenged beyond belief, but invigorated and determined to finish. The last stretch was awesome with hundreds of people cheering I had chills up my arms and I wanted to cry when I crossed the finish line. I am sore and tired now, but already plotting on how to do better on the next one! Yesterday I swore to Brad I was never going to run another half, now I'm thinking I have to. I hear this is the runners curse. You are always thinking you can do better. There is always a time to beat or more mileage to cover. But I see this as a curse and as a motivator thus the love/hate relationship. It is good to set goals and to challenge yourself to meet those goals, but it can also be very self destructive. Going into this race my goal was to finish in under 2 hours. I finished in 1:58... I should be happy, I met my goal. But I find myself disappointed with it. Why did I let mile 11 get me... if only I wouldn't have stopped and walked part of mile 11 I could have finished 2-3 minutes faster. So as I said, a curse and a motivator. I'll have something to work towards and beat, but also sad that it overshadows the accomplishment.

Brad was sweet to fight the crowd to come watch me cross the finish line. Not really a great picture of me, but he had one chance to snap the shot as I ran by! Because by time he could take the second shot I had left him in my dust!

P.S. On a side note one more depressing thing. I was neck in neck the whole race with a little old man (seriously like 70 years old) complete grey hair, half of which was missing. He was slightly hunched over yet he acted like he ran this way every day of his life. I think he even ended up crossing the finish line before me.... what the heck! I'm 28 years old and it kicked my butt! I hope I'm still running when I'm 70.

Easter Egg Hunts x2

The weather has been so crazy this month. My kids don't believe me when I tell them it is Spring time. One day they are outside in shorts playing in the dirt and the next day they wake up to snow on the ground. The seasons seem to be really confused!
We had our annual Wells Family Easter Egg Hunt at my brother Matt's house conference weekend. As you can see this happened to be one of those days we woke up to snow. It was a little strange digging out the snow gear for an egg hunt.

Tanner was not happy about the cold at all. This little guy HATES being cold, and I'm sure the pink boots didn't make him too happy either!Ashlyn scored a "GOLDEN EGG" this year. Ashlyn is smiling and having the time of her life (she doesn't ever mind being cold). Tanner kept asking to go back inside! Ashlyn got to pick a prize from Andrea's basket for finding the Golden Egg. She chose new paints. (sigh of relief from mom that it wasn't more sugar)The kids had so much fun playing "Don't Eat Peat" Ashlyn and her buddy Sam. I think they look like they could be brother and sister.

Easter morning Ashlyn was anxious to get the Easter Egg Hunt going and Tanner had a different agenda.... sleep!

Tanner still half asleep wondering why in the world he was drug out of of bed to find these stupid eggs!

Ashlyn woke up not feeling well, but forgot she was sick for about 10 min. while she hunted for Easter Eggs.

Tanner finally caught on to the fun when he woke up a little more and realized there was candy inside the eggs.

We didn't get a picture of the kids all dressed up for church in their Easter clothes because poor Ashlyn got so sick. She wanted to go to church SO bad that she kept pretending that she felt better so we took her to church and she only lasted about 15 minutes. So pictures in her new Easter dress will have to come later!

Kids Pictures

Look at these two ADORABLE troublemakers I am blessed to call my kids! Tanner's 2 year old pictures. What a kid!
2 year stats: A healthy boy, tall and skinny!
Weight: 27 lbs, 45%
Height: 36 inches, 98%

Ballet

So we're on to the next thing.... (thank goodness for community education classes)! Ashlyn and her friend Afton are now testing the waters of BALLET! I say this with all the love a mother can have for her daughter, but Ashlyn just hasn't found her graceful side yet. That is not to say it won't come later, but let me give you an example.... If you look closely in the picture you will notice on her brand new tights black marks on both knees and also on her belly. This sweet girl was so excited for her first ballet class she was running through the parking lot and didn't just fall, she slid across the asphalt. Both knees were bleeding and so were her hands. I thought for sure we would need to turn around and go home. But she put on her brave face, we found 2 bandaids and she jumped right in to her first class. Ballet lesson #2 all the little girls were dancing in a circle and the teacher was letting them do whatever they wanted. I was laughing so hard at Ashlyn wiggling her hips and shaking her leg (apparenlty dance moves she learned from her father because she for sure didn't learn them from me). So she is dancing and out of no where she just falls flat on her face! Oh my! The important thing is she is having fun and loves to go to these classes.