December stuff

The Harker's had their annual food drive for the Utah Food Bank. I love that they do this. This year they had the hill lit up for sledding.

A community member, Heather Johnson and City Council member, Ryan Poduska and I, worked together to bring a public speaker named Collin Kartchner to our schools to speak about the dangers of social media. It was a great and engaging presentation. 

During the Christmas break we took the family to Temple Square to see the lights and explore the visitor centers. 

While playing with the Family History computers, we found that we are related to President Nelson. 

Also, our cat, Mali, loves Sterling. This photo was not set up. It just happened and it is adorable.

And this is what my brain looks like. I'd like to say just during the busy days of December but really its all the time. A mass jumble of lots of things.

Christmas Day

Christmas was wonderful. We had so much fun that I didn't take any pictures except this one.

Bryce and his neighbor BFF both got the uniforms for their favorite NFL player. A touchdown gift.

Touchdown Christmas!

Family photos by Christine

Christine Comstock took some gorgeous pictures of my family. I tried something new and rented a studio space. But the lighting was off because of a cloudy, rainy day. And the backgrounds weren't what we were hoping for. But even the backgrounds were a little bland, the people in the pictures are gorgeous. 

I love these pictures and Christine for being a genius behind the lens!!!

We also had a big Dewey family picture. This is the only one I have of them right now. Not my favorite venue.

And this is just a pretty picture of Sydney.

More awesome pictures by Christine.

Food Bank boxes

As a way to give back during the holiday season, we got cardboard boxes from the Utah Food Bank and decorated them. They then use the boxes to deliver food to housebound people. It was a fun way to get all ages involved. The Schusters and the Dolmans helped us.

Getting Ready for Christmas

After Christmas, we decorated the house for Christmas amid lights, ornaments, cookies and lots of Christmas music.

Sydney got a headstart and made plates of cookies for all the girls in her Laurel class.

Thanksgiving 2018

We started out our Thanksgiving Day with a run. Every year the Utah Food Bank sponsors the "Human Race." It's a 5K and registration is a donation to the food bank. 

We also ran this race in 2017

After the race, we ran into cousin Stuart and his wife. That was a fun surprise!

Then it was time to begin meal prep where we were hosting G'ma and G'pa Dewey, brothers Geoff and Mike and Aunt Cheryl.

And just to keep things real, the smoke detector went off more than once because of spillage in the oven. Yay. Good times!

I love these times and snapshots of family together. Geoff and my mom. And all the hugs that go around. Life on this earth doesn't last forever and I'm so grateful for the times we have together and the love we share.

After the Dewey side of the family went home, we trekked over to Grady's home and spent time with Brown cousins. Its the best, to have a strong relationship with cousins.

Time with Grandpa Brown. Somehow he always draws the grandchildren to him with his masterful storytelling and his ability to listen deeply to others.

Retiring Shoes

173=13

Do you believe it?

The first weekend of November I ran the Snow Canyon half marathon in St. George. These shoes logged 173 miles in training so I could run 13.1  miles in the races.

Sometimes it's easy to judge a person at the finish line. Wow. A half marathon Well done. Good job. hat's amazing. But before the finish line there were iles and miles of struggle, hard training and early mornings.

Sometimes people are like that. We don't know what their training is like or how long they've been oing it. We just see them at the finish line. Or in between runs.

We don't know what challenges they've overcome. What disappointment they've faced. What insecurities they have.

We don't know how many miles they've run.

These worn out shoes will never run another race. They are retired. But everytime I see them, I'll think about the personal race others are running that I may not be aware of. And try to be a little more supportive. A little more understanding. And a lot more loving. We are all running a race. Let's help each other cross the finish line.

Sydney's Birthday - Snow Canyon Half Marathon

For Sydney's 18th birthay, she wanted to run a half marathon. So I paid for entry fo both she and I in the Snow Canyon half in St. George. It was extra fun because it was exactly on her birthday.

On the drive to St. George, we received a text from Sterling. He had set up some clues for us just like "Relative Race" on BYUtv, one of our favorite tv shows. 

 Sterling is so creative and it was so fun. He had driven a portion of the road we were on during a drive he had to make for work the day before. It was perfect.

After we arrived at St. George and picked up our registration packet, we had dinner. Sydney's birthday eve.

Starting line.Cold.

We waited so long at the starting line, the sun was up by the time the race really started.

Sydney left me in her dust and the race was on. The scenery was beautiful.

Sydney took 3rd place in her age division!

Sydney's stats.

Karin's stats.

Grandma had delicious Crumble Cookies delivered to our hotel for Sydney's birthday. That was so thoughtful!!!

Sydney with her 3rd place trophty

We did a lot of shopping after the race. I was hurting and exhausted But I wasn't going to be the first to call it quits. Finally, around dinner time, Sydney called it a night. We ordered dinner to go at Panda Express ( I think) and ate in our hotel room. Both sore and tired but so happy.

On Sunday, we went to church (just sacrament meeting) at a building across from the St. George temple. The fall colors were beautiful.

As was the temple.

After sacrament meeting, we changed our clothes in the car, which was a little crowded. When I finally crawled out, I ran right into the chest of a man trying to get into his car, parked next to us. It was embarrassing and I hope he didn't see more yhan either of us intended.

Syd and I had the best weekend. Running, shopping, relaxing. We need to do it again!