A Weekend of Physical Challenges

So before I get to the challenging part, I'll start off this entry with the cute part. I was taking a nap when Heidi jumped up on the bed with me and decided to burrow in the pillows. I couldn't help but laugh. She's so funny sometimes:
Here's a picture of my baby Luke at 7 months hanging out with his buddy Heidi:

His 7 month stats are:

Height: 25.5" - 5th percentile

Weight: 14lbs 2 oz - less than 5th percentile (it was off the charts)

My little baby is following his own growth curve, but the Doctor says he's not worried about it! I guess Luke's just a little guy! He can sit on his own now, his favorite foods are sweet peas and applesauce, and he rolls all over the place to get what he wants! He's very much into feeling different textures and is interested in everything around him. Instead of napping right now like he should be, I can hear him in his room clicking his tongue against the roof of his mouth - his new favorite sound. haha.

Oh yes! And we had some excitement in church yesterday. We were sitting in Sacrament meeting when I noticed Luke had little bug bite looking spots on his legs. Then I saw one on his arm too. A few minutes later, I noticed a red spot near his ear. A few minutes later, the red spot was getting bigger and bigger. The spots on his legs were growing too! The redness on his face went from pea-size to a dime to a quarter within 10 minutes. I started moving his clothes around to look for more redness. As soon as I pulled his sleeve down, I realized 25% of his little baby arm was covered in a giant, red/white hive. I showed Adam, and we were both freaking out at how rapidly his hives were growing. We immediately left church and took him to the ER (I love military insurance!). They took us in right away. His hives reached their peak when they were first examining him. As we were waiting for the Doctor in our room, his hives completely vanished. Adam and I think that Luke might be allergic to a brand of dryer sheets that I just switched to (even though they're fragrance free...). I was pretty freaked out, but I'm glad he's okay now!

Okay, on to physical challenge number 1 (unless you count hives as a physical challenge. lol.) Last Friday, the base had a giant picnic, including an Ultimate Challenge event that Adam participated in with one of his buddies. This video was taken after the challenge was over, hence the lack of urgency, but this was one of the obstacles they had to do:

Adam and Richie:It was pretty entertaining to watch.

On to challenge number 2. For those of you who don't know, Adam and I signed up to run a full marathon (26.2 miles) with his Dad and brother. We will be running that race in St. George, UT on October 2nd. As luck would have it, I found a half-marathon in Spearfish, SD that landed on the same day as my scheduled training run of 13 miles! So last Saturday, Adam and I woke up at 4:45a.m. for the CASA Half Marathon. It was my first real race, so I was pretty excited. The great majority of the route was slightly downhill, and it twisted through beautiful Spearfish Canyon. I started feeling the heat around mile 8, but I was surprised at how good I felt while running! I pushed myself to only stop and walk for a minute at the water AID stations (there were 5 of them). This is my plan for the full marathon, and it seemed to work out well for me. Adam finished the race before me at 1 hour 37 minutes, so he drove back a few miles to take some pictures of me :).

My finishing time was 2 hours and 24 minutes. My goal time was 2 hours and 35 minutes, so I was pretty pleased. I've never liked running. In fact, I was absent on the day of the mile run in high school (on purpose). However, Adam has always been a runner and enjoyed it very much. I decided that it would be cool and fun for us to work together on a common short-term goal. Plus, it gave me something to do while he was deployed that would take my mind off things. Adam has been so awesome and encouraging. I know I never would have made it this far without his coaching. He always tells me how proud he is of me (and trust me - he KNEW how much I hated running before this...haha!)Me and my first medal:Adam doing some post-run stretches:
I've decided that I like running now. It's a sport where you're only competing against yourself (unless you're super fast and can possibly win). I think it's probably 40% physical and 60% mental - sometimes even more mental than that, depending on the circumstances. I'm looking forward to the full marathon now, and the more I run, the more I feel like I might actually finish it!

Adam's Home!!!

Yippee!!! My husband has been home from Puerto Rico for about a month now. He was able to take 3 weeks off of work to spend time with us before going back last week. It has been really nice (and somewhat interesting) to watch him and Luke get to know each other better. It seems that a father's bond comes naturally though.

We were able to take a few days to make a trip up to Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota while Adam was home. I know...who knew there was anything to see in ND? haha. Here's Luke, all ready to go! (jk, jk)

A group of many wild horses at the national park:

Beautiful scenery:

This picture reminds me of a Lisa Frank painting for some reason... haha:

A semi-family photo - Luke was sleeping in the car:

Posing by the Little Missouri River: (Theodore Roosevelt chased bandits down this river as a Deputy Sheriff)

The North Dakota scenery on our drive home:

We stopped in a little town (Hettinger, ND) for some R&R (and ice cream from a random place called Pepy's).

Adam enjoying his Pepy's while reminiscing about the good ole' days when playground equipment could KILL you:

Luke's first time in a swing!

We had a great time on our mini vacation to North Dakota. I'm so glad that Adam is home. I finally feel like our little family is complete again. I must admit, it's also nice to have help with the babe too. Adam is such a great Dad, and I love him so much!