Masochistic Ambition

One day I decided that I could run a marathon, 26.2 miles. "People do it all the time. Why can't I?" Training for a marathon was pretty much the way I guaranteed that I would lose the baby weight I put on with Parker. At first, about 2 months after I had Parker, I couldn't even run a mile. What was 25.2 more miles? Yeah, it was that bad.

I planned on doing the Top of Utah marathon in Logan, UT. I went to college in Logan and it is sort of my second home. I loved the idea of running through the canyons, watching the colorful leaves fall from trees, the autumn breeze in my face, smiling intensely as I crossed the finish line. Of course, in all my imagining I forgot to add in the pain I would feel in my toes, my legs, my butt, well, just about everywhere.

So I trained and I felt pretty good about it. I ran the Bear Lake half marathon (13.1 miles) in 2 hrs. and 5 min. and felt great afterward. I thought, hey I can run a marathon at the same pace, maybe a little faster, and get in around 4 hours. Ha ha. I didn't realize that running a full marathon is completely different than running a half.

I actually slacked on my training. I got sick. I took a couple of weeks off from climbing the grand teton. Things came up and I didn't make it my priority. Oops. Who'd have thought I'd regret that?

So September 2009 came and I ran the Top of Utah with my mom and younger brother. I really enjoyed the first half of it. I was running it at my half marathon pace, but the second half...I didn't like so much. I started thinking that forcing people to run farther and farther would be a really effective method of torture.

Daddy was taking care of Parker. Hence the lack of shoes and sitting in the dirt.

Parker and Matt at Mile 15. It was so good to see them.

But I finished.

Going strong at the finish line. Or at least trying to.

I came in at 4 hours and 47 minutes. Not such a great time. It is about an 11 min/mile pace. Remember my goal was a 9 min/mile pace. But I finished.

Mom, Me, & Cameron. We look good for just torturing ourselves.

It is so hard for me to be proud of myself because I really did not make my goal..even close to it. I guess I'll have to do another one. Maybe it will help me get into shape after baby #2.

Happy Birthday Baby

My little baby is growing up. Parker turned one year old on October 3, 2009. Yes, I know it is cliche, but they grow up so fast.

Parker was spoiled with two birthday parties on his big day with a jungle theme. I took my hand at cake decorating and made this alligator cupcake cake. Fearsome, I know.

The first party was in the park with his neighborhood friends. I had this great idea to have the kids go "fishing" for tub toys using magnets, but the toys were too heavy so it didn't work as perfectly as I had imagined. But the kids still had fun playing in the water and on the playground and Parker got some sweet gifts. Thanks friends!


Later that evening we had hamburgers with the family at Grandpa and Grandma's house. Parker was super spoiled by everyone's attention and took this opportunity to show off his new skill of walking. I love watching him waddle everywhere. Such a cutie!



He was a little frightened when the lights were turned off and everyone surrounded him singing in unison while an open flame sat in front of him. Fortunately, he forgot all about it once he started eating his cake.

Kelli reminded me to share his stats. Despite his chubby cheeks, Parker is a little guy. At 12 months he weighed 21 lbs. 13 oz (33%) and is 29 in (20%). But he has a big head compared to the rest of him at 47 cm (66%). He has slimmed up a lot since he was 2 months at the 95 %tile for both height and weight, but he is adorable either way.

Photography Blog

In keeping with my theme for the week "Updating the Blog," I have also (finally) updated my photography blog with some sweet pictures of the Salt Lake Temple. Let me know if you like them. If you don't like them, well, don't let me know. I prefer to hear only positive feedback :)

Here is just one of the many pics I've added.

Check it! www.photography-by-ashley.blogspot.com

Halloween

I love halloween. It's just fun. We had a family "Toy Story" theme this year. Matt was woody, I was Bo Peep, and Parker was Buzz Lightyear.

I don't sew very often, but this year I sewed my entire costume including the hat. It was so hard. Sewing is not as easy as it seems. Fortunately, my mother in law is like a genius at sewing so we altered a pattern from some size 16 '80's prom dress pattern.

What a cute family!

As a side note, Grandma Budd gave Parker a peanut butter sandwich on Halloween. Next thing I know, half his face has swollen up. You can kinda see the puffy eye in this picture. So, off to the doctor again to check for allergies. Poor kid. Earlier in the week he swallowed my wedding ring (story to come) and now this.

Our Grand Adventure

Sometimes it seems like when you have a baby, you give up a lot of things. The baby becomes the first priority when it comes to everything. All that I am is for my baby, but I know that it is best for both me and Parker if I live a healthy, happy life independent from my role as a mother. Even though I compromise many things (like sleep), I am determined not to compromise my identity and part of that is rock climbing.

Matt and I have decided that once a year, no matter what, we will go on an adventure...just the two of us. This year we finally did something we have always wanted to do: Climb the Grand Teton.

See the Grand Teton? It's the big one in the middle.

I thought I was in good shape. I had been training for a marathon (although not as diligently as I should have been), but this mountain kicked my butt! Next time I do it, I know I need to do some real training.

We started our adventure at 7:00 in the morning to backpack up to our campsite or "the caves" as the rangers called it. It was about 5 miles in and the hike wasn't too bad except my pack was about 35 lbs. and Matt's was probably around 50 lbs. Climbing gear is really heavy!

We're almost to our campsite. It is in the trees above the waterfall. That peak is the Middle Teton.

After we reached our campsite, I went exploring. This is looking down on the trail and our campsite (in the trees).

The next morning we woke up at 3:00 am. Yes, 3:00 am. After we eat and geared up, we started on the trail about an hour later at 4:00. We left our tent and sleeping bags and brought just the supplies we needed for the climb to the peak which included a rope, cams, food, and clothing. The reason you have to leave so early is that you want to avoid the thunderstorms that always come in the afternoon.

We started hiking in the dark with our headlamps and things are going pretty well until we reach a huge boulder field and lose our way. We scrambled around and eventually find our way by following the lights on the mountain from climbers up ahead.

Finally we reached the saddle at 6:00 am. It took us two hours to hike just two miles, but it was very steep and very dark. Reaching the saddle is pretty much equivalent to reaching the peak of Timpanogos...and the hard part hasn't even began.

I look tired because I am. This is the saddle at sunrise.

Still at the saddle, looking South at the Middle Teton

The tree line was back where we camped out and everything around us was just rock. Big boulders, little boulders, steep cliffs...but nothing like a trail or dirt. So we got lost a lot trying to find our way. There were many climbers along the way, but we mostly just tried to follow vague descriptions from the guide books.

We're getting quite a bit higher. This is the middle Teton.

Trying to find our way to the "wind tunnel"

The climbing was actually not very difficult. We climbed the Upper Exum which is 5.4 at hardest. Many people don't rope up most of the way and some free solo it the entire way. It is scary at some parts because of the extreme exposure: huge sheer cliffs that would lead to your death if you fell. It is also very steep. Imagine climbing stairs to the top of a mountain. It isn't technically difficult, but it uses a ton of muscle.

Some unknown climbers climbing the crux of the Upper Exum: Friction Pitch

I started getting really tired at this point. A self-portrait is a good excuse to rest.

We made it most the way and get lost again, but this time it is scary because we are practically out of food, a storm is coming in, and there is snow all around which meant slippery and dangerous climbing. We meander and reread the guide book for a while. I had a moment of panic and then decided that panicking never helped any one so I pulled myself together and we said a prayer. Instantly, we knew which direction to go and we reached the peak.

I'm waiting while Matt is supposedly figuring out where we are. This is looking West to Idaho.

There were two guys up there still (it was 3:00 pm at this point and we were pretty much the last people up there). The storm lasted less than 10 minutes and the guys helped show us the way down (the Owen-Spalding route) which was different than the way up (Upper Exum route).

We're there! Looking south towards the Middle Teton. You can't see it cause it's so small.

See that tiny peak below us, that's the Middle Teton.

My legs were shaking practically the whole way down from overexertion and lack of energy. I needed food and rest, but we weren't there yet. I needed to keep on going. Matt was fine, of course. He is in great shape and is strong. I had altitude sickness which really affected me near the peak which is about 14,000 ft.

One of the two rappels on the way down. This is my first "free rappel." Look ma, no feet.

We finally made it back to our campsite around 8:00 pm. That meant we had been hiking/climbing for 16 hours. I slept horribly that night in our little tent and woke up around 4:30 am, so we got another early start, but this time down the mountain. We painfully hiked the 5 miles out of the mountain to the campground. Overall the journey to the peak and back took us around 24 hours.

Now we're to the easy part. We have to hike straight down that to the saddle.

This is called "the eye of the needle." We were supposed to go through it on the way up, but we got lost and did it a completely different and more difficult way.

It was so flippin' hard and my body hurt so much, but it was worth it. The views were beautiful and the feeling of accomplishment was thrilling. We will definitely do it again.

Here we are at the saddle again looking North towards the Grand Teton. Still 7 more miles to our car.

St. George Adventures

Matt, Parker, and I went to St George from August 6-8 to have some awesome adventures. As many of you know, being in a car that long with a baby can be an adventure, so we drove in the evening when he would be sleeping. We are lucky enough to have Matt's sister, Sarah, and her husband, Eric living in St. George. They are kind enough to let us stay at their home and they planned an awesome weekend for us. Matt's whole family came down, so it was a ton of fun.

Friday, Matt, Jesse (Matt's brother), and I got ready early to go rock climbing at the Black Cliffs. It was pretty fun to climb on Basalt. I decided to be brave a lead a 5.9 and was surprised that I could redpoint it (climb without falling or resting). The hardest climb I could lead before I had Parker was a 5.9 and this was my first redpoint of that rating. I was super excited. At the beginning of the year I made a goal to lead a 5.10 (one grade harder than 5.9), but thought it would be impossible once the summer started. Now I'm working towards that goal and hopefully will be able to do it before it snows. Matt and Jesse climbed too. I just think my accomplishment was more interesting then anything they did;).

Matt leading a 5.10b

still leading the 10b

this is me redpointing the 5.9: Entropy

clipping in on Entropy (5.9)

the scary part: I'm starting to climb above the bolt

Friday afternoon Sarah and Eric took us on a beautiful, short little hike called Canaraville Falls. Canarville is just south of Cedar City. It took us up a small stream and into a slot canyon to some waterfalls. I was having fun taking pictures so I didn't notice Matt climbing up a rickety ladder with Parker on his back. I was mad. I was mostly worried about the climb down, but I know Matt has some mad climbing skills and would be able to safely transport
Parker down the ladder.


The next day Parker went boating for the first time. He didn't really care for it. He was content exploring the boat, but didn't even seem interested in the fact that we were surrounded by water. He did have some fun on the beach, crawling around in the sand. Matt and I went wakeboarding a little. I would like to try it some more some time.

It was such a fun weekend! Thank you Sarah and Eric for the good times!

What's the Purpose?

I'm sure everybody asks the question at some point: "What's the purpose of life?" I ask it sometimes, too. I am LDS and I know all the Sunday School answers (get a body, have a family, show faith, live worthy), but I'm more concerned about application than anything else. I mean "get a body," check; "have a family," check; and the other concepts are so abstract.

I, like most people, try to fill my life up with good things and surround myself with good people. I get caught up in achieving good goals and work towards becoming an accomplished person. I try to keep my house clean and stay updated on Parker's scrapbook. I have even found a way to continue working part-time. But how important are these things anyway? They are all good, but are they important.

I think as members of the church, or I should say, members of the human race, we get caught up in these types of things and sometimes forget the all-important and obvious things we should be concerned about. Many LDS people can quote scriptures like there's no tomorrow, but (unfortunately) many have a hard time living the MOST important principle. Christ has taught us that the most important thing is love. Yeah, it's obvious, but it sometimes becomes a lost priority as it gets mixed up in the cares of the world.

I get so depressed when I see people being mean to each other, saying negative comments about each other, and just generally not caring about what happens to other people. We are all in this together and I can't think of a single reason to hate somebody or intentionally hurt them. Not that I'm without fault: I find myself gossiping or saying negative things, giving in to my own selfish pride. I hate that I'm not perfect in this one thing. If I could choose one thing to be perfect in, it would be love or something better than love. Charity. Christ's love.

I guess I'm getting all up on my soap box because I teach Young Women's in my ward and tonight some of the girls were talking bad about each other. I mean, come on. These are your sisters! They need your love. I realize though, that it is not just teenage girls who have this problem.

So I don't really know what I'm trying to say here. I'm just getting some thoughts out. I guess I want to say sorry to those of you who I haven't been completely there for you. I picture myself as this person who others can talk to or someone who drops off thank you letters and cookies, but I am not that person yet. I'm trying. I wish I could be that type of friend. I also want to say thank you to those of you who are that type of friend to me. I also want to say "I love you" to everyone who reads this blog. Not in a creepy sort of way, but sincerely I do. Maybe there are some random people who read this, but I doubt it. For the most part you are my friends and maybe we're not that close, but the truth is I wish we were closer and I care about you and wish the best for all of you.

I guess I'm in this place in my life where I appreciate more all the love I get, even if it is a simple smile or a phone call and I hope I can be that type of loving person too. This may sound cheesy (this whole post probably does), but I think that is the type of thing that Heavenly Father really cares about.