Bryce Canyon Half-Marathon and Camping Trip

We had an awesome trip to Bryce Canyon this past weekend with our friends Jason and Shaylee. I seriously don't think it could have gone better. For example, when you think of Bryce Canyon in July you think of blazing hot right? Well apparently it was hotter up in the Orem area than it was down there in Bryce Canyon that weekend. What are the chances? It did get hot during the day sometimes, but there was usually some nice thick clouds covering the sun, and it even sprinkled on us a few times which felt really good. A couple other awesome bonuses we got on this camping trip were a free camp site our first night, and free entrance in to the park on Saturday and Sunday. We got to the camp site kind of late and we didn't see anything open because it was packed with runners camping out for the half-marathon the next morning. We did notice one site that looked perfect, except that it was part of a group site that was reserved. It didn't look like it was being used, so Scott asked if anyone else in their group was coming, or if they would mind if we stayed there because we couldn't find anything else. They said sure we could stay there and not to worry about paying either because the site was already paid for. SWEET! This weekend just happened to be fee free weekend to get in to Bryce Canyon. It's usually $25 to enter, and we went twice, so we saved ourselves $50!

I think Boston is the best baby in the world! He hates to sit still, but in the four hours driving down to Bryce, and the four hours driving back home he cried for about a total of five minutes. I think it helped a lot that Jason and Shaylee were sitting back there with him entertaining him. (Thanks guys) Boston slept great at night too. Maybe because we wore him out pretty good during the day. He loved site seeing and going on hikes with us. He just loves to look around and see new things. He wasn't cranky AT ALL the entire trip. I love that adorable sweet little guy!

Here are some pictures from out trip. (again in random order) Maybe someday I will learn to either upload them in the right order, or take the time to fix them, but don't count on it .

This was at Bryce Point and it was SO WINDY! I don't think I have ever experienced wind that strong before. It would come in bursts and all you could do was stand there and brace yourself until it was gone. I didn't like it very much, but Boston thought it was hilarious. Here he is enjoying the wind.

For some reason he thinks wind in his face is funny. If you want to get a good laugh just blow in his face a couple times and watch his reaction. It makes me laugh every time.

Boston and daddy enjoying the pretty Sunday morning together. So sweet.

Boston fell asleep on my shoulder on our hike. I didn't want him to wake up, so I carried him the rest of the hike. It was dang hard because the part of the hike that I carried him was straight uphill. I got a really good workout that day! I added a sore back to my already sore legs from the race the day before, but a rested and happy Boston is worth a sore back. This one guy that saw me carrying Boston up the hill looked at Scott and said in his accent, "You have a brave woman." It was funny. Scott did offer to carry Boston several times, but I was worried he would wake up if I moved him. Speaking of accents, we were definitely in the minority at Bryce Canyon as English speakers. People come from all over the world to see Bryce Canyon.

Having Jason and Shaylee come with us made it a million times more fun! I'm glad they were able to come even though we crammed them in to a tiny space in our back seat next to Boston and made them stay there for four hours both ways. (Thanks for coming and putting up with that!) Boston really enjoyed their company, and so did we. We can't wait to do something like this again! By-the-way, isn't this an awesome picture? I love it! Awesome view. This was at the top of our hike.

I also learned how to make collages, so I did that with the rest of the pictures. We took a TON of pictures, so I thought it would be easier to combine them in to collages.
(If you want to see the pictures bigger just click on the collage.)

The half-marathon went pretty good! It was a beautiful run and a fast course. I was grateful for the fast course becasue I wasn't feeling the best, but I was able to get my time goal thanks to all the down hill! I ran it in 1:47. (6 minutes faster than the one I ran in May) I was hoping to get under 1:50. I was a little worried though that by mile five I was already having negative thoughts and wanting to be done running. I think that more than half of distance running is how well you can control your thoughts. It's all a mind game. You have to stay positive if you want to run well, and that is sometimes A LOT harder than it sounds. Even though my body wasn't feeling too good, I tried my hardest to push the negative thoughts out of my mind, and it must have helped a little because I had a pretty strong finish considering my crappy beginning. I have another half-marathon in two weeks, and I'm excited to see if I can beat 1:47! All the down hill made my legs REALLY sore! I am still recovering!

After the race back at our camp site.
A HUGE thanks to Scott for being such a supportive husband!!! He takes a half-day off work, drives for four hours to get to Bryce, wakes up at 5am, drives me to the start of the race, takes care of Boston, and finds a place at the finish line to cheer me in and take some pictures. He is amazing!!! I love him!!!