Brad and Kylee's Wedding

So last weekend we were able to participate in Brad and Kylee Hutchings wedding. We are so happy for the both of them. The wedding and reception were lovely and they are just so in love. We could not be more excited for them. It was great to see them, as well as Brad's awesome family! Minus a few rain showers between events, the day was perfect. We love you guys! Wish you the best!!

Dixie Round Up Rodeo and Parade

Justin and I spent the weekend at a couple of the events for the Dixie Round Up Rodeo. Friday we went to the Rodeo, which was great. Tons of fun. It was "Tough Enough to Wear Pink" night so of course I had to go and wear my pink and they did an amazing tribute to 9/11. Overall, it was just a really fun evening, good food, good company, and good entertainment.

Saturday we went to the Parade, which was fun. It was just your small town parade with cute floats, lots of horses, and school bands.

Justin's Surgery

So, Justin blew out his ACL about a year ago. Not just a tear, but it completely exploded. Well we finally got it fixed. About two weeks ago he went in for surgery to have it reconstructed and have his meniscus repaired as well. They took the middle part of his patellar ligament to creat his new ACL and then stiched up his meniscus. The recovery time is about 9 months to a year until he is brace free playing basketball again, but he should be up and walking sometime in the near future. He is having to hobble around on crutches right now since his left leg can't have any weight baring, but hopefully he can lose the crutches soon. He goes in on Thursday to have his stitches removed and see what the surgeon says.

His knee a couple days after the surgery!

He was pretty excited to finally be able to use the electric carts at Walmart!

More pictures to come once we see the surgeon.....

St. George Iron Man 2011

Saturday was the Ironman Competition here in St. George. We were lucky enough to watch and volunteer for the event. Let me just first break down the distances for this race....the race started in Sand Hollow for the 2.4 mile swim. Then the racers hop on their bikes and ride 112 miles just to then run 26.2 miles all over St. George, Snow Canyon, and the Red Cliffs Desert. I am just amazed at the athletic ability that these people had that participated. There ended up being about 1600 participants and 1300 of them actually finished the race by the cut off time. Apparently the St. George course is one of the hardest Ironman courses mainly because of the heat and the extreme changes in elevation throughout the race.

Justin and I got up early Saturday morning and headed down the street to watch all the bikers come through our neighborhood. We sat at a 90 degree turn in the course for the bikers so we got to cheer them on and also slow them down in order to warn them about the tight turn they were coming up on. We only witnessed one guy crash, but he was able to get back on and continue racing.

This car led the first of the riders and kept track of the time from the start of the race.

We then headed down to Main Street to watch all the bikers come through and transition to the run.

1st biker into the transition to the run.

1st male to start the run, Maik Twelsiek. He would end up taking 2nd with a time of 8hrs and 33min.

2nd male to start the run, Mathias Hecht. He finished 1st with a record time of 8hrs and 32min.

1st female to start the bike. Unfortunately she had to drop out of the race due to a foot injury.

2nd Female, Heather Wurtele, to start the run. She would end up winning 1st out of the girls with a time of 9hrs and 30min.



Maik Twelsiek coming in to loop around and start his second lap of the run.



Mathias Hecht coming in to loop around and start his second lap of the run.

Heather Wurtele coming in to loop around and start her second lap of the run.

Later in the afternoon we were able to volunteer for Run Aid Station #8, which sat at about mile 5 of the run. We gave out Vaseline and power drinks to all the runners. Our station also handed out water, sponges, energy packets, pretzels, chicken broth, etc. Our main job was to just keep the runners hydrated and cheer them on. By the time they came to us, they were exhausted, sunburned and sore. Many had been going for over 12 hours already and still had much of the 26.2 mile run still left to complete. It was awe inspiring to watch these athletes fight through such a grueling event.

This is us at our aid station!

This Ironman was the coolest thing to be able to watch and participate in. I highly recommend it to everyone!