Here’s the fort that Tom made for Lilah, before all the cousins had arrived for the week. She loved it!

Lunch with a bunch of my high school girl friends! I had just had my surgery the day before and was so grateful that I was still able to go. I wish more people could have been there, but it was fun to catch up with those who could make it!

The boys decided that it would be funny to try on a few of mom’s wigs (with her permission of course)! Pretty sick if you ask me! 

Christmas eve dinner was a lot of fun! We all got to eat on mom’s special Christmas china and have a candle lit dinner. The food was delicious too!

After dinner we had a really fun time letting the kids act out the nativity… Angela described it perfectly on her blog, “First no one wanted to be the donkey, then Matthew & Caleb both wanted to be the donkey, then Emily-who was supposed to be a shepherd-decided she wanted to ride the donkey, meanwhile Lilah (Mary) tossed the doll out of the manger and hopped in herself, then Emily decided that looked like fun and hoped in the manger too.” We all laughed a lot, but it was still a very special & spiritual evening.

Christmas morning turned out really well. We went to church (9am), then came back and opened presents. I wouldn’t mind if Christmas was on a Sunday every year! The kids were all very excited, and I loved being able to feel their excitement. Lilah still wasn’t that great at opening gifts, but loved getting what was inside. She especially loved her very first all-fruit fruit snacks in her stocking! She just kept giggling, and I couldn’t get to interested in anything else. I was excited about our stockings this year that were filled with fruit, fruit snacks, fruit leather, larabars, honey sticks, and a few small gifts.

Dad, making good use of Tom’s new buckyballs. I don’t know if I’ve seen a funnier picture of him!

We got a chance to do some service for a neighbor.

Playing UNO with Grandma.

My parents got a cat for Christmas to help with rodents outside, and we all loved her! She was so sweet!

Playing with Ang & Jeffs new Wii game. This was so funny to watch!

Playing dodge-ball at the church.

The grand-kids all got hippity-hops for Christmas, from Grandma & Grandpa, so we tried them out in church gym.

Lilah & Emily rocking themselves in the little baby cradle. Theses girls were so cute together, and I think they will only become better and better friends.

We were able to all go out to eat this trip. It was a nice, relaxing night thanks to the babysitter who listened for the kids at home. Sadly, Travis (Lacey’s boyfriend) had to head back to Provo for a few days that very afternoon & missed our fun little outing. We were happy to have him back that weekend for New Years!

We all had such a great time together, and as always, it was difficult to say goodbye. Thanks again Mom & Dad for letting us fill your house with craziness! We love being there.

The day after our annual Asian Star dinner our whole family headed up to Idaho for a mini family reunion. Angela, Jeff and their kids were making their trip because Jeff’s little brother was getting married. We all jumped at the chance to have the whole family there. My wonderful mother just found out that that she will need to undergo chemo therapy again along with radiation treatments. She knew that this would be the last chance to get everyone together for a family picture before her treatments and loosing all her hair.

We had such a fun weekend together and I credit this all to my mom. Even though she is going through something so difficult, she radiates strength and peace. She’s happy and full of faith. This sets a great example for the rest of us and allows us to go on enjoying our lives together. Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers. I know she will feel and appreciate them.

Mom loves it when we are all home and we love it as well! We all arrived on Friday night, and enjoyed eating, talking, and playing games. On Saturday I was able to go on a quick run with Angela and her sister-in-law Amanda Stevens. I love running with these girls and jump at any chance I get. That evening was Jeff’s younger brother’s wedding reception. Jonny and Emilee make such a cute couple and we were happy to be able to celebrate with them.

Lilah loves dancing around to the music. She kept pulling her skirt up higher and higher especially when she realized that she was making us all laugh. Here are two funny little videos of her.

On Sunday we all got the opportunity to hear my mom and Lacey sing a duet in sacrament meeting. They did a beautiful job and it brought such a sweet spirit to the meeting. Lacey was actually planning on singing a different song by herself that day. Then while sitting in the chapel she asked my mom if they could switch the song and sing a duet. My mom was supposed to play the piano, so they quickly found another pianist and went to a room to run through the song. First of all, the pianist (sister Leach) did amazing and I can’t believe someone can play such a hard song without practice, and secondly both my mom and Lacey sang the song so beautifully on short notice as well. We were all blessed to be there and share in the experience.

We were also able to take family pictures, and we were so grateful to the photographer for squeezing us into her schedule at the last minute. I’m excited to get the pictures! I’ll put some up in a later post.

Sadly, this is the only picture we got of the birthday girl. Anyone who knows Grandma Hiller knows she doesn’t like getting her picture taken. I’m glad we were able to get one anyways.

Kendra, Baby Jackman, Dad-Tanner, William, and Grandpa Haworth

Lilah getting lots of love. I love baby open mouthed kisses!

Us with Lacey and Travis

I’m grateful that we have this tradition. It’s a great excuse to get together and enjoy each other.

I am in love with this cute high chair that my Grandma has had forever.

Danny, Branae, and Matt stopped by on Saturday afternoon and we got to spend a little time with them. Then Nathan and Kendra made the drive up on Saturday night and joined us for the rest of the weekend. It was fun to be able to visit and spend time together. It doesn’t happen nearly as often now that they are in Mountain Green.

Lilah learned how to jump on a trampoline while we were there, and she loved it! We spent a lot of time out there.

Nathan and Kendra brought their dog Lady with them. These videos show Lilah’s enthusiasm for dogs! I don’t know where she got it! Neither Tom nor I have a thing for them. I guess it just makes her a kid.

Conference itself was so uplifting and inspiring. I enjoyed it so much and found myself really sad when it was over. But I am really looking forward to going home and re-listening to all the talks right off of lds.org. A few things that stuck out to me were 1) building my ability to receive personal revelation, 2) serve, serve, serve, 3) the best way a father can teach his daughter is to love her mother 4) faith is acting on what you feel is right even when you don’t know what will happen–and so much more.

I have a testimony that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is true. I know it can guide us to happiness. And I am so grateful for this little pick-me-up every 6 months.

After the Pocatello Marathon we all headed to Grandma and Grandpa Haworth’s farm for the long weekend! Pocatello is only about 1.5 hours away from their house, so we didn’t have far to go. We also had more family meet us there. Houston and Becca drove up that morning and beat us there, and Lacey met us up there on Saturday night. Nathan and Kendra were actually there for the weekend as well!

On Saturday we arrived just in time to watch the BYU – Ole Miss football game. We were grateful to start the season with a win! Go Cougars! We pretty much spent all of Saturday relaxing and eating. I couldn’t believe how hungry I was all day from the race!

On Sunday morning we attended Grandma and Grandpa’s ward. We know so many people from the area, since my mom grew up here, so it is always fun to visit their ward. On Sunday night we played games together as a family and I am always surprised at how funny Grandma and Grandpa are! They just jump right in and join the fun. We are so grateful to have a home-away-from-home to visit.

After heading off to bed Tom and Cole surprised us with some pretty funny outfits they found in a closet. The best part was that Grandma and Grandpa had 7 girls…. so you can imagine what they found…

On Monday I was able to get in a short and very slow jog with Kendra to help work out the soreness in my legs. They actually felt a lot less stiff by the time I got back. We spent the rest of the day just kind of relaxing and enjoying being together. We didn’t have a lot of time, and everyone ended up taking off by around 5pm.

I always love the drives home from the farm. Tom and I have so many good things to say about our wonderful grandparents and what good examples they are to all of us. They work so hard to keep our family close and you can tell they love us all so much. It was a great weekend.

Angela flew into SLC on Thursday night. We got to spend most of Friday hanging out, and talking about strategies for the next day. Tom was able to leave work a little early and we took off for Pocatello around 2pm. Angela and I tried to get a little extra sleep on the way up, knowing that we probably wouldn’t sleep very much that night. After arriving in Pocatello we met up with Amanda Stevens, her son Gideon, and Angela’s mother-in-law Lori. Then we all headed over to the expo to grab out gear. We got a bag and a pretty cool long sleeved shirt, which I thought was a good deal for the $60 entrance fee.

After the expo we decided to head to dinner. We basically just stopped at the first place we saw…Texas Roadhouse. I was really nervous because I never eat out the night before I run a race, but after looking at the menu I was able to pick something that seemed pretty safe. I had chicken, a plain sweet potato, and fresh steamed veggies. We had a great time eating, and laughing.

Us 3 runners waiting at Texas Roadhouse

After dinner we dropped Lori, Gideon, Tom & Lilah off at my cousins house and us 3 girls headed to our hotel. We decided that a hotel would be a good option since we needed to go to bed real early, wake up really early, and be close to the shuttle. I loved having our little girls night before the race…I’ve never done anything like that, and I really enjoyed it. Sleeping was pretty much horrible for all 3 of us. I literally only slept for 3 1/2 hours…my nerves really keep me awake. Angela and Amanda didn’t get much more than that either.

We were all pretty much wide awake by 4:30am. I was grateful that I didn’t need to try and sleep anymore and was very ready to just get this race started. We got up, threw our clothes on, talked and laughed a little more and were out the door by 5am. The bus ride was about 15 minutes long. It dropped us off at the starting line, which didn’t look like much of anything. We spent all our time in a barn full of animals… lol (literally, there was a barn full of animals on the property next to the starting line) and standing in line for the port-a-potties. After our 2nd time through the line we threw our duffle bags with our warm clothing in the truck and jumped in the pack of people ready to start the race.

Here we are hanging out in the barn, trying to stay warm…lol

I was very happy when the race finally started and felt great right from the start. It was still dark when we started, but I could tell that we were pretty much out in the middle of nowhere. I would have to say that this may have been my favorite course I’ve even run on. We watched the sun rise over the mountains and it was beautiful. There was nothing but trees, mountains, and a few random cabins. It was very peaceful running down the quiet windy road. The first half of the race dropped about 1400 ft in elevation, which was very significant. I had to hold myself back from going out too fast. I really wanted to be able to enjoy this race and not kill my legs right at the beginning.

I made quite a few friends a long the way and was reminded at how much I enjoy racing and spending time with people who love doing what I love doing. About mile 7 there was a little loop that made it possible to see all the front runners go by and I was able to figure that I was either the 9th or 10th girl overall at that point. I decided at that point that I was going to focus on my time and that I would be be really excited if I came in, in the top 10. I had decided that I was shooting to run the race under 3 hours & 20 minutes.

Mom Tanner, Tom, Lilah, me, Cole, & Angela after the race.

For this race I decided that I only wanted to eat my own homemade power bars instead of Gu’s. I had trained with them and felt great. They were made out of dates, walnuts, oats, unsweetened coconut, cinnamon, and sea salt. At mile 7 I started eating my first bar and finished it around 10. At the half way point (13.1 miles) I was feeling really good and really having a hard time holding myself back. I had been trying to keep my pace between a 7:20 and a 7:30 for the first half, but ended up averaging a 7:15 pace. I decided to let myself speed up a little bit. My legs were feeling fine and my lungs were feeling great. I pulled out my 2nd bar around mile 14 and accidentally dropped the whole thing. I was pretty sad about it, but wasn’t about to turn around to get it. I only had 3 bars, so I had to rethink my strategy for my last bar. I decided to eat the first half and save the 2nd half for later. I drank small amounts of power aid at each aid station.

Lori Stevens, Gideon, Angeal, and Amanda after the race.

The 2nd half of the course dropped about a 150 ft total but actually had quite a few rolling hills. There were a few that were quite tough, but I was still feeling great and this is where I started to pass people. There was one hill at about mile 20.5 that was really tough. I could see 2 girls ahead of me and decided to go after them. I passed one in the middle of the hill and the 2nd closer to the top. I knew by that point that I should be in about 7th or 6th place.

At that point we were starting to get closer to town and there were a few people around cheering us on. I was actually missing the quiet country roads, but definitely appreciated the encouragement. I picked off another girl pretty soon after the hill and set my sights on 2 more ahead of me. I ate the second half of my last date bar around mile 22. By mile 23 I was keeping my pace under a 7 min mile and picking off people pretty quickly. I could tell that a lot of people were hitting the wall and just trying to get to the finish line.

I really picked up my pace for the last 1.5 miles and was able to pass 2 more girls. As I came down the home stretch I got to see my parents, my brother Cole, Tom & Lilah, and Lori & Gideon. It was really fun to have them all there to cheer us on and support us. I could see one last girl ahead of me and watched her cross the finish line. I heard the announcer say that she was the 2nd girl overall. I had stopped calculating my position by that point and was surprised that I would take 3rd place! I came in 10 seconds after the 2nd place girl. I felt great after the race and even jogged back down the course to find my family. I finished the race in 3:08:34 which was a new PR by about 22 minutes.

Family celebrating after the race. Thanks again for coming guys!!

Amanda and Angela both were able to run PR marathons as well! We hung out at the finish line and ate a bunch of food, took part in the awards ceremony, and just celebrated our accomplishments. All in all it was a fantastic day!

The 3 of us hanging out before the award ceremony.

Tom has been visiting Cape May since he was little, and Tom’s Dad actually visited all his life as well. So it is quite a family tradition. This year I was more excited than normal because I knew that Lilah would actually be able to enjoy the beach. I was excited to see the look on her face when she experienced so many firsts. She did not disappoint! Just a warning…this might be the most pictures I’ve even put in one post….non-family beware!

The thing that I was most worried about were the flights…Lilah doesn’t do very well when she’s confined or sleep deprived. What 14 month old does, I guess? The flight to PA interrupted 2 nap times and her regular bedtime. Lilah is the kind of baby that wants to be set in her crib—by herself—when she is tired. She puts herself to sleep, and always has. Flying is one of the times when I wish she would let me rock her to sleep. Of course I tried—but that just made her more angry. I really shouldn’t complain about the flight out to PA because Lilah really did well (the flight home was a different story).

This is Lilah waiting for a flight and I thought she looked so cute with her monkey back-pack (sorry it’s blurry).

We flew in late on a Friday night, and were very excited to hit the beach first thing in the morning on Saturday. Here are a few shots of Lilah’s first experiences with the water. Her face says it all…we love these pictures that Nana took with her new camera!

She would hang out and play with shells and rocks while she waited for the waves to come. She didn’t mind getting wet at all…even when she first got in, which must have felt a bit chilly!

We spent a LOT of time at the beach. We rode boogie boards, played in the waves, read books, dug holes, made sand castles, and just enjoyed the beautiful weather.

Here’s Lilah and I on our way to the beach. It takes us about 1 min to walk to there from Uncle Jim’s house.

Andrew and Nana Rita

The boys dug a hole deep enough for Andrew to kneel down and get buried in. It made me claustrophobic just to watch…lol.

This is what we would do for hours…sit and look for different rocks and shells…and wait for the waves to get us.

I thought the waves were perfect this year. Pretty calm, but still fun. Tom and Andrew would have probably enjoyed bigger waves, but they still had a blast.

Here’s a video of Lilah having a ride on the boogie board with her dad.

We visit the same small branch on Sunday every year, and it’s been fun to start recognizing people. It only takes us about 20 minutes to get there and I’m always grateful for the reminder that the church is the same no matter where you are in the world. We almost feel like regulars. Here we are after church.

After the beaches close, we usually head out on our bikes to experience the town. Cape May has a very magical feel to it, and even though it’s not huge, there always seems to be something fun to do. Some of our favorites are visiting the boardwalk/arcade, Morrows Nut House, sampling fudge from the Fudge Kitchen, walking around the outdoor Washington St. mall, Mango Tango smoothies, dinner at the Dry Dock, biking around with no place to be, looking at the beautiful homes, and just enjoying our own little piece of paradise.

Lilah with Grumpy walking around downtown.

Lilah on a ride at the arcade. She looks so serious, but she was actually really enjoying herself.

Our little family on Washington St.

Lilah and Wicky at the Dry Dock. We have a very similar picture of this from last year. Lilah has changed so much!

At the Blue Wave Burrito… a new place we found this year (and one I’m sure we’ll return) to. They had great music playing the entire time we were there.

Here’s a video of Lilah dancing:

Although we had a lot of fun out on the town, we also had some great times back at Uncle Jim’s place. One night in particular we decided to try and get some funny pictures…my stomach hurt from laughing after about an hour of this.

We had a fantastic time again this year and hope we get to go back again next year. The only thing that would have made it better is if we’d been able to catch up with Aunt Cathy…our Cape May trip just isn’t the same without her!

And last of all, many thanks to Uncle Jim, for letting us stay in your beautiful vacation home.

Tom actually took our camera with him, so I thought I would just take pictures with my phone. Well… I should have known better. I totally forget to take pictures. I did take a few videos though and I’m grateful that I at least got that. Lilah decided to grow up on this trip. She started by learning to climb up the toy slide and slide down all by herself! I was so surprised that she could figure out how to do it! She’s quite determined. She probably went down the slide 50 times a day. After she learned how to climb up the slide she realized that she could climb up onto all sorts of things! She loved climbing into the high chair, onto the kitchen chairs, and across the kitchen chairs set around the table. She had a blast!

Here’s a video of her going down the slide…

Some of the highlights were: watching Lilah run through the water fountains, going toy shopping with Grandma, playing Yahtzee and Clue, taking walks around the loop, playing at the park, making delicious food, late night talks, Lilah’s big hugs for Grandma, Grandpa & Uncle Cole, and much more. Cole has been working super hard this summer at his job, harvesting some corn fields. He ended up falling asleep on the couch one afternoon, and I found Lilah setting a stuffed animal on his chest to share with him. She loves her uncle Cole!

Here’s a video of Lilah dancing to the bop it game…

Thanks again for having us Mom  and Dad! We had a blast and Lilah still seems pretty sad about being back in our quite house.

Here we are getting ready to hike in, to find a camp site. The weather was perfect.

Lilah was really excited about everything while we were hiking. She just wanted to get down and run around.

Once we found a spot and let Lilah down, she was in heaven. She loved throwing things into the river with me. Sadly, she didn’t get to enjoy it for too long before she started getting tired and cranky.

We kept her up a little later so that she could experience more of what we love about camping. One of my favorite parts is just sitting around a camp fire talking. It reminds me of growing up camping with my family at my Great Grandparents Ranch. I have such fond memories of those times… Sometimes I feel a little sick missing them.

This is our trusty little tent. It’s super easy to set up, and packs well, but it is a little cramped with 3 of us now. We put Lilah down by herself first and didn’t know what to expect. She actually did fantastic, and fell asleep within 5 minutes. She looked so cute all sprawled out in tent by herself. Tom and I stayed up for a couple more hours talking, laughing, and enjoying each other.

When we finally went to bed Lilah was totally out and didn’t wake up until we picked her up to readjust her in-between us. This was the first real time she has slept next to anyone and it was a little rough at times. Sometimes she’d wake up and seem a little scared that there was something right next to her. But when I finally just gave her, her own space and let her go back to sleep she was out like a light. Sometimes I wish she was more cuddley, but other times it is nice to know that she will easily fall asleep on her own. I didn’t sleep as well, sadly, because I kept waking up to make sure she looked comfortable and didn’t seem cold.

In the morning Lilah woke up earlier than normal, because of the sun, I think. I heard her wake up but pretended that I was still asleep, hoping that she would lay back down and sleep for a little longer. But as soon as she realized that mommy and daddy were right there with her, sleeping time was over… lol She was so excited to be able to play with us right away! We hung around for a little while before packing everything up and heading home. I have another 20 miler training run to do today… and I have a feeling it’s going to feel tougher than normal… But it was totally worth it, and went quite smoothly. I’m sure we’ll go again soon.