Sometimes I need to bake...

My favorite chocolate chip banana bread. Oh how i love it! Taking pictures of it afterward was also fun. It almost made me feel better after going back to school today. Almost.

we DID IT!

Yes it's true: after months of training, Klane and I - along with his mom Kaylene and sister Lynsie - ran 13.1 miles today in the Top of Utah Half Marathon. It was amazing! Last night was sort of like Christmas Eve, I woke up like 5 times because I was too excited to sleep and also worried that we would oversleep and miss the race. But we made it there and then the run went great. The last 1.5 mile I was chanting "We can do this! We can do this!" over and over but we made it, and in less than two hours, which was my goal. My wonderful parents were so supportive and drove all the way to Logan to watch us cross the finish line. Klane's dad Dave also came up with us Friday night, and our good friends Bryce and Michelle came this morning to see us finish! (We didn't get a picture with them, dang it!) It meant so much to me that they all came to support us. After the run we showered off and went to Maddox in Brigham City for a very delicious and well-earned meal. It was a great day! It was fun to make a road trip out of it, but we all agreed that if we do another race like this we'll try to do one a little closer to home.

Klane and I about to cross the finish line and we're HAPPY!

My sweet parents - THANKS GUYS!

The Fab Four, we're relieved we all made it! Everyone did so great.

Bear Lake 08

We took a weekend trip to Bear Lake with the Harding Clan. Almost everyone - Sara had to work (tear.) - was able to come up! We stayed in the Ross' condo and spent two days boating and enjoying each other's company. It was such a good time! We wakeboarded, skied, and tried something new: wake skating. It's like skateboarding on the water and Klane loved it. You wear these cool water/skate shoes and you can fly all over with no consequences because you aren't connected to your board. Good times. And of course there were a lot of crazy tube rides. Check out the pics by clicking on Klane's crazy wake-skating jump above. :)

The Last Frontier

Once again, the Grafs and Markhams headed up to Gustavus Alaska for our annual fishing adventure. This time Klane got to come along! It was his first time visiting Alaska and he loved it. We fished the ocean for halibut, hiked through gorgeous scenery, fished rivers for salmon, saw bears, whales, moose, sea otters, sea lions, seals, dolphins, and other wildlife, stayed at our friend Larry's amazing lodge where he cooked us delicious meals, went on a ride in a 6 person plane over Glacier Bay National Park to see (what else?) glaciers, toured through beautiful Juneau, visited Elfin Cove... and much much more! Every trip to Alaska is always different but always exciting and so much fun. We loved spending time with the Markhams laughing and talking. It is always a party when these two families get together. I also had a lot of fun taking pictures and learned a lot about photography while we were there. Click on the picture above to see more of our adventure. (If you want to see descriptions of the photos you can click on Options in the slideshow window.)

Dawn has broken

I went to the midnight release of Breaking Dawn with Lindsey and Michelle Markham. It was hilarious. There were some creepy people there. Don't get me wrong, we were super excited to get the book and talk about it and everything, but to some of these people, the world Stephenie Meyer has created in the Twilight series is reality. They were saying what they would do if Jacob or Edward came to their house ("If he would have me, I would take him in a heartbeat!" they said. I wanted to ask them if they realized Jacob and Edward aren't real,) and saying how Alice was their best friend, and talking about their trip to Forks, then they got to the front of the line; one girl bought six copies and the girl with the funny hat bought a whole box! Why? I have no idea... standing next to these people for 45 minutes was super weird but also so funny. I'm just glad I at least had my phone to snap a couple pics.
And in case you were wondering, Breaking Dawn is AMAZING. I'm about 1/3 of the way through and I am loving it!!

Happy Friday!

Today at work was unusual: we worked a full day even though it is Friday! That may sound normal to you, but SmilePerfect usually has Fridays off, so in honor of our five day workweek we all had a potluck lunch. I just have to say how much i love the women i work with. They are all such high energy people, are great examples to me, have hilarious senses of humor, and are so much fun and i love the friendships we share. They make coming to work FUN. And they are great cooks! (Must be all the Food Network we watch in the clinic.) Everyone brought yummy food today. These pictures are of just some of us enjoying our delicious lunch. Love you girls!