Excitment at the Jensen's

Exciting event #1: I got to see my sister and nephew for the first time in about 5 months yesterday! YAY!  Will is such a big boy now; he turned two in July and has changed so much from the baby I remember!  We had a picnic at the park then played with Will for a while. I think it's safe to say there was one member of the group that did not take kindly to Will's toddler influences:  Moka, Kelee's dog.  She spent the afternoon running for her life, and always made sure to stay out of arms reach of Will!  I have to say, I don't blame her.  If someone was pulling my hair, biting me, and mauling me to death I would steer clear as well.  Will is going to be a big brother in 3 months...my sister is going to have her hands full!!!  

On our way to the park, Will first lays eyes on Moka.

Kelee and Willy

I love this little guy!

Group hug

I was dizzier than he was after this!

Sneaking up on Moka before she could get away.

They came to a mutual agreement that she would stick around if he fed her chips.

Cute stinker

Will chasing Moka, who was chasing Kelee for safety

Jessie didn't really want to be in any pics (she's prego, I'm sure I won't want to be photographed when I am either lol).  But I wanted at least one pic with my little sis!

Exciting Event #2: Dan's brother Jake got his mission call last night, and he is going to the coolest mission ever: Honolulu, Hawaii!  He leaves January 16th.  We're really excited for him, and already planning a family vacay to pick him up in two years!

Waiting for family to arrive meanwhile Jake is dying to open it!!!

Trying to process that fact that he is going to PARADISE for two years

Exciting event #3: My sister Kelee has spent the week with us, and it's been fun having her around to hang out with.  It's also a bonus to have an extra hand to help out with the dishes and clean up my house ;)

Ha ha this pic cracks me up!  Smelling her pits... Don't worry Kelee, We've all been there!

Exciting Event #4:  Dan's softball tournament. His team had an awesome season.  They made it all the way to the championship game and ended up loosing to a team that travels the country and plays in world series tournaments.  They actually ended up beating this team for the first game of the tournament, but then lost the next two.  They took second place in the league and got some cool shirts.

Asking him to strike a pose and this is what I got.

We sat in the freezing cold for four hours watching him play!

Batter's up

Bombs away

Yes, I was the annoying wife that kept asking him to look at me and smile.

And, not really an event, but still exciting all the same: We are only 31 days away from our cruise!  In fact, I'm so excited, I've already started packing.

Ximena's Mission Call

My sister Ximena got her mission call last night!  She is going to the Brazil Salvador-Bahia mission!

She will be right on the Eastern coast!

I guessed Brazil all along!  She is very excited, and everyone is excited for her! Ximena is so caring, genuine, and in touch with the spirit that I know she is going to touch so many lives, and be a great missionary!  She will have to teach me how to speak Portuguese and do the samba when she gets back ;)

Us sisters, minus Jessie

Cacares Family

Malan family

Malan family with Grandparents

A Racer and A Champion...

Ah the sweet taste of victory,

I participated in my first XC mountain biking race on Saturday, and guess what....I won!!!  Well, I won the beginners division (against a few men, I might add ;).  XC stands for Cross Country, and basically it is the kind of race where the terrain is not too technical, but it tests your endurance with mostly uphill with some downhill as well.  

Uphill didn't used to be my best friend, but as I've gotten in better shape the last few months, I've come to really enjoy the uphill riding.  It makes the downhill much more worth it, and really makes me feel like I've worked hard and accomplished something.  

The beginners loop that I raced was 5 miles, It was a 2.5 mile loop which you did twice-- and I would say at least 4 of those miles were uphill.  My legs were screaming at me, and there were a few times I wanted to just get off my bike and take a break, but my competitive nature kicked in and told me to keep up the pace and finish strong!  

I went into the race telling myself to just have fun, and get some experience under my belt, but I had no idea just how well I would do!  I finished in just over 26 minutes, and totally exceeded everyone's expectations (there's a little stereotype about women not being as good as men and not being serious bikers...). 

I won a brand new Specialized helmet for taking 1st in the beginners division (valued at $50, so even though I paid $20 to race, I ended up on top)!  I also got a cute tee-shirt just for entering, and some energy drink powder that is supposed to help keep you energized during brutal workouts.

I feel like a champion not only for winning, but also because I finally had the guts to enter a race which is something I have wanted to do for a while now, but didn't dare to.  If you would have tried to get me to do this race at the beginning of the summer I would have told you you were crazy. The real reason I feel so victorious is because I stuck with my goals this summer and stepped out of my comfort zone. Next year it's onward and upward to the next division :)

 Dan was awesome to come support me and take pictures when he saw me.

Just getting started!

Trying to smile for the cameras when I was dying for breath because I had just climbed a hill before turning the corner

And I disappear

Racing down the back stretch

Legs felt like jello right about now

Coming back to the starting point, 1 lap down, 1 more to go

almost to the finish line!

My helmet and some energy drink powder

Activities

Keyword: ACTIVE.  We have been staying very busy!  Now that we are meeting some of our fitness goals, we have been thinking of ways to get out of our comfort zones and try new things.  For me that meant entering the Onion Days Cross Country Mtn Biking race and for Dan it meant running a 5K.

Well, Saturday, the day of the bike race, mother nature decided to let out her fury in the form of massive thunderstorms, so it got cancelled and postponed for next Saturday the 8th. The only issue with that day is that Dan and I were planning to run a 5K to raise awareness for drug/alcohol addiction (we already registered and bought shirts)...I would much rather do the bike race, so if any of you are interested in running the 5K for Dan and I you can have our shirts for free :)  It's in Highland on Sept 8th at 9am...come on I know one of you guys will be interested!!!

Dan ran the Onion Days 5k!  I really wanted to run it too, but it was $20 per entry and my mtn biking race was $20 as well (on top of the $40 I paid the week before to do the Kiss Me Dirty mudrun...more on that below).  So Dan ran the 5K solo and did awesome! He ran it in 22.37 and he got 4th place in his age group (25-29) and 24th place overall (out of 183 men/396 total participants!) so he felt pretty good about it!

Brent and Dan before the race

Brent did awesome!  He finished 1st in his age group with a time of 21.06

Almost there!

Dan crossing the finish line!

After the race, and I still get a thumbs up from him- a good sign :)

Another event I recently did was the Kiss Me Dirty Mudrun.  It was sooo fun! I'll be making this a yearly event.  I went with my two sisters, and two zumba friends.  We made tutus to wear for fun, and had a great time getting dirty!  A portion of the proceeds (just under $12K) were donated to the Huntsman Cancer Institute for gynecological cancer research, which is awesome!  Below are some pics of that:

Our team the "Dirty Dolls" before the mud!

Kelee, me, Ana

Karen, me, Ana

I wish you could see it better, but Kelee made a bow with my hair, it was super cute for about five mins before we started the race!

they had a bubble bath pit at the end of the race, super fun!

Me and Kelee trudging through the mud!

ready to tackle the ropes course

hoorah!

All cleaned up after the mudrun, with our tee shirts!

People left their dirty brassieres....yuck!

Kelee went "dumpster" diving for a new bra

The back of our shirts.  Super cute shirts as far a race shirts go!

To prepare for the upcoming races, Dan and I had to start running.  I have ran more in the last few weeks than ever before in my life (excluding the treadmill).  I am actually starting to like it.  Did I really just say that??  Well, I am starting to tolerate it would be more accurate.  My body no longer feels like it's going to have a heart attack and die on me.  I can run about 3.5 miles without stopping, which is huge for me considering about three weeks ago I couldn't even run a full mile. 

An update on our fitness goals:  Dan is weighing in at 178 lbs.  He shifted his focus from cutting weight to building muscle about a month ago, and I have got to say he is looking pretty sexy :)  I saw a number on the scale this morning that I haven't seen in about 5 years: 120!!!  I am only 3 lbs away from my original goal weight. I have also shifted to trying to build more muscle and I feel great! 

I am the worst at updating post by post, instead I wait a month then lump a bunch of posts into one, so thanks for reading this long one!