Back to Blogging!!!!

Hello blog world, that I havent been a part of in oh... 2 years or so! Crazy how time flies!!! Truly, the last 2 years of my (our) lives have been amazing, and BUSY!!!! In short - Justin went to grad school at BYU, finished his MBA, and now has a somewhat amazing job at Honeywell, that landed us in South Bend, Indiana. We never in a million billion years thought we would end up here. Ever. But it's been fun so far. We moved here in May, and had a somewhat fun summer away from our crazy Utah lives, and now Tannon is in Kindergarten. All day Kindergarten. I'm still shocked to death, and a little bit sad that he's that old, and gone for 6 hours from home without me watching his every move and helping him along the way. But his first day was a huge success and he had all kinds of great things to say about being a Kindergartner.

Hope is really growing up. She has become a fun little girl who loves to dress up, and loves makeup and everything else that is girly! She has shaved off most of her "brute" ways, and is ending up being a TOTAL girly girl (and I LOVE it!). She starts Pre-school in a few weeks, and she cannot wait! She is such a smarty pants that I'm sure she'll have a blast socializing and having fun with kids her own age.

As for me and Justin, life is good :-) We are coming up on our 9th wedding anniversary next month. We are super excited for our future with Honeywell, and we were blessed with finding a great rental home in an outstanding neighborhood. We seriously could not be happier. Other than an eventual goal of getting back to the west coast, we are pretty set.

So, for your viewing pleasure, here are some shots of Tannon's 1st day of Kindergarten.

Half marathon

I promised a number of people that I would post about the half marathon that I ran this last weekend in Moab, so HERE YOU GO!!!

First of all, this was my first ever long running race, so I had a lot of mixed emotions going into it. I was terrified that I wasn't going to finish. I was excited about being fit enough to actually do it. And, I was overall just anxious about the whole situation in general. I had only been training since the begging of January, so I really wasn't incredibly prepared for the whole thing, but I am very proud to say that I never stopped moving the entire 13.1 miles. And, the only time that I even walked were at the water/Gatorade stops that were roughly every 2 miles. And, the only reason why I didn't run when I was drinking is because I hate to drink while I'm running. I slosh water all over myself, and then I'm miserable. Anyway, so that all being said, I am VERY proud of myself. I consider this a big deal for myself to do, and I had a lot of fun doing it!!!

So Saturday started off at 6:45 AM. We (Justin, Chloe and I) got up, drank a protein shake, ate a banana, put on our timing chips and race bibs, and headed out the door and into the car to drive to the finish line. Once we got there we loaded up onto a bus and drove to the start line. We got there at about 8:00 AM and FROZE our butts off waiting for the race to start at 10:00 AM. It was fun freezing our butts off, though. We had a lot of friends who were in the race, too, so I was fun chatting about how bad it was going to suck to run 13 miles, and drinking hot chocolate. At around 9:15 AM We starting walking to the start line, to get ready for the gunshot. I went to the bathroom for the last time before the race, and then geared up for a 13 mile run, and froze during the process. Finally we heard the fire, and all 5000 people started moving like we were in a cow heard. When we finally got to the staring line, I turned on my nike + and set it to a half marathon, and me and Justin started running together. The first mile was brutal, because I was just not prepared enough for how cold it was going to be. So, it took an entire mile for my muscles to warm up, then it was free sailing!! Justin was so incredibly sweet and ran the entire distance with me. We had fun making fun of other runners and the ridiculous outfits they were wearing. And, really for most of the race, I was just admiring the incredibly beautiful surroundings! It warmed up great, and the temperature really was the most perfect running temperature. In the shady areas I would start to get a tiny bit cold, and in the sunny area's I would start to get a tiny bit hot. But overall - PERFECT!

The first 11 miles of the race were on a highway that was closed off just for the marathon. That was by far my favorite part of the race. After that first 11, we turned onto the main highway and then ran through the town to the finish. The condo we stayed at was right on the path that we were running, so our kids got to stand outside of our condo to see us go by at mile 12. It was so fun to see their smiling faces and have them cheer us on. It really gave me the motivation I needed that last mile, because that's when it started to hurt! We made our way to the home stretch and my hip joints were in a serious amount of pain, but I had ran the entire way until then, and I was NOT going to stop. Justin wanted me to sprint with him to the finish right then, and I just bit my tongue and when he took off, I was right in step with him. We crossed the finish line together at 2:25, with the announcer saying "Cherity and Justin Andersen finishing together". I then stopped moving, and hobbled my way to the water tables, and downed 2 cups of water. Then I hobbled over to the stations to have them cut off my timing chip. It felt so good to have finished, though. And to have ran the entire way was so awesome! To sum the race up in one word: FUN! I'm doing it again next year, and I literally cant wait!! So, if you want to join me. Let me know so that we can sigh up together!

Halloween

Ok, so I know I'm a week late, but I was told my my lovely sister that I HAD to post pics of my kids on Halloween, so here they are:

Here they are down the driveway, READY TO GO!!

Hope took to stealing candy out of Tannon's bucket while they were trick-or-treating at Grandma and Grandpa Andersens!! It was really funny, and Tannon never found out!

Tannon with his axe glow stick!

The boss of the show; our little bumble bee with the sagging wings. She never would let me fix them :)

Tannon awed at a pumpkin that our neighbors decorated!

My cute little Fire Man!! He is looking so old :(

I had to throw this one in... Hope was screaming and crying like you wouldn't believe when I was trying to get her in her costume!!! But, as you can see from the above pictures, she was fine when she started getting her candy :)

Rainbow

I just opened my front door this evening to find this view:



Such a pretty view with the mountains in the background!! Yet another reason to love Utah :)

And, just for fun, here is a (fuzzy) picture of my 2 very excited kids looking at the pretty rainbow!!

Bridal Veil Falls

Ok, this post needed to be done, like a month ago. But, one of the things that I love about being back in Utah, is the great and fun things we can do outdoors. Even though the weather is starting to get a lot colder, there is still a good amount of fun, family-oriented events and places to go to! We hiked up to Bridal Veil Falls a few weeks after we moved here, and it was so pretty and fun! Tannon and Hope got to get out and walk around, and there is even a little play ground that they played on, on the way back. Plus, there were climbing rocks, next to the parking lot that Tannon LOVED! We love being outdoors together as a family, and I'm so glad that we are in a great area to be able to do that!!