127 hours with aron ralston

actually, it was more like 2 hours, but we did get to hear straight from the

horse's mouth what it was like to cut his own arm off.

 

we watched the movie "127 hours" when it first came out.  richard literally

dreamed about it, and was genuinely concerned that at some point in his life

he would have to lose a limb at his own hands.  i would wake up in the

morning, and the first thing he would say to me is, "i just really don't want

to cut my arm off, rach."  i think that the fear has faded over time, but when i found

out mr. ralston was speaking at the egyptian theater in ogden, i knew he'd

want to be there.

 

aron was a great speaker - very funny and personable, and a great story-teller.

its been months since we saw him, so i can't remember his exact words, but

he talked a lot about faith and love, and those two things being his motivation

to get out of that slot canyon.

 

 

 

he also had a dream where he saw a little blonde boy, that he knew was his

son, and he knew he wanted to live to see him and experience being his father.

thanks to the fact that he was willing to cut his arm off, he is the proud papa

of this cutie patutie.  it may have something to do with the hormones that are

rushing through my veins, but that really pulled at my heartstrings.

 

 

they did a raffle, and lucky tyson got those sweet shades.

 

 

basically, we loved hearing the story from the "real guy."  and i can't

wait to read his book.

theater thursday

the highlight of most weeks, and the thing that makes the weekend seem to

come a day earlier, is a new tradition we call "theater thursday."

 

when we were first married we'd drive all the way to kaysville to go to the

"dollar movie," but now we have our very own discount theater in ogden, the

cinepointe 6, where you can pretty much find us every thursday night.

thursday is "federal employee" night, where richard can get our tickets for

half-price...just another perk of having a government job!

 

we've only skipped it a few times, and its been a pretty big deal when that

has happened.  we both have great jobs, but are basically working for the weekend

every single week, and when date night comes in the middle of the week it gives

the illusion that a) the weekend is coming early, and b) our lives are a tad more

exciting than they actually are.  plus, we usually go out to eat first so its an excuse

not to cook dinner, which i'll take almost any way i can.

 

this particular week we dined at the stagecoach cafe, just around the corner

from the theater.

 

 

 

the fried chicken was a dream.  crispier than i've ever experienced, and like

it came right off of minnie's table in the movie "the help."

 

 

the pie was also good.

 

 

some of our theater thursday experiences have included:

 

real doozies:

prometheus

act of valor

chronicle

mirror mirror

people like us

 

my personal favorites:

rock of ages

this means war

we bought a zoo

salmon fishing in the yemen

what to expect when you're expecting

 

 

i'm fully aware that things will change when little richard actually

enters the picture, but i like to think that establishing a regular date night

means that we're on our way to parental perfection.

happy freakin' mother's day

i always thought i'd tell my mom the news right when i found out

i was going to have a baby.  i ended up waiting ten weeks.  it was tough

to keep the secret at times, but it allowed me to live in denial just a little

bit longer, so all in all it was worth it.  not to mention the way we told

her and the rest of my family was pretty awesome.

 

i made my mom a photo book for mother's day.  it pretty much listed all

of our favorite things about her and told her why we love her so much.  my

dad and sisters knew i was doing this because they helped me gather the pictures,

but they saw it for the first time when she did, and she read it aloud to everyone.

 

 

 

on the last page it said, "...and starting december 3, you'll be the best

grandma in the world."  the picture on that page was a copy of our ultrasound,

which at that point looked like a little kidney bean.  but she kind of read it

under her breath at first, and then said "are you serious?!" and everyone yelled

at her to read it out loud, and then they all started yelling and crying, and giving

me hugs, and patting richard on the back.  and we got the whole thing on video,

which is about the greatest thing in the world.

 

it felt good to have that secret off our chests, but we basically told them all

to keep their mouths shut or we'd never let them see or hold the baby because

we still had to tell richard's family.  which we waited to do until 17 weeks

when we found out that we're having a boy.

 

 

its not that we're not excited.  we're stoked.  but we're also scared slightly

out of our minds.  so it has been nice to take this all one day at a time.  i am

thinking ahead, though, and i realize that next year i'll be a mother on

mother's day...this baby had better not take after his father in the gift-giving

department, or else.

stupid is as stupid does

isn't that what forest gump's momma says?

forest gump is what comes to my mind when i think of all

the running richard has done this summer.

 

he started out by running the ogden half-marathon for me.

yes, originally i was going to do this, but a few digestive issues

 and embarassing squats in the park later, richard offered to fill in for me.

which is why his tag says my name on it and not his.

 

here he is at the buttcrack of dawn as i kick him to the curb

of the drop-off point to climb aboard the buses with all the

other runners that would take them to the starting point at the

far side of pineview dam.

 

 

 

and here he is after hearing my name called as he crossed the

finish line in just barely over 2 hours.  did i mention that his

longest "training run" was about 2 miles?  what a joke.  at least

his knee hurt a little bit from the downhill...

 

 

 

but not enough to keep him from doing the ragnar relay about a

month later.  i was supposed to do this one, too, but decided against

it when the i.b.s. problems shut down my half-marathon training...and

when i had a growing fetus to use as an excuse.  lame, i know,

but i volunteered and still got a sticker for the back of my car, so who gives?

 

here he is running across the finish line as a very festive member of

"los bandidos."

 

 

austin met me at the finish line to watch the magic.

 

 

it would have been fun for us to do this together, but tyson filled

my spot, and i'm sure that was a disappointment to no one.  he

runs cross-country and is training for the iron man.  enough said.

plus, i know they had a great brotherly bonding experience stinking

up the van and running (literally) on no sleep.

 

 

los bandidos.

 

 

i'm a proud wife, and i love my man, but he smelled like forest gump

looked at the end of his longest run in the movie.