Oh, what do you do in the summertime?

We moved. Again. Is anyone surprised? We've actually been here for over a month. It was nice coming back to a place we've already lived. People are so nice and welcoming and I already knew all the cheap grocery stores. The best part about this move is that Dave and Teresa and their kids moved here the same week that we did. So we have FAMILY that lives only 35 minutes away. Isn't that awesome?! We're so excited. We've already used and abused them, just like we always dreamed we would.

Moving is awesome for so many reasons.

Cousins sleepover! My kids adore Ivy. And I loved having two little kitchen helpers.

Amelia prefers to dress herself. Her swim shorts are her favorite and she tries to wear them every day.

Imagine my dismay when I came out to find Reece doing yoga on the Wii. I certainly didn't teach him that.

Paul shaved his head. Not bad, right? Did I already post this?

She's the best.

So where have we been since July? Well...do you really want to know? I'm assuming you don't, since only about 7 people ever view this blog, and of those 7, only 2 actually know me. But for the two of you who do, here's a quick list:

• Layne's mission farewell in Utah
• Paul's final weeks of work in San Diego
• Disneyland!
• Packing and sending away our stuff
• Costa Rica and, for the kids, a week with cousin Owen

Disneyland!

Pretend like I actually rotated this picture. Costa Rica was great.

You should go there.

But be careful if you do.

Or don't.

I would recommend it.

• Moving in, unpacking, settling, meeting old friends
• Paul starting his job again at Davis Polk
• Spending lots of time at parks, libraries, gyms and mini-hikes
• Spending time with cousins
• Exploratorium, Jelly Belly factory, Oakland temple, Santa Cruz beach
• Paul and I running the Big Sur Trail Marathon

That's the one I want to focus on (because I can't remember the rest beyond the fact that we did them). Last weekend Paul and I dropped off the kids with D&T and spent a night in Monterey. The next morning we woke up bright and early and headed down to Big Sur for our MARATHON!!! I am so proud of Paul for accomplishing this feat. He really really hates running, but he had a goal to run a marathon at some point in his life. He has bad knees, and he's never really trained before for any race, or even anything like it. But he trained consistently for over four months, encouraging and motivating me the entire time, and ran this super tough marathon in under five hours. I seriously couldn't be more proud.

Let me just expound a bit on how hard this marathon really was. I was expecting it to be tough. I picked it because it was a trail marathon and it was on a Saturday. I neglected to notice the 5700' incline, plus (obviously) 5700' descent. We literally climbed three mountains...twice. It was crazy hard. I probably walked 8-9 miles of the race. And now, four days later, I'm still having trouble moving my body. There were a lot of runners there who had done 70+ marathons and they all said to add at least an hour on to your time. All of this is just to make me feel better for my 5:36 marathon time. No one should ever feel bad about a marathon time, no matter what. That's why I love the race. You work so hard and the race is completely your own. But still. I kind of thought I'd be a little faster than that. Throughout the race I kept seeing other people who were either faster, stronger, slower, sicker, more exhausted, less exhausted, more tan, less clothed...but I would tell myself any time another runner psyched me out, "This is my marathon, right here. That's their marathon. This is mine." That said, every runner I encountered was amazing. Everyone was so encouraging and uplifting and it turns out that running 26.2 miles alongside someone really makes you care about them. I saw runners struggling at different points, and I honestly cheered for them when they'd pass me later. Or one woman I passed on an uphill (yeah, baby) was clearly struggling when she reached the top. I was genuinely happy to see her after the race and congratulate her on pushing through. Maybe this only surprised me because I'm not normally a compassionate person,  but struggling alongside someone at least makes you respect them, if not genuinely care about their overall well-being. That's a nice feeling.

One final marathon note: Paul finished 38 minutes before me.  What would you do if you were waiting after a huge, exhausting race? Would you go down the hill to the car, get your camera, climb back up the hill, convince someone to take your picture, then hike a half mile further up the hill to wait for your wife? He ran the last half mile with me and we crossed the finish line together, holding hands. At the time I called him a show-off, but really it was just another reason for me to be head-over-heels in love with Paul Weitzel.

So anyway, we live here now. We're happy. We get to see Paul a lot more than we expected. If you come visit us, remember that Dave and Teresa have a HUGE, beautiful house and they only live 35 minutes away. If you still want to stay with us, we have a tiny apartment and would love to have you. But you've been warned.

At this point he was yelling "Camera!" I had no idea what he was doing.

We did it!

Pre-race.

Post-race. We were caked in sweat. Yum.

See you soon!