Reebok Spartan First-timer!

So long! posting things in a timely matter! Or even in chronological order!

A couple weekends ago, I ran the Reebok Super Spartan Race in Soldier Hollow. I signed up because it sounded like a good idea. As the date got closer, I was dreading it more and more. I kept hearing how hard those races are! I only had time to train a couple times a week. Even the day of, as our time approached, I was feeling so anxious!

Well friends, I ended up loving it! LOVING IT! It was an 8.5 mile obstacle race. Hiking through the mountains of Midway, 26 obstacles, and running. They have obstacles like rope climbs, wall climbs, cinder block pulls, mud pits, barbed wire, bucket carries, tire flipping, cinder block pulling, spear throwing- you name it! If you can't do an obstacle (and you only get one chance!) you have to do 30 burpees before moving on. I had to do 60. Messing up on 2/26 obstacles isn't bad, right. One of those was the spear throw. Sorry Reebok, I've never thrown a spear before! Give me another chance!

 ^^This was the only obstacle besides the spear throw where I had to do burpees. Stupid gloves! I desperately want to try this one again!^^

^^uneven monkey bars^^

^^crawling under barbed wire. I saw the camera man and panicked and threw up a peace sign like a freaking ____^^^

If you are ever thinking of running a Spartan, I have some advice for you! I don't know if it makes me more or less credible that I just did my first one. Probably less, but maybe it makes me more convincing if you feel like an amateur too! 

• Say a prayer. I said a prayer before the race that I would be able to feel the spirit and find opportunities to share the love of Christ. This totally gave me the right attitude! When it got really hard to hike, I saw flowers popping up in the mountains, and they felt like a motivational gift from my higher power. I also had my eyes opened to strangers who needed help with obstacles. I helped a lot of people over a wall while waiting for my teammates; I gave a guy who was cramping my Powerade for the sodium; and a guy's feet fell off the monkey rope but I ran to catch his legs before they hit the ground, and helped him get his feet back on the rope. This prevented him from doing burpees. I'm not telling you this to toot my own horn. I'm telling you this to convince you to say a prayer.
• Hike! I was nervous because I was only up to about 8 miles of running on flat ground, and I had heard that the Salt Lake Spartan contained a lot of hills. I didn't know that my love of hiking was preparing me for this race! There are parts of the race where you basically hike straight up and straight down. Nobody runs this part, and it totals probably 3 miles. All my hikes definitely gave me an advantage here!
• Climb! I have this completely useless talent that I can climb anything. And I love climbing everything! Climb trees, monkey bars, fences- whatever you can find! This will prevent you from having to ask for help on a lot of obstacles. It will save you from a lot of burpees too!
• I wore Nike hot shorts, a breathable tank (NOT cotton), and a water bottle belt. I believe I had a very accommodating wardrobe. I'm glad I wore the belt because they only have 4 water stations. I took my belt off for the mud pits then just picked it back up when I was done. I also brought gloves, but I think they hurt more than they helped; hence, my first set of burpees. 
• Take a gas relief pill before the race. This helps get rid of the pre-game poops. Or the running craps feeling. TMI???
• Clif gel energy blocks. You're going to need at least one whole bar. Take as directed. I credit me finishing to these gels!
• Something salty. I've heard that salt helps muscle cramps. Remember how I said I brought a water bottle belt? Well I filled up the water bottle with Powerade and salt, then just refilled it with water at a water station.
• Bring fans! The course weaves in and out of the starting area, so spectators can watch you do all the obstacles, and take pictures and cheer you on. The only person there for us was a guy on my team's mom, but I was glad she was there for moral support! She was so nice to help us all out even though we had just met her!
• Work smarter, not harder. Use your team mates to help. Ask strangers for help. There's no point in working harder than you have to.
• Do your research. The experts have great things to say! Just Google Spartan advice and you'll learn all the tricks of the trade!

Let me know if you want a team for next year. Like I said, I seriously LOVED it! I would do another one in a heartbeat!

Independence Day 2015

Gavin's busy doing an internship thing this summer, but he got four days off for the fourth! Woot woot! We celebrated having him home by attempting to hike the Brighton lakes, and spending time with family. 

I say "attempting" because we didn't actually make it. Halfway into the hike, Gavin bit into a starburst, so we had to turn around and head to a dentist because the stinkin starburst pulled off a crown from one of Gav's back teeth! LUCKILY he has a family friend who is a dentist and he was able to do a quick fix on his day off. Thank you thank you!! 
I will post info on this hike once we actually do it! Gorgeous nonetheless! Plus... if Gavin hadn't eaten that starburst the wrong way, we never would have seen that beautiful moose! 


We dropped by my parents house to say hi and hang out, then went to his parent's house for a family party with lots of funny little kids! 

We wore O out! He was more interested in glow sticks than anything else. He fell asleep during the city's fireworks! He hasn't fallen asleep in my arms in months, yet alone when explosions are going off! I'm glad he was happy though and let us enjoy the show! Thank you to everyone who helped make it a fun holiday!

Four Corners

Day two of our road trip consisted of a whole lot of driving through the middle of nowhere. New Mexico, apparently, is almost as bad as Wyoming.
We stopped at the four corners, which is what I expected- boring and worth seeing. The monument was  run by Native Americans trying to sell their jewelry and decorations. I thought I'd see that everywhere in New Mexico, so I didn't give much thought into buying anything there. Looking back, I wish I would have! They had some really cool, authentic stuff! 

Little O in four places at once!

That other family photo bombing us <<<

And a postpartum back-bend. Yikes!

Then, we were back on the road! I wanted to see Chaco Culture- a National Park of Native American Ruins. So, we drove way out of the way in order to spend time here. We turned when we saw the signs and discovered that in order to reach Chaco Culture, one must drive about 12 miles (45 minutes) on a dirt road. It was this point in time that I discovered my fear of being alone. 
A couple miles onto the road, we were out of service, in the middle of nowhere, with LITERALLY no one and nothing around. Completely alone, and I was terrified! I chickened out and told Gavin to turn the car around, It was hot outside, we had a baby in the car, and we were driving a Mazda that had just reached 200,000 miles. If something were to have happened to us, we would have been screwed. I've never been so scared in my life. If anyone every wants to go back here in a car that is more than 5 inches off the ground and has less than a six digits on the odometer, let me know. I'd still love to visit this place.

Not going to lie, there were some sketchy parts of New Mexico. And the only other things I could find to do were hikes to hot springs. That did not sound appealing with the weather conditions! In all, day two consisted of a long long time on the road. (A.K.A. lots of Signing Time and Baby Einstein on the portable DVD player). We finally made it to Santa Fe and booked ourselves into a hotel where we spent the next couple of days. 

Delicate Arch

I know this is late...again, but I want to keep this blog up because I don't journal or scrapbook! Turns out working full time and taking care of a 7 (!) month old is pretty busy! 

We had to take our first family road trip a couple weeks ago. Salt Lake to Dallas is a looong drive. So since we were going to be in the car at least 3 days, why not make it 5 and see the sights, right? 

We started off our trip with a drive to Moab. We hiked up to Delicate Arch with Owen on our backs. We were pretty worried about him in the heat, but we kept giving him water and pedialyte and spraying him with a squirt bottle and he was fine. Do any other parents spray their kids with squirt bottles? 
This arch is huge! The hike was a little difficult considering the heat and a 75th percentile baby on my back, not hard enough to turn anyone away though! Gavin's hat blew off at the top of the hike and a random couple hiked down to find it and bring it back to us. They earned the f-pod title for the day! If you do this hike, consider this a fair warning: it is VERY windy once you get to the arch!

What's a trip to Arches NP without a picture of Balanced Rock?!

Something I loved about Arches Park was that English speakers were a minority. It made me think about how blessed we are to have the backyard that we do. There were a lot of people from other countries and cultures. I love that people come from all over the world to visit our beautiful state, but with all do respect, some of them have no idea what they are in for! 

Gavin made the spot-on comment about a group of foreign tourists who "look like they just went to REI and bought a bunch of crap that they don't know how to use". I wish I could give you a visual without sounding racist. We then referred to these clueless tourists as "desert wanderers" because there was no better term to describe them. We laughed so hard over this!

It's a shame we didn't have time to explore the park and Moab even more, but Christmas came early and we did buy ourselves an annual national parks pass! So which of you 75 year olds wants to go back with us soon? 

Stunt Run

I like to blog about things a month after they happen. It's cool.

 I want to post a lot of updates on our month of June- the trips, the fun, the not-fun, and pictures of O. 

Until then, enjoy this video, filmed at the end of May. Oops!

Stunt Run from Madi McCleary Scott on Vimeo.

Ghost Falls

Gavin quit his job in February so that I could go back to work without sending O to a babysitter all day every day. We figured that since he was still in school, it'd be better for him to be the one without a job besides taking care of a baby. Gav graduated at the beginning of May and doesn't start his internship until June, so the month of May has been great for playing on my days off! I'm almost caught up on journaling about all our adventures!
Last weekend we went to Ghost Falls, behind the Draper Temple. All the wild animal warnings and rattlesnake warnings almost scared me off... but luckily we didn't have any close calls!

Use these links to get there:

• http://utahsadventurefamily.com/ghost-falls-hike/
• http://www.willhiteweb.com/utah_hiking_trails/ghost_falls_trail/corner_canyon_109.htm

The KKBK and the Fairy Forest

KKBK stands for Kamas Kabin Breakfast Club. I love how I can show up at half time with my best friend and not feel like I'm missing out! 
We played Team Uno. Girls won. The boys fished. And we stopped for pizza and ice cream on the way out.

On the way home, we made a 30 minute detour to go to a fairy forest! This was the weirdest, most random, coolest thing ever! Like so random I can't even describe it! If you are on your way to mirror lake, pull off by mile marker 17 and cross a little river. You'll find yourself in the middle of tons of painted rocks and trees and jewels. It's kind of hippie ish but for little kids. Whatever it is, I thought it was sweet! 
People paint rocks and trees and anything they can make pretty and leave it in the garden for visitors to enjoy. It's free game for anyone. I think it's called the fairy forest because people make and paint little homes from rocks that fairies can live in. I guess?? I'm glad we stopped. 

Use this link if you want to get there. And bring your own paint or something you want to leave behind.