First 5k

The 4th was packed full of fun and firsts and we loved it!

I've been wanting to do a 5k for a few years now. I registered for one a few years ago and when I discovered I was pregnant with Thing Two I dropped out for fear that training for my first race while pregnant would put too much strain on my body. (I have a harder time carrying a baby to full-time than the average woman, which I'll tell you about someday)

About two weeks ago my husband signed us up for the Freedom Run 5k and I was both excited and nervous!

We ran as a family and I give major props to my husband for pushing the double jogging stroller the entire race, of which almost the last mile was very much uphill!! He set a great pace that kept me going steady for most of the race. We got some great shout outs from race officials on the loudspeaker for pushing a double jogging stroller.

It was an awesome race!! A good part of the race ran along the 4th of July parade route, before the parade started, and they had music playing and people cheering (those who had camped out along the parade route to get a good spot) which was a great motivator since I wasn't in quite as good a shape as I had hoped to be. It was a great feeling to hear my name called out as I crossed the finish line. 

And yes, we got the girls straight out of bed and put them in the car with snacks so those are their pajamas you see.

We are hoping to do another race soon, keep getting better, and maybe do a 10k by the end of the year!

Later we met up with friends at a park up the canyon, that the river runs through, for lunch and playing in the river.

After lunch we played games (learned some fun new ones) and eventually went home, grilled chicken for dinner and attempted to put our over-tired kiddos to bed early enough to sleep through the massively loud aerial fireworks that the people in our neighborhood light off at every opportunity.

Overall it was a great 4th of July and we had some awesome firsts as a family.

The Freedom 5k is supposed to one of the more fun races. What races have you enjoyed running?

Provo Park Hop #1 Bicentennial Park

Every week this summer a group of friends and I will be visiting a new park in Provo to try it out, learn more about our town and find fun new places to play! Hopefully every Friday I will be posting an update about the park we visited the day before.

Yesterday we played at Provo Bicentennial Park. To be honest, the park was almost to Springville and didn't really feel like it was in Provo. Lots of parking spaces right next to the grass which was awesome, no walking through a crowded parking lot with kids in tow.

My friend Melissa brought a bow and arrows and helped each of the kids take a turn. Definitely the highlight of the trip!

The playground was nice and big with plenty of swings, which meant no fighting over swings which was great! Lots of big shade trees for the mammas to camp out under while our kids played.

The duck pond was kind of muddy, we only saw two ducks and they were hiding behind a big fallen tree in the water and weren't interested in the bread Thing One brought and was so excited to feed them so that was a bit of a letdown for her. Thing Two loves ducks, with a PASSION so I was hoping she would be able to see them but she didn't know what she was missing out on.

Thing Two wore her tutu to the park and spent most of her time on the blanket eating snacks or chasing bubbles.

Overall it was a great park with tons of nice lush green grass for the kids to run and play. It was almost too big of a grassy area for little kids as we had a harder time keeping track of them. There is a HUGE hill that they can run up and then roll down.

We loved the playground, shady trees and large grassy area the most. 

What things are a priority for you when choosing which park to take your kids too?

Things we didn't do: 

Wetlands area with a boardwalk to walk on while you check it out.

Sand volleyball area

Disc golf course