Seattle ~ The hike

After our awesome bridge experience, we headed down to the head of the 

hiking trail and spent a few hours hiking and enjoying the beauty of Washington.

It is so green there it takes your breath away.

The hike included a gorgeous view of the water. 

Not to mention that incredible mountain you see in the background.

That tree was so crazy tall. I couldn't get over it.

And more beautiful views of the water.

These trees were so wild. They looked like they had a sunburn, all red and peeling.

I have an abnormal fascination with/love of ferns.

 Good grief, we had a wonderful time. And there was so much more to go.

To be continued...

Seattle ~ The bridge

Jacob and I had the opportunity to get away, just the two of us, on a fabulous vacation. 

Because neither one of us had been there, we decided to give Seattle a try.  We had two

of the greatest people ever (thank you Taunya and Jonny!) taking care of our kids 

(more on those two later) and we were beyond grateful to be gone for several days in a

row (something we have never done in 15 1/2 years of marriage). It was so incredibly 

fun and so ridiculously relaxing. It will forever be one of our favorite memories.

After flying into Seattle, we grabbed our rental car and drove just over an hour to our hotel.

We decided we wanted to spent most of our time (if not all of it) in nature and on the water.

And boy did we. We spent the rest of that evening relaxing and planning the next few days.

The next morning, we slept in a bit (happy day!) and then took off to a nearby state park called 

Deception Pass. As we were headed to go on a hike, we came upon an incredible bridge.

And stopped to take a better look. Which made perfect sense to someone who is as

terrified of heights as I am. It was so high folks. Sweet waffles, it was something else.

 

 These first two views were just amazing.
And then we started walking on the bridge.

The views continued being amazing, but my stomach had dropped so far,
I think it went missing for a while. And yet, it was completely worth it.

 This crazy seaweed, mixed with the incredible color of the water, was just amazing.

Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous. Even with a missing stomach.

To be continued...

Gracie girl at ten months

Two years

A few months back, Jacob's parents let us know that they would be leaving soon to serve a

mission for our church. We were not especially surprised (we knew they have wanted to serve

when the time was right), until they let us know where. Beirut, Lebanon. Um, come again?

I wasn't aware that was an option for missionary service. But I was wrong.

And so today, off they flew. It is strange to think they are gone and when they return, so much

will have changed. When we stopped to think about how old each of our kids would be,

it put things in perspective quickly. But it is right. And we are beyond grateful to have parents

who make the choice to do what is right, rather then what is easy. Even if we will miss them.

We said goodbye to them on Sunday and took some photos before we left. It wasn't until we
downloaded the ones of them with our kids that we realized they were completely blurry.
We were pretty devastated, as Jacob's camera is usually great about capturing high quality photos,
but I was grateful we at least got this one. And that I could alter lighting enough to see the

three of these fine people together. This picture makes me smile and fills me with gratitude.

I am eternally thankful for Jacob's parents. They raised the most caring, loving, kind, hard-working,
loyal and just plain good-to-the-core person I have ever known. And it is the privilege of my life,

and eternity, to be married to him. My gratitude for their goodness and their sacrifices and 

their willingness to be who they are as people and as parents is more than I could ever share.

They are good, good people. And the people of Lebanon, who will have any kind of

interaction with them, be it one time or dozens of times, will be blessed because of it.

As we have been.

"God our strength will be; press forward ever,

Called to serve our King."

 

We love you Rex and Nancy! Our prayers are with you every single day.

My sick babies

One with a major ear infection and one with strep throat. We are not a big medication family,

but today I'm so very grateful for antibiotics. Seeing these little ones sick is so pathetically sad.

World Cup party

We hosted an Allen Family World Cup party this afternoon. The Allens are soccer crazy,

to say the least, so we thought it was an appropriate excuse for a gathering.

We interrupt the World Cup to bring you a fun gender reveal for one of the 

upcoming cousins joining the Allen family at the end of this year. It's a girl!

And a gathering around the 4th of July wouldn't be complete without a cherry

spitting contest. See all of those serious spitters (did I just say that?) standing

 by their record distance? Grandma Wally and Grandma Alice would be proud.

And except for feeding these people some lunch, the rest of the time

 was spent watching two World Cup games. Good, good times for sure.

Independence Day

These photos pretty much sum up their relationship at any given time

June phone pics

I may look forward to Annie's weekly riding lessons as much as she does. Okay, that

likely isn't possible. But I sure love them and can't believe how well this girl rides.

Alrighty, this is one of my favorites for the month. No, this isn't how the back of our van looks

most days. Earlier on this particular day, I had picked up the mail and because I was headed on

some errands, stacked it nicely on the backseat. Along with that binder you see that I needed for

one of my errands. Before I came home, I took the van into the mechanic because they had fixed

something earlier in the day and it had caused another problem. When I got back into the car after

 it had been fixed and test driven, I was greeted with this when I opened the back door. I laughed

hard. I mean seriously, I had been driving all over and that stack had stayed put. If you were

driving a car that is not yours wildly enough to make things fall off the seat, wouldn't you 

attempt to put them back so as not to incriminate yourself? Apparently not. Awesomeness.

The graininess of this photo does not represent the love the members of our household

have for the World Cup. There was a lot of watching, loads of screaming and enough

anxiety (I'm looking at you Chile!) to cause some significant heart problems. But we love

it so much. Especially a certain group of boys and their father. Four more long years...

Jacob has been traveling a lot. Like weekly. Only no "like" about it. For almost ten months now.

Here is yours truly on an evening the kids were in bed a bit early and the house was quiet.

Pathetic yet riveting, yes? Okay, yes on the first, but a definite no on the second. Apologies.

A morning run in DC

And a Kennecott Utah Copper bonus pic on the flight home.

A trip to Scotland

Several months ago, Jacob received a phone call. From the person who heads this non-profit I wrote about quite a while ago. Since we left Boston, Jacob has obviously not consulted for them again, but he and Magnus (oh man, he is still one of our favorite people ever!) have kept in touch. But this phone call was a little different than the few they have had since we moved to Utah.

Jacob was asked to be on the international board of directors for Mary's Meals. I can't say that I was suprised exactly (knowing how good and caring Jacob is to the deepest part of his soul), but I was pretty overwhelmed at what felt like a huge honor. Like I mentioned in my previous post, these people (and especially the children they help) have grabbed our hearts. Big time. And knowing that Jacob (and our little family) could be a part of what they do for a long time to come, felt like such an incredible privilege.

Jacob will travel to Scotland twice a year for board meetings. And after being voted in by the rest of the board a few weeks after Magnus' call, Jacob attended his first board meeting this past week.

He didn't take many pictures, except the gorgeous ones you see below on one of his morning runs, but these pictures do something to my heart. Because they remind me that the Lord is so incredibly kind to let us be involved in good things. That help His children and hopefully bless their lives and relieve some of the suffering that is everywhere.

 

 There are so many good people out there who serve and care and love so much.

What an incredible blessing to be associated with some we admire like crazy.

Happy day

This is my nephew and his new wife. They were sealed today in the temple and I
was able to be there. These are the moments that make me grateful we live in Utah.

So happy for you Erik and Kaylee! You two are amazing.

The running of the race

Just over five weeks ago, I went out to lunch with two fabulous friends--Kammie and Melayne. Kammie I've known since I married Jacob (she married Jacob's cousin and has always been on of my favorite people). And Melayne I've known since I moved into our current ward, which is also her current ward. (She is a new member of my favorite people list.) What I didn't know is that the two of them have become best friends in the last few months and have been so kind to include me in lunch and visiting. I've loved it.

During said lunch, they happened to mention that they were running a half marathon the middle of June. I had no idea either of them ran and told them I was impressed. They mentioned they weren't really runners, but were challenged to do it by Melayne's sister and were going to give it a try. They had been training for a few weeks.

And then, my inner voice, the one that is nutso started to wonder if I could run the race with them. And before I could hush it up, it wondered out loud.

(Now you have to understand something about me at this point in my life. I just went through the craziest year eighteen months of our marriage--three moves, one high risk pregnancy, one baby, one husband traveling weekly for months and months on end. I am in no shape to run three miles, never name 13.1 miles. And I'm not being hard on myself, it is beyond true. I've been in survival mode for so long it is getting kind of ridiculous. I need to do a whole lot of things with my health before I even think about starting to run again. I knew this all, but still couldn't help it. I'm so competitive with myself it is kind of obnoxious.)

And of course, these two awesome ladies completely acted like I could totally run a half marathon. And my delusional self believed them. At least a little. (Even though I have never run more than 6.2 miles straight and that was years ago.) And so I told them I would think about it for a couple of hours and get back to them.

And I did. And within three hours after lunch ended, I was signed up for a half marathon less than five weeks away. I am literally insane.

I started training and did quite well for about 2 1/2 weeks. I broke no records and was majorly out of shape, but I was getting in 3 or 4 miles a day. Which was fabulous. And not even close to 13. But I kept going. Until the last two weeks. When life turned crazy again and I hardly trained. Not good. Not good at all.

But my competitive-with-myself self still wanted to give it a try. Because as I told Jacob, "I truly would rather try and fail then not even try at all." And anyone who knows me knows that apparently my body has been taken over by Pollyanna, because that is not like the Linn Allen I know. And I happen to know her pretty well.

But this past Friday, I packed my overnight bag, had the kids ready to tend each other for a little while before Jacob could come home from work, and drove off toward the city of Provo with Melayne and Kammie.

And all I could think is, "I have lost my everlivin' mind."

That night, we headed to store because Kammie and Melayne wanted to wear matching shirts and socks. And just as we had picked out what we wanted, Melayne and I got an email from our bishop asking us to pray for a sister in our ward that is fighting cancer. Things had turned scary and it was not looking good. Melayne happens to be a very good friend of hers and so we decided to put away the shirts we had picked out and to find ourselves some pink to honor our friend Patty. Who through prayers and miracles and the kindness of our Heavenly Father, is recovering better than ever expected at this exact moment. I'm so, so grateful.

Okay, back to the race.

That night, we stayed at Melayne's sister-in-law's house (so kind of her!) so we could be closer to the race and wouldn't have to wake up so early. Um yeah, if someone had mentioned the wake up time in the original plan, I think I might have quieted that inner competitive voice of mine immediately. Even staying 15 minutes from where we caught the bus to the starting line, we had to wake up at 3:15am. Sweet waffles, it was not pretty.

But the view when we got the starting line and the sun started to show up sure was.

The starting line just before 6am. I thought I would be dying of nervousness, but I think
I was too tired to be nervous. I should mention that I got three hours of sleep. Awesome.

The race started and all I could think is, "Just one foot in the front of the other. Nothing more."

A couple of miles in and I was feeling surprisingly good.

This beautiful site (boy howdy, I love waterfalls) didn't hurt.

It was the most beautiful route. And while I wasn't breaking any speed

records, I continued to feel good and it was fun to stick together as a team.

Mile seven and I'm not dead?

(But my cheesiness in this picture almost killed me after.)

 Half marathon selfie, Linn-style. Listen people, I didn't have time to worry about

a cute picture at this point. I had made it 9 miles and only had four left. Miracle!

 This here picture was taken by my sweet and amazing husband. I had asked him to not
worry about coming all that way, as first, I was nervous I was even going to finish and
second, I didn't want him having to lug all the kids so far. He didn't listen to me and even
though I didn't realize it would be the case, it meant the world to me. Seeing Jacob and the
kids with their signs cheering me on at several mile markers had me teary. You wouldn't

think it would be such a huge deal, but it honestly kept me going. I'm so blessed.

(See my sweet kids running alongside me up above? Good grief, it makes me emotional all over again.)

 We were getting pretty close at this point. Just a couple of miles to go.

And this group cheering me on made me feel like I truly finish this race.

A quick pause for a family photo. We didn't mean to get the mile 11 marker
 in there, but hey, I appreciate one more bit of proof that I did this thing.

 And we finished!

And I didn't die.
And I actually didn't hold the other two up.
And I love my family like crazy.
And I'm already signed up to do another half.
Which means I've totally and completely lost my mind.
But what is new?

(By the way, I thought about wearing my medal to the church the next day.
You know, just because it matched my outfit. But I didn't want to make anyone jealous.
I think my inability to walk for the following three days did enough of that.)

I ran a half marathon today

I'm not sure if my body or my mind is more in shock. 

(Race pictures coming soon...)