Its in the Air...

This time of year I always get a little homesick.

September marks the start of the cold, the start of getting ready for the winter. The start of getting Christmas Ideas and the start of the end of the year.

Idaho in the fall is so beautiful and the air is so fresh and crisp. Compared to the Texas heat where it still feels like summer. I miss the leaves changing and the thought that in just a couple of months the town would be white with snow. I miss the fall smells at my parents home. I miss knowing that this weekend is General Conference and I won't be with my mom shopping at Mini Bizzar while the guys are at priesthood. I miss stepping out the front door and having that cold air hit my face. Its just the small little things that come flooding back to me this time of year. I love Texas, it truly has become my second home, but Rexburg will always have a special place in my heart.

He Told me not to bring it up but DAN TURNS 26!

I don't know why but Dan really struggled turning 26. Its so funny and adorable, so this Birthday I wanted to be good. Dan does so much for me 364 days out of the year and so i always want his birthdays to be super special and with him its pretty easy because he is so grateful for everything.
I loved that Dan's Birthday was on a Saturday so that we had the whole day to just hangout since he is going to be gone for the next three weeks. (Yep he is gone again!) We spent most of the day opening gifts and as you can tell Dan got an electric guitar so we had a jam session. I love sitting and playing the guitar together its so much fun! He also got a little mini fridge for his office. His office mate had a mini fridge but then he graduated and Dan really missed it, so I thought I would surprise him and get him one for his birthday. Ah I love how excited he gets!! HE'S SO CUTE!

Later that night we headed to Dallas to go to the Plano Balloon Festival. It was quite the ride up there,traffic was a nightmare but we had fun entertaining ourselves in the car. We spent the evening at the festival, walking around and watching the hot air balloons. Its amazing how hot air balloons work. They are so cool!
We had a late dinner at Freebirds and then headed home. Dan said he had an awesome birthday and thats exactly what I like to hear. Its weird to think that the next time we celebrate Dan's birthday we will be in a different town, a different apartment, well starting a change of life.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LOVE!!

They say to always "Wear a Helmet"

I woke up Wednesday morning, and Dan and I took Range for a run. I was feelin good so I thought its finally cooled down enough that I could ride my bike to work. I loved it and it felt good to continue the exercise.

I head home for lunch and have a wonderful hour.

Little did I know what was coming!

So I am riding along and I make it to the busy intersection. I turn left and start riding, well a car pulls in front of me. I SLAM on my front brake and ONLY my front brake and go FLYING OVER the front of my bike.

Luckily my shoulder broke my fall and then my head hit second, crashing to the cement. Let me remind you that this all happens in front of a busy intersection and gas station. I'm pretty sure the whole town saw me take flight.

A nice older man pulls over and this is how our conversation goes:

Him: "Are you ok!?! I just saw what happened"

ME: " My shoe, I lost my shoe, can you please help me find it"

Him: "We will find your shoe, but you might have a concussion, follow my finger"

ME: "I can't I need to find my shoe"

Him: "Do you want to go to the hospital? Your head looks ok, but do you feel ok?"

"You need to be careful especially when riding with no helmet and slip on dress shoes"

ME: "No sir I have shoes, see! I just lost the one"

Him: "No, I know, your shoe is right here, I will get it for you, are you sure you don't want me to take you to the hospital?"

Me: "No I'm ok I just need to go to work, Thank you so much for stopping, you are nice!"

Him: "Well I hope your ok!"

Me: "I am thank you so much!"

I go to push my bike and I messed up the front brakes and wheel, so with my damaged head, and a bleeding shoulder I pick up my bike and carried it the rest of the way to work. When I walked in My boss had a look of horror, They were so sweet to me and bandaged my up.

Today I am immensely sore, with massive bruises all over my body! My head is ok just a few bumps and bruises around my eye, and well, as my shoulder goes, it still pretty nasty and hurts really bad, but I'm ok.

The moral of the story is wear a helmet and DO NOT HIT ONLY THE FRONT BRAKES!!

LABOR DAY WEEKEND

Ah!! I love 3 day weekends! Its a good time for Dan and I to catch up on things and spending time together. School started back up about 3 weeks ago and Dan has hit the ground running. He is already crazy busy and going to be traveling a lot this semester! I thought I had him back once his internship was over but it looks like I will be a loner once again, but I will survive.

So our weekend was full of awesomeness. Days that I get to just hangout with Dan are always awesome.

Having Monday off was exactly what we needed. We had plans with friends later that day, but we wanted to make sure we took full advantage of every minute.

We have under a year left in Waco, Texas and we decided that we better start taking advantage of our surroundings, so we headed to the Cameron Park zoo! If you look at our previous posts we spend a lot of time at zoos. Dan and I love zoos!

It was surprisingly a nice zoo for being in Waco TX. We had fun taking pictures and looking at animals that we have seen a million and one times, but they never seem to get old. Here are some pictures from the zoo.

Then there is this guy! Yep I have to put a picture of range on here. He felt left out.

Is it creepy how much I love this dog?

I DID A TRIATHLON

This post is kinda long, I go into some detail but I don't feel bad because

I DID A TRIATHLON!!

I swam… I biked… I ran…. I FINISHED!!!

I did my first triathlon on August 21, 2010. The whole Mendenhall family crossed the finish line. I admit I was the last one in the family to cross, BUT I was not the last person in the race to cross, which made me feel good. My goal was to finish and I did!

It was hard, it was really hard, but I finished with a smile on my face, well once I crossed the finish line. J I seriously am so proud of myself and my family. It’s such an accomplishment and to say that I did it with my entire family is pretty amazing.

My family is honestly what kept me going!

I talked to Megan almost every day in panic over this stupid triathlon, but she always calmed me down and told me that she would be right there with me.

Even though she ended up kicking my trash she still was a great support.

I flew into Idaho on Wednesday night, and the rest of my family came up on Thursday.

Thursday morning my mom and I went and did part of the triathlon running trail. I did ok except for my lungs were on fire. MAJOR ALTITUDE CHANGE from what I was used to training in. The fam did a practice swim in Rigby Lake. I had a panic moment and thought I was done the water temperature in Idaho is a little different then Texas, but good ol’ Mikey helped me focus on the swim and not how cold the water is. He was awesome.

Thursday night me, my sisters, and mom went to go pick megs up from the airport. This is what Megs came down the stairs to:

Two missionaries came home that night too, so there were a lot of people there. I thought my mom was going to have a heart attack of embarrassment

The days were packed with such fun things like Jessica’s baby shower, Bear world, but most of the time my stomach was in knots. All I wanted was for race day to be here. When it arrived I felt more nervous, but when the start sound went off I dove into the water not thinking twice.

SWIM

Rainbow Lake, I had to swim around a lake.

We had our blue swim caps and goggles on and started swimming when the horn went off. My sister Michelle kept yelling to make sure I was ok, and kept telling me where to go because I couldn’t see the markers in the water. I think we talked for the majority of the swim, it helped pass the time. Ha ha probably wore us out more, but it still was fun. We caught up to my dad and we all just kept an eye on each other. At the end they had volunteers there to help get you out of your wetsuit, well they strip ya down, and mine got stuck on my foot, but they just kept pulling and pulling I seriously was bouncing up and down on the mat, telling them to let me just pull it off but they were persistent and got it off. My brother in Law Joe was dying of laughter.

BIKE

Training, I was very strong on my bike, but Rexburg Hills got the best of me, and that’s where I struggled the most and lost the majority of my time. I gave myself pep talks “Yes out loud” and sang along with my music. It helped. I was by myself for the majority of the bike so I thought I was the last one.

RUN

The running trail was intense. I do admit that when I started my run, Michelle and Megan passed me running to the finish line. They were a good half hour a head of me. It made me a little sick knowing I still had all my run left and they were about to cross the finish line, but I kept going.

To cross the finish line you have to go through our high school gates and run around the track to cross. I saw my family all cheering and I started to cry. It was very emotional knowing that I was almost done.

My sister Brooke grabbed my hand and told me to keep running no matter what. My sisters all joined me for the last little bit and they crossed the finish line with me.

I have an amazing family. My Mom and Dad are amazing for running in the race, and plus planning for our entertainment and keeping us fed. I honestly don’t know how they do it.

THEY ARE INCREDIBLE! I AM SO GRATEFUL FOR THEM!!!

I am very proud of myself for doing something that I never thought in a million years I would do. Now I am hooked. I can’t wait for next year to do it all over again.

Here are the rest of the photos from the weekend!

Well its here

The triathlon that I feel has taken over my evenings with all the training, but its here.

Swim cap: Check

Wet Suit: Check

Running Shoes: Check

Bike: Check

So nervous I want to vomit: Check

WISH ME LUCK!!!!

Dan is Coming Home

Dan is coming home. In fact he will be home in about 30 minutes FOR GOOD!!!!

I AM VERY EXCITED!!!

I wanted to give Dan a welcome home gift, so I drew him a picture and had it framed.

Thought I would share my amazing art.