So now I returned from the prior catch up post

So this... Running... since i caught up on everything else... So just in case you don't know... I married into a family of runners pretty much. Chester and Marcie were track coaches they all ran blah blah blah. They are all very good runners and are very good athletes! Now since Jenny started running she has gotten me all inspired to run and go from not a runner and hating to run, to a half way runner and WANTING to not hate running! Needless to say i am just so lazy sometimes that i would just rather go to the gym then go run and feel like jello and have burnt lungs that make me cough. Leon would say suck it up, it gets batter. SO! I have been cordially "invited" to participate in the ragnar with them...them being most of the family INCLUDING troy and my husband Andrew.. so i said yes... Well from buying a house and working some crazy overtime it has been hard to fit into the schedule. I started running with my sister in law Amy, first day...torture! second day a little better. I felt just so good that i could run 2 miles and still be alive. Stopping frequently from a side cramp or my stupid toe throbbing because it needs surgery again. I am such a baby! I don't like to run indoors watching TV because i get too bored and i hate to run outside where i show anyone a sign of weakness. Jenny PROMISED me that once i got past the first 2 miles it would be easier. Easy for her to throw at me the other day..." Mandy, I ran 10 miles today"!@!!!!! WHATY!!! I just can't beleive how far she has come all by just starting! and keeping at it. So needless to say I am going to get my butt up and RUN! It's so good to have family that cares and wants to help keep me motivated. I'm excited for the ragnar. I'm going to blog through it and post my success as i do it and you all can yell at me if i don't! ha...Not to mention ANOTHER mishappening that happened to stop me from running. On Tuesday morning Leon called me at about 9:30ish to give me crap about not running with Amy that morning. I was supposed to work from 6AM-11PM all week so it would not have worked out anyway, but me and Amdrew decided to take the day off of work and go look at houses on Monday. On our way home from picking up his truck I got into an accident! :( So my body is not runable at this time nor is it really anythingable 100% yet. So to get back to the running. A schedule will be posted for me and I am going to get past theose few miles and just keep going. I have about8-9 months of training and then acheive my goal.:) Over the fourth of July weekend we went up to Heber of course. Carissa's run was the morning of the 4th and I didn't think I would do it since i had worked 17 hour days all week, had some dental work sone and needed 2 root cancals, and would not get up the mountain until about midnight. At about 5:50AM Leon comes in the room where we were sleeping and asks andrew if i was gonna run, andrew said no and leon was gone. It registered to me then that i WANTED to do the run. I hurried and got ready and raced out the door to find the race had started with not a single runner in site... so i registered and took off down buckskin road. I soon found runners and i didn't finish last! LJ, Alice, Amanda, Troy and all his kids, and all 4 of amy and Leon's kids did the 2k. Jenny, Amy, Leon, Chester, and Marcie all did the 6k. It was alot of fun! That's the feeling i get when i run, like i really accomplished something, and it's great following through with it.

Vacation has come to an end...with special thanks

And a special thanks from us to Amy and Leon for planning such a fun and memorable vamily vacation!

Some radom pictures at the Start pass resort where we stayed. We had such a great time. Cutting the cake for Chester's birthday

watching baseball

Right as we pulled up to our resort for the first night coming back from grocery shopping there were deer in front of out suite. you can only really see their eyes in the picture because it was dark

A little frog came to visit us the night we got locked out of our room. "somehow" the dead bolt inside the room gets locked and the front desk had to come open it.

For chester's birthday we decided to find him what we thought to be the "ugliest" shirt in the store. He actually wore it the very next day. What a trooper!

Happy Father's Day mixed vacation broken down car

After we finally got our car fixed and a new battery put in, we made our way to the brazilian Steak house in Chandler. Fogo E Brasa. Since Leon server his mission in Brazil he loves this type of food. Ever since me and Andrew started dating he has been wanting us to go to this place so we finally did for Father's day. It was so good. I was not expecting to like it so much. It is like 31 dollars a plate, but you get 14-15 types of meats, pineapple, fried bananas, full salad bar loaded with all kinds of crazy things, 4 appetizers, rice and beans and this bread type stuff that i cant pronounce let alone try to spell. The kids were all really good and had just as much fun as we did trying all the different meats. The pineapple was SO good i ate it until i was pretty much stuffed! I'm pretty sure that one was ham

Graham ready for more food

the fried bananas. I was also surprised by these. They were really good as well

What a cutie

Andrew was sick:( poor guy was sick since SAturday night after we got home from the wildlife museum!

Leon and Graham...

Leon and Savannah, what a great gift for dad on father's day.

The girls. They have such great personalities

Amy, Josh, and Ashlyn

Crandell Family Vacation Part V

On Sunday the day we were leaving, we decided to make one last fun day. We went to the Pima Air and Space Museum. I guess we sure did alot of Museums this trip! This place had a father's day special for the dad's for father's day so they got in half price! It was full of guess what... Planes! It was pretty cool to see all of the old and wrecked planes that have been recovers and restructured to put on display. The museum was SO big that we decided to skip a few things because us and Amy and Leon had a dinner date planned for father's day back in Chandler. After we got done with the museum and we were all set to go home... our car decided to not start. It was a horrible mess. It was so hot out there and we had no idea what was going on. My father of a mechanic was back in phoenix could not help. With it being father's day AND a Sunday we were pretty much doomed. Much to our surprise Amy and Leon and Troy and Jennie were such good sports! They helped us figure out the problem and Amy and Leon even had to make 2 trips for us to get the right parts! It was awful...needless to say we wont be going to anymore museums on Sunday...:) This little one was names Bumble Bee

This is so funny. These were paintings of alot of the old planes that had things painted on them. Some are pretty Risque.

This was in the space building. I can't wait until we have our own kids i can photograph:)

And the other two kids.

This is ridiculous... Let me explain. That little tiny spot inside that glass box is a SPEC of moon rock. Me and Troy argued over this for some time. WHY does a TINY piece of moon rock need the BHIGGEST dispay int he whole museum?... "Because its been on the MOON..." Troy says...

I thought this picture was neat.

Some of the fam that went that day.

These two men are so amazing. They are such good guys and mean so much to me. Brothers.

Me and Andrew. We are so sarcastic from time to time

That's a true statement

There was a memo that went with this but too small to read,. Basically the pilot of this airplane was never found after it crashed in the ocean. It's so cool that it can stay semi-preserved under water.

This is 2 actualy outfits from way back in the day

Another one of the smaller airplanes

The wright brothers plane, it may have some other name. It made a nice entrance though