family- isn't it about time? and food? and running?

Sometimes my family is so cool that we do themed dinners.  Egg-stravaganza! Soup night! Tuber-tacular!

A few weeks ago we had the much anticipated BYU foods night.  The menu:

bread and honey butter :: Sugar and Spice in the Cougareat

pasta salad :: the Skyroom

(And Dallyn, mid-bite)

J Dawgs, including the sauce (recipe here)

Navajo Tacos :: L&T in the Cougareat
(I see a suspicious lack of lettuce on Daren's birthday plate....)

Smoothies :: Jamba Juice

mint brownies :: Sugar and Spice... and any BYU catered event

Mackenzie Trivia: I have worked at two of the above mentioned establishments.

Continuing on the topic of delicious food, Beau and I went to Colorado for Thanksgiving and had a wonderful time with the whole Parks family.  Ellen is always a great hostess to everyone and we enjoyed spending time with family and continuing the tradition of the desirable White Elephant gift exchange.

This is a lot of cuteness (and pregnant ladies and mustaches) for one photo.

Beau is so photogenic. And/or Jocelyn is just a good photographer.

My sister in law Alyse's child in utero has a serious birth defect that will require the baby to have all sorts of therapy and open heart surgery and other scary things. Please check out their website to learn more about the situation and what you can do to help.

Back on the East Coast, we went on a little jaunt to North Carolina to participate in the Mistletoe Half Marathon.  I am super proud of my mom for doing her first half!  Page and Rick and I planned on doing this a while ago, and for weeks I kept trying to convince Mom to sign up. I received very negative responses. Then, on Thanksgiving day I called to say hello from Colorado and she reported she had done 10 miles that morning and signed up that weekend.

Unfortunately none of us actually ran together because we were all different paces... but we all came through with Mom as she finished.

I did not train very well for this race- a combination of poor planning, lack of daylight, and some random tendon pain.  However, I am pleased to report that I finished at 2:07- a couple minutes faster than my last half. Go figure.

And a little programming note... get ready for more frequent posting and an inundation of thru hiking talk. :)