Goodbye 2011

Today I ended the year with a morning run at the Boise Greenbelt with Matt.  I like seeing the river at this time of year with its exposed rocks.  The Canadian geese were abundant in all of their honking glory.  The sun was shining brightly, creating a beautiful glow on the water.  Cute, little mallard ducks waddled around.  One slipped on the ice on the path in front of us.  Thankfully, I did not.

Good-bye 2011.  It was a wonderful year.

700

That was the number I picked January 4, 2011.  My goal on my nifty Nike+ was to run 700 miles in 52 weeks.  I accomplished that today, December 28th.  Victory for me!  Here's a picture of my computer screen after uploading my run.  

It was a good running day, too.  I was able to sleep in and then start my run at 9 am.  I had to go by myself though which was the only bummer.  The weather was fantastic.  It was 44 degrees with a slight wind and light sprinkles of rain.  I had to take my hat and gloves off after mile one.  I wish the weather in the winter was always that warm.  I can't stand the below freezing temps that I endure on other mornings.  

I need to set a new goal.  800 should be good.  I can reach that with no problem if I don't get injured like I did this past fall.  I have two races already planned which will make me keep to a good training program through the first half of 2012.  We are doing the Salt Lake Half Marathon again this April, and then in June, we have the Ragnar Relay in Utah... The Wasatch Back.  We'll be doing that with my side of the family.  It will be "fun".  

YEA for me!  I can do hard things.  Now I just have to make it a little bit harder for the new year so I can be better than I am now.

12 Days of Christmas: Days 7-12

Here's the rest of what I did for "An Idaho Christmas".

On the SEVENTH day of Christmas

We bring to you with love…

An Evening at Winter Garden-A-Glow

We will be meeting up with Aunt Carol and her family at the Boise Botanical Gardens.  There we will see beautiful Christmas lights sparkling in the snowy landscape.  Well…maybe there won’t be any snow, but it certainly will be festive.  We’ll come home and warm up with some hot cider.

On the EIGHTH day of Christmas

We bring to you with love…

A Boise Puzzle

How cool is this?  During Christmas break, we can put together a Dowdle folkart puzzle of our very own hometown.  Do you recognize any familiar landmarks?  We love Boise, Idaho! 

On the NINTH day of Christmas

We bring to you with love…

Service at the Idaho Food Bank

This is our second annual Eastman Christmas service at the food bank.  It was so fun last year bagging the frozen vegetables.  What do you think they will have us do this year?  They sure appreciate our help.  Doesn’t it feel good to know we are doing our part in feeding the hungry people of Idaho?  The Reamans will be coming with us again!  And for even more fun, so will the Hammer family!

 On the TENTH day of Christmas

We bring to you with love…

Huckleberry Honey and Idaho Postcards

Huckleberries grow abundantly in Idaho.  Let’s make some scones tonight and eat them with some of this huckleberry honey.  Mmmmm.  While we enjoy our scones, we will be writing on these postcards from Idaho.  You can send one to whomever you wish!

On the ELEVENTH day of Christmas

We bring to you with love…

A Night Out At the Movie Theater

Tonight we will be going to see a movie together.  Since Christmas Day is a Sunday this year, we can’t do it on that day like we usually do.  Dad and I think going to Tin Tin 3D would be fun.  What do you think? 

On the TWELFTH day of Christmas

We bring to you with love…

Warm Pajamas

Idaho is so cold at this time of year!  Go on a pajama hunt around the house to find the pajamas that will keep you warm and toasty on this Christmas Eve.  Come back to the family room for our annual family picture and a yummy treat.

 

12 Days of Christmas: Day 1-6

It's time for my favorite Christmas tradition! I love planning our 12 Days of Christmas. This is my 4th year doing it. I started this tradition after reading a book by my mom's friend, Betty Van Orden. Her first book is called The Twelve Days of Christmas: Ideas For a More Meaningful Holiday Season. She has an encore book with more ideas. I can't say enough good things about it. I get so excited at the end of the summer as I begin my planning.  It takes a lot of thought and effort at times, but I love every moment of it.

My themes have been "Making Memories", "Give As the Savior Gives", "Angels Among Us", and this year's theme is "An Idaho Christmas".   Nobody knows the theme until the first day.

Each year, I work in a couple of annual gifts like ornaments for each child, a new Christmas book, and service.  Here's our first 6 days of this year.  More to come after Day 12.

On the FIRST day of Christmas

We bring to you with love…

Ornaments for Our Tree

This year, our 12 Days theme is “An Idaho Christmas”.  We live in a pretty great state, so each day’s gift will have something to do with Idaho.  You will always remember The Potato State as you place this funny, little ornament on your Christmas tree every year. 

On the SECOND day of Christmas

We bring to you with love…

Spud Bars

Made in Idaho!  What a unique yummy treat!  Who knew a potato could taste so good?  Only in Idaho can you get chocolate marshmallow potatoes.  Enjoy!

 

On the THIRD day of Christmas

We bring to you with love…

A Christmas Book and Old Fashioned Candy Sticks

Here is a tiny book to add to our wonderful collection of Christmas stories.  This one is called “The Night Before Christmas in Idaho”.  What do you think happens on the night before Christmas here in Idaho?  Let’s spend a few minutes together and find out!

On the FOURTH day of Christmas

We bring to you with love…

Potato Guns

That’s right!  We are going to have a potato gun fight in the backyard!  Did you ever think that you’d be hit with flying potato pellets?  Who do you think will have the best aim?  Let’s go outside and have some fun together!

On the FIFTH day of Christmas

We bring to you with love…

Dinner at Boise Fry Company

This local restaurant opened here in Boise in 2009.  Not only are they popular here in the Treasure Valley, it has since been promoted nationally by the Food Network and by ESPN Game Day host, Erin Andrews.  Let’s go eat there tonight for dinner!  Which of the seven types of fries will be your fav?  Will you try the blueberry ketchup or how about the bison burger?

On the SIXTH day of Christmas

We bring to you with love…

A Movie Night

Tonight we will be watching a family favorite… Napoleon Dynamite.  Filmed here in Idaho, this low budget movie really made it big time!  Guess what’s for dinner?  Lyle got some steak for us to eat tonight! Who needs Napoleon’s tots when we have our own Idaho potatoes. And since Kip didn’t eat all of the chips, we can have some of those, too, while we watch the movie together.

Look Who's 40!

It finally came. Ten days ago on the 8th. My 40th birthday. I remember when I was a probably 11 or 12. My older sister and I were talking with our Aunt Liz about being 40. Not sure why. Maybe she had just turned 40. Anyway, I remember laughing as we talked about being "firm at 40"...referring to the benefits of having a small chest. Well, I'm not sure that Aunt Liz was really telling the truth. For sure I don't have low hanging bosoms, but they aren't "firm at 40" like I had once hoped. Ha Ha! But I'm pretty fabulous at 40, I must say. I like where I'm at. I like me at 40.

Matt surprised me with my own "Amazing Race". He knows how much I love that show. He printed off a bunch of clues that looked just like the ones on TV. We didn't go anywhere exciting or exotic. Someday I'll get to go to Thailand or the Greek Isles... but for my birthday this year I went to Twin Falls.

My "task" there was to go to the temple. We left the kids home by themselves Wednesday night. It's so nice that they are old enough and responsible enough for us to be able to do that. We stayed in a nice hotel suite. I loved sitting in the loft jacuzzi tub watching "The Blind Side". So relaxing.

The temple was wonderful. Such a beautiful birthday morning. I love being in the temple with my sweetheart.

My "roadblock" after that led me to a sushi place there in town. Yeah, Twin Falls isn't your ideal place to find sushi. Matt knew that this certainly would be a challenge for me to do. I've eaten it before... first time was in Tokyo. Maybe I've gagged it down on a date a time or two after that. So my challenge was that I had to eat six pieces. I ordered the spicy tuna roll. Thankfully we sat in a corner of the restaurant so I could gag in semi-privacy. It really isn't the taste of it so much as it is the texture that does me in.

The next clue led us back to Boise where Matt took me to get some new running clothes. Then we headed home to do my next task of running 40 minutes in honor of my 40th birthday. I loved that. It was great to run at dusk. I hadn't done that in a long time. My usually running time is 6 am.

My last clue to my "race" took me back on the road to Texas Roadhouse. It had been quite a long time since I had been there. I love their rolls with cinnamon butter. I could have just eaten those and called it a day. Matt also threw in some other nice gifts throughout my Amazing Race birthday. I loved that he was thoughtful and that he loves me. He shows me his love every day. My forties will be fantastic.

Oh, Atlanta! I Hear You Callin'

After a year of planning an Eastman reunion, the time finally came to make it happen. Because the Eastmans are spread out all over the country (San Fran, Dallas, Richmond, Atlanta, Boise, SLC), it is a rare event that we are all gathered together. This was sure to be memorable. Matt and I had never been to Atlanta before, so we were excited to get to explore a new city, too. One of Matt's younger brothers lives in Atlanta with his family. They were so generous in letting us all stay in their lovely home. I wish I had taken a picture of it. I love colonial style homes. Here's the fam. We wish that Jeremy and Tyler, our BYU nephews, could have been there, too.

Some highlights of our trip... The world's largest aquarium is in Atlanta.

We went to The World of Coca Cola. Kinda fun to see all the memorabilia and to see the bottling process. The best part was the tasting room with over 60 sodas sold around the world made by Coca Cola. The most disgusting one was the italian one,"Beverly". Bitter nastiness.

One day we went to the CNN World Headquarters for a tour. That was really cool. We got to watch part of a live broadcast and see lots of behind the scenes action. Emma even got to demonstrate the green screen and the "invisibility cloak".

Uncle Ken taught us how to shoot. He took us to a shooting range and let us try some of his awesome guns.

The Atlanta History Center was interesting. It had several interesting exhibits that we went to like the 1996 Olympic Museum, a large collection of Civil War items, and a southern folk art gallery. The Center also had two historical homes and gardens. We toured the Swan House built in 1928. I just found out this will be the final destination (this Sunday) of my all-time favorite show... of course... The Amazing Race.

Another highlight of our Atlanta reunion... eating at Flip Burger with part of the gang. Oh yum. I should have stopped after the burger and sweet potato tots with chocolate marshmallow foam for dipping. But one more item looked so intriguing... the Krispy Kreme milk shake needed to be ordered. It was a bit over the top! Thankfully, it was shared among part of the group. Our first Eastman Iron Chef contest was a blast. The three ingredients randomly chosen were pomegranate, vanilla, and the one that proved to be a bit tricky to work into the trio was coriander. But we turned out some delicious food. The Eastman clan can cook! Of course Thanksgiving Day was wonderful. From the 5K race to the yummy dinner to the Girls' Favorite Things night. It was all so fun and so worth the time, effort, and money to go to Atlanta.

A Grateful Run

I am grateful for a body that allows me to run. I really do love running despite some days that I have a hard time getting myself out the door. I'm grateful that my calf was healed up enough that I could run in the Atlanta Thanksgiving Day 5K. What a beautiful morning for a race! Matt, Josh, and I ran with Matt's brother, Alex and their sister, Rach. Their youngest brother, Jed, and his wife, Heather, went with us so that we could have some awesome cheerleaders. I ran by myself and finished in 29 1/2 minutes. I even placed 22nd in my age division. Not too shabby. Okay, you might be thinking that there were only maybe 50 people in the 35-39 women category for me to place that well. But no. There were over 100. Thank you very much. Maybe the really fast ladies stayed home to cook their turkeys and pie that morning! Running on Thanksgiving morning is the best. It's a great way to burn off calories so I can go eat more calories later on in the day and not feel too guilty.