Spartan Beasts

 The Spartan Race was designed by seven insane ultra athletes and a Royal Marine.  It's a 12 mile obstacle course race designed to "test your resilience, strength, stamina, and quick decision making skills."  Ben, Brady, and Brandon did it in a relay team, each taking on about 4 miles and 5-10 obstacles each. 

 It was down at Soldier Hollow near Heber and was a whopping 95 degrees. Brandon's wife, Karley and I went down with them for moral support. It was so fun!

Here they are, clean, happy and ready to go:)

Some fellow contestants:

Brandon started, here he is on his way back:

Unfortunately, we weren't able to see more than about the first obstacle. Then we had to wait about 45 minutes for them to come back.  Here Ben is setting off on his first obstacle, which was to climb a wet, muddy rope to the top:

If at any time you didn't finish an obstacle, you had to do 30 burpees:

Karley and I are due on the EXACT SAME DAY!! October 2nd!

Ben on his way back and doing his last obstacle:

Brady is off, crawling through mud under barbed wire: (White shirt, red shorts)

Probably only 1 in 10 were making the javelin throw stick in the hay but Brady NAILED it!

Up and over the wall... easy for a tall guy like Brady.

Over the mud hills...

Rolling through the mud:

Ben and Brandon joined Brady to cross the finish line together:

After making it through the "Gladiators":

Finished!!

And I guess I better start preparing.... because they signed themselves and their wives up for next year's Spartan (June 2013)!! AHH!!  Burpee practice here I come! :)

The Subway

A few years ago, Ben and I hiked the Subway with our friends the Phipps HERE.  This year, being great with child and having a wedding that weekend, Ben took my brother James and hiked it with his dad and some of their friends:

  

 

They had a blast.  It's such an amazing, beautiful, challenging hike. I hope to do it again soon!

"The World's Best Dad

Award" goes to....

Benjamin Thomas Garrison.

I couldn't imagine a happier daughter and I know it's all because of her happy dad. He has more fun with her, makes her laugh more, and loves her like no other dad could. I know he will love her, protect her, teach her the gospel, and be her best friend as she grows up. 

I am so grateful that my Claire has a father like Ben.

A big thank you to all the fabulous fathers in my life. I am so grateful for your examples and love in our lives.

we adore you.

my darling ben, on your special day,

i want you to know, and i wanted to say:

i hope you feel loved. hope you feel great.

i could not have picked, a better mate.

you make me feel loved, so special so good.

claire feels this too. if she talked, she would,

tell you she's lucky to have you as a dad.

you're loving, you're funny, you're pretty darn rad. 

we love you so much. there's no one like you.

i wish everyone out there could be this blessed too.

so here's to you and your 27 years here.

too bad we're mormon, and can't have any beer.

 but that's okay, because your love makes me high.

i'm pretty good at rhyming... okay, that's a lie.

we love this man and are so grateful for him in our lives. happy birthday baby.

she's already like her daddy.

Men's Cookoff

So last weekend was the "Men's Cookoff" in our ward. Each man had to make a dish: appetizer, salad, main, or dessert, and all the women in the ward vote for the best in each category.

Ben has literally cooked twice our whole marriage... both dishes (the same recipe) didn't turn out so well, ending with the massive amount of leftovers having to be thrown out a week later because they weren't touched again. I love you for trying Ben.

Needless to say, I was quite sceptical about this activity. And being the frugal man he is, I found this simple recipe for him to do from The Simple Dollar website:

Ham and Potato Casserole
4 red potatoes, sliced
2 red onions, finely chopped
1 1/2 pounds cubed ham
1 can condensed cream of celery soup, diluted according to can directions
2 tablespoons flour

(This one is very good with cheese on top just before you serve it.)

Combine all of this into a crock pot. Add salt and pepper to taste. Turn it on low and walk away for eight hours. Add a quarter of a cup of water for every additional two hours you intend to cook it.

Looks easy enough right? Well, while Ben was slicing the ham (feeling hot and mighty in the kitchen), he decided to slice some of the ham fat really small and put it in to add flavor. I got upset and told him to remember that WOMEN will be judging, not men and that he should follow the recipe. He also wanted to put the giant ham bone in the crock pot for 8 hours, because it would again, "add flavor." Whatever. I just knew it would be a disaster. 

After 8 hours of cooking in the crock pot, Ben realized "I forgot to add the flour!" And threw some in there last minute. Great. This is going to be embarrassing.

We get there and there is such a huge turnout. TONS of food! They asked me to be in charge of tasting all the desserts... HOW LUCKY AM I? Best assignment I've ever had--"please go stuff your face with 30 different desserts and tell us which is best." OKAY!

There were so many amazing dishes, I was really impressed. The main meals Ben was up against were things like a BBQ pork sandwich,  Taco Soup, and tons of different beef dishes. At the end of the night, after everyone has eaten and the votes have been cast by the women, they start announcing the winners.

And guess who won the "Best MAIN DISH!"


That's right. I'm sorry Ben that I wasn't more supportive (I didn't even try it that night). Shame on me.
You are an amazing cook and I'm so proud of you.


P.S. The dish really is amazing, super easy, and super cheap. Go try it!

Birthday Boy

Happy 26th Birthday to the man of my life!

I love you babe. Thanks for making me happy every day of my life. I couldn't have picked a better man to be my eternal companion and soon-to-be father of my children!! I'm so excited for our little one to get here and for him/her to meet their daddy! He's going to be the best dad in the world.

I just hope they come out as cute as he did!!