2013: Recap

The reason I started this blog was to keep up with some dear friends that moved across the country.  

Now, it is for me.  

I like to be able to look back at things that I have done or places of my life. 

I have always done a recap of the year. (2010, 2011, 2012)

Last year, I did a video. 

It's even more fun to watch and remember certain moments of the year. 

Here is 2013's Recap, video style. 

2013 has been a year of growth for me.  

I'm proud to say I have learned a lot and ready to put the lessons into actions. 

Here is to 2014.

Simply 2014

2013.  The Year of Boldness. 

The year I chose to focus on 13 areas of my life. 

Career. Relationships. Travel. Fitness. 

Financial. Service. Development. Quality. 

Love. Patience. Selflessness. Forgiveness. Adventure. 

It has had some unexpected twists and turns, additions, tears, laughter and fun. 

I know more about who I am and what I want in life than any other time before. 

Settling is nothing something that I will allow myself to do. 

This year confirmed that. 

2013 allowed me to push myself in ways that I haven't. 

Professionally, I was able to create a blended (online/classroom) class at LDSBC and now getting ready to start a semester with three blended courses. 

Physically, I was able to train and complete not one Ragnar relays, but two. 

Travel, I was able to have many adventures and created memories to last a life time. I was able to add

 New York City and Portland to my list of travels this year. 

Quality, is something that I continue to strive for. Quality time and people is my focus. 

2013 also taught me I have love to give but I have to be willing to share it with people. 

2014: The Year of Simplicity. 

I want to be simply happy. 

This year, I will...

 run a half marathon.

give monthly service to an organization. 

continue to build and strengthen positive and quality relationships. 

bring value to my career, 

position myself for the future. 

love freely.

I have hope that 2014 will be full of happiness. 

New adventures & challenges. 

and a lot of laughter. 

Here's to the Year of Simple. 

Sending 2013 off with a bang

2013.  The Year of Boldness. 

There is only one way to end a year named that. 

My friend, Cristina came up from Phoenix to ring in the New Year. We started our evening at the Porcupine Grill. 

Headed to the Tasting Room to join some friends for a party.  

Then I couldn't start 2014 without spending time with Matt before he headed back west the next day. 

So Cristina and I headed over and danced the morning away with Matt, Shane and Dalton.
Best decision ever.
We had so much fun. 

So much laughing.
So much dancing.
So much sweating.

Since Matt was leaving bright n' early on New Years to drive back we couldn't just let him leave without a proper brunch. 

Even if brunch was at 3:00am, at Dee's. 

We laughed our guts out until 4:30am when we all called it a successful New Years Celebration. 

Hands down.  One of the best New Years ever.

2014 has to be incredible with a start like that. 

Just another day with us

Timing is everything. 

People come and go in your life and you realize the timing was the most important thing. 

Most times you are able to recognize how perfect the timing is after. 

Not the case with this one. 

Jason came into my life at the PERFECT time. 

I needed his honesty.

I needed his experiences. 

I needed his shoulder to lean on. 

I needed someone to push me.

and most of all I needed that person to laugh and be silly with.

I got all of that and more. 

I sure am one lucky person to have him as one of my best friends. 

The luckiest.

Triathlon 2013

Four summers ago, I planned to do my first triathlon with Zach. 

Everything quickly changed in January 2010 after his sudden death. 

The Summer of 2010, I decided I needed to do it for him. 

This summer I needed to do the same. 

It helps me do something positive for him. 

This summer was by far my best time and experience. 

My first experience I remember, sobbing on the bike ride cursing at Zach the whole time. 

2011, I cruised but still had a tough run. 

This year, I thought would be a killer. 

My training was basically none. 

In fact, when I jumped into the water, that was my first swimming of the year. 

Turns out, this year it worked for me. 

It was raining a good portion of the race. 

Which biking in the rain on a road bike is frightening. 

I felt so close to Zach and know that he was with me there the entire time cheering me on. 

Love that Julie is always ready to do the race with me!

Our cute cheerleaders for the morning!

My parents deserve a cheerleader metal. 

They sat in the rain running from place to place to cheer me, Julie, Dylan and Cole on. 

I know it was the last thing they wanted to do on a Saturday. 

But it makes all the difference when you hear people cheering your name.

The kiddos did great!  

They both are great swimmers and powered through the race!

So proud of these little dudes! 

I really did love every minute of this race, with the exception of getting up at 5:00am after being up moving Jason in until 3:00am. (Not my smartest move)

It is a good experience and helps me continue to heal from losing Zach.

I miss him everyday and grateful for his love. 

Camping at East Canyon

No summer is complete without a family camping trip. 

This year we headed up to East Canyon. 

Jennifer was out of town and the husbands all were gone so it was just us girls, the kiddos and Jason. 

My parents came up during the evening to eat dinner with us and then my Papa came up to ride the jet skis with us. 

It was a great time. 

The first afternoon we rented this for the kiddos. 

I think the adults may or may not have had more fun. 

It worked us though! 

Jason and I were in charge of dinner that night so we cooked hot dogs for all!

The kiddos were so excited to sit by the fire and roast marshmallows. 

The kiddos clearly don't like Jason!  

Good thing he is a good sport with all of them!

Who doesn't love waking up to these little cutie!  

With 12 of us in a tiny little tent/cabin thing it makes for a really long night! 

Yay for morning cereal! 

We sure do love summer and doing fun things like this. 

I can't believe how big all my babies are getting. 

I don't like it one bit. 

Farewell Adrienne

My dear sweet friend, Adrienne, is moving back home to New Zealand.

This girl is nothing short of incredible. 

She is a person that leaves you a better person.

I have loved her friendship more than I can ever say. 

I will miss seeing her smile as I am teaching at the Business College as she is walking by. 

The best Voxer messages. 

And our meals at Blue Lemon. 

She is quality. 

Wish her home wasn't so far away.

I was able to celebrate her farewell a couple of different days. 

So grateful for people like her in my life. 

She will be a forever friend! 

Weekend recap

This summer has been spent jetting around to several different places. 

This last weekend I was home and enjoying all the summer I could. 

Started the weekend off with playing tennis with fellas. 

It is never a dull moment on the court with them. 

Zac and I brought our game faces. 

After tennis I headed for my very late birthday date with Chloe.  

Yes, I'm 3 months late taking her on her birthday date.  

She picked to go to lunch and Color Me Mine.  

We had a great time together and love spending quality time with my babes. 

Saturday was 104 degrees.  

So that means one thing. 

Pool time with Philly.

After the pool I took my bike out for the first time this season. 

It was fun to ride through Sugarhouse with my dear friend, Rachael. 

She is moving to San Fran in two weeks so it was great to pedal around the city together. 

Love this girl.  

Sure going to miss her. 

We biked all around but somehow ended up at Cafe Trio in the middle of our ride.

Still not sure how that happened?

Okay, fine!  We planned it.  

Delicious. 

Such a great weekend. 

How in the world is it already the end of July?

Please don't go, summer! 

Lifelong Friends

There are certain friends, that no matter the time. 

No matter the distance.

The friendship never skips a beat.  

Aubree, Jillian and I met in high school and our friendship has grown more and more. 

Distance and life makes it difficult to spend the amount of time we use to together.  

We were able to get together two different times while Jill was in town. 

It was much needed catch up time. 

I love these ladies. 

So lucky to have these ladies for life. 

San Diego Frolics

“You’re off to great places.

Today is your day.

Your mountain is waiting,

So get on your way.”

                                  -Dr. Seuss

A few months back Jason invited me to go to San Diego. 

After a moment of thinking and a phone call from Matt, I was in!

This last weekend was perfect. 

Jason and I flew to Long Beach on Friday and then drove down to San Diego.

It has been a while since I have flown with somebody.  

It was fun to not have to drop each other off and actually get to go somewhere together. 

When we got to Long Beach, the car rental worker insisted we needed the Mustang convertible. 

Naturally, we HAD to accept. 

The 405 had never looked so good!  

In the last few months the great state of California has stolen two of my favorite people, Matt and Josh.

This trip I was lucky enough to spend time with both of them. 

Jason and I got to the hotel and cleaned up and walked across the hall and starting chilling with Matt, Binny and Dalton.

Shortly later, Josh came to give me a hug before we went and hit the town that night. 

It was so nice to see him. 

I have missed these boys.  

 We all had a great time dancing the night away together.

Before we knew it, it was 3:00am, which was 4:00am back home. 

I was spent and starving.  

We tried to find food but were completely unsuccessful and all went and crashed. 

 The next morning we met up with the gang and went and enjoyed the parade and grabbed some breakfast. 

 Side note:  These are two of my favorite people in the whole entire world. Seriously. 

Love them. Love that they get along so well. Couldn't think of two people I would rather spend a weekend with on the beach. 

 Binny came to San Diego too. 

I met him in LA when I was there last visiting Matt. 

He is great so fun to have him there. 

 After strolling in Hillcrest for a bit a few of us decided it was beach time. 

Jason's friend, Maryn, from Phoenix and her friend Kyle joined us for the weekend as well. 

La Jolla Cove was beautiful.  

We played on the beach for a few hours and just enjoyed the scenery. 

We all headed back to the hotel and got ready to dance the night away again. 

 Sunday morning I received a call from my cousins. Mike and Michelle from Sacramento.

They happened to be in San Diego and eating brunch right down the street from my hotel. 

I ran over to say hi to them before we headed downtown.

It was so great to see them even though it was just a quick minute. 

Love my family. Wish we all lived closer. 

We spent Sunday wondering around Balboa Park.

Maryn and Kyle started their journey back to Phoenix later that evening. 

It was so fun to meet Maryn.  

We contemplated going and meeting Matt that night. 

But that would have required me to wash my hair at 10:30 at night... and that just wasn't happening. 

I convinced Jason we needed to go to the beach before we left in the morning. 

Being the wonderful guy he is, he agreed. 

We walked a bit and enjoyed the beautiful ocean. 

So peaceful. 

Monday morning, Josh came by the hotel and hung out for a few while we packed up. 

Then we started back to Long Beach. 

It was a gorgeous drive and confirms our idea to do a coast trip via convertible. 

On our way home, we graciously wrote my mother an email.

Dear Mother,

We are letting you know we have decided to officially become California residents. We didn't want to but the sun, beach and beautiful boys have given us no choice. Give Gracie my love. Also, please send us 1.6 million so we can buy a one bedroom shack to live in.

With love,
Morgan & Jason

That email pretty much sums up the weekend. 

Heaven and I did not want to come home. 

Lagoon.... It's what fun is.

It's summer and that means it is Lagoon time. 

Jason and I planned on going up Tuesday evening to ride a few rides after work. 

Aubree and Tyler joined us for the fun. 

There were many laughs shared this night. 

Turns out putting three adults in one car on the Music Express is very painful! 

To many more summer nights spent there. 

Ragnar. Check.

 I am not an athletic person. 

I was always on stage. 

Never on the field. 

Somewhere, I decided that I want to be athletic. 

I'm not good at running. 

I hate running. 

But yet, I signed up for Ragnar. 

I blame Natalie and Matt for doing it previous years and it looks like fun.

We signed up almost a year ago.  

It was fun to have two of my sisters and my brother. 

I'm pretty sure this will be the only time in history this will happen. 

Julie's brother in law, Mike ran with us.  

He is a funny one! 

And Jason was a saint and filled in at the last minute for one of our runner. 

I'm so glad he was there with me. 

We had a 5:45am start time in Logan.  

So my wake up call was 2:15am.

What is not a time an alarm should EVER be going off. 

Especially when I went to bed after 12:30am. 

Julie of course brought her Caboodle on the journey with us. 

This small purple box brought many of laughs.

"The 90's called, they want their Caboodle back!"

It was fun having Julie and Natalie there. 

We sure love each other even when we want to kill each other. 

We had all just completed our first runs.  We were ready for some sleep and food.  

It was pretty hot at this time. 

Julie had just run 7 miles up hill on a dirt trail. 

Jason finished off the hill and then ran all the way down and into a city.  

It was a long run for both of them.

35+ hours with these people.  

Several photo shoots happened.

And when people (Natalie) happened to miss out on one while running....

they make us do another. 

Not that everyone doesn't already know this. 

But I have the world's greatest parents. 

My mom had 4 different kids running this year. 

Runner 1,3,4 & 5

That makes for lot of cheerleading

and a lot of time on the course. 

It sure is nice to see your parents there cheering you on!  

Plus these little cuties!

Ever curious to what your hair would look like after 2 long runs, sweat, heat, sunscreen and dirt?

It looks like this!  

So attractive! 

My last run almost killed me.

It was 6+ miles 

In the heat. 

No support. 

Thankfully my team supported me lots. 

I was exhausted. 

My knee was bothering me, but I was determined to finish what I started. 

After throwing up twice I was defeated.  The finish line was miles away.  

Jason was a saint and came out in the heat and walked with me for a bit.

And Matt finished my last 2 miles next to me.  

He is a good brother.  

He had just finished his 7 miles up hill.

Us. 

All finished. 

Super tired. 

Super hungry. 

and Super stinky. 

Finish lines are great!  

Lots of stuff. 

Like OtterPops!

mmmmm...

So proud of us for finishing this.

It is quite the undertaking.

Even though I hated running.

I really did love my experience.

and I will absolutely do it again.

I'm so glad Jason saved the day and filled in 3 weeks prior to the relay.  

We had a person drop out and he gladly filled in without knowing much about it. 

He was INCREDIBLE. 

He had a very hard leg and he dominated all of them.

Plus, he was there to laugh with me the entire time. 

Okay, maybe he didn't think I was funny when I had to wake him up at 2:30am. 

Or when I talked a lot early in the morning. 

(we all know I was funny.  He just was a little grouchy!)

He was the first one out of the van every time to support me.

This one is a good guy. 

One of the greatest. 

Ragnar was a big accomplishment. 

Glad to say I completed it off my 2013 goals.