Christmas traditions

The month of December brings a lot of traditions.

Festival of Trees is a great way to start the Christmas season. 

Such a beautiful event for a great cause. 

One of my favorite Christmas traditions is decorating sugar cookies. 

My Grandma Best did this every year and my dad continued the tradition with us. 

Natalie was great to make all the cookies and make it happen this year. 

Another thing that was passed down in our family is when we concentrate, we stick out tongue out. 

Poor little Princess was really concentrating when frosting her cookie. 

And I'm a mean Auntie and had to document that. 

Thanks to this terrible habit, I had to get braces for a 2nd time. 

Now if this isn't pure love.

For the last seven years, I have taken the Collier cuties and had a sleepover with them. 

We had a great time together. 

Apparently, we partied too hard for Porter.  

This was him after being in the car for about 5 minutes.  

Haddie is a good sister and let him lay on her the whole ride back to Layton. 

On Christmas Eve, we got to my parents. 

Played games. 

and waited for Natalie to get off work. 

My dad had a good idea to put chairs in the truck and go down to Layton park and see the lights. 

It was cold. 

But a fun new thing to do.

I love this group of people so much. 

The night wouldn't be complete without playing chimes. 

I love that my dad played with us, even if he was always 3 counts behind. 

Christmas morning, we waited for the other kiddos to come over and had breakfast and then opened presents.

I cannot believe how big these cuties are getting. 

The day was filled with all of my favorite people.  

Grateful for the birth of my Savior. 

To the Derby we go

It wouldn't be a summer without the Davis county Demoilition Derby. 

We had a great time together and the kiddos LOVED it. 

Most of our family couldn't join us this year with school already being in session.  

We missed everyone. 

The derby had a very sad ending with someone losing their life after a truck rolled on them.  

It was terrible.  

To East Canyon we go

East Canyon and summer goes hand in hand for the Best Family. 

My dad was kind enough to rent wave runners for us again this year. 

We camped up there for two nights and enjoyed the water.

The kiddos were in heaven. 

Another successful trip for the books. 

Julie, Natalie and I could all live on the lake all summer and still not have enough time on the water. 

Most of the kiddos are following in our foot steps. 

The Best Family Fourth

The fourth of July is the Best Family holiday. 

It's not secret we like to have fun (2013, 2012, 2011, 2009)

I love celebrating this holiday. 

It is better than Christmas. 

All the time spent with family and friends but so much less stress. 

Wednesday night, I received a phone call from Dylan. 

He asked me if I would run with him in the 5k.  

Julie is far too competitive in this 5k and it never ends well with her and Dylan running together. 

I gladly accepted his invitation. 

Dylan likes to sprint for a good 2-3 minutes and then he is dead the rest of the time.  

I let him sprint and caught up to him within .75 miles. 

We then continued the rest of the 5k with each other. 

He was a great running buddy and only stopped a few times. 

2014 Best Family Runners. 

Julie was the winner 25:00

Matt and Gabers were only a couple minutes behind her. 

Porter is really into picking the poses for pictures.  

Here were some of his greatest ones from the 4th. 

After the run we headed over to the city breakfast and then to the parade. 

I love being home and doing the Layton city celebration. 

Luke was feeling pretty cool on his first holiday with his shades. 

We were all pretty overheated after the parade and run. 

We headed up to Talia's pool (Thanks again Talia!)

The kids and adults had a blast.  

You can see that Matt & Luke were tuckered out...

And so was Grandma

It was time for the family BBQ followed with a dance party in the back and then half the crew headed to LHS for the fireworks while the others stayed and watched them from M&D's house. 

Luke was really loving the fireworks.

It was a great day. 

Grateful for the freedom our country has. 

The men and women that have sacrificed their life for my freedom.

Ragnar, Wasatch Back 2014

I still can't believe that this is my 3rd Ragnar?  

I have quickly come to love them and the challenge of the relay. 

I lucked out having one of the greatest teams possible.  

There were a few people that I ran Vegas Ragnar with last fall.  

We added a few people and we were ready to go.  

Somehow I convinced Talia she NEEDED to do it with me this year. 

It was so fun having her there. 

I don't get to spend nearly enough time with her. 

Here is Van #2. 

Tyler, Ryan, Ryan, me, Talia and Julie.

I'm so glad each of them were with me. 

They were all so much fun. 

My family truly is the best, especially on things like this. 

They were there to cheer us on. 

Julie was runner 8 and I was runner 10. 

They were able to cheer both of us on Friday. 

Gabe and Matt were both running so Natalie & Mom bounced back and forth to see us. 

These were the best faces to hear when my energy was running low. 

It rained all morning Friday, so thankful that I was in van #2.  

It stopped by the time we made it to our exchange. 

But a morning full of rain made it VERY humid. 

Which makes for very big and unruly hair. 

This was only after 3 miles.  

After my first run, we waited up at Snowbasin for Tyler and Ryan to run. 

I was sitting and talking to Talia and our long lost Cabber friend, Keith ran into us. 

It was a fun little college reunion for us!

We also were able to meet up with Matt and Gabe at Snowbasin. 

Julie and I both hated that we all weren't on the same team, especially since Gabers joined Matt's work team last minute. 

He was runner 4 (my same runs from last year)

Gabers did such a great job. 

That is a long ways to run and no sleep makes that even harder. 

I can't do anything without these little cuties cheering me on. 

I sure love them. 

The 4 runners and 4 cheerleaders. 

Baby Luke did a great job cheering us all on.

Natalie and the kiddos were great sports spending their entire weekend watching us. 

Tyler participated in many dance parties throughout the weekend. 

I know I will always have a good time with him. 

He had some really difficult runs and did such a great job. 

All of our second legs were in the middle of the night.  

One of the exchanges the volunteers had decorated it with black lights and were having a giant party.  

Makes it so much fun. 

My night run was rough, it was 7.5 miles with no support. 

In fact, I was on a trail and was completely separated from all the vans. 

It was 2:30am when I started my run. 

I didn't pack my light running jacket because it was suppose to be warm. 

But thanks to the rain storm temperatures dropped a lot. 

I only had a sweatshirt to run in and I knew that it would be too much for 7.5 miles. 

So I ended up opting to just run in my tank top.

BAD DECISION. 

I froze the entire way. 

And because it was so cold, my breathing was causing fog and that is all I could see with my headlamp. 

Once I finished, I was shivering and wanted to snuggle up in truck. 

I finally got to sleep for 30 or so minutes after that. 

Here we are in Oakley, finishing up our 2nd legs.

We ran ALL night long.  

It was still pretty cold up there but we were ready to head to our final exchange with van 1 and shower and sleep. 

A middle school in Heber does a fundraiser during Ragnar where you pay $5 for a shower and place to sleep and $5 for a hot breakfast.  It was heaven even if we only slept for 90 minutes or so. 

Hads loved coming and sitting in the truck with TyTy.  

She wasn't quite sure about the dance party happening, but with a little help from TyTy she was into it. 

I knew going into this year that I had some difficult legs, specifically my 2nd and 3rd leg. 

My 3rd leg was the top of RAGNAR HILL. 

I had no plans of ever "running" the hill, but thought I could power walk up this beast. 

.50 mile into my 4.0 mile climb I broke down. 

My team was only going up 100 yards every time and I was hitting a major wall. 

I was so frustrated mentally and physically. 

My legs have never felt so heavy in my entire life. 

My team was trying to pump me up... it wasn't helping. 

My sister, Julie and Talia saved the day.  

They both took turns walking with me to help me finish what I started. 

It was tough. 

I was slow. 

I felt defeated. 

Eventually, I saw that 1 mile left sign and I knew the end was in sight. 

The last .25 of a mile I was able to see the finish and picked up my feet and ran to Tyler. 

It was the most emotional and best exchange of my life.  

I'm not sure what I would have done without my team to help get me to the top. 

I knew I could not climb in the truck and let someone else finish it for me. 

I needed to do it. 

and I did it!

Despite my two miserable runs, I had a great time with my team. 

We know how to dance, run and laugh.... and eat. 

Sounds like Ragnar 2015 is already in the planning stages.  

Whether I want to admit it or not, I am a Ragnar Addict. 

THE CAPTAIN'S MISFITS!