Fine Art

Stu and I had a date to the Utah Museum of Fine Arts. Both Stu and I love art, and for a short time the Cleveland Museum of Fine Arts has loaned some of their paintings to the Utah Museum of Fine Art. This exhibit was AWESOME!! I love art museums, I could spend hours looking at art. I think this love comes from the fact that I don't have a creative bone in my body, and the fact that people can dream up these amazing images and can make a white canvas glow with amazing color. Some day both Stu and I would love to have our house full of original pieces of art. We already have one from Jeff Pugh who painted Stu's wedding gift. (Click on Jeff's name to see some of his art work)

Back to the art. The museum had on loan about 200 pictures that ranged from Impressionist down to Surrealism. I wish these pictures could do justice to the real thing, but they will just have to do:

Stu LOVES Vincent Van Gogh. His favorite is "Starry Night" that was not on display but this one was. This one is called "The Poplars at Saint-Remy" Painted in 1889 If you look closely you can see a house between the trees.

This picture was BEAUTIFUL. The colors was so vibrant and to see the brush strokes in detail... was AMAZING. This was painted by Pierre-Augusta Renoir 1890. It is called "The Apple Sellers"

This painting stands about 2 meters fall and was one of the largest paintings I think we saw at the exhibit. This painting was done by Pablo Picasso in 1903 and is called "La Vie". The painting was amazing to me, not just because of the size or subject matter (the scene is of 3 adult figures and 1 baby with 2 incomplete nude studies in the background. The male nude figure is said to be a friend of Picasso that committed suicide after being rejected by his lover) but because I always thought Picasso did the strange piece like:
clearly the "La Vie" showed me that Picasso painted other pieces of work also.

Finally Claude Monet who was known for his vibrant colors and scenery pictures. This picture was painted in 1860 and is called "The Red Kerchief" is a picture of Monet's wife Camille as seen from inside a house.

If you get a chance to go see the exhibit, the paintings are on display till September 21st.

And we "Hobbled" after the run

Saturday August 23rd, 3 crazy people awoke at 4 AM to get ready to travel to a 1/2 marathon race. Not only did these 3 not get enough sleep to constitute waking up at 4 AM, they paid to run a 1/2 marathon that ended up leaving them hobbling like 80 year people.

3 crazies= Stu, Liz and Sarah
1/2 marathon= Hobblecreek 1/2 marathon in Springville Utah-13.1 miles
4 AM= time to wake up, travel 1 hour, pick up packet and ride the bus to the start
PR=Personal Record
St. George Marathon count down= 1 month 1 week and 2 days

Lets go through Saturday. Liz slept over at our house so she didn't have to wake any early than 4 AM. She didn't really sleep, Stu didn't really sleep and I kinda slept. Alas 4 AM we awoke, got dressed and were on the road by 4:30 AM with breakfast of bagels, banana's and water in hand. You might be asking yourself why we work up so early when the race didn't even start till 7:30 AM. The race was about an hour travel away and we still needed to pick up our race packets and get on the bus that would take us to the starting line by 6 AM. Hence...4 AM wake up time.
We were lucky to find a parking spot as close to the start of the race as we could (mind you it is dark outside and a rooster is crowing in the background). We got our packets by the light of a cell phone since we didn't know our bib number and the lights at the park were not on yet. We got on a bus and took off to the start.
We got the starting line with a sea of people waiting towards to the front for the race to begin. I immediately found the bathrooms and went to stand in line for them. Liz joined me and we waited for the bathroom for about 30 min. Yes I said 30 min. We had 2 min to spare before the race started after the bathroom break.
My cute husband who is a much faster runner than Liz and I said he would run about 1/2 mile with me before he wanted to take off. He ran 10 steps before I heard "Can I go now". He took off and left Liz and I to fend for ourselves for the next 13.1 miles
I was feeling pretty good so I took off about mile 6 and kept a good pace till close to the end. I had 1 mile to go and I just didn't have anything left in me. I kept stopping to walk, with the knowledge that the end was so close- only about 5 min away. I mustered up the strength and started to run telling myself the end is close you can do it. As I drew close to the end I could see the spectators cheering on the runners and immediately I looked for Stu. I could not find him. I felt a rush of emotion overcome me and the threat of tears were on the brink of spilling over..all because I could not see my husband. As it turns out he was waiting for me at the end and once I saw him my tears were subsided. Thank goodness :)
All us crazies got a PR that day. Stu would have come in sooner than his actual time IF his "stupid calf" didn't cramp up. Stu came in at 1 hour 58 min. Sarah came in at 2 hour 4 min and Liz came in at 2 hour 9 min.
We didn't stick around long-- long enough to get a flower (for the ladies), our FINISHER shirts, some cookies and some Diet Pepsi before we headed on home.
We were all so sore because of how much we pushed our bodies this day.

Liz and I both thought...how the heck are we going to run 26.2 when 13.1 hurt so bad? I guess we will find out in a month.

Reeder's Roost

This last weekend Stu, I and a few of our dearest friends spent the weekend up at Stu's family's cabin. There were 10 of us and the dog that came up Friday afternoon and came home Sunday afternoon. The Reeder's Roost is located about 20 miles outside Evenston Wyoming in the Uinta Lands in Utah.

Apart from the fridge not working, a few guests that snore really loud and the idea of 'bears', we had a wonderful time. We played games, ate yummy meals prepared by my cute husband and laughed and laughed. One game that was played each night till about 1 AM was the game Risk. I had never played this game but got sucked into it the 2nd day and enjoyed myself- especially when I completed my mission in a few hours time and won the game. (I am sure it was beginners luck, but whatever). I think we decided to make this an annual friends trip to the cabin because we had so much fun. A tip for next year: bring gags for the snorers or else ear plugs so we can all get some good sleep. :)

The gang playing Risk

Brit, Josh and Kyrie roasting marshmallows

Blue got all muddy after the rain storm

Stu cooking yummy french toast for breakfast. Stu's french toast is legendary at the cabin

The spiral staircase that everyone had to climb to get to the loft where they slept.

More pictures from Hawaii

I was asked to post more pictures of Hawaii up so here you go!

Anniversary

On this day 2 years ago, Stu proposed to me. Starting last year on August 4th we decided to make a tradition and take a picnic to the same spot that he proposed. We kept the tradition alive this year and brought Blue with us.

To recap how Stu proposed, he took me to the same spot his dad proposed to his mom. This spot happens to be above the B in Bountiful. For those not familiar with Bountiful to get to our engagement spot, you have to 'off road' for about 20 min and then hike down quite an decline to get to our engagement rock.

Blue seemed to be having fun except when he took off after some birds and I got scared that he would fall off the mountain. Stu was more nervous about the rattlesnakes that would be lurking. Overall our anniversary tradition was wonderful. I am so thankful for Stu and feel honored that he asked me to be his wife. Love you honey

Stu, Blue and Sarah

The view from our engagement rock. (The Great Salt Lake)