Update on the Anderson's

Well, it's been a while since we last wrote so hopefully those of you who read this blog haven't given up on us! We've been busy with the holidays and are finally beginning to get back into the regular routine. We had a great Christmas! It was nice to relax at home this year and spend time with both of our families. During the break Mark did some Extreme Sledding over our hill on a water knee board (he had nothing to hold on to either) with my little sister. He has expressed to me a few times that he is still feeling the pain and bruises. But I am sure he would say that is was all worth it. You know Mark is always looking for an adventure. My Mom took some great pictures. Here is a trip down frame by frame (these pictures look blurry to me so I hope they are clear for you).

We also had an awesome New Year's! Paul and Diana invited us to spend the weekend with them in St. George so we left on friday, Dec. 29 and came home monday, Jan. 1. We were spoiled the first night to stay in a Trendwest Penthouse! It was so nice and it even had a private hot tub on the balcony which we all enjoyed! While there we went to a Trendwest presentation after telling them about 100 times "no" we came out with $50 and two round trip tickets and two night stay in San Diego. So it was well worth it. Then we stayed in the Ore Condos (thanks Richard and Shauna) for the rest of the trip which were also awesome! There was a heated outdoor pool so even though it was a little cold outside we were still able to go swimming which was a blast! On saturday we spent the evening at First Night and met up with David! Although we've heard it's been better previous years it was still a lot of fun! While we were there we also went to Snow Canyon and played in the red sand and climbed on the beautiful rocks! We had so much fun and were so thankful to be able to spend that time with Paul and Diana and their family. School starts in less than a week and we're not necessarily looking forward to it. My first race is coming up and once that gets going I'll be gone almost every weekend on trips until about the end of June. (The indoor and outdoor track season is Mark's favorite time of the year j/k) I am excited to start racing again though! My workouts have been going really well and it'll be fun to see what happens throughout the indoor and outdoor track season! Speaking of running, I had quite the experience a few weeks ago on a morning run. Here's the story: I was running up Hardscrabble (a road by our house) when I had my very first near death experience on a run. I was coming up on a turn in the road when I saw a Llama up ahead on the opposite side of the road about 20 meters away. To myself I was thinking, "Oh cool, a Llama!" Little did I know what this Llama had in store for me. As I took a few more strides, the Llama started trotting towards me then all of a sudden it dropped its head and charged at me! As the words 'OH CRAP' shot through my mind (and no I did not swear) I took off up the side of a small hill next to the road. I got about half way up the hill then quickly switched directions and went back down the hill hoping to fake out the Llama in the process. Well, it worked, at least for a few seconds. So the Llama was at the top of the hill and I was back on the road. We stared at each other for a few seconds as I slowly started running again hoping that was the end of it when all of a sudden it dropped its head charged at me again! So I took off on a dead sprint towards the closest house. Fortunately there was a house to the right of me, but unfortunately the driveway was about 30 meters long, so I kept sprinting up this driveway. Yes, it was the longest 30 meters of my life and I'm positive it was the fastest! I had plenty of time to picture what this Llama was going to do to me. I figured he would first knock me off my feet then start stomping on me everywhere. When I finally made it to the front porch I started banging on the door and ringing the doorbell, like a madwoman being chased by a Llama, but nobody was home. Luckily, the Llama got about 10 meters away from the porch and wouldn't come closer. So the Llama and I sat there for a while staring at eachother. There was no way I was getting off that porch! Finally after a few minutes it slowly started making its way back towards the road, turning around every so often to make sure I was still there on his way down. My plan was to wait for a car to distract him so I could get away. After a few minutes a car came around the corner and slowed down because of the Llama in the road. As the Llama was distracted I snuck through the yard hiding behind bushes (more like weeds) and stuff so the Llama couldn't see me. Once I was out of sight I took off towards home looking over my shoulder every so often to make sure the Llama wasn't coming. I don't think my heart rate ever dropped the rest of the day. I think that was the most scared I've ever been. The one thing that I am thankful for is that it was light outside, about 9:00am. I don't even want to think about how scared I would have been had it been dark outside when all this happened!! So that's my near death Llama experience! It's funny to me now, but I wouldn't wish that same experience on anyone! We hope you all are doing well and that you had a great holiday. Happy New Year Everyone!