"Capoeira: The Dance of Freedom."

Steve put so much blood, sweat, tears and money into the making of this documentary for his Masters thesis. He is so talented and so capable. I love you brother so much and am so proud of you.

His Documentary "Capoeira: The Dance of Freedom" has been shown through out the world, from Utah to New Orleans to Brazil and now will be featured at "Utah's African History: Storytelling Through Art and Craft," in West Valley.

Proud of you Steve!

See link about the event below:
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/700010448/Film-project-explores-Brazilian-capoeira-dancing.html

Valentines Day at Firebirds

Since Valentines Day fell on Sunday Thad and I decided to celebrate on Saturday. We ventured to Birmingham for the day to eat lunch and to take some V-day cookies to the neices and nephews.

In December Thad took me to a place in Birmingham called Firebirds. We had their Ranch onion rings, fresh bread, ceasar salad and I had their Durango burger which has fried onion rings, pepperjack cheese and garlic roasted ranch on it. That is where I fell in love. It turns out this restaurant is inspired by Colorado. The owners had traveled out there many times and were inpsired by the food and feel of Colorado, so the cuisine and ambiance has a mountainy feel which reminds me of home in Park City. I was mad at Thad, wondering why he had been holding out on me all this time and had not taken me here sooner. Our lunch was delightful and just what I had been craving.

So whenever you come to see me (friends and family), I give you my word that we will take you to Firebirds. So come on!

Take a look at Firebird's link:

http://firebirdsrestaurants.com/index.html

Merecedes Half-Marathon

Since I moved to Alabama I have heard a lot about the Mercedes Marathon and half Marathon which is in its tenth year and had over 4,000 participants this year. Last year I had signed up for it but was still trying to get back into my running since having mono and ended up not running the race. So this year I decided last minute to run the race (with a good little nudge from Thad).

I ran the Half-Marathon on Valentines Day. My experience was a good and bad one. The course had a lot more gradual inclines than expected and not enough port-a-potties through out the race. But what made it a good experience was the gorgeous weather and the energy there. I loved and was grateful for all the supporters who took the time to come out and cheers us on. My favorite two posters I saw were "Run like you stole something" and "That is not sweat, it is your fat cells crying".

When finished I was tired and not feeling well, so it was so nice to make it home and be able to relax the rest of the day. Thad was also able to come home and take care of me too. Will I run the Merecedes course again next year? Yes I will. But in the end I am glad I did it and glad it is over.

The Rickey Harrison 10K

Thad promised me that in 2010 he would run in one of my races with me. So when Caroline told me about the Rickey Harrison 10K, I was in and so was Thad. He decided completely on his own and as the race drew near I noticed that for a guy who had never ran more than 2-3 miles there was no training taking place. I worried that either he would get injured in the race or die of complete exhaustion. I knew he was in shape from playing his basketball and tennis but was still worried. I learned a very important principle from this race, never underestimate my husband and his athletic abilities.



As the race began I slowly pulled away from Thad and lost sight of him. When I crossed the finish line I decided that I better go look for Thad on the race course and make sure he was ok and cheer him on but then Yvette and Caroline told me that Thad was not far behind them. As I looked down the hill, there came Thad running up the hill. He was RUNNING, not walking or crawling....running. I ran down the hill to run the last stretch with him and was so proud. It turned out that he ran the entire 6.2 miles and never stopped nor walked. I was so proud of his commitment and endurance and he has already told me that he wants to run in another race with me which is what usually happens. Once you get running and races in your blood, you can't give it up. Go Thad!