maui wowie

well i've pretty much missed blogging about the past 5 months of our lives but this trip was too great not to document. i've posted most of these pictures on facebook, but for those of you who aren't on facebook (grandma) here ya go!

we spent a week in ka'anapali with adam's family, adults only. adam comes from a family of 8 kids, all of which are married and there were 5 of the couples and his parents on this trip. it was heavenly, although we missed the other 3 couples.

 

we spent our time scuba diving, snorkeling, surfing, paddle boarding, running, and eating. oh boy, did we spend a lot of time eating!

 i need to wear a snorkel mask more often, they're so flattering! don't you think?

 the water was so warm and clear and deep deep blue. gorgeous!

 

here we are all suited up ready to dive! adam's shorts hanging out a foot from his wetsuit. i even saw a baby shark under the water.

we really just couldn't be happier. i've been longing to go back ever since we got home. fyi, i'm not naked in the picture below, it just looks that way.

 

we walked through this little jungle about a quarter of a mile to a snorkel reserve. it was beautiful. i told adam i think it's where they filmed ferngully...or indiana jones...

 

could they have given us a longer board? no. the answer is no.

 

some highlights of the trip:

-the warren and annabelle's magic show in lahaina. it was so funny! they asked adam and i to help out the magician for the show and he ripped on adam the whole time. it was hilarious!

-snorkeling inches from a family of sea turtles, amazing!

-coconut flavored everything!

-fresh fish dinners, every night, it really tastes so much better when it's fresh

-renting a scooter and riding all around the island checking out the sites

-running on the beach

anyone who knows me well knows that nothing brings me more happiness than spending time on the beach with people i love. my idea of heaven. the trip was so relaxing it was totally worth the 1000 work emails i came home to. 

speaking of work, i got a new job that is so much better than the last one, thank goodness! i had neither the patience nor the lung capacity to teach p.e....i've worked there for awhile but of course haven't updated the blog :) it's a great running race company, check them out HERE

master of everything

may i present to you the world's newest graduate...

MASTER ADAM 

  he left me a this note and i just had to document. here he is right after getting back from his run. just on cloud nine i tell ya! 

that's right folks, my man has officially finished his masters in business degree! can i get a woot woot?! we are BOTH so happy it is done and over! let the home improvement begin!!!!! :)

surf city marathon

the first weekend of february adam and i headed down to sunny california for the surf city marathon. we were both really happy about our finishing times and for sure want to run this marathon again! the best part for me was that my time qualified me to run in the 

BOSTON MARATHON april 2013. i'm ecstatic!!!

 our race stats:

adam finished in 3:18 (average 7:36/min mile)

jess finished in 3:33 (average 8:09/min mile)

there were 20,000 marathoners and half marathoners running the race. craziness!!!

such a beautiful day, low 70's and clear skies! perfect for running

just soakin' it all in, i couldn't be happier than i was running in the sun on the beach. don't mind my pasty paste skin, haven't seen the sun in months so it was a sweet reunion.

 our wonderful cheering section at mile 21! they were the boost we needed for the last 5 mies. grandma mary, grandpa don, my dad, aunt doni, katie and mike (my mom taking the picture). they're the greatest, love them all!

he's such a stud. so proud of him!

me right after crossing the finish line. so. stinkin'. beat.

embarrassed to say but i had to spent a little time in the medical tent after finishing! ha. i felt like i was  going to pass out. at least i can say i gave it everything i had right? adam made me post this picture. worked over.

here we are with our awesome surfboard medals. i even got a surfboard plaque too for finishing top 5 in my age group. 

we had the greatest weekend. ever. it's always nice to head somewhere warm in the middle of gloomy winter and spend time with our wonderful family in california too :) 

a little ketchup

usually i lack on the blogging when we have nothing going on but this blogging drought, however, is quite the opposite.  lots of things have been going on at the clark casa so i'm playing a little bit o' ketchup (catch up)

first, i got a new job!  i am the p.e. teacher at amelia earheart elemetary.  so far it's been a little overwhelming and exhausting but i'm starting to get the hang of it.  everyday i come home and tell adam the funny stories i have from the day. it brings me back to my elementary school days.  i let them play with the parachute a lot cause that was always my favorite in school.

adam is 2 weeks away from finishing his master's degree.  yaaaaaaaayyyy! he's been such a hard worker throughout his mba program (he'll be graduating with honors just fyi). he could not be more excited to be finishing up although i'm a close second. no more homework=more time working on the house! :)

last, we take off to california tomorrow! a break at the beach is just what the doctor ordered!  adam and i are running  a marathon in huntington beach this weekend (hopefully! i've come down with a nasty cold/flu and am doing everything in my power to get better before the race!)  wish us luck!

sorry, no pictures. hopefully i'll get more posts coming. i never even blogged about the whole month of december.  oops!

one year older

both adam and i celebrated our birthdays this week. after christmas, new years and now two birthdays, we are partied out for awhile. 

cheers to 24 and 28! i'm beginning to forget how old i am. all my birthdays are just starting to mesh together. 

it's somebody's birthday!

just wanna wish my favorite guy a happy birthday!

28 never looked so great!

and a blast from birthdays past...

a cutie then, still a cutie now!

noviembre

because i've been mia on this blog machine for november i though i'd recap the month for you. here we go...

we've spent lots of time with family since adam's two youngest siblings got married this month! we got to see some out-of-towners (can, casey and kids) which was great, especially meeting candice's brand new baby landon.

first, sean and megan got married on the 4th in the draper temple THEN jenny and jordan got married on the 17th in the salt lake temple.

both weddings were amazing and beautiful and we are so happy to now officially have megan and jordan in our family (even though we already considered them family).

thanksgiving this year was with the clarks. dinner was amaaaaaazing and we stuffed ourselves silly. we had a great day until about midnight when adam started feeling sick. long story short, we spent our black friday in the emergency room so adam could get an iv and meds. it ended up being some really awful, no good, really bad stomach flu that only lasted 24 hours but left us with a hefty ER bill.

poor guy. nothing like puking your guts out, or watching your spouse puke their guts out, to make you soooo grateful for your health! 

we've been running a lot this month, training for our next marathon in california in february. although it may take a lot of discipline to get out of our warm bed when it's 30 degrees outside to go for a 20 mile run, i've secretly really enjoyed the time i get to spend with adam, when it's just the two of us, running together with no distractions for hours. he's the best running partner a girl could ask for!

it was a busy but great month. thanksgiving is always a great reminder to count your blessings and we do feel very blessed! i've been gettin my christmas craft on and now that our home is all decked out i say bring on the holidays!

halloween half marathon

last weekend we ran the halloween half marathon. it was a great course starting up above sundance on the alpine loop and ending down the canyon just before the shops at riverwoods. we both got our best times so far so we were happy. all the downhill left us with some pretty sore gams over the next days following the race but it was worth it. 

it was hard coming up with costumes that we wouldn't want to throw in the gargbage after 13.1 miles but we managed somehow. adam was a pirate and i was a cat. we weren't the most festive ones there but i'm happy to say our costumes didn't bother us one bit!

our race stats:

there were about 3,400 runners total, over 2,300 women and almost 1,000 men

adam finished 35th overall for the guys, 4th in his age group with a time of 1:24 (6:27 mile average)  

jess finished 19th overall in the girls, 1st in her age group with a time of 1:30 (6:55 mile average)

party in the NYC

after 3 years of being lonely during the boys annual deer hunt, this year i got smart and went to new york  while adam spent the weekend being a man and shooting things. i went out with my parents to visit my favorite new york couple, brother chris and sister-in-law kimmy. 

here we are walking the brooklyn bridge. it was such nice weather the weekend we were there and this night had an especially beautiful sunset. 

 we spent a little time at the museum of natural history. after all the walking around the city i felt a little like that walrus pictured below, flopped over on belly, super beat. 

 my parents hadn't been to new york for 24 years (they told me that's where i was conceived and i told them that that was too much information) so we did our best to see everything! 

 and of course we saw a broadway play, mary poppins. it was my first broadway and i loved it! it was much different than the plays i've seen at the hale center theatre, that's for dang sure!

we had lots 'o fun in new york. thanks to chris and kimmy for letting us stay in their apartment and being our tour guides. also, thanks to my parents for letting me tag along. it was kinda fun to spend the weekend just me and the ma and pa, felt like i was a little kid again. 

murder among the mateys

every october adam and i make it a point to have a murder mystery party. this year, you guessed it, was a "murder among the mateys" pirate themed party. we ate dinner by candlelight and spent the evening accusing one another. it was magical.

everyone really did a great job dressing the part (minus shane) if i do say so myself.  jamie (bottom, right) won the best dressed award for her lovely pink dress and hat ensemble. 

 

 malcom's "costume"(below, left) was my favorite i think. he showed up in normal clothes and slowly the layers started shedding and eventually he ended up looking (in someone else's words) as a "gay pirate", with a scarf tied around his neck, a couple of gold hoop earrings and eventually, shirtless.

we stated from the beginning that someone would be walking the plank (diving board) after the game into my parents pool that hadn't been heated for about a month. 

poor jimmy was the victim because he was the murderer. however, eventually all the men ended up in the pool through some very aggressive tackling and wrestling into the water. some clothes were lost in the process, those pictures are not shown. 

and as always, adam laughed so hard he fell on the ground. the usual. 

thanks to all who came, we had faaarrrrrrrrrrr too much fun!

girls will be girls

there's a group of us girls that all grew up in the same neighborhood, been friends forever. one of us (ravey baby) is going on a mission november 9th to washington state so we decided a girls only trip was in order to send her off properly. we all hopped in this giant, awesome sauce, white van and headed down to st george for the weekend.

this was just soooo kassidy, we had to snap a pic and make this our trip theme.

so much whoopie cake, a personal fav. we just went at it with forks, no plates allowed. oh and baby maddie, how cute is she holding her mama's legs?

our dance party pictured below. people were on the ground, using the broom to limbo, really everyone's best work. insanity. a trip highlight for me.

of course we hit up nielson's custard.

what a trip! we sure will miss our pal raven over the next 1.5 years. Our friend get togethers will not be the same without her but she's going to rock it as a missionary! for those who couldn't come on the trip, you know who you are, you were sorely missed!  

celebration station

i made a happy anniversary banner, you know, to celebrate our love. naturally, i made adam take a thousand pictures by it before we left on our anniversary date. little did he know that the self timer was taking 10 pictures at a time. it made for some interesting shots. 

after our photo shoot we headed out, weathering the awful storm, which was reminiscent of our wedding day. we ate dinner at sundance and then hit up the park city outlets for a little shopping. it was magical. great way to celebrate 4 years together. 

 if you're sick of all the pictures of just adam and i, i'm truly sorry. that's what you get since we don't have babies yet. 

4

today is the four year anniversary of when my bff adam and i got hitched.

 this is right after we became mr and mrs clark. just happy as a clam.

the jokes alone have been worth the trip. love you husband. cheers to the next four years, and every year after that.