New Addiction: Running

RED ROCK 1/2 MARATHON

Starting on New Year's day, I decided that I wanted to get back into shape and make a habit of exercising regularly. Myself as well as four girlfriends all decided to sign up for the Red Rock 1/2 Marathon that was March 6. We had 8 weeks to train, and we had a great time doing it. It was also such a fun experience in itself, but to share it with friends and have weekly runs together made it that much better.

The night before the race, we met at Candice's lovely home to have a huge pasta dinner with our husbands in tow.

I got up at 4am to be ready to leave by 5 for Red Rock. This is right before the race... Chelsea got us all these super cute flower pins, so of course we wore them to our race!



Candice finished under 2 hours, she is seriously an amazing runner and such a photogenic one at that!

Grant finished before Candice (but we decided boys are just naturally faster than girls)
but he ran back to finish it out with Amy when she got to the end. Amy finished just over 2 hours. She was my motivator for this whole race -

Mando jumped in to run the last 50 yards with me... I finished in 2 hours and 15 minutes.

Chelsea came in soon after me.. fist pumping and clapping!

The running itself was only half the experience. Spending time with the girls and acquiring a new hobby has made this more enjoyable than I thought. I think we can all say that it made our friendships that much better.

I seriously feel like such a giant after seeing this pictures!

Addison, Grant, Amy, Chelsea, Candice, Me, and Brittany

And of course, we spent that afternoon at the spa. Not only because we had just accomplished this 1/2 marathon, but it was also Amy's birthday! Massages and pedicures were an awesome way to cap off the race.

SPECTRUM 10K in St. George

2 weeks after our 1/2 marathon, Amy Candice and myself signed up for the Spectrum 10K in St. George for March 20.

Friday night after work, we loaded up and had a fun girls road trip to St. George. We stayed with my parents and they were more than happy to have us there.

We got up early Saturday morning and headed up to Snow Canyon where the race began.


Of course, Candice the rockstar runner, finished in 47 minutes..

Amy and I finished in 54 minutes...

And it felt like such a breeze! We all beat our normal pace/minute, so we were even more excited to cross the finish line.

My parents were there to cheer us on, take pictures, and of course make us a huge breakfast after the race. They're pretty amazing.

We wore these ridiculous white bows in our hair. We felt like we were in high school going to a game or something; but it did get us a few compliments from fellow runners.

24th Birthday Fiesta!!

I wasn't too thrilled about turning 24 this year, but once Mando and I decided to do a full on fiesta, I perked right up! We got sombreros and moustaches, made enchiladas, beans and rice, and invited close friends over to celebrate!

With all the friends around and the celebration going, I have to say I had one of the best birthdays. I felt very fortunate to have such good friends and such a loving husband. One of my best birthdays yet.

Playing Catch Up

The past two months have been crazy busy with finishing up school and getting ready for the holidays, so I thought I'd share some fun pictures to catch you up on the past two months...

My best friend got married November 6th, and it was beautiful! Her husband dipped her for their first kiss as a married couple and serenaded her at the end of the reception, it was perfect! Unfortunately I had bronchitis and laryngitis the week of her wedding, but other than that, it was amazing!

Mando and I had a date night out and had tickets to the Chelsea Handler Show. We love the Chelsea Lately show on E!, okay more me than Mando, but he had a great time at the show.


Mando turned 25 on November 19th! He's an old man now!!

isn't he cute??

Mando has become obsessed with snowboarding and has been pretty much been up at the mountain every weekend this season. So for his birthday I had set up a weekend at Brianhead! We loaded up the truck with friends and headed to Utah! We were fortunate enough to be staying in a close family friend's awesome 70's cabin. It's like being on That 70's show! Needless to say, we had an amazing time snowboarding and spending time relaxing at the cabin.

We spent Thanksgiving at my parents' house. I LOVE spending time with my family, there is never a dull moment!

haha obviously my parents weren't ready for the picture! but who couldn't love those faces?? :)

i FINALLY have a sister!

Another girl in the Del Toro family!!!

After many years of dating, Heather and Fernando got married on October 10. It was so exciting to be apart of a wedding and not have to be the bride and stress about details! I was so excited to finally have a sister! After marrying Mando I got 4 more brothers.. so I was in need of another girl in the family and I couldn't be happier that it's Heather!

1 Year Anniversary! <3

Last Sunday Mando and I celebrated our 1 year anniversary! We still can't beleive how fast this year flew by. We were pretty proud of ourselves and of what we have accomplished just in this first year. We were fortunate enough to build a new home, furnish our home, I got a new car, Mando's had his company for 2 and a half years now and I'm in the middle of my last semester of school! Our first year has been nothing short of amazing and never a dull moment. I can't wait to see what's in store for this next year!

Huntington Beach

I had a two week break from the time my summer school classes ended until my FINAL fall semester started, so of course we wanted to get out of town! We decided to head to Huntington with Heather and Fernando and we had a BLAST!

Fernando's good friend, Tyler, from high school is stationed in Huntington (LUCKY) for the coast guard, so he came and hung out everyday and showed us good places to eat and whatnot. The boys had a great time together.

The last night we were in Huntington, we found my brother Derek! He had gotten into town that day with some friends so we met up for dinner. Always a good time. I am so happy we got away for a few days and were able to just hang out and spend some time in the sun. I'm sure this is only the beginning of our adventurous trips!

A tearful goodbye to the jeepster...

After many years of my jeep payments, we finally paid it off!! I love my jeep, not only was it the first car I bought on my own, but it has been through many adventures, and has many memories. I can't believe I'm so attached to a car!

But after some consideration, we decided to get me a new car. The jeep was making a couple funny noises and approaching the 100,000 mile mark quickly, so we wanted to dump it before it was worth close to nothing. We looked for cars for about a month just pricing them and checking into what we might want.

The day after I picked up my title for my jeep, we traded it in. :) Nothin slow about us.

I was really sad to hand over my keys-- almost heartbreaking.

Mando was more into looking at different cars than I was, so I kind of just followed around. It was super hot outside and I got bored.. Plus ,I knew no matter what he picked I would love it, so he was in charge. He picked out an '08 VW Passat, and i lOVE it...plus its turbo :)

It's weird driving a car, since I've only had trucks and suvs, but I'm having fun and enjoying my new car. (that's a shadow from the street pole on the car)

Casa de Del Toro