Life in SLC: Fall has finally arrived!

Hello friends and family!
We are happy that cooler weather has arrived in Salt Lake City. The temperatures seem to have settled in the 60's and 70's now and we are seeing (limited) color changes in the trees. The mountains are quite pretty with red trees covering them and there is even a bit of snow at the peaks.
Last weekend Todd and I traveled to Chicago for the Chicago marathon. After many miles of training, I was finally able to toe the line. After planning to race with Kristen Mast, we were unable to find each other among the 40,000 runners before the race. I was so thankful to bump into a high school friend (rival?) who ran for another school in our conference, Sarah Brewer. I was able to keep up with her for the first half of the marathon. It was great to have someone by my side! Thanks to friends from high school and college, and of course Todd, who jumped in to the race with me, I ran only 2 miles without a friend by my side. Despite slowing down in the second half of the race, I ran the time I was hoping to run! Thanks to all my friends and family who cheered me on!
Unfortunately, Todd had to fly back to Utah a few hours after the marathon concluded. However, I was able to enjoy a week in MI with my family. I was able to catch up with many MI friends, and even stopped in to see coaches and teammates at Calvin's cross country practice. We celebrated my mom's birthday on Thursday with a nice dinner at the Bostwick Lake Inn, went for a few bike rides, checked out some houses in the Parade of Homes, played games, made puzzles, helped my friend Amanda Haagsma put together favors for her upcoming wedding, went shopping, and relaxed. The past week was exactly what I needed in order to be re-energized for the remainder of this stressful semester.
Meanwhile, Todd's team had its regional meet on Tuesday. Both teams ran well and there were a lot of personal bests. Unfortunately, the boys came up only 5 points short of making the state meet. However, two boys and one girl will compete at the state meet since they qualified individually. The state meet is this week Wednesday. Todd also had parent-teacher conferences recently. He saw parents of 126 students over the course of 2 nights. It was a busy time, but nice to meet some of the parents.