Cousins

Every year when Jason and his brothers go backpacking we have a fun week of activities getting the cousins together.  We didn't get in as much this year but here are some pictures of a couple fun outings.

My sister-in-law found out about this water activity sponsored by Radio Disney at the Gallivan Center.  Here's Kaitlyn going down the water slide.

Of course like anything in Salt Lake there were lots of people and long lines for two minutes in the bounce house.

The petting zoo there was lots of fun for the kids but I couldn't help but feel a little sorry for the animals who must have been totally overwhelmed by the amount of kids!

Just when the kids thought all the fun was over we spotted the fire truck at the bottom of the stairs.  At first they were just letting kids climb inside the truck to see it but the best part of the afternoon started when they turned the hose on!

We loved having Vance's daughter Daniel visiting from Louisiana!

The next day Jana and Melissa and their kids joined us too and we went to the splash pad in South Ogden.

The pictures aren't the greatest and I didn't get half the kids there because I found it awfully hard to photograph kids moving that quickly.  There aren't any pictures of Kaitlyn because a lady at the park offered her a bag of pretzels and a jar of peanut butter and she wouldn't stop eating the whole time we were there!  I'm sure the lady must have thought I never feed her!

4th of July in Southern Utah

Monday holidays are perfect since Jason has most Tuesdays off work.  The 4th of July fell on a Monday this year so that meant we had a four day weekend.  We decided to head to southern Utah and show the kids some of our favorite places from when we were in college.  Unfortunately I waited until the week before to plan the trip and found out that most camp grounds and hotels were reserved.  I found a couple hotels that still had rooms so Friday afternoon when Jason got done with work we drove to Torrey and got there just before dark.  While we were checking in I noticed a sign for a 5K the next morning.  Jason decided that since he had to get a workout in anyway he would run the race in spite of having done some really hard workouts that week.  Andrew decided to run too.  It was hot and a tough course so neither of them broke any time records but they did both win ice cream gift certificates so we got ice cream every day we were in Torrey!

Saturday we spent the day in Capitol Reef National Park.  It was the one national park I had never been to in Utah.  It's not as popular as some of the other parks and it was nice to get away from the crowds.  We didn't get started on our first hike until about noon and it was around 100 degrees that day.  We found a beautiful slot canyon to hike into but unfortunately there was no shade in the middle of the day.  We got about a mile in and decided to climb up the rocks to see some water holes.  Kaitlyn was having a hard time climbing over all the big rocks but we finally made it.  When we turned around to head back she said "I can't go another step!"  I looked over at her and she was beat red!  We haven't had heat like that yet this summer and I was really worried about her.  I sent Jason and the boys ahead and hiked back slowly with her and had her sit down and drink lots of water whenever we could find a small spot of shade.  We eventually made it back to the car and decided the rest of our sight seeing for the day would be from the car.

Hiking in Capital Reef National Park

At last!  A little bit of shade!

Sunday after church we left Torrey and drove over Boulder Mountain.  Jason loved reliving the memories of his summer working on Boulder Mountain for the Forest Service.  I think if he could have made enough money to support a family doing that he never would have gone to medical school!  He was really wishing he had a truck to go exploring on the dirt roads again but since we were in our van we stuck to the highway.  We enjoyed a picnic in the cooler air in the mountains and then headed back down the other side into the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument.  We wanted to hike to Calf Creek Falls but when we got there it was 102 degrees and we discovered it was a 6 mile hike.  It was beautiful but we didn't want a repeat of the day before with Kaitlyn so we decided to save that hike for another trip.

Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument

Instead we stopped at the petrified forest and went for a short walk.  The kids thought all the petrified wood was great!

Yes, that's really petrified wood we are sitting on!

Sunday night we arrived at Bryce Canyon and caught up with all the crowds.  We learned our lesson and got up early Monday morning to go hiking.  We were also at 8,000 feet elevation, which made for much better hiking conditions!  Bryce Canyon has always been one of my favorite places!  We did a three mile hike with about a 1,000 foot climb at the end and the kids did great!

My favorite picture from the trip!

The never-ending switchbacks we climbed at the end of the hike!

The kids loved doing the Jr. Ranger programs at each of the parks and monuments.

The kids working on their Jr. Ranger booklets.

Jared loved the Jr. Ranger t-shirt!

Tuesday on the way home we stopped at Panguitch Lake and Cedar Breaks National Monument.  As Jared put it he was "sick of looking at scenery" by that point so when we got back to the not so scenic I-15 he was delighted to watch a DVD the rest of the way home!

Cedar Breaks National Monument-The kids were tired of posing for pictures!

Like all vacations, it was too short and we played too hard.  We came home exhausted but hopefully made some fun memories for the kids!

Scouts

Andrew was so excited to move into boy scouts when he turned 11 and start going on overnight camps.  Along with the 11 year old overnighter this summer, Andrew also got to go to the week long 12 year old camp since Jason went along as a leader.  Since the 11 year old camp was scheduled for the weekend before the 12 year old camp, Andrew spent 8 out of 9 days at camp.  I was surprised how hard it was for me to have him gone that long.  It's the longest he's ever been gone from home and I really missed him!  When he got home I gave him a hug (he was all dirty and holding his fish!) and told him I missed him.  I asked him if he missed me at all and he said "no"!

I am glad he had fun but it would be nice to be missed a little bit.  They went to Camp Bartlett in Idaho.  He was so excited to tell me when he came home that he had earned 7 merit badges at camp and he was 1/3 of the way to his Eagle!  He practiced his swimming really hard before going to camp so he could pass the swim test and had a fun time working on the canoeing merit badge.  He was also thrilled to catch the longest fish at camp that week!

While Andrew was at camp Jared had his cub scout rain gutter regatta.  Here he is so excited to take his boat to pack meeting!

They put the boats in rain gutters filled with water and blew the sails to race the boats.  Jared had a really close race with a boy a lot older than him.  When he pulled the boat out of the water we realized the paint we used wasn't intended to get wet and was washing off the boat!  He was excited to earn 6 more belt loops and put them on the new cub scout belt we bought.

Sunflowers

It has been a rough week for me.  Saturday I woke up feeling like I didn't have the energy to face the day.  When I got out of the shower Jared told me, "Dad and Kaitlyn went somewhere but I can't tell you where."  Then my thoughtful husband walked in the door with this bouquet of flowers.

I love that they picked out sunflowers.  It reminded me of when my friends and I picked sunflowers for our track coach in junior high.  He laughed at us and told us they were weeds.  It still makes me smile to think of it.  It's like when the kids pick dandelions and are so proud to bring them in the house and give them to me.

Sometimes life is hard.  Sometimes it feels like no one understands.  And sometimes the best thing anyone can do is let you know they care.

So Close, Again

If the marathon were 26 miles even I would already have broken the three hour marathon.  If the marathon were 27 miles I would still need another 5 minutes and I'd probably figure it wasn't within reach.  A tidbit of information you may not care to know is that the marathon hasn't always been the same distance.  The Olympic distance used to be 24.8 miles.  (This would make me about a 2:50 marathoner)  but thanks to King Edward VII and Queen Alexandria who wanted the 1908 Olympic marathon to start at Windsor Castle and end at the Olympic Stadium so they could view the race in the comfort of their palace, the distance of 26 miles and 385 yards became the official distance of the marathon.  So thanks to them, I have become obsessed about breaking a three hour marathon.  Does it really matter?  Is 2:59:59 really any faster than 3:00:00?  No, but for some reason it sounds a whole lot faster and I won't be completely satisfied until my marathon time starts with a 2!

Saturday I ran the Utah Valley Marathon and I had one goal.  Break a 3 hour marathon.  I knew I had to have a perfect race.  This early in the year my fitness level isn't quite what it is in the fall but I felt like I picked a good course with fast runners to push me and I could do it.  My last attempt was foiled by a heat wave and this year the weather was looking almost perfect.  Unfortunately, I wasn't feeling perfect.  For two weeks before the marathon I struggled with some health issues.  It was enough to make me feel drained of energy by the time race day came.  I slept restlessly Thursday night and woke up Friday morning feeling extremely nervous.  Nerves are a normal part of racing for me and I feel like I don't race well if I'm not a little bit nervous but this was beyond the normal pre-race jitters.  I drove to Provo in the afternoon to pick up my packet and spent the evening reading and trying to calm myself down.  We spent the night at my mother-in-law's so that I wouldn't have such a long drive to catch the bus at 3:30 a.m.  I knew it was going to be a short night's sleep anyway but when I climbed into bed I tossed and turned and couldn't fall asleep.  The last time I looked at the clock was midnight and the alarm went off at 3 a.m.  Needless to say, I was exhausted when I boarded the bus to the marathon start!

Even though I've run several marathons it's still unnerving to me to ride the bus to the starting line.  It took a full hour to drive there. (The bus was taking the canyon pretty slow.  A few times we thought we might have to get out and push on the uphill!)  But even at a slow pace it is a long way to drive and just puts into perspective how far I really have to run!  The starting area was great with music and fires.  I found my brother-in-law who was also running and it was nice to have someone to chat with for a few minutes.  Just before dropping off my clothing bag I reached in to grab my GU and realized I had forgotten it.  One more little thing to throw me off my regular routine.  I tried not to worry about it and hoped I could grab some at an aid station.

Finally at 6 a.m. we were off and it felt so good to finally just be running and forget about everything else.  About a mile into the race I noticed a woman that had been running close to me the whole time.  I asked her what she was going for since we seemed to be running the same pace.  She told me she was trying to break 3 hours and her PR was a 3:01.  I was excited and told her I was doing the same and we should work together.  Her name was Julie and she was great to run with.  We didn't talk much since we were both working pretty hard but it was a huge help to have her there to help pace me.  The race started in Wallsburg and wound through some beautiful countryside with a gradual downhill towards Deer Creek Reservoir.  With the wet spring everything is a brilliant green and with the mountains still snow capped it was absolutely breathtaking.  At mile 7 I finally found some GU, four miles later than I was planning on taking it, but I was still feeling good and right on pace.  That's when we got to Deer Creek and the hills started.  The hills caught me a little by surprise but Julie helped pace me up them and when I crested the final hill at 10 miles I felt like I got a second wind and picked up my pace dropping into the canyon.  Unfortunately at that point Julie wasn't feeling so well and dropped back.  I hit the 10 mile mark at 1:08 which was right on pace to finish at 3 hours.  I was in 5th place at that point and hoping to hold on to my spot since they were giving prize money to the top five.  4th place was within sight and I passed her when she stopped at an aid station about mile 13.  At the half marathon I was at 1:30.  I was still on pace but I knew it was going to be close again.  If only I could just keep up the pace the second half and have a little bit of a kick left at the end I would have it.  At mile 14 Jason was waiting for me and ran the rest of the way with me.  I was so glad to have someone with me again.  He was even nice enough to carry a bottle of Poweraid for me!  Provo Canyon was gorgeous but I wasn't noticing the scenery much anymore unless Jason pointed it out.  At mile 18 I crested the final hill and my total time was 2:03.  I needed the last 8.2 miles in under 57 minutes.  It was still possible but I was starting to feel fatigue setting in after 2 hours of hard running and feeling like 8 miles was still a long way to go.  The course came out of the canyon at mile 21 and I had 5 straight flat miles to go.  Five miles is nothing.  It's not long at all, but it felt like an eternity.  I could see the tall buildings in downtown Provo where we finished but they didn't seem to be getting any closer.  I was trying so hard not to count down the miles but all I could think about is how much I had left.  With four miles left to go I hit the wall.  If you've never run a marathon you really don't know what that feels like.  I really wanted to just lay down on the side of the road and quit.  I really didn't care anymore.  Jason was trying to push me as my pace started to slow but all I could do is make myself keep putting one foot in front of the other.  One of my strengths in marathon running is that I usually pass a lot of people the last few miles when everyone else is starting to slow down.  That wasn't the case Saturday.  I was the one getting passed.  Every time I heard someone approaching I would just hope that it was a man and I wouldn't lose my fourth place.  I could see the finish line from more than a mile away but it looked like it was still so far.  I had to keep concentrating on the stop lights.  I kept telling myself I could at least make it to the next stoplight.  Somehow I finished and hung on to my place.  My finishing time was 3:02:14.  I gave it everything I had.   When I crossed the finish line one of the volunteers had to grab me to keep me from collapsing.  Honestly, it's nothing to be disappointed in.  It's my second fastest marathon by a long ways. My average mile time was 6:57.  What I needed was 6:52.  I also won the biggest cash prize I have ever won at a race.

Someday everything will be perfect and everything will fall into place the way I want it to. Sometimes working towards a goal is more important than actually achieving it.  After all, what would I have to keep trying for if I had already accomplished it?  And maybe this will just make me appreciate it even more when it actually happens.

MCO, MTC, Fishing and Bike Riding

My mom is the principal flutist for the Orange County Mormon Choral Organization and they came on tour this week to Salt Lake City along with a similar group from Arizona.  Together they are called MCO (Mormon Choral Organization) of America.  We didn't get to see much of her because of the demanding schedule the group had. Most days they were in recording sessions from 8 am to 9 or 10 pm.  They were recording an Oratorio, Messiah in America, written by their conductor, Brett Stewart.  After spending all week doing recording they were planning on performing a concert in the tabernacle on Friday night.  I was devastated when the tickets sold out in less than half an hour and I didn't get any!  Fortunately, they decided to schedule a second concert in Abravanel Hall on Saturday afternoon.  It was such an amazing concert!  The composition of the music was incredible and the choir and orchestra, made almost entirely of volunteers, gave an outstanding performance.  The soloists were so good I could have listened to them all day!  The recording is scheduled to be released in the fall and I highly recommend it.  Since I wasn't allowed to take photographs here's a picture I found on KSL of Saturday's performance.  

My uncle is president of the MTC (missionary training center) for our church in Provo.  This is where new missionaries go to learn the lessons they are going to teach as well as languages if they are going to a foreign speaking missions.  My uncle said their are about 2,200 missionaries there now learning 52 different languages!  He asked my mom to perform a musical number at the Sunday night fireside for the missionaries and invited our family to come.  We dropped Kaitlyn off with my mother-in-law since we thought she was too young to sit quietly in a meeting full of adults.  Andrew and Jared have been so excited about going to the MTC.  We ate dinner with Uncle Gordy and Aunt Pat in the cafeteria with the missionaries.  Andrew and Jared loved the all you can eat ice cream bar! Then we had a little free time to wander around the grounds.  It was a beautiful summer day!  All the missionaries we ran into loved to stop and talk to Andrew and Jared, the future missionaries!  Obviously they don't get kids there to talk to often.  Here's a picture of Andrew, Jared and my mom.

The highlight of the evening was the fireside.  Words really can't describe what it felt like to walk into the room with over 2000 missionaries.  There was such an amazing spirit there!  For the opening song we sang Called to Serve and it brought such a wonderful feeling into the room to hear all those missionaries singing behind us.  It was quite the crowd for Mom to have to play in front of but she did a great job!  The speaker was Elder Wayne Petersen, an emeritus seventy.  I expected a talk on missionary work but he was just released as the temple president for the Nauvoo temple and chose to speak about that.  The Nauvoo temple is one of my favorite places in the world since it was our temple for five years and I loved his comments!  It was a perfect ending to the evening!  It was such a great experience and I hope something Andrew and Jared will always remember and make a goal to go on a mission.  It's hard to believe in just over 7 years Andrew will be old enough to go!

While Mom was in Salt Lake all week, I had to find things to entertain my dad.  We decided to tackle the flower bed under our front porch that is completely overgrown with weeds.  In the end we decided to rip everything out and start over.  Dad was a huge help but I always end up feeling a little guilty when he comes to visit and spends the whole time working.  We did go fishing one afternoon.  Jason has sworn me to secrecy about where we went but at least everyone caught a fish and we brought some home to eat.  Here are a few pictures.

We finally got to spend a day with my mom yesterday.  The kids wanted to take a picnic and their bikes to Beus Pond so that's what we did.  Jared finally decided last week when school got out that he wanted to learn to ride a bike.  As soon as he tried and I let go he was off like he's always been riding!

End of the School Year

It is hard to believe it is June already since it has felt a lot more like April with all the cold wet weather.  We even woke up to snow on the ground on Memorial Day.  The last few weeks have been busy with all the end of the school year activities and ball games.  Soccer season is over now and baseball season has started...sort of.  More games have been rained out than the kids have actually been able to play.  Jason ended up coaching Jared's team by default again this year when no one else would coach.  This is Jared's first year in kid pitch.  It's been quite the experience for Jason trying to teach a bunch of 8 year olds how to pitch, and even harder, how to hit a ball pitched by a kid...  Here's Jared pitching his first baseball game!

He was so excited and you can see how serious he was taking it!  The good news is that hasn't hit any of the batters yet and last week he even struck a couple batters out.  (Of course I won't tell you how many he has walked!)  The bad news is that they are the Red Sox.  I picked up the uniforms for the team and told the guy at the recreation office that my husband would probably refuse to coach the Red Sox.  He must not have thought I was serious because he just laughed.  Jason did let the kids wear the uniform but he refused to wear it himself and gave the coach's uniform to one of the other parents helping out!

Field day at the elementary was one of the few days the sun was actually shining even though it was chilly.  Here's Andrew at the clown relay I was helping out with.

Jared's class has been getting ready for a play, Geology Rocks.  Jared has been singing the songs around the house for a month and every time I go into his classroom to help they are practicing.  It was just their class but they decided to perform it in front of the entire school.  I couldn't believe how well those second graders did!  They knew there parts so well and they were easy to hear and understand.  It was a really cute play.  I was amazed to see Jared, who has always been so shy and scared to be in front of people, singing and dancing in front of everyone!  It really brought out something in him I have never seen before!  He loved it!  Here he is dressed up as a fern.

Kaitlyn had her preschool graduation last week.  The kids sang songs and recited nursery rhymes.  They each had a couple speaking parts where they told about things they had learned and done during the year.  Kaitlyn was putting on a show like she always does when anyone watches her, dancing along to all their songs.  She had most of the parents there laughing at her.

Here she is with her preschool teacher that she has adored for the last two years, Miss Jennie.