Boston Marathon 2014

Last year on the third Monday in April, Patriots' Day in Massachusetts,  I woke up wishing I was at the starting line for the Boston Marathon. Since I'd had a baby in 2012 I hadn't run a qualifying marathon so I would have to wait a year.  Little did I know the terror that would unfold that day in Boston.  I listened in horror to the news reports and phone calls I was receiving.  News of senseless acts of violence is always troubling but this one seemed so much more personal.  This was an attack on my sport and a race that I loved and was anxiously waiting to return to.  I worried about friends who were running the race.  I grieved with the people of Boston that a day which should have been one of celebration had turned darker than any of us could imagine.  My heart ached with the spectators, athletes and the city of Boston for those whose lives were changed forever that day.  Yet I knew immediately that I would be standing on the starting line in 2014.  There was no doubt in my mind that the world's greatest race would go on and I would continue to be a part of it.

Our family arrived in Boston Friday afternoon.  We had decided to bring the kids along this time to experience the thrill of the Boston Marathon and my mother-in-law came to help.  Everywhere we turned there were signs welcoming marathon runners to the city.  Boston Strong was plastered on road signs, store windows, sidewalks, and t-shirts everywhere we looked.  I think the only people more anxious than me for marathon day to arrive were the people of Boston.  We were treated as heroes walking the streets the days before the marathon in our jackets.  Waiting for dinner one night I felt a tap on shoulder, "Excuse me.  Are you running the marathon?"  When I answered yes, the man shook my hand and wished me luck.  The expanded field size (36,000 entrants as opposed to 27,000 in the past) made getting around the city with four children quite the experience.  Crowds of people were everywhere, waiting for dinner, at the expo, and especially on Boylston street trying to take pictures of the finish line.  Yet the masses were something we were all willing to put up with to be part of this historic race.  In spite of the inconvenience it seemed to add that much more anticipation to air as we awaited marathon day.

At the expo with our numbers- ready to go!

I had several people ask me why I wanted to run the marathon or if I was scared in the weeks leading up to the race.  A friend asked, if it was checked off my "bucket list" why go back?  Or if I have no chance of winning what is the point?  To me the Boston Marathon means so much more.  It is the spirit of overcoming difficulty to achieve something great.  Every runner there has a story of how they got there, many with much more inspiring stories than mine.  I've noticed both times I have run that at the end of the day no one, other than myself, cares how fast I ran.  The question is always simply, "Did you finish?"  Running the Boston Marathon is about the journey to get there and pushing yourself in a way that you never thought possible to achieve something great and that spirit lives in the hearts of over a million spectators that line the streets from Hopkinton to Boston.  And this year we were celebrating a city that had overcome so much in the past year to become greater than it ever had.

After some chilly days leading up to the race, marathon morning was sunny and beautiful.  It was Patriots' Day commemorating the start of the Revolutionary War in Lexington and Concord and the excitement in the air was almost tangible.  This was the day Boston was taking their race, their holiday and their city back.  We walked almost a mile to Boston Common at 6 a. m. and boarded a bus in the never ending line of school buses.   Even though the race didn't start until 10:00 it takes several hours to transport that many runners.  Since we were in the first wave we were some of the first runners to arrive at the athlete's village in Hopkinton.  We found a place in the sun on the grass to rest until it was time to head to the starting corrals. I laid down and pulled a blanket around myself to keep warm and imagined the perfect race.  Half an hour later I opened my eyes and thought I better make one last trip to the bathroom before we left the village and to my dismay the lines stretched all the way across the village.  It was hard to even walk with people sitting all over the grass.  I realized I would never get through the line in time so we headed to the exit instead hoping there would be some bathrooms closer to the start (and luckily there were.)  We had a three quarter mile walk to the starting corrals.  Jason figured with all the walking we would get close to 30 miles in for the day.  As we walked through the streets of Hopkinton the residents were all out on their front porches cheering us on before the race even started.  Some even had tables set up with sunscreen, Vaseline, water, and any other last minute things we might need.  We left all our sweats in piles of clothing being donated to charity since with the security measures this year there was no baggage check at the start.  I realized the temperature was warming up quickly and we were quite comfortable with only our tank top and shorts: not a good sign with 26 miles ahead.

Jason was assigned to corral one and I was in two based on our qualifying times.  I convinced him he should move back to two and start with me.  Based on the way our training had been going I thought we could run close to the same time and wanted to run at least part of the race with him.  After the star spangled banner, a flyover of military helicopters and an introduction of the men's elite field (the elite women had started half an hour earlier) it was time to start.  With 1,000 runners ahead of us in corral one it took us a full minute to reach the starting line.  We were running but it was difficult to control the pace.  The road was so packed with runners that the only choice was to run the pace everyone else was running.  The beginning of the race runs through more rural parts outside of Boston.  The towns were packed with spectators but in between the towns it was forested area and the only sound was thousands of footsteps hitting the pavement.  The road was filled with runners stretching in each direction as far as we could see and this was only the first wave of four to start.   I was afraid of losing Jason a couple times in the crowd but after a few miles it was spreading out just enough that we could keep our pace better.  We were running most of the miles in the 6:30s with a few downhill ones in the 6:20s.  I had put our names on the tank tops we were wearing and soon spectators in the towns were cheering for us by name.  The crowds didn't disappoint at all.  They were there in bigger numbers and louder than ever.  Kids were offering high fives, cups of water, popsicles and licorice.  Jason quickly noticed that every time we got to a town and the crowds were cheering loudly we would start to speed up.  We tried to be more mindful of our pace and not go too fast.  We were hitting all our 5K splits just a few seconds over 20 minutes, just where we wanted to be.  We knew we would need to save some energy for the hills in the second half.  We hit the halfway point at 1:26:12.  We were on pace to run in the low to mid 2:50s if we didn't slow down too much on the hills.  The temperature was getting hotter though.  We were taking a lot of water and the crowded water stops were slowing us down a bit but we had to stay hydrated.  As we moved into the second half of the race and closer to the city the throng of spectators just kept getting bigger.

Around mile 16 is where the Boston Marathon gets really tough.  That's where we hit the Newton hills.  While they may not be as big as some of the hills we run at home there are several significant climbs between mile 16 and 21 and it's late enough in the race that our muscles were getting tired.  We were both starting to hurt but knew we still had a long way to go.  I reminded Jason that everyone was feeling like we were at this point so let's just focus on one hill at a time.  We were able to keep our 5K splits around 21:30.  We had slowed down a little but that was expected.   It was really great to have each other to help through this tough part of the race.  The infamous heartbreak hill comes last  between miles 20 and 21.  If we can just get to the top, I kept thinking, we can just coast through the last five miles to the finish.  We arrived at the top together and I reached over and grabbed Jason's hand.  "We did it!  Let's go!" I said.  I was wanting to take off at this point but Jason was wanting to recover from the hills.  Jason told me to just go ahead of him.  At the time it felt like the right thing to do but later I regretted it.  Five downhill miles I was telling myself.  That's easy.  I took off and started passing other runners and Jason hung back a little trying to recover.  My plan worked great for a mile or two but suddenly with about three miles left I was running out of steam and I realized three miles was still a pretty good distance to go.  I'm not sure if it was the heat or just hitting the dreaded wall but I struggled through the last three miles.  Suddenly I wasn't passing anyone and I was just trying my best to keep up with the group around me.  It was hot.  It was the only warm day we had the entire week in Boston.  The temperature reached 68 degrees.  That might not seem too bad but in the spring when runners aren't used to the heat and with the later start time in Boston, it definitely became a factor in the race.  Meanwhile Jason had dropped back a bit.  At the 40K I had about a 30 second lead on him but he was wise enough to save a little for the end.

The crowds were amazing the last few miles to the finish.  They really carried me to the end.  I got to the last mile and was looking for my kids.  I was afraid I would miss them since both sides of the street were lined with people.  I knew I'd never hear them with the crowd so loud.  I turned the corner onto Hereford and was looking ahead to the next turn onto the final stretch on Boylston when I saw them, with cowbells and signs in hand, cheering as loudly as everyone else.  They had a great front row spot to watch and although they were on the wrong side of the street and it cost me an extra few steps I ran over to give them all high five. Then I turned onto Boylston street and with a little over 600 meters to go the finish line was in sight.  My body was totally done and it seemed like I would never get there but at the same time the feeling there was almost too much too describe. I didn't want it to be over.  The crowds in the grandstands were jubilant, enjoying this day of celebration the way it was meant to be.  Running down Boylston street I waved to the spectators with tears in my eyes.  I crossed the finish line in 2:55:22.  I turned around hoping Jason wasn't too far behind and saw he had crossed the finish line just a few seconds behind me.  He had a strong finish and almost caught up to me but through the crowd of runners neither of us had any idea we were that close or we would have crossed together.

I finished in 86th place in the women's race reaching both my goals of finishing in the top 100 and breaking three hours.  (The women's race was the biggest and fastest it's ever been with over 14,000 and a new course record as well as American record being set.)  It was 13 minutes faster than my previous time on the course.  Jason also beat his time on the course by five minutes.  It wasn't either of our fastest marathons, but I think it's the one I enjoyed the most.  A highlight of the day was finding out that Meb Keflezighi had become the first American to win the men's race since 1983.  I was slightly jealous that my kids got to see him win.  The excitement of an American finally winning Boston again just added to the festivity of the spectacular day.  What a great day for Boston!

I'm enjoying a little down time the last couple weeks as I've been recovering.  The trails I run on are gorgeous in the spring and it's a great time to just get out and run for fun without caring how fast I'm going.  Soon enough I'll be training hard again.  I'm running the Chicago Marathon in the fall with much loftier goals.  I'm hoping to break 2:43 and qualify for the 2016 Olympic Trials.  It's going to take a summer of intense training, even by my standards, and a perfect race in the fall for it to happen.  Yet, I feel like I'm so close that if I never try on a qualifying course I'll always wonder if I could have done it.  Boston taught me a lot.  Dreams really do come true and people can overcome the most tremendous obstacles if they just believe.

Winter Races

Winter is the time of year I don't really thing about racing.  In fact, even training in the winter is usually less intense.  This year with the Boston Marathon coming up in April, I knew I'd have to do some good training over the winter and probably a few races to keep my fitness level what it was in the fall.  I decided to pick a few races from the USA Track and Field Utah road racing circuit this year.  In this circuit you earn points based on how you place against other USA Track and Field members.  One of the first ones was a 5K that is part of a winter series the Salt Lake Track Club hosts.  Andrew came with me on this one and we drove out to The Great Saltair to race.  It was cold but it wasn't icy or windy, so not a bad day to race the end of January.  I rarely run 5Ks anymore.  I usually race longer distances, partly because I feel like it is my strength but also because the 5000 was my distance in college and I felt like I would never be able to run that fast again.  After running the longer distances for so long, 5000 meters felt like a sprint!  The course was flat and the circuit brought a lot of fast runners.  It started out fast and I struggled a little with pacing myself.  I finally decided to try to stick with a few of the women up close to the front.  It felt fast and I was hoping to hit my first mile around 6:00.  It was 5:53.  I was starting to wonder if I could hold this pace for three miles but the girls with me were pushing me so I kept running hard.  It was an out and back course so and when I got to the turn around there was one girl in front of me that had a pretty good lead and one right behind me.   By the two mile mark the girl behind me had dropped back and I hit that split in 5:54.  The last mile I was getting pretty tired but I thought I was starting to gain a little ground on the leader.  My third mile was the fastest in 5:43.  I had let the leader get to big of a lead at the start and couldn't catch her but second place was a great place to start out the circuit against some great runners.  Mostly I was amazed at the time I ran.  18:08!  It was just a few seconds off my fastest 5K in college!  The circuit races all give out good cash prizes and I came home with a New Balance gift card.  Andrew had a good race too, especially considering he hasn't been running much over the winter and placed second in his age group.

I have run the Striders Winter Racing Circuit here in Ogden several of the last few years.  I decided this year not to run them because the courses are so extremely difficult and the timing of the last two races doesn't work well with Boston.  They added the 10 miler to the USA Track and Field circuit though so I decided it was worth running it to get the points.  It's the course I detest more than any others because the hills are so terrible.  I found myself dreading the race the night before.  I woke up thinking, maybe everyone will have heard about the hills and decided not to come.  If no one fast shows up maybe I can take it at a little easier pace...  Of course as soon as I arrived at the packet pickup I started seeing fast runners.  If I really wanted the points for winning I was going to have to run up those hills hard.  I felt like I had a bit of an advantage though since the race took place in my own neighborhood.  I knew those hills really well even if I generally try to avoid them.  I was hoping that was enough to help me get the win.  I took off pretty fast and although I let a couple women go ahead I was trying to keep them in my sight and hoping to catch them on the hills.  By the time I got to the first big hill, about 4 1/2 miles in, I was in 2nd place.  The girl in first was the one who beat me at the Ogden Marathon last year and I knew she was going to be hard to beat.  She had a pretty good lead on me but I knew I had three miles of climb to catch her and I was slowly doing it.  I passed her shortly into the second big hill.  My legs were screaming at me by the time I reached the top and a quick glance back told me I had a good lead but I also knew she was a great downhill runner.  Could I hold her off with three miles to go as we made our way back down the hills?  I was running as hard as I could, with my fastest mile about 5:30.  I passed my house about mile 8 and my kids were outside cheering for me.  By the time I got to the 9 mile marker I could hear the girl behind me.  She had almost caught up to me.  We made a turn and had to head up one more hill before the finish.  It was short but it was steep and I felt terrible.  I really didn't know if I could make it up.  I thought I was beat.  But a couple of my friends were waiting for me there and encouraged me.  I made it up and just kept pushing as hard as I could to the finish.  I could still hear the girl behind me, I thought, and kept waiting for her to pass me.  I made it across the finish and held onto my first place.  I turned around to watch second place come in only to realize she had dropped back on the hill and finished 30 seconds behind me.  It was a guy right behind me pushing me to the end.  I broke my own record on that course by 4 1/2 minutes with 1:03:04.  Only four men in the race beat me.  My average mile pace was 6:18, not bad considering there is about 1000 foot gain in elevation gain on the course.  I won a Striders gift card that I put toward a Garmin I've been wanting to buy.  I felt like I had raced harder than I had in a long time and paid for it the next week with some pretty sore legs.

Next up is Boston and I feel like this race gave me a lot of confidence.  My goals for Boston are to finish in the top 100 women and run under three hours.  The weather has been warming up and I'm so excited for spring running!  I'm also excited to be part of the utahrunning.com elite racing team this year.  More about that is coming in future posts.

Andrew is an Eagle Scout!

February 22nd was Andrew's Eagle Scout court of honor.  We had a great day celebrating his accomplishment with family and friends.  I'm so proud of Andrew for all his hard work in accomplishing this.  He had some great leaders who helped him on his way but I can honestly say he did the work himself.  He was so motivated to work hard on his merit badges and rank advancements.  When it was time for his project he decided he wanted to help kids at an under privileged elementary school who didn't have books to read at home.  He collected over 1,800 books and every child in the school was able to take several books home and enough money that each child received a new book for Christmas.  The reading specialist said some of the kids were so excited to get their own books.  His project really made a difference in a lot of lives and he took charge and became a great leader organizing his troop to collect and deliver the books. Boy Scouts of America is such a wonderful program that teaches boys so many good things.  Andrew loved his experiences with scouting and the fun times at scout camp.  He was blessed to have a great group of friends in his scout troop as well.  I was putting together a slide show for Andrew and his friend, Caleb, who also received his Eagle that day.  As I looked back at pictures of them from when they were eight and just starting cub scouts it brought tears to my eyes to see how much they have grown in such a short time.  Although I miss that cute little boy with the dimples dreadfully, I'm so proud of the fine young man he has become.

A few days before the court of honor I asked Andrew if he had picked his mentor.  He said he had picked his dad but not to tell him because he wanted it to be a surprise.  The night before Jason said to me, "I hope Andrew picked me for his mentor.  I think I'll feel bad if he picked someone else." All I could do was hide my smile.  Here he is pinning the mentor pin on his dad.

And here he is receiving his award and pinning on the parent pins.

It was great to have so many family and friends there to support Andrew on this wonderful day!

Jason gave Andrew his own fly rod as a present for his Eagle award so they can continue to have a lot of great adventures together.  Here Andrew is with some wonderful past and present scout leaders that have been a great example and sacrificed so much time to help him get where he is today.

Girls' Weekend in Vegas

I've always hated Las Vegas but my friends were planning a weekend getaway and our friend, Kathryn, recently moved there so we decided to go visit.  Jason kept asking if I really wanted to go but it had nothing to do with Las Vegas, just time away from everything and a fun time with some awesome friends.  After much debate we decided to drive my new van since it was the only vehicle that fit everyone and all our stuff.  You really don't have to twist my arm too hard to convince me to drive it anyway.  We left Thursday afternoon and came home Saturday afternoon so it was a long drive for a short trip but the drive was honestly as much fun as everything else with these girls.  It was so great to see Kathryn again too.  We rented a house at Lake Las Vegas and ate way too much and spent lots of time late at night laughing.  The lake was a different side of Vegas I have never seen.  I explored it on long morning runs and it was somewhat of a ghost town but warm enough to run in shorts and a good change of scenery.  We drove out to Red Rock one afternoon and had a blast hiking and climbing on the rocks.  That was another surprise for me that I didn't know existed in Vegas.

We got dressed up one evening for a night on the strip.  We watched the fountain show at Bellagio and I was introduced to frozen hot chocolate at Serendipity.

All too soon it was time to say goodbye to Katherine but we figured our husbands had had enough of taking over our responsibilities and were ready for us to come home.  We couldn't really escape our responsibilities anyway.  On the way home we discovered some of our 8th graders had science fair posters due on Monday.  Since our husbands were already juggling all the kids at home and it was getting close to store closing time we stopped at Walmart in Cedar City to buy poster boards and supplies.  We can't ever really escape being a mom but it sure was a fun get away and I think we were all a little more appreciated when we got home.

So Bad, Yet it Could Be So Much Worse

A few weeks ago I got my van back from the shop after the accident I was in.  The side that had been hit looked brand new again.  I was glad to have it back after a few weeks of only having the truck to get all of us where we needed to go.  A few days later, Jason was home for the day and the older kids were at school.  He was heading downtown to the running shoe store and asked if I wanted to run down there on the parkway and he would drive down with Skyler and pick me up.  I was glad for a new route to run and as I headed out the door I said, "Don't call me.  I don't have my phone.  Just be there in an hour."  An hour later I arrived downtown and Jason wasn't there yet.  My first thought was that he had been in a car accident but I figured I was just worried because I had just been in an accident.  He must just be running late.  Since I didn't have a phone to call him I just stood outside stretching but I kept getting more nervous as time passed.

A few minutes later a car pulled into the parking lot and a lady I didn't know stuck her head out the window and asked if I was Merrilee.  That's when my heart really started to pound and I knew something was really wrong.  She told me I needed to come with her and my husband had been in a car accident.  As we were driving she told me that Jason and Skyler seemed OK but they had Skyler in the ambulance checking him out.  In my mind I was thinking, was it really that bad?  I asked again if my baby was OK and she told me she had wiped the glass off his face but he looked all right.  Then I started to cry.  I was so scared and even though we were only a few blocks from the accident it seemed like it took forever to get there.  I realized I didn't know which car he was even driving and while I didn't want the van damaged right after it was fixed I was really hoping it wasn't the new truck.  I finally asked her after she assured me that no one looked hurt and she told me it was the van but warned me that my car was not OK.  I really wasn't prepared for the scene when she dropped me off.  I was picturing a little fender bender off to the side of the road but there were cop cars and ambulances everywhere.  After a quick thank you to the sweet lady who picked me up I ran towards the scene looking for Jason and Skyler.

I caught a quick glimpse of what was left of my car and it was horrifying.  Every side of it was damaged and all of the windows had been smashed.  Everything that wasn't seat belted into the car was lying on the road.  Jason called to me from the closest ambulance and I ran over to it.  Skyler was crying and Jason was holding some gauze up to his ear.  It turned out to just be a small cut from a piece of glass that was in his ear.  Jason was in shock and Skyler seemed terrified by everything going on around him.  Jason told me he wasn't hurt and just had a cut on his hand.  The EMTs thought Skyler was all right but wanted to transport him to the hospital just to have him checked out since he was so small and the accident was so severe.  Jason didn't want the ambulance transport but with no car or car seat to get there ourselves I decided we should just go.  I had just a minute to look at the van and grab a few things.  Our van was hit on the back corner while going through the intersection. When it was hit it spun and the witnesses said it rolled several times.  It finally came to rest upright a couple hundred yards from the intersection on the sidewalk.

Skyler hated the ambulance ride.  He was still screaming when we arrived at the hospital and took us into an ER room.  The doctors and nurses came in to look at him and he fought them the whole time.  They decided he looked like he wasn't hurt so they just wanted to keep an eye on him for a bit and see if he calmed down.  They gave him a snack and after everyone left the room he finally stopped crying.  Jason took off his shirt and he was covered in glass underneath his clothes.  Skyler also had glass inside his clothes and diaper.  The police officer came in to talk to us.  He told us we had done everything right with installing the car seat and buckling Skyler in.  Then he hesitated before he went on and I could tell he was trying to decide if he should say it.  He asked if we were religious and then told us that he has seen so many accidents just like ours where the baby doesn't make it.  He said he wasn't trying to be dramatic but that he was so amazed to see our little boy running around the hospital room instead of in the cemetery.  He said the way the side of the car was dented right by his head, that had he even just been in a different car seat that allowed his head to move a little more he wouldn't have made it.  He told us there are some things that just can't be explained and we were being watched over.  The other driver wasn't hurt for which we were also extremely grateful and had fairly minimal damage to his truck compared with our car.

So my car that was like new again was totaled.  Later that day we went to the towing company to gather our belongings.  I was sad to see my car looking so bad.  Maybe it's silly but I become a little attached to my cars.  But mostly, with a little more time to look at it, I was awe struck and more grateful than I can express that Jason and Skyler had walked away with only a few scratches.  Here's what the car looked like.

As we were driving away I told Jason that our car looked worse than any other car that had been towed there.  His response was, "Didn't you see that one that had been burned?"  OK, so I guess looking on the bright side of things, at least the car didn't catch on fire.  Really, it was a terrible day that I would never want to repeat and yet we were so blessed at the same time and it could have been so much worse.  That night I couldn't sleep.  Once Skyler woke up and didn't want to go back to sleep so I laid down on his floor.  I finally slept there when I could hear him breathing.  The next week I felt like I couldn't let him out of my sight.  It was like somehow he was going to disappear if I did.  I am now the biggest advocate of seat belts and car seats. They definitely saved both Jason's and Skyler's lives that day.  And yet I know it was more than that too.  I'm so grateful to my Heavenly Father for protecting them.

I spent the next couple weeks hassling with the insurance claims and shopping for a new van.  I'd definitely put both of those things on my list of things I don't like to do.  I got a beautiful new Honda Odyssey with much nicer features than my old van so I guess it all turned out all right in the end.

Cross Country Skiing at Northfork

When we lived in Iowa several years ago we loved to go cross country skiing.  Since we moved to Utah we have spent most of our time downhill skiing.  Jason has been wanting to learn to skate ski and heard about a day at Northfork park when they were doing free lessons.  So he and Andrew went up, rented skis and took a lesson.  I brought the other kids up after the lesson and rented some classic skis for Jared and Kaitlyn.  We thought we would have to take turns watching Skyler but then someone told us they had a sled we could pull him in.

There was fresh snow but it was warm and soon the snow was turning slushy.  It wasn't the greatest conditions for skiing but it was a great day to be outside with the kids.  Skyler loved his little sled and it was so fun being able to do something all together.  Skyler hates to have gloves on his hands but as long as we put licorice in his mouth for him he was happy.

Kaitlyn didn't like the cross country skis at first.  She was too young when we lived in Iowa so it was her first time.  She had a hard time learning how to turn without an edge.  Just when I was about to give up on her ever liking it she got the hang of it and loved it.  She couldn't stop asking when we could go again.

Christmas and the End of 2013

This was such a great Christmas!  Everyone was healthy and happy.  Jason got most of the week of Christmas off and it was just so wonderful to have fun together.  By Christmas Eve I had decided everything was not going to get done, thanks to the car accident, so I could either fret about it and spend the whole day working to finish up last minute things or just forget it and have fun.  I chose the latter and we had a gorgeous day at Snowbasin, our fun new Christmas Eve tradition.  It really is a great way to pass the time for kiddos that are really impatient for Santa to arrive.

In the evening when it was time for the kids to act out the nativity, Kaitlyn was really sad Skyler had gotten too big to be the baby Jesus.  Instead he was Joseph this year and loved to kiss the baby.

Then it was time for Christmas Eve pajamas.  (I know this picture is a little silly with Skyler poking Andrew in the eye!)

And finally it was off to bed.  Unfortunately morning came way too early.  Even though we told the kids they couldn't get up until after 6:00, Andrew and Jared woke up around 5:30 and woke Skyler up so there was no sleeping after that.  Skyler was exhausted all morning and didn't enjoy the presents too much that day.  Everyone else seemed thrilled with what they got.  I never get very good pictures at Christmas.  Maybe because that amount of excitement makes it impossible for my kids to sit still for half a second.  Here are a few that turned out.

My brother Ethan and his wife sent all the kids marshmallow guns.  They were a hit for everyone, including Skyler and Dad.  A couple days later these hats came in the mail from them in Germany.  Cecilia crocheted the hat for Katilyn and Skyler's came from the Christmas market.

We spent Christmas vacation playing with all the new Christmas toys, skiing, going to movies, dinner and the Christmas Village downtown.  The kids loved the new movie Frozen.  Andrew spent the new year at a church youth party at Weber State and the rest of us enjoyed a game night at home with Jason's mom and step-dad.  All too soon the holidays were over and it was time for everyone to go back to work and school.