Worth Making Memories

A couple years ago Jason found out that the annual American Medical Society for Sports Medicine conference would be at the Dolphin Resort in Disney World this year.  Ever since he found out he's been wanting it to be a big family vacation.  I was reluctant for a couple reasons.  I'm not a huge Disney fan.  (Please don't stop reading until I explain.)  Disney does everything fantastic.  In fact no one does it better.  My complaint is how expensive and overcrowded it has gotten the last 20 years.  Gone are the days where we would go to Disneyland with minimal crowds for a reasonable price.  Instead I feel like I spend a boat load of money to stand in line all day while my kids get bored of waiting and start to fight. The other problem is that the conference always falls one of the last weeks in April.  It's always after spring break but right before AP tests, end of year testing, track season and the rest of the spring sports.  It's an awful time to drop everything and go on vacation.  For this reason Jason usually travels to these conferences alone.  But he was persistent in trying to convince me to take the family. I finally relented on the condition he fly out a few days before us and we make a quick trip so the kids only missed a couple days of school.

For the most part Disney turned out much better than I had anticipated.  Yes, we spent a ridiculous amount of money but the crowds weren't as horrible as they could have been.  I think we hit a nice window after spring break, before school was out and before the heat of summer hit Florida.  The weather was nice.  The few rides with extremely long lines we skipped but there was still plenty of things for everyone to enjoy.  And most of the time the kids got along really well.  It was some really great family time to spend together knowing things would soon be changing with Andrew preparing to leave for a mission.  However, it didn't take long before everyone was so exhausted tears were starting to flow, the money was all gone and it was time to go home.  Enjoy a few highlights of the trip.

Deseret News 10k

I don't know if I will actually get around to posting about all my races the last year.  To sum it up it's been a year of ups and downs.  Unfortunately the downs stand out in my mind that happened at key times when I was ready to attempt to qualify for the Olympic Trials and illness got in the way.  I'll save the details for another post but the events of the last year along with my 40th birthday last fall left me wondering if I would ever see times as fast as I used to run.  The reality is that my last true PR was in fall of 2015 when I ran a PR in the half marathon.  I couldn't help but think that maybe those days were over.

The Deseret News 10k is one of my favorite races every year.  The course is blazing fast with some steep downhill.  The holiday atmosphere and the fact that the last two miles goes down the parade route make it fun.  I also have a deep appreciation for my ancestors who arrived in the Salt Lake Valley with pioneer companies that the day commemorates.  This race gives out good prize money and always attracts a competitive field.  For a few years, the race directors changed and the competition declined a bit and I was able to snag some of that prize money with some top 3 finishes.  Last year the previous race director took over with the goal to bring the race back to previous competition levels.  This left me hoping for a top 10 spot and I finished 7th.  I knew this year the competition would be as hard, most likely harder.  There was no way I was going home with any prize money and I found myself the few days before even wondering why I was racing when I had no chance against runners like last year's champion, Taylor Ward, Olympian, Lindsay Anderson, and Boston Runner-up Sarah Sellers.  But I decided to focus on my goal- qualifying for the Olympic Trials and using this as a race to gauge my fitness in preparation.  I was going to ignore everyone and race for time, the same thing I'll need to do in Chicago.  I analyzed all my best (and not so good) performances at this race and came up with a game plan.  Exact splits I needed to hit at every mile.  It's a bit of a challenging course.  The first two miles are extremely steep downhill and it's easy to go out too fast.  Go out too fast and pay for it at the end.  (I've done that.)  Yet if you go out too slow and don't take advantage of the quick first miles it's very difficult to make it up at the end on the flat and uphill.  My goal was to break 36 minutes.

The race started and the front pack took off.  I was probably in at least 15th place for the women.  I knew some of those women would never come back but I hoped to catch a few.  Many of my high school boys took off ahead of me but were within eye sight. This is a big enough race I was surrounded by lots of runners to work with.  One lady in particular seemed to be racing about the pace I wanted.  That's always a positive and I looked to stay with her for the race.  The first two miles through the University of Utah campus are quick ones.  The goal for the first two miles was 5:30.  I came past the markers at 5:28 and 5:26.  A little fast but not too fast.  I was feeling good.  Mile 3 is a bit more challenging with some flat and even a small uphill before dropping again.  My goal was a 5:50 and I clocked a 5:49.  I was right where I wanted to be.  I had caught up with a few of my high school runners by the halfway point.  I encouraged them to come with me and work together as a team.  It was starting to take a bit more effort to hit the pace but I felt I really could't let up the pace now that the kids I coached were with me.  Mile 4 is another fast one and we came through at 5:37.  The lady that I was still running with started to drop back a bit and I had passed a few other women.  A few of my high schoolers had dropped back as well but I still had a couple right with me.  Mile 5 starts to flatten out along the parade route.  I was tired now but managed a 5:44.  The last mile is the toughest.  You have to turn east and head up the hill to Liberty Park.  My splits were all slightly ahead of my plan.  I was not only in a position to break 36 minutes but I had a chance at a PR!  Two of my high school boys took off ahead of me with strong kicks.  Later I wished I could have stayed with them but I felt I was doing all I could on some really dead legs to get up that hill to the finish.  I crossed the finish in 35:27!  It was a 20 second PR and I was even able to snag 10th place and win the masters division.

I was extremely happy to run a PR. It was good to see the work all year starting to come together and a big confidence builder that I can still run times I was capable of a few years ago.  I also really enjoyed spending the day with my high school team.  There were a few of my boys very happy to beat me and a few that I'm sure will be out to get me next year.  Honestly it is one of the most fun rivalries for me.  The truth is I don't care if they beat me and I like that it motivates them to work a little harder to try to finish ahead next time.  Mostly I just love seeing the kids enjoy doing what I love so much!

Class of 2018

We had a great few weeks celebrating Andrew's graduation from high school.  It's one of those times as a parent where you don't know how you can be so happy and proud of your child's accomplishments while at the same time constantly holding back tears wondering where time has gone and how you have gotten to this point so fast.  Here are some highlights of the graduation activities.

Andrew's last piano recital with his teacher Mrs. Tucker

 

Christian Warren, Ethan Anderson and Alejandro Torres: Andrew's good friends from the cross country and track team.

Senior Sunset

 Andrew was recognized at the OSPY (Outstanding Sports People of the Year) Awards for the Best Championship Performance for his individual and team region championship in cross country and with the Tiger Pride award for his academic performance while playing multiple sports in high school.

OSPY Awards!

Seminary graduation with his good friend Ethan Toniolli

 Pictures from graduation day! May 23, 2018 at the Dee Events Center.

And senior pictures taken at the high school!  Yes there are a lot but they are all too good not to share.

Hawaii - One Last Family Trip

My request to my husband was that before Andrew left on his mission for two years I wanted a big family vacation.  When I asked Andrew if he had any suggestions he immediately asked if we could go to Hawaii.  It sounded perfect to me.  I was thinking Maui or Kauai.  My husband wanted to go to Oahu to tour Pearl Harbor.  But Andrew wanted to see an active volcano.  So I booked the trip and hoped the volcano would be active while we were there.  I got more than what I bargained for.  A few weeks before we were due to leave a major volcanic eruption started.  Not the typical calm eruption from the Kilauea Volcano.  This was a major lava flow that was destroying homes and evacuating neighborhoods.  New fissures were opening up daily.  Ash was spewing from the crater and earthquakes were a frequent event.  The National Park was shut down and the evacuation area kept growing.  Suddenly the volcano was too active and I worried about our safety and if there would be anything open that we wanted to do.  We decided the money was already spent and we might as well go to the island.  Kona was far from the volcanic activity and although the air quality was terrible due to the continuing eruptions we hardly knew anything was going on.  We had a fabulous time exploring the beaches on the Kona side of the island. We loved snorkeling with the fish and sea turtles, playing in the sand, watching dolphins, and body boarding.  The one thing lacking was some sunshine with the constant haze and cloudiness overhead.  We were even able to visit the Kona LDS temple.  It was Kaitlyn's first time being able to go inside a temple and do baptisms!

The last few days on the island we headed up to see the top of the mountain Mauna Kea.  It was crazy driving from sea level to over 13,000 ft in less than an hour.  We were finally able to get above the hazy air for a bit.  Then back down the mountain we went to the Hilo side of the island.  We decided to bail on our place to stay in the town of Volcano due to the daily ash eruptions.  Instead we found a charming little house to rent in Hilo complete with a pond the kids could paddle board and canoe on.  We loved the lush vegetation on the other side of the island even though there was a lot of rain that came with it.  We had fun exploring a lava tube and viewing all the waterfalls.

Other than the haze we still hadn't seen any action from the volcano.  I felt sad because that was the whole reason we had picked the Big Island.  We finally heard from some tourists that there was a company that had started doing boat tours out to where the lava flow was entering the ocean.  I had some hesitation knowing my tendency for motion sickness and the ridiculous cost of the boat ride but we finally decided it was our ONLY way to view the volcano.  We woke up at 3 am to catch the 4 am boat from Hilo.  We boarded the boat and headed out the bay in Hilo.  As soon as we were out of the bay I realized my mistake bringing Skyler on board.  It was a ROUGH ride!  Just minutes into the ride he was saying he wanted to get off and NEVER do this ride again!  But at this point we were stuck on the boat for the next 3 hours.  As soon as we had exited the bay we could see the glow in the night sky from the eruption even though we were still miles away.  It was incredible how it lit up the whole side of the island.  Fissure 8 was putting on quite the show spraying lava several hundred feet into the air.  After over an hour speeding up the coast we arrived at the area where lava had been flowing into the ocean.  It was incredible to see lava rock coastline that hadn't existed days ago literally being created right before our eyes.  The flow itself had slowed to a trickle and we couldn't see much lava actually flowing into the ocean but the smoldering fresh lava rock and the lava spraying from fissure 8 was a sight I'll never forget.  I was hoping when we slowed to view the eruption we would get a bit of a respite from the rough ride.  But instead the boat rocking back and forth on the big waves at a slow speed was worse then riding over them and crashing down at high speeds.  Many people on the boat were getting sea sick and soon Skyler and I joined them.  In retrospect I think I'm still glad we did it but from now on I'm keeping my sightseeing adventures on land!

 This day turned into what felt like the longest day ever since it started at 3 am and we were taking the red eye flight home.  We went back to the house and packed up then headed to the south side of the island to drive back to Kona and see some areas we hadn't seen yet.  We spent most of the afternoon at a black sad beach which ended up being one of my favorite outings of the whole trip.  The beach was gorgeous with the black sand, coconut trees and sea turtles resting on the sand.  Skyler thoroughly enjoyed playing in the sand.  We all had fun watching the turtles and the teenage boys kept entertained trying to break open coconuts.  As I sat on the beach watching everyone having so much fun the tears started to flow.  It was all over.  Not just the vacation but it suddenly hit me that Andrew would be leaving in a matter of weeks.  Almost 19 years and it was gone in the blink of an eye.  Although our trip didn't end up much like we had originally planned it really was perfect just to spend the time together knowing we won't have that for a while.