Ragnar-Wasatch Back

This is by far one of the craziest things I have done. I don't think words will really do it justice, but I'll try. This is a 200 mile relay race. 12 people on the team-2 vans/6 people per. I was with 5 other totally awesome ladies-who again, words can't do justice for. Drama free and they were amazing! How it works it that one person is always running. You have 36 "legs" and they vary in length and difficulty-factoring in hills/elevation gain and loss, time of day. We all had challenges, that's for sure! The "baton" is actually a slap bracelet that you hand off. The exchange points have parking (usually) for the van to come and drop off one runner and pick up the other. You also were able to "support" your runner by leapfrogging them-driving ahead a mile or two and cheering for them, asking if they need anything, that sort of thing. There were a few legs that were "no support" like if it was a busy highway or if the running route went off-road. And did I mention it's 200 miles? That took our team an impressive 32 hours and 54 minutes. Seriously. (And that really is a great combined time).

 This is my van (Van #1) before any of the action started. Up at Utah State Campus in Logan.

 

 Here's me before my first run (almost 7 miles). I was runner #3

 I'm just getting started and feeling fine

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This is after we had all completed one run and had handed off to the second van (they were also fabulous, but we of course didn't see them as much since they were running when we had downtime and vice versa).

 

 This is at Snow Basin which was where we started back up again with run #13 (back around to runner #1-who was Tammy-in the safety vest). This is all the ladies on the team: Lindsey, Tamarynn, me, Allison, Tammy, Jen, Amber, and Kirsten.

 After our van had all done two runs (I think most people liked their 2nd run in the cool evening/night the best-I know I did-plus it was my shortest-only 5 miles), we headed to South Summit HS and sleep in the hallway. That's me on the right in the back of the picture. I actually slept (yeah, 3 hours was totally awesome) and that is more than I can say for some of these gals.

 This is me heading out on my final and third run. I guess I was concentrating, I don't really know what that look is.

 This was considered a "non-support" leg because you can't cross the highway. But my awesome team was there to cheer me on (from the other side). And throw me a bag of ice (which I did not catch) that was totally the best because it was so hot! I shared with anyone I passed. This picture doesn't really do this hill justice-it was kindof never-ending. 

 This is the hand off to Tamarynn at the end of my almost 8 (hot and uphill) miles. You can see where I chose to store the ice. At one of the aid stations, I had a volunteer throw water in my face and I threw a cup on my head. Felt divine! 

 

The finish line! The last runner was the guy on the left with the green shirt. We (our van) stuck around in Park City (showered at Allison's parents house there) so that we could run in with him and get our medals and stickers. This is our whole team! 

 Hard but awesome. I was super super sore for a couple days but now I'm feeling fine and looking forward to the next challenge.

12 years....

Darren and I just had our 12th anniversary! Weren't we babies when we got married?? I'm sure my mother will agree with that!

So instead of the "standard" date night, we opted for something different...that was heading up to Ogden to the Salomon Center and doing the Ifly (which is the simulated skydiving-you are in a tunnel of air--like free falling, but more safe...in theory). It was still scary to me, but fun. We also did the flowrider, which is the surfing. Seriously, a young man's sport. I was ready to literally throw in the towel after 20 minutes because I was being physically abused by the water, but I stuck to it and even improved some. To get an idea of the violence, you have to see when Darren wipes out because if the water is doing this to him, imagine what it did to me-I'm half his weight....

Glad we did something different...even if I did have whiplash and my body was sore for a few days.

Preschool

I just can't say enough nice things about the wonderful preschool and preschool teacher that Trevor has this year!.......obviously, I'm joking! But isn't that how this post is supposed to start?
It's going to be sad to send my little buddy to Kindergarten in the fall. For as much grief as he gives me at school, he really is a sweetie and I've loved seeing him learn and grow these past 2 years at school. I know he'll still be with me some, but it's just a strange transition for me. Talk to me in 2 months...maybe he'll drive me insane this summer...

This is his preschool graduation! He said his parts in front of all those people!

This little gal

This little Aubrey is so cute. She also gives me a run for my money. She has such a fun personality that she can captivate a room. But she is also in that fun pre-two stage and she can really throw an awesome tantrum. I always have to take sleeping pictures of my kids to remind me of their sweetness and innocence. Aubrey is a "skin-baby" and she will put her little hand down the shirt of anyone who holds her-regardless of age, gender, etc. It's sweet and embarrassing all at once. And if no one else is around, she does it to herself....

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She also can make a mess in a second flat. I know it's the age, partly, but it's just so fast! I was cleaning out closets (finally), getting the winter clothes put away. I walked into the laundry room to put away hangers and this is what I came back to.....she then proceed to "try on" the clothes. She likes to dress herself and it's pretty hilarious.

Softball/Baseball

After our Disneyland vacation, our camera took a little vacation too. I had it in the backpack and I dropped the backpack too hard and the viewing screen got cracked. Very sad (and an expensive mistake-between the repair and new backpack I bought to carry it in). My point in admitting this is that this was spring sport season and Rachel played softball (every Saturday morning at 8 am) and Trevor played baseball (Tuesday and Thursday evenings). It was fun and they both had really great coaches who taught them a lot-they both really improved from the beginning of the season to the end. And I didn't get a lot of pictures. But I did get some:

Guess the sun was in her eyes

That's a hit!!

And another hit!! She personally had an incredible game-4 at bats and 4 hits! 2 singles and 2 doubles. Her team was on fire that morning with a "score" of 17-3 (it's unofficial since they don't keep score, but one inning they went through the whole batting order and the ump had to call the inning at 7 runs-guess that's the max per inning).

Her cute team (minus Morgan who's mom just had a baby so they couldn't make that last game :( )

His team was the cubs

This is actually pre-game warm up

At bat

A swing!

Great season. Can't say I'm too sad it's over, but it was fun!

Goldilocks

So, in looking for new and "fun" ways to challenge myself, I decided (along with my friend Allison) that we would do an organized bike ride. It's not a race, just an organized course that you do with like 600 of your closest friends. This was women's only (there are a few out there, Little Red, Goldilocks and Wildflower Pedalfest are the ones I know of), which was great. Also organized by women-which was evident in the fact that there were (very cute!) decorations on the food tables-seriously, I have never seen that before. (It was like a RS activity-in that respect anyway). The one we chose was Goldilocks-the timing was right for us. How it works was that you choose your distance: 20, 40, 60, 80 or 100 miles. We chose the 60. I'm not a cyclist-I just do it as the middle event in my tri's. I did train for this event, but it's hard when the weather doesn't cooperate and the sun doesn't come up until after 6:30 (and you have to be home by 6:45 or 7). No excuses, but my longest training ride was 32 miles and it was difficult. For me. And I was alone out there. The nerves kicked in and I started to panic a little, thinking we should drop our distance to 40. But then I mentally kicked myself and said, just do it! So on the beautiful Saturday before Mother's Day, I sent the family out the door to Rachel's softball game, loaded my bike onto Allison's car rack, and headed to Butterfield park in Herriman. 

This is us before the ride-all fresh and whatnot.  The ride took us a little bit around Herriman and then Bluffdale to Redwood Road-then out to Saratoga Springs area-where we turned west and went to Cedar Fort. If you know the road-it takes you by Camp Williams, and yes, that is a HUGE hill, thank you very much. (Thus the nerves on my part).

 This is us at lunch-the 30 mile/halfway point. How it works is there are a few aid stations that you can get off the bike, have a snack, stretch, whatever. We got a quick stop at 19 miles, then we stopped here at 30, where we ate, stretched and then did it all again (I mean, you know, since we were only at the halfway point and still have 30 more miles to go)

 After lunch, we stopped at the 40 mile point at which I could not get my left foot unclipped from my pedal. The nice man took my shoe off so I could grab a snack, at which point we discovered that it wasn't just that my screw was loose (on my shoe clip, haha, I saw the joke as soon as I wrote it), but one was actually missing, thus I couldn't get the pressure to unattach my shoe from the pedal. No worries, I thought....until about 4 miles later when I apparently lost the other screw and was no longer attached at all on the left side.  If you are familiar with road bike pedals, they aren't really pedals, but more a place to attach your shoe. What do you want to do? Finish it, of course! These are my shoes, post race.

 

We passed up the final aid station at like mile 54, opting to just "get 'er dun." Then about 2 miles later, Allison heard a pop/hiss come from her back tire and within a mile or so had lost complete pressure. We stopped by a nice police officer, who knew how to change a flat. As did we, in theory, and she had the stuff, but we "let" him do it. There was an aid # to call for support and they would change the flat, but they were slower than the police officer. Really we were only stopped for like 10 minutes. Then it was off to the finish! Total ride time was about 4 hours. 

Glad I did it. And I would do it again. I wasn't even as sore as I thought I would be!

My post race picture looks almost exactly like the other two, but it's more to prove to myself that those legs are still holding the rest of me up after 60 miles in the saddle.

April Vacation post 3 of 3

We decided to go on a whale watching excursion that left from Newport on Saturday morning. We got out of the marina and immediately there were dolphins all around us! These pictures don't even do justice to how cool this was! They were playing in the wake of the boat and a further out, you could just see them jumping and playing. So cool!

 It was chilly with the ocean breeze and early hour, but we weren't freezing

 These sea lions just like to hang out on this buoy (or "boobie" as Trevor calls it). They are funny little guys!

 This GIANT Gray whale is the mama and she is doing her yearly migration up from Mexico with here "little" baby. She's swimming very close to the shoreline to show the baby the way to go. What the heck this stand-up paddle boarder is doing is beyond me. Mama bear has nothin' on mama whale! She surfaced a bunch of times but the water got a little crowded with boats and what not so our captain backed off a little.

 This meant she was going deeper down to eat. So cool!!

 Grabbed lunch and played at the beach for a bit. The sand is always a main attraction and Trevor always asked to be buried. Daddy is happy to oblige.

 Rachel (not currently huddled in a towel).

 See who's brave enough to get in the water? I had to collect some sea shells for the kids and they ventured out a little. Was cold (yes, the Pacific Ocean in April, I know). This beach was steep and so when the waves went back out they pulled so hard that Trevor couldn't even keep his footing. And you only had about 1 second to grab a shell before it zoomed away with the tide.

 Aubrey couldn't get enough of just playing in the sand!

Look at those happy faces! What a way to end it!

Had a great trip. We drove home the next day (Sunday) and then it was back to real life.

April Vacation post 2 of 3

This bring us to the portion of the trip that was really the main event-4 days at Disneyland and California Adventure. We did all the rides we wanted the first day at each park and then spent the other days mostly re-riding or hitting things we hadn't taken the time for the days before and of course getting pictures with characters (and autographs!). So fun! Really not a relaxing vacation, but that's not the point.....

Meeting Ariel

We were in line for Minnie and we were the last people. Pluto was right next to us and he finished first, so he literally jumped into our photo. Funny!

Aubrey enjoyed some of Disney this way. What a good baby to take some naps in the stroller so no one had to go back to the hotel.

In line for my personal favorite ride-Toy Story Midway Mania!

Mary Poppins and Burt. Jolly good time!

Hold on, while I consult the map (The rest of us were watching the Star Wars Jedi training and Aubrey was seeing what she should do next)

Submarine-"Finding Nemo" ride (We, and by "we" I mean Aubrey, made friends with this Australian lady and her daughter who were behind us in line. This lady was so taken with Aubrey-she even held her for a bit. Then I got a little worried I wouldn't get her back....no, she was really nice!)

Aubrey on the carousel-She wouldn't let go when it was over. "Whee" she called it. I had to pry her hands from the bar.

We did so much-it's hard to capture it all with pictures. We also did a little swimming at the hotel. But mostly amusement park for 4 solid days!