The Big Weekend

Thanksgiving weekend is probably the biggest weekend of our whole year.  We have more tradition in those few days than any other time.  It is always a great time and goes too fast.

Wednesday was a busy day of getting everything that I could ready.  It also was the cherished pie night at My Fosters house, such good pie and such wonderful company!

Me and the boys had signed up for the Turkey trot at the rec center for Thursday morning, so had a lot of my family members.  With temperatures forecasted to be 4 degrees we made the decision not to run.  Of course I was disappointed and so were the boys.  Well Thursday morning I got up and took Brandon with me down to the rec center to pick up all of our bags.  The temp said 15 in my car and there were tons of people dressed to run.  I couldn’t take it, I had to run.  I hurried and texted my BFF, who was planning to run it with other people before the cold hit, convinced her to run, drove home put the turkey in the oven, changed into lots of layers and made it back down in time for start time.  So glad I did.  It wasn’t too cold and we had lots of fun.  It was the first time we had run together and I can tell that I am going to convince her to run with me more!!!

Thanksgiving day was wonderful.  My family all arrived on time, oh except for Michael who had fallen asleep, everyone helped with the food, everyone obeyed my 2 hours at the table rule, the food was FABULOUS!  So much work, but so worth it.  I did have to help clean up which was a first, usually the boys clean up while I am still enjoying myself.

The adult area

The children’s area

Enjoying the feast with 30 people plus the 2 little twins

Friday was my beloved tree hunt day.  Due to Blizzard 2010 (what a crock) there was so much snow in the place we usually go.  Even big 4 wheel drive trucks were sliding off the road.  So after already driving for 2 hours we drove another hour to another area.  Poor Jonah was so confused as to why we weren’t there yet!  This area was very snowy as well, but we made it work.

Doesn’t that look fun?

My perfect tree, actually Bryan found it and it was the best I could find in the thigh high snow I was trudging through.

We stopped at My Foster’s cabin on the way home, which was a mere mile or so from where we chopped our tree.  Said hello, the boys admired the game on the wall (is that what you call dead animals on the wall?????) and said goodbye.  We love them, lots.

O.K. I am almost done.  Saturday, Game Day.  Lots of people, lots of food, lots of fun.  No pictures of the event, just our yard.

Of course a different outcome than everyone thought one second before the game ended, but hey it was a great game.  We are good sports and love our Ute fan friends!

One Week????

How is it possible that Thanksgiving is in one week?  What have I been doing not focusing everything on this great day?  I don’t know, but I do know that next week I will be hosting 28 people (give or take a few, I am sure some will change).  Usually a week before I have detailed plans for cooking the next week.  I barely created the menu (that is not hard, it doesn’t change much) and haven’t given everyone their assignments.  I must get going on that.  I am sure it will be the same whether I plan now or later.  This year is so weird, I still think it is April!

Football

Our first experience with little league football ended a few weeks ago.  What a great time we all had.  Brandon was born to play football.  He has wanted to for years and last year I finally gave him the O.K. to play.  He decided at the last minute not to play.   When sign ups came around this year there was no question in his mind, he wanted to play.

It was all a new experience for me.  Picking up his equipment, going and buying extra things he needed, and running him back and forth to practice.  He spent all of August practicing 5-6 days a week for 2 hours at a time and he LOVED it.  Once school started the schedule decreased to 3 times a week and he was sad to not have practice everyday. 

His games were a lot of fun to watch.  Even though we had to travel to Sandy several times and Oakley once they still were fun.  His team didn’t do very well, they only won one game.  In fact they only scored 3 touchdowns the whole season, but that didn’t matter.  The game would end and Brandon would have a big smile on his face and talk about how much fun it was.  This has been a great experience for him.  I loved watching him and his enthusiasm.  We will enjoy the months off and be ready for more next year!

Sweet

A usual occurrence at our house during Jazz season goes like this, boys are supposed to be getting ready for school.  Brandon- “Mom can I get online and see if there are cheap Jazz tickets”?  Me-“Hurry you are going to be late”.  Yesterday morning, Mom there are tickets for tonight's game and they are only $1.66, can we go.  No, we have 5 different things going on from the hours of 3 to 8, we don’t have time. 

Now fast forward to 4:05 as I am sitting in the dentist office with Jacob hoping they will hurry so he can get to the birthday party he is already late for.  I get a text from Bryan, call me ASAP.  I am thinking, why didn’t he just call me and say that?  I call him and he says, we are going to the Jazz game tonight, dinner first and then sitting in a suite, it is a work thing and we HAVE to go.  Work it out with the kids we need to be there at 5:30.  O.K. no big deal, oh and Brandon just got invited to go to the game with some neighbors.  One crazy hour later I am driving to meet Bryan.  Our fabulous and ALWAYS saving me neighbors the Barlows have Jonah and will collect Jacob from all his events and put them to bed.

So off we go.  Dinner at the top of the ESA, then head down to the suite where Greg Miller talks to us.  I sooooooo badly wanted to ask him if Kyle could come back, but we were with Bryan’s company and I  knew he would DIE if I did that.  Sitting on the front row of the suite, popcorn, candy and soda at our fingertips.  Sweet!  We located Brandon who was just below us, that was very fun.  At halftime they did a raffle in our suite for a few prizes.  Bryan won this HUGE jersey, of course he did, he always wins things.  I love my new dress.

We met up with Aliska, Brandon and went and saw Casey at halftime.  What a great time!!!  After the half we had nachos and ice cream bars.  I rolled out of there after the game, seriously not a good situation for me to be in a suite with all that junk that I can’t stop eating!!!!

Anyways super fun and worth the stress to get it all arranged!  Here’s to a great season and lots of games to go to.

Broken

Ice Maker is leaking water on my hardwood floors.

Vacuum cleaner won’t vacuum the carpet.

Dryer will only dry clothes if turned on twice.

Plumbing pipes are banging loud, and toilets running.

Fence is blowing over.

Hubcap came off my car, I don’t know how or where.

But I have a beautiful (I still prefer the old) new and expensive roof.

Happy Halloween

Halloween really is one of my favorite holidays.  I love to dress up and I love seeing other people dressed up.  The problem is that I don’t start thinking about it early enough and so I never end up doing anything really cool.  Yesterday we worked in the yard, started carving pumpkins, raced out to Sandy to Brandon’s game, came back finished the pumpkins and it was time to get ready for trick-or-treating.  No time to be creative, not that I have a creative bone (or cell) in my body!  Anyways we ended up having a great night, in spite of the rain and cold weather.  Have I ever told you my plan for when I rule the world?  Halloween will be on September 30th and Thanksgiving will be on the 4th Thursday of October.  The weather will be nice for Halloween and there will be plenty of time to enjoy Thanksgiving before Christmas hits.

O.K. so here we are.

Me- I dressed up as Brandon (couldn’t quite get the football pants on )

Brandon- You tube Antoine Dodson if you don’t know who he is.

Jacob- A Vampire, not Edward

Jonah- A Dinosaur and a Giraffe.  Really just a giraffe but it made him happy to say he was both.

I am always torn on Halloween night.  Go trick-or-treating with the kids and get to see everyone and their reaction to the costumes.  Or stay home to pass out candy and see everyone else's costumes.  I usually try to do both, but this year Jonah did not want to stop, so I missed everyone coming to my house.  Lots of fun and lots of candy to show for it!

Awesome

Yes, I loved it.  Really was there any question that I wouldn’t?  Well maybe because of the part about me not getting much sleep.

So here is a run down of my amazing Ragnar experience.  Thursday afternoon we left Bountiful and it’s wonderful warm fall weather.  We drove to St. George, ate at the Pizza Factory and then headed to one of our team members parents house to sleep.  I quickly made my way to a bed and went to sleep.  5:00 a.m. came all to soon, it had rained all night and we hoped we were not going to encounter that for our run.  We then drove to the Valley of Fire State Park, somewhere near Lake Mead.  We had a bit of a delay getting into the park, they were not sufficiently ready for the 400 plus teams arriving.  We missed our 7:15 a.m. start time, but quickly got set and made the 7:30 start.  It was very exciting to be part of the start line.  People all around decorating their cars and getting ready for the 195 miles!  It was nice to see how it worked, I had wondered and soon learned how you support your team along and then how you exchange with the next runner.  I was runner 4 and soon enough it was my turn.

Here I am, waiting to cross the street for my exchange.

And you can’t really tell but I have just been slapped with the bracelet and am ready to go.

Here I am barreling down the mountain.  This 6.4 mile run had two pretty big hills.  I kept on running though and finished pretty strong.  When you pass someone it is referred to as “road kill”.  Some teams are pretty intense about this and mark the side of their cars with the number of people they have “killed”.  I am pleased to say that I “killed” 3 people on this leg, very unusual for me who usually comes in last.

Running in to exchange with Steve.

I then had a nice long break as I cheered my team members on and saw what happens once our van was done with the first leg.  The big exchange was at a resort on Lake Las Vegas.  I laid in a lounge chair next to the pool and was in heaven.  Definitely my kind of vacay!

And here everyone thought I was only running!

Our vans next leg started that night.  Here is got exciting again because we had to wear reflective vest, headlamps and tail lights.  My run started around 9:00 p.m.  I ran on the road for a bit and then turned on a trail behind some apartment buildings.  The car had to be separated from me at this point.  I had a walkie talkie so I could stay in touch with them.  I got passed a few times and then ran my heart out so I could keep their lights in my sight.  I was not scared as long as I knew they were up there where I could see them.  I was running 81/2 minute miles at one point, not my usual pace!  I ended feeling great. (No pictures of me in the dark)

We finished our second leg around 11:00, met up with van 2 and sent them on their way.  We then drove to our next exchange.  I fell asleep during the ride and woke up when we got to the park where we would start our next leg.  Most people said they were sleeping in the car, but I knew I needed to stretch out.  I went and slept at the park with about 200 other runners.  I wish I had a picture of that sight.  Sleeping bags lined up all over the place.  It was freezing cold, but I buried into my bag, put in ear plugs and didn’t know what was happening until my team mate woke me up at 4:00 to get ready to go.  I was thrilled with my 4 hours of good sleep.

My next run started around 6:30 a.m.  I was diddle daddling in the car and Jenny had to wait for me at the exchange point.

You can’t tell, but that is me starting out. 7 miles on a dirt road.  It got light and warm really fast.  It was a good run.  I could tell I was a bit run down, but not too bad.  I think I “killed” 2 people on this leg.

Ahhhh I am done.  Pretty good running for not training for the race.

Nice feeling.  I actually wanted to run another 3-4 later in the day, but our car was done.  We met up with the other van for awhile and then drove to the resort which was the finish line.  Every time I got out of the car it was an ordeal, stiff legs!  I got to go take a shower in one of the rooms since I was getting on a plane in a few hours.  Boy did that feel good!

Our whole team crossed the finish line together once van 2 got there.  32 hours and 11 minutes, we came in 104 out of over 400 teams.  Pretty good if you ask me.

Here we all are.

My van. Me, Harrison, Steve, Jenny, Janet and David.  Good times with people I didn’t know before it started.

I then went to the airport and flew home, kind of nice.  Loved the race, can’t wait to do another one!