Vegas Ragnar 2011

I am sure everyone is sick of hearing about Ragnar, but I need this for my record! I am sad to say that I was not excited for this race. I was dreading the time we had to wake up Friday morning and dreading leaving my kids over their UEA break. I even went as far as to say, “I am not going to do a Ragnar next year.” Well that lasted about a few hours!

Thursday afternoon I met up with my van and we drove to St. George, took us about 7 1/2 hours due to all the UEA and deer hunt travelers. We got there late which made us all a bit anxious for our early start time. We stayed at someone’s vacation home that night. Our whole team got together for pizza, salad and bonding that night.

Friday morning we were up at 4:40 getting ready to get out of there. I know, I know, this is so not my normal behavior!

Beautiful sight to start out!

We never got a complete photo of our van. Me, Chris, Whitney, Maralee, Mike and Jeff. These photos together was who I spent 3 days with.

I didn’t really look at my legs of the race, I just picked the shortest distance leg because I was worn out when I had to choose. So I knew my first leg was 4 miles. What I didn’t know was that it was all uphill. I was fine though, slow and steady. No stopping for me. The run felt good and got me into the spirit of things!

Second run was at about 8:00 p.m. It was 5 miles and almost all downhill. How great was that? I ran through Henderson and had the prettiest view of the strip and the city at night. I only saw 2 runners on that whole leg, that was strange!

Last run was 4 miles on a steady uphill dirt road. I did fine. I don’t push myself, but just set out and run. The hard part about this leg was all the rocks I kept tripping over and the dust from the vans driving by. It was fun. I believe I ran at about 6:30 a.m. for that one. I had more kills (passing another runner) at this race then ever before….they must have had a bunch of slow people running! Our team’s night time break was from 10:00 p.m. until 1:50 a.m. Not a lot of time! Jen was a lifesaver and walked her last leg so that we could sleep a little bit more.

Super fun memories all along the way. I am sure I say this about every Ragnar I do, but this may have been my favorite one yet! I loved pretty much everything about it, well maybe not the 2 hours of sleep, but everything else! Random memories from the trip: drunk with tiredness at the New York New York hotel, laughing hysterically in hotel room, Whitney’s awesome $4000+ camera, peanut butter pretzels, popcorn from whole foods, baked goods stand at exchange, picking up Chris at one mile line and going to have dinner so as to not get penalized for arriving too early, always have to love those scouts, I’ve got a feeling rendition in Jean, NV, creating our own dirt sleeping area, sooner or later song, eating junk food at 3 a.m, listening to the same 7 songs on the radio over and over and over, me trying to move up our name on the list at Hash House a Go Go, the team that took 2nd inviting Whitty and I to be on their team……I could go on an on.

Bottom line….I will be doing another one soon!

Chris, Maralee, Breanne, Steve, George, Jen, Harrison, Jeff, Mike ,Kylie, Me, Whitty woo.

Part 2

Din-ee-yand!!!!!!

This post is making me recall my days of scrapbooking too much. And I should mention I strongly dislike scrapbooking. I am not creative and I don’t know which pictures to use! Since this is my journal and scrapbook, I am feeling the same way.

Bryan had a microsoft conference in Anaheim which is why we went in the first place. An odd time to take the kids out of school for a week, but I am so glad we did. The boys and I got 3 day park hoppers. We stayed at the Residence Inn just a few blocks from the park and walked back and forth everyday. Brandon and Jacob mentioned they were glad we go on walks as a family so much because it made the walk back and forth and through the whole park not a big deal.

Monday was the first day we went. We got in and headed to Space Mountain, but stopped at the Buzz Lightyear ride on the way.

Can you see the fear and tears in his eyes? I guess I should have prepared him for what rides were like. He spent the whole first day a little unsure of everything.

Waiting to go on Autopia made him much happier.

Small World….happy.

Haunted Mansion…not so much.

Parade….LOVED it.

See, now I am stuck. There are hundreds of pictures I want to post, but I don’t know which ones to chose. O.K. this may take awhile.

Monday night Brandon, Jacob and I went back to the parks while Jonah stayed with Bryan. I wanted to be able to go on some of the big rides. We had a BLAST on Tower of Terror and Grizzly Rapids or something like that. I was a wimp after one time on the rapids and wouldn’t go again with the boys…it was late, cold and I was wet. I instantly regretted that decision. (I had to throw in a picture of Jacob with the Hollywood sign behind him.) The pictures on tower of terror are hard to see, but Jacob’s face in them will forever be ingrained in my mind……so so funny.

Tuesday morning started out raining. Luckily I had an umbrella in the car and we all had brought sweatshirts. It dampened our day for a bit and then was awesome. We went on Splash Mountain, the best ride ever created, over and over. One of the times Brandon and I were on it and when the ride ended the operator said, “One more time?” It was like a dream come true. There were people waiting, but he let us just go again. Brandon and Jacob took turns waiting at the end of the ride with Jonah. Well and I took my turn waiting also.

Jonah could have ridden on Dumbo, the carousel and autopia over and over and over and over again. I couldn’t have.

Tuesday night Bryan got to go to a private microsoft party at Disneyland, ya they had rented it out. Plus being there after hours he also got all the churros, popcorn and mickey mouse ice cream bars he wanted! We were so jealous. That was the only time he got to spend at D-land, not fair for him.

Wednesday we got RAINED out. When I say it was raining, I mean it was pouring and pouring and it was so so cold! I went out searching for ponchos to buy and after not being able to get any and realizing it was going to rain all day I texted Bryan and asked if we could please stay longer the next day. I finally convinced him we could make it work. So we spent Wednesday roaming around a mall, taking naps and playing UNO over and over again.

Thursday was beautiful, sunny and warm. I started getting texts from friends at home telling me it was snowing. I was glad to be where I was! We crammed as much as we could in our short day. Tricking Jonah into going on the Matterhorn, autopia to make up for it, Toy Story Mania, every kids ride we could find at California Adventure, one last time on Tower of Terror…..so sad to see it go.

That evening we loaded into the car and drove to St. George. Luckily our great friends the Bingham’s let us sneak into their house late at night, sleep in warm comfortable beds and then sneak out early in the morning. Then drive and drive on home watching the temperature get colder and colder!

We had such a great time. The best part of the whole trip was not having to follow any kind of schedule. The only thing I had to think about was what ride should we go on next………….

Vacay Part 1

The first part of our Disneyland vacation was actually a friendship tour.  We were able to visit 3 different families that have moved away from us and that we miss. 

First stop as we headed out of Utah was to Lance and Heidi Bingham’s home in St. George.  So worth the detour off the freeway to get to see them and their cool house.  I can’t even talk about them without crying.  Love them!!!!

Next stop after spending a night in Ontario, CA was to La Canada to the Blake’s new home.  Erin graciously fed us lunch and we were able to talk and talk and talk.  Brett also took us on a little tour of their city and to show Brandon the Rose Bowl.  It was so great to see where they live and hear what life is like.  I will no longer complain about how much I had to pay to register Brandon for Jr. High!  So fun to see Maddie and Ali, they are beautiful and amazing girls.  Kate sang Disney Princess songs to us the whole time, so darling.  Sydney was great as well.  Someone I hadn’t prepared myself to see was Rudy, the dog, we miss the times Rudy spent in our backyard and the times I would drive him home.  It was such a great way to spend part of our vacation.  I could have stayed several days just talking with them.  They are an amazing family and the kind of people I want to be around.

2 potential weddings from this group!

Last, but not least on the friendship tour was a quick drive over to Pasadena to see Casey, Cindy and Lucy Unwin.  I loved seeing them and their apartment.  We didn’t get anywhere near enough time with them.  We talked non stop for the short time we were there.  They are so fun and we love talking to them.  We miss having them around a lot.  We know we will get to see them over the years as they come home to visit family. 

Last on the friendship tour was our good friends from The Office.

So super cool!  Thanks to Casey and Cindy for telling us the address of where they film our fav TV show.

Now as soon as I can get through all my 200 Disneyland pictures, I will post Part 2!!!

Fun stuff

A few days ago Jonah looked at me like this

and said, “Mom, do I still have ketchup in my eye?”  I replied, “yes you do.”  He then said, “Ah when is that ketchup going to yeave my eye?”  I decided I better tell him that it was blood from his body and not ketchup!

And a totally different story.  Brandon was giving us a family night lesson about fitness and eating healthy (he says it is his go-to lesson).  He was talking about the importance of playing sports and playing outside instead of sitting around.  I commented, “So what would happen if you got on your mission and were only used to playing video games?”  He looked at me and said, “I wouldn’t know because you only let us play for like 15 minutes!”

So true!

Standing Up

We live in a very prominent “Ute” area.  It is not cool to be a BYU fan. Some neighbors won’t even wear the color blue.  I come from a BYU heritage where my Grandpa was a professor and very respected person.  My parents both went there as well as some siblings.  Yes, I tried, but was not smart enough to get in, which I am very glad about now.  I graduated from the U, and loved every minute there.  Growing up we had season football and basketball tickets.  My grandparents had them, we had them, and now my little family has them.

Brandon has followed in our tradition of being a BYU fan, mainly because he learned from his Uncle Nate.  Friday morning as Brandon was getting ready for school I asked him if he was going to wear his BYU football jersey.  He said he didn’t think he would. (he has been made fun of already for something he wore) So I gave him a little pep talk about how he was a confidant and courageous person and he could wear it.  I let him decide and was pleased when he came down to breakfast wearing it.  I told him there would be people who saw him and wished they were as courageous as he.  When he got home from school I asked how it went.  He said only a few people made fun and that I was right, people thought he was courageous. The hardest part was in his English class where the entire class period was devoted to a debate, BYU vs. Utah.  7 kids who didn’t care (or weren’t brave enough to admit it) were the jury and then it was Brandon against the whole class!  Not one single other fan.  I knew he had no problem debating, he knows more about sports and statistics then I ever will.  He held his own and lost by 1 point, due to the fact that the jury didn’t believe he was telling actual stats (because how would they know?)!  I was very very proud of him and he was proud of himself for being true to who he was.

Yes, he was devastated at the game, as was I, but he would not leave his seat until the clock had run down.  We had a blast and truly enjoyed ourselves…until the last quarter.

Tailgating in blue.

Ready and excited for it to start.

The coolest sight to see.

If I teach nothing else to my children it will be to be true to who they are, no matter how much crap the neighbors and school kids give them.  And that we are BYU fans, not Utah haters……something Utah fans have a hard time understanding.

I am one very proud mother.

Preschool

Jonah was so excited to start preschool.  It was so hard for him to wait 2 whole weeks after the other boys to start.  One day as I tried to explain how much longer it would be I said, “after my race, then you start school.”  Sure enough, the second after I crossed the finish line he said, '”Do I get to go to school now?”  He has gone 3 times so far and LOVES it.  He is tired when it ends, but very happy.

I said, “I can’t believe my Jonah baby is starting school” he replied, “I’m not a baby anymore.”

Tri-ing

I was feeling a bit upset for not doing a triathlon this season so I decided to at least do a sprint tri at the rec center.  Nothing fancy or too difficult, but I loved doing it.  I didn’t train as well as I should have, especially with the swim, but was pleasantly surprised with how I did.

I got a bit worried at the swim when I watched other people changing up their strokes (because they were tired) or hanging on the edge by the 3rd lap.  No worry needed because I swam probably the best I ever had at an indoor pool tri.  I was able to keep my strokes steady and never got tired.  I even passed a few people.  8:54!!!! I just looked up my swim time, that was good.

Biking I was still feeling good.  I messed up my first transition, but that is ok.  I biked my heart out and still got passed by people who looked like they weren’t doing anything.  I did pass a few very very slow people!  It was a different course than in the past with some stop lights.  At one light a young man volunteer asked me if I wanted a lucky penny, he said it would bring all the single men to me.  I said, sure I want it but I am not sure if my husband and kids will like it.  He was embarrassed and walked off.  Made me laugh!

You can’t see me, but I am taking off on the start of the ride.

And here I am ending it.

12.4 ish miles.  Didn’t get my best time, but I did have to wait at 2 traffic lights!

Starting out the run, feeling like my legs are jello!!!!

The first mile of the run I did awesome.  I was feeling like I had moved up a category.  No  longer was I in the category of slowest triathlete, but moving up towards the middle of the pack.  That feeling died by the last mile when I didn’t have much steam left in me.  Definitely was not a good time for me on the run, but according to my watch we ran 3.5 miles instead of 3.2……makes all the difference.  I was still proud of myself for moving the whole time, no stopping, coasting or walking for the whole race.

Finishing it up.

And yes I did it again!!!!

1 hour 41 minutes.  Not my best sprint time, in fact probably my slowest sprint time, but I did finish in the middle of my age group category!  And I had lots of fun.