Ragnar

I was so sad last year when I couldn't run Ragnar.  I was excited for this year!  I love spending time with these people who have become such dear friends.  Jane had a baby this year so she wasn't able to run, but Glynn took her place and was a great addition to the van.  It was quite the adventure!

We were van 1 this year and I was runner 2.  When we exchanged at Mountain Crest and went to get in the van it was dead!  We found someone to jump us and were on our way again.  Well, by the time we got to Paradise it was acting funny.  We ended up turning into a driveway and it just flat out died!  We were a little panicked because Michael was running and we didn't know how we were going to get to the next exchange.  Glynn just took off running and went to catch up with Michael and said to pick him after the next leg.  We ended up flagging down another van for Mickel and just asked if they could get her to the next exchange.  That left Tyler, Cyrus and me.

We were able to find the people who owned the driveway were we stuck in and they were super nice.  The wife went and got her neighbor who was a mechanic and he looked at the van.  He was pretty sure it was the alternator or the battery or both -- and we weren't going anywhere anytime soon.  We called a tow truck and Boo and settled in.  We were very lucky that Boo happened to be headed to Bear Lake with a friend and was able to bring us another van!

The 3 of us hung out in the driveway -- with all our stuff -- for close to 5 hours!  In that time, only 1 other van stopped to see if we needed help!  Crazy!  The people who lived there were very nice to come out and check on us frequently and couldn't have been more accommodating.

Once we got a new van, we were able to meet up with the rest of our team who had managed to all make it to the major exchange in Liberty.  We picked them up and were on our way again.

My first leg along Hollow Road was incredibly hot and tiring.  Average pace was 7:57.   I think of the 5 years we have run this one was the hottest.  My next leg was in the middle of the night and was about 8 miles up into east canyon reservoir.  I was super stressed about this because I knew it was a lot of uphill.  I told my team to fully plan on me walking.  Well, apparently running uphill in the middle of the night is a good thing.  I ended up with an average time of just under 8:00 per mile on a tough run.  I was super happy!  My last leg was Saturday mid-morning and only 3 miles.  I thought it was going to be great, but I wasn't expecting it to be as uphill as it was.  My legs were toast and I was so grateful it was short.  My average time for that one was 7:32.

We made it to Park City around 11 and handed off to the other van.  Team ended up decided to take Glynn and I to ride the train home instead of waiting at the finish all day so I could make it for dinner at the campout.  Totally made the whole weekend worth it!  I was pretty bummed that they changed the days of the Jardine campout to the one weekend all summer I was going to be gone!

I got home, hurried and showered and rushed up to Franklin Basin.  Dumb me, I assumed they'd be the same place they are every year.  After 2 hours of driving up and down and searching, I finally decided to drive to the summit and try to call someone to see where they were.  Kelsey didn't know and everyone else I tried was already at the campout!  I finally ended up calling Kortni in Colorado and she didn't know where they were, but her parents were home!  I called Rog and found out they were back in behind another group of campers.  I had walked into the campers camp when I was looked and couldn't see any horses so I figured it wasn't them.  Ha!  Next time I'll be sure I know where they are BEFORE I go!

Sure feel blessed to have such good friends, awesome family, and a healthy body!!

Preschool Graduation

Bailee graduated from preschool!  She went to the same preschool as Cole -- Suess on the Loose with Ms. Kira.  After a rough beginning of the year, she loved it!  She loved to sing all the songs and got really good at writing her name.  She knows all of her numbers to 10 and most of her letters.  We will miss Ms. Kira next year (she is going to just be mom and no longer teach).  We have loved her!

Some of Bai's favorite songs:
Tiny Turtle
Mean Old Witch
Sing a Rainbow (color song)

Salt Lake Marathon

I randomly won an entry to the Salt Lake Marathon last Sunday.  I decided to do it just for fun and was planning on running with my friend Dana, who was pacing.  Then, we realized that Top of Utah wasn't going to work to qualify for Boston if we wanted to run it this year, so Michelle decided on Thursday that she was going to run with me too.  This was her first marathon.  I knew if we could just maintain our pace and run comfortably that we'd be able to make it.  We were nervous, but ended up having so much fun!

A lot of friends told me I was crazy to try and run this course untrained because it is a harder course, but I loved it!  It was so fun to have Michelle with me to talk to too!  At about mile 15 I was starting to get super tired and wasn't sure how I was going to make it through 11 more, but I think I was low on electrolytes.  I started drinking gatorade at the aide stations and I perked up.  By about mile 21, Michelle was really tired.  We both put in our headphone and just focused.  Our last 5 miles ended up being some of the fastest.  We ended with a time of 3:31:01 and I took 1st in my age division.  Such a fun day -- and so fun to run comfortable for a change.  I felt great after!  I love that I have friends who are as crazy as me and decide to run a marathon at the spur of the moment!

Easter

Family Tradition!

Vegas

Mom, Blair, and I decided to surprise the kids this year and fly to Vegas for spring break.  They thought we were driving to St. George, so when we pulled in to park at the airport we told them that we were just stopping to go potty and that we had to ride on a bus for a little bit.  Brooke bought every word.  Cole started questioning immediately where we were and where we were going.  I was a little worried how he was going to react because he DID NOT want to get on an airplane.

We got checked in and checked all our luggage and by this time Cole had figured it out and was a little mad.  Brooke was still so confused and Bailee was just going along with it all.  We could have fooled Brooke all the way to the gate, but we finally told her as we were waiting in line for security.

Cole wanted to sit by me and hold my hand, but overall he did much better than I was expecting.  I thought we'd have a full-on Cole tantrum.  The girls thought it was all pretty awesome.  And it was SOOO much better than driving!!

We didn't do a whole lot while we were there --typical girl vacation -- we exercised and swam and shopped.  We stayed at South Pointe so everyday we had to go down and see what was going on at the horse arena.  That was Cole's favorite part.   The kids also got to each make a build a bear which they thought was pretty cool, they've never done that before.  We went bowling one day too.

The weather this year was much hotter than normal so it was actually really nice that we could lay by the pool without freezing.  It was so nice to get away from our normal schedule and enjoy the sun!