REVEL Big Cottonwood Half

A couple of weeks ago, it was a typical Friday night.  I was trying to clean up the kitchen and  (which always seems a losing battle) and Preston was talking on the phone to his little sister Alison.  Next thing I know, Preston is telling me that she is asking if I want to run a half marathon in the morning. Her husband had been planning on running it with her, but something came up and he had to miss it. Alison had another friend doing the race with her, but Thomas had already paid, and she already had picked up his packet and had his race bib and everything, I just had to show up.  I had already been training for the Haunted Half in October, and I looked at the course and it was DOWNhill, so I figured...what the heck?  

I had second thoughts the next morning when my alarm went off at 4 a.m.  "I hate this part!" I whispered to myself as I crawled out of my nice warm bed into what seemed like the middle of the night.  I got dressed, grabbed some water and a banana and headed out.  The drive wasn't too bad, and I met up with Alison and her friend and got in line for the buses by 5:15 a.m., right on time.

As we boarded the bus, I said "I hate this part!"  It is always a little intimidating to take the bus ride up to the start line.  Those rides seem to take forever, and the whole time I am thinking how I have to run allll the way back to where I started.  While we rode, I pinned on my bib, which said "THOMAS" in big bold letters. :)

But on the other hand, the bus is nice and warm and cozy.  So, when we finally made it to the start line and we had to get out of the nice and warm and cozy bus to go stand outside in the cold for an hour until the 6:45 a.m. start time, I said "I hate this part."  I don't like standing around and freezing and doing nothing except noticing how everyone else's shoes look faster than mine.  Actually, it wasn't as cold as I thought it would be because in our race bags were those shiny silver space blankets, which actually worked really well to keep my legs warm.  It was kind of funny to see all those runners wrapped up in tin foil in the dark.  It looked like some sort of space alien convention.

If you are a runner, you know that the most important thing to do at the start line before you start your race is to find yourself a porta-potty.  So, after a bit we made our way over and found a potty line to stand in.  "Ohhhhh, I HATE this part!" I said. (My deep and intense hatred for all forms of non-flushing toilets is well known.  And for good reason.).

Next, we headed toward the start line.  It was nearly race time, and the race organizers yelled for us to put our drop bags in the waiting truck.  Oh dang, time to take of my nice, warm jacket.  I hate this part.

But, I still had my "space blanket," so it actually wasn't too bad.   This was the most downhill course I had ever run, so I decided to at least start out fast and see if I could get a PR.  Off went the gun. Off went everyone's space blankets.  There were a LOT of runners in the race, so I didn't get past the starting line until a couple of minutes had gone by.  There was a lot of dodging people (and discarded space blankets) at first, but I was enjoying the downhill.  Have I told you how much I love the downhill?  So much.

I had my GPS watch, and I was going at a pretty fast pace the first few miles.  I hadn't done any downhill training though, and by mile 5 my calves were getting a little tight.  That didn't bother me as much as my hat, which kept sliding down over my eyes for some reason.  

 The canyon was beautiful, with some leaves already turning.  I kept on going, still at a fast pace (for me at least, thank you, gravity!).  The canyon lasted for most of the race, with only a few flattish miles to the finish.  I was a little sad to see the canyon end, even though my downhill muscles were tired.  Those last few miles on the (relatively) flat land sure felt a little harder after all of that downhill.

I had been watching my time, and I was on pace to smash my old PR.  If I kept going as fast as I could, I figured I might even be able to come in under 1:40.  I was pretty tired, but I thought how cool it would be to have a PR that was 1-Thirty-Something, so I kept on going fast.  I will admit that the 11th mile was not my friend, and the 12th wasn't too great either.  There was a super fun cop directing traffic and enthusiastically handing out high fives with about 1 mile left to go.  I liked that part.

The finish line was in sight, so I kept on pushing.  I hit the button on my watch as soon as I hit 13.1, and it said 1:39:05!  Yay me!  My official chip time (under Thomas' name, of course), was 1:39.29, average pace 7:35/mile.  (Gravity IS my friend, because this time has absolutely nothing to do with how fast I am when I am running on the flat).  Crossing the finish line was awesome.  I LOVE this part!  Makes all the parts that I hate more than worth it.

After the race I was pretty worn out, and shuffled over and picked up some chocolate milk and another banana.  After I sucked down the milk, my eyes beheld the beauty of a cold Diet Coke.  So what if it is only 8:30 in the morning?  It tasted great.  I grabbed whatever snacks I could find and shoved them in my mouth.  I love this part too.  This race was really well done, everything went so smoothly.

After my refreshments I was feeling a little better.  I shuffled back to the car and drove home for a quick shower, then headed off to Daxton's flag football game, which was followed by Cora's soccer game.  I will admit that after Cora's game, I was ready for some lunch and a nap.  

I meant to only take a little rest and then go mow the lawn, but ended up sleeping most of the afternoon.  Ooops.  When I woke up, my legs were already so stiff!  I was walking down stairs sideways for a couple of days.  I will admit that I took the elevator down at work on Monday, even though I only work on the second floor :)

But after a few days I felt fine again.  And now, I am having thoughts I never thought I would have.  I am kind of almost thinking about maaaaybe considering running the full marathon next year.  If I ran the downhill section at the pace I ran the half, I could run the flat section at the end at around a 10:00/mile pace and still finish in under 3:40, which is the Boston Marathon qualifying pace for my age group.  How cool would that be, to be a Boston Qualifier (not that I would actually run it, but just to say I qualified)?  But I don't know, it would take soooo much training, and then I might cramp up or just bonk or something and miss the time or not even finish.  But maybe I could do it?  Would I regret it if I don't even try?  Would I regret it if I do?  I can't decide.  It isn't until next September, so I have some time.  Someone talk me out of it. 

Labor Day Weekend 2015

Wait, wait!  Maybe summer isn't quite over yet! We still have Labor Day weekend, the unofficial end to the summer that already kind of ended because school started like two weeks ago!  But, hey, we can always use more summer right?  Right.

We asked some friends to come up with us to the cabin, because, where else would we go? They had four kids and we had three, so there were lots of friends to play with.  One of Dax's best friends, E was among the group.  The kids liked watching movies when we were inside, and one day E cuddled up with Arden. 

Dax wanted them to make room for him on the chair.  Sorry, kid, no way three of you are going to fit.  Poor Dax.

We had planned to go to the beach on Saturday, but it was WINDY!!  So, after a leisurely morning (I even got a run in!), we took the kids for a hike or two instead.  I unfortunately forgot my phone on the long hike we did up Fish Haven canyon.  The kids had fun splashing in the stream and trying to find walking sticks and hitting each other with them and asking for piggy back rides.  Olive had a great time too, and decided to see what cow poop and dead deer taste like.  I found this:

Fall is coming!

We were stupid and tried to go out to eat for dinner.  Right before we got to the first restaurant, Dax tried to jump over a stream by the golf course and landed right in it.  Soaking wet boy. Lucky for him the wait was over an hour so we had to leave.  We ran Dax home to change while the other car went to try to find an alternate eating establishment.  After some searching, they found a table at Bear Lake Pizza.  We joined them and got in line to order the pizza.  Well, turns out they had an open table...HOWEVER it was going to be an hour and a half before they could get us any pizza.  Okay, new plan.  Back to the cabin to each some frozen pizza from the grocery store.  Oh well.

On Sunday we went to church where even WITH the special tourists-only sacrament meeting we still ended up in a classroom listening to the piped-in talks.  Oh well.  We survived.  It was kind of cloudy, so we watched TV and did some crafts, but before long the kids were getting cabin fever and decided they wanted to go to the pool.  It was their last chance since the pool closes after Labor Day, so the dads got brave and took the kids over while the moms stayed behind to make dinner (and possibly get a small break from the noise of 7 kids all together in the cabin).  Even though the temps were in the low 60s and the skies were cloudy, those kids played at the pool for a couple of hours (with frequent trips to the hot tub, of course).  No photographic evidence of the pool trip exists, however.

On Monday, it was still cool, but the sun was shining and the wind wasn't too bad, so off we went to the beach.  And look at this giant crab we made! (Okay, we found it, but it is still cool!)

 It was a beautiful day, and the kids had fun just hanging out on the beach mostly.

 This was in fact made by us, though not entirely by Cora as this picture would lead you to believe.  The other kids were too busy playing to pose for a picture, but I can usually count on my Corbiecakes to pose.

We took the waverunners out, and all the kids (except the baby) got a chance to go for a ride.  Here is me and Arden, heading out.

 We brought along our bocce balls, and the kids all had fun playing some version of the game.

After the wind kicked up in the late afternoon, we headed back to the cabin.  We packed up, cleaned up, and headed out, since we had school and work on Tuesday morning.   This is never the funnest part, but I guess it is the price you pay.

Goodbye summer!  I'll miss you.

First Day of School 2015

We all knew it was coming.  Some days I dreaded its arrival.  Some days I couldn't wait for it to get here already!  Arden didn't want it to come.  Cora could not stand the wait.  Dax waffled.  No matter what any of us thought, it came.  It came just the same.

The first day of school.

And not just any first day of school.  The first day of school for my LAST first grader.  The first day of having all the kids gone all day.

My last first grader was BEYOND excited that the big day was finally here.  She had been asking me, "Mooom, how many more days until school starts??" at least once a day for the past 37 days at least.  Cora was all ready to go with her brand new puppy lunch box, and was super excited to have her very first first-grader lunch at school, like a big kid.  She also could not WAIT for her threeeeee recesses!  (I tried to remind her that there might actually be some reading and writing in there somewhere).  

Here she is, my big (**sniff**) first (**whimper**) graaaaader!

 Dax, while not quite as excited for school to start as Cora, is still ready to smile on the first day. (He also felt compelled to hold up his lunch box, even though it isn't new.).  What a handsome second grader he is!

And, can you believe Arden is in the FOURTH GRADE?!?  Insanity.  How did she get so big and so beautiful?  She found out her bestest friend A is in her class, so she got a little more excited about school and put on a smile as well:

 All together now!

 Aw, they are so cute!  I miss them already!

 After they got their pictures taken, I drove them down to school and took them each to their classes.  Arden teared up a little as I dropped her off in her new classroom, but she smiled and waved too.  She is a wily old veteran and I knew she would be okay.

Dax was completely fine, and sat right down by a friend from his first grade class.  I think he is going to do great this year.  He gave me a hug, and seemed perfectly fine, so I waved to my boy and headed out the door and down the hall to the first grade classrooms.

Cora waltzed right into the room, not phased one little bit.  She spotted one of her good buddies from the neighborhood and her ex-boyfriend (who she is still friends with, of course) and sat right down between them.  She started chatting, her eyes sparkling.  She didn't seem to be nervous or apprehensive at all, so I gave her a quick hug and made my exit.  Cora barely looked up as I left, and I was so thankful she was so comfortable, because I was sort of kind of teetering on the edge of hysteria.

My world was different.  Now that the kids were going to be at school all day, I had decided to go into the office four days a week, and work about 25 hours a week.  So, my stay-at-home-with-babies days were now officially behind me. Well, almost.  The first day of school was early out, so I worked from home that day.  The house had never felt so empty and quiet as it did when I walked back through that door all alone after dropping off the kids.  A part of me wanted to jump up and down and throw myself a party to celebrate the fact that I had survived the summer without letting the kids actually kill or maim each other (which was a close call a few times).  However, another part of me wanted to sit down on the floor and howl.  Because they were gone, off growing up without me.  Because they are not babies or toddlers or even kindergartners anymore.  Because the part of my life where my kids were tiny and sweet and needed me to be with them all day was gone forever.

I was glad Olive was there to greet me at the door.  Instead of partying or howling I just patted her on the head, grabbed myself a Diet Coke and sat down at my computer to catch up on some long-neglected work. Olive curled up at my feet and kept me company, and before long it was time to go pick the kids up.  They all had a great first day and they all really like their teachers.

It has been three or so weeks since school started now.  The kids are all enjoying it (except for the homework), and are making new friends and keeping the old too.  I am starting to adjust to being in the world of adults again, at least for part of most days.  Dax is playing flag football, Cora is doing soccer, Arden is still doing gymnastics, and with art and activity days and my calling in young womens, we are all keeping pretty busy after school.

I will admit that homework sessions and busy mornings are a bit of an adjustment from our carefree summer schedule, but we are all learning and figuring out our new normal.  Things are going pretty well.

And summer will be back again someday.

End of Summer Bucket List

Then, all of the sudden, there was only one more week until school started!  We decided to do one more Monday night at the ball park ($5 tickets with FREE hot dogs!).  So much for getting on a schedule and going to bed early!

Cora and Olive tried to take a nap on the kitchen floor, but it didn't work very well.

 The next day, the kids crossed another item off their summer bucket list, and had a lemonade stand!  This is when they just got started.  By the time they were done, they had talked me into bringing out the huge deck umbrella so they could have shade.  They lasted a couple of hourse, and had quite a few kind souls stop by.  They were each able to keep a dollar or two from the proceeds.

We had one huge item left on our summer to-do-list, and that was our annual Lagoon trip.  We had been waiting for the new roller coaster, the Cannibal, to be up and running.  It was ready to go and so were we!  We started out on some warm up rides like Bombora and the teacups:

 But before long, Preston had headed towards the main attraction.  Dax and Arden were both tall enough to ride, and agreed to give it a try.  Cora wasn't too sad that she was too short.  Me and Dax went first (you can't take your phone, so no pictures).  It was a fun ride, but SCARY!  I will admit that I was screaming as we went down that first big hill.  After a bit, I looked over at Dax and he was looking a little concerned (actually, he was kind of hunched over with his eyes closed).  I quickly changed my screams from "AAAAHHHH!" to "WEEEEE!"  He looked up and started enjoying himself pretty quickly and asked if we could ride it again!  (the line was almost an hour long, so, no.

Here is Arden and Preston, ready to go:

 After we waved goodbye, we ran outside to watch them ago around the loops:

 They survived, and Arden was still smiling when she got off!  We did some rides that Cora chose for a while since she had suffered through the hour long line with us.  She loves the Zoo train:

 So do we!

 The sky ride is always a favorite.  Beautiful!  (That is Preston and the littles in the orange one in front of us):

 After we did a couple more coasters (Wicked!), Cora got another turn to pick, and wanted to do the little kid cars.  The flowers along the little road were so pretty!  And there is my old stomping grounds, Lagoon-A-Beach in the background!  (I was a lifeguard there in high school back when dinosaurs roamed the earth).

We went to Pioneer Village and ate TONS of ice cream.  The ride for the log flume was too long, so we skipped that ride and just looked around the pioneer houses for a bit.  Arden likes to look at the old dentist stuff, and Dax and Cora like the trains and the old carriage house best.  We headed back to the main park and rode more rides.  Preston took the bigger kids to ride a coaster while me and Cora hung around kiddie land a bit.  We met back up and had dinner, then rode more and more and more rides until the place closed down.

Again, so much for getting on the school schedule!

We took it relatively easy the rest of the week.  We got backpacks and school supplies, and got some new school clothes which is always fun.  Then, the day was here!

But that is a post for next time!

First Half of August 2015

So, where were we?  August!  Well, school started the 24th for us this year, so we only got the first part of August that was technically "summer" in the non-school sense of the word.  We headed up to (duh) Bear Lake again, and caught the Raspberry Days parade, where they threw not only candy, but bead necklaces, small toys, and frisbees!  Yay!  

After we got up to the lake, I ditched the fam for a couple of days to go to Youth Conference with the YW on the opposite side of the lake than I am used to.  (Oops, I forgot to mention that I wen to girls camp for a couple of days in June, it was so fun, though I didn't get much sleep.).  We walked on the beach, ate smores, learned some stuff, went on a sunrise hike, went to the cave, ate shakes, and had a great time.

 Our sunrise hike was a little cloudy, but still awesome.  Such a beautiful place!

 After Youth Conference wrapped up, I rejoined the fam at the cabin, the weather stayed cloudy so we took the kids to the cave.  Always a good time!

 They now have a blue light on this formation that looks like a castle.  When I was a kid it was "Kermit's castle" and had a green light shining on it.  Now, even the folks at Minnetonka Cave have succumbed to Frozen Fever, and this pile of stalagmites is now "Elsa's Castle."  Whatevs.

 Oh yeah, and I got a big hole cut in my arm.  I went to the dermatologist to have my moles checked, and there was one that turned out to be "severely atypical," and appeared pre-cancerous, so they wanted to cut it off, along with "a small amount" of the surrounding tissue.  So I ended up with like 12 stitches on the back of my arm.  Ouchie.  But better than cancer.

 We had my company party at the zoo this year.  We saw lots of animals, but this is my favorite picture :)  Run Corbiecakes, run!

The highlight (at least for the girls, Dax had to leave early for his first flag football practice) was the free face painting!  By actual people who really, really know how to paint a face.  Arden is a cheetah, Cora is a snow leopard, and they both were beyond excited.

 They had to run over to the carousel and take a ride on their face-buddies.  RAWR!

 The next day, we went over to the Davis County Fair.  There was a fun (free!) elephant show!

 And a cool petting zoo!  The girls couldn't bear to wash their faces, so they still were half-cat when we started at the fair.

 There was also a pretty fun tiger show!  The only problem was there was NO shade and it was probably 95 degrees.  I tried to fan the kids with some paper all through the show, but all of us were sweating.  Cora tried to wipe some sweat off her forehead, and smeared her face paint horribly.  I got out a wet wipe and finished it off.  Cora said how good it felt to have a cool wipe on her face, and so Arden decided she wanted to wipe her paint off too.  Bye, kitties.  But these kitties were still pretty impressive:

 We ate lunch (I had an awesome Bahn Mi sandwich, the kids were not so adventurous and had huge soft pretzels because at the fair pretzels count as lunch).  Then we looked around the booth, and our favorite was the reptiles.  Look how brave Daxton is!

No amount of talking could get Cora or Arden to try this.

Dax had his first flag football game that Saturday, and for some reason I didn't even take a single picture.  I will do it next game.  The cutoff for football was in the spring, so Dax is the oldest kid on his team instead of the youngest like he usually is.  He kind of likes being the biggest and fastest, and scored two touchdowns his first game.

I will wrap up the last week of summer soon!