My goal... to post more often. So here is my catch up post.
The month of June has been filled with swimming suits and popcycles.
... and the slip-n-slide at Grandma's house on the fourth of July weekend.Hannah and William enjoyed swimming lessons and they did great. I was a little concerned because last year when we took them swimming they clung to our necks the whole 2 hours. So I was surprised when they went right in the first day and there were no tears. One of the first things that William's teacher taught him is what she called a bob. (Going completely under water and then coming up again) She would have them do it a few times at the beginning of the lesson to get completely wet. William loved this, and for most of the half hour (unless the teacher was helping him learn something else) he was bobbing up and down, up and down. He would come up sputtering, get just enough air and then go down again. It was fun to see him lose his fear for the water. Hannah on the other hand looked like she was enjoying the lesson, but after the last one she informed me that she was never going to take swimming lessons again...EVER. We will see about next year.
RAGNAR
On June 19-20 Jake and I ran the Wasatch Back Ragnar Relay. This race is a 188 mile relay from Logan to Park City. It is split into 36 different legs and 12 people, so each person has 3 different legs. Our team was made up of people from Jake's work, and it was fun to get to know some of them better.
We started at 11:45 am on Friday. Jake was the second runner and I was the third. So we were running that afternoon about 12:30 - 1:30. Jake's first leg was a hard 6.7 miles (each leg was rated easy to very hard). He then passed off to me and my first leg was a moderate 5.6 miles. Our team was split into 2 vans, 6 people in each. So when all of our team was done running which was about 6:00 pm we had some dinner and tried to rest a little on the grass before our next set of legs started. We started running again around 9:00 that night. Jake's second leg was a easy 3 miles and my leg was a moderate 4.9 miles which started about 11:00 pm. After I got used to the idea of jogging in the dark, with a head lamp that kind of worked, totally by myself, and not knowing where I was or if I was going the right way,(until an occasional jogger passed me which let me know at least I was on the right road), I really enjoyed it. The peace, quiet, coolness of the night was nice to jog in after a hot day. At this point I was jogging through a rural farming community, there was little moon light, and a big open sky, and I could see millions of stars. It was beautiful. One of the reasons I love running is that you have quiet moments like these when you get to enjoy the beautiful world that has been created for us, whether it is 6:00 in the morning, or 11:00 pm.
Our van finished up our runs about 3:00 am and we headed to a high school near by to see if we could sleep a few hours before morning. The only open spot we found on the floor was right near the bathroom doors. After settling down to sleep, we discovered why the spots by the bathroom were the only ones left. Between the bathroom door screeching open and slamming shut whenever someone went to the bathroom, toilets flushing, and the hard concrete floor our sleep from 4:00 am to 6:00 am was very sporadic. After we got up, and packed up, we drove to the next exchange point. We met up with Van 2, who had been running since 3 am, at about 9:00 am. Jake's last leg was a "easy" 3.3 mile run. My last leg was a HARD 7.9 mile run, which included herding cattle (which made me feel right at home), running in the rain, and running up one big hill, but it was probably my most favorite run. I love running in rain, and the view was spectacular! At one point while I was running up this steep hill, all I could think about was just trying to keep my two feet moving, when I hear these foot steps coming up behind me, fast. Soon, this guy comes, sprinting beside me, says, "nice job", and flies right by me. I just laughed and thought ...aauuh... yeah sure. Then as he left me in the dust, I noticed on the back of his shirt were the words U of U cross country team.
At that point I turned it into high gear, ran with all my might, and passed him. I couldn't let a Ute beat me!... actually the truth... I was hoping that I would see someone from the BYU cross country team come up behind him and beat him but they never came. They must have already passed him. ;)
By the time my run was over it had started to rain pretty hard. We had just missed the heavy rain and the van 2 on our team had some hard runs that afternoon and had to do it in driving rain. They did a great job though. Our team finished about 6:00pm that night. It took us 30 hours and 52 minutes to run 188 miles. It was such an amazing feeling to finish this race. It was nice to have a goal to get us into shape, and it was so much fun to do it with my wonderful husband.
We had such a great time (or maybe we are just crazy) that we decided to run the Las Vegas Ragnar Relay in October. This race starts in Overton, goes by Lake Mead and around the bottom of Vegas, ending in Vegas.
Here is a picture of our whole team. Go Vector Engineers!!
Wells, Mark, Jake, Laralee, Annie, and Steve.... in Van 1
During each run, the Van would drop the runner off at the exchange, pick up the runner who finished and then drive ahead a few miles and wait for the runner to see if they need water. Jake was the one who gave me my water during my runs and it was so nice to see his smiling face. When I felt like I could just not go any further, I would see Jake just up the road waiting for me with his handsome smile. It gave me a little extra boost to see him and helped me finish. That is kind of how life is. Your running along, exhausted, wondering when you are going to get a little relief, or a break, or finish everything that you need to, and then Heavenly Father sends these tender mercies at just the right time to give you an extra boost and you know that even though it is hard, Heavenly Father loves you and is helping you. You know that you are not alone. During this race, Jake was my tender mercy. Actually... he is my tender mercy in my life.
Hair Cuts
Hannah and I had a girls afternoon and went and had Laura cut our hair. Hannah loves her new hair cut, and I love mine. This is a rare picture of me with straight hair. I love having straight hair but there is no way that I would do it every morning. So it only happens once every couple of years when some else wants to do it for me. Then I go for as long as possible without washing my hair (until the greasiness in my hair starts to make it curly. Yes... that is gross but if you had natural curly hair you would understand). I enjoy having straight hair.
Thanks Laura, we had a great time.
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