Wasatch Back

Months and months of preparation all led to this... Ragnar Wasatch Back 2012

With a few weeks to spare we got a full team and ventured out to conquer the Wasatch Back. I bought all the food and drinks. This is most of it loaded up in the car, it pretty much filled my entire car. So much food! So much liquid!

The totes of food for each car

My mom at her first exchange waiting to start her first run

Mom at the end of her first run

I'll tell you what, my mom went in to this completely blind. She had never run a race. She didn't look at the schematics of her runs and she didn't want to. I think she wanted to kill someone when she got to her second run and looked at the mountain in front of her (knowing that she was gonna have to run it). That wasn't the only mountain. Her second leg was hill after hill after hill and it was nearing midnight. We tried to follow her and support her the best we could but when it got close to the end and I asked her if she wanted water and she glared at me, I knew exactly what it meant. It meant, leave me alone and let me do this. Pure determination to get to the end of that leg!! I asked her after it was over if she thought that the race was easier, harder or the same as she expected and she said, "Definitely harder." She was sore and hurting, but she finished all 3 legs. Much of the family was there to cheer her on in her last leg through Heber so I think that helped her get to the end. I just want to let her know how proud of her I am. I knew going into it that it would be really hard but I knew she could do it. I hope that she looks back on it as a huge accomplishment. For me, running is all about the satisfaction of pushing myself further than I thought I could go. I hope you feel that same satisfaction, Mom. Congratulations on your first race!

My ragnar tatoo. I am a little bit sad that it washed off. I would consider having it permanently.

Since I was the team captain, it gave me freedom to choose my own runs. I gave it a lot of thought and assigned myself runs that I thought would be most challenging for me and yet fun. I may have picked wrong. Or I may have worn the wrong shoes. My first run was 7 miles uphill to Snow Basin Ski Resort. I wore my five finger shoes. I actually killed it during the run, especially one small portion that was downhill. I was running 7 minute miles. However, by the end of the run I knew there was a problem. My left heel was killing me. I could barely walk on it or put any pressure on it. I knew that the rest of the race would have to be done in my normal running shoes and I was scared that I wouldn't even be able to do it in those. My second run was basically flat for 5 miles. It was an alright race for being 3 in the morning. Slower than I hoped but I was able to work through the pain and do what I could to finish. The last run was 7 miles straight down hill into Park City. It was absolutely brutal! I was so relieved to be done with all three legs!

I'm pretty sure that it was achilles tendonitis due to the stress on my achilles from the first uphill run. It took about 2 weeks for me to walk normally. I'm almost ready to try running again and see what happens. Hopefully everything will be healed up, I wanna get at least a half marathon in by the end of running season.

Our team at the finish line- Great Job!

Jaime, Camille, Lori, Shayne, Ben, Brooke, Stephanie, Mike, Karli, Laura, Dan

 

I have now done the Wasatch Back twice. It was an interesting experience to be in the second van this time and see the differences. I think that there are some pretty big differneces. It was an incedibly hard but really fun race! Thanks to all my team members who made it a great race!

We finished in 34:31:56.3

My brother also ran on a separate team. His first big race. Congrats CJ!

Fishing with Daddy

I had a day off and really wanted to go fishing.  I decided to take Sam with me and give Trisha a break for a few hours. We went out to Matt Warner Reservoir because I love catching the rainbow trout there. We spent about 4 hours fishing and hanging out.

Sam got a new camping chair and he loved sitting in it and eating his snacks and drinking his drink. He thought he was pretty cool.

This is the biggest fish I caught. I tried to get a picture of Sam by the fish, but he wanted no part of it. He was intrigued from a distance.

He also liked to walk up and down the shore and check things out.

Big cheese ball!

Sam holding the fishing pole.

He was completely exhausted by the end and slept the whole way home.

I forgot to put sunblock on the little kid, so he got a small sunburn on his face and arms.

I hope we get many more trips together in the future. I was scared to take him because he is crazy and cannot usually stay still for more than 2 minutes. It turned out to be a really great trip and he did so well. I think that next year we can buy him his own pole and start teaching him how to fish himself.

Flipping Out

Sam's latest and funnest trick; What a crazy kid!

Latest project

My latest project came about after I finished building my storage shelves in the garage and I was looking for more things that I could build. My sister happened to be looking for bunk beds but was unable to find ones that she really loved with a price that matched. So, I offered to build her bunk beds. It couldn't be that hard right? Plus, I thought it would be fun. After months of looking and debating and planning, we decided to go ahead with it. We got building plans from a website, http://www.ana-white.com/, Lisel bought all of the supplies, I had a weekend off and it all started to come together.

 The lumber

Step 1: Cut all the lumber

All of the cut pieces of lumber

Step 2: Start building. First, the head and foot boards

Step 3: Bed frames

Step 4: Assembly

Step 5: Add ladder and side rail

Step 6: Stain the entire thing

Voila! The finished project.

It took me about 27 man hours from start to finish, including the 2 hours that Lisel helped me stain it until 12:30 in the morning. It turned out awesome and I can't wait to see how it looks in the remodeled room for the boys. I am proud of it.

I had a neighbor lady come over and ask me if I did it for a living? When I said I just do it for fun, she asked me how much I would charge to build them? I thought about it for a minute, all the time it takes and the hard work that it takes and I responded with a number that I hoped would deter her from further questioning. I wouldn't mind doing it again, but at the moment it didn't seem like I wanted to start on another one right then.

I am already looking for my next project. Maybe something in my house... Stay tuned

Yard Work

I have been spending a significant amount of time in our yard this spring/summer and have made a few improvements in the yard.

We added a vegetable garden in the back yard. Hopefully in the next week we will be able to plant vegetables and start picking vegetables and making delicious fresh food soon.

Justin let me borrow his trailer to haul all of the bricks. Luckily he did because the bricks weighed a ton and I'm not sure how I would have transported them otherwise. As it was it was quite the process to get them all to our house.

The begining of the process. Good thing our lawn has filled in since then. It does not look good in this picture.

The finished product. We have since filled it with dirt and soil to prep it for planting. We hope to have all of our vegetables in the top portion and herbs, flowers, etc... in the botton portions. 

We also added a raised flower bed all along the side of our house in the front yard. With the same bricks, we added a small flower bed around the tree in the front yard.

Our front flower bed

The raised flower bed on the side of the house

The flower bed around the tree. I need to make it a little bit bigger, it looks so tiny compared to the tree.

Sam loves to help Mommy water the flowers

Lots more work to do but it is coming along. It's a work in progress, but definitely making progress. We actually like going out into our yard now. We plan to spend lots of time there this summer.

Kate's Blessing

Kate was blessed on May 6, 2012.

Sam

Our family. Sam is so funny

Little Miss Kate in the dress that Aunt Nellie made for her

It was a beautiful day. We are so grateful for our family and friends that were able to come and support us. We love our little girl!

Seeing Salt

Seeing Salt Lake from the eyes of a tourist.

I was born and raised in the Salt Lake area. I thought I had pretty much done everything there is to do in SLC. I was wrong. It was our pleasure to host a friend who came to visit us from Massachusetts. We asked her what she wanted to do while she was here and she did research and made a list.

The list:

1. Bonneville Salt Flats

They tasted just like salt

Sam, Trisha and Jessie

Sam liked playing in the puddles of water on top of the salt

2. Park City- I haven't been to Park City Main St since I was in high school. Why I haven't been back, I'm not sure. I loved it. It was pretty fun.

Looking down Main Street

Looking up Main Street

3. Great Salt Lake

And we added:

4. Kennecott Copper Mine-Massive. That's all I can say, it is massive. I had no idea the economic impact that this mine had in the SLC community and Utah. It's amazing. I also had no idea how committed they are to the environment. A large portion of the presentation in their museum describes the many great things they have done to support the environment around the mining process as well as in the community in general. Pretty impressive.

5. Picnic in the canyon

6. Temple Square with the family

Sam loves playing with his cousins!

Flowers are always spectacular at Temple Square

It was a great weekend. I hope more people come to visit us so we can find more things to do that we have never done before.