Installment #4--Wasatch Back

Some of you may recall that last fall I ran the Ragnar Relay from Valley of Fire to Las Vegas. Well this year I ran the Ragnar Relay from Logan to Park City, otherwise known as the Wasatch Back! (If you need a refresher on how the relay works click here)

I was super nervous about this race for several reasons:

1. I had the longest total miles to run out of everyone on the team

2. I'm not a super strong runner

3. My longest leg was 8.5 miles. The farthest I'd ever run up until the race was 7.2 miles

4. I had a few hills to run up and I'm not a great uphill runner

5. My performance in Las Vegas was not super great and I really didn't want disappoint anyone, especially myself!

So I was runner #1 and my first leg was 7.9 miles. My goal was to run the whole distance without walking and to complete the leg in less then 90 minutes! I was able to stay on pace and complete the entire leg in 80 minutes so I was very pleased with that!

My next leg, which was my night run was 8.5 miles downhill, with a few small uphill parts. I was nervous for this leg because the entire first mile was uphill. Again, my goal was to run the entire distance without walking and I did it!!!!!!

My last leg was 4.8 miles, which I thought would be easy but turns out it was not so much. Over half the leg was uphill and after have 2 hours of sleep in a 24 hour period I was pretty whipped. But again, I ran the whole thing! Sometimes my pace was as slow as a 13 minute mile but I didn't care...I was still running!

I had such a blast with the gals in the van and the whole experience was awesome. It felt so good to set a goal and then accomplish it and even though I swore I was going to take a break from running after the W.B. was over, I lied! I'm set to run the Vegas Ragnar again in October and I want to keep up my running so I don't have to start from square 1 again when I hit it hard for that!

Our Team name was 'I Have to Run WHERE?'

Sione with Vickie and Heather. He started the race and it was soooooooooooo cool to see him! He still looks great and is such a cutie!

The start line!

Cute Kari. She's my sister Heather's sister in law and one tough cookie! She had a super hard first leg and she was a total rockstar!!!!!!

I was so glad that the ladies in my van had artistic ability. The van looked great!!!!

Me chilling after my legs were all over!

The pass of from Kari to Naomi!

Heather chillin' after all of her runs were over!

Vickie waiting getting ready to start her first run!!!!

Relieved after 7.9 miles!

JoJo, Vic and Heather packing up after crashing on the gym floor of a high school!

A nice person at the side of the road spraying down the runners!

Kari, JoJo and Naomi!

Our whole team...both vans, minus me who had started my last leg already. We had Vickie, Emily, Natascha, Nate, Katie, Maleah, Perry, Jo Jo, Naomi, Kari and Heather! I need to photo shop myself in!

Installment #3--Girls Camp

So I'm not a huge fan of camping but I'm a huge fan of Girls Camp! I seriously don't know what happens to me but when I go to Girls Camp I turn into a 14 year old!

Here's a little background information for those out there who aren't familiar with Girls Camp. The youth in our church are referred to Young Men and Young Women. So every year, Young Women all over the world attend Girls Camp where they learn camping skills, they hike, they sing around the camp fire and they hopefully have experiences that help them draw closer to the Savior. I am one of the lucky adults who has been asked to be one of the young women's leaders and I LOVE IT!!!!!!! So off to Girls Camp I went!

Not only do I have the opportunity to work with the fun, awesome girls, but I also get to work with the most AMAZING women! We have such a blast together and learn so much from each other! I feel so blessed to be involved in such a great organization!

Enjoy the pictures!

Installment #2--Memorial Day Weekend

Memorial Day weekend started with TJ and JB going to Fathers/Sons Basketball camp! They go every Memorial Day weekend and they have such a great time! TJ said that this year was the best yet and they had so much fun with TJ's uncle, little brother and friends.

Jackson and Jimmer Fredette

Memorial Day Rodeo!

So on Memorial Day we were invited to attend a local town's rodeo with some friends! It was so much fun for a few reasons...

1. Its not something we would normally do

2. I LOVE the Rodeo

3. Rachel's kids were doing the Muttin' Bustin' and the Calf Chase!

4. It was just good times being outside (on a nice Memorial Day...seriously can't remember the last time Memorial Day had nice weather) with our cute little family, our good friends and with good food!

JB and his buddy Jaxson!

I don't know that we'll make it a habit of attending local rodeo's, but it is something we would do again!!!!!

The LONG OVERDUE Update...in several installments!

So I've been a slacker due to some very busy last weeks of the school year and some very busy first weeks of the the summer! But here I am, a month into summer, and I'm ready to catch up! Some of my update may be boring to you but I'm writing it anyways for journaling purposes so if you don't want to read something, don't! I won't feel bad about it at all! : )

INSTALLMENT #1--Youth Conference/Field Day

The days after my last post were some of the most stressful days of my life, which led up to one of the coolest days of my life. I was put in charge, along with some other girls from church, of our ward's Youth Conference this year. Our theme was "The Amazing Race" and that's just what we were gonna do...an amazing race!

The race was set to begin on Saturday morning! The kids were split into 8 teams of 6 and were sent all over the place we were staying up in the mountains. Just like the TV show they encountered Road Blocks, Detours, tasks to perform, time penalties and even a u-turn!

Unfortunately when we woke up bright and early it wasn't bright at all. In fact the ground was covered in snow and it was still snowing! This was very disappointing since we absolutely needed the weather to co-operate and since we had all been praying for a weather miracle! After me and some of the other leaders were finished having our own little pity party, we decided the show must go on and we would continue as planned. Funny thing is though, as soon as we accepted the bad weather and decided to move forward, the snow stopped, the temperature warmed up and the snow on the ground melted! It was as if Heavenly Father was testing us leaders to see how we would react to a challenge and to see if we would practice what we preach! As soon as we decided to continue with the race (with happy hearts, of course) he blessed us with the good weather we'd been praying for! A small trial of our faith in the grand scheme of things, but a great blessing and lesson to us leaders and to the youth and a lesson learned to us leaders!

Once the race was underway it seemed to go pretty quickly! We had tried to make the clues and tasks as difficult as possible but the kids zipped through them in no time at all! Logistically it was a tricky thing to get all the clues in the right clue boxes, in the right order and placed in the right spot, but everything went fairly well! The kids had fun, were challenged, became frustrated, laughed a lot, took a wrong turn and learned the things that we hoped they would learn!

A HUGE shout out to my sister Marilee who did this same thing with the youth of her ward in Denver a few years ago, and provided us with the format and clues! Of course we tweaked some things since we weren't racing around Denver, but the whole outline was a gigantic help!

The Thursday after Youth Conference was our school's Field Day! For the second year in a row I was in charge of it and let me tell ya, after the stresses of Youth Conference, Field Day was a walk in the park! It went pretty smoothly, other then being yelled out by one of the teachers, but I was sure glad when it was over! I'm happy to say that after 2 years of Field Day I am ready to pass the Field Day Duties to another willing PTA mom!

Some of our notable events were (just in case any of you are ever in charge of Field Day):

-Rubber Chicken Slingshot

-Bucket/Sponge Race

-Wet Sponge Dodgeball

-Popsicles (of course)

-Potato Sack Race

The next day after Field Day was the last day of school and the start of Memorial Day long weekend so my next installment will be...Memorial Day! Stay tuned!