Friday night, Husband was still on his way home from a business trip. So we blew up the air mattress, gathered some snacks and had a girls night movie night! And it took awhile, but we eventually even slept too.
Saturday morning as the girls pattered in, they saw daddy and immediately launched themselves at him. After our brief attempt at yardwork got rained out we played with the girls and then headed to the pool for a friend's birthday party. This time there was an inflated obstacle course that ran the whole length on the lap pool. The big girls loved it! A and L took turns with Daddy (and eventually me) to race the course while E was perfectly content to splash around the playground pool. After they had their fill, we left just in time to get L to an end-of-year-ice-cream-social with her Moonbeams dance team. She came home full of smiles and then spent the evening playing with her sisters while husband and I went on a date for some murder mystery dinner theater with friends. We ate and laughed and talked and played until the show ended. Then we got a new table to laugh and talk and eat some more.
On Sunday morning, Husband and the girls surprised me with breakfast in bed. It was amazing! They tapped on the door giggling and bursting with excitement. They brought in a tray with heart shaped, chocolate chip pancakes, berries, yogurt and juice. We picnicked on the bed together and they gave me gifts. A made a bag of potpourri at school. L made me a little box decorated with a paper flower. Each petal folded out to share a little thought and then inside the box was Husband gift--a pair of gorgeous earrings set in brass and striped with different stones including opals. Grandpa snuck a gift in too, a purple opal pendant, strikingly unique and beautiful.
We attended church, listening to the themed talks and loving the children's song. During the 2nd and 3rd hour, all the sisters gathered in the cultural hall for a light brunch and a special devotional from the presidency.
After church we went home to change and bake cookies before we piled in the car for our evening adventures. We stopped at the cemetery to leave a stained glass flower for Grandma and then drove to the aunties house. The girls ran off to play on the swingset while we chatted with cousins. My parents met us there as well and joined for the delicious dinner the aunties had made. L got to play piano for some cousins and the girls gave gifts to Grammy, framed school pictures and a candy bar bouquet they made. We stayed late in the evening to play, even as the crowd drifted away--but for some very exciting reasons. Perhaps especially sweet Mother's Day, one of husband's cousins (from Grandma's family) had their baby boy early Sunday morning. And then in the evening, a cousin from Grandpa's family went in labor as well and delivered a beautiful little girl that night. What a perfect day.
The next day was husband's birthday and I was eager to repeat it, but with tables turned. Instead, the morning didn't go so well. E had a rough night, crying off and on and around 6 am was completely broken. She collapsed and sobbed until Husband cuddled her on the couch, finally getting her back to sleep as I was getting the other girls awake to come help me make a special breakfast for husband's birthday. But I didn't see residue on the element and soon the stove was smoking, the fire alarm went off, the baby was crying again and we were off to a crazy day.
Husband actually spent most the morning at home since I had to teach and one of the contractors was arriving to do the curbing for our yard. We had an earlier lunch and then sent him to work. A, E and I ran errands and began prepping food for a special birthday dinner. E even helped me make the cake. It was so elegant looking as we carefully frosted it on the special glass cake pedestal. Then, as E pushed a huge glob of frosting across the top, the glass began to slide to the edge of the counter. I grabbed it just in time to save the glass dish but unfortunately not the cake. My hand caught the cake on one side and it pushed the opposite away, smashing across the counter. For a moment, I froze. E burst into tears. And then together we scooped up what we could save and dumped it into a trifle dish. With a little creativity, it turned out great. (and was so divine! new recipe but fantastic: Reese's poke cake)
I had to teach a class and the gym and then we hurried home so I could change, gather up all the food, pick up husband and then spent the evening with friends. The kids ran around outside and jumped on the trampoline while the adults puttered around the balcony, talking and sampling the food. We feasted on ribs, corn on the cob, salad, bacon wrapped jalapenos, chicken kebobs, watermelon and fresh veggies. And of course, the cake-turned-trifle.
Happy Mother's Day to me, Happy Birthday to him. :)
Sunday, May 17, 2015
Monday, May 4, 2015
weekend warriors
with the warming weather, we are back to yardwork.
On Saturday morning I went to an early class at the gym. After, we made breakfast and husband took A to set out on some short errands that ended up taking most of the afternoon. Meanwhile, L and E helped me in the yard. We collected buckets full of rock to remove it from our topsoil in preparation for seed. It was tiresome and fairly boring but the girls were good sports and made it fun. We worked most of the day (and I have a healthy sunburn to prove it), joined by husband in the later afternoon. We moved rock, moved dirt, moved more rock, etc. We got a bid on concrete curbing for the flower beds and started building the garden boxes. As evening came we called it a day, ready to spend some fun time with our girls who had been begging for a family trip to the pool.
We picked up dinner on the way and the girls dove eagerly into the water. We joined some friends there and the girls raced around with them. As always, they did laps on the waterslide and we bounced around to the hottub. The new adventure was L and A finally braved the diving board! A had tried the past few trips but chickened out. But this time she made it in, followed quickly by L, and they eagerly raced back in line several times.
We got home past bedtime. Daddy got the girls showered and into pajamas while I prepared snacks of hot chocolate, watermelon and cookies. We ate, we cuddled and eventually, we slept.
On Saturday morning I went to an early class at the gym. After, we made breakfast and husband took A to set out on some short errands that ended up taking most of the afternoon. Meanwhile, L and E helped me in the yard. We collected buckets full of rock to remove it from our topsoil in preparation for seed. It was tiresome and fairly boring but the girls were good sports and made it fun. We worked most of the day (and I have a healthy sunburn to prove it), joined by husband in the later afternoon. We moved rock, moved dirt, moved more rock, etc. We got a bid on concrete curbing for the flower beds and started building the garden boxes. As evening came we called it a day, ready to spend some fun time with our girls who had been begging for a family trip to the pool.
We picked up dinner on the way and the girls dove eagerly into the water. We joined some friends there and the girls raced around with them. As always, they did laps on the waterslide and we bounced around to the hottub. The new adventure was L and A finally braved the diving board! A had tried the past few trips but chickened out. But this time she made it in, followed quickly by L, and they eagerly raced back in line several times.
We got home past bedtime. Daddy got the girls showered and into pajamas while I prepared snacks of hot chocolate, watermelon and cookies. We ate, we cuddled and eventually, we slept.
Zion Ragnar Trail Run
Wednesday evening found me driving my husband's sweet truck down the canyon towing our cub trailer. I had packed it haphazardly throughout the day and then managed to hook it up (in the pour rain and wind) with only one short phone call for advice. But as I zipped along I was pretty proud for managing my first towing experience so well. Then I realized I had to park the beast. I certainly wouldn't fit in the underground garage and after three attempts at parallel parking, I have decided that backing up the trailer is a a magical power still out of my reach. So I parked a block away and hurried over to the restaurant to meet my Ragnar family. SO excited to see them. We talked our way through a long dinner and waited for more friends to drift in (including my smoking hot husband). After dinner I promptly relinquished the keys and left husband in charge of our mini-beast.
The drive down was mostly uneventful, catching up with husband who had been gone for the previous week, a longtime friend that had joined for his first Ragnar and a Ragnar family member who had flown in Florida to spend his 30th birthday with us. We made it to Springville long past any reasonable check in and every campsite was full. We drove in search of BLM land and ended up exploring a rather sketchy, rambling road that wound up a steep incline of rock and finally dropped us at a trailhead parking lot. We declared it perfect and slept.
for a few hours at least.
We woke up early and drove back to Springville, meeting one more Ragnar family member at the Zion Adventure Company. The 5 of us had extended our run-cation weekend to include a day of canyoneering in Mystery Springs. We picked up our gear, trying on wetsuits and reorganizing vehicles. After a short drive up the mountain (following rather vague directions and second guessing our arrival), we finally piled out of the car and set out on the trail. Unlike Pine Creek Canyon (with a short, maybe 50 yard approach), we had an easy 2 mile hike through the trees, admiring the views and talking up our adventure. My husband and his best friend took the lead. They are both experienced climbers, I have some experience and our two ragnar friends were newbies. Husband warned he wouldn't usually take an inexperienced climber on this canyon but knowing these guys, we were confident it would be a great experience.
After the two mile hike in, we came to a spectacular view point overlooking the canyon. I thought we had simply stopped to admire. But then husband pointed out a gap between the brush and subsequent downhill trail of mostly loose rock that I assumed must be a game trail or something as there's no way humans have regularly impacted it. My mistake.
And so the adventure began. The next two-ish miles were a blast with a lot of scrambling, rock jumping, teasing, sliding and such to get down the drastic incline. At one point we heard a loud, abrupt booming through the canyon. I wondered if it had been a rockfall. But soon we stumbled into a newly fallen, massive tree whose roots had finally given up and released the canyon wall, sending branches in every direction. Glad we hadn't found it sooner.
It took us awhile before we reached the first of nine rappels. But we shrugged it off, finding a safe path off to the side to down climb instead. In fact, we only found it necessary to rappel six of the nine descents. So much fun. We had a quick review, husband checked our gear and lead the way. It came back quick for me and it was fun and easy. Of our two new guys, one was a little hesitant but warmed quickly, the other took it immediately. The canyons were gorgeous and challenging with lots of loose rock and plenty of places were we slid and slipped.
Shortly after lunch we found the much anticipated lucky #8. One friend and I immediately slipped into our wetsuits while the other decided to brave it without, only seeing a little water at the bottom of our 140 foot rappel. Husband led the way, demonstrating the approach across an intimidating cliff wall. Halfway down, he stopped on a ledge, realizing the water was deeper than we thought and announced we would be swimming after all (everyone else then donned their wetsuits too). I was fourth down this beautiful cliff, so thrilling and icy cold at the bottom.
One of my personal favorites came soon after. We had to down climb into another pool of water with some fun twisting and slipping into the picture-perfect span of water below.
And lastly, we conquered the "hero rappel" of 140 feet down a waterfall into the Narrows with several tourists watching and taking pictures as we went. It was slippery for sure but what a thrill. As our birthday boy descended we broke out into a large chorus singing "Happy Birthday", even joined by some of the spectating tourists. Then we hiked through the bottom half of the Narrows, out to the shuttles and rode down to the visitor center back to our truck, laughing and teasing and reveling in our experience.
That night we went out to dinner at a local restaurant that I would highly recommend but I can't remember the name of it. Burgers and Mexican food fed us well and I loved the overhead heating units. We crashed in a nearby campground, sprawling out in the trailer for the night.
We started very early the next morning, quickly closing the trailer up and relocating to the Ragnar camp within Zion Ponderosa. We spent the morning setting up camping, rounding up the rest of our 8 man team and making breakfast. The threatening clouds lingered but it was mostly pleasant as we checked in, loving the usual energy and fun of Ragnar. I loved my captain's gift and have grown very attached to the greatest water bottle ever designed (I've been on the search for a long time) and the intro video was a great alternative to the safety briefing we had all experienced at the traditional races.
We geared up, gathered at the start and sent out our first runner. yayyyyyy!!!! I lingered around the main camp, checking out booths and renting shoes from the Solomans Shoe tent, eager to save my lightweight road shoes from the rocks and roughness of trail running. We sent out of second runner and headed back to our team camp to linger and lounge. Husband was busy puttering, organizing the climbing gear from the day before and making sure we were set up for the weekend. He was our official quartermaster. Instead of running, he spent all his time taking care of our team, cooking and working around the camp. I don't think he sat still for even two minutes the whole weekend.
My first run was the "yellow loop" and by then it was raining on and off. So I shed layers as I ran. The first mile was easy and then abruptly turned into hiking and continued to alternate and challenge for a total of 4 miles. Up on top of a ridge, the wind came on strong but the view was breathtaking and I basked in a euphoric freedom. And snowflakes. yes definitely snowflakes as the rain was starting to freeze. Luckily that was brief.
The intermittent rain became more stubborn and aggressive. Our team finished it's first legs, rewarded with husband's dutch oven chicken, potatoes and cobbler. Runner 1 set out for his second leg, well prepared for rain and came back covered in mud and limping on a sprained ankle. Runner 2 came in worse and was met with the news: a weather hold was in effect until morning. (so glad we had the trailer. tent city was swimming in mud and muck by morning.)
So we slept. Husband and I went to the exchange tent early in the morning for an update. The weather hold was technically being lifted but even as we talked to the director himself, we could feel their reluctance. The red trail had entire sections that had been washed out. And the green trail was so steep and muddy that it was now near impassable. So they left it up to the teams to decide and sent us back to camp with our medals.
For us, runners 1 and 2 were both injured enough that they would not be able to run again. Others shrugged it off, ready to be out of the mud. I was definitely bummed to cut my run short, I wanted the mileage and adrenaline but wasn't willing to risk injury. In the end, only one of our runners set out again, doing the recommended yellow loop which was in the best shape (but was the only loop I had already finished).
So we finished breakfast, feasted on s'mores, packed up camp, declared it the most expensive/fun 5k ever and went home.
Don't worry Ragnar, you can't scare me off, I'll be back.
The drive down was mostly uneventful, catching up with husband who had been gone for the previous week, a longtime friend that had joined for his first Ragnar and a Ragnar family member who had flown in Florida to spend his 30th birthday with us. We made it to Springville long past any reasonable check in and every campsite was full. We drove in search of BLM land and ended up exploring a rather sketchy, rambling road that wound up a steep incline of rock and finally dropped us at a trailhead parking lot. We declared it perfect and slept.
for a few hours at least.
We woke up early and drove back to Springville, meeting one more Ragnar family member at the Zion Adventure Company. The 5 of us had extended our run-cation weekend to include a day of canyoneering in Mystery Springs. We picked up our gear, trying on wetsuits and reorganizing vehicles. After a short drive up the mountain (following rather vague directions and second guessing our arrival), we finally piled out of the car and set out on the trail. Unlike Pine Creek Canyon (with a short, maybe 50 yard approach), we had an easy 2 mile hike through the trees, admiring the views and talking up our adventure. My husband and his best friend took the lead. They are both experienced climbers, I have some experience and our two ragnar friends were newbies. Husband warned he wouldn't usually take an inexperienced climber on this canyon but knowing these guys, we were confident it would be a great experience.
After the two mile hike in, we came to a spectacular view point overlooking the canyon. I thought we had simply stopped to admire. But then husband pointed out a gap between the brush and subsequent downhill trail of mostly loose rock that I assumed must be a game trail or something as there's no way humans have regularly impacted it. My mistake.
And so the adventure began. The next two-ish miles were a blast with a lot of scrambling, rock jumping, teasing, sliding and such to get down the drastic incline. At one point we heard a loud, abrupt booming through the canyon. I wondered if it had been a rockfall. But soon we stumbled into a newly fallen, massive tree whose roots had finally given up and released the canyon wall, sending branches in every direction. Glad we hadn't found it sooner.
It took us awhile before we reached the first of nine rappels. But we shrugged it off, finding a safe path off to the side to down climb instead. In fact, we only found it necessary to rappel six of the nine descents. So much fun. We had a quick review, husband checked our gear and lead the way. It came back quick for me and it was fun and easy. Of our two new guys, one was a little hesitant but warmed quickly, the other took it immediately. The canyons were gorgeous and challenging with lots of loose rock and plenty of places were we slid and slipped.
Shortly after lunch we found the much anticipated lucky #8. One friend and I immediately slipped into our wetsuits while the other decided to brave it without, only seeing a little water at the bottom of our 140 foot rappel. Husband led the way, demonstrating the approach across an intimidating cliff wall. Halfway down, he stopped on a ledge, realizing the water was deeper than we thought and announced we would be swimming after all (everyone else then donned their wetsuits too). I was fourth down this beautiful cliff, so thrilling and icy cold at the bottom.
One of my personal favorites came soon after. We had to down climb into another pool of water with some fun twisting and slipping into the picture-perfect span of water below.
And lastly, we conquered the "hero rappel" of 140 feet down a waterfall into the Narrows with several tourists watching and taking pictures as we went. It was slippery for sure but what a thrill. As our birthday boy descended we broke out into a large chorus singing "Happy Birthday", even joined by some of the spectating tourists. Then we hiked through the bottom half of the Narrows, out to the shuttles and rode down to the visitor center back to our truck, laughing and teasing and reveling in our experience.
That night we went out to dinner at a local restaurant that I would highly recommend but I can't remember the name of it. Burgers and Mexican food fed us well and I loved the overhead heating units. We crashed in a nearby campground, sprawling out in the trailer for the night.
We started very early the next morning, quickly closing the trailer up and relocating to the Ragnar camp within Zion Ponderosa. We spent the morning setting up camping, rounding up the rest of our 8 man team and making breakfast. The threatening clouds lingered but it was mostly pleasant as we checked in, loving the usual energy and fun of Ragnar. I loved my captain's gift and have grown very attached to the greatest water bottle ever designed (I've been on the search for a long time) and the intro video was a great alternative to the safety briefing we had all experienced at the traditional races.
We geared up, gathered at the start and sent out our first runner. yayyyyyy!!!! I lingered around the main camp, checking out booths and renting shoes from the Solomans Shoe tent, eager to save my lightweight road shoes from the rocks and roughness of trail running. We sent out of second runner and headed back to our team camp to linger and lounge. Husband was busy puttering, organizing the climbing gear from the day before and making sure we were set up for the weekend. He was our official quartermaster. Instead of running, he spent all his time taking care of our team, cooking and working around the camp. I don't think he sat still for even two minutes the whole weekend.
My first run was the "yellow loop" and by then it was raining on and off. So I shed layers as I ran. The first mile was easy and then abruptly turned into hiking and continued to alternate and challenge for a total of 4 miles. Up on top of a ridge, the wind came on strong but the view was breathtaking and I basked in a euphoric freedom. And snowflakes. yes definitely snowflakes as the rain was starting to freeze. Luckily that was brief.
The intermittent rain became more stubborn and aggressive. Our team finished it's first legs, rewarded with husband's dutch oven chicken, potatoes and cobbler. Runner 1 set out for his second leg, well prepared for rain and came back covered in mud and limping on a sprained ankle. Runner 2 came in worse and was met with the news: a weather hold was in effect until morning. (so glad we had the trailer. tent city was swimming in mud and muck by morning.)
So we slept. Husband and I went to the exchange tent early in the morning for an update. The weather hold was technically being lifted but even as we talked to the director himself, we could feel their reluctance. The red trail had entire sections that had been washed out. And the green trail was so steep and muddy that it was now near impassable. So they left it up to the teams to decide and sent us back to camp with our medals.
For us, runners 1 and 2 were both injured enough that they would not be able to run again. Others shrugged it off, ready to be out of the mud. I was definitely bummed to cut my run short, I wanted the mileage and adrenaline but wasn't willing to risk injury. In the end, only one of our runners set out again, doing the recommended yellow loop which was in the best shape (but was the only loop I had already finished).
So we finished breakfast, feasted on s'mores, packed up camp, declared it the most expensive/fun 5k ever and went home.
Don't worry Ragnar, you can't scare me off, I'll be back.
quote of the day
Me: No, you're on timeout. Go back to the corner.
E: um. but I don't want to.
Me: Excuse me?
E: It's not comfortable!
E: um. but I don't want to.
Me: Excuse me?
E: It's not comfortable!
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