May

The perils of training are for real...both David and I fell and got injured while on a run...the difference was that David was on an 8-mile trail run while on his lunch break at work and did a superman flying free fall on the right side of his body, and I was on flat sidewalk on a 4 mile jog around the park.  David bandaged himself up as best he could and had to keep on working.  My thumb caught my fall and I'm pretty sure the car that passed me slowed down and would have stopped to check on me had I not hopped up and started running again.  You win some and you lose some!

David took the boys to a Star Wars convention at a children's museum in Salt Lake one Saturday.  Although they said there wasn't a whole lot of Star Wars stuff, considering the event was labeled a Star Wars event, but they loved seeing the life-sized R2D2!

Good thing there was a bunch of other things to check out at the children's museum!

Pace thought the doorway trick where you push your wrists in the doorway and then they lift themselves was super cool!

This little airplane had a line of kids waiting their turn to play with the control panel.  Max waited patiently, and then as he was about to go in, some other kids pushed their way in front.  David said Max threw out his arm, stopped them from cutting in line and exclaimed, "No!  It's my turn!"  I loved hearing this!  A mama always wants to know her children have found their voice, and I was glad to hear Max stuck up for himself.

On their way home, they stopped at the Lego factory store in Slat Lake and Bishka generously treated the boys to a lego set of their choosing!  They were in heaven!  

Let the building begin...

Pace recreated this movie scene on his own!

I think this was my final training run for Ragnar.  It was supposed to be a stacked run, and I was planning on doing 3 short runs, but a huge storm blew in while I was out on my first leg...so legs 2 and 3 never happened.  I watched the storm blow right by me!  I was in a little alcove along the trail in the mountainside, and didn't get wet at all!

The week of Ragnar Papa and Ninny came for a visit.  I wish I'd had my camera when they drove up, I missed a great opportunity!  Max loves his Papa so, so much!  Max came running out of the house, ran right to Papa, and bowled him over like a bowling ball with a pin!  He was grinning from ear to ear!  Papa and Ninny drove down in their camper so they could take their time on their way home and camp through Yellowstone.  Pace and Max love love love their camper and wanted to hang out there all day long.

I needed a couple afternoons of quiet time to finish up school assignments before leaving for Ragnar, so one day they packed up the camper and drove out for a mineral day adventure!  

Pace's happy place!  He could stay out rockhounding all day!

David has yet to be skunked on a mineral day!  Pace points to what he wants to find in our Rockhounding book, and David has always found the best specimens!

Another afternoon they had a party at Provo Beach Resort playing all the games the boys wanted!  There was apparently a pretty intense air hockey game!

I participated in a Ragnar challenge--I didn't have to go to a location or cross a finish line; I just had to commit to run 6.7 miles under May 10th's full moon!  Originally, the event was to have 1,000 participants so with each person running 6.7 miles, it would be the distance of running to the moon.  More people wanted to participate, so they opened it up, and "over 1,000" participated, worldwide!  And it was great night training for Ragnar!  A few weeks later I got a participant t shirt and medal in the mail!   

We're jumping to post-Ragnar...too many photos, so it'll get its own post!

After Ragnar, we stayed in St. George the rest of the weekend, one of our teammate's has a house there and let us stay there!  As we were driving through Zion Park to get to St. George, we passed through a mountain tunnel.  The boys commented that it looked like we were going hyper-speed like in Star Wars, haha!

David decided to wear road shoes instead of trail shoes during Ragnar...oops...

At our friend's house the boys found a play station with games; one game was a Star Wars game, and they were so excited to open it up and play.  And then they opened it.  It was a huge disappointment to see Mermaid Barbie in there instead.  David and I couldn't get enough of Pace's instant disappointment face...hahahahahahah!!!

Sunday we slept in, had a nice breakfast, took it easy, and found a 1pm church service to go to.  After sacrament meeting we decided to go walk around the temple and fall in love with St. George all over again.

Oh, and it was Mother's Day!!  Great photo with my boys!

We got back from Ragnar Sunday evening, and the boys had their last few days of school.  We made little thank you notes and gifts for their teachers they brought with them.

Max's preschool did a little program on their last day, a compilation of songs they learned throughout the year.

Pace brought home a ton of school stuff they'd been working on throughout the year, and of course I had to get pictures of the best ones!  He was game for the first few photos, and after that his smile waned...I love that these were stories he put together, wrote, and illustrated all by himself!

Star Wars story (of course): The republic found an evil base.  The X-wing pilots race toward the evil base.

A self-portrait at the beginning of the year and at the age 100.  I love the cane and glasses!  He didn't remember what he drew holding in his hand, but I'm sure it was star wars or lego related...

Translation left: If I had $100, I would buy...Lego sets.

Translation right: One sunny day in the barn I was really scared the sheep were out of the barn!  I was not noticing the sheep were right there.

Translation left: Facts: 1. Snow sparkles. 2. Wind makes snow drifts. 3. Snow is cold.

Translation right: Opinion: I think summer is best because I know super tornados.  [I think he means he knows they occur in summer because that's when thunderstorms occur]

Pace's kindergarten graduation, they had all the kindergarten classes in the auditorium and each class sang a couple songs.  At the end the crazy energetic and happy principal pulled out his guitar and sang, too.

Pace's teachers, Mrs. J on the left and Ms. Andersen on the right.  It's been a great year, and we're excited that Max will be with her next year!

Great long run on Saturday, and with school out, I got my running buddies back!

Pace is now charging admittance.  Only real dollars, please.

David is training for the HooDoo 300, a solo 300 mile loop around the St. George area.  This was his first unsupported long (7 hour) bike ride, and he did great!

A friend of mine had to pull out of the Wasatch Back Ragnar 2 weeks before the event, and asked if I'd be interested in taking her place.  David said this would be the perfect timing--I'd be able to have an all-girls weekend, he'd take a personal day at work and it was the perfect timing for his to sign up for a day off (requests have to be in 10 days in advance), I wouldn't have to spend any time retraining for an event, I would have to spend some crunch time getting ahead in school and turning in some assignments and papers early so I wouldn't have to think about anything over the weekend (first weekend in June)...so it all sort of lined up!  They originally had me be runner 8, and then asked if I would switch to runner 10...and runner 10's legs were the hardest climbs in the event!  So...back to the hills to train!  David took his ride that Saturday morning, and that evening I ran up the south side of West mountain.  Really steep and really hard.  More hiking than running...

Bishka called when I was ascending, and I had the best reception talking with her!  Guess I'll have to go up West mountain for every conversation now...so the photo on the left is where I'd just come from when Bishka called, on the right is where I was heading, and the next one down is the view.  Can you find the Payson Temple in the distance?

At this peak point I'd only gone 1.6 miles in 45 minutes, and I figured I needed at least 2, so I kept going until I saw the radio towers we ran to from the north end of west mountain.  

Memorial Day Monday I ran up Squaw Peak, and did it in one hour faster than last time I ran it!  Of course, not having 3 feet of snow, running water and mud to hike through probably facilitated that... 

Pace was complaining of a tooth ache for about two weeks, and I'd give him some motrin, and he wouldn't complain again for a few days, but he was in tears Memorial day night, so we went to the dentist on Tuesday.  His cheek around the area was a little swollen, but not too bad.  The dentist took X-rays and checked everything out and said it looked like it was just his 6 year old molars growing in, and to have him rub the gum and continue as needed with motrin.  Then they sent us on our way with a good patient token for Pace and they all rode the dentist horse.  The little girl is my friend's daughter, we're babysitting her over the summer.