The boys love watching baking/cooking shows with me, and one favorite has become Cake Wars. We watched one episode from a few seasons/years ago that featured one team from Provo, UT who won! We looked it up and discovered the bakery is still going strong, and had won another Cake Wars from a more recent season we haven't seen yet. The boys and I decided to go check it out one Friday, after they'd gotten all their computer school work done for that morning. Pace was so excited to see it! We ate a slice of their winning brownie cake there, and got a few treats to bring home with us.
We finally got some more snow--another storm dumped almost 12in of snow! It's been so mild that despite the accumulation, the roads were clear by that evening. David and Pace built a pretty great fort out of the snow plowed to the side of the road, and a nice little snowman.
March has been an amazing month of training for me. I love training, feeling myself getting stronger, learning what works best in a running scenario, and checking off runs that I know will add up to a successful event. I also love meeting new friends through running groups--running with fellow female runners makes me feel stronger, both physically and mentally. I've added more stacked runs and distance to this training schedule, so the first Saturday in March was a stacked run day. Run #1 was an 6-mile run with a group of women up Dry Fork, still snow-covered. Run #2 was an 8-mile run along the south end of the BST. This run I learned I needed to eat way more calories than I had--I was so slow on run #2, simply because I had used up all my fuel storage and nothing to go on...it was a rough trail back to the car.
The second Saturday was upping mileage, so it was a 15-mile run along the Deer Creek trail, again with the same group of women. It was a beautiful morning, and such a great way to start the day. The last 3 miles or so were really, really painful--again, I don't think I brought enough calories, I think the shoes I'd been wearing weren't giving enough support, and it was the first time I'd run 15 miles at once...considering those variables, painful was normal.
The third Saturday was a "rest" run day. I ran 12 miles with a group up the steep Grove Creek trail to the top for a great view, and then back down. You know you've found your crazy when you run with a bunch of friends who all have "running buddies"--I have Waldo, another friend has a few animals, and another friend has Trudy (the crazy Barbie head on a horse body...he said he found the Barbie head discarded by one of his daughters and thought it would go well on the horse body). The rest of that day was cold, rainy, and snowy, so it was great to get the run in early--it was incredibly windy, and we had some snow showers, but we were out before the full weather of the day blew in.
The fourth Saturday was another stacked run day. Run #1 was a 12 mile out-and-back up the Diamond Fork Hot Pots trail to Sheep's Creek Road--one of my most favorite trails because it's so green and the trail follows the water, making it so beautiful and fresh. A couple friends joined me on this leg, which was also really fun. Run #2 was an additional 6 miles along the BST with a strong headwind--stacked runs are hard, it was so nice to turn around!
Yesterday, the fifth Saturday, was a distance run. Everything just seemed to come together for me on this run, and I was so proud of myself! The same group of women I've been running with all month have become great friends, so we did this run together, too! We ran an 18-mile loop, new to all of us, up the Diamond Fork trails. I've run up Second Water trail, and up Fifth Water trail (the Hot Pots trail), but I've never connected them. So we first went up Second Fork, all the way to Sheep's Creek Road, ran about 4-5 paved road miles over to Fifth Water trail, ran a little offshoot for an extra couple of miles, then went back down Fifth Water to the Hot Pots and back to the trailhead. I had the right shoes, the perfect amount of calories, ran just the right pace to maintain energy for the whole run, and felt great the whole time. I am so proud of myself for getting stronger! Just a couple weeks ago, 15 miles was painful, yesterday, 18 was great.
Some other family fun...when I was on my Deer Creek run, David took the boys out to the bird sanctuary to watch the swan migration. A friend texted me this photo, they had gone with their two daughters, and ran into Pace and Max! What are the odds, haha!
Another weekend we had a busy social life...a dear friend's surprise birthday dinner Thursday night, an 80s-prom-themed Murder Mystery Dinner Friday night, and an Adult Easter Egg Hunt Saturday night. David and I rocked out the 80s theme and had a great time. Neither of us guessed the murderer, but I did win the Best Performance Award, haha!
At the Easter Egg Hunt, we filled some eggs with traditional candy, other eggs with certificates for homemade goodies, like ice cream, nutella bread, and cinnamon rolls, and other eggs had puzzles or letters that couples had to put together and do together, and the winning couple would get the prize. First, two couples had to perform a 60-second cheerleading routine, and the winner got a restaurant gift certificate. The husbands were way more into the cheerleading than the wives, it was hilarious.
Another one was an arm wrestling competition, and the winner got to wear a bedazzled cowboy hat the rest of the night.
Another one was a planking competition, and the winner got to perform Britney Spears' Hit Me Baby, One More Time like a Zombie. The other puzzle egg was a competition between three couples, the one to say the alphabet backwards the fastest won the "Easy As Homemade Apple Pie" gift certificate. I didn't get a picture of that since I was using my phone to time them. it was an amazingly fun night.
My pig wing collection is growing--meaning I've finished a couple more classes, and my pigs finally came in the mail! Dad Dad made wings for the piggies with scrolled designs on it, and the wings match the design! I also got a glass pink pig with wings to remind me of one of m professors I've had for two classes. She is so kind and nice, and this is her last semester at SFU; they are terminating her position, she said, and will be leaving in May.
Pace's teachers use an app called ClassDojo to communicate with parents--they can send photos, videos, text requests, etc. These are a few photos of Pace at school with various projects they've done. One day was during reading week at school, they got the wear pjs to school and bring snacks for a read-a-thon. Another day they made rainbow graham cracker creations...I think this was St. Patrick's Day, so maybe it had something to do with a pot of gold? The last one is a bridge building experiment, they had to see how many pennies their bridges could hold. Finally, the kids earn points for homework, being good listeners in class, etc. They can turn in points for prizes from the prize closet. Pace chose a bag of rubber bands one day (I think they are really hair bands?), because "We were poor in rubber bands, but now with this big bag, we are rich with rubber bands!" He was so excited!
Bishka taught the boys how to make structures during an art lesson one afternoon.
Rocket likes to cuddle with David as he's trying to get ready for work. He'll strategically lay across David's feet, or cuddle up to his legs, wind himself around David's feet, etc.
Max got home from school one day and wanted to read books. He found the stack of books that have CDs that go with them, and spent probably an hour or so listening to the books. It reminded me of the books--with records--I had growing up! Max's class also got to go on a field trip to a local nursery during their unit of learning how things grow. Each kid got to scoop up some dirt and plant a bean seed. Ours is already a seedling with big leaves!
