May

The boys' school had a fun spirit week during their last month of school.  One day they got to dress up as "What Do You Want to Be When You Grow Up?" Max wanted to "Be a cop", and Pace wanted to be a "House Designer", aka Architect.  He's really gotten into designing "extreme houses" on minecraft, and loves watching design shows now.  He was so excited to help get his costume ready: we got a hardhat with a pencil, for when the architect visits the build site, a belt with a hammer, ruler,  and he even got some graph paper and drew house designs on the paper, complete with measurements and equations.

David had the first week of May off, so we surprised Pace one day by checking him out of school early and taking the boys out to the aquarium.  It was a cold, rainy day, so a visit to the aquarium was a perfect afternoon!  David has taken he boys a few times, but I'd never been.  David said it was the most they'd animal activity they'd ever seen--we saw otters swimming all over, the sea turtle, birds in the South America room--so many things!

On with the two-week backyard renovation!  When David and I hit a project, we hit it hard.  First we brought down the rubber mulch to both the playground areas (ours and our neighbor's).  Then we moved all the material to the other side of the house so we could work on the walkway and the retaining beds.   

Then the landscaper put in the sprinkler system for us, and Bishka's plants and rocks on the terraces.  David and I spread the topsoil and laid sod.  

Then we started working on the retaining walls for the garden beds.  I wish I'd gotten a before picture of the side of the house--it was so overgrown with weeds!  We knew if we didn't get this whole project done now, it'd be another three years before we finished everything.  So we built retaining walls for the gardens, and stairs to get into the lower area.

Then we had to lay weed mat and spread gravel for both the walkway through the garden area and where the garden shed should be.  And we also put up the fencing for where the blackberry bushes would be. 

Finally, I thought I better hammer out the flagstone walkway...we were about the leave for Ragnar, and when we got back, I'd start my last semester, and David would go back to work.  So...better to get that project done...now.  So I spent a day laying stone instead of resting up for Ragnar...

It rained buckets and buckets while we were gone at Ragnar, and shifted the stones I'd laid, and the dirt underneath.  There was nothing to do unless I picked up every stone, re-raked the dirt, and re-laid the stones...which wasn't going to happen...so as soon as it dried out, I just poured the quickrete to set the stones.

We finally got our playground installed--what a fiasco there.  Our installation date got bumped a couple times, and when they finally came out, the twisty slide and the swing A-frame were on backorder.  Lots of calls later, we finally got everything installed, and we were promised through Costco that we would receive a discount/reimbursement on our installation fee.

One more training run before Ragnar: a stacked run, first 5 miles up to the hot pots, next 6 miles along the BST.  

Jon Erik came out for the week, and made a gourmet dinner for us, and even did the dishes!

We drove down to Ragnar and stopped at a rock shop in Orderville that David and the boys have been dying to stop in since we drove by it last Ragnar.  They are pretty excited to pick out some fun rock treasures.  We also stopped at the "Ho-Made Pie Store" that I'd been dying to stop at since last Ragnar and got a berry pie to bring with us while camping.

And, finally, Ragnar!  So much of the time, effort, and training that goes into events is mostly spent months leading up to the actual event, and there's only a small percentage spent during the event itself.  David has been so supportive while I've been training for this event--the last two months have been all about me going on on trail runs and being gone anywhere from 3-8 hours.  Early nights, early mornings, recovery drinks, food, massages...David has definitely given me the wings to fly to achieve this goal.  Starting out the morning with yoga.  

I've renamed myself on all my running threads "Beefcake Amazon Woman", it makes me laugh every time I see photos like this one.  I'm head and shoulders and probably 20+ pounds on fellow runners.  I first noticed this when I took a photo last Wasatch Back Ragnar on the all-women team I did.  I wondered why I looked so much bigger than the other ladies, and concluded they were all just short.  Then a few more photos on training runs standing next to fellow runners, and this one...I laugh that I'm not a typical "runner shape"--taller, "healthier"...and then I see myself next to Jon Erik and realize...Ohhhhh, it's genes!  Haha.  

This Ultra Ragnar was definitely tough.  A normal Trail Ragnar is done with an 8-person team, and each person runs the three loops once, for a total of 15 miles.  An Ultra Team is made up of 4 people, each person running the loops twice, for a total of 30 miles.  I was expecting this Ragnar to be double hard, since it was double the mileage, and I thought I'd training accordingly...but it was 3-4x as hard, and it definitely pushed me to my limit.  It took me a total of 7 hours to complete my 30 miles (for perspective, it took the ultra runner Jarom, who runs 100 miles a week 4 ½ hours).  it was tough, but fun, and extra fun to have Jon Erik come down and be on the team!

I was flat outlined and weeping at the end of my last leg, haha, then spent the next hour or so laying not he cot and trying to stomach broth and a coke through waves on nausea.  Dang it was a hard event.  Jarod brought in the team looking fresh and strong, and I love how he and Kat--the two strongest runners on the team--were in perfect running form crossing the finish line, and Jon Erik had to literally drag me across the finish line.

Dvid played So.Many.Rounds.Of.Mini.Golf to keep the boys entertained while we were running.  The boys sure had fun, and Pace even got a hole in one!

They also had some fun with the camera when they got really bored..these boys are hilarious, and absolutely have my heart.

We decided to spend Saturday night at the campgrounds and drive home through Zion the next day, Mother's Day.  It was a perfect way to spend the day for me--hiking around in a beautiful park with my boys.

I love this photo of the boys--they were laughing with each other, shouting and making echoes in the canyon.

We were about 20 minutes away from home and the tire on our rental blew.  We haven't seen a bill yet, so I'm crossing my fingers the insurance has taken care of it.  Good thing we had two guys there to help change the tire like a Nascar race pit team!

End of school fun!  Max had a field day with probably 10 or more stations.  I was manning the balloon race-popping station, and could watch Max all around the field.  The Duck, Duck, Goose station played with water because it was such a warm day, and Max hates getting splashed and wet, so he really tried to duck, haha!

And then our Max graduated from kindergarten!  He is our serious, thoughtful, problem-solver--such a sensitive boy, "so shy", as he calls himself.  He reads at a 3rd grade level, reads all the directions and instructions for his own homework and does it on his own without my help, and takes following instructions very seriously.  I have two favorite stories from this year.  

First, Max's class was taking an assessment test.  The class was halfway through the assessment and Ms. Andersen looks over to see Max completely melting down, crying, tears running down his face.  There were apparently no more pencils in his table's container, and he din't have a pencil to take his test with.  Instead of asking for help, he just tarted crying.  That's our Max--totally vocal and just fine yelling at home, but in public, completely shuts down and gets overwhelmed.  I asked him about it later, and he said that the teacher had told the class no talking was allowed, so that's why he didn't ask for a pencil.  

Second, Ms. Andersen was testing his reading at the end of the year, which is when she discovered his level was at the 3rd grade level.  She had him pick out a book, and read it to her, and then answer questions about it to text comprehension.  He picked a book on whales, and read it like an expert, but was non-responsive with all her questions.  She had to pull answers out of him.  She knows he understood it, but it was pulling teeth to get him to answer.  There was one page that had a picture of a whale, and school busses lined up to compare the whale's  length.  She said he was non responsive when she asked him what he thought that picture meant.  I asked him about it later, asking if he remembered reading the whale book with Ms. Andersen.  "Yeah, but it was a long time ago," he said. "Do you remember the picture of the whale and the busses?"  "Yeah!"  "What did it mean?" His eyes got really big, and he grinned, "Oh, they were measuring the whale.  And guess what, mommy!  It was 25 whales long!"  He's just one of those silent geniuses, I think.  We all know he knows...I'm sure during the assessment he was sitting there thinking the whole questioning exercise was futile, he had just read the book, aloud, and I'm sure he was wondering why she had questions, as she had just heard him read the book and gathered the same information he had!

 

Finally got the garden planted Memorial Day weekend, had a fun campfire dinner with our friends at their little cabin up Nebo Loop, finished cleaning out the garage and moving things to the shed, and had a Neighborhood Memorial Day backyard bash with our amazing neighbors who have every party supply known to man: bounce house, cotton candy maker, shaved ice maker, and more!

And finally Pace's end of year production.  The 1-3 dual immersion grades put on a show that was pretty cool!  Pace's class danced to a couple songs, and Pace seemed to have a blast on stage!

Pace finally brought home his notebook with the CHAPTER STORY he's been working on all year long!  He wrote a ten-chapter Minecraft story, it was pretty amazing.  he'd tell me each day if they had journal time or not, and when they didn't, he was so disappointed, because he just wanted to finish his story.  He brought him a little write up of what he expected to happen during summer break.  I loved his answer for "On hot days I think I will"..."Dehydration"...haha 

And the final school year measurement:

Both boys grew two whole inches over the school year!  Pace noticed his starting kindergarten height was an inch taller than Max's ending kindergarten height, so we'll see how these boys end up as teens.  But they sure are growing fast now!