December 2019

Dec 3, 2019:

It takes a few runs to remind myself how much I love winter running. It is still and peaceful, and the cold clears your mind. Getting above the inversion doesn’t hurt, either. 

On another note, after my lunch break run today, I realized a toenail that has been waffling for a few months is finally biting the dust. Does that bump me into a different class of runner?! 

Dec 4, 2019:

Happy birthday to David, the rock of our family who is hopelessly devoted to keeping us all happy, the boys' life full of adventures, and meeting me at every finish line.

Dec 7, 2019:

The mountains were calling and I'm so glad I listened.  It was short bu so needed.  Fresh air, uphill hike, cold snow, moose tracks, pine trees.

We've been stuck inside with poor Pace who was wicked sick Thursday night into Friday with an awful stomach bug.  He was back to his bathroom visits every 20-30 minutes all night long, and I stayed up with him watching him like a hawk to make sure he didn't get bad enough to need to go to the hospital for iv fluids.  He hung on, and stopped throwing up/diarrhea around 4:30am, and then we just had to work on rehydrating him.  Hoping this little germ isn't going to be shared!

Dec 17, 2019:

The Ward Christmas dinner was really festive.  Max of course did not want to sing with the primary, and when Pace saw me trying to take his photo, he hid behind the other kids.

Dec 17, 2019:

Pace had his Christmas recital for Hip Hop and Breakdance.  It was so fun watching him do his moves on stage.  He said he felt really scared and nervous, but you couldn't tell at all!  He is a natural on stage!

Dec 17, 2019:

Some people are born to make gingerbread houses and some are not.  The frosting was too runny, the kit instructions had us build the structures first and then decorate, when we should have decorated and the build (gravity + runny frosting = disaster), and Pace got frustrated when nothing turned out as he'd envisioned.  He "harrumphed" and Eeyored his way through the evening.

Dec 17, 2019:

The boys and I played Christmas music tonight while decorating cookies, and then Max and I read/sang The 12 Days of Christmas while pace was snuggled in bed.  Max and I really hammed up "Five goooooooollllllllllldeeeeeeeeen rings"!

Dec 17, 2019:

Feeling grateful for my Tuesday running buddy who keeps me consistent on my Tuesday lunch break runs.  This girl is petite, speedy, and working her tail off to qualify for Boston, and quite literally runs circles around me--and every time I've run with her, she's made my Beefcake Amazon Woman of a tail a little but faster, catching all sorts of sections PRs.  (Keep in mind PRs are all relative...it's super easy to snag all sorts of PRs and "faster times" when you start our super slow, haha!)

Dec 17, 2019:

At Christmastime we read the 21 Days of Christ, a little booklet with Bible scriptures recounting Jesus’ life and works, and accompanying quotes from church leaders. An ornament goes with each scripture we hang on the advent calendar Mom Mom made for me when I got married. 

We read the Woman at the Well the other day, and the boys and I had a really great discussion about how unusual it was for women to be learned in Jesus’ time, that they didn’t read the scriptures, that the elders of the Jewish community didn’t teach the women, and that the Samaritans and Jews definitely did not hang out together at recess. 

It was with this backdrop we then read about Jesus talking with the Samaritan woman at the well, and as their conversation progressed, she became more and more convinced of His divinity. The first thing she did, when she understood that He was the Living Water, was run back to her house to share her testimony. Max said, “Oh, to tell her kids!” Because, naturally, if she tasted water that afterwards she would never thirst, she would want her children to have it, too. 

The scripture account does not mention children, but we had a really great conversation about the importance of seeking out your own testimony, and once you feel it, and you are linked to Jesus through covenants (baptism, temple, etc.), you want others to experience the happiness that comes from that link, too. So you share your testimony, serve a mission, and share the Living Water.

 

Dec 17, 2019:

Pace wrote a Christmas story in school and his teacher held up his paper as an exemplar of penmanship.  I love his enthusiasm for learning, school, and his intrinsic drive to do a job well done.

Dec 22, 2019:

The dual immersion classes sang some Christmas carols in Spanish.  We were invited to the 2nd grade classes, but they filmed the other grades and sent videos.  

Pace's class also delivered stocking to a rehab nursing center and sang songs there.  id rove a group of kiddos over on my lunch break so I got to see them sing there.

Dec 22, 2019:

Max came home from school this week nonchalantly saying in fine arts at school he voluntarily shared his piano skills and played Jolly Old St. Nicholas—by memory without music!! 

This is such a big deal (I think) for Max! He’s not one to call attention to himself, and is usually kinda shy in front of people. So hearing that he got in front of everyone on his own to play the piano made my mama heart happy. I was hoping music would be another language Max could use to express himself.

Dec 24, 2019:

Christmas season 2012, back when the boys were babies, David texted me a photo of what he saw when he arrived at the UPS center where he works. It was an utter chaos of a peak season, and I wondered how I could make that peak a little more bearable. The thought hit me--I could make cinnamon rolls! I waited for the boys to wake up from their naps, and we went and got ingredients to make 8 dozen cinnamon rolls David could bring in to work the next day to cheer on his co-workers. Here we are, 7 years later, and I now have a straight up cinnamon roll sweat shop to keep up with this (now 12 dozen strong) tradition! 

Dec 24, 2019:

Traditional Christmas Questions:

1. What do you want to be when you grow up?
Pace: I don’t know
Max: I don’t know 

2. What is your favorite thing?
Pace: family
Max: kitties

3. What are you afraid of?
Pace: the dark, jump-scares, flickering lights, lightning, really hard rain, big hail, our house falling down, my family dying, our cats dying (giggle)
Max: our cats dying and being upstairs alone

Dec 24, 2019:

Christmas Eve Jolly Book Flood. The boys love this tradition—they love getting new books, picking out chocolate, and staying up as late as they want as long as they stay in bed. 😂 They read with their little lanterns, and usually turn them off around 9pm, too tired to stay up too late.

Dec 25, 2019:

Christmas 2019. We woke up to a white Christmas and it kept snowing til the afternoon! We had our Nutella star bread, opened a bushel of presents, and played all day long.

Pace said this present was perfect because they could still play Minecraft even on a non-screen day, haha.

Max picked up this present and said, "Oooof, this one is surprisingly heavy!"

Some of the best presents: legos, logic games, and slime.  The spitting slime guys kept Max occupied for literally 2-3 hours straight!

My Christmas: lots and lots of new running shoes!  My post-tib tendonitis cleared up this year, but then plantar fasciitis became really unbearable, hobbling for six months straight.  Hoping a new stretching/strengthening regimen and new shoes will help out.

Christmas dinner--cornish hens for everyone!

We ended the night with indoor laser tag!

Dec 26, 2019:

A few shots from Daddy, working in beautiful Heber Valley

Someone gave him a really nice Christmas present--a nice sweatshirt hoodie of a lifting brand.

The boys are excited for the best Christmas present--building Lego Apocalypseburg while watching Avitar.

Daddy working hard at the gym, turning into Hulk.

Dec 26, 2019:

I got trail sin four days in a row!  What a big, wide, wonderfully beautiful world we live in.

Dec 28, 2019:

So still and quiet at the top.  Philosophical question of the day:  If you can't see how high you are, are you still afraid of heights?

Dec 30, 2019:

Exploring the Pine Forest trail, a new one for us.  It was beautiful, we felt like we were in the Pacific Northwest.

(can you find my gnome and flying pig in this photo?)

Dec 31, 2019:

The final adventure of the year with a great running buddy!  I love running with Lorri.  She is willing to hit up Dry Canyon and baldy with me in any amount of light and in any weather (even when I bail on her in the middle of a thunderstorm...I'm a nervous Nellie...)

Lorri lights up the trail, literally and figuratively.  No topic is off-limits on the trail, and I love this detail about our conversations.  I mean, sometimes trail sisters gotta blow off some of life's steam, ya know?!

She taught me the dark is an opportunity to look forward to the sunrise.  Before that, I always hated running in the dark.

We have witnessed some very beautiful trail scenes together, and I am so grateful for this world that fills the soul, and to have a friend to experience that with.

She is willing to face life with a wide open smile and arms outstretched, which is a lot more than I can say for myself, I feel.

She accepts me for who I am.  No questions asked.

I can give her bunny ears at any time.

She is tough as nails.

We also laugh so, so much out on the trail.  When I'm an uber famous super rapper, this will be my photo profile.  You saw it here first.

This is our "Accepting We Are Humans" face--so close to the top and yet so far away, we decided to turn around due to time constraints and toes so cold it hurt really, really bad when they defrosted.

And it's a wrap for 2019!  My most mileage yet, and enough elevation I could have scaled Mt. Everest  5 times, whoa.

Dec 31, 2019:

Initiating a new New Year's Even Tradition going to the lights festival!  Going on Dec 31 was the best!--No lines, great lights, music, and stayed warm in the car.  We saw all our favorites--the dinosaur hatching, igloo and penguins, the princess castle, the fountain, tunnels, and more!

We went out for a milkshake and fries afterwards, and Daddy was the best at thumb wars, making the thumbs jump on trampolines, whack each other with swords, and makes his thumb trip and fall strategically into Max's thumb.

Dec 31, 2019:

On Sunday, Pace woke up around his normal 6am, realized he didn't have any clean underwear so immediately came downstairs, started his laundry, poured himself a bowl of cereal, put away the dishes because he thought that should be done, and read a few chapters.  This little boy is one focused, diligent soul.

Dec 31, 2019:

One present from Uncle Jon Erik was a fun logic game, moving cars stuck in a parking lot until you can get the red car out of the traffic jam.  We were stuck on card #23, I think, for a few days, and then Max came over and solved it in about 4 minutes.  Seriously.  This boy and his brain.

Friends New Years Eve party, Max is rocking Connect 4, and Pace is floored by the snacks, and that he can take more than one cheese sample, haha.