October 2019

Oct 2, 2019:

Tryna soak up the last bit of warm sunshine on my lunch break picnic, even if it means dressing up like an 80s ballerina

Oct 3, 2019:

I love that Max loves being good. He wants to choose the right and is thrilled when he gets points and prizes at school. On this particular day, he’d acquired enough points to sit at the teacher’s desk, which he thought was the coolest thing ever.

Oct 3, 2019:

Pace is an amazing thinker. He completely understands math functions so far, has latched on to multiplication and division like a second language, and loves doing homework first thing. I love his answer to #10 here: “because just what I said on number 9”...hello, I get it, and I already explained why and how it works! Duh (haha).

Oct 5, 2019:

“The secret, Alice, is to surround yourself with people who make your heart smile. It’s then, only then, that you’ll find Wonderland.”

And if not Wonderland, a really long loop that mistakenly morphs from your intended 20 miles to 27 miles when you miss a turn off 🤦🏼‍♀️🤷🏼‍♀️

Good thing I had a running buddy who kept up light feet, positive vibes, and climbed that 5,400ft of elevation with class. You’re the best  Jenn Carter Dain

(It's at this point we realize we're off track a little, and it might be faster to just run to Strawberry Reservoir instead of trying to find our way over the the Fifth Water trail...we were the blue dot, the green line is where we were headed)

Oct 10, 2019:

We hit up our neighbor’s corn maze after school when it was still a balmy 75 degrees outside. It was so fun to play in the corn pit, go down the slide, and find the corn fairy in the corn maze. We also picked the most gorgeous pumpkins from the pumpkin patch!

Pace said he wanted to go down the slide holding hands, and document it with a photo.  If my boy wants a picture of us holding hands going down a slide, I will take as many as he wants as long as he wants!

This is where Max was nervous and wanted to get home because the sun was going down.  While the sun is shining in our eyes.  Had to take a picture.

Oct 11, 2019:

When you wake up early in the morning don’t you sit on the couch writing chapters in your own Halloween chapter book (Pace), or creating your own letters of a new alphabet (Max)?

Oct 11, 2019:

How we did General Conference this year:

Oct 11, 2019:

Pace's creation from all four sides:  The Start of Portal

Oct 13, 2019:

Pace’s birthday adventure this year was busy! He invited his friends from school, Archer and Bridger, and we went to the school fall festival, went fishing on our canoe at Salem Pond, and had pizza and mini pies at home. 

Archer and Bridger made the coolest presents for Pace—a hanging pocket blanket for Pace’s stuffed animals, and a sleeping bag for stuffed animals. It was a great adventure day celebrating Pace!

Oct 13, 2019:

Parker got baptized yesterday! This group of boys is such a good group—it’ll be fun to take this picture again in ten years, right before they all leave on their missions.

Oct 14, 2019:

Happy 9th birthday to Pace! Pace is diligent, a hard worker, a problem solver, obedient, and loves to do what is right. He woke up this morning well before his alarm, and waited in his room reading until a decent hour to come downstairs. Pace chose to open the small presents before school, two bigger ones after school, and still has two more to go...it got too late before bedtime. 

I brought an ice cream treat into his class at school, and when we got home, he wanted to complete all his homework first so he could just focus on making his LEGO set. He chose to eat out at Olive Garden tonight because he loves cheese ravioli, and he thought our server “seemed very skilled”. We got home about 8:45 from the restaurant, and Pace said, “I think I need to finish opening my presents tomorrow, it’s too late right now.” 

We’ve also been carving out time each evening to do a 5 minute deep breathing/yoga session, and this has really helped Pace learn to breathe, relax, and manage anxiety. Tonight he requested the meditation guy that does deep breathing before bedtime, and the “rain in the city music because I fell asleep so fast last night and woke up not feeling tired at all!” This is a huge improvement—this is the kid who usually lays in bed for an hour or more trying to fall asleep, or comes down to get one of us to lay on the floor in his room until he falls asleep because he’s scared and his mind just doesn’t shut off. I’m glad we’ve found something that works for him!

I love watching this boy grow up, he is so polite, observant, and has such a good heart. We are lucky to have him in our family!

Oct 15, 2019:

Lunch break run

Oct 17, 2019:

I've been in serious withdrawals from my summertime lunch break picnics...nothing but trails for lunch hour can fix these woes!

Oct 20, 2019:

When Jennifer Mantyla Lambert first texted an invite to me to run Bryce Canyon this weekend with her, I was a little hesitant...and then after about two minutes I was like, “Who am I kidding?! Of course I’m in!” 

Our originally planned traverse changed to two loops, but there was no love lost in the amazing terrain and scenery. What a spectacular adventure!! I love that the trail running community brings together Uber elite runners like Jen and Jamen Nelson with little ol Joe Schmoe me, and we had a great time adventuring, great conversations, and felt the greatness of the earth around us. 

This is why.

Oct 20, 2019:

A family that marble races together stays together.

Oct 21, 2019:

As we were driving around getting groceries today, Pace made the comment, “There should be a place that sells things like food, water, shelter, and things like that cheaper so people who don’t have much money can buy them. It could be called the Come and Go Supply store.” 💛💛💛

Oct 22, 2019:

Gorgeous fall trails...and a little epoxy needed...

Oct 25, 2019:

Max has been saving his birthday money since June, saying there was nothing he wanted to buy. Once Pace got his birthday money, though, they wanted to go to the store and find some birthday goodies! Pace picked a lego set, Max picked a new nerf gun, and they both also picked out treasure X and treats. So fun they spent their own money!

Oct 25, 2019:

We spent some time cleaning the house today. I told the boys if they just focused on their room, I wouldn’t make them do their normal chores with me (they usually switch upstairs and downstairs every other week, helping me scrub the bathroom, vacuum, sweep/mop). They hopped on that deal real fast! Pace loved cleaning up his desk area, found some treasures that had been buried for a while, and loved making his space all his own. 

I loved finding this note he’d left for Max (I don’t know when): “I am going to do my homework really fast so I can build a giant city on a new flat world. Would you mind if you help me. Sincerely, Pace”

He also has anew chapter book going: “Once Upon a Halloween”. My favorite part is when they get stuck in a hollow, he defines hollow: “If you do not know what a hollow is this is what it is: A hollow is a very deathly cavern.”

 

Oct 25, 2019:

Max has always been a little engineer, he loves figuring out how things work. Pace loves tents. And now getting his picture taken!

Some kids in our neighborhood have little motorized scooters and zip all around. The other day two little scooters sped past our house and Max goes,”oh my. If I had one of those, mommy, I would go so slow. And definitely wear a helmet!” Love my cautious boy!

Oct 27, 2019:

Last big run before Dead Horse! It’s been a year since I’ve done this loop, and I loved seeing the difference in myself between then and now. I took things intentionally slow with my tweaky IT band, walking the downhills and when the terrain was too rocky, and there was one point my IT band was so tweaky I was considering doing just an out and back at Deer Creek instead of the whole loop. But I’m glad I stuck with it—the longer I went, the stronger I felt.

For me, strength isn’t translated into speed, for me, strength means: I’ve built up endurance so I can run uphill sections I’ve never run before, maintain a more consistent split time, feel stronger the longer I run, I’m not as wasted at the end of the run, I can walk comfortably after the run (😂), I can do things after a long run instead of going home and crashing in bed for 4-5 hours, I’m not as sore the next day, recovery is faster. It’s really, really cool to see these changes, in just one year!

After I got home, I downed a snack, showered and changed, sat down to write some responses to discussion posts for some classes I’m taking, and then David and I zipped up to Salt Lake for a date: the symphony and grocery shopping at almost midnight 🥴😴 (because that’s what you do on dates when you’re closer to 40 than 20...)

The next two weeks are now taper runs, lots of rolling/soaking/massaging, IT band stretch and strengthen boot camp, and cross training like a fiend.

Trail running lets you bypass all the closed roads in life...When I finally reached the construction, I could just run right on through; a truck that didn't believe the road closed sign had to turn around, ha!

When I finally reached Cascade Springs, I decided to take a minute to stretch and explore--I'd never walked around the area before!

There was a couple creek crossings.  Last year it was small enough Lorri and I could just jump over.  This year, it was too wide.  I should have just taken my shoes and socks off, but I carefully picked my way across instead.  The second crossing still required climbing across this tree, and I had to take a photo so they could come find me downstream in the river in case the tree broke while I was on it...

This climb is insane.  You think you're at the top, but then you realize you're only a quarter of the way up.  Then you turn the corner and go up some more.

Some dirt bikers came up the around the corner at the top and we chatted for a bit.  They were super impressed that I had run the whole way from the dam to Midway to Cascade Springs and I was on my final leg back down to the car.  I am super impressed with myself, too.  I've come a long way.

Date night!

Oct 27, 2019:

More marble mazes.  Because we have to document every. Single. One.  They're all different, believe it or not...

Oct 27, 2019:

First snow day of the year!  They were calling for 30-40% chance of flurries, stopping around 10am...3-4 inches in at 2 in the afternoon and no sign of stopping!  Pace came in saying there was something cold and wet running down his neck.  I said, "Yeah, that's snow..."

Oct 28, 2019:

Pumpkin carving Part I:

Oct 30, 2019:

Max has a bad habit of licking his lips and keeping his lower lip in his mouth (as pictured). I kept warning him about getting chapped lips in the winter, but that didn’t become an issue until the last two days with the cold snap we’re having—snow and 9 degrees this morning!! 

I put chapstick on Max this afternoon after school and he immediately started screaming, his typical pterodactyl screech he’s done since he was a baby. He very dramatically said, in between wails,he felt like he was going to die. 

Later we went to the store to get frosting and sprinkles for his class Halloween party tomorrow, and I asked him to help hold a few containers. Again cue the dramatics as soon as I gave him three containers to hold. I looked down and said, “Max, you are so dramatic!” He quit whining, immediately calmed down, and replied, “Well of course, I am very sensitive.” And just calmly looked at me with those big brown eyes. All I could to was start laughing.

Oct 31, 2019:

Happy Halloween!