2 Vans, 12 Friends, 192 Miles

I think the title says it all. That is what Ragnar is. Last year, my cousin approached us and convinced us to sign up as a team for the Ragnar Relay. In a moment of delusion, I agreed to run. I must have thought I was in shape or something. In January of this year, I decided I should see where I was on the fitness scale. Unfortunately, my score was probably in the negative. Knowing that I would be close to forty years old and that I loved my family, I realized I better start training if I hoped to make it through this experience. And so I began.

After months of increasing distance and practicing running on inclines, I thought I would be prepared. Then I increased the workouts to two times a day and realized I was older than I thought. I hobbled around the house for a few days wondering what I was thinking. But, the pain subsided and we lined up to race.

We met at 4:30 am at the starting line. After a quick orientation that involved safety rules, we were off. I wondered if the Man upstairs had forgotten we were close to Summer as we began running into biting cold wind and across frost covered ground. I was in the first van with my sister, Melinda, my brother, Greg, and three cousins, Mariah, Vanessa, and Laraine. We laughed, shared stories, and cheered each other on. We met up with the other half of our team at the first exchange. We felt pretty good we had made it through our first legs.

Too quickly, we were up again for the next round. Our next runs were a little more difficult as we entered the more mountainous areas. Greg had the worst leg that took him up the side of a mountain. As we cheered him on, we were all grateful it was him and not us! We passed of the baton around 9:30 pm. This left the other half of our team to run through the middle of the night and left us scrounging around for places to sleep for a few hours.

The final runs for our van began at 4:00 am. Melinda took off and then met up with me a few miles later. Unfortunately for the people at the exchange, Melinda passed the baton to me and turned to throw up on those around her. I missed the spectacle because I had started running but I heard about it later. I had a discovery on my final leg-- if you just keep going, your legs eventually go numb and the pain goes away. I had a great run at 4:30 in the morning. The sun started coming up and turned the sky a beautiful pink. It was at this moment that I got a little choked up as I realized I had almost made it. All the hard work, training, and pain had paid off. I was overwhelmed and grateful for the experience-- I was also happy to hand the baton and be done.

We all met up at the finish line as we waited for Greg to run in. They call the team up when the lst runner is 1/4 of a mile out so the team can meet up and run in with him. It was all smiles and cheers as we ran in. Of course, we were the only ones smiling and cheering but we felt pretty good about ourselves.

The most impressive person on our team was Aunt Jennifer. She took over the hardest leg of the ragnar a week before the race. She is truly amazing. I know we all sit around and wish we could be her. I realized the pity I felt for myself before the race as I felt the pain of getting in shape had no place. I hope to be able to just jump into a race at the last minute like Aunt Jennifer.

While our name was "Crazy Runs in the Family", we all know that love, support, and pride (the good kind) runs in our family. What a blessing to be a part of such a wonderful family!

Lindsey Finishes Cheer

Lindsey had her last cheer recital and competition for the season. It will be nice to have a break. We decided she probably stayed on year too long at the studio she was at. They lost the coach they had had for the past few years and it made a huge difference. Lindsey also grew about six inches which moved her from a flyer to a base. She was discouraged because she likes to fly and if she can't do that she likes to tumble but she didn't really get to do much of either because she was a base. It's good to get experience in all areas however. She learned patience and teamwork which are good qualities. We'll see what we can find next year.

Baseball Season Comes and Goes

As anyone in this area knows, this has been a crazy Spring. We have had a lot of wet, cold weather. We wondered if Summer was ever coming. The weather not only affected our outlook, it also affected our baseball season. At the beginning of the season, games were consistently being cancelled due to rain. Once the season finally began, we had to cram in numerous make up games along with the regularly scheduled games. This made for a very short season. Nonetheless, it was fun and exciting.

I got to coach Heather's team this year. She is part of the machine pitch league. Our team won 5 and lost 3. Heather was one of the oldest on the team and one of the few who had played before. She was awesome. She hit nearly every time she got up to bat and even caught a high fly and tagged the runner for a double play in our last game. I was proud of her.

Lindsey had more of a ho hum season. I tried to coach her team to avoid the experience she had last year but they had enough coaches. She got to play in field this year and hit the ball every time she got up to bat unless she was walked. Her coaches were not agressive, however, and didn't teach or encourage them to steal bases. Lindsey started doing it on her own finally.

Luke had his best season yet. The coaches he had had for the last two or three years finally decided to call it quits. This was actually good news for us. They always drafted Luke and then hardly played him and when they did it was always right field. We always felt like he would do better if they gave him the chance. He got coaches who gave him the chance to play second base and short stop. He loved it and his confidence grew so much which is a huge part of baseball. His team won nearly every game and got along great. One of our friends from the ward was on his team so we had a blast watching the games together with his family. While the season was short, it was one of the better ones.

Lindsey's Birthday Party

I previously mentioned on the blog that it was Lindsey's birthday, well, after a month, we finally had a party. Lindsey wanted to have a party at our house so we had to wait until the construction project was far enough along to make it possible to host a party. At the first of June, we finally reached that point and Lindsey began planning her party.

Lindsey's guests came over in the evening and enjoyed a build your own pizza bar. As pizzas cooked, the girls played various party games. We then had dinner and played more games. One of the highlighted games was a skit game. Lindsey had put together two boxes of costumes then divided the girls into two teams. The girls had to use the costumes and come up with skits to present to each other. They seemed to really like dressing up. Finally, after presents we had cake. Lindsey and I found some new frosting that looks like paper so we decided to give it a try on her cake. It turned out really cute. The last thing the girls did was play night games, specifically, fugitive. This involves dropping the girls off at the park and having them work their way back to our house while I drive around and look for them. That game didn't go as planned but I think the girls still had fun.

Matthew's Preschool Graduation

Although this is Matthew's first year of preschool, and he has another to go, his class had a graduation. I'm not sure what they are graduating from, but the program was worth attending. I laughed so hard, I literally almost fell over in my chair. The kids at this age are so funny and they love to perform (except the few that don't and it is just as fun to watch them.)

Matthew had 13 kids in his class. All year, we had a carpool running with 5 of the students. Class really couldn't start until we showed up. Throughout the year it has been comical taking these kids to school and listening to their conversations. I always was left with a smile on my face.

The graduation performance consisted of a program with numerous songs, dances, and the kids all had a part to memorize and present. Matthew was hilarious when they sang "A Toot a Tot". He ended up looking like he was trying to lay an egg as he was singing. He stole the show on that song. Some of his friends were just as funny sharing stories about home life and singing. Kids are so honest, it is refreshing. I look forward to next year's graduation, and the many graduations to follow.

Jazzin' it Up!

Last year, Luke decided to sign up for band. After his experience with 6th grade orchestra, I was a little wary of having him try another instrument. He promised this time would be different. He was right. Luke decided to try the trumpet. He put a lot of time into practicing and it paid off. I also think some parts came easier to him because he was already familiar with music. About halfway through the year, his instructor invited Luke to join the Jazz Band. The jazz band has about 12 people in it, 3 of which are trumpet players. Being in Jazz Band required Luke to go to school an hour early three times a week. Luke was very dedicated and dragged me out of bed on those mornings to drive him to school.

All the practicing paid off. The Legacy Junior High had their final performance. The improvement from the first performance to the last was incredible. It was great to watch Luke, he really enjoyed playing. Throughout the year, when I would drop him off before a performance, he would be really nervous and couldn't eat. I would sympathize with him but would also chuckle that he was so nervous-- after all, it's only a band concert. He would remind me that he was band president and if something went wrong he was responsible. I'm happy to report, nothing went wrong. He had an awesome year.

Walk the Dinosaurs!

Savannah had her first grade program which was all about dinosaurs. They did an excellent job. Savannah's first grade teacher, Mrs. Thomas, is very involved in local theatre groups and she brought those talents to the first grade program. The kids were so animated and into what they were doing, it was fun to watch.

Savannah was very excited about performing. She suggested I buy her a new outfit for the program and expected to be taken out to dinner afterwards. I bought her some new accessories to go with an old outfit and we weren't able to go to dinner that night but we did go later in the week. About halfway through the program she had to hand her diamond (fake of course) bracelet to me because it kept sliding up her arm when she was performing. For Savannah, this was the performance of a lifetime. She did a great job!