Wasatch Back

A year ago Scott and I decided to put together a team of family and friends to run in the Ragnar Relay Wasatch Back, and man are we glad we did. Ragnar Relay is 192 mile relay race from Logan to Park City. Each team consists of 12 people divided into 2 vans. One runner is constantly running and then passes off the baton (a slap braclet) to the the next runner. The race spans over 2 days with very little chance for any real sleep, just cat napping here and there. The coarse is pretty brutal basically running up and down mountain after mountain, but it was absolutely beautiful! Our team might not have been the most "trained" or "in shape" but our only goal was to have fun and look good while doing it. At least we had fun. Team Purple Stuff (name is an inside joke referring to a commercial the boys made back in high school) finished in 32 hours. Our team included (back to front L to R) Kevin Flanagan, Kyle Flanagan (practically part of the Hale/Camp family), Scott, Beetle, Tyson Camp, Chris, Whitney, Rachel, Cami Redd, Jennica Redd (both Camp family friends), Kacie, and Karlie Christianson (Kacie's sister) who's not in the picture because she got really sick and had to go home during the night.

Van #1, the better of the two vans.

Why is there no picture of me running the first 7 miles of the race? Oh, because my van decided to run to Walmart and pick up a few things rather than supporting me with water and cheering me on during the run. I then reached the first exchange and had to wait 10 minutes for them to arrive. Oops! Did I mention none of us had done this before and it took us a while to figure out the best way to do things? Once I had a drink, there were no hard feelings. My 3 legs combined for a total of 20 miles, and I loved every second of them.

Scott did awesome in his first ever race and ran a total of 18.1 miles. I'm pretty sure he had the fastest pace on the team and never slowed down at all. Whitney, the birthday girl, was an absolute rock star running 7.5 miles up Avon Pass on a rocky, dirt road with constant dust clouds from all the support vehicles. Not to mention the altitude change she had coming from Arizona. This was, in my opinion, the hardest leg of the entire race, and Whitney made it look easy. Chris ran a literal total of ZERO miles to train for this race. Not only that, but he chose to run one of longest legs that totaled 18.2 miles and included running up a mountain by Jordanelle Reservoir. Call him crazy, but he did it without a hitch. Kacie not only completed her 3 legs, but also picked up Karlie's 2 remaining legs after she got sick, running a total of 5 seperate legs and a total of 21.3 miles. Amazing! This might be the only picture we got of Tyson, Kyle, and Beetle smiling. It was before their first leg. After this pretty much all we heard from van #2 was "This is AWEFUL!", "Who's idea was this?", and "We are NOT having fun". Oh and plenty of inappropriate Congressman Weiner jokes. Despite the bad attitudes, we know they had fun. Thanks guys!

Brandon joined our team just a month before the race when someone else had to drop out. With almost no training he ran one of the most difficult legs that totalled 18.8 miles. Not only that, but he did it all in a singlet. He even had enough left in him to throw in some kartwheels throughout the race. Tyson wasn't about to let nipple chaffing slow him down.

So would I do it again? ABSOLUTELY. This race was like a dream weekend for me. It included everything that I love most. Running, my family and friends, and a great race environment. How cool is it that all 3 of us Hale kids and our spouses were able to do this together? This was the first race I've done with Scott and it was so fun to share this experience with him. I am so proud of him! I think the hardest part for most people is the fatigue from no sleep. We were able to get 3 1/2 hours of sleep on some cheer mats in a high school gym, which was actually better than I had hoped for. For everyone else 3 1/2 hours of sleep was hardly any, but that's more than full night's sleep for me after I work so I was completely rested and ready to go. So, until next time....

Party for Two

Our little Brynnie bug is two! We had a massive celebration to celebrate her birthday, along with Rachel Faye and Whitney's birthdays, and Father's Day (all planned and executed by my mom, thanks mom!). Mason started asking Brynn the day after his birthday party was over what kind of party she wanted and without hesitation she always replied, "Minnie Mouse!". So we had us some Minnie Mouse fun at the party with a perfect mixture of Toy Story for Rachel Faye's "Jessie" party.

Of course she had a Minnie cake. We had a fishing pond with our Mickey Mouse "Handy Fishing Rods". Unfortunately the party we planned for outside had to be moved inside due to rain so you'll notice everything is a little bit cramped, but that didn't stop us from having fun.
One of Brynn's favorite things in her Little Gym class was doing the parachute. So we got a parachute for all the kids to play with. It was a hit.

Here is the only shot we got of the birthday girls together. It was set up to be a perfect picture until Brynn's little toes accidentally ended up under Rachie's dress up shoes and so this is what we ended up with. I think it's perfect. Brynn the typical 2 year old throwing a fit and Rachel, the cutest 3-year-old ever, looking innocent and sweet in the back. Brynn absolutely adored all the girly presents she got including a new doll stroller, doll high chair, princess dress up shoes, and a princess scooter.

(She always keeps her baby dolls naked. I think in her mind she's just being a good mama since if she had things her way she would be naked all of the time.)

Brynn wasn't the only one who liked all the girly toys. Mason spent the next few days wearing princess high heels while he rode around on a princess scooter. At first I was amused, then a little concerned, but I'm pretty sure it was just the novelty of all this girl stuff we've never had before because by the end of the week he was back to being a boy instead of a princess.

Now for my journal entry about 2-year-old Brynn.

Brynn has turned into the silliest little girl. She keeps us all smiling and laughing.

Her vocabulary seems to triple every day, but her favorite words are Mine and No Thanks.

She thinks she is 4-years-old and loves to try and keep up with Mason and his friends.

She does not, however, like kids her own age and becomes very possessive and selfish around them.

She finally had a change of heart and went from a complete Mama's girl to being Daddy's girl and she has him completely wrapped around her finger.

She is still a die hard binky and blankie girl.

She loves playing soccer, t-ball, and basketball with her Daddy.

Brynn is a Troublemaker with a capital T!

I think it's called curiosity, but it sure is a handful.

She is very strong willed and absolutely will not do anything she doesn't want to do without kicking and screaming the whole way.

She adores her brother, Mason. She will follow him anywhere and do anything he asks her to.

It's always fun to see what we will find when we check on Brynn before bed. We find everything from her being naked to having a bed full of shoes with multiple on each foot to finding her asleep under her bed or in the closet. It's no wonder she has never come out of her room. She is just fine entertaining herself in there.

She has no fear.... except of people.

We were worried she was color blind, but she finally proved us wrong by learning her colors.

She knows her ABCs and after months of only hearing her sing them when she thought she was all alone, she will actually sing them in front of people now.

She is very OCD about her routines and everything being the same every time she does something.

Her favorite colors are Pink and Orange.

She points out the letter B everywhere we go.

She loves to take care of her baby, but as mentioned before, she always keeps it naked.

She is a little fishy and loves to swim with absolutely zero hesitation in the water.

Brynn is crazy about animals, especially dogs. I don't know how much longer we will be able to hold off getting a real pet.

Brynn loves to count things and can count to 20.

Looking back I don't mind all the hard work we had to put into her as a baby to get the adorable and darling little girl we have now. We love you Brynn and our family wouldn't be complete without you.

We Tried

Last year I set the goal to do a triathlon every year, but when my tri partner, Stacie, decided to go and get pregnant I wasn't sure who I was going to do it with this year. So when Karli called me up about a month ago and told me she had been training for her first tri and asked if I wanted to join her in the Provo Tri I jumped at the opportunity. I was a little overly confident that my Ragnar training would be sufficient to get me through without any swim or bike training. When race day came I did it, but let's be honest, it was far from a personal best. Karli on the other hand was a superstar and blew me away with how great she did.

So here's the race story.

The swim was 800 meters in Utah Lake. The water was a chilly 55 degrees so wetsuits were a must. Because they weren't using timing chips they started all 300 swimmers at once which was totally insane. Usually swimmers are started in heats of 20-30 people at a time, so it made for a very interesting open water swim. From the start I felt really uncomfortable and was battling with some serious claustrophobia due to my wetsuit, the opaque water of Utah Lake, and hoards of people around me. I've had a handful of experiences in my life when I got horribly claustrophobic to the point of sending me into a panic attack. This was one of the worst and at a most inconvenient time. I was able to struggle through it by keeping my head up while I swam for about 1/3 of the swim but hit a point where I felt like I was on the verge of freaking out if something didn't change so I did the only thing I felt like I could do and unzipped my wetsuit and pealed some it off creating some really nice drag for the rest of the race. I then just flipped on my back and swam backstroke the rest of the way which really helped. Needless to say this was by far my worst swim ever. I'm not at all disappointed that they did not provide a split time for the swim.

I transitioned smoothly onto the bike and felt great the entire 12.4 mile ride, although I did feel like everyone was flying by me. It wasn't until that night when I returned my mom's road bike to her that she informed me I hadn't pumped up the tires and the tire pressure was at 40 when it's supposed to be at 100-110. Once again, not too heart broken about not getting a split time for that.

I haven't mentioned that until this point Karli and I had been about even and were even able to ride some of the bike together, which was fun. She transitioned to the run faster than me and so I was about 100 yards behind her. She took off flying and I was never able to close the gap during the 3.2 miles. The run was the one leg that went smoothly and I felt good about. We both crossed the finish line at 1:34. Overall I had fun and am way proud of Karli and how awesome of did. Hopefully this won't be the last race we do together.

Me, Karli, and her mom who also competed after the race.

This is a pretty scary picture s we'll leave it at that.

Preschool Graduate

It's hard to believe his first year of preschool is over, but it's true, Mason is a preschool graduate.We got to go to his preschool graduation where we were able to watch him and his classmates show us some of the fun things they learned this year. It was one of the cutest things I've ever seen and I'm pretty sure I had the biggest smile on my face the entire time. Mason was concerned when I told him we weren't going to be going to preschool all summer long until I reassured him he would be going back to Mrs. Young's preschool in the fall. Mason and Mrs. Young.

She has been so patient and kind with Mason this year as he continues to learn and grow.

I am so grateful for all she has done for him. Mason and his cousin Kennedy. Nice grin, dude. This is Mason and his "best buddy" Benson. I have loved watching their friendship grow this year. Benson is such a good friend to Mason and we are heartbroken he is moving this summer.

We are proud of how far Mason has come this year and can't wait to watch him continue to learn and grow.

Silly Girl

Last night as Scott and I were checking on the kids before going to bed we were surprised and amused by what we found in Brynn's crib. This was the third time that day she had stripped herself completely naked. I hope she gets over this phase quickly because there are bound to be embarrassing moments if she continues to strip every chance she gets.

I also think it's time to put her in a bed. In California she refused to sleep in the pack and play and so she just fell asleep in Mason's bed every night. Since then she has been resisting going to sleep in her crib. She has asked to sleep on the floor the last 3 nights and has had no problem staying in her room or falling asleep when we have let her. You can obviously see what problems we're having when we force her to stay in her crib. I guess she can't be my baby forever.

The Happiest Place On Earth

We just returned from a magical Disneyland vacation. It was very different than our last Disneyland visit 2 years ago. We now have older kids and spent 3 full days hopping between Disneyland and California Adventures. We also tried to pick a time to go that would avoid the huge crowds of peak season that we experienced last time we went. Someone recommended the beginning of May since it's after all the Spring Breaks and during testing in school. They were absolutely right. The crowds were small and the lines totally manageable (most lines were 15 minutes. 30-40 minutes for the most popular rides). Instead of giving a play-by-play account of our trip I'll just post some of the highlights I want to remember.

*I may have drugged the kids with Benadryl to get them to bed several hours early the night before we left since we had to wake them up at 4:30am to make our flight. *Optimus Prime joined us for the flight. He was such a great traveler I didn't mind having him along for the ride. * Scott took Mason on the Tower of Terror without giving him any warning of what it was. Mason did not like it one single bit and was apprehensive of every single ride we went on from that point on...even Dumbo. Mason calls it "The Terrible Tower" which accurately descibes how he feels about it.

* Brynn's face while riding on the teacups went from complete elation for the first half to gagging.*Brynn had as much fun climbing all over the railings in line as she did on the actual rides, and has plenty of scrapes, bruises, and a goose egg to prove it.*Brynn, the birdwatcher, chased birdies all over Disneyland and exclaimed, "Birdie Flo Away" over and over.

*Mason was just as excited to eat dinner at McDonalds as he was to be at Disneyland.

*We made sure to get front row seats to World of Color. The show was incredible, even though we were drenched by tidal waves throughout the show. (Next time we'll probably aim for a little further back in a dry section).

*Our solution to having one umbrella stroller and two tired kids.*Magic Morning (entering park 1 hour early) got us through all of Fantasy Land in one hour. We were able to walk straight onto almost every ride. *The Splash Pad in a Bug's Land was right up Brynn's ally. She would put her face right over the holes in the ground and wait for them to spray up. I got nailed a couple times, but obviously didn't mind because she kept going back for more.* Mason got to choose ANYTHING he wanted in the entire park for his souvenir and he insisted on getting a little, overpriced, key chain with a miniature Buzz Lightyear Astroblaster on it. We tried to talk him out of it since we already have the full sized astroblaster that was his souvenier last time we went to Disneyland, but his mind was set. What is with this kid and miniature things? (Look for it in his hand or hanging from beltloop in all other pictures)

*Brynn's face the first time she saw Mickey was like she couldn't believe it was really him. Several times when we walked past a character I would look down to find an empty stroller and realized she had jumped out and was running over to the character. She loved hugging all the Mickey Mouse characters. So Sweet. *Brynn made the height requirement for Autotopia with some crazy hair and generosity from the height checker. Both kids drove a car and both kids almost ejected them self by driving so crazy. It was definitely a favorite ride for both of them.

*Finding Nemo submarine was such a different ride and so cool. It was my favorite, by far.

*Mason got chosen to be Padawan for the Jedi Training Academy Show. He got trained on how to use a lightsaber and then got to fight Darth Vader himself. I was so proud of him for not being scared at all.*We went on the Toy Story Mania ride more than any other ride even though it was the longest wait, because it was a favorite for all of us. We really enjoyed several things we might not have done if not for other people's suggestions, so for anyone planning a Disney trip soon, here were each of my kids top ten favorite things.

Mason's Top Ten

1-Toy Story Mania and Buzz Lightyear Astroblaster (fast moving lines are great!)

2-Jedi Training Academy (they choose volunteers out of the crowd)

3-Autotopia
4-Finding Nemo Submarine

5-Brother Bear Play Area--Especially the Rock Climbing Wall.6-Disney Junior Live Show (Jake and the Neverland Pirates were his favorite)
7-Grizzly River Run
8-Peterpan
9-World of Color (Maybe not front row to avoid getting drenched)

10-Tea Cups

Mason's NOT favorite rides

1-The Terrible Tower" (didn't like thunder and lightning)

2-Space Mountain (didn't like the pitch black)

3-Maderhorn (didn't like the yedi)

Brynn's Top Ten

1-Brother Bear Play Area (no lines and just running around being crazy)2-Splash Pad in Bug's Land (take swimming suit and waterproof shoes)

3-Disney Junior Live Show (Includes Mickey Mouse, Handy Manny, Little Einsteins, and Jake and the Neverland Pirates.)

4-Autotopia

5-Nemo Submarines

6-Toy Story Mania and Buzz Lightyear Astroblaster

7-Toon Town

8-Dumbo9-Storybook Land

10-Running around and jumping off planter boxes at enterance of park. We concluded our vacation with a day at the beach enjoying the sun that has been a stranger to us in Utah. Both of the kids absolutely loved the sand and just ran around happy and content for 3 hours. Mason spent his time searching the sand for treasures and has quite the sea shell collection to show for it. Brynn continued to be enthralled with birds and fed all the seagulls chips and then chased them away. Both kids tried out the water but decided they liked the sand much better. I love having two kids and I love the ages of 2 and 4. Life doesn't get much better than this.

P.S. I am so sick of Blogger doing crazy spacing on all of my posts, deleteing pictures out of my post, and all the comments disappearing. Aaahhhhh!