Girls' Weekend -- Ragnar Style

Back in October my friend Marie told me her Las Vegas Ragnar team was looking for a last minute replacement and asked if I was interested. Without hesitation I agreed! The idea of a girls' weekend in Las Vegas sounded like exactly what I needed. Marie assured me the other girls in the van were awesome, and she wasn't kidding. They were the best!! 

We were van #2 of The Untouchables. We didn't really have any connection with van #1 other than our matching shirts. Each van functioned as it's own team and we just handed off to each other and it worked out beautifully.

Van 2 starting off on our adventure.

At our first exchange waiting for van #1

 Marie: Fastest.Runner.Ever. This girl runs marathons to WIN them. She's a mother of three and a seminary teacher for individuals with special needs. We all saw a new side of Marie when caffeine entered her system.

 Katie: Life of the party. She kept us laughing all day and kept us up all night with her snoring :) She's a mother of three and apparently the best wife in the world.

 Amy: A real adult. She is the PTA president and in the stake Relief Society presidency not to mention a mother of four. She makes the most incredible sandwich I've ever eaten. My favorite part about Amy is she laughs exactly like her sister who was one of my high school buddies.

 Kim: Fellow OHS class of '03. She is a parole officer and mother of one. My back row buddy in the car.

 Karli: Van Captain. The mother of our van, preschool teacher, and actual mother of five. One very determined person!

And last but not least me.

One might think that Las Vegas in November would have ideal running conditions. Not so much. The three days we were there Las Vegas was experiencing unseasonally windy and COLD weather. We made it to our first exchange and absolutely froze to death while waiting for the runner from van #1 to arrive.

  I have to mention that there was a lot of excitement about the port-a-potties. They were called Port-a-Janes and their slogan was Port-a-Jane cause John can't aim. They had men and women port-a-potties. The men's were just your run of the mill port-a-potty, but the women's flushed so you didn't have to see all the waste below and they had sinks in place of the urinals. I loved listening to literally every person who walked out of the port-a-potties exclaiming what an enjoyable experience it was.

The wind was fierce for our first leg. My 3.5 mile run was almost entirely into a headwind which made it feel like I was running in place. We were all frozen solid after running and couldn't bare the idea of camping out like we had planned and since there are a few hotels in Las Vegas we decided to grab a room to thaw out between legs.

The plan was to get some sleep, but three gabby giggling girls in a double bed didn't cater to a lot of sleep happening. We did get warmed up and rested for our second leg that fell in the middle of the night.

 The wind settled down and our night legs ended up being significantly warmer than our first leg. I was the sixth runner so by the time I started my 9 mile leg it was 4:30am and no one had gotten any sleep. I could tell the other girls were exhausted and I felt bad my leg was going to take so long. I pushed myself and ran as fast as I could. I did have to stop and knock on the window to wake them up each time I ran past the van, but I didn't care, I just felt bad they were all so tired. I pushed myself hard enough to finish the leg in 1:14 which was faster than I had anticipated. Neither van was expecting me to finish as soon as I did and it was so cold they were all staying in the vans as long as possible before coming out to the exchange. When I finished no on from my team was there so I got to wait for a few minutes until the runner from Van 1 arrived and I handed off to him. Then I found my van and knocked on the window to wake them up and let me in. They felt TERRIBLE and I pretty much could have gotten away with murder from that point on because they all felt like the worst teammates for leaving me out in the cold, but I truly didn't care. 

We got a couple hours sleep back at the hotel and woke up to find the sun shining and much warmer temperatures....at least for a little while.

 

We started our last leg and all the girls were raving about how warm it was.  I knew it was too good to last and sure enough the cloud cover rolled in and the winds picked back up before it was my turn to run.

Those familiar with Ragnar rules know that during the "night time hours" which is from 4:30pm-6:30am you have to wear a reflective vest, flashing light, and headlamp to run. It's kind of annoying. I was the lucky winner that had every single one of my legs fall during these hours and got to sport this gear every time I ran. It's a good thing I look so good in it, right?

Anyway, I started the very final leg of the race which was supposed to be 5.5 miles. At 2.5 miles I was confused to see a one mile to go sign.  They had changed the course, but failed to let the teams know, so my entire team was still parking when I crossed the finish all by myself.  I wasn't the only one, though. The majority of teams didn't make it in time to finish with their runner. It was kind of an anti-climatic way to finish.  My teammates were all furious when then came and saw me standing at the finish. This race definitely hurt in the organization department. But we were finished and FREEZING cold so we took a picture and headed back to our van. We were so anxious to get out of the cold we didn't even claim our free beers at the end ;) 

Running Ragnar in Las Vegas was a whole different experience than Wasatch Back.  Running through the city streets was interesting and challenging in it's own way.  It was frustrating when you had 5 traffic lights throughout your run, some lasting as long as 3-5 minutes. The "hills" were a joke compared to the mountain faces we ran in Wasatch Back, but you won't hear me complaining about that. There were only 550 teams instead of 1200 which gave it a different feel.  There is no local involvement from high schools and churches.  It was very different, but still really great.
This weekend was so therapeutic for me! Thanks to Scott and my mom for making it possible for me to go.

Autumn Time

 Autumn in Utah was unbelievable this year.  Dreamy temperatures, clear skies, and the most beautiful colors I can ever remember seeing.  Everyone keeps complaining about this global warming business, but all I know is 2012 has been the perfect year for Utah Seasons. I'm not sure if this is a wonderful farewell gift from Utah on one of our last years here, or if it's just salt in our wounds of what we will be missing. Either way, I'll take it.

Back in early October we drove the Alpine Loop. The colors were so vibrant they were practically neon. We got out and took a stroll around Cascade Spring so the kids could collect some leaves and explore nature. This was one of the many fun fall activities we enjoyed this year.

Happy Halloween

 Halloween was a week long affair for us that consisted of Grandma Nancy's party, MBASA party, ward fall festival, Riverside trunk or treat, dressing up for preschool and kindergarten, Mason's kindergarten costume parade and Halloween program, and the grand finale of Trick or Treating around our neighborhood with friends.

 Mason has been enthralled with football this year and was dead set on being a football player. We decided to use his costume as motivation for him to work on some problems we have been experiencing with his behavior. We set up a month long program for him to earn the costume. We were pretty strict and were ready to withhold the costume if he hadn't earned it.  It was a very close call, but Mason was able to complete his chart the morning of our first party. All the hard work paid off and he really loved his costume.

 Brynn blew us all away by deciding she wanted to be Rapunzel. This dress is one of her everyday dress ups and that is all she wanted. She refused to even wear any accessories with it. She was happy just the way she was.

 

Miles was our little hoopster. This kid loves balls, especially this little basketball. We decided it would be the perfect costume since it was hard enough to get him to keep his headband on. I can't even imagine trying to get him to wear a real costume.

 We kind of did a family theme for the MBASA party. When Brynn heard we were going to a BYU party she decided she wanted to dress up as BYU. Now don't mistake this as a BYU cheerleader as many people did that night and Brynn had to firmly correct them saying, "No I am just dressed up as BYU!"

 

We had fun trunk or treating with Grandpa Val at Riverside.

Pooky and Papa have the most beautiful garden and this year their single pumpkin vine produced something like 16 pumpkins. They let all the great grandkids come and pick a pumpkin. It was really special for me. Brynn really liked this green one because it was different than all the others.

 Mason carved a BYU pumpkin.

 Brynn's pumpkin finished ripening and made a beautiful princess.

Miles was taking a nap during pumpkin carving time and got to share Mason's pumpkin.

 Now is a good time for me to introduce our wonderful MBA friends Carl and Brooke Christensen in the middle with their kids Lila and Carson, and Brian and Abby Smith on the right with Savy and Boston. I stole all these pictures from Abby's blog Twist Me Pretty. Check it out, she is having a massive giveaway that ends today and you will see what a cool girl she is. Scott met Carl and Brian on his first day of orientation and came home and told me he could tell they were going to be his best friends in the program. We invited them and their families over for dessert the next night, and within minutes it was as if we had all known each other for years. We are so grateful for these amazing friends in our lives! 

(P.S. Mason is not in this picture because he took off trick or treating with his buddies)

Did I mention that Brynn and Boston are in love? They are both obsessed with each other. Hearing them call each other Bosty and Brynnie is enough to melt anyone's heart.

The kids had so much fun trick or treating.  Mason and his friends Cache and Mac took off sprinting from house to house. Thanks to my friend Mindi who volunteered to keep up with them while the rest of us took a slower pace with the younger kids. Brynn loved running up to the door with all her little friends and saying trick or treat. 

 Little Miss Savy and Miles.

 The MBA boys.

 And one more of Mr. Miles because he's so stinkin' cute.

Happy Halloween.

Twirly Hair

Sometimes when it's just us girls (when Mason is at school and Miles is napping) Brynnie and I like to do girly things together like paint our nails and curl our hair.  Brynn absolutely loves her "twirly hair" and so do I.

Soccer Season

Another soccer season has come and gone, and boy was it a whirlwind! Having two kiddos involved in soccer this year proved to be busy busy, but they both had so much fun and it was always so rewarding to watch the smiles on their faces and their confidence grow. With them playing in different leagues in different cities it would have been impossible for me to get them to all their practices and games without the help of my mom. Once again, thanks Mom for making all of this possible.  

Mason played Orem Youth Soccer again this year. It's amazing the difference a year and going from being the youngest on the team to one of the oldest can make. Mason was confident, aggressive, and involved in all of the games. He scored one or two goals every game, but continued to be a great team player celebrating his teammates triumphs along with his own. His uniform was white and blue this year so when the coach asked for suggestions for a team name Mason enthusiastically threw out "whipped cream with blueberries on top". The kids all loved it! We tried to talk them into the great white sharks or other equally cool names, but the boys wouldn't have any of them.  Finally the boys decided the White Dragons would be cool (sound familiar...Mason's team name was the Red Dragons last year).  We thought it was funny that we played the Green Dragons, Red Dragons, Orange Dragons, and Yellow Dragons throughout the season. Must be a popular name with the 4/5 year old crowd.

 Brynnie Bug is our little soccer player and has been DYING to play on a team. She was going to have to wait one more year to play Orem Youth Soccer where the age limit is 4, so we were super excited to find out about a little soccer league put on by MBASA (BYU MBA spouses association) for 3/4 year olds. I will have to do a post sometime about this amazing group and how wonderful it is to be a part of. The kids were all divided into teams and each week they had a 30 minute practice with little drills followed by a 30 minute game against another team. It was super low key but perfect for their age. Since this was all free, instead of having uniforms they tied strips of fabric around their arms to distinguish the teams. Brynn's team was the Tigers, but Brynn wanted to be just like Mason and so she happily donned her hand me down uniform and shin gaurds. She was so adorable all dressed up in her soccer gear I could hardly stand it. On the first day she was little overwhelmed by the swarms of kids...because there were A LOT of kids and it was kind of chaotic. She wanted me to stay by her during the warm up and beginning of practice. All the sudden she turned to me and said, "I'm okay now, I don't need you anymore" and shooed me away to the sidelines to watch.  She is growing up so fast. She coached us before each practice and game how we should cheer for her by standing up and jumping with our arms overhead while chanting "Go Brynnie Go", so that's exactly what we did and you should have seen her beaming face. She scored one goal during the season but her true shining moment was in her first game when she got control of the ball but rather than kicking it toward a goal she found the path of least resistance and took off dribbling the ball perpendicularly across all the other fields. We were all yelling for her to stop and when her coach finally caught up to her three fields over she turned around with a beaming smile and gave us a giant thumbs up. It was the cutest thing EVER! That is why I love this girl!

 Miles was such a trooper being drug to and from practices and games almost every night. The life of a third child, I guess. He was usually a happy camper as long as he had a soccer ball of his own to play with.  If not then the entire game was a battle keeping him off the field as he tried to get the game ball.

What a fun season! I can't wait for more soccer fun in the spring.