Back from Wasatch Back

My blog is too rushed lately. I want to savor the creation of the sentences, giving you a refreshing literary bite during your information-filled day. But, alas, (love that word!) I am again in a hurry. It is 9:37pm and I am resolved to be asleep way before midnight tonight. So I will try to give you some snippets of writing worth reading. Know that my heart is in it, but my schedule doth not allow time to linger over language. Sigh.

I started my trip to Utah by flying in on a Thursday afternoon. My old pal Emily (we met in Michigan) picked me up from the airport and we went to a park to meet up with Jan and Bethany (also pals from MI). It was fun to see everyone's kids, but the time went by much too quickly. Then Em and I headed up to a dinner in Salt Lake City to meet some more women we would be racing with.
The Wasatch Back is a relay race put on by Ragnar. It's about 188 miles from Logan to Park City on back roads. You have 12 people on your team, and someone is always running. Emily convinced me to do it, and I'm glad she did! Both Emily and Bethany were on my team. It was so fun seeing them again and spending 30+ hours together.

Here's our team, the Energizer Runnies. Part of the fun is getting some crazy costumes together and having a theme. Although I didn't do any part of this, it was kinda fun. Except when creepy men said "Hello, Bunny." Ew. Thanks to the girls who DID go to the trouble to make our team look cohesive. I think it made a big difference. And we were dang cute.

Here's the Suburban where we spent most of our time. I was very familiar with the back seat. Slept a pretty good two hours there.

Here is an exchange point, where runners trade off. This is Bethany trading off to Tiffany. It was fun to cheer your runners on at exchange points, and then hurry on ahead to be ready for the next one. The time passed very quickly when our van was "active." Only one of the two vans is active at a time.At night we were running on unlit roads. Thus, we had to wear a headlamp, a reflective vest, and a flashing LED light. Here's Emily sporting her gear. My second leg (7.0 miles) began at about 3:30am. I LOVED it. It was a fast 5 miles downhill, followed by 2 flat miles. My goal was to do it under an hour and I did. It was so fun to be out in the middle of nowhere with miles of stars above me. I thought I was going to be scared, but I wasn't at all. It was a beautiful night. Ahh, I'd do that again for sure.
This is me after my last leg, a 6.1 mile one on Saturday afternoon. I was pretty tired after just 2 hours of sleep in over 24 hours and not enough food (my fault -- my stomach was upset). I slogged through and came in just under an hour. It started to rain; little did we know how that rain would change the whole experience!

The view from the Suburban. Marianne, Emily, Mandy, and Tiffany. What fun we had!

Here's Bethany rocking "Ragnar", which is a four mile leg that rises in elevation 1600 feet. She ran THE ENTIRE WAY. And I think she was smiling the whole time. It was incredible. There were aspen forests along the way and it was quite beautiful. We were cheering all the runners on out the window. Bethany passed 11 of them on her way up, including some men. She was amazing. The finish. Notice there is no big party going on. The rain spoiled all of that! Emily had to run through a torrential downpour and lightning to make it to the finish. We couldn't pull her off the course because she was on trails and we couldn't get to her. Our team was huddled in the 45 degree weather, freezing cold in our shorts, and we rushed through the finish as fast as possible. It was kind of a depressing end to such a long race. I wanted to eat and celebrate and listen to music. What a bummer. But we did get some nice bling, and I sure hope someone emails me pics of us sopping wet at the finish line soon!

So, are you wondering how we did? I think we were definitely in it more for fun than competition, so I was pleasantly surprised to find out we placed 19th out of 67 women's teams. Not too shabby! I'd definitely like to do a race like this again. It was a very unique experience. And sleeping afterwards was absolutely delightful!

Amy

PS -- Better give a shout out to Kyle, who stayed home with the kids and did a stellar job. The best part? When I got home he said "You need to get away more often. Taking care of the kids is hard. It's constant. They always want something." I couldn't agree more.

Twenty minute Simple Skirt Tutorial AND GIVEAWAY!!!!

Twenty minute Simple Skirt Tutorial AND GIVEAWAY!!!!
I'm going to make one of these if I don't win it! I love the double-layered one. I think I'll make one for the girls too. Who doesn't love a summer skirt?

Happy Schmanniversary, Babe!

Playing catch up here! Kyle and I recently celebrated 11 years of wedded bliss. Well, probably only 9.6 years of bliss, but 11 years of weddedness. I surprised him by turning our family trip to Mt. Hood into a getaway for just the two of us. Our good friends Rex and Britney agreed to watch the kids. They did a fabulous job! We went to a condo up by Mt. Hood (about 2.5 hours away) and enjoyed a day and a half to ourselves. We went hiking, Kyle golfed, we ate out, watched a movie, and enjoyed being together. We haven't spent that much time alone in about 4 years! Here are some pictures from the trip.

Beware the mountain-dwelling slug. These were abundant on the trail and very gross.

We were supposed to be able to see Mt. Hood from here, but the clouds were too thick.

I also made him an encyclopedia of Kyle and Amy and gave him a letter entry every day leading up to our trip. It was really fun to put in so many details from our years together. We're so happy and I'm so thankful to have such a good husband.

Amy

I'm not as lazy as I seem

I have been up to something these last few weeks. Here's the proof!

The cute little sandbox I made for Kara. Hey, I had to go to Wal-Mart twice to get the right amount of sand. And I had to dig out the old, smelly dirt. She's eaten sand twice. Yum.

The front flower bed I re-did and planted about 70 plants in. I'm pulling out the rhododendrons next year and putting in more hydrangeas and flowering shrubs. Lots of perennials in here. It's all starting to bloom and look good!

Our garden. It's grown so much in the last week since I took this photo. Incredible.

This bed holds pole beans, peppers, tomatoes, and zucchini.

This bed holds herbs and strawberries. We just made a net frame to save the strawberries from the birds. Take that, birds!

I painted this canvas for Kara's room. The colors of her room are green and orange. The stripes didn't turn out perfectly, so I'm not sure I'll keep it up. But it works for now.

I had Jillian's wonderful teacher Ms. H over for breakfast. She is retiring this year. She has been amazing for Jillian and such a blessing.

Here's our breakfast! We had crepes with fresh berries, hashbrowns, and juice.

I had the kids make some art work for their bathroom upstairs. I love how they turned out.

Here's a close up of Kara's. She loved painting -- her first time -- and didn't want to stop.

I went to Jillian's school play -- Beauty and the Beast. Not bad, not bad.

I laughed over and over again at Kara's "big lips."

Hope you're having fun with all your projects too!

Amy

What I'm Watching

Quick plug for my favorite TV show of the summer, SYTYCD. And if you don't know which show I'm referring to, get caught up here, and start watching! This show is sooooo much better than any other dancing show on TV, so I hope you give it a try. Are you with me? Do you love it? Hate it? I want to hear about it!

Amy

PS -- I like to pretend I can still dance well, but the truth is I can't. But I can critique dancing with the best of them, and I love to "call" what the judges will say. Sometimes I'm spot on.

Newport Weekend

I ran a marathon. Again. Not as cool as the first time, but I did improve my time by a measly two minutes. I think the wait at the start (why wouldn't those old guys at least attempt to move??) and the headwind had a bit to do with my mediocre improvement, but I'm trying not to make excuses. I've decided that running a marathon is hard work, and that the accomplishment is just finishing the race and living to run again. That being said, I will probably continue to run marathons, but not every year. I want to see some substantial improvement in my time the next time I run. Or I want to run with a bunch of friends and have a ton of fun. Rock and Roll Marathon in Seattle in 2011, anyone??

A few more details: The course was quite a bit like the one I did last year, but this one had more hills. I ran with my friend Sharen, who is a 49 year-old powerhouse. It was her first marathon and she did great, despite feeling a lot of pain in her legs during the last few miles. She couldn't catch a break at the water stations, though, and had to keep stopping and waiting for someone to get a cup to her. Totally annoying! Maybe it's because she's so petite and was wearing all black. The view over the bay was beautiful. I loved smelling the ocean air, too, but running by the seafood processing places made me a bit queasy. I didn't stop to eat any oysters, that's for sure! (Yes, they were offered.) The end of the race was a big downhill. That was fun to power down. The whole 4 hours plus went by so quickly, I can't even believe it. I didn't make it through nearly enough of my new playlist. Luckily I'll get to listen to the rest of it during my next race in three weeks, The Wasatch Back Relay. I am doing this race with some old friends from Michigan, new friends from Portland, and other women runners from all over the country. We run from Logan to Park City the back way, which involves a lot of hills. I am runner 8, if you want to look up my legs. Should be fun!

The rest of the weekend in Newport was nice, too. We visited the Oregon Coast Aquarium and the Yaquina Head Oustanding Natural Area. And outstanding they both were! The tide pools at Yaquina were so cool (so I heard; I was napping with Kara in the car.) Kyle took Bean and Pea down to them. They also saw sea lions, baby seals, and an eagle. I climbed to the top of the lighthouse and limped back down again. We enjoyed fish and chips at Mo's, explored Nye Beach a little bit, and had a great time getting out of town. Kara slept really well and didn't wake up once in the middle of the night. I don't think I've ever had such great luck with a one year-old in a hotel room. All in all a very good weekend!

Now we're counting down until school's out. They are done on the 17th. Can't come soon enough!
We did get a new camera, so enjoy the photos. I'll get out and take some of the garden very soon. It is growing quite impressively.

Amy



Kyle took this picture of a cuttlefish. He liked playing with the new camera while I chased kids.

Jillian as an old-time undersea diver in a bit of trouble. So funny!

The kids looking for fish beneath them.

Patiently waiting for the racers to finish. Our friends, the B family, were cheering on their dad.

This is about mile 3. Just getting ready to shed the shirt. Sharen is on my right in black.

Last .10! I think I look a bit too masculine here. But I loved my long shorts and comfy shirt.

At the beach later in the day.

Hayden wanted to bring his whole stick collection home.

Kara's ready to go swimming.

Exploring the boats at Newport's docks

J and H at the tidepools.

J going down the Yaquina Head lighthouse steps.