Cloudy Day

The clouds today are a sight.  Some of them are heavy and full with the load that they carry.  A little soggy and a little grey.  Slow and low.  Some of them have already given what they had and are now just skiffs tossed across the sky a little here and a little there.  A little blown and blustery. The blue sky is trying to stand it's ground, but its a loosing battle. The big grey clouds are definitely the boss today,  they've even got my mood to match them.

Great Expectations

On Saturday I am running the St George Marathon for the 3rd time.  The first time I over trained and got injured.  The second time I under trained out of fear of being injured.  This time I got injured a month into training.  So I ran as much as my IT band would allow, with zero cross training due to my dumb broken wrist, and I think got in enough long runs to finish the marathon.  I'm slower, heavier, and weaker than I've been since I started running a few years ago, so I'm going into this race with a totally different approach.  I will not be trying to finish by a certain time.  I won't be striving to go as fast and as hard as my body will let me.  That will have to wait for next year.  This time the plan is to just enjoy a nice comfortable run, in a gorgeous place with an incredible atmosphere, so don't bother asking what my time was.

 Regardless of how the run goes, I am super excited to see my two favorite college roomies Kari and Jenny.  Kari is coming for support, and Jenny is running the marathon as well.  She is hoping to qualify for the Boston Marathon with her time for St George.  Needless to say, we won't be running together on Saturday, but we do plan to reconnect and likely reminisce on our days together at Ricks college and then at BYU.  

Like the time when Kari and I ran into Steve Young at the Hogi Yogi in Provo.

 Or the time when Ben and Jon, our friends on the football team who, secure enough in their manhood, let us dress them up in Jenny's finest.  The guys were even good sports when Jenny and Kari copied the pics into a poster and had them hung in the football locker room!

These are the girls who saved my 19th birthday from being a complete disaster by taking me out to a fun dinner when I finally made it back into Rexburg.   After crashing my car, being interrogated my the worlds meanest police officer, and then spending the remainder of the day at a body shop waiting for my car to be fixed, these sweet friends put the smile back on my face.

So fast run or slow run, sleep or no sleep, I have great expectations for my weekend in St George!

Presidential

Last Saturday the Van Wagenen's invited us to join them at a breakfast hosting presidential candidate Mitt Romney.  The large and beautifully landscaped yard where the event was held was filled with 300 people. Copies of Romney's new book No Apologies were placed on the table for each attendee.  The weather couldn't have been better for the morning gathering  and the company we were in was awesome.

I loved hearing Mitt speak, and loved even more hearing him answer the questions from the audience.  He is a business man not a career politician. 

 As he addressed comments and questions from health care to immigration,  Pakistan to education, our current president to our economy, and all of his answers made sense to me. I love that he supports competition as a way of stimulating our economy as well as improving our schools. It's time for our country to get back to the basics.

We have become the great country that we are through innovation and hard work, not through hand outs and bailouts.  Let's restore faith in our government and hope for the future.  Let's help elect Mitt Romney as our next President!!

* I wish I had taken better and more pics at this event, but I felt a little silly having the camera out that day

Up Down And All Around Yosemite

What? You think you've seen this picture before?  Same friends, same spot? Well maybe you have but, but I assure you this trip was different from those we have done in the past.

This time we let Corey have an extra 30 minutes of beauty rest.  Starbucks was already open when we got there.  Not a single one of us ordered the oatmeal, and none of us were sure where we'd be hiking to!

 But Kirsten had her fanny pack and Shelley had her "sticks", and we were ready to take on the trails of Yosemite once again. 

 The weather channel said our forecast for the day was clear sunny skies with a high of 86* in the valley.   A ranger who had set up shop along the trail reminded us that there was a $150 fee for hiking half dome with out a permit and warned us that there was a 40% chance of thunderstorms.  We looked up at the clear skies and continued along the path.  

Vernal Falls and the mist trail were gorgeous as always, and the stairs seemed never ending, even at the beginning of the day.

Of course we encountered a crazy foreigner who agreed to take our picture, and of course he had a hard time focusing the camera on us.  Four shots later, with all of us cracking up at Reed's commentary and our photogs cluelessness,  we decided this was as good as it was gonna get! 

 Of course we encountered another LDS group of hikers who Reed had ties to and chatted them up on the trail for a bit.

 But then, we broke from our routine and headed over to Nevada Falls.  

We took in the scenery and ate Shelley's yummy cookies before anyone had a chance to sit on them.  We kinda wanted to think we could get away with eating cookies all day since we would be doing so much hiking, but we were reminded that line of thinking is was what makes a lot of runners get fat, maybe even back fat, or maybe just be considered big boned.  La la la, whatever, we ate them anyway!

 We scampered around the woods trying to be sure we had actually made it onto the Panorama trail.  None of us had ever taken it before and some of us couldn't resist the short cuts, doing unspeakable things to mother nature. 

 We loved the people watching along the trail.  There were those who looked like they just stepped out of an REI ad, the creeper chick who couldn't figure out how to rub in her sunscreen, those who thought it would be a fabulous time to put the girls on display, those who couldn't possibly hike without a large knife strapped to their leg, or the friendly man-pri wearing folks who just smiled or nodded and said,"halloh".

 While some parts of the trail were flat like this, there were lots of ups and downs as we made our way up and out of the valley, around the outer rim and back down again.  

We loved seeing the valley from a different perspective than we ever had before.  

 We lunched and cat napped near Illilouette Falls in the warm sunshine.

 The clouds looked so cool as they rolled in and gave us a little break from the direct sunlight we'd been hiking in most of the day. And while we had all climbed half dome multiple times, we had never seen it from this angle.  It looked even more impressive than ever to me.

 But the thing that I really couldn't get over was looking back down at Vernal and Nevada Falls and seeing how high we had climbed and how far we had come, and we weren't even done yet!

 As the hours passed the clouds continued to roll in.

 By the time we had made it around to Glacier Point we had hiked about 9 miles, seen amazing sights, laughed at some ridiculous folks, eaten plenty of cookies, come around to a more familiar view of Half Dome, and reached the conclusion that the weather channel was either clueless or liars!  

Clear skies gave way to giant drops of rain and then a full blown hail storm!

Most folks came running back in to the gift shop, but we were like a bunch of boy scouts, totally prepared with our ponchos! We took a few pictures and read the plaques before starting down the completely empty trail back down into the valley.

 I was so excited by the storm I couldn't resist doing my little irish jig.  Shelley tried snapping it but instead just got a picture of Corey and Kirsten most likely laughing at me in my giddy state.

 It may be named the Four Mile Trail, but really it was 4.6 and by the time we got back to where the shuttle could take us to where the truck was parked we had added at least another mile.  I think we decided it was close to 15 miles that we had hiked, and who knows how much in elevation gains and losses.  All I know is that by the end of the day Shelley's dogs were barking, and there was talk of knees, backs and bunions.  And while some of us may have thought the kangaroos had ruined it for Kirsten, she even let Corey give her a piggy back ride for a little while!

 In spite of our exhausted state, or perhaps because of it, we were a raucous bunch at our favorite Mexican restaurant in Oakhurst that night.  Chips and salsa never taste quite as good and elbows are never funnier than they are after a long hike up, down and all around Yosemite!  I love my friends and our awesome hiking days!!

Doin' the Mom Thing

Nan called last week to see if I wanted to join her on a trip to Santa Barbara to help Carter get set up at college.  So maybe he'd already been there a week and all of his stuff was in his room, but she was just feeling like we should go and put a "mom spin" on things.  She didn't have to ask twice!

Nan's trainer and almost family member Matt knows how off the wagon we are when we're together.   We thought we'd off set the countless bags of sugared treats and empty chocolate wrappers sitting in our front seat with a little action on the stairs at SBCC.  The view was incredible and the workout enough to make Matt proud.

 I had to check my google maps three times before I would believe Nan that there were really no Target stores in Santa Barbara.  Not even a Wal Mart.  K Mart was our only option for getting the storage drawers, shelves, bathroom necessities etc that we were certain Carter couldn't live without.  3 stores 20 cardboard boxes, a million plastic wrappers, and several hours later we had our guy all set up!

Project organization was almost complete, but we needed just one quick trip back to K Mart.  While we did get the last few essentials our favorite find was this fancy ride!  I've never seen anything like it.  It was pieces of so many different kinds of vehicles.  Gas tank was in the back of a bottomless truck bed, the seats were from a tractor, the floor was plywood and the front was an even better mish mash of stuff!   

While we were checking it out the guy came out with his pack of smokes and tatted sleeves and told Nan she ought to get inside for a picture!  Who were we to argue?

The creepy guy at 7-11 who told Nan she had a sexy professor look going on may have been a front runner for being Nan's next boyfriend, but the ingenuity in making this car may have given this guy just a small nudge of an edge ;)

The next step was laundry.  Starting off with a gigantic bag of dirty clothes wasn't the best idea for the boy who would rather buy a new shirt than wash one.  Nan and her sack of laundry was almost as good as Santa with his sack of toys!

Don't worry, it wasn't all work and no play.  We had lunch at some great outdoor cafes, shopped for  hours, met up with Carter's roommate Taylor from last semester, and spent time with the always beautiful Julia Carvahal.

We hung out in the courtyard at the apartment complex and got to hear all about the interview  Carter had done earlier in the day promoting his new clothing brand Klutch.

 And best of all we just got spend some time with our guy.  I just love both of them more than I can say, and was incredibly grateful for the invite.  Doin' the mom thing is never a bad thing!

Puppy Love

 It's true, I totally love this puppy.  I even talk to her in a funny little voice.  I want to bring her when I go places, and worry about how she's doing when I don't.

I stumble out to check on her as soon as I wake up.  I wander out to the garage to play with her in the middle of the day. 

I give her little puppy kisses and I even let her inside of my house!  My family was watching me with her tonight, and decided it was time they let me in on a little secret.  

This crew had regular meetings, secret meetings, and were involved in a conspiracy.  They plotted and planned.  They executed strategies, and played on my weaknesses.  Until eventually they wore me down.  They convinced me they were finally responsible enough to have a dog.  The responsibility would not be all mine.

So far they are holding up their end of the bargain pretty well.  They are quite pleased with themselves for working all the right angles and wearing me down.  But their daily comments can't conceal their shock at how attached I've become to our little Shelby.  Seriously though, how could you not love this face?!!!

Plankin' It Up!

A week ago I came across  a FB status that had me laughing and got me a little curious.  It read,"Sitting in Church paying no attention at all and trying to decide if I dare PLANK by the pulpit! Haha"  By Monday I had learned exactly what that meant, and I was in!!

this is Kelly a friend of Jeff's from highschool that I met at his 20 year reunion...

she is the one who started this whole mess for me!

The definition Wikipedia gives is a pretty good one, so click here if you want to read it, but if not heres my summary of it.  Planking is a game or competition to find the most incongruent, public place to lay face down with your hands at your sides. A photograph  must be taken and posted on the internet.  The more people that are involved  or the more ingenious the location the better.  I think the planks should be creatively named too. The craze has swept thru Britain and Australia and is making its way thru the U.S.

(A favorite of mine from kelly's blog post)

Sound a little dumb?  Well it kinda is, but thats exactly what makes it so darn funny!!  Yeah its pretty hilarious to see a grown man planking in his golf shoes on the balcony of his hotel like Kelly's dad.

Guaranteed that would have you busting up if you saw it, but I promise you that grown man was laughing even harder when he did it.  And therein lies the magic!!

what to do with strangers dressed as Harry Potter?

You plank with them of course!

Sometimes all it takes to have a really good time is to totally get over yourself and just be silly!  When I saw the post I knew exactly who would have a blast with this...Lauren VW.  

She said she'd take my friend Kristie and I after her trip to New York, but when the pics from Lauren started coming in from church history sites

Kirtland Temple Plank

(that's fresh yo!) 

Johnson Farm Plank

(this one cracks me up as they awkwardly chose half grass half sidewalk!)

Hill Cumorah Plank

and all over the east coast, 

Eerie Canal Plank

Niagra Falls Plank

Washington Monument Family Plank

Kristie and I were compelled to try to out-do the darling 15 year old and her family! The Bohn and Hankes planks were about to begin...so we named them the BoHank Planks and let the laughter begin!

BoHank Plank

Chang Hank Plank

Bo River Plank

Creepy Carousel Plank

(yes i realize i am no longer planking here, we were laughing too hard at being rejected by a teenage boy to join the picture and then realized I was stuck with only my useless broken wrist hand to try to get up with...my face awkwardly perched atop a filthy horses seat)  

In the process we dragged in our kids, a few of their friends, and a few of our own.  With two days that week spent on the boat we tried just about every possible way to plank at the lake

Gang Plank

Bo Jr. Bridge Plank

both directions across the seats...

Floating Plank

Belly Flop Plank

Moving Tube Plank

What resulted was a hysterical week of laying down awkwardly in some very public places.  

In Then Out Fast Plank

Skate plank 

Lets Go Shopping Plank

 Please Park Here Plank

We got  plenty of strange looks, several phone calls from friends wondering just what we were up to, we got honks and cheers, 

 Post Plank

  Happy Isles Helmet Plank

 Big Red Truck Plank

 Vernal Falls Plank

 Curry Camp Plank

 a few scrapes and bruises, dirty clothes, stuck, and the best abs workout from the continuous laughter.

Pizza Place Plank

(made even better because a stranger who had no idea what we were doing took the pic for us!!)

The Lazy Man's Plank

This was my most creative plank of the week by far...the Plain Plane Plane

And this was Kristies best of the week

By the end of the week the kids wanted to plank EVERYWHERE and we realized that it was possible to plank just about anywhere!

What Goes Up Must Come Down Plank

Think we're crazy? Just give it a try I dare ya!!  Send  me your best and we can vote on our favorites!!