we're home!

Ok, so I've been home for a few days, and dying to blog about the trip... but I've been (patiently - ha ha) waiting for my mom to send me photos that she took from the reunion, my race (yes, a 10K) and Rowan's photo shoots, but this is the teaser I got today! So, I couldn't wait any longer, sorry. I'll have to blog without the pictures... sad, but at least it's an update. This is the problem with a photographer in the family, she takes all the great pictures (so I naturally I don't take any) then takes a year to send them to me... she has to download them, back them up on 4 different hard drives, convert them, and burn them... yadi yadi yadi... anyway...

So, I found a running group in Ririe. A fantastic group of women from all ages who run full on marathons together and train all year together (yes, even in the snow). They are amazing and so so fast! I really puffed keeping up with them... They run together always because it's a scary place out there with dogs, (no fences or leashes so they bark at you and chase you!) cougars, (rare but out there) and traffic (the only place to run really is along the highways). So, it's a team effort out there and I had so much fun running with them all! We got up bright and early and would run at 6 am 3 times a week. I signed up to do a 10K with some of them on Saturday. It was quite the experience! It was in St. Anthony, ID and the grand total of 10K runners came to a whopping 18!!!!!!! Yes, 18 runners. They also had a 5K which had about 60 runners. So, you can imagine my concern when I scoped out my competition and had my mind flooded with the horror that I will probably come in dead last. I mean, in St. Anthony, ID the 10Kers are the serious runners. The fit of the fit. I knew I was going to come in last, I just knew it! So, just minutes before the race began, the announcer stood up on the curb and shouted, "We have 2 pickup trucks so will all the 10Kers pile in the back so that we can drive you to your start line?" Yes, I was carted to the start line (which was a spray painted line on the road saying "START") in the back of an old Chevy and started the race with an "On your mark, get set, GO" and the start of a stopwatch. Despite the lack of a shotgun start, guest speaker and live band, I took off with the determination of a fool as to NOT come in dead last... but there was a girl with a stroller and a toddler and I thought for sure I could beat her... but if she's anything like April Foster, who pushes a double BOB with ease, I was in big trouble. So, I kept up with my running friend, Jonette who wears a Garmin (it's the greatest invention known to any runner... I'm getting one off ebay - it's amazing) and she kept me updated on my pace... Mile one (mile markers were spray painted on the road) 7:40 min pace (my fastest mile ever), miles two and three 8:00 min pace (crazy fast for me!) but my lack of sleep from the night before caught up to me by mile 3 and I pooped! But at least I was able to get a strong lead from the guys behind me! I ended up running it in 53:48 and coming in 13th out of 18. All I cared about was that I ran that thing in under an hour and didn't come in last! And, yes I beat the stroller girl! Whew.... but the very best part of the race was crossing the finish line. Cinderblocks lined up with flags taped to them in the church parking lot... :)

My family reunion was amazing. It was so fun to see my Grandma Mary and Uncle Ron & Aunt Mel. It was great to see my cousins Cassandra (Ron & Mel's daughter) and Tracy (Uncle Steve's daughter). We had so much fun! The best part of the whole weekend was on Sunday morning when my Mom, Grandma, Tracy, Rowan, and I sat out the whole morning swinging and sitting on the grass in our jammies talking about our Grandpa Sherm. He died almost 10 years ago from complications he had from Parkinson's Disease. We all had so many good stories about him that we remembered. It was a morning I'll never forget. We laughed and cried and were very late to church! Ok, so my Grandma just turned 80 years old and we had the funniest experience with her cake. My mom's usual cake lady decided that she doesn't do cakes anymore. (She did the cake for my wedding and it was divine...) So, we went on the hunt for a cake lady to do one for my Grandma's big party. We found this girl through a good referral and my mom decided to use her. My mom told her something very simple, white cake, white frosting with a few flowers but writing that said, "Happy 80th Birthday Mom & Grandma". No problem. Well, when my mom and her discussed price she said "$30, oh sorry I mean $50! I meant to say $50, oh... I'll give it to you for $30 since I said that." My mom said, "no, I'll give you $50, it's ok." (yes, these are Idaho prices... it's crazy, I'm telling you! The previous cake lady I believe, charged my parents less than $300 for my wedding cake, a 4 tiered wedding cake that could serve 300 people and was ornately decorated and very elegant). So, we go to pick up this cake on the day of the party... It was a "caught in the headlight" sort of moment...ooooh, it's very pretty (cringe). This poor little cake lady. She must have spent hours upon hours decorating this silly cake. It had 2 tiny round mirrors on it (which were reflection ponds, I think) surrounded by lots of green squiggleys (probably tall pond grass), and a tree that stood straight up (but fell over in the car on the drive home) lots of colorful butterflies perched upon flowers, little "bunnies" swimming in the reflection ponds (probably ducks, but looked like bunnies) and the writing that said, "Happy Birthday" was scrawled with the beauty of a first grader. It was hilarious, we couldn't stop laughing! And the best part was when my mom went to pay her she said, "$50 right?" and the cake lady in all her pride and glory said, "Sure, I'll give it to you for $50, I'll give you a deal on it but you have to take a picture of it for my portfolio, it's the best one I've ever done!" Well... compared to Enya Meyers (Nathalie & Rich's little girl - a family from our ward who we miss so much and just moved to Sweden) cake... um, there's no comparison! Enya's cake was made in LA by one of the most renowned cake decorators.. it was something out of Alice & Wonderland, it was so amazing... but I will say for this crazy pond cake, it was the best TASTING cake I've honestly ever had! I couldn't leave it alone it was so good, everyone thought so too. She can definitely MAKE a good cake, but I think she needs to keep practicing her decoration skills! And, I promise a good picture of it when all the converting/downloading/burning has been done... next year, ha ha.