Sarah's Wedding Video

I know it has been months since Sarah's wedding but I thought I would share the teaser for her wedding video with you. I'm not sure why but it takes months to get the finished video so the videographer gives us the teaser to buy himself some time. To give you an idea of what the finished product will be like I've also included Alycia's video's. One from the temple and the other from the reception. Kira kind of got ripped off because she got married before the age of digital camera's and the technology necessary to to put something like this together for less than a small fortune.

I'm sure most of you have seen these already but I enjoy them so much I want to have them on my blog. I think their personalities really come out int he video. I love them both and I can't wait until we get Sarah's full length one.

Enjoy.









password: McClain

Ramping Down for St George

The next topic I would like to talk about is my training for the upcoming St George Marathon. As you may recall, Alan Bird has me hooked on the Ragnar Relay which I have thoroughly enjoyed. In this last race Alan scheduled me to run a seven mile leg which had me quite worried but in the end I managed to run it just fine. I think that seven mile run inspired me to go for the marathon. I've always wanted to run a marathon but I've just never gotten around to it. Now I was already running seven miles so I had a good head start. I convinced five of my kids to apply with me so we submitted our names and hoped for the best. I know these following pictures are not nearly as interesting to you as they are to me but I'm posting them anyway because they tell a fascinating story.  

Just one week after the Ragnar and after I had already put my name in for the St George I was out for a six mile run in the Canyon. I love running in the Canyon. I just got to the bridge (my favorite spot in the Canyon) when I fell and broke my toe. You can see my ten mile pace up to mile three and my twenty minute pace on the way home. It was very painful.

It was June 9 before I could run again. I was worried the entire time that I would fall behind in my training schedule for the marathon. I am not as young as I used to be and I knew it would be hard for me to play catch up but June 9 fell right on my schedule. That was the week I was supposed to start with a three mile Saturday run and that is what I did. My training had now officially begun. 

For the first several weeks the Saturday runs increased by one mile each week. I was careful not to plan any routes into the canyon. I didn't want to take any chances about getting hurt again. I had actually fallen several times in the canyon and I really wanted to run this race. What a bummer it would be if I did all this  training and then couldn't run. It would kill me. 

I'm up to five miles now and I'm having to get a bit creative to find new runs. I really hate just running out and then back the same way. I like to see new territory. It is one of the things I love about running. I get to see mother nature up close. The cool thing about this summer was that with Alex's homecoming and Sarahs wedding I got to run with at least some of my kids just about every week. 

Sarah was with me on this run. You can see that we stopped in at Desiree's house on the way home. 

I didn't get charts from all of my runs but you may notice that this run is in Utah. Alycia, Sam, Sarah and I dropped water bottles off at mile six, left one car at the end and then drove up to some park in Provo Canyon. What a beautiful run that was. Perhaps my favorite. You may also notice the time we started. 6:16AM. A necessity in Utah. We had to beat the heat. I might also point out that ten miles was by far my personal best. In fact every Saturday from now on would be a new record for me. I'd never run this far in one stint ever in my entire life. It is a bit scary but very satisfying.

I had always imagined how fun it would be run along the beach enjoying the cool ocean breeze. NOT!!! It is nine miles to the beach at which point I am already completely exhausted and then to run in the sand made me think I was running in mud. Even running on the hard wet sand about killed my legs. It was definitely fun to run into the water at the end but never again was I going to run in the sand. Uggh...

This is the way to run along the beach, on a side walk. What a beautiful run. I think I had Ben with me on this run. Can you believe I am now up to fourteen miles. It is like I'm in a dream, I can't believe that it is actually me doing this. It kind of feels like a miracle. In fact, technically speaking, this was my first half marathon. 

This was the day after Sarah's wedding and it was one of my more fun runs because Ben, Justin and Alycia ran with me. Of course Justin and Ben ran ahead and Alycia and I came in a while later but it was a very fun morning. Unfortunately we didn't get left quite as early as we'd planned and poor Alycia got fried. Probably one of her worst sunburns. It was rather hot and therefor one of my slower runs but still fun. The water sure felt good afterwards.

 For some reason the schedule I was following had me run 16 miles three weeks in a row. I loved the run so much that I decided to do it again. I ran a bit faster this week.

 Today was the ward picnic so I decided to join them at Torrey Pines beach. I drove ahead and stashed water along the way then headed out. I got there in time to see everyone and then called Lisa to come and pick me up. Notice we're up to eighteen miles now.

 This was the big one that I had been dreading all along. Ben was down and even though he didn't really want to run Mission Bay again he was convinced because they have bathrooms and water fountains all along the path. Notice our 5:30 start time. It was 90° by the time we finished the run. Pat actually met up with Ben for the last four miles and even after running sixteen miles Ben about ran him into the ground. I came in only a few minutes after Ben which really confused me until I learned he had stopped for a potty break along the way. Notice my rather impressive time for a twenty mile run. I'm no longer scared of this marathon. I'm thinking I can do this. I'm not fast but hey, I just ran twenty miles. I have now run six half marathons. One a week. Not bad eh?

OK, I know this isn't too impressive after my twenty miles but I just wanted to include it to show how much faster I am than I was before. Since today was only five miles (who could imagine that I would ever say ONLY five miles?) I decided to see how fast I could go. I am rather proud of myself (is it wrong to be proud of oneself?) that I can run five miles at a nine minute pace.

So we are now ramping down so there are no more big runs. This Saturday is only nine miles and next Saturday is only five. I'm getting excited. Wish me luck.

----------trivia-----------

One of the reasons dehydration is so bad in our society is because we often mask the pain with pain killers. The head aches and other effects of dehydration would normally drive us to drink more but now we just pop a Tylenol.

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They're Gone

Another crazy week and I just realized that there are some very important items that I have neglected to discuss. I will have to address those in another post however because this has been quite the eventful day and it will take me a while just to share it. 

Today Lisa and Alycia left for Canada. Kira and her boys are attending an SMA camp and any single mother with two little boys would need some help camping but with Evan she just needs a little bit more help. Justin has to work so Kira flew both Alycia and Kira up there to go camping with her and the boys. 

Last night and this morning were spent packing and getting ready for the trip so when we came home from church we had a couple of hours we could use to take care of some last minute things and then it would be off to Lindbergh Airport. Well no sooner had we walked into the house when Lisa got a phone call from Delta telling her that her flight from San Diego to Salt Lake City was delayed and so she would miss her connecting flight to Calgary. She had been rebooked on a flight that would leave tomorrow morning getting her into Calgary in the early after noon. 

That wasn't going to work because Kira was planning on leaving Calgary tomorrow morning so Lisa called Delta to see if other arrangements could be made. After an hour on the phone we had made no progress at all. I asked if we could fly out on other airlines but no luck.  I asked if we could connect through other cities like Vancouver or Seattle or Portland but no luck. I asked if there were any flights from airports in  the LA area like LAX, Long Beach, John Wayne or Ontario but no luck. Finally the stupid woman on the phone says. "Oh, I just found seats on an American flight, can you get to the airport by 1:30?" It was already after 1:00 and we don't live that close to the airport.  Why couldn't she have found that flight an hour earlier?

We finally realized that we were dealing with a moron so we piled into the van and headed down to the airport hoping for some better luck. We also figured that if a last minute flight did open up we wanted to at the airport so we could take advantage of it. Unfortunately there were just no more flight going out so Lisa and Alycia resolved themselves to the fact that they would be spending the night in SLC and getting late start from Calgary tomorrow. When they went to issue the tickets however we learned that the fool on the phone had confirmed Lisa on the flight tomorrow but not Alycia. That was especially frustrating because Lisa told her specifically on the phone that they were travelling together and she gave her Alycia's confirmation number and the woman had even asked how old Alycia was. Frustrating.

 The woman at the airport was far more competent that the one on the phone so grasping at straws I decided to ask her same questions that I'd asked on the phone. When I suggested that I could drive them up to the LA area she said, "Oh, we fly into John Wayne. In fact there is a flight leaving at 2:30. It was now 2:00. I could have screamed. If the fool on the phone could have seen that when I asked her we could have driven straight to Santa Ana and made the flight. As it turned out there were seats on a plane leaving at 4:37 that would get them to SLC in time to catch their original flight to Calgary. The problem was that it was already well after 2:00 and it was an hour and a half drive. I checked my trusty Android and it showed that the freeways were good and that it would take one hour and thirty nine minutes. We decided to risk it and off we were. Luckily the highways were good and we were at the gate about 5 minutes before they started boarding the flight. 

"Whew"

Every cloud has a silver lining and Ben and Sharley live in Orange County and so I called Ben to see if they were going to be home. Ben told me that dinner should be ready about the time I got there so off I went. Finally some good luck. It was good to see them and after some delicious enchilada's I gave them both a hug and came home. 

I'm starting to miss Lisa already and she hasn't been gone for more than six hours. This is going to be a long two weeks. 

--------------------trivia--------------------

1 pound of thorium has the equivalent energy as 300 pounds of uranium or 3,500,000 pounds of coal. In addition, a thorium molten salt reactor is much safer than any uranium reactor and would never have melted down like the Fukishima reactor in Japan. The United States has enough thorium to supply our energy needs for centuries. 

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Alycia's Here

Wow, this week sure went by fast. Let's see if I can summarize everything that happened in a blog that doesn't go on forever. Last weekend was a very patriotic weekend for our family. Friday we celebrated Canada's independence on July 1 and then Monday we celebrated the independence of the United States. On Sunday they even recognized us Canadians when they sang God Save the Queen in church. No one seemed to know the words however because they were all singing "Our Country is of Thee". The thought was nice though.

In our community we always have fireworks on July 3 because they are so much cheaper. This year we went to the local fireworks on Saturday and then on Monday we went with the Knowltons down to Coronado Island and watched the fireworks there. Those are always so nice because we get to sit on the golf course and watch the fireworks launched from a barge in the bay. I took a short video of the big finally with my phone. 


This week we had the Germans in town all week and we had some good visits. We all went out for dinner on Wednesday night. I had "butter fish" which I've never had before. I think I have a new favorite fish. It was very good. 


Thursday of course was the temple. Not much to say there and then today I was sitting in my chair talking to Pedro when I saw him looking over my shoulder out my window. He told me that there was a very pretty girl out front so of course I had to check her out and there right in my window was Alycia. I knew that Lisa had gone to pick her up but I was still quite surprised. She is in town for a bridal shower and a bachelorette party. Alycia is throwing a shower for Jamie tomorrow and tonight she is at Katy's bachelorette party. 


With missing two days last week, the holiday Monday and Germans in town this week I'm way behind in my work so I've been putting in some pretty late nights. That means I just get home in time to go to bed so all this extra time with my wife I thought I'd have hasn't really materialized yet. Now Alycia's here and Trevor is showing up with some friends next week so not much has changed. That's good. I like to have lots of things happening around me.

--------------------trivia-----------------

Alberta has the third largest oil reserves in the world after Saudi Arabia and Venezuela. Unfortunately it looks like Obama won't buy it and Alberta will end up selling it to China instead.

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Empty Nesters

It is so weird to have no children at home. Sometimes it just feels like Sarah is gone to girls camp or something and that she'll be home at the end of the week but then other times reality sets in that this is it. We've moved on to a new phase of our lives. From now on all we get is visits. I've always tucked the kids in before I go to bed. With some of them I've done that right up until they left home. Last night I went to tuck Sarah in and then I remembered that the bedrooms are all empty. How sad. I guess the bedrooms aren't exactly empty, one has turtles in it and the other one has a snake but they aren't all that fun to tuck in at night. The other problem I'm facing is that we've got to leave the door open for Sheba or she sits outside the door and cries all night. 

In spite of missing the kids I do have to admit that there is a certain freedom in being empty nesters. I come home in the evening and I have no commitment to do anything. I don't have to go to any football games, no band concerts, no scouts, no mutual, no homework, no awards banquets no nothing. The only person I have to keep happy right now is my wife and she's pretty low maintenance. 

As a tribute to this new phase of my life I thought I'd take you all on a trip down memory lane.

Here we are on our wedding day. July 11, 1981. That will be thirty years ago this week. We have no children.

1982 - Just a little over a year later and here we are with one child. We couldn't have been happier to have sweet little Kira in our lives.

1984 - Two years later and our family has doubled in size. We now have two children. Since Brandon joined our family life has always been exciting. He loves life. It was pointed out to us that some consider a family with one boy and one girl to be the perfect family. We figured that we needed more excitement in our lives than that.

1986 - My family is growing and my hairline is receding.

Ben just has to be the happiest baby I've ever seen. As long as you keep food in his belly he is content. Not much has changed.

1989 - It was another three years before Alycia joined us.

From the time she was born Alycia has been the life of the party. Everyone has more fun if Alycia is around. Again it was pointed out to us that four children is a large family now days. We had two boys and two girls and we should just count our blessings and enjoy our family. Well we figured there were more blessings waiting for us. 

1991 - Two years later one of those blessings arrived. Alex always had to be going somewhere or doing something. Can't you tell just by looking at him on his mothers lap that he wants to be going some place? He hasn't changed much, even today Alex is always doing something. You can especially see it in the kind of missionary he is.

1993 - With the arrival of Sarah our family was complete.
Alex's delivery was a very difficult one and we decided that perhaps it was time to quit.   It wasn't long however before we just knew that there was one more little spirit out there wanting to come and be a part of our family. We decided to put our faith in the Lord and have one more child. The Lord rewarded our faith with the perfect pregnancy, perfect delivery, perfect child.

2000 - Once Kira was a senior in High School we knew that the complete family we had enjoyed for seven years was about to change. We made the decision to invest in a family portrait in an attempt to freeze that moment in time. Anyone who has been to our home will recognize this picture as a copy of the life size portrait we have on our wall. 

2001 - The one thing that is certain is that everything in this life must eventually come to an end.  Kira graduated from High School and went off to college. From now on, anytime she came home she was more of a visitor than a regular part of our family. It was very difficult for me to let her go but I knew that is how it is supposed to be. I know she wasn't really gone but it still hurt a lot.

2002 - Once Kira left home it was like domino's falling. Before I knew it Brandon was leaving.  Maybe it was because I'd already gone through this with Kira or maybe because it is different with a boy but it wasn't nearly as painful for me to let Brandon go. It was also partly because Brandon was so ready to go. He's always been a very independent child and it was a lot of fun to see him go out and tackle life with all of that enthusiasm that he has. It was however very difficult when he left on his mission.

2004 - Ben was the first of our children who really didn't want to leave home. He would have been quite content to just stay at home. As with everything he does though, once he's made up his mind to do something he gives it everything he's got. I think he was quite surprised (but I wasn't) to head off to college and get the best grades of his life. I felt a significant absence in my life when both Brandon and Ben were on their missions at the same time. 

2007 - When Alycia left home things were very different around here.
Mostly they were much more quiet.  We really missed her enthusiasm for life.  With only two kids at home we were blessed with the opportunity to get to know Alex and Sarah very well.

2009 - And then Sarah was an only child.
She hated it. While she thoroughly enjoy our almost excessive one-on-one attention, she really missed the noise and commotion that she'd grown up with. She also missed Alex. With just Alex and Sarah home she'd grown very close to him.  Alex had made a point of including her in everything he did at seminary, school, church and at home and it made a huge impact on her. Alex on the other hand faced life in the outside world with the same enthusiasm that he faced life at home. He kept himself constantly busy and I think it really shows in the kind of missionary he is.

2011 - And then we were alone.
Dropping Sarah off to college was very difficult. I scarcely remember not having children at home and it is going to take a while to get used to it. I do however enjoy this new found freedom. When I come home in the evening I have no commitments. I look forward to doing a lot more things with Lisa.

Now that I've spent all this time complaining and moping about my children all leaving home and becoming "visitors" I have to share just how much fun it is when they do come home for a "visit". It is my firm belief that this is what life is all about. Perhaps my greatest joy in life is knowing that my children like to be with each other. When we're all together we have so much fun together and I'm rarely in bed before 2:00AM. The house is full of noise, commotion, fighting (especially during specific games) and activity. I realize that as more grandchildren are born and families move further away it will be more difficult to all get together but I live for those times.

Graduations

Fred Leavitt graduating from the
University of Alberta

Today if you will indulge me I'm going to take a moment to brag. Saturday we threw a party for our kids. Not only have we had five of our children graduate in the last month but now all six have graduated from High School, all six have started college, and including spouses we have three graduate degree's and eight bachelors degree's. The only remaining two include one on a mission and a freshman. I think they deserved the big party. Just to summarize:

Fred Leavitt graduating from the
University of California San Diego

Justin - Bachelors in Neuroscience
           - DDS in Dentistry
Kira   - Bachelors in Music Performance
          - Masters in Music Performance (Oboe)
Brandon - Bachelors in Bio Chemistry
                - JD Law
Serene - Bachelors in English 
          - minor in Editing
Benjamin - Bachelors in International Business
         - minor in Spanish
Sharley - Bachelors of Fine Arts in photography
Trevor - Bachelors in Political Science 
            - minor in Jazz Guitar
            - now attending BYU Law

Lisa Shaw graduating from
M E Lazerte High School

                                                               Alycia - Bachelors in Social Science Composite Teaching
  -minor History Teaching
 Alex - High School
          - now on a mission in Chili
Sarah - High School
           - now attending UVU




So the party we had wasn't much of a party and the kids had to do most of the work themselves but it is always fun to just have some friends come by, visit and eat lots of food. When my kids are at home it is always like a party.

Justin Palmer graduating from the
University of Florida (Dentistry)

Sadly the party is now over and everyone but Grandma have left. Trevor and Alycia pulled out and headed for Salt Lake at about 8:00. Brandon and Serene pulled out at about 8:30 and headed for Texas and we drove Justin and Kira to the airport at about 10:00. Right now it is very quiet around here.



We got back to the house and just plopped onto the couch and have hardly moved since. We've eaten a few left overs and I think we will be eating left overs for at least a week.

Kira Palmer (Leavitt) graduating from
Brigham Young University

Now we need to start getting ready to take Sarah up to UVU. She's going to start school the end of June and I'm really not looking forward to it. Some one once said that to have kids is to decide "... to have your heart go walking around outside your body.” That is how I feel. 

Kira Palmer (Leavitt) graduating from the
University of Florida

Just for fun I grabbed some pictures of some of the graduations. I've also got some pictures from the weekend. 

----------trivia----------

42% of college graduates will never read another book.

---------------------------

Brandon Leavitt graduating from
Brigham Young University

Brandon Leavitt graduating from
Pepperdine School of Law

Benjamin Leavitt graduating from the
California State University Fullerton

Sharley Leavitt (Cotter) graduating from
California State University Long Beach

Trevor Crowley graduating from the
University of Utah

Alycia Crowley (Leavitt) graduating from the
University of Utah

Alex Leavitt graduating from
Westview High School

Sarah Leavitt graduating from
Westview High School

Ben found a real cool "Woody" pinata.
The thing was huge and we had a lot of fun with him.

Brandons birthday was last week so we
celebrated it while everyone was here.

Evan and Landon love Woody.
The girls were not as impressed.

The tables were all pretty.

Serene made some little cupcakes
that looked like graduation hats.

We had ping pong

The cousins are always glad to get together.

The little kids all took a turn trying to beat up Woody.

Sydney hates to see anyone get hurt and she was not happy about trying to hit Woody.
We all told her he was full of candy so she did try but it was only half hearted.

When the little kids failed the big kids took a turn.
You may notice that one of Woody's legs is about to fall off.

Justin finally managed to remove Woody from his head.

Frank is about to whack the new Pinata.

Evan brought the Pinata back to life.

I really felt left out on this one. Chandler is giving Sarah a back rub.
Sarah is giving Tyler a back rub. Mackenzie is giving Brandon a
hand rub.

back: Fred, Brandon, Hayley, Landon, Justin, Ben, Trevor
middle: Serene, Lisa, Sarah, Sharley, Alycia
front: Sydney, Kira, Evan

Landon flying high

Playing Lips after things have settled down.