Sarah & Sam Came to Visit

I'm so far behind in this blog that I don't even know where to begin. I guess to keep it simple and not to overwhelm you I will just talk about this last week.  

Last week Wednesday Lisa and I were sitting on the couch talking when the door bell rang. We don't often get visitors that late at night so we were curious who would be ringing and to our surprise it was Sarah and Sam. Lisa has been feeling really sorry for herself because everyone we know in Utah has met him but we haven't. I guess Sarah and Sam decided to take care of that problem. They emptied their piggy banks and gathered up all of their change (literally) and drove on down here to visit with us. It was a great weekend. They wanted to surprise us but they wanted to make sure we would be home so Sarah had conspired with Ben and Sharley. Ben and Sharley told us they would be coming down so of course we made no plans. Except for the PQ5K Fun Run. That was planned. In fact I've never missed one yet but my toe was still very sore and while I'd hoped that I'd be able to run it alas, my hopes were in vain. I was still limping so running a race just wasn't going to happen.

I was at the starting line to cheer them on and I was so sad to see them running off into the distance. :(  I then hurried on to the finish line and it wasn't all that long before I saw Ben, Sharley, Sarah  and Sam coming across the finish line. No mother was present. So they all drank a glass of water and then Ben, Sarah and Sam headed back down the course to find Mom. It was only a few minutes when they came back with their mother. 

Saturday morning was a bit rough for some of us because we were up late the night before. We all went to see the Avengers. Patrick and his girlfriend met up with us at the theater. It was a great movie. 

Saturday we went to the beach but the water was a bit cold so Sharley and I sat and watched Ben, Sam and Sarah play in the waves. After the beach we all went out and celebrated Cinco de Mayo in style at Rodrigo's. I do love Mexican food. 

Of course the best activity of all was when we resurrected the potato cannon. When Ben was a kid he really wanted a potato cannon and that sounded like a lot of fun to me so we built one. The ignitor has long since corroded away so I bought a new one and voila. We fired a half dozen potato's into the canyon. About the time we decided to call it quits our neighbor from down the street knocks on the door. He was quite worried and asked if we had been lighting of fire crackers. I could see how that could concern someone since our canyon could go up in flames rather quickly so I assured him it wasn't fire crackers (his kids thought we were shooting guns) and I explained my potato cannon to him. 

He looked like an all around fun guy so I asked him if he wanted to shoot it. You should have seen his face light up. I figured that the best way to keep him from getting me in trouble would be to involve him. He is now going to make one for himself. 

After a very tiring few days we wrapped it up with a nice roast beast dinner after church and then we bade Ben and Sharley farewell. Monday morning I said goodbye to Sam and Sharley and off to work I went. They were supposed to be leaving right behind me but I've heard they never got out of here until noon on Monday. 

So that was my week. How exciting eh? I do have some rather scary news to share with you. I put my name in for the St George Marathon. It is a lottery so there is no guarantee. I figured I've got a good head start so why not go for it. I want to run one before I die and I'm not getting any younger. When I decided to enter Alycia, Ben, Sarah and Sam decided to enter with me so we've submitted our names as a team. Justin and some friends have entered also as did my friend Phil so it would sure be a blast if we could all get in. It is a rather strange situation for me though. I will be happy if I get picked but I think I will be happy if I don't get picked. Weird. Now I've just got to get my toe better so I can run again. Today was the first day I could walk without a limp. I'm hoping to go for a short run next week. 

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80% of the cost of a fish is the cost of the fuel for the fishing boat.

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Ouch

I know it is nearly Wednesday but I'm only now getting enough time to tell you about my Saturday. The morning started out great as Lisa and I went and volunteered with the Stake in the canyon. We had several jobs to choose from so we volunteered to pull non-indigenous weeds. I learned a few new plants such as Fennel, Mustard and my favorite, Curly Dock. Some of those Fennels (smells like licorice) were huge. The early Padres actually planted the fennel mark the El Camino Real trail because they grow so tall and they're quite hardy

After the volunteering Lisa had a baby shower so I decided to head out for a run in the canyon. I hadn't run since the race last week so I was just itching to go. It was a beautiful day and I was loving life but as I headed into the trees at the bridge I guess I was just too excited about getting to my favorite spot that I got a bit careless. My foot didn't quite clear a tree root and the toe of my shoe got caught underneath a tree root. Down I went but with my toe stuck in the root it bent my toe completely back. It hurt really bad. I hobbled on to the bridge and sat there letting the pain calm down a bit and then I realized the predicament I was in. I was three miles into the canyon meaning that I had three miles to get back out. I could scarcely put any weight on my foot at all but Lisa couldn't very well come and carry me out.. At first I thought I'd be a man and bear the pain and run my way out. That didn't even last a quarter mile. I was hobbling pretty bad and the pain just got worse and worse. I finally stopped and walked. If you look at my mile times you can see my first mile was ten minutes, my second mile was eleven minutes my third mile was eleven minutes and then I fell and slowed down a lot. My fourth mile was fifteen minutes (when I tried to run), my fifth mile was nineteen minutes and the last mile was more than twenty minutes. I was nearly crawling at that point. 

So when I got home I took my shoes off and tried to do some errands around the house. I actually got the lawns mowed but my to-do list didn't quite get all checked off. Finally before I went to bed I took my socks off and was a bit surprised to see that my big toe was all black and blue. I knew it would be swollen but I never bruise. I really think I may have broken it but there was no way I was going to spend five hours in emergency to have them tell me to spend $100 on an x-ray and then another $100 on a boot. It looks pretty straight so I will just tape it and try not to hurt it any more. 

Today when I looked at my toes every single toe but my pinky is black and blue. It still really hurts. What bugs me more than anything though is that this Saturday is the PQ5K fun run. That is a community 5K run. We run from the stake center to our church and it is exactly 5K. I've done it every year but I really don't see how I'm going to manage it this year. I'm so upset. 

To make up for it though I've decided that I am going to put in for the St George Marathon. I think I've also got Alycia, Ben, Sarah and Sam talked into doing it with me. Justin has already applied. I'm a little bit scared but if I win the draw (or would that be lose?) I will be committed and then it is the big leagues for me. Oh well, I want to do it once before I die and it isn't going to get any easier. 

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Melanoma has increased 800% in women under forty. No more tanning booths Kira.

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Ragnar 2012

It has been bugging me all week because I've really wanted to share with you what a fun weekend I had last weekend running the Ragnar. I had a ton of fun last year but this year was even better because Ben ran with me. In fact Ben even handed the baton off to me. 

Last year we were in the first car meaning we had to be at the starting line early. This year we were car two meaning that we all got to sleep in. That was really nice but our joy at being in car two was short lived. I'll get to that later. 

In car two was the Bird Family, Rick Daynes and Jeff Barnett. OK, it wasn't the entire Bird Family but close. To be specific, Alan Bird, Chris Bird, Ryan Bird and Jared Bird. 

In my car we had Ben and myself, Brent Haws and his daughter Kelly, Joey Moore and his friend Robert. As it happens, Joey and Robert went to school with Brandon at Pepperdine. What a small world. Robert came all the way from North Carolina to run this race. 

So Van 1 started at 9:15 at Huntington beach and we took over from Van 1 at Yorba Linda Park in Anaheim. Ben was our first runner. You can see the hand off from Jared finishing up for Van 1 to Ben leading out for Van 2 in the following video's. I think the hand off happened somewhere around 2:00. Ben didn't know what he was in for. 

We headed down the road and stopped by this little park so we could cheer Ben on and give him a bottle of water. The poor boy ran nearly nine miles and the temperature when he started out was 93°. Luckily he didn't have to climb any nasty hills but his run was an entire uphill slope. Do you like my van in the picture. Everyone decorates their vehicles and ours by comparison was quite bland. Plenty good enough for me though.


This is Ben coming into the little park where we cheered him on. He was doing really good despite the fact that he's already run four or five miles at this point.







Each van received a dozen Krispy Kreme donuts for free. Since Ben had to run his race we saved a donut for him. I think this little donut made the entire 8.8 mile run worth it for Ben. He's always loved his food.

After Ben, I took over. Unfortunately the only pictures I have of me are the ones that Ben took and obviously since he was handing off to me we couldn't get any pictures of that. Ben did take a video clip of me climbing my massive hill. That was a real killer. My run was only 4 miles but I climbed 742 feet and by the time Ben finished his run the temperature had climbed to 98°. I had plenty of wind and my legs were strong enough but the heat just sucks the energy right out of you. It was the strangest feeling and by the time I handed off the baton I was feeling rather woozy.

Ben took this picture of me shortly after my run. It felt so good to lay in that shade in the cool grass. The funny thing is that after a bottle of gator aid and five minutes of rest it was all over. I was good to go. Very strange.

Poor Robert made a wrong turn on his run. I don't think he went too far in the wrong direction before the Ragnar people got him turned around and back on track. I would be so mad if I ran even a hundred yards further than I had to. 

Robert handed off to Kelly and Kelly handed off to her Dad. I'm sure that was as special to them as it was to have Ben hand off to me. I think the symbolism would be better if I handed the baton over to Ben but I am certainly glad I didn't have to run that 8.8 mile leg. Yuck. We stopped on the road to cheer Brent on and Kelly handed him a bottle of water. 

By this time the temperature hit the 100° mark. It eventually peaked at 102° during Kelly's run and gradually fell off again. That was great for Van 2 but for us the damage was done. Joey finished up for us and it was about 7:30 when he finished up.  I'm almost embarrassed to admit it but our night time accommodations this year were a whole lot better than what I had last year. Last year I slept on the golf course at Taylor Made's head quarters but his year Jeff Barnett was able to get a room at the Lawrence Welk Resort. After we cheered on Van 2 we went and got a sandwich at SubWay and headed to our room. What a nice place that was. It had two bedrooms and a nice big living room. I rolled my sleeping bag out on the couch, set Martha to wake me up at 2:00 AM (yuck) and then I was off to never never land. 

The major exchange this time was right at the Lawrence Welk Resort so we simply headed down the hill to the street and waved a fond farewell to Ben as he once again took the Baton from Jared and headed up a rather nasty (although short) hill. 

We had to hurry on because Ben's second run was only 3.7 miles and in the middle of the night he had no problems with over heating. He did book it and no sooner did we find a place to park than it was time for me to start my run. This was another 4 miler for me and boy how different it was from my previous run. I felt really good and I made good time. My pace on the first leg was a little over 11:00 minutes but on this run I was under 9:30. Yes I know that isn't all that great but this is me we're talking about. 

As it turned out, all of our night runs were quite short and before you know it we were at the Taylor Made headquarters handing off to Van 2. Those poor suckers really didn't get long to sleep. After grabbing a Sausage Egg McMuffin from McDonalds we headed to the glider port where the next major exchange was. We headed there because all of our volunteers were working there. 

The morning was very cloudy which was perfect for running but it gave Lisa some very pretty little curls in her hair. She also had about four coats on trying to stay warm.  Our volunteer were Lisa (my wife and Bens mother) Connie (Brents wife and Kelly's mother and Amanda (Chris's wife). They were really good sports because their shift started at 5:00AM. They got up about the same time as Van 1. 

We just hung out sleeping and eating junk food and listening to Ben play some comedian over the stereo until Van 1 finally made their way in. I am really upset about his exchange. I video taped Jared running in and handing the baton off to Ben and then Ben running out of the shoot high fiveing everyone on our team. He even performed a cool little pirout for us all. The problem was that I rarely shoot video's on my phone so I didn't quite have the whole routine down and I lost the video. How upsetting. It was also cool because some guy was trying to pass Jared coming in to the exchange and he got quite violent when he could get past Jared. That would have been a good video to see. 

Ben had another long run over 7 miles so we once again stopped to cheer him on and give him some water. I video'd him. 

He really booked it on this run and it really messed things up for me. I feel rather foolsih. At nearly every exchange there is always a runner who comes in and there is no one to meet him. I always shake my head and wonder how anyone could be so irresponsible that they aren't there to meet their runner. Well I got myself all ready and figured I had time to upload a video to face book and then I headed out to the exchange point. I get to the street and I see that the actually exchange point was a block down the hill. We parked at a middle school but the exchange was actually closer to La Jolla High School. I start walking down to it and then I see Ben waving his arms to get my attention. He had run so fast that he came in before I got there. I don't know what his time was but I think it was under a 7:00 minute mile. Good job Ben. Bad job Dad. : (

This was my long leg. It was 7.8 miles and I have never in my entire life run more than 6 miles. I had no sooner got settled into my run when my legs started feeling tired. That scared me because I knew I still had a long way to go. About two miles into the run I turned and headed up a rather steep hill. Nothing like my hill on Friday but I was tired and my legs were starting to feel like rubber. When I was nearly at the top my team was there to cheer me on. What a wonderful feeling that is. Ben even tried to make up for my mistake earlier. I had asked Brent to video our hand off but since I missed that Ben ran along with me and held his hand out video'ing us. I haven't got the video from him yet but I will. They gave me a bottle of water which was a life saver as well. 

The run was now mostly downhill until I got to Mission Bay. I was so tired at this point that the only thing that kept me going was how beautiful it was running along the bay. Families were out barbecuing and it smell so good. After what seemed like forever I finally came to the "one mile left" sign. I got so excited. I tossed my water bottle into a garbage can and got all ready for my grand finale. And I ran, and I ran some more and I ran even more and the end never came. I swear that they lie to you with those "one mile left" signs. Finally it did come and from somewhere I mustered up some strength and in this film you will see that I look like I have a lot more energy than I really do. 

And that was it for me and Ben. The rest of the team did there thing and finally we sent Joey off for the finish line. I don't know how well you can see it but on the bottom of the windows of the van we have 36 numbers written and every time someone headed out on their leg we crossed off their number. Here is Ben crossing off Joey's number. 

We beat Van 1 to the finish line but shortly after we got there Van 1 arrived and then everyone's wives and significant others arrived. The trail enters Coronado Island (which isn't quite an island due to a very narrow strip of land) on the bay side and then crosses under the street to the ocean side. We waited for Joey on the other side of the tunnel, handed him his shirt and then we all ran in to the finish line together. It was rather fun. 

Since Joey had the last leg we let him cross the finish line first.

Our captain honored us all with our medals.

If you look closely you can see that the medal is actually a beer bottle opener. 

 We were feeling good at this point but we sure felt our legs the next morning.

 I wore a Ragnar tatoo throughout the race.

And here we are at the finish line

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

The Caballo Blanco died not long ago and I didn't even know.

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A Visit from Sarah

 My highlight of this week was that Sarah came home for a few days. I guess UVU has a fall break so we took the opportunity to bring her home for a few days. It was a thrill to see her. We wouldn't normally bring a kid home with Thanksgiving and Christmas coming so soon after but she's been up there all summer long and we missed her and she missed us and we got a good deal on tickets so home she came. I think she really enjoyed being able to sleep in also. 


We didn't actually do anything special but she did go to the temple on Thursday evening and did baptisms. Thursday of course is my shift and she used to go every Thursday night for most of her senior year. We would always have dinner together in the cafeteria and then she would go do baptisms while I went back to work. It was really fun to have her there again. Of course everyone on my shift was glad to see her again as well. 


Saturday Ben and Sharley came down after Ben got off work so they could see Sarah as well. It was nice to see them again as well. Ben and Sharley's new apartment doesn't have a washer and dryer so they brought a few loads of laundry with them. Ben had to finish up freshman Geology class they wouldn't transfer over and then Fullerton has a required class that he couldn't take until after he completed all of this required classes so he's now taking those two classes and a couple of others that he added just for fun. Since he will be completed everything at Christmas time he's now in full interview mode looking for gainful employment starting 2012. He's had some pretty exciting interviews and opportunities. I'm quite excited and anxious to see what he ends up doing. I really hope he doesn't have to leave Southern California. 


Since we had a special gathering we decided to go out for a Hodad burger. I haven't been so full since last Christmas and I don't think I ate more fat in one meal than I've had in the last month. It was wonderful. You'll have to excuse the blurriness of that last picture, the taking the picture was just a bit inebriated and he didn't focus the picture very well. I imagine the picture looked normal to him. 

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The median price for a house in Detroit is $7,500.

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Ben Came to Visit

Well my first week of solitude is nearing it's end. Tomorrow is Saturday and I'm excited because it is the PQ5K fun run. We do this every year to commemorate the 24th of July. We start at the stake center and run to the Del Sur building which is the building we meet in. It is exactly 5 kilometers so it works well. Tomorrow could be interesting because we normally drop a vehicle off at the Del Sur building but since I'm alone I will hope to bum a ride off of someone. 


Tonight was fun because Ben came down to visit me. I love that they are so close that we get to see them more frequently. With our unexpected trip to Orange County last week this makes two weeks in a row. We watched Tron and ate Cotija's so it was a lot of fun. 

I mentioned earlier that there were a couple of land mark items that I've neglected to blog about. The biggest one I definitely didn't forget about I just didn't have time to talk about it. 


On July 11, 2011 Lisa and celebrated our thirtieth wedding anniversary. I don't even feel like I'm thirty years old how can I have been married for thirty years. I then look at my kids and I realize that they're getting pretty big so I guess something must have happened. I had all kinds of grand plans for our thirtieth but with all the graduations this spring I think Lisa and I both decided we'd rather just have something quiet and peaceful. July 11 also happens to be Abram Jone's birthday. He is Ben's friend who died a few years back and every year on his birthday they have a barbecue at La Jolla shores so that is where we go every year for our wedding anniversary. The good thing this year was that Alycia was down so we thought we'd just have a quiet dinner at the house with Alycia and Ben and Sharley (they come down every year for the barbecue too) but Ben and Sharley had double booked themselves so Alycia and Mom and I celebrated just the three of us. As it turned out we all came home from the beach totally wiped and full so we didn't have any meal or any celebration. I think we just turned on the TV and watch some show. 

Lisa did give me a very nice card and I honestly had very admirable intentions but every single day something came up and I never made it to a store. I know it is no excuse but I didt promise a card even if it is late. Lisa is quite forgiving with gifts but she feels quite strongly about cards. Maybe I can get to a store before she gets home.

I'm sure I've shared most of these pictures before but since it was our thirtieth you get to see them again. 

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.