Disney Cruise - The Marathon

As you may have noticed from the numerous Facebook posts, I've been training for a marathon. Last summer Justin invited Mom and I to join them on a cruise. We couldn't think of anything better than spending ten days with our grand kids and in the Caribbean to boot. How could we not go? Justin then invited me to run with him in the Disney World Marathon which happened to be on the same day that we were to board the boat. I really enjoyed the last marathon so I thought that was a good idea as well.

The only problem with running a marathon is the numerous hours it takes to train properly. I suppose if I were twenty years younger I might get away without training but there is no way I could do that now. My last marathon took me 5 hours and 7 minutes and I was so upset that I didn't get under 5:00. I don't care if it is only 4:59 I just want to say 4 something instead of 5 something.

I was very diligent in my training and I was ready and quite confident that I would beat 5 hours. Well as luck would have it, the week leading up to the marathon I came down with the flu and a bad cough. I was so mad. I actually felt pretty good but I was congested and had a runny nose. I loaded up on vitamins and hoped for the best but alas, the morning of the marathon I still had the flu.

Mom and I caught our plane on Friday morning (January 9) and luckily we had a direct flight to Orlando. Justin signed up for the Goofy so he had to be in Orlando earlier in the day. The Goofy is if you run the half marathon on the Saturday and the full marathon on Sunday. You really would need to be Goofy to do that. They also have a 10K on Friday and a 5K on Thursday and if you do all four you get a medal called the Dopey. Quite appropriate don't you think?

So if you run the half marathon you need to register by 7:00 the night before. Before we boarded our flights Kira texted us to let us know that their flights were all changed. When Mom and I landed we checked Kira and Justin's flight and there going to be landing in just a few minutes. There was no way he would be able to register by 7:00. We made our way to their gate and watched them walk off the plane. Justin was very worried about registering but he called and found out that they would let him register the next morning early so the poor boy who had been up all day had to get up the next morning at 4:00.

Because we were staying in the Disney Hotel we didn’t need to wait for our bags.  We simply boarded a very cool Disney bus and the Disney people picked up our bags and delivered them to our rooms for us. It was really nice.

Kira and Justin had ordered the Pirate package so when we got to our rooms their room had a cool surprise. It had been attacked by Pirates and the boys followed a treasure map to a small chest full of treasure. They loved it and it was neat.

The next morning Mom and Kira stayed with the kids and I went and cheered Justin on as he completed his half marathon. I thought Florida was supposed to be in the subtropics but it was pretty darned cold. I am really glad that I took my coat. I just about didn't.

Justin and I went back to our rooms and then we separated. Mom, Kira and the kids headed to the park and Justin and I went and registered for the marathon. 

We decided the kids might enjoy the Hollywood studios park the most so that is the park we went to for the rest of the day. They had some pretty cool rides and shows. My favorite one might have been the stunt cars. You would be amazed at what they can do.

Because Justin and I were running the marathon the next morning we didn't stay up too late on Saturday. I always have a very difficult time getting up early but because I was nervous and excited about the race, as soon as my alarm went off I was wide awake. I had all of my clothes laid out so I wouldn't wake up Mom and Cameron (Cameron slept with us every single night that we were together) and just as I was tying my shoes Justin gently tapped on my door and off we went.

The morning was much warmer than the day before and that is good because I was really worried about freezing. Justin is a much faster runner than I am so he was assigned the “F” corral as his starting position and me being much slower was assigned the “K” corral. Lucky for me, Justin figured that since he had already run a half marathon the day before he wasn’t going to set any speed records so he decided to run with me in the “K” corral. Coincidentally Justins friend Matt (who was on the cruise with us) was also in the “K” corral. He was also doing the Goofy. 

They started the race sending off a new corral about every five minutes. You knew when a corral went because they set off fireworks each time.  Finally it was our turn and off we went. 

This race was definitely much more crowded than the St George Marathon was.  It was so crowded that people had a signal for stopping. It was so packed that if someone just stopped running and started walking he would get ran right over by the people behind him. If you wanted to stop you would move over to the edge of the road, raise your hand high in the air so everyone could see you and then could start walking.  

I don’t know if it was good or bad but running with Justin inspired me. I ran quite a bit faster than I normally would. In my training runs I would start out around a 9:30 pace and gradually slow down to an 11:30 pace.  Justin kept trying to go faster but I held him back to a 9:30 but amazingly I kept it up until well past ten miles. As long as I didn't go faster than 9:30 I had no trouble keeping up the pace either. I loved it and it was a lot of fun running with Justin. He was high fiveing the crowds and he would stop and take pictures of the Disney characters that they had along the side of the roads every two or three miles. 

One of the best parts of the entire race was somewhere around mile 7. We came around the corner and there in the distance was Cinderellas castle. It was all lit up with icicle lights and it simply glowed and it seriously looked like it was covered in ice. As we ran through the castle there was Anna and Elsa standing on the balcony waving to us. I waved back to them and they waved directly at me. 

Of course I was focusing all of my energy on running but Justin was having a ball taking all kinds of pictures and texting updates to everyone. 

The next cool thing along the track was when we got to run around a race track. By race track I mean a track for cars. At one point on the track they had fancy cars parked along the side that we got to check out. They had antiques, race cars and just some really nice sports cars. 

One of my favorite character visits was the Disney Villains. 

Life was good until about the 15 mile mark. That is when I started to slow down a bit. I still felt great and I kept running but I was losing energy. I wanted to walk but Justin kept encouraging me and I held out pretty good until somewhere around mile 20. Nothing hurt and I had plenty of wind but I could hardly pick up my legs. I started a run walk routine where I would walk for a minute or two and then run for five or six minutes but it wasn't long before I was walking longer than I was running. 

We came to a baseball diamond and I mean a legit one like the pro's play on. We ran around the ball diamond and not just the bases but around the outfield. I forced my self to run around the diamond because it didn't seem right to walk around the diamond. 

The race started and ended in the Epcot center so as we entered the Epcot center I knew the end was near. I tried to pick up the pace a bit and of course there was no way I was going to be walking on the final stretch to the finish line. You can't imagine how cool it feels to come around the final bend and you can see the finish line in front of you and then off to the side is your family cheering you on. I love it. It almost brought me to tears. I am really glad that Justin was there beside me taking pictures. Unfortunately there are not pictures of Justin because he was the only one taking pictures. There are lots of pictures of me but none of him. I feel really bad about that but what can I say?

From there we ran arm in arm to the finish line. The official time for the run was 5:17. That is ten minutes longer than my St George run. It felt like I had done much worse than St George but I guess my strong first half saved me. I am convinced that the fact that I was running with the flu sapped away much of my energy. I want to be upset that I did worse but when I got sick I was afraid I wouldn't be able to run at all so in the end I just feel grateful that I was able to finish let alone run almost as fast as St George.  I suspect there will be another Marathon in my future.

Justin's medals are his half marathon, his full marathon and his Goofy medal. It is a #10 because this is the tenth year they have done the Goofy Challenge. I of course only have the one marathon medal and I will hang it up next to my St George medal. I am quite sure I will never have a Goofy. We did hear about a "Coast to Coast" challenge that you can get if you run the marathon in Disney World and then a half marathon in Disney Land within the same year. I think I am going to go for that one. 

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Will Smith is now older than Uncle Phil was at the beginning of The Fresh Prince.

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Brian and Britni

A few weeks ago we were treated to a visit from Brian and Britni (Dixie's kid). Apparently they travel just like the rest of the family. They had been at Legoland and asked if they could crash at our house for the night since they had to catch a flight the next morning. A reasonable person would have thought that meant that they would get here in time for dinner and then maybe leave for the airport after breakfast the next morning. Nope, that isn't how we do it in our family.

Brian and his family arrived shortly before midnight so we put the sleeping kids straight to bed and of course we wanted to visit with them for a little while. The two older girls woke up so while we were visiting they explored the house and came down stairs with a board game. One of the girls fell asleep during the game and the other one not long after we finished the game.

As we were visiting we realized that their flight the next morning was out of LAX which at the best of times is a 2 hour drive and it can be a four hour drive depending on the time of day. We also learned that their flight left at 6:00AM. That meant that they would need to leave somewhere around 3:00 AM.  Yes, you guessed it. At that point we decided to just visit until they had to leave. I don't really remember much about what we talked about but it was wonderful to see them and as far as I know they made it home in one piece.

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If you shrunk the sun down to the size of a white blood cell and shrunk the Milky Way Galaxy 

down using the same scale, it would be the size of the continental United States.

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Christmas

This has been a very different Christmas for us. We had no kids at home. It is the first Christmas since 1981 that we have had no kids at home for Christmas. In case you're counting, we were married in 1981 and Kira was born in 1982. That is 34 years. We have made an effort to get our kids scheduled to come to our home one year and the in-laws home the next year. We have been fortunate enough to make that happen. It is great when they are all here but it's a bit of a bummer when they're all gone. I was expecting it to be a rather depressing Christmas but as it turned out, it was quite relaxing.

First of all we decided to buy a small Christmas tree and because it was a small Christmas tree it took no time to decorate it. Christmas morning we slept in, I don't remember ever sleeping in on Christmas morning so already the day was off to a good start. I figured we would eat a nice relaxing breakfast but kids started calling before that could happen so I didn't actually get breakfast until almost lunch time. In fact, we spent a good part of the day on the phone with kids. It was fun talking to them. We Skyped with Kira's kids but Brandons family was at the Quinns so we didn't skype with them until Friday.

Just so we wouldn't be completely alone all day we invited the Sister Missionaries for dinner. Lisa just had to cook a turkey and that would be overkill for just the two of us. Actually it was overkill for the four of us but I have enjoyed turkey sandwiches and turkey soup for the last week.

And I did make apple pie. I usually have one of my daughters helping me but this year I did it all alone. It still tasted very good.

What was especially fun is that the sisters were able to skype with their families and they did that from our house. Sister Saidon is from Thailand and we got to meet her family. It was very cool. It is also fun to see how peoples traditions are so different from ours. When her mother came on the TV Sr Saedon put the palms of her hands together in front of her and bowed to her mother. It was really cool. They then sang to us in Thai and we sang back to them.

Sr Wang was just as cool. Her entire family is on a mission at this very moment. Her mother is in Hawaii, one brother is in Mexico and she has another brother in Vancouver, BC. They were all on the Skype call together. They all received their calls the same day and they gave their farewells the same day. Her mother gets off in a few weeks and she is coming to San Diego to pick up their daughter and then they are travelling home together. They will be companions.

We were going to go out on New Years eve but that didn't happen. We first made plans to go see Balboa Park. Apparently they had something going on there but then we were invited to go play games with the Bagleys and that sounded like fun but then Lisa got sick and we just stayed home and watched movies. That was fun too. At midnight I kissed her on the cheek because I do NOT want to get sick.

The other first for this year was that we got the house completely undecorated on New Years day.

I'm usually trying to find a place to take the tree in the middle of January.

So as it turned out Christmas wasn't nearly as quiet and boring as I was expecting. I'm sure glad they invented telephones.

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 Religious groups give 4 times as much as secular groups.

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Canada Trip

Our trip to Canada last summer was such a wonderful experience that I need to talk about it but it has been so long now that I'm sure I will leave out some of the cool details. Kira and Justin were good enough to schedule Pipers baby blessing around our availability. We waited until Lisa was done work in June (she  works with the special ed kids at the high school) and then we headed north. Every time we make a road trip to Canada we let our kids along the I-15 know that they are welcome to come along for the ride. We usually have a full van and a ton of fun but this time only Alycia was able to come but we still had a ton of fun.

On the way up we spent a couple of days at a W.C. Lybbert reunion. Greg & Gaylia, Dixie and Jackie and Byron, Shelley and there kids were all able to get there too so it was wonderful. I will talk about the reunion in another post however. I don't want this to turn into a book. Let me apologize now for the lack of good pictures. I was happy to let Alycia take all of the pictures but now I don't have many good pictures of my own.

 Usually when we go to Canada we try and squeeze way too much into a short week so this time we decided to spend the week at Kira and Justin's home so it felt much more relaxed.

So far we have made it to everyone of our kids baby blessings but for Kira it was always combined to the temple sealing ordinance because all of her babies were adopted. Since Kira gave birth to Piper this was not necessary this time so it was a bit of different experience for us.

In that picture to the left of Kira holding Piper I just have to comment on the baby blanket that Piper is wrapped in. Lisa's great grandma Shaw made that blanket for Lisa when she was a baby and Christened in the United Church. Lisa has kept it and all of our grandkids have been blessed in it. It is quite amazing to think that Pipers Great, great, great grandma made that blanket.

 While we were there we were able to visit with Grandma Leavitt. It was wonderful to be able to see Maurine.

 We also went to a berry farm and picked a ton of Saskatoon berries. I haven't had any of those since I was a young kid. We were supposed to keep enough so Mom could make some jam but I know that for every berry that went in my bucket, one or two others went in my mouth.

 While Alycia was the only kid able to drive up with us, Sarah was working for Kira through the summer. Sam was able to fly up and so we were able to spend the week with Samarah (Sam & Sarah) as well.

 One evening Justin treated us all to this VERY fancy restaurant. It wasn't just a fancy restaurant but one where they make some exotic foods that can't be made naturally but only by using scientific processes.Things like vacuum drying, vacuum cooking and pressure cooking and several other processes that I can't remember. It was very delicious and very fascinating. As we were sitting at our table we watched this sunset.

And of course, if you didn't know, Justin and Kira live on a lake. I don't think there was a single day that I didn't go in the lake. The weather was beautiful for the entire time that we were there and if my memory serves me well, that is very unusual. Alberta weather changes from hour to hour and while they can have some wonderful weather they can just as easily have miserable weather. I consider myself blessed to have had a solid week of great weather.

What a wonderful trip this was. I was sad because Kira and Justin are not planning on any more kids. Not that we need an excuse to go and visit our kids it easy to procrastinate a trip with one. I then remembered that next year Evan and Sydney get baptized so it looks like we will have no shortage of excuses.

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Carrots were originally purple.

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Nostalgia

I am really trying to get my garage cleaned out. It seems like an endless battle because for every item that I throw out a new one seems to show up. It isn't getting any better but at least it isn't getting worse. The problem is that I am way too sentimental. Every time I open a box of stuff that needs to be discarded the stuff in the box brings back all kinds of very pleasant memories and I find it difficult to get rid of it. But how can I keep it all?

A good example came up the other day. I was going through a box and it was filled with items from when I worked at Kyocera. I had thrown in the box many of the phones from projects that I had worked on. I finally decided to keep one phone from each project and throw out the rest. This isn't all of the phones but it is most of them. Every phone in this project has key pads, batteries and connectors selected, qualified and/or designed by me. While I didn't design any circuit boards many of them have circuit boards fabricated at factories that I qualified. I have visited every factory where these parts were made all over Asia and in parts of Europe. You can imagine the emotions that these phones brought back to me. What a trip.

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The last time the Chicago Cubs won the baseball World Series,

 the Ottoman Empire still existed.

And lollipops had not yet been invented. 

And women did not have the right to vote in the United States.

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Running

I know you're probably completely board when I start talking about running but it is a big part of my life at the moment so I kind of have to talk about it. 

Some time ago Kira and Justin invited us to go on a cruise with them. I think they probably wanted help with watching their kids more than they wanted our delightful personalities but that is completely fine with us. We would love nothing more than to hang out with them and their kids. 

The cruise is in January and just happens to leave the day after the Disney World Marathon. Justin told me that he was going to run the marathon and suggested that I run it as well. I had so much fun on the last one that I didn't hesitate. In addition to the thrill of the race (if you can call it a race) it also disciplines me so that I run more regularly. Something I really need to do. 

In addition to keeping my fat belly down, running also gives me a chance to get out and enjoy nature. Take a look at some of these pictures I've taken while running and tell me it isn't absolutely beautiful. When I get up to the higher mileage it also means I can get far enough off the beaten trail that I come across very few people too which greatly adds to solitude. 

The only down side is that when training for a marathon you need to spend many hours every weekend. I just don't have time for that but now that I'm signed up for a marathon I have to or I'm going to die in January. Young people like Justin might be able to get away without training but not me.

Yesterday I ran twelve miles and next Saturday it will be fourteen. That takes me two and a half hours and it is going to increase up to four hours. Lisa is supportive but I can tell she isn't thrilled about losing me for four hours every week.

Every run is an unique experience. Last Saturday I made a big mistake. I had rained all night and for some reason I forgot that dirt trails turn into a field of mud. That picture on the left is beautiful but each of my feet weighed about ten pounds from the mud.



 The week before, I came across this guy sunning himself on the trail. I didn't see a rattle on his tail but it was somewhat hidden in the bush. I wasn't going to take any chances.

 This picture was taken last year after the fires. It was an eerie feeling running through the burned hills.

 It was also weird to see the guard rail lying on the road. The fire had completely burned away the posts.

So I will apologize in advance. Every Saturday from now until Christmas I will be running farther and farther and I can't help but share my run on facebook. I especially love it because if someone "likes" or comments on my post I hear a cheer in my headset. You can't believe how much of a boast that gives to my energy. I can be ready to keel over and then I hear a cheer and I have all kinds of energy. At least for a minute or two.

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

Alaska is simultaneously the most northern, the most western, 

and the most eastern state in the U.S.

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Colorado

For the labor day weekend Lisa and I decided that we needed to go visit Ben and Sharley. They've been in Colorado now for over a year and we hadn't been out there. Lisa found us some cheap tickets and off we went. They had a very fun weekend planned for us. My favorite activity was touring an old gold mine. I guess many of these old mines are still active but the gold has played out so much that they don't make a whole lot of money. I am quite sure this mine is making much more money giving tours than they were making actually digging. It was absolutely fascinating. The tour guide was very knowledgeable and had obviously worked in mines his entire life. He really looked the part too with only half his teeth left and those that were left didn't look too good. We hadn't gone 100 feet into the mine when I decided that this was not a career I should go after. I kept hitting my head on the ceiling (thank goodness for the hard hat) and I do have a tendency for claustrophobia. The tunnel was big enough that the claustrophobia wasn't a problem but when I looked into the vein I was not going very far into that hole.

The tunnel lead straight into the side of the mountain and was pretty level with a slight down hill slope. We walked for maybe a quarter mile and finally came to the vein. Along the way we passed a cross cut which led to another vein somewhere. They also showed us displays of how explosives and blasting caps have changed over the years. The display on mining lights was also fascinating. We also passed a vertical shaft that they used for hauling out the ore.

This was the cross cut. That led to other veins and tunnels.

Another favorite that we went to more than once was "The Little Man Ice Cream" place. It was already starting to get cool in Denver but there was still a huge line up at this place. Ben was telling me that there is a line up even in the middle of winter. I do have to admit that the ice cream was very good. I am almost always happiest with plain old vanilla but I was told that I had to get the oreo ice cream. It was good.

Another wonderful experience was the Denver Biscuit Company. I guess this place was originally two different food trucks. One specialized in breakfast biscuits and I think the other guy was a hamburger truck. While I guess these two guys didn't exactly compete because one was breakfast and the other lunch,  they realized that together they would be a great match. We went for breakfast and I'm telling you, if you're ever in Denver for breakfast you need to try them. I gained substantial weight on this trip.
The plan was to see the state capital but it was a Saturday and it was closed. It looks like a beautiful building.

I'm not sure why I don't have any pictures but we also went to the house owned by the unsinkable Molly Brown. Molly's name was actually Margaret and she didn't ever actually go by Molly. It apparently sounded better in some play and the name stuck. Her story is a very sad one but the house was beautiful.

 One the steps of the state capital they have a marker indicating which step is exactly one mile above sea level. Every few years they have to move it up a few steps because Denver's elevation changes over the years.

Ben and his momy. She loves that he still calls her mommy. You may notice the engraving in the stop that says you are a mile high. This no longer a mile high. You can't move the carving so that is probably why they went to a marker. 

We also made a trip to Boulder. The scenery on the drive up was beautiful. Boulder has blocked of a few blocks and created a beautiful shopping area. 

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The first successful blood transfusion was given in 1665 in England.

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