The Taylor Kids

Wednesday, February 25, 2026

Sarah and Sam went on a ten day trip to Turkey and asked if we would watch their kids while they were gone. We jumped at the chance. It is so difficult to travel to Glen Rock that we don’t get to see them and their family very often, so we were thrilled. 

They arrived late on Wednesday, February 11. Sarah and Sam wanted to spend a few days together with us so that the kids could get to know us a little better. That was not necessary for Skye but Ezzy is quite shy and she really did need the time to get comfortable with us.

Lisa had the week of 2/16 to 2/20 off but she did was supposed to work on the 12th and 13th while Sam and Sarah were here.

Mom took Thursday off work and everyone headed to the beach and LaJolla Shores. I worked all day and met up them at Childrens beach. Friday Mom and I both worked and Sarah and Sam took the kids out to do stuff.

Saturday morning we all said goodbye to Sam and Sarah. I was worried the kids would have a meltdown but they were amazing. Even though Sarah warned Ezzy several times that they would be gone a long time, Ezzy assumed they would be back that evening. After a few days of her asking if her parents would be back “that day” I made her a calendar showing the day her family arrived, the day that her parents left, the day that her parents would get on an airplane to come home and the day that they would return home. Every morning we would cross off the day and she never asked again when her parents would be back.

We had a pretty busy schedule on Saturday. I worked in my yard until early afternoon and Skye was fascinated with what I was doing.

Around the midafternoon we all went to a baptism of a single mother. Ezzy made some very good friends and didn’t want to leave until she learned that her new friend, Charlotte Knaphus, would be at James Hiltons missionary farewell and then we were off. Ezzy had a blast at both the baptism and the farewell.

We all went to church on Sunday and Skye loved the nursery and Ezzy loved her class. She had made friends with one of the girls who was in an older class than her so we sent her off to that class and I sat in the back of the class just to make sure things went smoothly. I didn’t need to worry. Ezzy even shushed a couple of kids we were talking.

The rest of the day on Sunday we just relaxed and enjoyed the kids. The kids decided to turn me into an Andorian. They ended up getting a little aggressive and I ended up with some pretty serious cupping marks. 

I’m not exactly sure what Lisa and Skye were doing in this picture but they appear to be having fun.

On Monday Lisa took the kids to some Play Place in Mira Mesa while I was able to get some work done. It sounds like this was an amazing place and the kids could have spent the whole day there. You can see Ezzy fixing a car in this picture.

Come Tuesday both Lisa and Skye were starting to feel a bit under the weather. Even though she was sick, Lisa still took the kids to the zoo. They both kind of crashed that night though.

Wednesday was a bit of a recovery day for both Lisa and Skye. She let me work as much as she could but it wasn’t a very productive day for me. It was good to interact with the kids a bit more though.

Pretty much every single day that they were here these kids wanted to make lemonaide. Somedays they wanted it twice. I’m sure I could make a batch of lemonaide in half the time it takes these kids to do it but where is the fun in that?

I love that every single grandchild who comes to visit us asks to make lemonaide. It is also fun that the lemon tree has been there since the day we moved in and has had lemons on it pretty much every day since. It has kind of become a symbol of our family.

On Thursday Lisa took the kids to the Scripps Ranch Library. She was only planning on being there for their story time but ended up becoming part of a big Chinese New Year celebration. It sounded pretty fascinating.

I took Friday off work and we all went to the Safari Park. It had been raining off and on all week but Saturday was a beautiful day.

Saturday morning Lisa and Ezzy made cookies and then since we already had tickets, we headed to the San Diego Zoo.

Ezzy’s favorite thing at the Zoo is not an animal but the Sky Train.

Ezzy really wanted to see a Cheetah but we were having so much fun that the day got away from us.

We did find this Jaguar sleeping right up next to the window. It looked just like a kitten and you wanted to reach out an pet it.

Not Ezzy though. She wasn’t getting anywhere near it.

Sunday was stake conference and I had a leadership meeting in the morning at 7:30 and Lisa had a choir practice at 8:45. She brought the kids and I sat with them to save seats. We were worried about them sitting for three hours so I sat next to the Evans. The Evans sign for the deaf people attending conference so I knew I would have support and a front row seat. I took the kids on several walks before conference started at 10:00 but once Charlotte Knaphus showed up to sit with her grandparents, Ezzy was glued to her. They were perfect little angels the entire time. I made cookies for Charlotte and Jacklyn as a thank you.

At one point I fell asleep on the couch and the kids decided to cover me up with pillows. I kind of miss playing with little kids. By that I mean, I lay down and the kids do things to me.

For dinner we had a wiener roast. The kids thought it was fun but they were not going near the fire.

On Monday Lisa had to go back to work so I was in charge of the kids again. By now both Ezzy and I had seasons passes to the zoo and Ezzy still hadn’t seen the Cheetah so off we went.

Between our trip to the Safari Park and our three trips to the zoo the kids had seen every thing but for some reason we had never managed to find the cheetah. I know that sounds like a lot of trips but the kids loved the animals and each trip was very relaxed and they weren’t our normal trips where we are there when the park opens and didn’t leave when they kick us out. They were fun and relaxed trips.

I was kind of dissappointed when we got to the cheetah enclosure because I couldn’t see one anywhere. Then I spotted him. Can you see him?

Here is a close up, does that help? He was just a few feet away from us.

Sarah and Sam got home around three in the afternoon and after a good evening of visiting we all went to bed and Sarah and her family headed to the airport early Tuesday morning.

I have always told Lisa that I would have more kids anytime she wanted. That is no longer true. Sarahs kids are about the best behaved kids you could ask for, and there are only two of them but I am exhausted. As they say, there is a reason you have kids when you’re young. I am tired, but what a wonderful time it was to have kids in the home.

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

Ancient Greece did not have a name for the color "blue".

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A Quick Trip to Arizona

Wednesday, February 11, 2026

Last Friday I had a meeting with Rob in Arizona. Since I was in AZ I was excited to spend time with my kids and grandkids. My meeting Friday morning was at 9:30, Kira had an appointment and Ben was working so it wasn’t until after noon that I got to do fun stuff. Kira and I arrived back at her house at roughly the same time and then we went and bought stuff for her chickens that she was planning on picking up that evening.

Around noon Justin got off work and he and I went to this big warehouse selling left over inventory they get from varous warehouses. The Home Depot is one of the places they get stuff from. They accept trade dollars there, so I checked out the inventory to see if they had anything I’d need. I ended up buying an office chair, a hand held tile saw and a garden hose storage roller. After Justin and I got home we then headed over to one of Kira’s neighbours and picked up three newly hatched chicks.

The chicks were a hit with everyone but Justin. He is not feeling the love for all the animals that the rest of us feel. Although he is not a fan, he tolerates them well. Let me introduce you to the latest family members.

This is nugget. I love the name, but somehow I doubt she will ever become a chicken nugget.

This is Hey Hey. She has a distinctive red face.

And then there is Helen. She is completely yellow and looks just like the chicks you expect at Easter time.

It was quite surprising to see just how protective of the chicks Loki was. He wouldn’t let the cats come near the cage.

Friday night I headed over to Bens to spend an hour or two with his kids before they all headed off to bed.

Saturday morning I had a relaxed breakfast and then I went with Kira to a little farmers market near her house. It was pretty cool. There is family with a few acres and they sell all kind of produce. They’ve invited some of their neighbors to join with them so they have a decent variety of stuff you can buy. They sell rabbits, honey, one guy makes his own knives and all kinds of cool stuff. I bought some granola and goat cheese. I then hit the road. It was a fun weekend.

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

The oldest, most reliable evidence for domesticated chickens comes from Neolithic sites in central Thailand, specifically Ban Non Wat, dating to 1650–1250 BC. The ancestor to todays chickens is the Red Jungle Fowl.

More importantly, the chicken nugget was invented in 1963 and made popular by McDonalds in the 1980's

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The Leavitt Kids

Monday, February 9, 2026

Ben & Sharley decided they needed a break so they headed off on a cruise and left three of their kids with us. We had Z, Jack and Freddie and it is a long story but Kit and M were left at home with a Nannie. We were excited for the chance to spend time with them.

They arrived late on Wednesday night and Friday both Lisa and I had to work so they laid around the house and I kept an ear open to make sure no one was dying. That night we had a weiner roast. We all held our breath when Freddie accidently got some ash on his hot dog. He started to get wound up about the “rock” on his hot dog but I calmly said. “Oh, that’s not a problem, watch”. I then took my finger and brushed of the ash which thankfully dissappeared and Freddie was fine and enjoyed his hotdog.

Saturday we took the kids to the annual Mormon Battalion celebration in Old Town.

To put it mildly, the kids were not excited. Z was especially vocal. Once we got there the very fist exhibit was a place to make dolls. She begged to go. The line up was long so we said we’d come back. The boys were content to run around wrestling each other but Z wanted to participate in every single booth.

She ground corn into corn meal.

She stitched a little heart. That night mom gave her some more fabric and she made it into a little pillow and stuffed it.

She cooked some “woof ums”. You put some bread dough on the end of a wooden dowl and cook it. You then fill the bowl shaped bread with jam, honey or pudding. It’s delicious. The boys weren’t interested until they saw Z cooking hers.

They all three milked a cow.

The boys weren’t interested in anything until they saw a booth where kids were making rope. Jack watched for a while and then asked, “do we get to keep the rope”. When I said yes, he jumped right in and Freddie was right behind him. I didn’t get a picture of them winding the rope but they are swinging them around in this picture.

We then made it back around to the doll making booth.

That night we decided to surprise the kids with a New York Giant Pizza. They were flabbergasted when they saw just how big it was. We told them they could eat all they wanted and after six or seven pieces Jack said, “well I now know how many pieces of pizza I can eat. Seven!” He tried to take the box home but Sharley nixed that idea.

They enjoyed church on Sunday. The boys weren’t too excited to go to class after but we ended up with the perfect teacher for the boys. He had a contest to find certain words in a series of seven or eight versus and they were rewarded with chocolate covered pretzels. Freddie found the first word. No one was keeping track, but if they had been, I'm pretty sure Jack and Freddies team would have won. They loved the class.

It was a fun weekend and we were sad to see them leave on Monday.

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

What a girl eats determines when she enters puberty. Those with nutrient rich diets tend to start menstruating later than their peers who consume more inflamatory foods.

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Hole in the Wall

Sunday, February 8, 2026

For the last several years as I’ve been digging in my back yard I’ve been saving the bigger rocks that I’ve dug up. They are now in a big pile on the north side of our house. Lisa asked me to save them because she thinks they will come in handy for future landscaping projects in the yard.

Meanwhile, I have finished up the wall in the backyard and I was getting ready to apply the finishing touches and move on to the next project. Unfortunately, Lisa is anxious to put in some more storage sheds but I had to explain to here that we have no room for storage sheds and the only way that could happen is if I pushed the wall further down the side of the house to open up more space. Guess what I am now doing. Yes, my wall isn’t done, it now has to be extended another twenty feet or so.

That wouldn’t be so bad except for the big pile of rocks that currently sit on that side of the house. I explained to Lisa that those rocks had to go in order for her to get her storage sheds but I wasn’t willing to move them twice. We had to either do something with them or they were going out in the trash. So now I have another project to finish before I can even start on the extending the wall which was a project that I wasn’t planning on.

Our long range plans always included taking out the plants in the front yard and extending the pavement. Well, we can’t really do the pavement right now but Lisa and Jeff decided that we could take out all the plants, level the ground, put down a weed barrier and then put the rocks on the weed barrier. That turned out to be a lot hard than it sounds.

The biggest problem was the Birds of Paradise. Those suckers have a huge root system that took forever to dig up. Jeff and Zander did all that work while I did my best to save the few plants that Lisa did want to keep.

We have a beautiful Double Delight Rose that hasn’t been doing really good in the shade so I moved it out with the rose that Lisa planted in memory of her mother and they both look a lot happier out there. We also moved several of our Agapantha’s that needed more sunlight than they were getting.

So in the process of doing all that, I poked a hole in my plumbing which didn’t bother me too much because the valves were right in front of the front window and I knew they would be an eye sore, so I took this opportunity to move the valves to the edge of the house where they would less bovious and more easily hidden.

So there I was working on the plumbing and I “gently” leaned against the wall and my shoulder went right through the wall.

Just when I thought I was essentially done with my yard, it has now snowballed into four projects that are all waiting for me to get to them. Uggh. I’m not really all that upset though because I have known for a few years now that I needed to get to the pillar that has the stucco falling off of it so I will just do that along with the wall which was also obviously in need of repair. I guess that is now five projects that all need my attention. Now if I can just find a couple of weekends that I can work on them.

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

Alcohol is far more harmful than any other drug, legal or illegal. 

Heroine is #2 and crack cocaine is #3.

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Pacemaker

Wednesday, February 4, 2026

Every year sometime in late January, Dixie and Mark come to visit us. To keep his professional engineering license current, Mark needs to take some continuing education courses and he chooses to get them in January at the World of Concrete Convention in Las Vegas. This year they were going to do the convention first and then arrive at our house on January 22. On the morning of January 22 Dixie called me and told me that they weren’t going to be there that day but hopefully they would get there the next day, Friday.

They were between classes and Mark was visiting with a fellow in a vendors booth and he felt dizzy and was looking for a place to sit down. He walked out of the booth and that is the last thing he remembers. He woke up in the hospital.

They tried to revive him but he was very delirious and talking nonsense so they called an ambulance. The paramedics hauled him off to the Sunrise Hospital. One of the security staff (or maybe a paramedic) used Marks finger to open his phone and called Dixie who was back in the hotel room. I assume they got Dixies name from Marks wallet.

Mark has already had two heart attacks, so it isn’t hard to imagine where Dixie’s mind went when she got a call from Marks phone and a womans voice askes if this is Reynold Hansens wife. Mark never goes by Reynold. Dixie rushed to the hospital and they spent the day going through a myriad of tests and none of them showed any signs of problems. Finally, at the end of the day when they were about to discharge Mark, the doctor decided to keep him over night for observation and there was one more test they wanted to do the next morning.

In the morning they did the final test. From what I can tell, they strapped him to a bed, moved him around a bit and then stood him up and made him stand there for thirty minutes after which they then fed him a nitro pill. He immidiatley passed out. This time his heart was being monitored and they saw that it stopped beating for nine seconds. They decided to give him a pacemaker.

Mark has been having dizzy spells for several months now and that could be explained by a heart that stops beating now and then. It was now Friday and they scheduled the surgery for Saturday morning. Lisa asked me if I thought I should head to Vegas to be with my sister. My first thought was that they would be fine but later that day I changed my mind. No one wants to sit alone in a waiting room while their loved one is having surgery. While the surgery is now fairly routine, they are sticking probes into his heart and that seems scary to me.

I picked up the kids from school, packed and then headed north. I got there around 11:00pm. It was plenty of time to get a good sleep, but of course Dixie and I just visited until way too late. We got up early on Saturday morning because even though the surgery was scheduled at 8:00, the doctor was going to be going over everything at 6:30 or some unearthly hour.

The surgery went well and we were all happy expecting Mark to be released Sunday morning. We stayed in Marks room pretty much the entire day just visiting and it was really nice.

Marks room had a great view of the strip but all the nurses and orderlies kept apologizing because the parking structure next door had just been demonlished. Mark assured them that to him this was a beautiful view because he loved seeing how the concrete beams from the 1950’s were constructed and how they differed from concrete structures today. Mark made his way to the window and he was showing me how the rebar was positioned in the beam and how it had a tensile strength of something like 260,000psi. I found it quite fascinating.

I think I annoyed the surgion and several of the nurses when I kept playing with all their equipment and asking a ton of questions. I kept a close eye on Marks vitals just to make sure he was not going to die on us. I was frustrated though because most of the outputs were sent to displays at the nurses desk where I couldn’t see them. I did get his bed all figured out though. They even had it alarmed so that if he got out of bed it set off an alarm.

Mark and Dixie have a tradition that on their last night in Vegas they go out for a fancy meal. Since this wasn’t going to happen with Mark, Dixie invited me to this fancy meal. We ended up at Dixie’s favorite steak house, Bob Taylors Ranch House. It was rather expensive, but as it happens, Dixie and I have the exact same tastes in a steak. Rib Eye steak done medium. We split a steak and it was perfect for both of us.

We arrived at the hospital expecting to take Mark home but apparantly at some point during the night one of his probes had been dislodged so he went back into surgery to get it repositioned. Everything went well and once he was back in his room and coherent I had to hug them both and say goodbye. Mark was discharged Monday morning.

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

The founders of Hi-Z developed a thermoelectric battery that used Pu-238 as a heat source. It was used to power pacemakers and would outlast the patient. Due to concerns of cremation and the fact that mentioning the word "plutomium" freaked people out, it was never fully adopted.

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Medals

Tuesday, January 23, 2026

Last year, I think on Fathers Day, Lisa gave me a hook that can be anchored to the wall. Along with it, she gave me all of my medals from the many running events that I have taken part in. The medals had been scattered around the house and I had no idea where many of them were. This bag sat in my bedroom for months, but, as we were putting our house back together after Christmas, she told me it was time to hang up my medals and she suggested where it should go. I did just that, and what a wonderful trip down memory lane it was. I figured it is time to document all my runs. Most of them have dates on them but where there are several medals in the same year I may get my story mixed up. In any case, you will see how much fun I’ve had.

2011

This is the very first medal I ever received, and my very first run. I had talked often to Alan Bird about marathons, and then one day he invited me to join his Ragnar Relay team. It was a blast and I’ve never looked back. I believe the So Cal races are always held in the the spring.

2012a

This was twenty four years ago so I don’t remember any details but it was another Southern California Ragnar Relay. Back then, the race began in Huntington Beach, went inland and then down the I-15 corridor to get around Camp Pendleton and then back to the beach somewhat paralleling highway 78 back to the coast and then roughly followed the beach through downtown and around the south end of the San Diego bay and ended at Silver Strand beach. One of my favorite memories is running through down town Fallbrook around 10:00 pm. I ran right through tables in front of a restaurant. I ran around people who were enjoying their meals. Such fun.

2012b

At some point in 2012, some of my kids (probably Justin) decided to sign up for the St George Marathon. After having run two Ragnars, I figured I was finally ready for a marathon. Running a marathon was something that had been on my bucket list for sometime, so I was very excited. There were two groups of us and I don’t know who was with which group but the runners as I remember them was me, Justin, Ben, Alycia, Sam and Sarah. I trained diligently for the race but some of the others not so much. Many of them were hurting after the race but I felt great. Alycia and I may have been the slowest but we were in no pain.

I’m not sure how it worked out, but Alycia and I trained together often getting ready for this race. We were in Provo a lot and we ran together and she was in San Diego a lot and we ran together. We also ran together for the entire race. I think my favorite training run was down Provo Canyon. I think Sam and Sarah were with us on that run.

Alycia and I started out great and ran pretty much the entire race until about mile tweny one. The last five miles were rough. Throughout the race, if I was slacking Alycia encouraged me and if she was failing I encouraged her. What a fun marathon. We were just a few minutes over 5 hours and I know we could have made those minutes up if we’d know how close we were.

When I saw that the medal was just a rock I was a little dissappointed. All they did was take a drill core and slice it into pieces. Looking at it now, I love it. I think this is one of my favorite medals (stones) and I look at it fondly.

2013

I think this was a race that I tried to organize. Not a good decision, it is rough trying to get twelve people to commit to a 200 mile race. I think this might be the one where Mom, Ben and Kira ran with me. That was fun.

2015a

It looks like I never got a race in during 2014 but we sure made up for it in 2015. Kira and Justin invited us to go on a Disney Cruise with them in January of 2015. That was so much fun. Better yet, we started the trip out with a Marathon. Actually, I think Justin ran a 10K, a half Marathon and a full marathon all in the same weekend. I think they call it a Goofy. I imagine they chose that name because you had to be Goofy to do something like that.

I have a very fond memory from this race. I could see Cinderellas castle in the distance. As I approached it the sun was just rising. It was dark enough that the castle was still lit up with this beautiful blue glow but it was also light enough that I could see clearly. As I approached the castle I could see two princesses on a balcony just above the road and as I ran under the castle and below the balcony the two princesses both waved at me. It made me feel good. I loved it.

2015b

Later in that same year we ran a Ragnar in Las Vegas. We started in the mountains northwest of Vegas, ran through the city and ended up in Henderson. We ran right by Justins Aunt and Uncle so we stopped by and had a middle of the night snack.

2015c

This was a good year because we managed to squeeze in a third run. Disney had a deal that if you run a marathon in Disney World and a Half Marathon in Disneyland in the same year, then you get a special medal.

I’m not sure how it happened but I managed to get a starting coral way ahead of Justin. I think he may have been late getting his information submitted. That made it fun because he caught up with me about half way through the race. We ran together for a mile or two until he got bored and then left me in his dust. This was an avengers themed race so I wore a Hulk T Shirt.

2015d

This is the special medal we got for running the two races.

2016a

I got two very fun runs in 2016. The first one was the Wasatch Back Ragnar relay and the second one was the Las Vegas relay. The Wasatch back ran through the mountains from North of Heber City and ended in Heber. I think Mom may have run this race with us.

2016b

The Wasach Back was the very first Ragnar Relay race. Later in 2016 we ran the Las Vegas Ragnar a second time.

They also gave you a little clip that you could use to clip your two medals together.

2016c

We picked this race because if you ran the Wasatch Back and the Vegas race in the same year you got a Saints and Sinners medal. It is very cool because it reads the same whether it is upside down or right side up. I guess there is no upside or downside.

2017a

This year was a real bumper crop. I got six medals this year.

I don’t remember the order of them but, according to this medal, one of them was another SoCal Ragnar. The SoCal runs are really amazing. The scenery is beautiful, the weather is beautiful and we can sleep in my house.

This might be the race where our team got a warning. Kira was running through LaJolla along the beach and we would drive ahead of her and cheer her on and then drive ahead and repeat it. At some point I think I ran through a water puddle and splashed a runner. They must have report us.

Or maybe it was because Justin and his friends kept stealing hats.

2017b

I have absolutely no memory of this medal. I don’t know where it was or what kind of Ragnar it was but it says 2017 so I must of got it somewhere.

2017c

And then there was the Spartan super. Ben likes to mix things up so he suggested we run a spartan. The spartan likes to add an obstacle course to the run. Going off my memory, I remember that Me, Ben, Brandon, Alex and Frank ran this race.

There are three levels of Spartans, the sprint, the super and the beast (or Ultra). If you look at my medal you can see a pie shaped piece behind it. You get one of those for each of the three races and you can put the pieces together to make another medal called the trifecta.

The spartan had a dozen or so obstacles and they were all fun except for the ones where you had to go hand over hand on monkey bars. I couldn’t do those. I was one of the few in our group to climb the rope though so I get some bragging rights.

2017d

And then there was the San Francisco Ragnar. Sarah and Sam joined us for this race. Just before the race, we all got notified that it was cancelled due to major brush fires in the area. The air quality was bad and the race course went right through the middle of the fire.

They told us that if we showed up, we could get our medals even if we didn’t run. We all had our tickets so we decided to show up and make the best of it.

Our first night there someone smashed the windows out of our car and stole all our luggage so we were off to a poor start. Luckily the police found all our stuff dumped in an ally and we recovered most of what was taken.

We toured the Alcatraz jail which was pretty cool.

2017e

We also found out that there was a half marathon that crossed the San Francisco bridge that weekend so we signed up for that. I got to run across the San Francisco bridge and back. I ran with Kira the whole way and it was amazing.

2017f

Perhaps the best part of the weekend was the Lard Butt 1K. This was another race that we entered that weekend. This was a 1K race and they had donut stations every so often with all you can eat donuts. It was amazing and a lot of fun.

2018a

This was another great year. I got three medals this year.

Kira and Justin invited us on another cruise so of course we had to run another Disney World Marathon. Apparantly, this year was also the twenty fifth anniversary of Disney World so the medal is very cool. Probably my favorite medal of them all.

2018b

They also had a short fun 5K run on Castaway Cay. Disney bought an island in the Bahamas. It was nothing but a small, barren and deserted island but Disney used desalinated water from the cruiseship and they have converted a corner of the island into an island paradise. They have a runway and a few short paved trails that they use to hold a 5K race.

2018c

If you run the 5K and the marathon in Disney World then they give you this cool looking medal. The medal is made of rubber but still very cool.

2019a

Back in 2012 when we all signed up for the St George Marathon, Alex was still on his mission. No one felt that it would be fair to commit him to a marathon, but when he got home and realized that we were all running a marathon he was understandably upset. Oh well, it was too late now. Six years later he decided he was going to run a marathon and he signed up for the San Diego Rock & Roll marathon.

I had just ran a marathon but after a marathon I usually take a break for a few months before I start running again. When I realized that no one was going to run with Alex I figured that maybe I could get up to speed in time. I wasn’t quite ready by the time the marathon rolled around but Alex hadn’t trained at all so I figured I could stay with him OK.

Things went great for the first ten miles. It was a ton of fun because every few miles they had a band playing on the side of the road for us. We also ran through some residential areas and every one was out on the street cheering us on. Some where around the ten mile mark Alex started feeling bad for me. He was obviously holding me back and he finally convinced me to go on ahead and leave him behind. Reluctantly I headed on without him.

Queen Lisa and Princess Lisa tried a couple of times to wait and cheer us on and somewhere around the twenty mile mark they were successful and I stopped for a minute or two to hug them both and say hi. Imagine my shock and dismay when they told me that Alex was a good ten or fifteen minutes ahead of me. Neither one of us has a clue how that happened. Oh well.

Shortly after hugging the Lisa’s I was running up the 163 hill going into Balboa park. That was pretty cool. I say running but by this time I was not in any shape to “run” up a hill like that one. As we were “walking” up the hill I heard people around me talking about a person with a gun at the finish line. We were all wondering if we would be able to finish the run.

As it turned out, Alex was actually held back for a few mintues before they set up an alternative finish line and not too long afterwards I ran into the alternative finish line. The “shooter” turned out to be distraught woman with an airsoft gun.

2019b

Later that year Justin and his buddies invited me to join them in another try at the Wasatch back. I think this might be the Wasatch back that mom joined us. It is all so confusing looking back, but mom was with us on one of the two wasatch backs that I ran.

2021

It looks like I never ran any races in 2020, probably due to covid, but during covid I had more time on my hands and ran in the canyon almost daily. It is weird to say it, but I have very fond memories of Covid for a number of reasons. My carefee life is one of them.

As life was getting back to normal, Sarah decided that she wanted to run a half marathon and Brandon and I went out to join her in the race.

Sarah was anxious to get a good time so she ran on ahead and Brandon and I ran together. It was a lot like when Alycia and I ran that first marathon together. When I was weak he encouraged me and when he was weak I encouraged him. We got a pretty good time if I remember right. It was a fun run.

2022a

In 2022 it was Alycia’s turn to want to run. She invited everyone to join her in a run through Snow Canyon. This time the Palmers decided to join us. In the end, for some reason that I can’t remember, Evan and Landon bailed on us and it was just Kira, Piper and Cameron.

They had many events for all ages so I think Mom ran with Cameron in a short fun run, Piper ran a 5K and I ran with Kira and Alycia. Alycia hadn’t trained well so she set a goal to make it through the park without stopping to walk but in the end all three of us made it to within a few miles of the finish line. At that point Alycia stopped to walk and Kira and I ran to the end.

As far as being properly prepared for the run, this was the race where I was most ready. I felt the best, I got my best time and I ran with two of my girls. What a fun day.

2022b

Later in that year we signed up for a Ragnar Trail run. As far as the running goes, this was one of my more enjoyable runs. I love to run on trails and this was all trails. You have a team of eight people instead of twelve and you have a base camp where everyone stays together. In theory I think this would be my favorite type of Ragnar because the entire team is together in this one camp but, as it turned out, every one scattered and we hardly saw some of the people in our group. At least in a road run you are trapped in the car.

The runs were amazing and I was in good shape and ran them all quite fast. Well, fast for me at least. I do think the medal is stupid. If I wanted a wooden medal I could make that myself in ten minutes on a laser burner.

2023

The race that started all the long relay runs is the “Hood to Coast”. It starts in Mt Hood and you run through Portland and end up at the coast. It is roughly 200 miles and many companies have copied them.

Hood to Coast has stuck with just this one run and it is beautiful. Justin, Kira, Alex and I all signed up along with Justins regular running friends but in the end only about half of us actually ended up going.

While it was dissappointing, in the end it turned out to be an amazing run. We all picked three runs that we wanted to do and we blocked out a good eight hours of sleep, we all piled into one van and away we went. So much fun.

As we normally do, while we were there we checked out all the things to see. The Goonies was filmed in Astoria near Portland so we checked out the Goonie house and the jail that was used in the movie. We went and checked out the Tilamook Creamery which was far more interesting than I thought it would be and then after everyone else left, Kira, Justin and I all went up the Columbia river and checked out four or five amazing waterfalls that are close to the highway. They were all spectacular.

2025

It looks like I didn’t get a race in 2024 but the race last year was another SoCal race and it was very revealing to all of us.

In the last fourteen years since we have been running together, we have all gotten older and slower. Personally, I haven’t slowed any because I was always slow but the fast guys always made up for it. Let me see if I can name all the people who have run with me. Many of these people have only run once or twice but others have run every single time. Justin is the magnet in these events. If I miss anyone please remind me so I can correct my journal.

Fred Leavitt
Lisa Leavitt
Justin Palmer
Kira Palmer
Brandon Leavitt
Ben Leavitt
Alycia Crowley
Alex Leavitt
Lisa Leavitt
Sam Taylor
Sarah Taylor
Brian Palmer
Jared Palmer
Chelsey Meyer
Shane Walton
Stacey Walton
Dave Holland
Joli Holland
Matt Smith
Sheena Smith
Chris Orr
Lanny Leavitt
Luke Haberman
Bethany Haberman
Kyla Conway
Crystal Chandler
Julie Walker
Angie Palmer
Carter Palmer
Logan Palmer
Dallin Lacock
Pat Carey
Teresa Walker
Katy MacKay
Frank Crijger
Cathrine

When we started running together thirteen years ago, these guys were fast. When you register for a race you need to include your pace and if you are a slow team they have you start early on Friday morning and if you are a fast team then you can start later. Ideally, everyone hits the finish line at the same time on Saturday afternoon.

As the years have gone by our start time has been earlier and earlier. This year we had to start very early. As we were running our second time, the run during the night, a Ragnar offical stopped our team and told us that we were one of the last people in the race and that we would have to start skipping legs in order to catch up. Shane even went out and bought an electric scooter to use on his legs. Jared called his sons who live in Temecula and convinced them to come and run some legs (they were fast). Kira, Alex and I all ran together on one of our runs. In the end we finished at a decent time.

I guess the lesson from this run is that unless we recruit some faster runners we will need to modify our races.

So that is the story behind my medals. I smile every time I look at my rack full of medals.

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

The earliest recorded instance of a medal-like honor dates back to the 3rd century B.C. Jewish historian Flavius Josephus recounted that after the high priest Jonathan led the Hebrews to assist Alexander the Great in battle, Alexander rewarded him with a golden button—a token typically reserved for the king’s kinsmen.

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