Tubing at Soldier Hollow

Deanna came to visit this past week from Washington.  My kids love it when they come because it turns into a springboard of activities every time.  When my sister comes, she likes to pack in all the activities.  Last Wednesday night, we all went over to the BYU basketball game against Gonzaga.  BYU actually won that one.  At the game, Brad had to get a pretzel, Jake had to get nachos and Ava had to get a pizza.  Ethan sat with Cody and didn't want anything.  David and Carolyn came with Savannah.  Darin came by himself.  Deanna came with her 3 boys.  Nichole stayed behind with Eli.  Then, on Saturday they wanted to go up to the mountains and do some tubing.  They were excited to go, but the only bummer was that Ethan had to work, and Nichole had to stay with Eli, because he is too young for tubing.  She thought it would be good for me to go with the 3 of them while she stayed with Eli.  Speaking of that, wow, I've been able to go on 3 dates with Brad, Jake and Ava in less than a week...one of those times even Ethan was with me.  We went together to the BYU basketball game, then tubing up to Soldier Hollow and then to the movies last night for FHE.  All I can say, is welcome to Party Central.  And, Saturday morning I was allowed by my cutie to get in a 5-hour workout, of which 3 of those hours I spent with Deanna and David doing some swimming, biking and cross fit...good times!

When we first got there, Brad and Jake were so excited to get going that they did not even wait at all for me nor for Aunt Deanna.  They just took off with their cousins, Cody, Zeke and Jason.  Ava stayed with me because she was a little scared and nervous at first.  The cool thing is that this was a good lesson for Ava.  She was scared at first, but after a few runs down the slopes with the tube, she wanted to go down by herself.  So, I gave her a big push and let her loose down the slope with the tube.  It was so dang cute to see her little body cruising down the mountain.  She used this lesson learned as part of her talk she gave in Sharing Time on Sunday.  She let the other kids know that when they keep the commandments, though they may be hard at first to keep, gets easier to keep them as they keep trying.  You get better and more confident in doing what is right.  And, just like she was happy to be with her brothers, you are happy when doing the right thing.

 My training has been averaging between 8-10 hours a week. I like to go at least on Tuesday and Saturday morning to get some swimming in and maybe throw in the occasional Thursday morning swim as well.  I've been working on the swim endurance lately as opposed to the interval training for speed because I want to get ready for a full triathlon of the 2.4 miles swim, 112 miles bike and 26 mile run.  I've enjoyed the swimming so much more because it just doesn't seem to tear me up as much.  My knees have been giving me issues so in order to combat that issue I have been throwing in a lot of kick with the swim.  I use the fins for the resistance and it totally feels like a shot of cortisone to the knees.  My typical Tuesday and Thursday routine is a 1.25 mile swim, kick 1000 with the fins, then swim another 500 meters.  Saturday's are my long days where I will do the 2.5 mile swim mixed in with about 1.5 hour bike and 1 hour run then some weights to top it off.  That usually get my 3-4 hours routine in.  It's been fun, because I get to go with my sweetie on weeknights.  This last week we were able to go on Tuesday and Thursday night together.  Our goal is to go 4 times together through the week.  I love going with her.  It just feels like such a bonding time.  She thinks it's funny that I want to go to the gym with her, but I absolutely love it.  It feels like a date every time

 It's been snowing a little bit lately, so I went running up the Alpine Loop with Nate a few Saturday's ago.  While running up there, we saw two moose together.  We took a picture because it is so rare to see moose in pairs.  They are usually always by themselves.  We thought it was maybe a mama moose and her calf.  But, either way we thought it was pretty neat.  The run kicked my trash.  I've been doing just mainly 5k's and 10k's mixed in with the occasional 13-milers.  But, we decided to go on a 22-mile excursion.  The distance wasn't so bad, but it was the incline.  We had most of the decline in the first half of the run which meant it was mainly uphill the majority of the last half.  It sucked, but it was good for me.  I was so hungry when it was over that we ended up hitting the Wendy's on the way home.  Nate's a trooper.  He stayed with me the last half.  He's improved so much that it's hard for me to keep up with him now.

Utah sure is pretty, especially up in the mountains!  I need to bring the family up here more often, seriously

Jacob and Esau

So, when Nichole saw this picture of Ethan and Brad, she said, "hey, it's Jacob and Esau."  Nichole and I had a good laugh.  This was a fun picture because it shows these two being on the same team in basketball for the first time.  It's fun watching these two play together.  Ethan scores and averages like 20 to 30 points a game while he plays center on defense and point guard on offense.  Brad, not only made a couple 3-pointers in the last two games, but he swished these two shots that looked like rainbows.  When making the shots, he just nonchalantly shrugged it off and smiled.  He was cute.  

Jacob = Brad.  Esau = Ethan

41...crazy!!

My family is amazing and pretty cool.  They were so patient in waiting for me to get home from work. I tried to get home early enough for dinner because that's what they asked me to do.  It turned out that that was one of the gifts these awesome people got for me...dinner certificates to Texas Roadhouse.  It's too bad the budget always seems to get in the way so we can't eat out for every meal

Jake got me the runner's jacket and Ava got me the ninja hat.  They thought it was cool to get daddy some running gear.  I loved it!!

Brad got me the Texas Roadhouse dinner certificates.  What better way to a man's heart than through his stomach.

Not many dads get a hug and a kiss from his 17-year old son