Robie Creek

Yesterday was the much anticipated Race to Robie Creek. Here we are before the race started still smiling.

They, whoever they are, claim this is the toughest race in the Northwest. Eight miles up a mountain and five miles down. I believe there were almost 3000 people in the race this year. The weather was beautiful but, a little warm for that long of a race.

My friend Sarah and I. She was smart enough not to participate :)

Jonnie getting a little stretching in before the race.

Since Jon finished the race almost an hour before I did, he took a couple pictures of me FINALLY nearing the finish line.

It's kind of hard to see but the clock says 2hrs 49mins.

After the race still smiling, only this time the smiles are from the joy of being DONE!

This was Jon's 3rd time running Robie and my 1st and, pretty sure, last. Jon has run Robie three times. This year he had to put in for the second chance drawing because he didn't get a spot the first time around. He decided to increase his chances, he'd put my name in also then if I got it and he didn't, he could use mine. He informed me of this after he'd put our names in. Well, as luck would have it, we both got in. I still had the option to back out but while sitting in my computer chair I thought, "Sure, why not? I can do it."

Then while in Hawaii I hurt both my knees running hills and my thoughts of doing it quickly changed. I still really wanted to complete the race so I tried gently training but, unfortunately my knees never got better. I made it about five miles into the race before my left hip and knee were killing me. I limped through the rest of the race only running the last little bit so I didn't walk across the finish line. Definitely not what I was hoping for. It was unfortunate to have to push through pain for eight miles most likely adding more damage to the already injured hip and knee. However, I am confident with time, nutrition, and assistance from some good Chiros, I will fully recover.

Jon's story: Two days before the race Jon hiked many miles of steep hillsides during his bear hunt and then packed out heavy bear meat. He was hurting and exhausted. The first few miles of Robie he felt like puking. Then he had other ailments show up. At one point he was sure his calves were going to burst. He was miserable the entire race and still felt ill afterward. He finished the race in just under two hours, about a half hour slower than his two previous races.

We ran the race with two other friends. One friend felt like puking for about 2 1/2 hours after the race and the other friend almost passed out during the race but thankfully was saved by an aid station. Anyone want to run it next year?

The rest of these are some pictures of Lydia and Jon being silly with the camera.

My husband...

Loves Me!

At 9am this morning the doorbell rang. I assumed it must be Lydia's little neighbor friend. When I saw a man holding flowers, instead, I assumed he must be at the wrong house. After questioning him, because I was certain he was at the wrong house, I realized he was at the right house. Happy day for me! For the 1st time in our 9 years of marriage Jon ordered me flowers.

I've had a rough last little bit with the passing of my friend and a few other things that have been weighing on my mind. Lydia, true to her girly sensitive nature, mentioned to Jon last week that he should buy me flowers. Then on Wednesday, he saw a new patient, who happens to work at a flower shop. So, the flowers weren't solely Jon's idea, but bless his heart for catching onto the clues and acting on them. I love you, Jon!

On a little spring bear hunt

April 15th was opening day of bear season here in Idaho. Nick Jangula and I decided to go do a little camping and hunting. We hiked into some rough country and spotted a sow and cubs and then this bear several miles away. We had spotted her first thing in the morning. About 7 hours later I was able to put the stock on her. We were able to get within 50 yards. She went 15 yards and was done.

Packing out the bear

We had to cross a river 2 times. The water was frigged. Here I am running to lessen the exposure of cold water.

Loaded down with the hide on my back.

It only took one shot, which is the short arrow in my quiver

We thought it would be a good idea to cross in bare feet at the first crossing. Between the freezing water and big rocks-bad idea.

One of the best parts was soaking in this perfect hot spring after the pack out, how relaxing.

A trophy should not be determined by the size of the animal, but perhaps by the effort in getting an animal.

Lydia's second haircut

Given by none other than the princess herself!

Thankfully, after hanging up the phone, I heard scissors and ran to the bathroom. I'm pretty sure she would have cut the whole thing if she hadn't been caught.

The damage.

Extra sad because she had such pretty curls.

Days later I found more hair hidden in other locations. Like behind the couch, in the closet and behind a basket in the computer room.

After the hair cutting incident I began to realize that Lydia is "that" child. The one everyone talks about that is into constant mischief. Hyrum was just never that curious, and in his younger days, was very obedient. Lydia on the other hand, has a very free adventurous spirit and loves to be busy and to learn with hands on activities. It doesn't seem to matter how many times I tell her not to do a certain activity and explain why not; she still does it. Below are a few pictures of Lydia's creativity that can be found around our home.

The sheets on my bed. My pillowcase also has drawings on it.

The wall next to her bed.

The wall in the toy room.

A drawer in the kitchen.

The outside of a drawer.

Another drawer in the kitchen.

The counter in the kitchen.

Our leather couch in the living room.

Maybe Lydia will make her fortune through art, and I will look back at these days with gratitude that I was able to provide so many great places for her to practice. You really never know, right?

To be honest, I'm grateful to have such an upbeat adventurous spirit in our home. She has so much animation and excitement that constantly bubbles over and fills our home.

Thank you, Lydia, for adding so joy and love to my life!

Sunday will come

I spent this last weekend in Kansas. The trip was sudden and unplanned due to the passing away of one of my good friends from Texas. Her name is Tatum. She was a month younger than I am and the mother of three young daughters. She battled Lupus for three years and spent the last 10 weeks of her life in the ICU before passing on.

When we first moved to Texas, Hyrum, was about six weeks old. He had been born in the hospital and had complications. I thought at the time that if he hadn't been born in the hospital he probably would've died. I believed hospitals were the place to have babies, epidurals were definitely the way to go, and vaccines were safe and best for children. I had no intention of changing my beliefs.

Then, I met Tatum.

Her small and petite frame do not do justice to her bold nature. She held firm beliefs and opinions, and was passionate about several things in life. You never had to question where Tatum stood on an issue. Childbirth and child rearing were near the top of her list of passions.

What I loved about Tatum was that although she knew I disagreed with her beliefs she never tried to force them on me. She never tried to convince me. The way she lived her life and the example she set spoke louder than any words ever could have. I watched and was inspired by her. My desire to learn naturally grew as I heard truths that she would gently, but matter of factly, speak.

I still didn't agree with Tatum but, how grateful I am that truth has a way of infusing your being and lighting your soul; bringing out a passion you never knew existed. Without a conscious decision to do so, I became a changed being. Truth infused me and literally lit a fire within me. I have never been the same since.

Thank you Tatum. Thank you for being you. Thank you for being true to your beliefs. Thank you from all whose lives will be touched by the truths that I now know.

Tatum passed away just three short days after Easter. How grateful I am for my Savior and Redeemer Jesus Christ. For His life, His ministry, His Atonement, and His resurrection. How grateful I am for His truth in my life. As difficult and trying as death is and as heart-wrenching as losing a loved one must be, I am grateful there is hope. Hope found only in and through the One who loosed the bands of death and overcame the grave, our Savior Jesus Christ.

Go here to understand the title for this post.

Easter 2010

I love when Easter falls on Conference weekend. I absolutely LOVE Conference weekend! A spiritual feast combined with a relaxing weekend at home.... fabulous! A friend invited us to join his ward at their Easter egg hunt and breakfast at the church. It worked out perfectly. The kids got a chance to hunt for eggs, collected plenty of candy, got a few prizes, and then we all enjoyed a yummy breakfast all before the 1st session of conference started.

The ward accidentally planned for too many eggs so the kids got to hunt for eggs twice. In each hunt they hid one golden egg that had a special prize. On the second hunt Hyrum was determined to find the golden egg. He's in the back of this picture in the red sweatshirt looking for it. He was so determined to find it, he ended up finding little else and still didn't find the golden one. Thankfully, he gathered plenty of eggs in the first hunt.

Lydia really enjoyed the egg hunt and had a great time. Too bad she hid downstairs when we got home and ate almost all of her Easter candy! She's quite the sneaking little child.

This was after the second hunt. Notice the very few eggs Hyrum has.

On Sunday, I hid little bags for each of the kids. Not much since they'd already had way too much candy. They each got a pack of gum and some suckers from the health food store. Jon's bag was full of crystallized ginger cubes. It's always so fun to watch Jon "hunt" for things.

We missed spending Easter with Grandma & Grandpa Lindsey this year. We've spent Easter with them every year since we moved here in 2006.

Spring Break

We had beautiful weather for spring break. The kids had some fun times playing in the hot tub. Having Hyrum on spring break really makes me want to homeschool.

An example of Lydia's animation :) Gotta love the girl!

The kids and I spent the last few days of spring break in Washington while Jon went steelhead fishing with a friend up on the Clearwater. He also went to a bow shoot that weekend. My family has about 8 birthdays within a few weeks of each other so we went up for the big joint party they had on Saturday. I didn't get any pictures but we had a great time. I got to go to the gym with my sister a couple times and the kids got to play with their cousins all weekend. Saturday for the big party we went swimming at the Court Club and then that afternoon we had a family BBQ at Dallas and Brooke's. It's so nice living only 4 hours from my family!

Jon with a steelhead. Too bad it was wild so he couldn't keep it.

PS We got to WA Thursday night and my Mom had some listener appreciation tickets from KORD, a radio station there, for Miranda Lambert and some other country singer. My Mom's not a country fan so she wanted me to use them. My Dad and I ended up going with Dustin and Andrea. I was in High School when they started doing the listener appreciation concerts. It was such an exciting thing to try to win tickets to. Karena won us tickets during the wee hours of the morning and all of our friends ended up with tickets. (It was Joe Diffy and some even less popular singer...) We had a WAY fun time so even though this last concert wasn't too great, and it was a little too loud for my 30 year old ears, it brought back a FLOOD of awesome memories! I love my HS friends!!!!