still playing catch-up

We visited the graves of Grandma and Grandpa Pack and Walker in Alpine

It was fun to see Michael and Niki's crew there as well as more extended family

We also participated in a couple parades with the hospital and our own Primary

And of course we tried to beat the heat at the splash pad a few times

Our abbreviated summer

As I mentioned before, our kids have year round school. That means our summer did not begin until 4th of July weekend. As soon as school was out we hit the road for Washington to kick off our short summer with Derek's parents

Its tradition to get some donuts at Krispy Kreme while we are in Washington. Although now we have one very close, the five years we spent in Kansas made us appreciate having a variety of stores close by and so this really was a special treat for our kids . . .


Derek and I took off for a couple days to Vancouver Canada without the kids. It was great! We were within walking distance of Stanely Park (1000 acres right downtown, dwarfs Central Park in NYC--but you get the idea), and because we have continued running Derek said, "let's get up tomorrow morning and run around the seawall that is part of Stanley Park." Did Derek check on the mileage? No. Was this suppose to be a vacation? Yes. How many weeks since we ran a marathon? Oh abooot (for you Canandians) 3. We kept running and running. 8+miles later I said forget it and we veered off the sea wall trail and headed inland to the city. Once we reached the street we walked back to our hotel.

While we were without kids, we took advantage and attended a session at the newly constructed and dedicated Vancouver Temple. It was beautiful!

Do I look bored?

Does Derek?

That is because of this.

Wow. Border Control.

Getting into Canada we waited for maybe a total of 30 minutes.

We waited all that time to be asked:

1. what is your business in Canada? vacation.

2. do you have any fire arms or weapons? No.

3. do you have any drugs? No.

I will now be peering in your windows and looking in the trunk. (I assume for the aforementioned items)

To get back into the US (on a Wednesday morning) we waited for 3+ hours.

Really.

We waited all that time to be asked:

1. are you bringing anything back from Canada that you purchased there. No.

2. are you sure? Yes; well, we do have this soda we are drinking.

3. what about produce? any produce? No.

4. are you sure? Yes.

please release your trunk and I will be peering in your windows. (looking for produce)

thanks have a nice trip.

Now I don't want to damage the agriculture market in the US, but even if we did have produce we were driving our car not our semi (oh wait we don't have a semi) so how much produce could we possibly be bringing with us?? Apparently enough to effect the local farmers.

Nice.

Oh Canada!

Thanks for a great kick off to our brief summer. We love Washington and visiting with the Vances!

Where to begin . . .

I don't even know where to begin . . .

so you'll have to come back soon to see what we've been up to!

No the marathon did not kill us . . .

You may have thought so due to our lack of blogging . . .but we are well and still running!

run. run. run.

shoes with our time chips ready to go!

heading out early Saturday morning

A BIG THANKS to Derek's sister and husband!

Blake and Laurissa spent the night with our kids at our place in Syracuse and let us use their comfy home down in Provo to crash Friday night. The kids had a blast and love their Uncle Blake and Aunt Rissy!
Fuzzy shot of the starting line.

Notice it is very dark.

That is because it is very early.

The first bus left Provo at 3:30 am!
Not sure if I'm ready!
Totally ready!
Crazies.

There was a shortage of porta-poties at the start line so pretty soon people were (trying) hopping the barb-wire fence and semi-secluding themselves to take care of business. At the front (there were like 1500+ marathoners) people just dropped their drawers and kept their precious place in the line up

(guess they were out to win!)

We had to go too.

But modesty matters to us.

We waited for the crowd to start running and then started our race about 20 minutes after the official clock time. No worries we had a time chip (see picture #1) to record when we officially started and stopped.
Drenched.
It rained hard and harder for the first 10 miles.

Otherwise the day was perfect--cloudy and about 55!

We were soaked.

Beautiful scenery running down Provo Canyon.

The looooong road ahead.

More lovely scenery.

Provo River.

Derek was enjoying the view.

Our biggest fans.

Uncle Blake and Aunt Laurissa helped the kids make signs for us!

Thanks!

Coming around to the finish. Trying hard to look good the last .2!

Slapping five with Camille.

The kids wanted to run the finish with us but we had to shooo them back to the sidelines.

So close.

Done.

For those of you who must know--our time was about 15-20 minutes better than recorded.

Elena saw our medals and said, "Mom, but you did not win!"

I know.

Camille said, "We had to wait a loooong time!"

I know.

We did it!

When's the next one??

Just kidding, Derek.

(that makes him sooo mad when I say that:)

26.2

We did it! Today Derek and I ran the Utah Valley Marathon. It started in Wallsburg (near Midway/Heber) and ended 26.2 long miles later at the Provo Towne Centre. More pictures and details later, but I just had to post it TODAY!

The Ennis Visit

Jessica, Shawn and family came out to visit for week the beginning of May. We had a great time with lots of visiting, playing games late at night, and eating good food.

We started off the week celebrating Ronin's third birthday and then spent the rest of the week trying to cram in as much fun as possible!

girls and Carson at the Hill Air Force Museum

We have been there lots, but this was the first time this "kid area" was open--what a blast!

Camille and Renae. Camille loved Baby Renae and told everyone (people at the store, kids at the playground) all about how her cousins were here visiting and emphasized how cute her new baby cousin is!!

The Walkers came up for a b-bque the night before the Ennis's went home

Running through the Air Force Museum

The cousins had a good time even if there was occasional yelling and fighting.

How I wish my sisters lived closer . . .