We had a fun weekend trip down to St George this last weekend, with a few fun highlights. The purpose of the trip was for Angela and me to run a 5k as part of the St George Runner's Series, which guarantees you entry into October's St George Marathon if you run two other smaller races down there throughout the course of the year. The plan was for me to take my bike and go for a long training ride after the race, but it was not to be. Rain all day and ferocious winds derailed my well-laid plans, and I was not too happy about it. But, the 5k was pretty fun. It's a shorter distance than we're used to running, and believe it or not, it's a lot different from the way we train and race. I would actually rather run a longer race because with a 5k you're basically red-lining for 3 miles. I was completely out of breath with about a quarter mile to go and I really thought I might pass out just trying to keep up with Angela. In the end, we finished close together and were happy to find out that she took 2nd in her age group while I took 3rd in mine. Nice to get a plaque...
We were pretty cold after the race, and we had told the kids to be ready to hot-tub and swim in the heated pool when we got home. We figured even if it was raining we'd be fine with the warm water. Problem was, what looked like the hot tub from outside the pool area was actually just a small, round kiddie pool. The water was lukewarm, but with the sharp wind and rain drops coming down, it wasn't as thrilling as we had hoped for. Ang, Micah, and Kennan lasted all of 30 seconds, but Morgan and Brig wanted to keep swimming so I took one for the team and stayed in with them for about 20 minutes. Cold!
A highlight of the afternoon was going and visiting Grandma Gurr. We were a little worried because we'd heard reports that her mental health is slipping, so we were pleasantly surprised when she seemed happy and healthy, and fine for a visit. We talked for about 45 minutes, and we all enjoyed it, particularly Morgan who said a few times throughout the day how glad she was we got to see Grandma and visit with her.
Also really neat was running into some old friends who we'd known in our California ward, Ben and Maryanne Maher - he was my Elder's Quorum secretary for a while before they moved to St George. We hadn't seen them in probably 6 or 7 years, and we randomly ran into them at the race. It was really fun to catch up.
Apparently we missed torrential rain in Provo all day Saturday (yep, it's late January and it wasn't cold enough to snow...), so I can't complain too loudly about the inclement weather down south. Good thing is that the resorts probably got dumped on, so the previously horrible skiing should now improve drastically.
Monday, January 23, 2012
Monday, January 9, 2012
I'm back...
I've been feeling really guilty lately about not writing in the blog. Not because of high demand, but because it's sort of been my defacto journal over the last few years where I can keep a record of things that happen. Lots has happened over the last three months so I'll do my best to catch up.
Work: Domo has already been an incredible experience. I love the intensity and the energy of having a ton to do, not a big team to do it, and it needs to happen fast. I have a great boss with lots of experience, lots of drive, and a great sense of humor to go with his East Coast personality. There are exciting things ahead over this next year as we launch our product and do business the way we want to do it. There's also been some fun along the way, including the Christmas party that was themed "Back to High School/Prom". Angela and I decided rather dress for prom, we would wear our friends' matching cheerleading outfits (this was specifically encouraged along with uniforms and prom dress) - it felt funny but turned out fun, and we even won $100 for one of the best costumes.
Holidays: We missed mom and dad in Chile, but I'm pretty sure they missed us even more. I got surprisingly emotional a couple nights before Christmas as all the extended family was up at Matt & Debby's, and we skyped Mom and Dad in - one look at them trying to hold it together really made it tough for me. That was a very nice evening to hang with all my brothers and sisters and their families (all except Nate & Jenny), and then we had a sleepover that night and a big traditional Christmas scone and french hot chocolate breakfast on Christmas Eve day with everyone. Christmas Even dinner was at our house and we had Anne & Brandon down for a very good Vietnamese dinner. Christmas day was just awesome. The kids slept until about 8 or a little after, which was fine except with Christmas on Sunday and our church at 9am, it meant we had to get ready for church instead of opening lots of gifts. They ended up looking in their stockings and taking out a couple of things before church, but didn't touch their present piles. Brig was not too happy... In fact we were all kind of frazzled by the time we got to church. We were almost late, and not feeling the spirit too strongly at the moment. It was amazing though to see how our feelings and happiness changed drastically over the course of the meeting - as we sang Christmas hymns surrounded by our ward family, we were filled with peaceful, happy feelings that set the tone for a really great Christmas. Afterwards we opened gifts, talked to Mom and Dad on Skype, had a nice Christmas lunch to get us ready for a spectacular Christmas dinner, and then in the evening went to Christine's to see their family. It was nice for all of us also to have some days off work and school, and we were able to ski, relax, play lots of Wii, and have great times together.
Part of my Christmas gifts to the kids was writing a letter to each one from me. I wrote to Micah about things I wished I had known or done in high school, looking back it with a little broader perspective. For Kennan it was kind of the same but for Jr. High. I wrote Morgan a love letter, and Brig a buddy letter. I decided to hand write them so they would have them in my handwriting, and because it seemed like a more personal effort. I was glad I did it, and I think the kids like it. Ang told me just the other day that Brig said to her: "Mom, I want you to keep Dad's letter to me, because when you read it to me I feel happy in my heart." Man, talk about feeling good!
The Kids: Busy, busy, busy. Micah ended out her football cheering and it seemed like things calmed down a little bit. She does more other events like basketball, volleyball, and even wrestling (which they don't like because of the smell!), but generally we haven't been going with her since they're different from football games. We'll probably go to a couple basketball games, but in general we don't feel the same need to support her in all the little things. She has also been busy with dance - which was crazy over the holidays as her dance teacher ridiculously thought that time off for the holidays meant everyone was full-time available for dance rehearsals. Not cool. We were not thrilled with the whole thing, and probably made the kids miss more of the practices than other kids, but I didn't care. Anyway, Micah and Kennan are both such great dancers - very elegant and genuinely happy when they dance. You can really tell they love it by the big smiles on their faces as they dance, so we're happy to support as we can. Kennan loves to play with her cousin her age, and she went skiing with us a couple of times even though I don't think she loves it. Morgan is our little skier. She asked me to take her up skiing early one day before everyone else so we could go ski the back mountain together - it was so much fun. She's very brave and a pretty good little skier; I love that she'll just ski where she wants without needing me to be with her. There were quite a few runs where she just said, "meet you at the bottom" and then she'd take off. Brig's also a fun skier, and he's getting better all the time as he gets the luxury of Ang taking him up pretty much every week before school or on Fridays. They have been loving playing Wii games they got for Christmas, and reading their own books in addition to the book I'm reading them aloud: Eldest (2nd in Eragon series).
We're still loving our new neighborhood, our friends, and the ward. We continue to do small projects here and there on the house to just make one thing at a time a little better. My latest was setting up a sweet little personal home gym in a corner of the basement far from any bedrooms, so I can go down there either early morning or late at night without waking anyone up. I've already spent some good quality time down in my pain cave.
Speaking of good quality exercise time, I have some very aggressive training and racing goals for this year, and I've done well so far in starting off my training right. Should be a fun year, if you consider waking up early every morning, working out a little more than you're comfortable with each day, and wondering how you will get through it all ... fun. I guess I do, so here we go.
Work: Domo has already been an incredible experience. I love the intensity and the energy of having a ton to do, not a big team to do it, and it needs to happen fast. I have a great boss with lots of experience, lots of drive, and a great sense of humor to go with his East Coast personality. There are exciting things ahead over this next year as we launch our product and do business the way we want to do it. There's also been some fun along the way, including the Christmas party that was themed "Back to High School/Prom". Angela and I decided rather dress for prom, we would wear our friends' matching cheerleading outfits (this was specifically encouraged along with uniforms and prom dress) - it felt funny but turned out fun, and we even won $100 for one of the best costumes.
Holidays: We missed mom and dad in Chile, but I'm pretty sure they missed us even more. I got surprisingly emotional a couple nights before Christmas as all the extended family was up at Matt & Debby's, and we skyped Mom and Dad in - one look at them trying to hold it together really made it tough for me. That was a very nice evening to hang with all my brothers and sisters and their families (all except Nate & Jenny), and then we had a sleepover that night and a big traditional Christmas scone and french hot chocolate breakfast on Christmas Eve day with everyone. Christmas Even dinner was at our house and we had Anne & Brandon down for a very good Vietnamese dinner. Christmas day was just awesome. The kids slept until about 8 or a little after, which was fine except with Christmas on Sunday and our church at 9am, it meant we had to get ready for church instead of opening lots of gifts. They ended up looking in their stockings and taking out a couple of things before church, but didn't touch their present piles. Brig was not too happy... In fact we were all kind of frazzled by the time we got to church. We were almost late, and not feeling the spirit too strongly at the moment. It was amazing though to see how our feelings and happiness changed drastically over the course of the meeting - as we sang Christmas hymns surrounded by our ward family, we were filled with peaceful, happy feelings that set the tone for a really great Christmas. Afterwards we opened gifts, talked to Mom and Dad on Skype, had a nice Christmas lunch to get us ready for a spectacular Christmas dinner, and then in the evening went to Christine's to see their family. It was nice for all of us also to have some days off work and school, and we were able to ski, relax, play lots of Wii, and have great times together.
Part of my Christmas gifts to the kids was writing a letter to each one from me. I wrote to Micah about things I wished I had known or done in high school, looking back it with a little broader perspective. For Kennan it was kind of the same but for Jr. High. I wrote Morgan a love letter, and Brig a buddy letter. I decided to hand write them so they would have them in my handwriting, and because it seemed like a more personal effort. I was glad I did it, and I think the kids like it. Ang told me just the other day that Brig said to her: "Mom, I want you to keep Dad's letter to me, because when you read it to me I feel happy in my heart." Man, talk about feeling good!
The Kids: Busy, busy, busy. Micah ended out her football cheering and it seemed like things calmed down a little bit. She does more other events like basketball, volleyball, and even wrestling (which they don't like because of the smell!), but generally we haven't been going with her since they're different from football games. We'll probably go to a couple basketball games, but in general we don't feel the same need to support her in all the little things. She has also been busy with dance - which was crazy over the holidays as her dance teacher ridiculously thought that time off for the holidays meant everyone was full-time available for dance rehearsals. Not cool. We were not thrilled with the whole thing, and probably made the kids miss more of the practices than other kids, but I didn't care. Anyway, Micah and Kennan are both such great dancers - very elegant and genuinely happy when they dance. You can really tell they love it by the big smiles on their faces as they dance, so we're happy to support as we can. Kennan loves to play with her cousin her age, and she went skiing with us a couple of times even though I don't think she loves it. Morgan is our little skier. She asked me to take her up skiing early one day before everyone else so we could go ski the back mountain together - it was so much fun. She's very brave and a pretty good little skier; I love that she'll just ski where she wants without needing me to be with her. There were quite a few runs where she just said, "meet you at the bottom" and then she'd take off. Brig's also a fun skier, and he's getting better all the time as he gets the luxury of Ang taking him up pretty much every week before school or on Fridays. They have been loving playing Wii games they got for Christmas, and reading their own books in addition to the book I'm reading them aloud: Eldest (2nd in Eragon series).
We're still loving our new neighborhood, our friends, and the ward. We continue to do small projects here and there on the house to just make one thing at a time a little better. My latest was setting up a sweet little personal home gym in a corner of the basement far from any bedrooms, so I can go down there either early morning or late at night without waking anyone up. I've already spent some good quality time down in my pain cave.
Speaking of good quality exercise time, I have some very aggressive training and racing goals for this year, and I've done well so far in starting off my training right. Should be a fun year, if you consider waking up early every morning, working out a little more than you're comfortable with each day, and wondering how you will get through it all ... fun. I guess I do, so here we go.
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