Lake Padden Tri

This triathlon was very different than ones I've done in the past because I did it all alone.

I drove there with butterflies and set up my area all alone. 

I wandered around before the start and dipped my toe in the water all alone.

Am I looking for an extra pat on the back by telling you that? Certainly not. 

Ok, kinda.

It was just very different than the usual Larsen/Funk party down in Sand Hallow.

I signed up for this one one hundred percent for the training. I really just need a race to help me get off my duff in the spring. I'm not a very self motivated person when it comes to hours of exercise, so sue me.

This tri is the perfect distance too because it's longer than a sprint, so I really do have to train, not just be in general good shape. 

swim 1/2 mile

bike 21 miles

run 5 miles

The night before, I read that it has a strict time limit of 3 hours, and I started panicking! Can I do it in less than 3?

The answer is yes. Yes I can. I did it in 2 hours, 38 minutes.

Here is the official. 

Bless Jimi's heart, he supported me all the way and even brought the kids to come watch me. 

As you know, seeing them is my favorite during a race.

After the race, we let the kids play on the playground, as promised. 

How about the human body? If you train it, it can do hard things.

On my calendar, when I would see that I had to do one hour of biking then one hour of running, I thought there was no way ever I could do it. 

But then your muscles get strong, and you do it, and you think, "huh, that wasn't so hard".

I have a friend who wants do it with me next year, so that should be fun.

This year was out because she just had a baby.

Which leads me to this thought that has always been in my brain, and now seems like a good time to mention it:

The postpartum body is smartly designed, because after 9 months it becomes soft and pillow like...just in time for a baby to lay upon it for months. There are so many soft, squishy, lovely smelling cushions on the new mama's body. 

Don't you think that wasn't by accident? It's perfect. And then as that baby grows and needs less of a bed made from a body, the mama's body gets lean and strong again. 

Brilliant!

Jimuary

June is always the month of Jim. 

A birthday and Father's Day in less than 30 days makes certain he gets all the love and attention concentrated in the first weeks of summer. 

Post dinner at delicious, delicious Sharley's, we were all just sitting around the table talking like moms and dads do,

and I was looking at Jim and he was just so handsome. So gorgeous handsome. The vacation beard, the post church shirt. 

I know I'm a whole lot biased, but darned if he's not the most handsome dad in all the land. 

Jimi's hobby these days is mountain biking.

I am a total fan of a hobby such as this. Even though it's on the expensive side (that bike right there is worth way more than the car you drove in college), 

but I am on board because he hones so many skills within this particular hobby:

He is a PRO at bike maintenance. He has every tool and bike lube you could dream up. He is always maintaining it and upgrading it and researching and watching videos. 

Let me introduce you to the absolute perfect bike (pictured above). It only took about 10 years and 100 bikes for him to find it. 

Plus this hobby is exercise in disguise. 

He rides Galbraith Mountain in Bellingham, and if you google it, you will see some of the most amazing trails ever. It makes me wish I wasn't so afraid of mountain biking, but I am, the end. 

Real quick here, let's talk about one of my favorite things about Jim: His calm and wise temperament when it comes to things controversial and political.

With the recent supreme court decision, we were discussion the complexity of the issue (don't worry, I'm not ABOUT to get into it. Social media doesn't need any more opinions. The opinion meter has been pointing to "too many" for days, and guess what? It doesn't matter! We all will never ever agree on everything in this society! Ever!)

So anyway, he said something like this, I'm ad libbing: "We are all just trying to get along on this planet. There are millions of us living here and we have to make decisions - some to which there is no right answer - to help us all along in this world." 

And that's it. In this life, we will just try and "get along". What I teach in my home will never ever be what everyone in the world teaches, so that's that. 

(and by the way, by complete chance this morning during breakfast omelet, I opened my mag to this exact talk and I took a pencil and drew a square around some of the parts that made absolute sense to me.)

Not sure exactly what this has to do with father's day or Jim? 

Oh, I guess just that I am glad he is on my team. 

Which leads my wandering, rambling brain to emphasize how much I loved hiking the back country of Zion with him. His presence gave me a warm, lovely feeling because I knew he would always look out for me. Whether it's figuring out how to get me safely down the high ledge, or in our home figuring out how to shape our kids into successful people in this bizarro world, planet Earth...he is my teammate numero uno. 

How They Are Right Now

One night back in the "house we only had to live in for a year", I was laying in bed trying to sleep, and my mind wandered to places that mom's minds wander: back to the time when the kids were babies. Back when me and our four walls were all these babies knew. Before school and teachers and neighborhood friends.

I realized that I couldn't remember Avery and Evan as babies. I can look at pictures and blog posts, but I can't remember them as babies. And I cried onto my pillow.

Then I jotted (typed with my thumbs in "notes" on my phone) down some memories from that very night about my little ones lest I forget what they are like "right now". Then I never published the post, but it's been hanging out in my drafts for a while.

This is what I wrote about Avery: "Avery stayed up till ten last night giving me a foot massage and combing my hair." 

Oh yeah! I just realized why this post got shoved to the bottom of the sock pile: this was the day before we discovered the family of lice had moved into our hairs. I remember Avery was combing my hair with a little pink plastic brush she had got out of the treasure box at school. She would brush her hair, then my hair, then her hair, and the lice family was able to travel through the Larsen scalp-tropolis with ease and style. Huh.

My Evan memory: "Evan requests I come and say a prayer with him when I tuck him into bed so he won't have bad dreams."

 One of the major factors in the poor kid's bad dreams may have been the bush outside that would scratch scratch scratch his window any time the wind would move a muscle.

Andrew memory: "After we lay Andrew in his crib, we stand in his doorway and say "nigh night Andrew!" and he says back to me, "nigh night mom mee". Then everyone takes a turn saying nigh night so that we can hear his little voice from the bottom of the crib call back "nigh night Aaa eee, nigh night Ehh ann, nigh night Dah da."

And then I continued in super sloppy mom-panic-in-the-middle-of-the-night: "My time with babies is gone. So sad. I didn't know it would be gone so fast. These kids are such a gift to me. All their freckles and their morning breath. I'm sorry I didn't hold them more. How could that special time be so fleeting and short and my memory let go of what they were like? Because my memory keeps replacing what they WERE with what they ARE. That was a simple time. Remember when my life revolved around naps..."

I was being a bit nostalgic and sentimental. Big surprise, I know. That's my thing.

So, cut to a few months later, we have moved into the best house ever that I love so much. I cringe when I think about not living in this beloved home, side note.

And because I can't stop time, and I don't want to stop time, I want to mentally FREEZE the current moment in time with my children every month or so and write down at least one "thing" about them - one memory of what they are like this very instant. Because I know in a year or more, I will not be able to believe that they were once this little.

Avery currently makes up songs and sings them loud and dramatic. They are actually really good songs, reminiscent of the ones from shows she watches (My Little Pony, H20 Mermaid...) but they are hers and it's my favorite to listen to her without acting like I'm listening so that she won't get shy and stop. Sometimes she rides her bike up and down the street singing her made up songs loud enough that it echos throughout the neighborhood. It's such a treat.

Evan is obsessed with states and the Earth and GPS. He takes my phone and uses up all the data zooming in and out of the maps. He pans out as far as it goes and spins the earth around and around with his pointer finger.

He always asks "when I'm a dad ...." and then inserts a scenario.
For example:"When I'm a dad, can I run in a race?"
"When I'm a dad, can I go mountain biking?"
"When I'm a dad can I sit in the front (of the car)?"

Andrew LOVES "watching" Toy Story and Cars. I say "watching" because he has it on in the background while he plays with the corresponding figurines, mimicking the action on the screen. 

He isn't totally articulate yet, but his mumbles and exclamations and action is right in sync with what's going on in the movie.

There is a part at the end of Toy Story 3 when Bonnie makes Buzz ride the unicorn, and Andrew does that part exactly with his identical toys.

So, yeah, he gets too much screen time, but I'm ok with it because he doesn't just sit there and stare mindlessly. Right? That makes it ok, doesn't it?

Southern Utah

Other fun things we did:

Visit Grandma Cook in Cedar City. 

This fence has housed Grandpa Cook's collection for years. 

Did you know these old Coke bottles have the town they were made on the bottom?

The next day we went up to Oak Grove in the Pine Valley Mountain foothills to BBQ some hamburgers.

Yep, my kids have theee coolest cousins. 

We swam every day. 

We discovered that going after sun down is the best idea ever. You don't practically die of heat, and you don't have to sunscreen protesting, squirming children.

See Avery's mermaid tail? 

And see Evan trying to stand behind the waterfall?

And see Andrew crouch/walking around the water, keeping his body submerged? 

Jamie and Andy were in Mexico relaxin the whole time we were there, but their kids were in the same 5 mile radius as the rest of us.

So, that's four Sorensen families in Coral Canyon for the weekend.

We all met up in the rented condo one morning.

While there was packing and cleaning and cousin chaos going on all around,

me and Jamie sat at this table and chatted...with our giant man babies on our laps until they warmed up.

Garrett is in a phase of only liking certain shirts, and this particular shirt he does NOT like...

so after 15 minutes of coaxing him out of the closet, this is the best we could get of him.

Then we wanted an adult picture, and Brandon's all, in disgust:

"what are we doing? we are adults"

and then none of the men gave much effort into their smiles.

The Subway

All these pictures will start to blur together because there are ten million of them, but it's just so amazing how the landscape changes mile to mile.

I think that's what I love most about Zion is the high country is just as intriguing and beautiful as the slots and canyons. I can't decide which view I love more.

I also love being able to just gab gab gab while I'm walking miles. The first few miles I was so excited about being around cliffs and views without fretting about children. 

Bless our babysitters' hearts. It's such a recharge to get out here in the wild with good people.

Snack break. Mole skin break.

I couldn't decide which shoes to wear, but my chacos were the winners.

I just swore to myself I would tape/mole skin at any hint of a blister. I was worried about getting blisters for the tri on Saturday.

This sandstone looked like a topographical map to me, 

and wood to Emily.

That canyon behind Kim is where we are going.

This is where it starts to get hairy.

It's straight down. There could be any number of rattlesnakes or rock falls during this decent.

Just take it slow and steady. 

In the mouth of The Subway canyon, we took a lunch break. 

I love the red sand of Southern Utah.

 

It was here abouts that Kim and Aaron thought they were missing their car keys. We were all really nervous for about one minute, until the keys were discovered in their dry bag.

It was the first of the "Subway Miracles".

 

Another huge Subway Miracle was Jimi's foot.

It has been bothering him for a week. We were really nervous about it for about two days, wondering if he would be able to hack the whole hike.

 

But it only got better, not worse, as the miles wore on (which leads me to believe it is a tendon problem).

 

Ok. I didn't really want to talk about it, but the other Subway Miracle is that Aaron made it to Vegas.

Here is the short story:

He flew Allegiant from Reno. The flight was delayed. Then the flight was cancelled. Then he got on a Southwest flight and got into town around 3am.

Moral of the story: my family isn't ever allowed to fly Allegiant ever again. Any flight they are ever on is delayed, so buy your tickets on some other none affiliated flight.

These are a bit out of order, but this was our first "rope aided decent". 

There were about 4-5 of this kind of obstacle, and each time the boys would stand there for a few minutes deciding on the best move to make. I would stand and make sure nobody was getting too close to dangerous ledges (I need to relax), Kim would enthusiastically rave about the beauty and insanity of it all, and Emily would wander around looking for heart shaped rocks for her heart shaped rock collection.

This was our first submergence into the freezing waters. 

There is no way around it. You just have to ease yourself in - like an old man easing into bathwater. Except the bathwater is ice water.

This one literally took your breath away for a few seconds. There was the initial silence followed by the huffing/puffing. And some screaming.

This obstacle was the trickiest. There was discussion of "tarzaning" down with the rope.

Finally Jimi wedged himself between the canyon walls with feet against one side, back against the other, and shimmied down.

Jimi shimmied.

Then Aaron did the same, and from there they provided the rest of us with foot holds. 

None of the obstacles (yet) were too tricky. They were just a mini puzzle that needed figuring. 

How can you not take a zillion pictures? 

Once we were in the water, it was harder to get the cameras in and out of the dry bags,

but at one point Aaron says 

"what are we going to do with all these pictures?"

haha.

He's the best. Moving things right along. 

This area had the coolest rock erosion.

Emily is saying "did you see that ninja warrior move?"

She had just jumped side to side to side avoiding the water crack.

Like a ninja.

Ok, so this...this is the biggest of the Subway Miracles.

This was a 15 foot rappel. 

Normally there is a log bridge to get you across a crack, which leads you safely to the other side, and down.

But the log was washed away.

We would have had to make a "leap of faith" across the big dangerous crack, but "lucky" for us, there was a group that had started at "Das Boot" (which is another offshoot of the canyon that requires wet suits and rappel gear). 

We happened upon this obstacle at the same time as them, and they offered their gear and expertise to help us down the cliff. 

From there, the subway is a botanical creation of wonder. 

There are so many water slides and waterfall steps and hanging gardens. 

Zion is the full package. It's a micro and macrocosm of desert beauty. 

 

I love following a desert river on a hike. 

These are dinosaur tracks. 

At least that's what they say.

I don't totally believe it. 

From here, we bouldered for miles at a fast clip, as we discovered how late in the day it was getting, with cars and children yet to retrieve.

The very end of the hike was a steep ascend. Steep. Huffing and puffing ensued. 

We sent Aaron and Emily to go as fast as they could ahead to retrieve the car at the top, 

but when the rest of us "slow" folk got to the parking lot, there was the car and no sign of Aaron or Emily. 

 

Crest fall.

There was this really great sign at a fork in the trail with an arrow going left, and an arrow going right. No other information. Just some redundant arrows. 

The fasts went right. Shoulda gone left.

Good news: we yelled for them, and they followed our voices. It didn't make any difference because there was a thirty minute road construction delay.