Skyler Turns 10 - End of School - Random

Skyler's birthday was the day I was flying back from Utah, so I put Kylee in charge of wrapping the presents and making the birthday sign, and Andy in charge of making the cake.

I got home around 3:30pm and Skyler got to open his presents.

We then went to Texas Roadhouse for dinner. He didn't want to sit on the birthday saddle, but we convinced him to do it so they could sing and give him his bday sundae.

Andy made a Galaxy cake. We didn't realize until way later when we were looking at the photos that he forgot the "h" in birtHday. Ah, well. Next time.

After Texas Roadhouse we came home to have some cake and ice cream. The cake was delicious! I can't believe that Skyler is already 10. I wish that time could just slow down and they could stay young for a little longer. He still loves all things non-fiction. Space, animals, science...you name it, he's interested. He reads books about all sorts of things and then files away the random info to pull out later. For his bday he got a couple of science kits, and he was super excited about it. He's also a really kind kid. He doesn't mind playing with Colby, and when he's with his friends or cousins he's happy to just do whatever they want to do. Just about everyone loves him because he's got his big goofy smile on almost all the time.

Kylee successfully completed her Freshman track season, and we got to go to the award and dinner finale.

On the last day of school one of our friends invited all her kids' friends (and her friends w/their kids) to her house for a huge party. She has a pool, and she also rented inflatables, got pizza, etc. We were there for about 6 hours and the kids didn't want to leave!

Colby continues to do his eye exercises, but sometimes he is so tired that he doesn't quite make it through the whole set.

He also continues to fall asleep during Ranger rides sometimes!

For Ally's bday back in March she got a Walmart gift card from grandma Karen, and we finally went to Walmart to choose out some things. She got a new watch, a crystal growing kit, some necklaces, and string for making friendship bracelets. She was very pleased with herself for getting SO MANY THINGS with her money. I've definitely done well at teaching these kids how to bargain shop!

Skyler spent hours upon hours upon hours doing the experiments in his science kits.

This summer the free summer movie program FINALLY escaped Covid and came back into existence. Our local theater has the nice reclining seats, so the kids loved it!

Random May and Trip to Utah

While I was gone to the Ragnar Andy had the lofty goal of remodeling our laundry room so that we could do two side-by-side stacked front loaders. That way we could have two washers and two dryers and get our laundry done more quickly. Sadly, after he got everything ripped apart he learned that there is an AC vent in the way and nowhere to move it to, so his plan was foiled. However, he also learned that when they built our house they didn't seal the washer pipe very well, and it's been dripping for the 18 months we've lived here, and the wall was filled with black mold. So...I guess it was a blessing in disguise. He wasn't able to do the double laundry, but at least he discovered the plumbing issue and got it fixed.

I got some pretty Spring flowers to brighten up our yard.

At Skyler's after school STEMA class they learned how to make wooden burning pictures. He didn't have time to finish his so he me order him a magnifying glass from Amazon so that he could finish his at home. 

For the last year or so my road bike has been struggling with its gears. When I did the Tucson triathlon last October it skittered into a way too easy gear and then froze there. At the time I really thought my race was going to be over, but luckily I pounded it really hard with my fist, it went back into a harder gear, and I just left it that way for the duration of the race. However, I then had to leave it that way for the duration of ALL my rides. When we rode to Hatch I also had just the one gear. Luckily that ride doesn't have any huge hills and it was manageable. Anyway, in preparation for the April triathlon Andy had tried to fix my gears, but the "fix" only lasted for about 1/2 mile. I ended up riding his bike for the triathlon instead. So...we figured we could either spend a few hundred dollars getting an entirely new set of gears on my bike...or buy a new one. I'd been riding the old one for about 12-13 years (since Kylee was a baby), so we went for a new one. It's such a pretty color! In May I took it out for its inaugural ride and did the Baylor loop. It was about 30 miles, and I loved it!

The third week of May I headed up to Utah for a Legacy Tree management retreat, so Andy got to attend Colby's end-of-year pre-K party. Colby loved pre-K so much, and had the BEST teacher. She was so loving and kind, and he really came out of his shell and grew a lot in confidence.

Also while I was gone Skyler had his 4th Grade Living Wax Museum. They were a bit disorganized and didn't communicate very well, so Andy ended up missing it because it finished before the time they had even said it was supposed to start. My friend Ashlee happened to be there early because she was confused about the time, so she got a video of Skyler giving his presentation, and took a photo of him with her son. Skyler was Walt Disney.

For our retreat the goal was to do some training for our managers, but also to take them out and have some fun. We haven't met in-person in over 2 years due to Covid, and some of our managers haven't even met each other or our Director team at all. One of the days we went on a UTV ride up in Midway. I ended up in a UTV with our CFO, Glen. At first I was bummed that they were making us wear dust masks, helmets, goggles, etc. Then I realized how much dust gets kicked up when it's so dry and you have a bunch of UTVs in a row.

It was actually a really cold day, and we ended up getting SNOWED on while we were out there. I was super glad that I had worn both the jackets I brought! I'm not cut out for cold weather!

We came to a river crossing and the guide told us we could go as fast or slow as we wanted. Everyone else was taking it super slow because they didn't want to get wet since it was already cold. I might or might not have told Glen that it's not fun unless you're wet, and we couldn't really get too much colder than we already were, so he should go super fast. We ended up getting drenched, but it was so fun!

Later one of my co-workers and I were out for a walk and we found this on the sidewalk. I thought it was pretty funny, considering that we live near the ACTUAL border. If only it was so easy as to just cross a line on a sidewalk!

We went out to dinner at a Mexican restaurant in Salt Lake that gets good reviews. It was NASTY. Like...I couldn't even eat my food. I don't know if I just ordered the wrong thing, or if I'm spoiled by the top-notch Mexican food we have in Las Cruces, but it was so disappointing. It pretty rare that I order something that I truly think is so gross I can't even eat it. This was one of those times.

 We all stayed at a big Airbnb house in Draper, which was fun. We had some time to visit, some time to play games, some time to do work and actually talk to each other face-to-face about it, and just generally get to know each other.

We also took everyone on a walking tour around downtown Salt Lake and showed them the old buildings where we used to "swap" work. Years ago when the company was super small and there were just a few of us, we rented a filing cabinet drawer from other companies who had offices downtown, and we would pickup and turn in our projects in the filing cabinet drawer. We have come a LONG way since then, with employees all over the world and almost everything digitized.

SoCal Ragnar

April was a super busy month! 6 days after we got home from Peru I did the triathlon in El Paso, and then 5 days after that I headed out to San Diego to run the SoCal Ragnar with a group of ladies from all over. I only knew 2 of the 12 ladies on our team, but it was fun to get to know some new people! We drove out on Thursday and hit up PF Changs for our pre-race dinner.

The total race was 200 miles and went from San Diego up to Huntington Beach, up near LA. I was in Van #2, so we had Legs 7-12, 19-24, and 31-36. The lady who ran our van's first leg got to run along the coast, so the rest of us got to hang out at the beach for about an hour while we waited for her. It was a bit chilly, but so pretty!

One of the ladies in our van brought this little changing tent, and it was A.MAZ.ING. Nobody had to get in the van with their stinky, sweaty stuff on. At the end of each leg you could go in the tent to change your clothes and stuff the old ones in a Ziploc bag before getting in the van. It was so great.

My first leg was 6.5 miles, and I started at about 1pm. By then it was HOT, and this leg was a brutal route. It started out with a super long and super steep uphill, then went down and up for almost the whole time. There was about 650 ft. of elevation gain, which is more than what I usually run, even though our neighborhood is pretty hill as well. I was pretty nervous about it, but I was also glad that I was getting my longest run over with first. It ended up actually not being as horrible as I thought. I passed 11 people and only got passed by 1, so...win.

My second lap was my shortest one -- only 3 miles. It ended up starting around 1am though, and it was super dark and really cold! I confess that I did NOT practice running with my headlamp (which I wore around my chest) ahead of time, and it was a weird feeling to run in the darkness with just this one bouncing light. I was really worried about getting lost. There were no streetlights at all along my route, and it was along the coast so there were not houselights or anything either. It was kinda creepy, I'm not going to lie. However, I finished in under 30 minutes and didn't get lost, so I was pleased about that.

My final leg was on Saturday around 2pm, and was 4.5 miles. This one was almost completely flat, which I thought was going to be super great -- but then it was super windy, which was NOT great. It also had about 100 million stoplights at some HUGE intersections (we were getting close to Huntington Beach by this point), and I kept hitting the lights just as they were turning red. I'm not the kind of runner who does well with stopping and starting, so it was really hard. I just kept jogging in place at the corner until the light would change. It was frustrating, too, because I kept passing people, but then they would all catch up at the light. Then I would leave them behind...only to have them catch up again at the next light. This ended up being my fastest time - averaging about 9:45 miles even with all the stopping at stop lights, so that was nice. I think I was just sooooo ready to be done by that point, I ran faster than I normally do.

We went out to meet our last runner about 1/4 mile out from the finish, and we all ran in together. It was a great way to finish the race!

Despite a few snafus along the way it was a fun race and I would totally love to do a Ragnar again -- maybe with more people that I know so that we could push a bit more. I'm super competitive, and even though not going to win, I do expect that everyone will actually give it their best effort and not quit. I was extremely frustrated by some people's actions, but I'm still glad I got the opportunity to go.

A couple days after we got home two of my toenails turned purple. I guess my poor feet had just had enough!