Ben's Special Little Week

So we've had a good week, or I guess the kids and I have had a good week; for Ben, it's been a bit stressful and a relief to have overwith.

First, the marathon. Ben just ran the St. George marathon. In my last post, I stated that we were off to sunny St. George last weekend. Well, sunny it was not. In fact, it was anything but sunny. It was POURING RAIN all day Saturday and you guessed it, all Saturday morning throughout the race. This is the first race they've had in 25 years in which it rained. He finished in 3:47...that's three hours and 47 minutes of running through the cold drizzle. He said the rain was motivation to just get off the course. Just to watch him cross the finish line, I had to buy the kids umbrellas and hoodies. His hands were so frozen that he finally gave up on a protein bar the last few miles as he couldn't unwrap it.

Rain included, it was really a great morning. We were so proud of him and the kids definitely enjoyed screaming for him when he finished. Anna wanted him to win so badly that we finally just told her he did. (Bad parents?) That was fabulous for her. Later, after pondering the achievments of her race-winning father, she said to us, "You know what is so amazing? A lot of people crossed the finish line before Dad, and he STILL won." Amazing. Luke was just satisfied to push his stroller around in the rain. Here are a couple of pix from the day.

Trying to fake a smile...he wore old shoes and he limped for days afterward



Luke with Grandpa Chris


About to cross the finish line. He laughed at this picture because he didn't know he was being photographed and his pain is just so visible. It's hard to fake when you don't know someone's taking a picture. He wore his Obama shirt to "make his contribution" to the campaign. Funny. And even more funny, notice the blood marks about nipple-height on the shirt. For all you Office fans out there, he became my own little Andy Bernard with his chaffed nipples...but his bled through.

Some pictures of the kids at a great park in Beaver. We stopped on the way down for a seriously needed break from the driving.


And finally, Ben defended his thesis this week. He has been so stressed getting to this point. The beauty of it is that his huge prelim exams in November and his dissertation are all he has left. His dissertation is pretty much going to be an expansion of his thesis, so hopefully much of the research will already be done...if all goes according to plan. I am not kidding, when he is done with school...we will not look back...not even give it a second glance.

Best Friends and Nightmares

I overheard the following conversation the other day between Anna and a little neighbor girl, Rachel. Rachel has moved in within the last few months...so this is the first time Anna has had her over to play. About five minutes after Rachel arrived, I heard this...

Anna: So are we best friends forever and ever and ever and ever until we die?
Rachel: Sure
Anna: Deal?
Rachel: Deal.
Anna: Shake on it?
Rachel: OK

Until they die? Two minutes later, Anna left her new best friend to ask me an important question, "What is her name again?" Best friends that don't know each other's names? It got me thinking, though, about how I long for the days when making friends was that easy.



Another suprise occurred when I was awakened at 3:00 AM a few weeks ago by Anna standing at my bedside. She was complaining of a nightmare. I felt sorry for her, remembering my fear as a child of nightmares. About to invite her into our bed, I asked her what her dream was about. She replied, "Well, I dreamed that I was about to eat some really big, good cotton candy, and then right before I actually ate it, I woke up." Needless to say, I sent her back to bed. Ahhh, that's my girl and my kind of nightmare...like daughter like mother...

We're still here!!!

So perhaps it's time to update my blog and join the land of the living! What a summer we've had...a truly wonderful one, yet largely undocumented due to our broken camera. Finally we have a new camera that is functioning well. Between our new camera and the pictures I've begged off extended family members who have actually been snapping photos, we have this random sampling of our summer. It makes me sad to look at these pictures and realize that summertime is just memories now.











And finally, the crown jewel of the summer, the Grand Canyon. It was an AMAZING, fabulous, death-defying (slight exaggeration) experience. Ben went for the entire 16 days, while I hiked in and met up with them on day 6. It was just a wonderful trip...life-changing for Ben. I sat on his raft through most of the rapids...a raft that most told him was way too small and he was crazy for rowing in the Grand Canyon...but he was flawless on EVERY SINGLE rapid. By the book. I was so proud of him...though still scared spitless. I actually CRIED before one of the biggest rapids out of pure fear. CRIED! I was humiliated as a commercial rafting crew was trying to comfort me before embarking down the rapid themselves. And then, on the very last and biggest rapid of them all, I cried when we finished out of delayed fear. We barely made it out right side up of a monstrous angry hole...but we survived. I'm not kidding when I tell you it took me a lot to face my fears of this water. Here are a couple of pictures from the trip. There are also three youtube videos of some extremely terrifying flips. These videos are NOT of our trip, they are videos of other boats and other trips...and videos of what I was terrified of happening to us. Two of the boats in these videos are 18 foot boats with thousands of pounds of weight strapped in....all to disappear downriver. Watch it if you'd like to see my worst nightmare unfolding. And where are the people who were on these flipped rafts, you might ask? Sucked under and swimming through the rapid. So scary.

Notice their 18 foot raft afterwords...no rowing frame, no gear, one of the tubes lost its air...




This one is a video of a 30' raft with a motor going through a rapid just to give you an idea at how big those waves are...Our was 14'








Presently, we are fully enjoying this time of year and the FABULOUS weather that comes with it. Ben's running the St. George marathon this weekend so we're off to sunny St. George. I've tried training twice for the St. George marathon and my bad knee just can't hack it, so I have to live vicariously through him. Maybe I need to buy a bike or something...

Random Photo

I am posting a random picture of the kids and. Our digital camera broke a few months ago, so we haven't had many pictures. We are buying a camera hopefully soon! This was a random picture taken at Christmastime. Isn't it hilarious that I'm posting this picture instead of one of them fighting? I think it's really funny that everyone's families seem perfect in blogs. If I was to assume that every family was as picture perfect as they appear in their blogs, I'd be awfully worried about my own. Perfect mothers, perfect children, perfect fathers and husbands that never do anything but have fun. But I know blogs are the place for highlights which is what this picture is. I need to blow this picture up to remind myself that they love each other during their arguments during they day. Keep us motivated...

I'm leaving to raft the Grand Canyon tomorrow. Ben's already been gone for 5 days, and I'm hiking in to meet him and his family on Thursday morning. 9 days of camping, dehydrated food, and some of the biggest water in North America. Needless to say, I'm shaking in my boots. I am excited, yet so SCARED!!! I hope I live to tell the tale. I'm also hoping to walk around most of the rapids; I hear it's a definite possibility. Wish me luck!