Trip to Salt Lake

Last week (Nov 16-19th) my mom, Tyaan and I all piled in the car and drove to Utah. The occasion was my Aunt Lisa & Uncle Chris' sealing of their adopted baby (lil Chris) to them in the Salt Lake Temple. They have just moved back to Salt Lake from Dallas (finally!) so it was a great opportunity to see them, the baby, and a lot of family that lives in that area.

We left Sunday afternoon and drove to my Aunt Terry's house in Cedar City. We got there about midnight and it was really cold, but no snow. This is the first time I'd been to this house that their family built themselves. It's a beautiful house and I'm glad we stopped to see it. The next morning we got up and ready and my Aunt Terry joined us for the remainder of the drive to Salt Lake.

Here are a couple pictures taken from her upstairs balcony.





We got to my grandma's house in West Jordan on Monday afternoon. We spent the evening visiting with family which was great. My mom and Aunt Terry spent the night at my Aunt Rolayne's house nearby (where they stayed up most of the night playing Wii from what I hear!) and Ty and I stayed at my grandparents house.

Tuesday was the day of the sealing. It was Chris & Lisa's 4th anniversary which is why they chose that day to do it. They actually ended up in the same sealing room that they were in when they were married. I'm so glad that I was able to attend.

Here are some pictures at the temple after the sealing.






Later that day a lot of the family got together at my Aunt Rolayne's house to celebrate. I got to see many of my cousins that I haven't seen in a while and got to see lots of new babies! There was lots of food, lots of visiting, and video games going on in the basement. Ty and I sat at the piano for a little while which I always enjoy.


Wednesday finally came and we had to head back home. I got up early and went to the Jordan River Temple. I had grown up seeing this temple just up the street from my grandparents house and had never gone there to do a session so I figured it was about time. I really enjoyed it and was glad I made myself get up and go.

We didn't leave until early afternoon so we got to visit some more with family. My Aunt Terry drove with us back to Cedar City and then the 3 of us headed for home. We got home around 12:30 or 1:00 Thursday morning and went straight to bed. Both Ty and I had to be up and at school & work the next morning.


It was such a fun trip. It's a long drive, but I'm so glad I went. I love my family and don't get to see them as often as I'd like to. It's also nice to get to spend time with my mom and Tyaan. I couldn't have asked for better friends to travel with.

Cross Country Time Trial

On November 12th Tyaan's cross country coach held a time trial for Tyaan. She had been running really well in spite of an injury and he wanted her to have one last chance to get her letter on their home course.


She got her leg wrapped and I prayed that she'd make it through one more run without the fracture becoming a break. She was really nervous because she knew it was her last chance to beat the time.

Her coach set up the course and had another girl run with her to help her set her pace. She started really well and hit the first mile mark at about 7 minutes. She needed to finish the 2nd mile in less than 15 to make her time. The closest she came to her letter time previous to this day was 22:45 (1 minute over) and she had a split of 15:30 on the 2nd mile that run.

She hit the 2nd mile at about 14:50 which was great, but she had to keep her pace up to finish in time. It looked like she slowed a little bit early on the 3rd mile so her coach kept yelling encouragements and telling her to hurry up. You could see her pace pick up when he told her to, so it was really helpful to have him pushing her.



She was coming around the last field near the end of the 3 mile course and had a minute left before going over the time limit to letter. I watched the stopwatch count away her time and I knew it was going to be close. I was so worried she was just going to miss it and I knew she would be SO disappointed. She came around the last corner with about 20 seconds left and ran as hard as she could. She crossed the finish line with a time of 21:39, just 6 seconds under the varsity letter time.

It was a stressful 20 minutes for me, but she pulled it off! She ran really really well and now will be an athlete with varsity letters in 3 different sports. Her leg was sore afterward, and she was exhausted (and sick) but I'm very happy that she'll get rewarded for it. And now we can let her leg heal because she started water polo practice in the pool the next day.

Homecoming

Tyaan's homecoming dance was on November 8th. It was a busy day, but she was beautiful all dressed up. We spent a lot of time shopping for the dress and shoes but seeing how pretty she was when it all went together was worth every minute. She went with Wade, who is a friend from school.

Here are her pictures we had taken.



These were some pictures I took when they met at Wade's house before heading out for the night.


It sounds like they had a good time. The dance was held at the Ontario Convention Center, which is where it was held last year as well. They went to dinner before the dance, and afterwards came to our house to watch a movie. It's hard to believe her last year of high school is going by so quickly!

Cross Country League Finals

Tyaan had cross country league finals on 11/6. It was on the Mt. SAC course which is a difficult one.

Tyaan had been running with pain in her shins and we'd been treating her for shin splints. While getting it wrapped at school one day the trainer noticed it was sensitive to the touch and told her that it was probably a stress fracture rather than a shin splint. We took her to the doctor and got x-rays and sure enough she's got a stress fracture. Every time she ran on it there was a risk of it becoming a break. She wasn't practicing on it and was doing extra swimming to get the work out in without having to actually run on it. She wanted to run in league finals so she got it wrapped and we hoped for the best.

We were still hoping she'd pull off her letter time even though it was a lot to ask of her running injured on this tough course. She ran really well getting a time of 23:06. It wasn't a letter time, but it was a great time for her on this course and she finished 3rd on her team.




Unfortunately their team didn't finish high enough to qualify for CIF this year, but Tyaan really had a good season in spite of being sick, and then being injured. Her coach was happy with her run for finals and set up a time trial on their home course just for her so she could try for her letter. It was really great of him to do for her (she had missed the previous time trial since she wasn't practicing with the team every day) and he probably wouldn't have if she hadn't run so well this day. And the best news is she didn't leave with a broken leg!

Cross Country Photos

Here are Tyaan's cross country pictures for the 2008 season.

Halloween Relay

My work always has a Halloween activity where they give out prizes for costumes and pumpkin carving and guessing how many candies are in a jar etc. This year they put together a relay race for teams of 4 and I got recruited to be on a team...

First there was a list of Halloween movie titles that had to be unscrambled. I was chosen to do this part of the race. I flew through this list! It was pretty easy, but I still beat everyone else by quite a bit of time.



The second leg of the relay was juggling. A person had to juggle while walking in and out of the cones.

The third leg was a 3-legged race. They had to tie their legs together and run through the cones.

And finally the fourth, and last, leg was a race to eat 4 Twizzlers. I got to do this as well. It didn't sound so bad, although I don't particularly like Twizzlers, but they turned out to be the big multi-colored ones that taste nasty! We had to eat 4 of them without using our hands. It's harder than it sounds. It took several minutes, and as you can see there was a crowd watching. It was fun though, and our team won 1st place!


The best part is each of us won $100 for finishing first. We knew we were competing for $100 but all thought it was for the team so we'd each get $25. But all 4 of us got $100. Not bad for an afternoon break! I still don't like Twizzlers though.

Carving Pumpkins

On 10/29 we had our pumpkin carving night. We invited the Withers over for our attempted annual event (I don't think we've done it every year, but we try!) It was a lot of fun!

Here's Katie (sorry, she wants Kaitlyn now...) showing how much she loves our get together.


Brandon & Russ Withers, and Jon.





Tyaan's friend Omar came over as well. It was the first time he'd ever carved a pumpkin! His turned out really great too!!



It really made the holiday a lot of fun for me. I stayed home and passed out candy on Halloween but I only got about a dozen trick or treaters. I still have left over candy! Tyaan didn't trick or treat this year, she went to a friends house for a little while, went bowling, and then they came over to our house later that night to play video games. So the pumpkin carving was the high point of this Halloween for me. I didn't carve a pumpkin but I helped a few of them finish theirs when they got worn out. It was really a lot of fun.