My Secret Passion

Hey all you family and friends!  It's time to let you in on a little secret that I've been keeping for the past few months.  I'm super excited about it.  I'm a bit obsessed with the whole thing.  I gotta tell ya that it's kinda crazy and some of you might not really get why on earth I'd even want to do this or touch foot in the place I'm dying to go.  I get that... because sometimes I stop and think about it and wonder the same things...but then those rational thoughts get pushed aside quickly by the adventurous side of me that is wanting to burst out.

So, remember how my fav show is The Amazing Race... hence, the name of my blog!  For years, I have watched that show, wishing that I could travel to all of those places.  Some day I will get to do that.  There are so many intriguing places.  But, there has been one that I've been particularly drawn to... INDIA.  Re-read this blog post I did last year when AR went to India.

An opportunity has presented itself to me that will take me to India this coming year!  Matt is supportive of this, and he's even accepted my invitation to come along with me.  Honestly, I don't want to have this life changing experience without him.  I'm happy that he wants to come with me.

I will be volunteering with an organization called Rising Star Outreach.  This is what I will be doing.  (click right hand corner and enlarge to full screen view)

The more I learn about Rising Star and the more I watch these videos and read other volunteer's experiences, I get all choked up and know that this is what I want to do.  I will make it happen.

Watch these two videos.  They give me goose bumps and make me cry.

Are you thinking I'm crazy yet?
I'm not.  It's something I need to do.  I don't know why.  There's not much I get passionate and obsessed over.  But for some reason, this has done that for me.  I really think that Heavenly Father has placed this before me for a reason.

The dates for the volunteer sessions in 2013 haven't been set yet, but I have been in contact with Rising Star and I'm told that they will have them on their website in September.  They will be similar to the 2012 dates.  Most of the sessions are two weeks long, but there are a couple of sessions that are a week long.  We will have to choose one of the shorter ones due to work and the kids.  I'm hoping that we will be going at the end of March; perhaps it will coincide with Spring Break.  We'd have to make arrangements for the care of Josh and Emma, so things will need to be worked out.

And at the end of our volunteer session, we will take the optional 3 day tour to Delhi and Agra.  How awesome it will be to see the Taj Mahal! So cool!  I just read a novel about it called "Beneath A Marble Sky".

So that's it!  That's my secret passion.  I'm going to India to help those affected by leprosy!

Meet the Fartleks

"Meet the Fartleks" was our Ragnar Relay team name.  What is a fartlek, you ask?  Fartlek is a Swedish word for "speed play".  Yes, it IS a real running term.   Our team name also plays off the movie "Meet the Fockers"... a movie I've never seen, but oh well.  Apparently, in the movie they talk about a "circle of trust" and that's just what my team had.  We trusted each other that we wouldn't die on this race!  It is also a fun word... for obvious reasons. Who doesn't think that farts can be funny?

Here we are the night before our race at my parent's house.  We decorated John and Kris' Suburban and Erik and Kimi's Expedition with vinyl lettering and window markers.  We organized supplies, and got packed up.

 Ragnar is a relay race made up of teams of 12 runners.  Each runner runs 3 times.  Wasatch Back was the very first Ragnar organized.  It starts in Logan and ends in Park City, UT.  This year, the total mileage was 197 miles, and there were approximately 1100 teams!

"Van 1" consisted of my older brother Erik (team captain) and his wife Kimi.  Their 16 yr old son, Alex, and my sister Kristen's 16 yr old boy, Hayden, were also in that car.  My cousin's 19 yr old daughter, Ashley, and my sister, Heather, were the other girls in that "van".  They began their run at 6 am in Logan, Utah.  They handed off to us in Eden around noon.

"Van 2" consisted of my older sister Kristen and her husband John.  Matt, Josh who is 15, and I were together.  And my youngest sister, Lori, was in there too.

And we can't forget our mascot, George, who has been part of our extended family since 1980.  He belongs to my little brother, Jeff.  We occasionally steal him without Jeff knowing about it.  We had his wife, Jody, send George to Kristen so we could take him on Ragnar with us.  He loves to travel:)

"Sharon" also came along for the ride.  She has run Ragnar several times with Kristen and John.  Gotta love the comic relief she brings.

Ragnar could not even happen without the hundreds of volunteers.  They are the core!  Each team has to provide 3 volunteers.  We had 4!  Kimi's sister and her boyfriend helped out, as well as Matt's brother Jed and his wife, Heather.

They worked at Snow Basin on Friday afternoon.  They had a busy day keeping track of runners finishing leg #11 which was Matt's first run.  He passed off to me.

Here is that exact moment.  I love this picture!  Check out Jed's happy face:)

Here's a bunch of pics.  I wish I had more pics of Van 1.  If I can get some, I may add them later.

ERIK

KIMI

ASHLEY

HEATHER

KIM'S RAGNAR TATOO

THREE OF THE FOUR RUNNING SISTERS

LORI'S STARTED HER 1ST RUN WEARING A CLOWN WIG

JOSH'S 1ST RUN

KRISTEN'S 1ST RUN INTO THE WIND

MATT RESTING IN MORGAN

LORI and KRISTEN (and John under his covers)

FUNNY JOSH GEARING UP FOR HIS 2nd RUN (at midnight!)

KEEPING HYDRATED IS IMPORTANT!

JOHN'S LAST LEG WAS STRAIGHT UP!

HELPING EACH OTHER WAS THE FUN PART

KRISTEN UP THE "RAGNAR" RUN

MATT'S 3RD LEG WAS SOME MAJOR DOWNHILL

LORI REALLY PUTTING ON A SHOW IN SUPPORT OF MATT

THE FINISH LINE PARTY AT PARK CITY HIGH SCHOOL

FREE PIZZA AT THE FINISH

 I will have to update this entry when we get our team picture that was taken at the Finish Line!  During the race (probably in the middle of the night when we were desperate for some sleep and a settled stomach) Matt and I both said that we'd never do this again.  But guess what?  Not even a day went by when we started talking about "next year"!!  Yep!  The Fartleks will be back next June!  Except we just might NOT be the Fartleks.  Stay tuned for a possible name change!

An Emotional Day

June 14th... Emma's birthday.  My baby turned 11!  She is growing up so fast.  Emma brings such happiness to our family.  She is our imaginative one... always creating fun games and scenarios.  She just might become a party planner or a hotel owner:)

We were at Grandma Eastman's house on the morning of her birthday.  She requested pancakes for breakfast, so dad made her yummy old fashioned pancakes.  I had purchased a Happy Birthday pennant at Target the night before because I forgot our big banner at home.  Having a birthday banner has become a tradition in our family.  

Em received an adorable CTR necklace from Grandma E and some money from Grandma W.  We gave her a much desired iPod dock.  That alarm will come in handy in the fall when middle school starts and she has to be at the bus stop at 7:08 am.  She also got to order a super cute swim suit from Lands End.

Unfortunately, the focus had to shift a bit to her big sister, Chelsea, on Emma's birthday.  We had to get Chelsea down to BYU to check into her housing at 1:00.  

We ate lunch at Sensuous Sandwich, a place that Matt and I used to eat when we were students in Provo.  We went onto campus and picked up Chelsea's books at the bookstore.  How cool is that to be able to order your books on line and have them all boxed up ready for you to pick up!  The whole registration process is sooooo different now because of our awesome technology.  Chelsea got her student ID card, and she was set!

Here is Chelsea about to enter into her dorm room at the new Heritage Halls on the 4th floor. 

Here she is on her bed.  It sits up high which is great because she can have storage underneath.  

And check out the view from her living room floor to ceiling window.  Lucky girl.

We went to the grocery store and bought her some more food for her apartment.  We had a tearful family prayer,  and Chelsea received a father's blessing from Matt in her room.  It was after 4 pm and we were going to leave to get back to Syracuse for our Ragnar preparation (more on that later), but we just didn't feel ready to leave our sweet Chelsea... especially since none of her roommates were around at that time.  She had met two of the three that had already checked in before her.  So we thought that we'd make a trip to WalMart for a few more things she needed.  And then we decided to forego the big family pre-race carb-loading dinner at my mom's house and eat one last dinner together.  Emma chose to eat at The Old Spaghetti Factory.  Emma was acting depressed (because it wasn't feeling like her birthday and because her sister was staying in Provo).  So to make it special for Em, I asked the waiter if we could sit in the old, red trolley.  She liked that.  

When we returned to her apartment, the 3rd roommate was there putting her things away.  She had music playing and the atmosphere was much lighter than before.  We said our good-byes and left our girl to grow up on her own.  It was weird to get back in the car and drive away.

I love my kids so much.  I'm not liking the fact that they are starting to leave my nest and fly away.  But such is life.   I did it to my parents and now it's happening to me.  It's wonderful to be a mom.  Now I will just have to be Chelsea's mom from a distance... not knowing where she is and what she is doing.  Thank goodness for that technology... texting, face time, emailing, cell phones, and facebook!

McCall Was Calling

We are co-owners of a camping trailer with our neighbors, the Hammer family.  Last year we didn't take the trailer out at all, so this summer we knew we needed to take it out for a spin before Chelsea leaves for BYU.

The McCall RV Resort won us over in September 2010.  We decided to go back this past weekend.  Because the weather can be iffy (is that a real word?) in the mountains at the beginning of June, not many people had camping on their minds.  It's too bad for them because it was gorgeous weather until the morning we left.  The resort was pretty empty, and we loved it.  (That's the back end of our trailer in the center of the photo)

We love that there are full hookups at this place.  We love that there is a nice pool and hot tub to soak in.  We love that there are super nice private bathrooms with big showers.  Yeah, we have a bathroom in the trailer, but I'd much rather sit on a real toilet and have a spacious shower.  In reality, I'd just rather be in a hotel, but whatever.

We got up there just before dark on Friday night.  Saturday morning, Josh, Matt and I went on a run.  It was good to put our lungs to the test of running at 5000 feet.  Gotta be ready for next week's Ragnar Relay in Utah.

Josh and I planned on running 6 miles, but we wound up running 8.  We ran into town via a bike trail then ran into Ponderosa State Park.

Payette Lake is beautiful.

After a HUGE brunch at The Pancake House, all of us went on a 15 mile bike ride along paved, dirt, and gravel paths.

The last trail we took was a doozy!  It turned out to be a difficult narrow bike path up-hill full of tree roots.  The deeper we got into the woods, the thicker the mosquitos swarmed.  Thankfully, I had brought the mosquito repellant, and we quickly doused ourselves in it.  We girls had to push our bikes up parts of it, but it turned out to be super fun and a great accomplishment.  So if you ever run across Huckleberry Bay Mountain Bike Trial, you are forewarned!  It's a tough one.  This is Matt when we finished the trail.  We didn't return the same way.  It would have been killer trying to go down that trail.

We made it to the point of the peninsula at Ponderosa.  Gorgeous!

It got a little windy up there.  Can you tell?

We headed straight for the pool when we got back.  It felt awesome.
Then we ate a late dinner at My Father's Place, a great little hamburger/shake place.  Oh, so good.

 Sunday morning the rain came.  Perfect timing.  Before heading home, we went to sacrament meeting at the small chapel there in McCall.  Lovely ward.  They called this area their "little piece of heaven".  It really is.

I had loads of fun with my fam this weekend.  I love these guys.