North Face Endurance Challenge .. and challenge it was

We didn't run very many races this year.  After my disappointing performance at Ogden I really lost my running mojo during the following summer months.  Training in the summer is always more of a challenge.  We spent so much time camping that it's hard to get those weekend long runs in.  The 90-100+ degree temperatures don't help either.  I hate summer running.  There is just no cool time to run, other than before the sun comes up and we all know this girl is NOT an early riser.  I was solid getting in my weekday runs consistently, if for no other reason than the need to make sure I kept the waistline under control.  But I rarely ran on the weekends.

When Evan and I began talking about this North Face Endurance Challenge we were contemplating dipping a toe in the world of Ultra running.  This meant a 30 mile race.  In my head I figured how much more could another 4 miles hurt once you got to the pain of mile 20.  But as the time to commit approached we decided to do the half marathon instead.  It was a wise decision.  Especially since Evan and Rachel were flying back from spending a week in Mexico the NIGHT before the race.  Nothing like running a race after gorging on bar nachos and margaritas for a week!

I have to start by saying while this is one of the hardest races I've ever ran .. it was one of the most beautiful!!

          Start and Finish Line Village.  Park City Mountain Resort. 

          Yep, we've just got to run up that mountain.  No big deal.

          Totally ugly conditions.

          I stopped multiple times to snap some pictures.  No regrets there.

                                          Me and my man.

                                         Lot's of single track trails.  Mean achy FEET the next day.

          Team Howard/Howard-Kramer/Kramer

Evan and Rachel finished ahead of us.  And we all agreed it was a great race and one we would likely repeat next year.  There are a ton of trails that we SHOULD be taking advantage of here in Utah.  I would really like to do that in the coming years.  Trail running isn't for sissies.  It was hard.  But the views were so worth the work.

Happy 17th Birthday Baylee!

Just writing that makes ME feel old.  I often forget how old Baylee is.  The whole disability thing can really throw things off.  She is becoming very very hard to shop for when it comes to birthdays and Christmas.  She loves her iPad and that's about the end of it.  Santa bought her one for Christmas last year and within months she rendered it relatively inoperable.  The newer ones are not made nearly as well as the original.  Her original was an iPad ONE.

Girlfriend LOVES her birthday though!  With an iPad that after a couple hundred dollars worth of repairs it still acted possessed we bought her a Kindle Fire to replace it.  The price was right and she was THRILLED.

I love this pictures of her!

She asked me to bake her a cake for her birthday as well.  I'd had good success with some layered cakes over the past few months so I got talked into doing a 4 layer cake by someone we won't mention (MUM!!!).  "How much harder could it be?"

All started out well....

Strawberry and Chocolate

But once I started frosting the outside .. shit fell apart.

LITERALLY

So we rushed to buy a presentable replacement on the way up to my parents.

Alas, I still served up my mess and got multiple comments that it tasted far superior to the store bought replacement.  It looked a mess but tasted delicious.

Happy Birthday baby girl!  You are a royal pain in my ass test my patience sometimes but we all love you to pieces.

Merry Christmas!!

I cannot believe that 2014 is coming to a close.  I am severely delinquent on my blogging activities.  However, I have several days off during the next couple of weeks that I might actually get caught up some before we move on to 2015.  Regardless I did want to stop in for a quick hello.  If I were to send out a Christmas card this year this would be our family picture:

2014 in review, here we go:

We had a good year.  I could go through all the pictures on my phone and get a good idea of what this year looked like for us.  Jeramie and I are both doing really well.  We continue to enjoy running together. Contrary to what people believe Jeramie actually DOES ENJOY running.  We ran the Ogden Marathon back in May and are currently braving the cold and soggy Utah Winter months while we train for the Phoenix Marathon in February. So far training is going REALLY well and we're exciting to take the race on the road to somewhere with lower elevation.  In March we added a new member to our family .. Boston.  He is one of my mum's puppies that she had (well her dog that is).  He has been such a GREAT addition to our family!  We did training classes and he got his Canine Good Citizen certification.  I got a road bike and rode my bicycle to work 3-4 days per week all summer long.  It was a BLAST!  We did lots of camping and boating over the summer.  Ran a few other races. I was promoted at work to a Project Manager and am currently studying to get my PMP certification.  Jeramie is still with Tyco and has taken advantage of several out of town training opportunities.  This can be hard for us at home, but it's so good for his career.  The only family "vacation" we took this year was a quick trip to Jackson Hole and down to Lake Powell for a long weekend.  SO much fun though.  My mum and I did some cake decorating classes together and I got really into baking.  That has been a ton of fun too and a lot of my friends and family have been the recipients of delicious baked goods.

Baylee - 17 years old

Baylee was the recipient of a government stipend this year.  This is basically funds that can be used for Respite Care.  Meaning give Mom a break care.  So she has had a REALLY fun year of participating in lots of Camp K activities.  As well as more than just her annual visit to summer camp.   She is a Junior in High School, just one more year left and she'll head over to "college", which is a vocational school for kids with disabilities.  She got a job working in their greenhouse this year as part of a work release program.  I'd be lying if I didn't fess up to the fact that she can be quite the handful, and this year I definitely feel like that intensified. Unlike Wyland, Baylee chopped at her hair multiple times this year.  She went from gorgeous waist length curls to short SHORT.  It will grow .. I keep telling myself.  Baylee also played a season of baseball at the rec center.  That was really fun for her.

Jackson - 8 years old

Jackson started the season with some machine pitch baseball.  It was really intense at first but he really got better and better as the season went on and I would venture to say he really enjoyed it.  We wrapped up a miserable 2nd Grade year with a terrible teacher.  I've since heard a few times people say that they can count on one hand then number of really GOOD teachers they've had.  I guess that's proving right for us.  This 3rd Grade year however he's got a total WINNER!  He loves her and I love her.  Towards the end of summer Jackson played his first year of tackle football.  The boy LOVED it.  He attended practice multiple days a week and was a good sport about going and working hard pretty much all the time.

Wyland - 6 years old

Wyland wrapped up Kindergarten with the fabulous Ms. Larsen (same teacher Jackson had).  I'll be a happy Mama if I can get Oliver through her class as well.  She's just so awesome.  Then he moved on into 1st Grade with Mrs. Misrasi.  We aren't loving her. But academics come a little easier to Wyland and so we're trooping through.  He's becoming such a good little reader that my heart swells just watching him!  He also played soccer with Xavier (Mike's youngest).  He didn't love the idea of playing but I think he had a good time.  He got a little more confident and aggressive as the season went on and he lucked out with a really really awesome and patient coach!  He continues to grow his hair out long and unfortunately frequently gets mistaken for a girl.  But the boy loves his long hair and so long hair it is.

Oliver - 4 years old

Oh Oliver.  He is just a delight.  He's naughty but just so darn cute all the darn time!  Oliver wrapped up and started his second year of preschool with Miss. Lori.  He LOVES going this year.  He didn't participate in any activities because he's just not quite old enough, but man he thinks he is.  He follows his brothers all over the house all the time.  He loves playing with his cousins and having sleep overs at his Grandma Robie's house.

I guess that's the short of it.  Jeramie's boys are doing well.  We see them pretty consistently every other weekend.  Jonnie got his drivers license and is now halfway through his Senior year.  J'Von enjoys playing with Jackson when he comes over.  Jeramie's mom still comes to our house everyday to watch this kids.  Adding to it this year she walks halfway to get them from school since our carpool bailed on us this year.  My parents are both doing great.  My mum has struggled with employment issues this year, and I just hate watching her struggle with jerks in the workplace.  I'm sure she'll find something enjoyable in the new year.  Mike and his family seem to be doing okay.  Evan and Rachel are still living up on the mountain and loving it.  However, IIII am ready for them to have a baby already!!

Merry Christmas Friends!!

First Day of School

It's that time of year again.  First day of school pictures!

Baylee - Age 17, 11th Grade

Mrs. Tester

Jackson - Age 8, 3rd Grade

Miss. Crowe

Wyland didn't start until the next day. So this isn't his official first day.

Wyland - Age 6, 1st Grade

Mrs. Misrasi

Lastly,

Oliver - Age 3, 2nd year of Preschool

Miss. Lori

Lake Powell, Day 2 and 3

On our second day we headed out to the beach.  That means we ferry two groups out to the beach.  Then the kids can play on the beach and we take turns heading out in groups to play on the boat.  We got everyone there and starting playing on the boat with the adults.

Mike and Amber had a go on the tube.

Then Jeramie and I.  I do not like going on the tube.  It scares the crap out of me.

As in VERY painful if you get tipped off.

I was seeing my life flash before my eyes.

It was good times though.  After mine and Jeramie's turn we headed back in to the beach.  Mike pulled the prop up since we were getting close to the shore.

And then it happened....

It got stuck.  The prop that is.  As in wouldn't go down.  So there we were stuck on the beach with lots of people.  Two boats worth of people.  And we were located about halfway between the two closest marinas.  So we had to choose the best course of action.  We had no choice but to load EVERYONE onto the boat at the same time which makes me nervous to no end.  I think it makes me nervous because of that one time we were in a seriously UNSAFE position at Lake Powell.

It was a very very slow ride back to the marina.  With the prop stuck up you're not able to go fast.  It would have been ideal had someone stopped and offered to give us to tow.  We did have someone stop, however they were from another country, didn't speak much English and merely stopped to ask for directions.  We did eventually make it (maybe an hour and a half later, for what would have taken 20 minutes tops) and everyone was safe and sound.  That's always a good feeling.

The adults felt like the day was ruined since we couldn't play on the boat the rest of the day. The kids were fine since we hit the pool for the rest of the day and they LOVE going to the pool.  The good news was that after all was said and done my dad was able to fix the boat just fine.  We just needed to pull it out of the water in order to do it.  Not something you can do when you're on the beach.

Jackson learned to dive on his own.

PLUS was brave enough to jump in the pool and swim to the side without his life jacket.

The view from the pool isn't an ugly one.

Next thing we knew it was our last day and time to head home.  We walked to the pool for one last swim.

Yep we did.

Because sometimes little boys have to pee really bad.

Despite the boat issues we all had a really great time at Lake Powell.  Until next year friends.

Lake Powell 2014, Day 1

We didn't make it to Lake Powell last year due to scheduling conflicts and people dropping out.  Plus a busy summer.  So this year we were really looking forward to going.  I guess it isn't really a case of doing much different down there than we do up here at one of the closer lakes. But it's always a longer weekend and you just can't beat that Lake Powell scenery.  It's just such a beautiful place.  Plus the water is usually pretty calm and not to mention much warmer than Jordanelle!

On our first day we headed out onto the lake for the day.  Zarley had ridden down in the car with us and Mike and the rest of his family were coming later that day.  The water was perfect.  It's funny because when my dad first got his boat we were go go go all the time with the wakeboarding.  Now with the kids we spend a lot more time just kind of floating in the lake while they jump off the boat and swim.  Swimming in Lake Powell is a lot more pleasant and they want to do it for a long time since the water temperature is so nice.

We even got Baylee off the boat down the ladder this year!!  She hasn't done that in YEARS.  But thanks to the calm waters not making the boat rock too much she was willing to give it a go and really enjoyed herself.

This was also the first year that Wyland was willing to actually JUMP off the boat.

Jackson always willing to jump.

 And my little dare devil.

I don't think there's much Oliver won't copy his brothers in doing.

Which apparently included wake boarding with Dad this year.

He LOVED it.

Jackson and Zarley play REALLY well together.

Then Mike and the fam arrived and decided to teach Jackson the joy of rock jumping.  Now I don't have a issue with this all that much.  Kind of scary to watch a little bit.  But I'm so proud that Jackson wasn't afraid and was willing to be brave.  He watched Owen do it first and followed without any hesitation.

There he goes.

No fear on that face!

We ended our day at the pool like we normally do.  What a great start!