The Sawtooth Relay

WOW! I did it!  On June 14th, team Sawcar, which consisted of a few of my family members, friends and I, started out at 3am for a 62 mile relay race.  It starts in Stanley, Idaho and ends in Ketchum, Idaho which is next to Sun Valley.  This is something that I have never done before.  Shortly after moving here, my brother Thad and sister-in-law Trina wanted to get a team together to do this.  I said I would, but I would be the tortoise of the race as they are all joggers.  Because it's a relay, you have six team members and each of them run 2 legs of the race.  When they were deciding who would do what legs I said that it didn't really matter to me since I would be walking.  Well, they must of thought I was in for a challenge.  I was to do the 6th and 12th legs of the race.  There's a catch to this race...it follows the beautiful landscape of the Sawtooth Mountains.  That's wonderful, but you have to go to the top of the mountain to go down the other side to get to the finish.  The sixth leg of the race was 5.35 miles with an elevation gain of 1331 ft. over those 5.35 miles, in other words...all up hill!  I knew I would be doing the hill, but had no idea what it would really be like.  My leg began around 8am and as I started to go around the corner and view my leisurely stroll my first thoughts were..."You've got to be kidding me!"  There were some switchbacks along the way and I though well, maybe there will be a couple of flat spots to gain momentum.  NOT!  It was all uphill at about a 6% grade.  I thought this would take me forever and people were jogging up this hill.  Anyway, I did it in 1 1/2 hours, which absolutely surprised me, so that was great.  My team supported me up the hill as well as fellow racers which was great.  The view was also breathtaking.  My sister took some pictures but I haven't gotten them yet, so these are just some general race photos.

My last leg was not too bad at 2.6 miles and pretty much flat. It was the final stretch and a little interesting.  As my teammate and I made the handoff, I evidently almost ran into Arnold Schwarzenegger.  I remember  a man on a bike in a preppy pink shirt, but didn't really see his face.  This leg was on a bike/walking path.  All I remember thinking is that this person was basically riding down the middle of the bike path.  I felt like saying, "Dude, stay on your side of the path, can't you see were in a race here?"  I guess it's a good thing it was just a thought.  About a half of a mile down the path, I passed two ladies on bikes and the first one had this lovely garden hat on and a huge smile.  It was Maria Schriver, Arnold's wife.  I also passed another man and his two sons, he looks like Jon Stewart, but I know that's not the right name.  So while I brought us to the finish line I had a little piece of Hollywood on the way; not to mention the huge, probably celebrity homes behind the trees on the path.  We finished the race at 2pm and 31seconds, which reached my goal.  We had averaged everyones times and figured around that time and that was my goal to be there by 2pm and I did it.  So race fans, there you have it, the Sawtooth Relay.  Would I do it again?  Now that it's over and I know I can do it, yes I probably would.  Would I take the hill again?  I'm crazy enough to say I would probably even do that again.  So, thanks to my family for all there support and even though I gave them a hard time about hiking to the top just to see the snow, it was a great challenge and an accomplishment that I will always be proud of.  My son, Ethan, once asked me before the race, "Mom, are you going to run in that race?" 'Yes.'  "Why, they don't pay you to do that?"  I chuckled, I actually paid them to walk up that hill, which monies went to charity.  However, sometimes are best accomplishments are those we work hard for just because we want to, not because we receive reward for doing it.  So, until next time Stanley...I'll just enjoy the view! 

All American Baseball

We're well into baseball season and having a great time.  Ethan is playing T-ball for the Mustangs.  He's learning how to catch and stop the ball.  He has a pretty mean throw, we just have to work on his aim a little bit.  In his last game he got some great hits too.  We're so glad he's having fun and best of all he gets to play with his cousin Creed.  Well, maybe the best part is stopping for ice-cream after the game!  Actually I love to watch them play.  They don't keep score, worry about how many outs they have or anything like that...they just have fun.

Different but Good

It has been a little over a month now since we left Texas.  We're fairly settled in getting back to somewhat of a schedule.  While I was driving around the other day running errands I was thinking about the differences between Texas (big city life) and Idaho (down home country, for the most part).  One of the first things that I'm still adjusting to is the fact that everyone I go to church with lives somewhere in my neighborhood.  Our church building is about a mile away and there's probably another one a mile in the other direction.  Some stores are still convenient to get to, but we do not have the variety and excess of malls every 10 miles or so.  We do have restaurants around but "restaurant row" doesn't exist everywhere either.  We have a couple of movie theatres in the area, but I think only one has more than 20 theatre rooms.  While we live in a nice neighborhood which would appear to be suburbia, less than a mile away there are farms with horses or farmland springing up with crops all over.  A few local items around here are alfalfa (hay), sugar beets, mint, corn, wheat, mustard seed, sod, etc.  Not everybody drives fancy cars, some are probably older than the person driving it.  While we do have a few highways around, they're pretty straight and two-lane roads and you don't have to get on one to get some where.  I think my auto insurance is about half of what it was in Texas with more coverage, which I'm really excited about!  One of the biggest differences is that within 1 to 2 hrs you are in the mountains, ready to hike, camp, boat, float, relax, ski, just about whatever you'd like to do.  There are beautiful rivers, streams, lakes, hot springs, wildlife and so much more.  The temperature has been great too.  We've only seen a few days thus far around 90 degrees.

So, what's the point of all this you say?  While I did grow up around this area, so I may be a little partial, it's amazing how two places can be so totally different.  I've been away for about 16-17 years and things have changed since then, but I still find it to be a welcoming, relaxing place to be and raise a family.  I'm grateful that I've had the opportunity to experience different parts of the world, both to visit and live in.  I admit, there are some conveniences that I miss and friends that I miss too, but I'm glad to be back.  I'm grateful that Woody's employer was gracious enough to give us this opportunity and look forward to making this area our home for now (hopefully for a long time).  So come visit when you can!  We'll have lots of fun!

The Do-Rag

Alys, we just love her and her style of fashion!  She found a handkerchief that I had and it was pink of course.  She wanted to know what it was used for, so I showed her how to wear it.  Now if it's not called a do-rag you can all tease me..., since I wear them all the time!?  NOT!  This is not her only fashion statement.  One day, we were all going to Lowe's to get some items.  Everyone except Benjamin and I were in the car already.  As I was putting Bejamin's shoes on I noticed one of Alys' shoes that I thought she was wearing.  I didn't grab her shoe because knowing her I'd figured that she had just changed her shoes again.  As we're getting out of the car, out steps Alys with two different shoes on.  Dad was obviously embarrassed.  It still makes me laugh, I wish I had a picture.  

Memorial Day

Well, I'm a little behind on what we've been up to.  For Memorial Day weekend we spent some fun time in the mountains in a small town called Cascade.  My parents have a house near the lake where we all hung out and had some fun.  The original plan was to go camping, but it was a rainy weekend.  Some of my family members and their children were able to come which made for more festivities.  We all had a great time.  I think we all brought enough food to feed an army.  I don't know why but we always seem to overpack!  I feel like we're packing the family for a week long vacation in Europe or something when we're actually only about 2hrs from home and only gone for a couple of days.  No complaints though, we had fun watching movies, playing games, and even got in a little baseball game with the kids.  We enjoy going to the mountains and taking in all the beauty that God has created for us to enjoy.  It's even better when you're surrounded by family.  We look forward to more adventures in Idaho!