The 43

I vow to myself every summer not to waste any days during this, my favorite season. But sometimes, you just need to have a lazy day. The last couple weeks have been quite busy, compounded by the fact we only had one car. Now that we're back to two cars, and there was no overriding reason for the boys and me to get out of the house today ... we didn't get out of house. We weren't completely lazy: I filled up the kiddie pool for us, and after dinner we took a drive in our new 2002 Outback up Little Cottonwood Canyon. But mostly, that was it. We won't be as non-active tomorrow, but for today, taking it easy was fine -- the boys were still tired out by the end of the day, as evidenced by Eldest falling asleep on our drive at 7:15 p.m. After the boys went to bed, I settled down to watch a movie, saw what time it was, saw the setting sun, and knew getting out for a walk would do me good. Not a long walk, not a run, but just a short walk to see the summer sunset, of which ther

We finally made it to the pool today. Granted, we've been to a pool a few times this summer, but for the first time, we got to swim outside at the JCC pool. It only took a month, thanks to a combination of bad weather, kids' wishes to go someplace with a water slide and a rescheduled swim meet (which forced us into the JCC's indoor pool last week. We had a lot of fun ... eventually. After arriving, we swam for about a half-hour until safety break (10 minutes in which all the kids must stay out of the pool). I wandered over to the deep end and tried to summon the courage/memory that I can do it to jump off the diving board when I witnessed a painful accident. These guys, probably no older than 20, were doing goofy dives when one of them did what I could only describe as a spinning bounce off the end of the board. But his foot slipped as he faced toward the back of the board, and he went into the water first with his shin, which bounced the board up just as his chin came into

We had a great Fourth of July today. We didn't do anything spectacular, travel anywhere or blow anything up, but instead simply had a fun day. The day started this morning with our neighborhood's Fourth of July parade. Eldest rode his bike the whole way, while Littlest was content to sit in the wagon. We had lunch at the potluck after and talked with some neighbors while the boys played. Some clouds rolled in, and rather than risk going to the pool and having it rain on us, we hung out at home; then I eventually took Eldest to see the new Ice Age movie. We both enjoyed it, and after, we drove home and I started the grill. Our dilemma was whether to keep the boys awake to watch fireworks at a nearby park. The show wouldn't start until 10, which is far past their bedtime. But we gave it a shot, and it worked out well. We loaded the running stroller and walked down, finding a good spot on the lawn at the high school right next to the park. This is Salt Lake City's main fir

OK, I know that the Wasatch Back was two weeks ago, but I have wanted to blog about the experience of my first Ragnar. So two weeks later, here's the short version: I ran the 12th, 24th and 36th legs of the race. Surprisingly, I had more energy for the 24th and 36th legs than I thought I would, especially after little sleep. I ran all three legs under my projected time, though on 12 and 36, just by about a minute. Still, I was ecstatic that I not only ran, but felt that I ran well. My first leg was tough, and was the only one I wasn't completely happy with. The route was 3.1 miles uphill -- really uphill. The first mile was flat, and I ran it relatively quickly, as planned before I got the the elevation gains. I walked more of the last two miles than I wanted to -- I didn't think it was going to be as nasty as it was. Still, I made it under my projected time and was ready for dinner when I finished. Our van had about six hours until we were running again, and we worked our