Shower remodel

Rich has been voicing a wish for a remodeled shower for quite some time.  We had a boring, fiberglass insert (I didn't take the "before" photo) and he really wanted to get it tiled to match the existing floor and backsplash.

I had NO idea the time and effort (and expense) just to tile a shower.  Luckily, we hired the job out but it was far from the 2-3 day project that I thought we could accomplish while Rich was away as a surprise for him.  It turns out the "surprise" was the fact that it took three weeks! 

We are so glad it is finally done :)

DONE!!!

{UT} visit to Temple Square

K and I flew into Salt Lake City to spend a couple of days touring colleges.  

I was glad that the timing was such that K and I could go see the lights at Temple Square.  

The weather was a bit rainy/drizzly which must have caused people to avoid coming because there were hardly any other visitors there, so we basically had Temple Square (and the surrounding area) all to ourselves.

Give n' Gobble family race

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

This morning we joined the hundreds of other families who kicked off their Thanksgiving day with a family race to make themselves feel better about eating too much food later in the day.

Count us in (all except C who apparently "doesn't run" - not without a ball anway)

Our 5k runners this morning were T (21:42), J (25:14) and me (30:53)

Our 10k runners were K (47:45) and Rich (57:04)

Our awesome big brother, there to cheer us on and carry tired legs after the race was C

{K} Nike XC Regionals

K had the opportunity to extend her XC season with one more race and she was all in.  

I really shouldn't be surprised that when the team had the "option" of running at the Nike Cross Regionals that K would sign up (she was one of only six from her high school that chose to commit to another race after State).  

The race was held at the Eagle Island State Park just outside of Boise, ID.  Because of the distance, I agreed to let K go but insisted that I be the driver.  I drove K and her good friend, Mia, and we arrived the day before because of the early start the next morning. 

The race was a hard one...higher elevation, a massive hill (that had to be climbed twice), sand along a portion of the trail, and it was SO COLD!!!!  I'm sure that local runners that are familiar with the trail did okay but each of the kids from WHS were off their PR's by about one minute so it was interesting that they all were affected in about the same way.  

When the race wrapped up the girls were STARVING.  We took the time to go to a build-your-own burger restaurant (The Counter) and when we left we were all stuffed!!!  We drove back to Portland that night and I guess it was good that I was the driver because the girls fell asleep about an hour into the drive and left me to solo it the rest of the drive.

{K} XC State

Congratulations to the Wilsonville High School girl's XC team for taking 2nd place at the 5A State Championship. 

The best part of this story is that when the race was over Wilsonville HS and Crater HS both had scored 94...it was a tie.  Since a team's score is based on the first five runners (K was 4th for the team), in the situation of a tie they consider the 6th runner for each team to break the tie.  Our 6th runner came in significantly ahead of Crater's 6th runner (in fact our 6th AND 7th runner both came in before Crater's 6th runner).  

Wilsonville had earned 2nd place!!!

But my favorite part of their win was Kate Stewart's 6th place run.  

Running 5,000m is hard.  

Running at a 20 minute pace (or even faster) is hard.  

Running when you know you are 6th for your team, and technically your time won't matter, is hard.

But you keep running.  And you keep running your guts out.  

And today the 6th place time made all the difference.

There are a lot of parallels in life.  I hope that if K takes anything from today's race it is that lesson... that your effort ALWAYS matters.  And sometimes when it feels like it won't even count, it may just make all the difference.

(and, yes, I'm crying as I'm typing this)

Congratulations girls!!!

{T} Panda at heart

T and I may have decided to visit Spirit Halloween today...the day after Halloween.

They may have just had all their costumes 50% off.

We may have just come home with a costume 

that may just fit next year (or not).

T may have just worn the costume since getting home.

He may just be a Panda at heart!