Emmy's 8th grade Track (Plus running adventures with mom)

 Haha, funny picture Emmy took:

So Emmy is doing track again at school. She almost didn't, but at the last moment decided to. I think she is glad she is! She's had a couple of meets so far. The first one (where these pics are from) was soooo windy. Everybody's times weren't their best, including Emmy. Emmy was quite bummed with her mile (the 1600) time. I can't quite remember what it was . . . 7:20s, I think. She took 3rd. The 1st and 2nd girls are in her school and grade and are sooooooo fast. Like they are given 1st and 2nd place finishers in every race they do. It's crazy and cool.

Emmy ran the 1600 and the 800 her first meet. I had to work and so missed that one - hence the "professional" photos of Emmy taken with a real camera by another parent. :)

I made it to Emmy's second meet. The funny thing about meets are they are during the school day. So it's fun for the track kids - they get to hang outside, not in school, all day. Emmy's second meet was dreamy weather for running: slightly cool, cloudy, and not windy. Emmy ran the mile and got 6:48 and 4th place. She was happy as she PR'd her mile time - yay! She ran the 400 and did well in that, too - maybe 2nd place? She really liked the 400 - it was a good mix of sprint (she's not as fast as the short sprinters) and endurance and so she can do pretty good at it. Then she took part in a fun 4x400 relay and really liked that - it was her first relay. Her team crushed the other team (I think only 2 were in it) by about 200 meters. Her last even was the 800 medley. Emmy did a 100 and, again, her team (the same as the relay) crushed their opponents. Emmy's middle school is amazing and all team relays, medleys, etc., crush everyone else out there!

They dynamic relay/medley team! Emmy, Katie (the fastest girl in every event), Jayden (the second-fastest girl in every event), and Sadie (maybe the third-fastest girl, ha). So fun.

Anyways, track is going well and Emmy is having fun - except for when she wants to barf after each event because it's so hard to push yourself so much. In a good way, though.

Emmy and I are running the Black Canyon Ascent on May 14th. I don't know why because I hate it . . . but I keep doing it. And I think that's the same for Emmy - she did it in 2020, hated/loved it, and is doing it again. Ha. So I have taken Emmy on a couple of my "hill run" workouts. It's fun running with her. What else is fun is that I am faster than her, ha! It's only because I have been training on this run for over a year . . . give her time and I won't be able to keep up with her. But it's pretty awesome for the time being that she can't keep up with me - especially on the steep uphill. 

Before our 6-mile run - fun!

I missed the "make a funny face" memo. :)

I took Emmy out to this new shop in town - it's a candle-making shop, but super cute and with a cool cafe in it. So I bought Emmy some hot cocoa - and look how cute they made it. :) Ha. We had a lovely morning together and I was glad for some 1-on-1 time with Emmy (Lucy and Ben were in Denver for Lucy's state meet. I don't know where the boys were - maybe still sleeping?!)

Emmy's Platinum State Competition, April 9th 2022

So Emmy's state competition . . . When we got the details, we were bummed to see that Emmy was the only one scheduled for Sunday - of course! Ugh. It's just how it happened with the age group divisions, etc. So her coach contacted whoever and it was determined that Emmy would have the option of competing on Saturday but that she wouldn't be able to place because she was competing in a different division. So it was quite a bummer, but she still wanted to compete and so we were grateful for that option! She was to compete with three other teammates (most in her grade) and so that made for a fun, small group.

Ben, unfortunately, had to miss it because he was in Utah for a drill-weekend. So the girls and I headed up on Saturday morning to Littleton. Emmy didn't have to compete until 6:15pm and so we had plenty of time to get there. We arrived in Littleton and then went and got some early dinner at Wendy's with Jim and Diana. After that, we made our way to the Douglas County Fairgrounds where the competition was held.

Emmy had a really great meet and did well on every event. She was so happy - which made me so happy! :) She was still quite bummed about not getting recognition, so to say, for her scores (by placing), but she handled it well. Her coach and I both looked at the scores for her session and this is how she would have placed had she gone against her group: Vault - 10th, Bars - 8th, Beam - 9th, Floor - 3rd, and All-around - 6th. Yay! Her scores were 8.7, 8.85, 8.625, 9.25, and 35.425 respectively. They went out eight places and so she would have medaled in 3 events, including all-around. Soooo good - especially as it's state (so you are against only "the best," or those who qualified) and it's her first year in the Diamond level. Jim was able to come and watch her and so that was special to have him there. We finished up the night by Emmy buying a sweatshirt (okay, I paid half) and trying Andy's Custard shop for the first time (yum). We left early that morning (4:15am early) so we could make it to our church - since we hadn't been in weeks and weeks (and big changes had happened and so we were anxious to see our "new" ward). We left in rain, had sleet, then snow, then horrible fog - as in, I could see about 10 feet in front of me. Ugh. It finally cleared up and we made it to church before the boys. Shock.

I made a little candy gram for Emmy. :)

Jonas can be funny, when he's not so mean and angry.

The cute gymnast in her cute sweatshirt.

Check out her performance here.

Costa Rica Part 4

The end of our fantastic trip . . . 

We left our resort and drove back into San Jose. Before getting dropped off at our hotel (the same Hilton we stayed at our first night in CR), we had to get our Covid rapid tests done. It was actually at this nice mall area - there was this clinic in the mall, as well as a few shops, a grocery store, etc. It took a while, but finally all 6 of us got our noses swabbed. Luckily it wasn't the PCR one - I literally don't think I could do that one, ha. 

Then we drove to the hotel and said our goodbyes to Shirley. :( After that, we were on our own for the rest of the afternoon and evening. We walked back to that mall place and shopped around the stores. Emmy bought an adorable dress. I am not sure anyone else bought anything. Then we went to the grocery store and bought some snacks for our flights home, the airport, etc. I finally found a shirt - in the grocery store, ha. It was cute and just what I wanted - it said "Costa Rica" and "Pura Vida." Pura Vida is the most common saying there and you hear it all the time!  

A cool flower we saw on our walk.

Lucy waiting to get her test - she was so excited. :)

Another cool picture of San Jose from our hotel room.

We asked the hotel lobby worker where a good place to go to dinner would be. She told us about some steakhouse right around the corner. We had to tell her that we actually wanted Costa Rican food (not American!). She got all excited and got us a brochure/coupon for a place called "Nuestra Tierra," our country in english? The brochure was great and said things like, "We understand you are looking for a good time and food. Look for us." "Best local food experience? We got you." "Look for the best typical experience." 

The hotel gal helped us get two taxis to the place. (Where was Juan Carlos when we needed him?! In fact, Juan Carlos told us the next day he would have come and taken us, ha.) Since driving in CR is just plain crazy, it was a bit of a crazy drive through the downtown and sketchy area of San Jose. It wasn't too bad of a ride, though. I went with the boys and sent the girls with Ben. 

The restaurant was fantastic and literally exactly what we wanted: lots of good authentic CR food in an awesome environment. Live music, non English-speaking waiter (but the manager spoke english), lots of smiles and laughs from us, the workers, the other patrons, etc. 

We ordered too much food, whoops. When we finished up, the manager helped us get two taxis back to our hotel. And that's when we had the scariest ride of our lives! I was literally closing my eyes, covering my eyes with my hands, etc. Jonas just laughed at me. Miles probably had no idea. It was scary and I thought 1. We are going to die or 2. We are going to hit and kill someone. Really, just those two options seemed like the only reasonable outcomes of this ride in a taxi. When we arrived back at the hotel (with no one having died or been killed), I discovered that Ben felt exactly the same way. It was insane!!!! Kids are too oblivious and invincible to have such thoughts. They enjoyed the experience. :) Our taxi drivers cheated us and doubled our fare on the way back. It was a bit frustrating, but oh well. We were out an extra 10 dollars. It probably made their night to make some extra money off some white family!

The next morning was our last day in Costa Rica. Plus, it was my birthday . . . 

So I decided to splurge on myself! After serving me up some gallo pinto and fruit, I went back to the buffet line and made me a lovely and yummy birthday panCAKE. :) What a treat.

Juan Carlos picked us up a little before 9 and drove us to the LDS chapel. When you look up LDS chapels on meetinghouse locator, it comes up with dozens in the San Jose vicinity. It's crazy. We had earlier picked one close to the hotel and it was a beautiful building! 

 

The chapel was so light and bright. 

It doesn't look beautiful necessarily from the outside, but it was. :) It was two-stories and just clean and bright. I really liked the white walls and floors - as opposed to the dark carpet most or our churches have in the US. 

Ben was the only one who really wanted to stay for the second hour. I mean, I would have loved to, but I literally had no idea what was being said . . . The kids were VERY against staying, ha. But, after sacrament meeting, the YW president came up and spoke to me and my girls - in very good english. She invited us to join her for YW and how could I refuse?! (The president looked so young that my girls thought she was a young woman, ha.) The president would fill us in every once in a while to what was being discussed. One of their actual young women taught the entire lesson and although I had no idea what she was saying, she seemed to have done a great job! :) (P.S. That's Emmy's cute dress she bought - love!)

The boys had decided to stay with Ben in EQ. Ben wasn't going to force them to go to YM and so gave them a choice. They were just timid - which makes sense - in going by themselves to YM's. Luckily, though, a bishopric member (oh, the bishop's name was Juan Carlos - did I already mention that?) came up and grabbed the boys and took them to YM. :) The boys had a great time - apparently there was some discussion of the Big Bang going on during the lesson. Anyways, it was a great time and everyone was happy after church - yep, even all the kids. It just felt good. Juan Carlos even came in (Ben invited him) for a bit of the sacrament meeting.

After church, Juan drove us to and dropped us off at the airport. We had a long time until our flight, but the airport was super nice and had some awesome shops to browse through. It helped pass the time a bit.

Our flight left at about 3:30. It was a 5-hour flight to the Dallas/Fort Worth airport. On the flight, Ben and I watched my birthday movie on my phone: the new West Side Stories. It was so good! We had an overnight layover at the airport. We were not supposed to; the original flight was leaving San Jose at midnight and then landing in Dallas early morning. But the flight was cancelled (months before) and so we had an overnight layover. It kind of sucked. Lucy slept the best. Next Ben. Then Miles. Jonas got a couple hours in. Emmy and I pretty much got ZERO sleep. I was just too uncomfortable to fall asleep - same with Emmy, I think. Oh well. I pulled an all-nighter on my 43rd birthday - I'm so cool like that.

Our flight left Dallas at 8:30am and arrived in Montrose at 9:30am (time change). Then it was quickly back to real life: Jonas had to be to work at 10am, Emmy at 12pm, and Miles at 3pm. Ha!

Here's the video. It's nothing great, but it will be fun for my family to watch someday! I didn't realize it (I never have the volume up on my phone), but Shirley's voice is heard on it. She narrated the outrigger video. It's awesome. Miles took a video of all of us finishing up the ropes course. That section was actually one of the easiest. But I still was a bit scared, ha.

It was truly an amazing adventure and I am so glad our family got to go and experience it all together! PURA VIDA!!

Costa Rica Part 3

We arrived on Thursday afternoon to our final destination, Fiesta Resort. It's on the Pacific side of CR . . . I don't know if the beach at the resort has a name . . . I don't think so. Our hotel was some "all-inclusive" place. Which I am not quite sure what exactly that means. Free, anytime drinks (alcoholic and non), food, etc.? I don't know. Our rooms were nice and the resort was nice, but the kids were definitely mostly interested in the ocean!

So after getting everyone checked in to our rooms, we headed down to the beach . . . We were told no one swims in it because of the riptides. I am sure there are some dangerous riptides there, but I think they are also extra-cautious. At the other beach in Tortuguero we were told the same thing. Anyways, we let our kids play in it and luckily all was well. There weren't many others in it - and the only ones who were, were white. But our kids never went super far out and Ben was usually in the water with them. Me? I don't like the ocean much at all. I have never been a big fan of the water - add salt and waves that pummel you? No thanks. But I did wade for a while and the water was fairly warm and so that was nice.

It was pretty! Although the black sand was kind of not so pretty - and became scalding hot as my kids discovered the next day!

The kids absolutely loved playing in the ocean - jumping the waves, body-surfing, etc. It was great watching them. :) They literally stayed passed sunset and were so happy to be at a beach. (I did recommend to the tourist company that a nicer, swim-friendly, white-sand beach - which CR does have - might have been a better option . . . But we still had a fantastic time.) That night we ate dinner and just walked around the hotel, etc. CR's soccer team was playing Canada - and so the hotel's movie room (usually set up for kids to watch a movie in the evenings) was showing the game and it was packed of Costa Ricans cheering every time a CR player touched the ball. It was awesome. CR won that night! (And then went on to play the US the following week - and beat us!) 

After the dinner, the boys went back to the beach - but not to swim, just to be on the sand, hear the waves, etc. Ben and I walked out, too (trying to find Lucy's missing hotel key, which we didn't find - but it also turned out not to be missing, ha). We saw all sorts of crabs running and then burying in the sand - it was cool, but also kind of creepy! We left the boys and then Ben and I spent the rest of our evening signing us all up for the stupid Covid tests we had to take on Saturday - requirement for flying back home. It took forever to do . . . The kids watched movies in their rooms.

The next morning we drove maybe 30-40 minutes away for an "outrigger" adventure. We canoed out to this beach. The beach was gorgeous and we were the only ones there - our own private beach for a couple of hours! The waves were not amazing, but I liked them, ha. Ben and the boys even tried out snorkeling and saw tons of fish, etc. It was a really fun outing for sure.

On the way to our adventure, we stopped at this area of a river where crocodiles reside - how weird yet cool!? We saw maybe a dozen of them. So crazy.

The place where we met our guides and got ready for the adventure. 

All ready!

So fun and so pretty!

A "Halloween crab" greeted us at the beach. :) There were also a lot of cute hermit crabs walking around.

It would not have been a true CR adventure without a dog. So a dog rode out with us on our outrigger. (He actually fell off it on the way home - I think he was a bit sleepy and just slipped off. The guide in the back just scooped the dog up by his neck as he passed.) Here's the dog digging for crabs. :)

The Wave.

The story behind The Wave: So Miles' phone is waterproof. I had actually encouraged him to take it when they went snorkeling. Which he didn't. Which he later regretted. Anyways, he finally decided to take some underwater shots and then was attempting to capture the waves from underwater. Well a surprisingly big one came and knocked whoever was there over - including Miles, which made him drop his phone. We then spent the next 25 minutes searching the ocean for his phone. The guides were all out there as well - one even took his kayak far out and tried to look beyond where we were all looking. After 20 minutes, it wasn't looking so good. We were all devastated for Miles. Not for the phone - but what he had on his phone. Thousands of pictures, his contacts, etc. I had finally told Miles that we had to stop and head back - these guides had an afternoon tour to take out as well. Well within a minute of me telling Miles that, he found it! Thank heavens and thanks for answered prayers!! The phone was still on and, yes, it still worked and still works today. :) Sheesh.

One the way back from our outrigger experience, we went to the town of Puntarenas. The only cool thing about it was this sign, ha. It was a really trashy, poor, gross area. Our trip included this so as to buy and eat a Churchill. A Churchill is a weird CR ice cream/snow cone/milk drink:

They were fun for sure! But also a bit weird. I basically just liked the ice cream. Lucy couldn't get over the dry powered milk and didn't eat much of hers. The boys all finished theirs. :) Emmy might have, too. The thing is, there were carts and stands right by the resort selling these - so no need to drive into the trashy town . . . But whatever, another adventure!

We had a bit of downtime when we got back to the resort and then met the kids back up at the beach. They stayed, again, until past sunset. We had a fun evening at dinner together (with Shirley - we always ate at least dinner with her - we'd always invite her to join us because why not). Later in the evening we had fun getting some virgin Daiquiris, Shirley Temples, Miami Vices, etc. So fun.

We had to check out of our place on noon on Saturday, but the kids still spent another couple of hours that morning playing in the ocean. We then went back to our rooms, dumped out 5 pounds of sand from our suits (no joke), and packed up. (The pictures are pretty out of order and it is truly the biggest pain trying to move them around . . . so in random order . . .)

This could have been Thursday or Friday night. Who knows?

Ben bought this cool shirt at the store inside the resort. Looking good!

The resort was all-lit up and pretty at night.

So crazy . . . that first night at the resort as the kids are playing in the water, we hear "Emmy?!" Yep, it was Tahlia - her good friend from school! They knew they were both going to be in CR, of course, but neither one knew where they would be. How insane that we ended up at the same resort! Tal had just gotten there and was spending the whole week there at the resort. Anyways, we ran into her and her family (mom and sister) a couple times while there. So fun.

The resort had a little snack shop open during the afternoons. Free food. I always got the delicious fruit - pineapple and papaya and watermelon. So good. Ben loved the ceviche - this one served over a bag of chips. There is actually a Costa Rican restaurant in Ridgway that Ben and I had gone to once - maybe a couple of years ago? Ben had the ceviche and loved it. So he was excited about eating it here and thought it was super tasty. He got it a few times while there. :)

Ben in front of the pool in back of our resort. It was a pretty place for sure! We were just more interested in the ocean, not hanging out at a pool (which we can do at home!).

The girls had fun ordering their "drinks" at the outdoor bar. :)

Saturday morning . . . all packed up and ready to head back to San Jose. It was coming to end - so sad! There is Shirley and Juan Carlos on the right of the picture. The best guide and driver in CR! :)