Emmy's 2023 Cross-Country Season

Emmy's season had some ups and downs. The downs mostly revolved around running, ha. It's just hard and these kids push themselves a lot! But I don't think she totally hates running . . . Even after some practices she would be excited to tell me how she pushed herself on the intervals, etc. The hardest thing, I think, for her this year was that she was one of the slowest (or the slowest at some races) girls on her team (but not overall - she was usually in the 50th percentile overall). Emmy's competitive and she's used to doing really well in gymnastics, so this last thing wasn't something "fun" for her. But she stuck with it and I am so proud of her! Cross-country is not Emmy's only sport, nor her "main" sport. So it's cool that she just does it . . . It's a lot to do dual-sporting and her grades sure do suffer (but they are coming up, I think!), but I think it is worth it. She loves being part of the team and traveling with the team, etc. Even though she would be overwhelmed at times, or discouraged - overall it's such a positive in her life and she's definitely planning on it for her next two years.

Her PR was at the Grand Junction meet (where most PR) at 23:03. She was happy with her time, but also bummed she didn't get in the 22-minute timeframe! We won't talk regionals . . . but her state time was 24:02 (last year she was 24:08). We're hopeful for faster times (via better summer training) next year, but she's doing great!

We just had the awards night last night. (I survived it, Erin! Probably because I didn't take Lucy haha! Erin and Lucy went last year when Ben and I were in Honduras.) It's long - like 2 1/2 hours long. Coach Simpson - who is fabulous and will not be head coaching next year (but maybe assisting?!) - talks about each and every athlete and it just takes a while. Then there was a 20-minute slideshow (which was really cool, actually), etc. The coach takes a ton of pictures (about 2700) over the course of the season and then prints up a bunch and at the awards night the kids go around and pick the photos with them in them, etc. It's fun and here are a few of the ones Emmy got:

State was a fun time. Emmy left with her team on Friday morning and headed out to Colorado Springs. Lucy, Ben, and I left Friday after work and had a decent drive. (A couple others tried heading out early Saturday morning and the roads were awful - icy and snowy. One mom joined a host of others off the road and had to wait a couple hours to get towed out. Missing her daughter's - a senior - final race. Sad!) We stayed in a cheap and gross hotel, ha, but whatever. Ben and I went on a run Saturday morning. It was chilly - in the 20s! The run was listed as a top-10 run in Colorado Springs. It would have been cool as you're on a path running along the river - however, we ran by at least 1/2 a dozen homeless camps. I was glad I was not alone!

We got to the race venue a little after 9:30 and were able to watch the boys finish - it's just fun and exciting. We had a bit of time before Emmy's run and so we figured out where to go to see her, etc. It's not a great course for spectators as we really only saw Emmy at the start, at the 1/2-mile mark, and at the finish. (As opposed to other races where you can catch the runners at like 4-6 different spots!)

It was still definitely chilly by Emmy's race time (11:00), but that was a good thing for Emmy! The girls headed out and they all did relatively well for themselves. Emmy was 149th out of 157 . . . but she wasn't super bummed about that (but is embarrassed about the plaque she received at awards with that listed haha). She actually was happy after her run (a first perhaps!?) and said she just felt good and strong. Besides the Grand Junction race, it was her fastest time of the season. Which is awesome as it isn't a flat course - there are a few good hills to climb.

I was all layered up - wearing Lucy's jacket over my coat. :) Lucy had on two sweatshirts. Emmy had on practically nothing, ha. Which I get - she threw off her gloves quickly into her room - thata girl! (Just like her mom.) 

The state teams of boys and girls.

Cute Emmy in her fortune-costing sweats. Oh the price for making it to state!

This was the poster we made for Emmy. :) Last year, her all-time and forever crush Aiden, was there running it himself. She told me she only as fast as she did last year because Aiden was watching her. So I printed up this picture and Lucy created the bubble. We all loved it - including Emmy. She even showed her two coaches, who coached and so know and love Aiden as well. (Aiden is currently serving his mission in Mexico.)

Okay, now back to the start of the race. Run, girls, run! As I mentioned, there were 157 runners in the girls' group. And 20 teams. 20 teams out of 65 in the state. The team placed 19th . . . which doesn't sound great. But when you realize 45 teams didn't make it, it sounds a little better?! 

Emmy probably close to the half-mile mark - still with gloves on, but it wasn't for much longer before she threw them off.

Coming in to the arena for the home stretch. Go, Emmy, go!

Yay, she finished and finished well!

After the race, we hung out with Emmy for a bit and then said our goodbyes - she decided to ride home with the team. On our way out, Ben, Lucy and I ran into Pete and Katie Sabey. So fun! We visited for a good 30 minutes and it was great. I love Katie. :) Their sophomore daughter was running at about 1, I think (they are 5A and we are 4A). Anyways, we had a great visit and then we left the venue. We grabbed some lunch at Kroger's (with Ben taking forever, right Lucy?! :) ), then had to go pick up some things from Dr. Judkin's brother who lives in the Springs, and then we finally headed for home. 

Our timing was again lucky as we had just rain for the majority of our drive. Emmy left about 45 minutes later than us and they had crazy, snowy, 4-wheel drive, seatbelts on (because oddly enough you usually don't wear seatbelts on the school's buses...) for Monarch Pass. Yuck. Another family in the ward, who were up there for the band finals, left about 45-minutes after Emmy did and ended up turning around right before Monarch and stayed in Salida. Crazy weather for sure!

Anyways, we always love watching Emmy run and are super proud of her efforts!

Our Wild Weekend

Fall time is such a busy time - back to school, cross-country, etc. So we decided to make an already busy time, busier. Haha. The second-to-last weekend in October, Ben had his Army Drill weekend in Utah, Emmy had her regional cross-country meet 4 hours east of us, there was a home BYU football game, and we had a niece getting married. So we decided to mash them all together and create a wild weekend!

I drove out Thursday to Emmy's regional meet in Pueblo. I had good timing. . . The team had left the day before. They stayed at a hotel in Canon City - about 45 minutes from Pueblo. About 20 minutes before I came into Canon City, I got a call from one of Emmy's teammates. Turns out Elijah, the lone senior boy and the fastest runner on the team, had left his running shoes at the hotel. I was able to stop off on my way and pick up his shoes. Perfect. :)

It was a hot afternoon and by the time our girls were up for their race, it was about 83 degrees. Emmy does not run well in the heat and she probably had like her worst run of the season - of her 2-year cross-country career?! I mean, she's had a few slower times this year, but those were on hilly, mountain trails. She ran this race a good 2 1/2 minutes slower than last year. So weird. She was of course bummed. But one interesting thing: Annabelle and Emmy are usually within 15 seconds of each other, with one and sometimes the other coming in first. Emmy beat Annabelle (which always makes her happy - even though she and Annabelle are cross-country besties) - so Annabelle likewise had a weirdly slow run, too. The other girls on the team were just slightly slower than their norm - certainly not 2 1/2 minutes. Emmy had been nursing an injured knee for 10 days and hadn't run as much - maybe that was the reason? Who knows. Emmy still had fun, though, at the hotel, hanging out, going to dinner, lounging in the hot tub, etc.

Emmy at Regionals. Regionals is significant because the top 15 finishers qualify individually for state and the top 4 teams qualify as well. So it's a big deal.

Regional runners and coaches.

Emmy and her cross-country bestie, Annabelle.

The cute Montrose XC girls.

After the race, I enjoyed a nice walk along the riverwalk path in Canon City. It was pretty! But slightly disturbing as just across the street was the State Prison, haha.

I stayed in the same hotel that night so I could get up early and drive Emmy home. The team was going to be leaving later and Emmy and I needed to get home by 12:00 so we could grab Lucy and head for Utah. Ben had left for Utah on Thursday night and actually stayed the weekend at the hotel with his parents - who had come out for Emma's (our niece, their granddaughter) wedding.

We had a good drive home and grabbed Lucy and then made our way to the Provo City Center Temple. We girls did baptisms and it was nice to be in that beautiful temple. 

After that, we got our first-ever In-and-Out burgers and then made our way to Emma's reception in Payson. It was such a lovely venue and was fun to see family - Emma and her family of course, Jim and Diana, a few other nieces (Claire and Melanie), a cousin, and an aunt. Emma, and apparently all of her siblings, love to dance and they sure got down there! It was fun watching them and Levi, a second-cousin or something, finally got Lucy and Emmy to join in.

I didn't take any photos at the reception, but here is a picture of the gorgeous bride Emma and her handsome groom Nate.

On Saturday, Ben was back to his army gig. The girls and I had a good day in the Midway area. I loved my morning run. Those runs ALWAYS make me want to live there. I took the girls to get their hair trimmed, we did some second-hand shopping and all scored a few items, and I took them to Quench It to be a typical Utah person, ha. We headed down to Provo later in the afternoon and watched the football game that started at 5.

Ben got off a bit later than hoped, but was able to catch most of the last half of the game. Unfortunately, it was a less-than-exciting second half. The first half BYU looked decent and scored 24 points. The second half, BYU looked bad and scored only 3 points. Sad for Ben, but it was still fun just being there!

On Sunday Ben was again back to the army. We girls went to my parents' ward and were lucky to have President Oaks surprise everyone with a visit! It was awesome; he is awesome. :) The speakers that day did a fantastic job and so it was already a great meeting. Then President Oaks got up and spoke for just about 5 minutes - all that was left, really. I thought it was cool he didn't go over . . . He then visited the various classes during the second hour. He went into the Young Women's room and so he was up-close and personal for my girls - how special! Anyways, it was pretty cool.

Then we ate a delicious meal made by my mom and then made our way home. I let Emmy drive all the way from Wellington to Grand Junction, which included driving on I-70 going 80 mph. I hated it; it's just stressful. (I don't even like driving with Miles still. . . He's totally a fine driver, but he's just a kid . . .) Emmy did just fine, though.

In the end, from my Thursday morning heading out to Pueblo, to Sunday night arriving back home in Montrose - I had put on around 1,200 miles on my car. All worth it, though!

24-hour date to Alamosa

Ben was pretty bummed that I couldn't do the Black Canyon Triathlon with him this year. I mean I was, too - but I also got a trip to Oregon instead and so my loss was a little softened. :) But the Black Canyon Tri is part of 4-series race and there was one more for the season - the Splashland Triathlon in Alamosa, Colorado. Alamosa is a small town in the Southeastern part of the state - near the Great Sand Dunes. So I suggested to Ben we go and do that triathlon together and he was totally on-board.

This triathlon is unique in that it's backwards - you run, bike, and swim. Weird. Ben and I did a small practice backward tri the week before and it was different for sure. Of course your run felt stronger, but the bike was a bit harder because your legs have already done some work. Then it was interesting because for the swim, your triceps were already exhausted. Who knew how much strain biking was on the triceps!? Also, the swim was in this "hot springs" pool - Splashland.

Anyways, we got a hotel for Friday night and the plan was to leave around 4:30 - it's a 4-hour drive from our home. But life happened and sort of fell apart . . . Emmy was taking the Flex to a PT appointment as I got home from work. However, the Flex just completely died in the driveway. Emmy was worried about the Flex and I was worried about her missing her PT appointment (it was her first one and I didn't want to pay for it if she didn't make it, ha). But we finally got a hold of Jonas and he came home and got Emmy and dropped her off - late - for her appointment. Jonas looked at the Flex and couldn't figure out the problem.... 

We had to wait to pick up Emmy from her appointment (and the PT talked to me forever!) and then as we got home, Emmy - who was beyond bummed that the Flex (the car she gets to use) wasn't working, told us that among the many weekend plans ruined by the broken-down Flex, one was that she didn't have her costume for the cross-country fun-run costume race the next morning. You know, the one I had asked her about on Monday and if she had her costume figured out, etc. - to which Emmy replied, "It's only Monday mom!" In a not-terribly-friendly tone . . . Sigh. So then I had to run to Walmart and find a Woody from Toy Story costume. Luckily there were two in the store - a men's XL or a boy's M. Boys M = size/age 8-10. Oh well, I knew Emmy would be able to pull it off - and she did and was, as I called her, a "sexy Woody." Haha. Pics of her on a different post . . . 

Then we had to drop Emmy off at the football game - and finally Ben and I were on our way at 6:30pm. Oh well. We had a nice drive, but didn't see much of it because it was dark by the time we got to where we've never really driven before.

Race morning started out cold! Like in the mid-20s cold. Which is cold for a bike ride! I knew the run would be totally fine and the outdoor hot springs of course would be, too. But I was a bit worried for the bike. Ben and I checked in and got ourselves ready and tried to warm up a bit. 

Then it was on . . . and the run was great. It was pretty scenic and I felt good and that I was pushing it at my max. Ben came in 4th. I was the 2nd woman. I could have been 1st . . . This girl and I ran the whole thing practically together - sometimes I was a step or two ahead and sometimes she was. But right close to the finish we had to funnel down to single-file and I let her ahead. So she beat me by like 1/2 a second. So that was kind of awesome. She was also 17 years old. . . 

Then the bike was fine. I wasn't cold at all. It was again pretty. I got passed by a few and so that was kind of a bummer. I saw Ben coming back as it was an out-and-back route and he was looking good at third position! 

The swim was a bit different. It was 800 yards. Not bad. But the lengths were 50 yards - as opposed to the 25-lengths of most pools. I had never swam a 50 length and so it was just different. It was serpentine style, which I hate. I got bonked pretty good on the head once. I was only passed once, though, which was shocking because I am so slow. One end of the pool was 3 feet deep and didn't have a wall to push off of, so you kind of just walked over to the next lane and then began to swim again. A bit weird and I think it slowed me down, but not a big deal. I didn't love the warm water. Actually, the warm water wasn't awful, but there were these jets that pushed out hot water and I hated that. My body was producing enough heat and I didn't love the extra. But I finally finished and all was well.

Ben ended up taking 3rd place overall and 1st place in his division - go Ben!! He did awesome. I ended up 3rd place overall female and was super happy with that! I got 2nd in my division, which was dumb because there were only two of us, ha. Anyways, it was super fun and we were both happy with how we did.

One of Ben's best-friends from Littleton, Dave Tandberg, lives in Alamosa and is the president of the small college there - Adams State. Dave and his wife Darren actually came to Splashland and got to see Ben and I getting our medals. Nice, ha! We then spent the rest of the afternoon with them. We went over to their awesome "president's home" where presidents of the college have been living since the 1930s, which was when it was built. It was such a unique and awesome home! We got to take a tour of the small but beautiful campus and even got to see Dave's office and got some Adams State merch as well. :) 

We walked back to Dave's house and people changed to get ready for the football game. When then walked back to campus and made our way over to the stadium. On our way, there was a tour being given to prospective high school students (lacrosse, I think) and Dave "had" to give a speech. It was awesome seeing Dave in his element as president and so fun for Ben to see and hear his speech. It was perfect. We got to watch the game in the president's box and that was super cool. We even got a free, catered lunch out of it. On our way out, Dave took us on to the field and we watched a few plays there before half-time begun and we left. 

It was a really great 24-hour date and maybe the Splashland Triathlon will become a new yearly tradition!

Pre-race and a bit cold. And a bit nervous. And a bit excited.

After race and a bit warmer (but just a bit). No longer nervous nor excited. But a bit happy with our results and especially with being done. Ha.

Ben's awesome results. 4th in the run, 3rd in the bike, and 19th in the swim. Again, 3rd overall.

My results: 13th overall run (but 2nd female), 18th bike (3rd in female), and 37th in swim (so slow!). 16th overall with 3rd overall female.

Ben eating his lunch in the president's box. Such a fun time!

Dave and Ben out on the field.

Me, Ben, Dave, Darren, and their youngest daughter Kye.

Leaving Alamosa - that's the President's house in the background. It was soooo cool.

Film

Miles and his friend Aiden bought some old camera at an antique store on the Front Range over the summer. Miles took two rolls of pictures and then tasked me with getting them developed. It took me long enough (and cost about $40 for the two rolls), but I finally the scans. They are fun and just look like vintage pictures (especially a picture of Miles)! Miles had no clue if they would turn out at all. But most of them did and they are super fun. Maybe Grandpa Max will have some tips for Miles and his photography hobby. :)

Here are some of my favorites:

From his second roll, which was mostly of our trip to Yellowstone:

The inside of the Pontiac Chieftain. 

Love this picture - but sad it's a bit dark . . . 

Pretty wildflowers on our hike in Yellowstone.

Love Yellowstone.

Miles atop the Fire Tower in Mack's Inn.

Lake Yellowstone hotel.

Our glorious hike to Mt. Washburn in Yellowstone (or should I say Yellowflowers. . . Hehe).

Not sure exactly where this was taken but it's pretty! Somewhere in Yellowstone. I am guessing it's the path to Lone Star Geyser.

Cool bus thing at the Old Faithful Lodge.

Grand Prismatic - always stunning.

Miles put this on timer - we are at Imperial Geyser. As soon as this was taken Lucy asked, "Can I see it?" Well now you can (months later) . . . :)

Seagull at Big Springs. They sound like crying babies or toddlers. 

Cute chipmunk at Mystic Falls.

Miles and his friends the last few days before he left for his mission. Jeremiah, Emma, and Jentel.

Okay, here are some pics from his first roll - mostly taken at car shows he visited during the summer working in the Front Range area.

Home Sweet Mack's Inn Home.

The Fire Tower.

I want to go back.

Isn't this such a classic and vintage-looking photo!? It and Miles look like they came straight out of the late 70s. I love it so much.

Miles' Mini and its' Free Bacon sticker.

Lovely Grandma Diana in her home.

One of many cars Miles saw and took pictures of.

A dark, but still handsome, Grandpa Max in his home.

More cool cars . . . 

The Bugarins do love them some monster rallies and so Miles joined them on a couple. Funny.

I am not sure where this was taken, but I think it's a great photo.

The gorgeous Fort Collins temple.

Aiden. A stud of a man.

Best buds always. Kind of like BFFs, but in a more manly way. :)

Awesome and fun pictures!