The Stevens at Disneyworld

I haven't been a very diligent blogger lately. We were pretty busy over the holidays and then we made our trip to Disneyworld. We are back and I am trying to get back into the swing of things. Earl did really well in the half marathon and it was fun to escape the Utah chill for a few days.

Run Forrest, Run!

I've been running three times per week for the past 14 years, and I still get the "Run Forrest, Run!" shout-out from passing cars at least a couple of times per year. Other "exciting" things have happened during my runs including: (a) being chased by coyotes, (b) being hit in the chest with a can of Rock Star, (c) and doing a Warrick Dunn spin move to avoid being hit by an elderly man pulling out of the temple.

The latest chapter of running adventures involves me being sucked in to a half marathon. This has been interesting because, in all my years of running, I have never ran more than 6.2 miles (a 10k) at one time. A half marathon is "only" 13.1 miles, which Stan (my boss) claims is easily done by his pre-teen daughter.




So, for the past eight weeks, I have roughly doubled my running mileage as I complete my half-marathon training program. I have dropped 15 lbs and hope to be below 200 lbs when I run the race in early January.

I am running under the "Team Duda" banner which seeks to raise awareness and funds for Duchenne's Muscular Dystrophy. More information on Team Duda and our fundraising efforts can be found here
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Numa Song

and after dance lessons (thanks to Brad and Mandy for this one). . .

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Our New Kitten

We have a new pet at our house. I finally relented and let the kids have one of grandma's baby kittens. We are not sure if it is a boy or a girl yet. The kids are having a lot of fun taking care of the kitty. Sophie loves the kitten.

Trick or Treat!

One of the things I love about our neighborhood is that we know everyone. We go to church and school with all of them, so trick-or-treating is really fun for the kids. There is even a family in our neighborhood who pass out hot chocolate, hot dogs and show outdoor movies on Halloween. The kids brought home tons of candy, but were very tired afterwards. Sophie had to come home early, she only lasted about 45 minutes.

Antelope island

Our kids have been asking about the Great Salt Lake - a prominent feature on the Utah map, but something they've never seen before. We decided to drive out to Antelope Island and show them the sights. Lori and I hadn't been there in 20 years, so we were a bit curious as well.

We loaded Pepper in the back of the truck and made the 80-mile drive up I-15 and across the causeway to the island. The first snowstorm of the year had hit the mountains the day before our little trip, and the views of the mountains from Antelope Island were awesome!

The kids enjoyed skipping rocks in the GSL (there were millions of perfectly flat skipping rocks on the beach, as you see in the picture above). The kids tasted the water and Annika said it tasted "saltier than the kind of salt you put on your eggs". Pepper was absolutely disgusting. There were piles of dead brine flies/brine shrimp on the shore (darker looking spots in the photo above) and the stupid dog thought they smelled so good that she rolled around in them. I had to load her into the truck at the end of our little jaunt and she smelled like the Denny's dumpster on a hot August afternoon in Houston.

There was plenty of wildlife out there too. We saw a buffalo, and we saw some idiots walking up to the buffalo to take its photo. We waited around hoping to catch Mr. Sideways Hat do his best rodeo clown-in-distress act, but the buffalo was patient and wandered off.

We also saw a coyote, some chukars (birds), and some live, non-stinky brine shrimp at the visitors center. On the way out of the visitors center, we caught some European tourists taking a picture of Pepper in the back of our truck. Couldn't figure that one out. . .maybe Black Labs in pickup trucks represent something uniquely American in Slovenia. I felt like pestering them to buy some folk crafts (we had legos in the back of the truck).

Anyway, nice to get out and get some fresh air after the cold, snowy weekend!

Fall Break

The kids were out of school part of last week, so we decided to go to Lagoon. My kids love amusement parks. They did not get this genetic trait from me, I avoid roller coasters as much as possible. Earl has tried to get me on one for 13 years and has yet to succeed. I think he's given up. He has moved on to persuading Annika and Stockton to ride all things scary. Stockton is an old pro, he'll ride just about anything. Annika rode 2 roller coasters at Lagoon, including the old white rickety one, that I won't go near. It was a fun day with perfect weather. I had a good time taking Sawyer and Sophie on the baby rides, while Earl turned Annika and Stockton into little daredevils.