Handcart Days

One week ago McKayla and I ran the Handcart Days races in Bountiful. She ran the half marathon and I ran the 5K. They were really great races for both of us! I had what I like to call my "old lady PR" meaning it was the fastest 5K I've run in years. (I have never been fast but I keep slowing down with age.) McKayla was slower than she would have liked (she ran a 1:44) but was happy with her time considering (a) she has not run hardly at all due to her injury, (b) it was still faster than the only other half marathon she's run 5 years ago, (c) she actually ran pain-free (a first since April) and (d) she was still fast enough to be the 8th overall woman and 1st in her age group. She is awesome like that! The most exciting thing was the pain-free part. I had rubbed her out hard enough to bruise her the night before. I don't know if it was the massage or just that she has finally healed, but it worked! She had tried to run just 6 miles on 2 previous days during the week and was unable to because of pain. Now she seems to have turned a corner. She has run pain-free since the half-marathon. Now she is just working on building back up her mileage and getting back in shape. She did win a belt buckle for her 1st place age division win. Here is the two of us after our races:

Maui bound

We are off today for Maui for a few days of family fun! We've rented a condo in Kihei and plan to mostly play in the water. We have boogie boards and snorkel equipment. The highlight for the kids is that I have them scheduled for surfing lessons.

Discovery Center

This past week I went to the Family Search Discovery Center with McKayla, Michael, Chandler, my parents, Henry and Laurie, Jake, Erica, and Rachel. It was really cool! I learned that there are 670 Marvelles in the United States and 38,524 people with the last name of Lawton. I also got to take pictures of what I would look like if I were Chinese or English or Armenian. McKayla took one as a Samoan and it turned out great! I also learned that 56% of my ancestors come from the U.S., 32% from the United Kingdom, 8% Norway, 4% Ireland, and 1% France. There was info on my birth year and so on. They give you an iPad when you enter and you log in using your LDS account number and then when you logout, the info is emailed to you.

technology

Some days I am pretty sure technology is shortened to tech because it deserves to be a 4-letter word! I have such a love/hate relationship with technology. Can't live with it, can't live without it and all that. I have been working on my Gospel Doctrine lesson for today. It is on the Atonement and I wanted a silent lesson. Unfortunately, my computer does not have PowerPoint. My old laptop does so I decided to use that. After a couple days, it became obvious that my old laptop has way too many issues to be reliable for a lesson. So, I decided to use Kevin's tablet. I got that all set up only to discover there is no way to connect it to a TV at the church. So, I downloaded PowerPoint to my computer only to find that my old PowerPoint code no longer works. Next I found a free trial of Power Point which I downloaded onto my computer. Good to go. Except when I got to the church and tried it out on the TV, I found that I have no graphics card so my screen will not project onto the TV. Seriously? Such a good thing I tried it out. So, I downloaded a trial version onto Chandler's computer. Finally, I think I am good to go. Hope so anyway.

Riverton Country Mile

Chandler and I ran the Riverton Town Days races on the 4th. We've both run them several times before but this is the first time Chandler has run the 10K. He ran it in 47 minutes and finished 19th overall and 3rd in his age group. I ran the 5K. McKayla was planning to run the 10K but was too injured. It is a really fun race - I love seeing so many people I know.

I'm not Eve

I took Alec and Chandler and joined Jill (and Abby and Hannah) and Karen (and Katie and Ellie) at Yuba Lake. We had fun riding 4-wheelers and the waverunners. I ran every morning and saw a deer, lots of jackrabbits and many lizards. We also saw a snake. I know Hannah and Ellie love animals so I caught the snake so they could pet it. I sent a picture to Kevin and my older kids and they all freaked out. Brakston kindly reminded me what happened to Eve when she came in contact with a snake. lol

King's Peak

Chandler hiked King's Peak with the Teachers and Priests from our ward earlier this month. They backpacked in 8 miles on Thursday. Friday they took daypacks and hiked the final 5 miles and then back before picking back up their backpacks and hiking the additional 8 miles out. He had a great time but came home pretty tired.

Sew fun!

One of my goals for summer was to sew a couple skirts. This is one I sewed for McKayla.

I am really proud of how it turned out. It is the very first time I have ever put in a zipper. I read a tutorial and went for it! Also, I didn't have a pattern for the skirt - just a few instructions. I had to figure out a lot of it myself. I like how it turned out!