Balls Family Reunion

Randy's parents celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary so we met up with everyone in Ashton, Idaho (twenty minutes from Rexburg) for a quick weekend trip.  This was a long drive for us and one of the rare times when all seven of us were in the car at the same time.  It was twelve hours of torture.  But we made it to the big, beautiful cabin we rented for the weekend and the kids wasted no time exploring and playing.

In the short two days we were there, we took a lot of family pictures, ate good food, floated down a super slow river (without any rapids but we saw three moose), and hung around the house relaxing.  I had vague memories of bridge jumping back in my Ricks College days which was not too far from where we were staying so I asked our raft guides about it.  They said it was still a thing so we grabbed anyone who was up for the adventure and went bridge jumping.  It was my favorite thing we did. Probably because it scared me to death and the college kids cheered me on and said I was a bad a**.  So I felt cool.

So many photo shoots!

Ethan wasted no time climbing all the way up and jumping.  I was so proud!

And this is me jumping to what felt like my death :)

On our last night there, Randy and his siblings put together a little program to honor their parents.  Randy put hours into costume design so they could recreate one of their favorite family photos.  They also sang some awkward songs and laughed at their inside jokes while all the grandkids smiled politely.  Reed and Pam loved it and it was fun for us to all be together.  We left early the next morning so Randy and Ethan could catch their flights from the tiny Idaho Falls airport back to Seattle, while I drove the rest of the boys to Utah where Landon's next lacrosse tournament was.  

Now....

Then...

Then

To say Randy was excited about recreating this was an understatement!  Here he is back at his office before the reunion showing off his costume and backdrop :)

Simplot Games

Marcus has been training with a running coach for almost a year and got to compete in the annual Simplot Games in Pocatello, Idaho.  It's a huge indoor track event that has been going for 40 years.  I had no idea how awesome it would be until we got there, although I'm biased because leaving my kids for a few days even if it was to travel to cold and snowy Idaho felt pretty dreamy to me.

Marcus and I flew to Boise with his running coach and team, then rented a car and drove three hours to Pocatello.  The scenery was barren and brown but driving without little kids was awesome! 

Heading into the arena for the first time

We walked into the huge arena and immediately felt the air buzzing with excitement.  Marcus competed in three events: the 60M, long jump, and the sprint medley relay where he ran the 200M as the second leg.
I could go on and on about how fun it was just being at this meet but honestly, you'd just have to be there.  There were former Olympic gold medalists there which was so inspiring.  On the last day of the meet they had a parade of athletes similar to the opening ceremony of the Olympics.  They had all the runners line up behind their State flag and walk around the track while the crowd cheered them on.  There were athletes there from all the Western States, Minnesota, New York, and a few teams from Australia and New Zealand.  How cool was that?  We saw a new national record in the 60M get set by a junior from Oregon.  It was amazing!

Coach bo and The Spirit of the Gods running team

My boy after he ran the relay in finals

The relay team with their golden baton and medals

Most of the runners were juniors or seniors in high school so Marcus was way out of his league but we knew that going into the meet.  Coach Bo wanted Marcus to see what fast really looked like and get "the big fish in a little pond" mentality out of his head.  Boy, did it work!  Marcus was so nervous to run the 60M that he said his brain totally blanked and he was having a hard time even remembering what to do.  He wasn't happy with the way he ran but I thought he did great and came in 7th of the twenty-five 9th graders.  He didn't qualify for finals in the long jump (only 9 out of 100 jumpers did), but his relay team made it to finals.  It was a nail-biter as we had to watch all the teams in the following heats try to beat them out of their spot and one of the teams came in at the same time and it came down to a thousandth of a second to determine who got what spot.  It was intense!  When they raced in the finals a couple runners fell right at the exchange and Marcus had to push one runner out of the way and hop over another so that was exciting and nerve wracking all at the same time.

 The other cool part about this meet was seeing all the family supporting Marcus.  Both sets of grandparents made the 2-hour drive to watch the races, April and Toby drove up for the finals, and my aunt and cousin came down from Idaho Falls to watch the finals as well.  Basically Marcus had the biggest cheering section of anyone there and I wish I had gotten everyone's picture. 

We so much fun hanging out with his team and coach and now I feel like we're all best friends.  One of the highlights was sitting in my hotel room reading a book (it was heaven) while the boys decided to practice their hand-offs in the hall.  At full speed.  Luckily Marcus's coach intervened before anyone got hurt.  Can you imagine stepping out of your hotel room and getting run over by a sprinter?  Boys are idiots. 

Marcus's first experience at Sizzler.  He ate a steak, 6 tacos, and dessert.

Our hotel had a brand new casino in it and we had to walk with an escort through the casino to get to the buffet for breakfast.

We spent our last night in Boise so we made a quick stop at Grandma's house.  It was so fun visiting with her, Lisa, and Dave.

Marcus's awesome running spikes.  The one on the right still has the tape on it.  His coach is a smart guy and had them tape up their shoes to help them not slide on the track.  Runners were falling everywhere!  It made their relay team look like a bunch of boys from the sticks whose shoes were falling apart but they didn't fall so it worked.

 Boy, was I happy to get home and hug my other boys! Here is Parker talking to me on FaceTime so he could show me how he lost his first tooth!  Oh, and this all happened back at the end of a week of snow days.  I had made all sorts of arrangements for friends to take care of the boys and then school was canceled again and that messed everything up.  I'm so thankful for Randy and all my good friends who took good care of my boys so I could enjoy a little get away.  I definitely need to escape more often!