Life with the Ball's: family is the best

Showing posts with label family is the best. Show all posts

Thursday, February 28, 2019

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!

Thursday, November 29, 2018

Thanksgiving and Whistler

We had a great Thanksgiving! And a much needed little vacation to Whistler. I made a mini-feast which we ate for lunch as soon as the boys returned from their Turkey Bowl football games. I tried out a recipe using a boneless turkey breast which was small and delicious and only required one hour in the oven. I made some homemade rolls, a couple of pies, and threw together a Costco salad and Costco mashed potatoes (by the way, Costco mashed potatoes are delicious and just as good as anything homemade but without all the fuss so a total win in my opinion) and that was it. But it fit the bill, especially since my boys would all prefer feasting at McDonald's instead.

My homemade rolls or pillows of heaven as Randy likes to call them, and the two turkey breasts wrapped in bacon. The smell was heavenly!

After our feast, we packed up the van and car-top carrier with clothes, food, and skis for a family of 7 so we were bursting at the seams, and headed to Whistler. We thought we'd get there in no time by traveling on Thanksgiving Day but we still hit a lot of traffic which made our cramped van feel even smaller, especially with fussing Henry. But Henry likes Elmo so we watched a lot of Elmo episodes. It was painful but necessary.

We arrived in Whistler with no snow to be seen. If the ski passes had been refundable I would've asked for a refund but we were forced to make the best of it. The tops of the mountains had snow and a few runs open so skiing was doable, just not amazing like it usually is. Randy took the boys skiing while I stayed at the hotel with Henry which was no sacrifice on my part. I found it quite relaxing.


Parker super excited to hit the slopes

Marcus was a great helper, usually skiing down backwards as he coached Parker down

Ethan has become an amazing skier with such great form

Landon has learned to cautiously go down anything so he can ski with the big boys

Our hotel had the best outdoor pool ever with a 60 foot water slide. No life guard and no rules meant it was fun enough that even I played on it, after I went to the only store in the Village that sold swimsuits because of course while packing for 7 people I forgot to pack my own swimsuit. By the way, swimsuit shopping the day after Thanksgiving is horrific. But it gave me the motivation I need to be more diligent about upping my exercise routine to new levels. Anyway, back to the pool.....
So the pool was so fun that we invited our friends over to swim one evening. They have 6 kids so with all our kids in the pool having the time of their lives going down every way possible, making trains, and chasing each other to the bottom, it wasn't long before we had the whole place to ourselves. I bet that pool has never seen so much action and I honestly can't believe we didn't get kicked out for being to loud and too crazy. Even Henry got in on the action! Randy or I would take him down over and over until he started to shiver and get blue lips, then we'd warm him up in the hot tub until he was ready for more. It was hilarious! And now I really, really want a water slide with a small pool in my backyard. Like it's going on my list of big dreams for when we win the lottery. It was that fun.

Henry coming down with Marcus

Here's Landon sprinting up the stairs to go down the slide. It was so cold that if you didn't run you'd start to freeze and have to warm up in the hot tub

Our hotel was nice but in some serious need of updates.

Henry spent much of his time moving things around in the fridge. It was so funny to watch but also worries me that he some serious organizational issues.

Not trip to Whistler would be complete without a trip to the Candy Store. I told the boys that could get 2 things, trying to keep costs to a minimum. Well, they outsmarted me and filled bags of bulk candy to the brim. We spent $80!! Randy probably got more candy than anyone though.

I love strolling through Whistler Village. The Christmas lights are my favorite. Clearly Marcus doesn't feel the same way.

The boys were happy to relax and be total slobs in between swimming and skiing

And here are our traditional turkeys. We've been doing these for years and you'll notice Marcus never made one. In true teenager form he wasn't home or was home doing homework so he didn't participate.

Saturday, August 19, 2017

Bear Lake Family Reunion

I do crazy things. Like take a 10-day old baby on a flight. I had no choice {because staying at home wasn't an option}. This family reunion was planned before I knew I was pregnant. I didn't think my little family would end up going because of a new baby and being just weeks away from Randy opening his new office. Then Randy told me he was leaving for 3 days in August to go camping with his scouts. This was after leaving for 4 days to go to scout camp the week before Henry was born. I decided if Randy could go do fun scout things I could go to Bear Lake. I wasn't even expecting him to come along to Bear Lake but he did. Thank goodness!
We got up early in the morning {and let me just say that getting a family of seven packed up and out the door to the airport is no small task and I feel like should have gotten some sort of award for it} to catch our flight to Salt Lake. Then we had a two and a half hour drive up to Bear Lake so basically we traveled all day to get there.
We hung out with family and I thoroughly enjoyed watching my kids play with their cousins and spending some time with Randy. We stayed in a pretty sweet cabin that had enough rooms for each family, and a fun yard with toys, volleyball court, playground, and fire pit to keep everyone entertained. We enjoyed Bear Lake and played around on paddle boards and kayaks, and Randy rented a wave runner to keep things extra fun.
I hardly took any pictures and spent the majority of my time sitting somewhere by myself so I could nurse Henry. If you look at my sister's blogs then you'll get a much better idea of the fun that went on. After two short days of reunion we packed up and traveled back to WA so we could host an open house for our friend's daughter who got married. I have not pictures of the open house but just know that Randy has spent countless hours working in the yard, the boys and I have been weeding like crazy all summer long, and I spent most of that night up in my room nursing Henry.

And now my time is pretty much up on the computer so here's some pics in a totally random order...