Hiking and Hunting (Easter 2011) Part1

Okay, so I decided to make the hunting a separate post.  There's enough pictures here as it is.  During our Easter visit with Matt and Danalee last year, we decided to hike to the top of the mountain behind their house.  We never actually made it to the top; it just kept getting further away the more we climbed.  But we had a fun little picnic and then headed back down.  It was pretty chilly.  Once we got moving we were fine, though.  These pictures are a combination of pictures taken by me, with my camera, and pictures Rachel took, or had other people take, with her camera:

seeking the elusive mountaintop

water break

"What do you think of that picture?"

Tyler is not going to be too happy with me for posting this one.  And, where did she get those socks?

We hiked for quite a ways, entirely uphill with fairly steep terrain the whole time.  Finally, we realized we were not as close to the top as we had thought when we started, so for the sake of the kids, we headed back down.  It was a fun hike anyway, but I bet it would have been impressive to look out at the beautiful Colorado scenery from that high vantage point.  Oh well.  We decided we should try to tackle it another day.  Too bad that day never came.

Once again, I have to tell you how glad we are we got to spend that time there with Matt and Danalee in their beautiful home in Colorado.  My girls keep saying they want to go visit them again, but they are sad that Matt's family is now so far away.  We love you guys.

Last year's Easter outfits

I thought you might enjoy seeing the pictures from Easter last year.  I can't believe I didn't post them last year, but there I was, in something of a blogging funk.  Now I get to try to play catch up and pretend I am not still in a funk.  I mean, look at these beautiful people who bless my life:

Britt bought me my own lovely dress last year.  I still LOVE it! 

It still boggles my mind how much these guys have changed in the last year.  I love my kids.  And I love Easter and traditions.

The Easter Egg Hunt at the City Park

I will be honest with you, it was a bit of a disappointment.

The weather was cold (of course).  It has been so windy and rainy in past years that they have had to move it inside the high school--which was disastrous for some, because they didn't give the folks who expected it to be up at the Walter C. Lyman Park (the venue used years ago) enough time to relocate to the high school.  In that case, some kids came home with buckets of eggs and many left empty-handed.

Most of my kids would have gone home empty-handed on this occasion, if it weren't for the generosity of cousins and friends.  My girls are just not aggressive enough.  And there were not even close to enough eggs available for the amount of people attending.  I brought Thomas and Timothy along, because they were visiting our house after the Rotary Club Polio Run.  When we first arrived, five minutes before the start, I thought the kids might have fun, but I thought there were not nearly enough eggs covering the grass for the amount of people.  And in those few five minutes, the amount of kids there doubled, at least.

Rachel said at least four times she went after an egg and someone else grabbed it right as she was reaching for it.  She even had an egg in her hand one time that someone took out of her hand.  The people in charge did not announce a limit to the amount of eggs the kids could get, but that was basically irrelevant.  The kids who got the most eggs probably came away with six, maybe eight tops.  The ground basically should have been almost completely covered with eggs, but it wasn't.

There were way too many people there for Gavin's liking.  And he couldn't have cared less about those eggs, anyway.

Timothy was ready to go.  He ended up sharing his haul with his cousins, Rachel and Olivia.

This is just before the crowds really started massing

If they look a little disappointed, it is because they are.

But hey, it was fun to get to play at the park for a little while.  Thanks, Aysia Pehrson, Thomas and Timothy for sharing the eggs you found with my girls.  At least they didn't have to leave empty-handed.

It was really a last-minute decision to take them to the City Easter Egg Hunt, anyway.  They knew I would probably put together a family Easter egg hunt later, so they decided they didn't mind so much.  We did end up having our own hunt for Family Home Evening on Monday, but I didn't take any pictures.  I stuffed so many eggs, we invited our neighbors the Nielsons over, so my kids wouldn't have dozens of eggs to themselves.  That was fun, and everybody's buckets were full.  Happy Easter!

I am not a runner

But I will Race to Eradicate Polio, when my dad and my brother convince me I need to register for the Blanding Rotary First Annual 5K.  Eliminating Polio is actually something we are kind of passionate about, since my grandfather, my dad's dad had Polio.  I was quite young when my Grandpa Glover passed away, but I remembered him always in that wheelchair.  As a matter of fact, when I was a kid, even a teenager, I just always assumed that my grandpa had gotten Polio as a child, as is usually the case.  It has only been recently I realized, he was a young father, with a small family when Polio struck, at the age of 29.  He was a busy, energetic man, struck down by a crippling disease.  Still, once he overcame the affects of the disease, one of which was irreversible paralysis, he continued to be very active and involved in the community.

There is no cure for Polio.

But vaccines can prevent the disease.  Since 1988, Polio cases have decreased by over 99%  Historically, Polio has been the world's greatest cause of disability.  Today there are less than 2,000 people affected by Polio.*

*Facts from the brochure "End Polio Now" created by USU-Eastern SJC Microbiology student volunteers.

Garrett and I get ready for the race to start.  Yes, it was COLD! 

the runners 

good to go 

Rachel and Thomas were ready to go, too 

These guys did the one mile Fun Run with Grandpa Worthy.  Timothy kept going even after he tripped and fell 

Garrett had a strong race.  He came in 5th place.  The guys ahead of him are serious runners:  First place, I didn't recognize, but he was fast!  Second place, Ryan Heck; Third, Ricky Arthur; Fourth, Brian Kirby.

And the fact that Garrett has not been running since Cross Country makes his performance even more impressive.  I think he takes after his dad. 

There I am, coming to the finish line.  Yes, it was sooo uphill. 

I guess it is not fair to say I am not a runner.  This exact route is the same one I used to run all the time a few years ago.  When I struggled with depression several years ago, I discovered that the thing that helped most, more than the medication or anything else was running.  Maybe it was also the fact that, while running,  I listened to the podcast of "Wait, Wait, don't tell me: The NPR News Quiz."  Whenever anyone saw me running, they would usually catch me grinning, too.  I loved listening to that podcast while running.  I have about thirty of them on my computer now, because listening to them around the house is just not the same.

And it is not that I am out of shape, obviously, since I do go to Step Aerobics and Zumba classes regularly.  I do miss running, though.  I am just not a competitor.  I don't usually do races like this.  And even when I run on my own, I go fairly slow, because my heart-rate monitor (which is currently broken) tells me to.

So even though I am not a runner, today I raced for a good cause.  Now I need a nap.

More fun at Matt and Danalee's

How fun would it be to have a zip line in your own backyard?  When we visited Matt and Danalee last year for Easter, we discovered how awesome it would be.  Now, if only we had a mountain and trees in our backyard instead of a bunch of dirt and weeds and a highway.

I think the pictures speak for themselves:

A couple of my favorite thugs in hoodies (notice how she is holding on to her hood and his?  She is too cute!)

We loved it there.  I am sad we only made it out to visit them the one time.  They were fabulous hosts in that lovely house in the mountains of Colorado.