Halloween

Brynna was a beautiful Cleopatra. Thanks to M for making the awesome costume for her. Thanks to E for taking her trick-or-treating, so I could be handing out treats at my house.

Brynna tried to take pictures of me, but we had to hurry to school. I think she may need some more practice. Here is my scarry vampire pose. I have another picture to add, but I don't have it at home.

Camping and Biking

Two posts in one week... this has got to be a record.

Mid-October we went camping with some good friends of ours to Kodachrome Basin State Park. We had fun relaxing, exploring, and learning to ride a bike! Okay, I learned a while ago, but Brynna learned to ride without training wheels. Yeah! I'm going to attach a couple of pictures from the weekend and then try to attach a little video of her riding on an early run. Once she got the hang of it, we had to go on a bike ride. We rode around the campground area and then decided to go on a longer excursion. The route we picked ended up going on a gravel road, which was a bit too much for Brynna, but she made it through.

A cold day...

After I started doing some running this year Brynna kept wanting to run my races with me. I don't think she is ready for a 5K just yet, so when I saw that the BYU Homecoming races had a 800M race for 7-9 year olds, I thought, this will be perfect.

So, when the morning dawned, it was 30 degrees and snowing (lightly)! It wasn't exactly what I had in mind, but that is autumn in Utah. (It hasn't snowed again since that weekend.) So, here's a few pictures from the event. Brynna ran her 800M in 4:49, which I thought was pretty good considering she basically had no "training" and just ran the race. She was proud of herself. I ran in the 5K with two of my neices who are going to school at BYU. I was able to keep up with them, but didn't do as well as my last race. I'll blame it on my bad conditioning for the month and a half before the race, as well as my frozen toes. It was around 32:20, about 2 minutes slower than last time. I need to practice some more!

The 21st Century

So, tonight I finally got an internet connection at home. I know I've been living in the dark ages. The hope here is that if I have the connection at home, maybe I'll actually take the time to update my blog. Let's see what happens...

To start with, here are some pictures to go with my last post... I promised them quite a while ago. Here I am before my race at the starting line. Not much to see, but it proves I was there. :)

Next, here are a few pictures of the flowers from my yard, as I mentioned earlier...

Catchin!g up...

Well, I keep putting off making another entry because I don't have a picture to post, but that isn't much fun for anyone who tries to check my blog... (If there is even anyone out there who hasn't already given up on it. Post a comment so I know if I still have readers! Otherwise, I'll have to send out an e-mail indicate I'm back.)

So, I decided I better put something here so I don't lose momentum. Previously my posts have mostly been about activities with Brynna... so I thought I'd mention a few things about what is going on with me...

Back in December I received a promotion of sorts... I was made a section manager at work. What that means is that I have a group of about 8-10 engineers over whom I am responsible for writing their yearly reviews, giving "permission" for time off, etc. I also now help with staff planning and stuff in my department. It isn't very glamorous, but it's not bad. I wrote my first three reviews this last week. It was an interesting experience, and I didn't mind it at all.

I've been trying to get in better exercising habits for the last few years, and this January I decided to try running. I've always hated running, but it is good aerobic exercise, and it seems like runners are always thin. I'd like that side benefit :) So I started running with the goal of completing a 5K. Because life is so busy, I haven't been able to work in a run more than once a week, usually, but I am making progress. I can't run for the whole distance yet, but at the gym I can usually do it with only walking 5 or 6 of my 31 laps around the track. Currently my fastest gym time is about 29 minutes, 30 seconds. I was thinking of waiting until I could run the whole thing before entering a race, but I decided to try it anyway. So, on April 28th I ran in a 5K race at Thanksgiving Point. It was probably about 50 degrees outside, so it was pretty cold. My time was a little slower (probably around 34 minutes -- the race timer thing didn't work quite right so I don't have an exact time), but it was a good experience. I've already been checking out other race opportunities throughout the upcoming summer, so I will keep working on it. I have a few pictures from this event, and I will post them later.

Some other random things I can think of to mention at this time:
1. Over the last year I've developed an intense liking for fish tacos. I'm always looking for good ones. I've liked fish for years, but it always seemed odd to me to eat them in a taco, but now I love them!
2. I recently started listening to Pandora (pandora.com). It is a web "radio station". You start by picking a band or song that you like, then it tries to find similar music or more music by the same artists. You can "vote" on the songs for your own stations and tailor it to your likes and dislikes. I've found it pretty fun and like to have it on while I'm at work.
3. Last fall I finally got around to plantings some spring bulbs... I was going to try and get some "fancy" ones, but I finally just picked some (about 90) at Home Depot. I've enjoyed seeing them come up this year. I got crocuses, daffodils, hyacinth, and tulips. My tulips said they were just plain pink, but when they came up some were light pink with ruffled/jagged edges, some were ivory with the same ruffled/jagged edges, some were dark pink stripes on ivory. Some still haven't opened, so I'll see soon.

Well, I'll post this and then try to add some pictures.