Ragnar Vegas

We have the Ragnar bug around here! This November, Reed and I each completed our third relay (I've done Napa twice; Reed has done both Napa and SoCal). Anyone who has participated in a Ragnar knows that while they are a total blast, it takes a lot of planning. Especially with a toddler in tow. Both sets of grandparents graciously offered to take Cal for the weekend, but we decided it made more sense to drop him with my mom and dad in southern California since we'd be driving that direction on our way to Vegas anyway. 

Cal was very excited to spend a weekend with "Cally-coo", his name for my mom. (Tangent: it was originally his nickname, but he apparently got confused and now insists that the name refers to grandma. Now, when I accidentally call him "Cally-coo", he says, rather indignantly, "I not Cally-coo! Cally-coo in Redlands!")

We bought him a new backpack and rolling suitcase for his special trip. He was very proud and excited to have luggage of his very own: 

Here he is testing it out (yes that is his Halloween candy on top of the T.V.):

My mom is awesome, and met us at the infamous train station McDonalds in scenic Barstow, where we delivered the goods. This little guy was excited!

With the drop-off successful, we continued toward Vegas, where we met up with the other 10 runners on the team in a house that our captain arranged for us. We went to Blue Man Group Thursday night, and were a little unnerved to see that ponchos were provided on the seats:

We had a great time, and my little sister Rachel even got teased as part of the show. An announcement came up on the screen saying that she had one a bronze medal for synchronized swimming. They even put a spotlight on her. I've never seen her so shocked. Hilarious.

The next morning, we were all like, "Oh. Right. Running."

These next two pictures are actually from the second day of the race, but to give you an idea of what a Ragnar exchange looks like, it's this:

Vans at the exchange.

...and this:

Teams waiting for the handoff from their incoming runners

...repeated 36 times.

I always start the relay with excitement and adrenaline, and then the night leg comes, and morale tanks. I find that I'm always hyper-nervous, like I'm going to be attacked or something; plus, it's dark, and cold, and lonely, and isolated...ick. To make matters worse, it was uncharacteristically cold for Nevada. Let me correct that: IT. WAS. FREEZING.  When our van started the second round of runs, it was 36 degrees and the wind was blowing 40 mph.  None of us had prepared for freezing, so the best we managed for the first nigth-leg runner (Reed) was a light jacket and a wary "good luck."

Let me tell you about this night run. It was like a war out there. Reed's run was just over 8 miles, so we stopped along the course (before the exchange) to support him with water and food.  At one point, as we were parked waiting for him, there came a knock on the passenger-side door. We opened it, and a 20-something runner whimpered, "Can I get in your van for a second and warm up?" We instantly brought him inside and threw a blanket around him, and he just stared blankly into space like a Vietnam vet, muttering in a hollow voice such phrases as, "It's...just...so...cold" and "I can't feel my face anymore." When he finally went on his way, we were all completely psyched out. None of us had run our night-leg yet!

Just then, I get a call from Reed on my cell. When I pick up, all I hear is a frantic sort of mumbling: "Sheenckies!!! Sheenckies!!!"  I knew what to do.  I grabbed two twinkies from the bag labeled "Reed's running nutrition" and went out into the frozen night to meet him.

He could barely move his mouth when I reached him. He just mashed the Hostess confections against his tongue like a distressed newborn and went dolefully on his way. 

Ralph was next, and then me. I took this quick, blurry shot on my iPhone to show how far away Jean looked when it finally came into view.  I didn't dare stop to take a good one, because the girl in the pink running socks ahead of me was the only person I could see in the darkness. Some primal part of me postulated that if I lost pace with her, they would find my frozen body weeks later, half-eaten by lizards and buried in scratchy desert scrub.  I ran to survive, people.

I've never thought of Jean as an oasis, much less a blessed haven, but I could have cried when I finally reached it. The neon sign from the Gold Strike casino was like a lighthouse of hope calling out to my forlorn soul as I crept ever toward it in the night. Bless you, Jean. Bless you.

 Reed recovering (crying?) after his grueling 8-mile freeze-fest.

The funny thing is, once the sun comes up, we all got super happy again! I went from Rime-of-the-Ancient-Mariner to I-love-Ragnar-and-friends-and-vans-and-breakfast-and-everything(!!!) in about 3 minutes as the sun popped out over the mountain ridge. Look how happy we are now:

Rachel tricked her friend Amber into being crazy with us

Water bottle situation

Vans at the exchange

Reed happily checking off his last run!

Even with the difficulties of the night run, we had a phenomenal time.  I felt like I ran my strongest race yet. If you've ever played with the idea of running a ragnar, do it.  Hard things give us such a sense of accomplishment, and overcoming difficulties makes us stronger people. It's the funnest hard things you'll ever do, I guarantee it.

On our way home, we stopped in Redlands, where Cal had a blast riding the "Vroom Vroom" with Grandpa:

Thanks to everyone who ran it with us, and thank you to Sulgi, who had the difficult job of being team captain. And a huge thank you to my mom (a.k.a "Cally-coo") for meeting us in Barstow and watching the Nugget all weekend long. I'm so blessed to have awesome people in my life.

Cal's Halloween Costume

Back at the beginning of October, I took Cal to the Halloween costume store to let him look at all the costumes and try to decide what he wanted to be this year. I walked him down the aisle with all the superhero costumes, and asked him, "Do you want to be this?" as I pointed to Thor, Iron Man, Captain America, the Hulk, Power Rangers, Batman, Spiderman, and a whole wall of others that would be sure to impress. And each time I asked, Cal answered with a bored, "Nooooooo...." -- until finally, he pointed and said, "Cal want that!"

Here's what he was pointing to:

I said, a little incredulously, "You want to be a pizza?" He assured me that he did, so I took a look at the costume. It was poorly made, little more than a pizza print on a flimsy poncho. I figured I could make a cuter one for cheap, and so Cal and I went to the fabric store. $6 for felt and glue, and here's what we came up with:

Cal was satisfied, and on Halloween night, I could tell he was proud of his costume. All the little kids could recognize what he was, and his little friends were very excited about his costume, so I think that added to his excitement and pride.

 And of course, getting a bucket full of candy never dampens his mood:

 We went over to a friend's house to trick-or-treat in a group. The moms stayed behind to get a fire going for s'mores (seriously), and the dads took the kids around the neighborhood. Reed said it was a scream. We all definitely had a Halloween hangover the next day from staying up too late, but it was such a fun night for our little pizza boy!

Simple Goings on: October edition

I know I've written about Cal's co-op preschool before, but I had to share some additional photos. He and I are both loving it so much!  I am so grateful for a wonderful, supportive group of friends in my ward. It's fantastic being a part of such an active and vibrant little community of sisters.

In addition, my friend Natalie and I have worked out a weekly, post-preschool swap that is working out fabulously. This week it was my turn to pick up these two and entertain them for a few extra hours while Nat had some free time.

Hard a work on muffin-making!

And thanks to cousin Brandon for the Halloween package, which included these muffin-toothpicks! Here they area after a day or two, after Cal had added an umbrella:

Other fun things we've been doing? Grow capsules in the bathtub, which turned into bats, pumpkins and spiders:

Perusing the Macy's Christmas decorations (already on display! It's not even Halloween yet, people!). The kids were transfixed by these singing/dancing stuffed christmas trees. I mean, who wouldn't be?

Making "monsters" out of healthy snacks (sugar-fast friendly!):

Playing with all the leaves we can find. Cal loves the way the crunch and fly everywhere -- I mean c'mon, it's pretty fun.

Pretending to be a puppy, a mouse, or a squirrel. I'm excited that Cal is getting more interested in imagining and pretending. He has always been very spacial--loves puzzles, blocks, lining things up, etc--but didn't really role play or pretend. Now, he's constantly crawling between my feet and squeaking, saying, "I baby mousie, mama! I want cheese!" 

Speaking of cheese, we've even gone so far as to take the block of parmesan from the fridge (in a ziplock, don't worry) and set it out as bait to catch our hiding mousie. He loves coming out of his hiding place, sneaking up to the cheese for a pretend nibble, and then getting caught by me and Reed, who are always extremely scandalized to see a mouse in our house!

These last three photos are from a cute Halloween lunch we went to with some friends. I loved that we all can up with non-candy items to share. How do you like those bananas? :)

That's it for this week. I know it's not a party-a-minute, but we're enjoying life, one day at a time. :)

Halloween Pen Pals

Cal came up with this idea himself! In our weekly perusal of the Target dollar aisle for fun goodies, Cal made a comment about sending presents to his cousins Carson and Brandon. He is really into sharing lately, and I want to encourage him in that characteristic, so I said, "Okay! Let's mail some Halloween goodies to your cousins." We bought a bunch of little knick knacks from the dollar aisle, including a Halloween memory game, stickers, and some rainbow-scratch paper ghost ornaments. Cal was delighted when we went to the post office to send the packages, and I admittedly had a hard time keeping the secret until my sis and sister-in-law called to tell me the boys had received their presents.

But the best surprise came about a week later, when Cal received not one, but two packages in the mail.   

 Brandon and Carson sent him toys, decorations, even socks. Here's Cal putting up his new Halloween gel-clings:

 Cal was excited about putting a felt sticky face on the pumpkin in his room.

 And he LOVED this green monster claw; he took is everywhere with him.

We'll have to keep the tradition going and send holiday packages year-round. Cal loved picking out the presents for his cousins. Hooray for pen pal cousins! It makes me happy that they'll know each other when we get together for the holidays.

Fall Treats

For the last two months, Reed and I have been on a sugar fast. We came home from our campout with friends feeling so "sugared out", and decided to detox with no sugar. I have several family members and friends who have done it, so I got some advice, and read a lot online. I actually really liked doing it!

Anyway, when we reached two months, it was time to start eating sugar again! I decided to make one of our fall favorites with Cal: apple pie caramel apples. Don't they look nice? 

We had a little white chocolate left over in the double boiler, so I decided to make ghost pops like my mom used to every Halloween. Hers always turned out much cuter than ours, but it was still fun.

Cal and Reed had fun eating the treats, but I decided to extend no-sugar for myself indefinitely. It's helped me get in control of my health, so I'm just going to wait to start eating it again. This was definitely a hard treat to resist, though!