35th Dam Run

Jonny insisted we refer to this race by its proper name.  It's been going for 35 years, so "First Dam Run" is evidently no longer accurate (even though the 10K course does still technically go to the first dam).

Last weekend we (Dad, Mom, Amber, Katy, Brady, Melody, Jonny, Julia, Gabe and me and The Wife) joined Grandma in Logan for the weekend.  We had a fun night of watching more of Grandpa's old film reels, now on DVD thanks to Bree and those who contributed financially, and then went to bed to be nice and rested for the big race the next morning.

 

Julie and I decided at quite literally the last second to register to do the 10K instead of the 5K again this year.  We ran the 10K last year (our first ever) and had a good time, but we were worried we hadn't quite prepared ourselves enough this year.  We just decided to go for it anyway.  The course was nice and long, but the weather was cooperative and not too cold.  My iPod worked perfectly the entire time (not like last year), and it was a pretty nice run, rough, but not brutal.  Honestly, after the killer hill of the Hale race the week before, the slope up to the dam seemed pretty mild.  We both had slightly slower times than last year, but we both felt good about our pace and our performance.  I placed 19th overall, 17th in men overall, and 2nd in my age group at 45:11.5.

Katy was a great babysitter, and although none of us won the treadmill raffle, it was still fun.  Grandma, Dad, Mom, Jonny, Melody and I all won second place in our division, so we all were awarded matching red ribbons.

 

And here's the the 36th!  (Hopefully it won't cost quite as much next year.)

Halloween in Provo

The weekend after our Disneyland trip was of course Halloween proper, and it brought a few key events.

First, on Utah Halloween (Saturday the 30th), we started out with a 5K in Orem--Highway to Hale, sponsored by the Hale Center Theater.  We ran their winter race earlier this year, and were looking forward to their fall offering, when costumes were encouraged.  We decided to go with modified versions of our Harry and Hermione costumes, and met Mom and Dad for a great morning.  The weather was perfect and the crowd was great, and there were some really creative costumes (among our favorites were two guys dressed as Slinky Dog from Toy Story).  Mom and Dad came dressed as...  Mom and Dad, I guess.  It's a pretty fun course, but has a fairly brutal hill at the start of mile 2, but then levels out for the last half mile or so.  According to the results website, I placed third in my age group and 5th overall with a chip time of 22:01 (and a gun time of 22:39).  I was awarded the medal for 1st, since the overall winners were in my age group and they gave them different awards.  Woot!  Julie did great and was in the top 20 of her age group, Mom was in the top 4 of hers, and Dad placed 1st.

And no, we didn't run with our scarves, wands or Snitch.

Go, go, Gryffindor!!!

But yes, I did run with my glasses on, though I didn't realize it until about halfway through, and by then they weren't really bothering me anyway.

Later that day (after a sorrowful, but necessary haircut), we were getting ready for the stake trunk-or-treat, and we were excited to try some new costumes this year.  Usually we go with the tried and true fallback of Harry and Hermione (see above), but last year Julie had a last-minute brainwave and this year we followed through.  So, without further ado, I present to you...

Captain Hammer and Penny!

Stand back, everyone, nothing here to see.  Just imminent danger, in the middle of it: Me.

Will you lend a caring hand?

(If you're among the poor few who still don't know what Dr. Horrible is, by the way, find out.)

Gathering the costume pieces (at least for mine) was something of a labor of love, but we were glad it all finally came together.  We spent a little time at the stake activity and then to the party a friend and her roommates were hosting, and it was gratifying to be recognized in relatively obscure costume choices.

The next day, which was actually Halloween, we celebrated by having Lacie and Leland over for a pumpkin feast, including Dinner-in-a-Pumpkin, Pumpkin Whoopee, a little pumpkin ice cream and of course, leftover pumpkin trick-or-treating candy.  It was delicious (and so were the leftovers).

Almost The Wife is persuading me to like this Halloween thing.

Halloween at Disneyland

For the first time ever (that I can remember anyway), I have finally visited Disneyland during one of the major holidays.  Halloween at Disneyland is a much enhanced experience, featuring a couple pretty major ride overlays and a significant amount of decorations.  Kids are even encouraged to dress up in costumes, as you can see from Marissa as Snow White in a dress that Julie's mom made years ago, and both Julie and Marci wore when they were very young.  We've been planning this trip for several months, determined to get as much of Julie's family as possible to attend as a sort of family reunion.  We were very excited when it was confirmed that Mom, Marci and the kids were making their way over from Missouri, and of course when Tyler, Sarah and the girls confirmed they would be joining the fun as well.

Julie and I left on Thursday morning, made great time (without the slightest incident with the local highway patrolmen), and were at our hotel by mid-afternoon.  The others were traveling from Arizona, and with four kids, so they were running a little later than we were, so we checked into our hotel room to rest a little.  We stayed at a favorite of Sarah's, the Del Sol Inn, immediately (and I mean immediately) across the street from the walkway to the esplanade and entrance to Disneyland.  We had two rooms for the whole group, and had been informed that each room only had one bed (Julie and I had brought the air mattress), but were surprised to find spacious rooms with two beds each!  The air mattress turned out to be a big hit with the little kids though, so bringing that ended up being a good call anyway.  We met the rest of our group when they arrived in town at Huntington Beach.  It was a little later than we expected, so we just caught sunset and a pretty much deserted beach at nighttime.  A couple of the kids had "never seen the sea," so that was pretty exciting for everyone.  The water was warm and lovely, but it was night, so we just rolled up our jeans and waded in the shallow water and chased the waves.

The next day started our two-day Disneyland Halloween extravaganza!  I will illustrate highlights by way of bulleted list:

• Spending time with Julie's family!  As much as we love to do Disneyland as a couple, it's sometimes fun to go to Disneyland with kids--A couple of the kids were pretty new to Disneyland, but a couple of them are old pros already.  Julie and I were glad to serve as runners for fastpasses and to check on wait times and ride closures opening back up.  It was fun to have a bigger group for rides that take your photo, like the Tower of Terror, Space Mountain and Splash Mountain, and to switch it up with who you sit next to on each ride.  Having so many people was a different experience, we knew before going that it was going to have to be a lot more fluid and flexible, and we didn't do everything we might usually do, or as many times as we usually do, but we did a lot of other things we don't usually GET to do, because we're just two, so it was a great time.  We even had seating for dinner and Fantasmic, which was unusual and delightful.  (Now if only that new dragon would ever be up and running when I go there...)  Plus, Sarah's love of and history with Disneyland rivals mine, so it's fun to go with her in company so we can swap stories and share secrets.  We even met a young couple vacationing from Canada on their first-ever trip to Disneyland while we all waited to order our Dole Whips in the queue area for the Enchanted Tiki Room.  We gave them some tips and ideas to make the most of their trip despite the crowds.

Rapunzel was in there!  You can tell because her hair is coming out of the tower!

(That girl behind me was actually really annoying.)

• Speaking of which, the crowds were great on Friday, and pretty good on Saturday morning.  By Saturday afternoon and night, it was pretty crazy, but we know how to work a busy park.  The weather was fantastic the entire time, I wore long sleeves and was perfectly comfortable with an overcast morning at Disneyland.

• I came prepared with dramamine this time around.  I am sorry to say that these days I start to get a little queasy after a few of my favorite rides, so I decided I would take something to take the edge off, even if it meant being a little drowsy.  I would rather be a little tired at Disneyland than nauseated at Disneyland.  It worked pretty well, and we even found a kind that was non-drowsy.  Brilliant.

Silly Symphony Swings!  It's like the Orange Stingers ride they used to have, except now it's Disney-themed.  We had to go on it because it's new, but maybe we won't again for a while because it made us feel really dizzy.

• Club 33!  Thanks to the generosity of a family friend, we were able to get our entire party into lunch at Walt Disney's super-exclusive restaurant above New Orleans Square that most park guests don't even know exists.  Julie and I had eaten there on our honeymoon, and we were excited to share it with the rest of the family.  Although the reservations had been available in two separate groups, at least they were only 30 minutes apart and we sat in the same dining room.  The lunch buffet was amazing as ever (crab claws!!!) and the entrées were excellent--Tyler even declared his chateaubriand was the best steak he ever had.

• Halloween Festivities!  Most notable of course is the Haunted Mansion Holiday.  How many years have they been doing this, how many years have I been hearing about it and longing to do, dying with jealousy at all the friends who have gone and seen it?  Too many!  No more!  It was amazing!  The entire Haunted Mansion is re-themed as if the characters from The Nightmare Before Christmas have taken over, and it's a perfect cross-over.  Running from early October to the new year, it's still the beloved Haunted Mansion, but it's an explosion of Halloween, Christmas, the Haunted Mansion and Jack et al.  Amazing.  We rode it once on the first day, and then Julie and I rode it three times in a row the next morning.  I would loved to have gone a few more times (just SO much to look at!), but by mid-day the line was insane, and it didn't let up.  Space Mountain Ghost Galaxy was a fun change for the beloved roller coaster, featuring a new spooky soundtrack and several projected instances of an eerie ghost/alien/creature/comet thing grabbing at you and chasing you.  Main Street was decked out with carved pumpkins and yellow and orange banners, as well as a giant Mickey jack-o-lantern at the entrance hub.  Unfortunately the Halloween Screams fireworks show has been relegated to the twice-weekly, separate-entrance-fee Mickey's Halloween Party trick-or-treating event (along with the costume cavalcade parade), so we were unable to see that (hosted by Jack and featuring flying Zero!!!), but they're only fireworks, right?  Maybe one day.

 

 

• WORLD OF COLOR!!!  So it's been running since June, but this water/light/color/laser/music/film projection show was nothing short of amazing!  The screen of water is enormous, and the dancing colors and lights can only be compared to the Bellagio light show in Las Vegas, but just so much more.  It's hard to explain, but it's incredible.  You can find videos of it on youtube, and while I recommend checking those out to get the idea, you really just can't get the idea of the scope of the show without seeing it in person.  The wait for fastpasses and crowds were unexpectedly pretty minimal, and our view from the bridge to Paradise Pier were perfect.  I've been singing the theme song (alternating with themes from The Nightmare Before Christmas) almost non-stop since.

It was a great two days, and I'm thinking we just have to make our next Disney trip to the southeastern coast...  It's just been too long for me, and it's been never for Julie.

Much thanks to Sarah for capturing perhaps our best jumping photo to date.

So there you go!  A fairly concise trip report by my standards, I think.  You can find more pictures on facebook, which are very entertaining.  I feel so fulfilled to have checked off all of my top priorities for this trip, a couple of them things I've been looking forward to seeing for years.  Lily even declared that she loves me as much as Disneyland, and if you know Lily, that is really saying something.

Timely Message

Inspiring:



Thank you, President Packer, for saying what I wait every General Conference to hear.  On some issues it just seems that, for whatever reason, the Brethren speak vaguely or generally, their words are twisted and manipulated to meet certain persons' needs and desires.  But in this instance, I felt the purpose and point of the talk were crystal clear.  President Packer's conference address, regardless of the incredible amount of political, social and religious (not to mention hypocritical and pathetic) backlash, was one of humility, compassion and love.  To infer anything else would be willfully and knowingly contrary to the intent and delivery, as would be obvious to any open-minded person who actually bothered to listen to/read the talk.  I've been feeling lately there's a pretty big problem with the rising generation having to do with victim mentality, a sense of entitlement and an overall know-it-all attitude (and I don't exclude myself in said generation).  The Gospel of Jesus Christ is a doctrine of empowerment and encouragement, perspective and humility, understanding we are basically nothing without Him.  Ignoring all of that would be a huge personal and eternal disservice.

Things are getting more and more black and white these days, for better or worse, and lines are definitely being drawn and sides are definitely being taken.  I believe I said several years ago that this would be the issue that divides the Church, and it breaks my heart to see it happening more and more openly and blatantly.  Sinful tendencies, behavior, or even thought patterns of any kind (that's ANY kind) can and must be overcome.  Such is the state of humanity and the promise of the Atonement.  This is refreshing and necessary to constantly review, and really quite empowering.  Thank you again for the reminder, President Packer.

La Caille, Little America and Lion King

After spending a couple months in England we had grown so accustomed to weekend excursions, so when we came home, probably in an attempt to acclimate ourselves to regular life, we've had a couple of fun outings.  First, after the Beat Beethoven 5K, we had an afternoon visit to Park City where we did a little shopping and a little buying and tried some famous shakes from the legendary Granny's Drive-In in Heber.

It was nice, but the big plans happened the next weekend.

Three semi-unrelated short stories:

• We went to a bridal show at the ultra-deluxe La Caille last summer, and they gave us a gift certificate good for $50 toward dinner on a future visit.  We put it off all winter and spring and said we would use it for an anniversary outing of some sort in the summer or fall.
• The day we were married we stayed at Salt Lake City's Little America Hotel, and enjoyed the honeymoon package of chocolate-dipped strawberries, bubbly and a souvenir key engraved with our names and our wedding date.  Of course, as we flew to California early the next morning, we didn't have long to enjoy the amenities, atmosphere or area of the hotel, so we thought we should come back at a later date to spend a little more time and explore.
• When I heard The Lion King was coming to Salt Lake City I decided it was time to finally see it, having read about it and seen pictures from it and listened to the recording a thousand times, so in the spring I bought two tickets for several months later (of course you have to buy tickets six months in advance...  but at least then when the time comes to see it you don't have to put up much cash).  Though Julie suspected that I had bought tickets, I didn't actually break the news until mid-August as an anniversary surprise.  She was really tipped off when I wasn't insisting that we see it in London, where it was heavily advertised.

Of course, we were in England for our actual anniversary, and we did have a really wonderful time in Windermere, but now we had all these other plans, some of which had practically already been paid for!  So we decided to celebrate our first anniversary again, locally this time.  Luckily the tickets I bought happened to be just days after we came back to town, but imagine our surprise when we learned the gift certificate had expired at the end of July!  I called and explained that we were out of the country but were really looking forward to visiting their ever so fine restaurant, and the fellow on the phone told me if we made a reservation for a day within the week he would approve our use of the almost two-months expired coupon (now THAT is customer service, and a good thing too, because we would have just gone elsewhere otherwise).  Everything was falling into place, and we even had a discounted rate for our two nights in Little America.

On Friday then, we packed up a honeymoon basket of treats and bubbly and headed up to La Caille in Sandy.  The help was distractingly scantily-clad, but the atmosphere was luxe and interesting and the food was delicious, though obviously a little overpriced.  (As I said, without such a hefty coupon, we both agreed we probably wouldn't have gone).  We felt like it was a little too fancy a place to take photos, but if you do get a chance to go there for whatever reason, even for an event or a bridal show, it really is a charming location.  We went to the hotel, and this time took advantage of the flat-screen TV, the balcony with north view and the indoor/outdoor pool.

On Saturday, after a little detective work, we bought lunch at our well-loved traveling Chinese restaurant, The Chow Truck, then did some shopping (Gateway, Sam's Club, and the infamous NPS), took an afternoon swim in the ground-level outdoor pool and then had another dinner at Meditrina, a small tapas restaurant on West Temple (again, with a coupon--we know how to eat out).  It was also quite delicious (though again, a little expensive), and good to eat tapas style and finally understand the joke in The IT Crowd about it.

Then it was time for our evening at the theatre!  After all these years, it was nice to finally be in the audience in front of The Lion King, but I'm afraid to say I wasn't blown away like I thought I would be.  (Mini-review:  It's a fantastic movie, and it fits together so nicely, but on stage it seems a little overwhelmed by its creativity and artistry and comes across as a little pretentious, like one Julie Taymor was showing off her puppetry/mixed-media expertise and aesthetic the whole time, while seemingly ignoring the sets and backgrounds.  The music seemed a little more disjointed in style, going from lush Hans Zimmer orchestrations to funky Lebo M African chants to ultra-pop/rock Elton John a little abruptly at times.)  I did like it, and was quite amazed with the opening of "Circle of Life," I just didn't love it like I thought I would.  It wasn't magical in the way some of the other Disney stage ventures have been.  The African vibe just isn't my thing, I guess.  We suspected it might have been a little more impressive in a larger, more permanent venue, like in New York or in London, where they would have the scope to really spread out and get the idea of the expanse of the setting.  Anyway, it was good to be in the theater again, and I am glad to check The Lion King off my list.

 

One more night in our lovely hotel room, and the next morning we were back home.

 Look!  It's Big Ben!  Sort of.

 So there are a couple of our weekend excursions.  The weekends since and in the future include a lot of wedding receptions, General Conference and who knows, maybe even grabbing a redbox and a carton of ice cream and staying in.

Beat Beethoven 2010

A few weeks ago a big group of us ran Pleasant Grove's annual Beat Beethoven 5K.  (The idea is to run the race in less time than it takes to play Beethoven's 5th Symphony, roughly 32 minutes.)  There were some early grumblings in the ranks about a higher participation cost this year, but after some savvy PR work by Melody, they actually offered a group rate without a shirt for a much lower cost, though Julie and I opted to pay full price to get the shirts, which were pretty nice this year.  Dad, Amber, Cami, Melody, Jonny (and Gabe and Julia), Julie and I had a good time and everyone beat Beethoven.  Dad's running speed is increasing at an alarming rate, Amber is getting right back into the swing of things, Cami is doing better than ever, and of course no one can touch the Rejholecs (but watch out when the race directors try to pronounce their names to collect their awards), Julie always shows a remarkable final burst of speed in the last stage of the race, and I did better than last year (21:16, 5th place in my age group--which I still think is too broad, 20-29--and 13th overall).

Notice Beethoven himself in the background.

 Triumphant!

It was great fun, and I'm glad everyone was able to participate.  There are quite a few 5Ks coming up in the fall, so we look forward to those.

Ye Olde Englande, Week 8: A Lot of Goodbyes

So just about two weeks ago, we finally packed up our things for the last time, and left our last London dwelling place and headed to the airport.  Unfortunately the last few days were marked by noteworthy head-colds, first me over the weekend, and then The Wife for a couple days after just as I was getting better.  It put a sort of damper on our final plans, but we still managed to see a few new museums and a kind of boring 3D IMAX movie.  Highlights also included climbing approximately 528 stairs to the top of St. Paul's Cathedral (and an equal number of steps down).  We couldn't quite figure out the Whispering Gallery, but the view from the top of the dome was glorious.  Exploring St. Paul's may even have been in my top 3 activities of the entire trip.

 

 But-but-but...  The song!  It said!

We had a quick look at Notting Hill Carnival, but saw nothing really for us there, and the next day we stood for two-plus hours in the yard at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre to see an actual Shakespearean play, The Comedy of Errors.  It was another high point, it just felt like a scene out of Shakespeare in Love.

 The theatre!!!

Oh, the drama!

Tickets to the standing-only Yard area were only 5 pounds!  Of course then we had to deal with some vulgar German teeny-boppers who chatted the whole time, but I guess that's what happens sometimes when you stand in the commoners' section.

After Julie's last day of wrapping up her work in perfect time, we had one last dinner out with co-worker Caity and saw Abbey Road (which, to my great surprise, was within easy walking distance from our previous residence).

 Love:  All you need is it.

Then we had some issues with online check-in for our flight the next morning.  Evidently when they switched our connecting flight back in July from Chicago to Denver, they canceled my returning flight.  So, with the stress of packing and making sure our bags weren't too heavy, wondering if I was actually going to get on the flight, we felt ready to go home, but still were always aware in the back of our minds that we were actually leaving the UK.  It didn't take long at check-in for them to sort out the mix-up with my ticket, and they even managed to get us seats next to each other for both flights.  I read a lot of Tolkien and Julie read a little Rowling, and after a day and a night of time-traveling, we said hello to the mountains of Salt Lake City (after a minor security kerfuffle at O'Hare...  bleh), had no trouble getting through customs, and just like that, we were on the other side of this London experience.

Also, since we didn't actually take a single picture of all four of us when Kent and Eliza were in town, here's one that Eliza sent me taken on her camera from our ill-fated, but ultimately successful outing to The Phantom of the Opera:

Great friends, great times!

I'm sure Julie is planning to write a little blogpost wrapping up the experience too, but here ends my "weekly" report.  It was amazing!  Thanks, Julie's work!  (Even though they never did get us the paperwork we needed to leave the country...  Disneyland Paris, one day we will visit you!  I promise!)