Pat's Run 2013 (Plus a Visit from the Harwoods)

Saturday, April 20 was Pat's Run.  We rented a five-bedroom house with the Karners in Buckeye, a suburb west of Phoenix.  Houses are cheaper out there, and it made our drive to and from Arizona shorter (although it also made our drives to Phoenix/Tempe longer).  Jim, Ever and I left on Wednesday evening.  The Karners followed on Thursday morning.  Ever's not generally a huge fan of the car, so we drove at night in hopes she'd sleep the whole time.  Turns out Dolly can't sleep very well in the car - possibly because she usually sleeps on her belly (or on her knees bent over with her face pressed against the mattress).  She slept some but fussed the whole last hour.  I think being strapped into one position like that is hard for her.  We made it to the house around midnight.  We scoped it out and chose rooms.  (Ever got her own room!  Hooray!)  Ever ran around and explored a bit before bed.  'Twas a late night. 

Thursday morning Jim went on a nine-mile run.  (He's decided he needs to do the Boston marathon, which means he has to qualify in another marathon with an average per-mile pace of seven minutes and 26 seconds.  He did a lot of research into various marathons and started a training program in March.  At this point, he's thinking he'll do the Pocatello marathon in August as his qualifier, but we'll see.  He hasn't registered yet.)  After he got back, we walked up to Main Street for lunch.  The neighborhood was quite nice and included some lovely tree-lined streets.  We had a delicious lunch at a pizza place at the end of Main Street, which was very quaint.  Regrettably, I took no pictures of this outing.  We hurried back so Jim could meet Derrick and Chris (Derrick's brother) at the golf course for an afternoon session.  Melanie dropped the fellas at the golf course and then brought the kids (Christian, Kara, and Chris's daughter Ally) to the house.  The kids played near, and a little bit in, the pool that afternoon.  Turns out nobody in Arizona has a heated pool since pools get uncomfortably hot on their own in the summer.  That meant the pool was really too cold to be much enjoyed at this time of year, but the kids dabbled.  Ever found a baseball and kept throwing it in the water and wanting people to fish it out for her so she could do it again.  She desperately wanted to get in the water, but I didn't want to take her.  I ended up letting her hang out on a step in the pool in her clothes. 

We were going to meet the boys for dinner at the golf course that night, but Ever was super tired and dinner was going to be way past her bedtime.  Jim got us Subway and a delicious Oreo shake from Jack in the Box (we discovered the shake on our drive to AZ, so we enjoyed two such shakes in about 24 hours), and we stayed in. 

Friday morning Jim watched Dolly so I could run.  Inspired by Jim, I ran 6.36 miles.  The farthest I remember running before is about 6 miles - and that was probably about 15 years ago - so I was pretty proud.  We went to Cracker Barrel for breakfast and kept Dolly busy with straws. 

 

We drove to Phoenix for lunch at the home of Jim's former mission companion, Wade Eagar.  Wade's wife, Deirdre, made a nice lunch, which we enjoyed despite not being hungry at all because of our giant breakfast.  Wade surprised us all (including his wife) by secretly inviting another former companion, Joe Mask. 

After hanging out at the Eagars' for a few hours, we went to ASU to pick up our race packets and then went on to Gilbert to meet Jim's former roommate, Mike Latteier, at his son's tee ball game.  We'd hoped Ever would sleep in the car, but she only slept for a few minutes.  When we got to the park, we let her play for a few minutes before heading to the tee ball game.  She enjoyed the slides - particularly climbing up them.

We chatted with Mike on the tee ball game sidelines.  Dolly met a little girl ("Stranger Girl"), and they quarreled over a container of Ice Breaker mints Stranger Girl was carrying around. 

I gave Dolly my mints so she wouldn't have to take the Stranger Girl's.  I was excited that Dolly would have a playmate, but Stranger Girl's mom snatched Stranger Girl away and said Stranger Girl would just come after Dolly's mints, too.  Dolly was left to watch the game alone. 

 

After the game, we went back to the Latteiers' amazingly gorgeous and gigantic house.  (I've never known anybody who lives in such a fancy place.  It's a super-affluent neighborhood, and apparently some of their neighbors, including a General Authority, aren't so warm and fuzzy.)  Kristen, Mike's wife, met us at the house with dinner from someplace called Paradise Café.  It was delicious, even though I still wasn't hungry.  (It was a really bad eating day.)  We enjoyed visiting with the Latteiers and didn't get home until after 9.   Late night for Little One. 

Saturday morning we got up at 4:45 A.M. and left the house around 5:15 to get to ASU for the race.  We'd been told that we absolutely had to be there by 6:15 because they were cracking down on security in light of the Boston marathon bombings.  We ended being a little late, and the you-have-to-be-there-by-6:15 thing ended up being a total lie.  We kind of wished we'd slept a little later, but we didn't have too much time to kill.  This year they let people with strollers who wanted to go faster (like a 10-minute-mile pace) go in corral 12 instead of making everyone with strollers go in corral 26 at the very end like last year.  Derrick and Chris waited to go with us (Mel stayed home with the three Karner kids).  Jim doesn't have a slow setting, however, so he took off with the stroller, and I followed.  We lost Derrick and Chris shortly after we passed the start line and never saw them again.

The race was fun.  It's really crowded, and despite being in an earlier heat this year, we still had lots of slow pokes and walkers blocking our way.   We did manage to weave around people and run the whole time (unlike last year), although not quite as fast as we would have liked.  We ended up finishing the 4.2-mile race in 36 minutes and 38 seconds.  I felt soooo much better this year.  The weather was much cooler (in fact it was perfect), and I'm in such better shape than I was four months after giving birth to Ever.  It's amazing to finally be able to run again! 

We got out through the crowds in the stadium and called Derrick and Chris (who, it turned out, only finished about 20 seconds behind us).

 



We reunited with them up in the stadium, where we enjoyed some bananas and Gatorade and took some pictures.  It's impossible to get a good picture in the stadium.  If you can see the field in the background, we're too dark; if you can see us, the field is too light.

 

 



Jim, Dolly, Derrick, and Derrick's friend/former mission companion, Seth, who also ran.

On our way out, Jim and Dolly hit the mist machine.  Jim loved it because Dolly snuggled into him every time.

I don't remember seeing this dude, but it looks like he's just standing there staring at Ever like he wants to steal her:


 

 

We didn't have to check out of the house at any specific time, so we went back, cleaned up, and let the kids play outside by/in the pool.  Chris's daughter, Ally, challenged me to a handstand contest.  I got to cheat and have terrible form because I'm old, so I gave her a run for her money.  (She does gymnastics and, I imagine, is a lot like I was at that age.  She cartwheels everywhere and was doing back handsprings in the backyard.)  The kids and men launched some water balloons over the backyard wall and into the nearby field. 

 

We drove home Saturday afternoon/evening.  Dolly didn't fall asleep until right before we pulled into our driveway.  Crazy kid.  It was a really nice little family vacation, and it was fun to visit with friends while we were there.  I'm so glad we started this tradition. 

 

Jim's former roommate, Mark Harwood, his wife, Jill, and their three boys (Ben - 4, Sam - 2, and Josh - 6 mos.) stayed with us for almost a week beginning the Saturday we got back from Arizona.  The Harwoods are living in Spokane now and wanted a warm-weather vacation.  We got the house all ready for them before we took off for Arizona and left a key under the mat since they arrived a few hours before we got back.  They were the most courteous guests ever.  They bought all their own groceries (meaning we got what they didn't finish), made us dinner, bought us flowers, stripped all their beds before they left, brought us goodies from Spokane, etc.  It was a little crazy having boys in the house who are in that active/loud stage, and we were afraid we might have made the Harwoods feel bad because it was sometimes clear we weren't fans of the goings-on.  (Jim, especially, cannot hide his displeasure, and he regulated on the kids multiple times.)  It's awkward to be in a position where you want to tell other people's kids what to do/not do, but you're not really allowed to because the parents are around.  I think it was nerve-wracking for Mark and Jill, too, because they were worried about Ben and Sam damaging the house and were just generally highly aware that they were in somebody else's space.  In conclusion, it seems unlikely that the Harwoods will return, but we were glad they came.  It was fun to see them, and it's nice to have visitors.