Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! We are eager to be flying to the Midwest in a couple days! We're hopeful for snow since it's been unseasonably warm here. However, we're becoming cold weather wimps...so hopefully MN isn't TOO cold!

We had a successful trip to CA for the footlocker west meet! We were part of group of 800 Utah high school runners traveling down for the meet. Our runners competed well at the race despite some long, steep hills on the course. We had a great time at Huntington Beach the day before the race. Most of the kids were brave enough to swim in the waves (and Todd too). We went to Disneyland after the race. Despite crazy crowds, the kids enjoyed their time there. After spending four days with kids and coaches from other high schools in our state, Todd and I realized we are extremely blessed to coach the kids we have! We were so impressed by their behavior on the trip and the way that they have fun all together as a group!

Huntington Beach

Playing in the waves

Todd is sad because the seagull ate his cheez-its

Building sand castles at the beach

Some of the group on the pier

Wiped out after the race

Christmastime in Disneyland

Since we don't have any family in Utah, the Spences (the family of one of the kids we coach) include us in many of their family activities. We spent Thanksgiving with their family and had a wonderful time. We also joined them for a day downtown to celebrate Christmas. We went to Benihanas for dinner. It's a Japanese restaurant where they cook your food right in front of you at your table. It was a fun experience! Then we skated downtown at the Gallivan center. We really enjoy time with our "Utah family".

Ice Skating Downtown

The lights at Temple Square with Max & William Spence

Todd is starting to run a bit again, about 10 minutes every other day. His stress fracture is healing slowly, and he's at the point where some weight bearing activity will promote further healing. I'll miss having a running partner over Christmas break!

We hope y'all have a wonderful Christmas and a happy New Year!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had been meaning to visit Grand Teton National Park again since we first visited it a couple weeks after moving to Utah in 2011, so we took a quick weekend trip up to Wyoming for my birthday weekend. Since the weather was quite cold and snowy, we decided against camping and stayed in a hotel in downtown Jackson. As we drove into the park Saturday morning, we saw several moose and a fox! 

One of the moose we saw. Sorry for the iPhone pictures! I forgot to bring my camera...so the pictures aren't high quality. 

A sign warned us of the "moose on the loose"

Fox

We hiked around Phelps lake on Saturday. We were bundled up and prepared for snow, but the sun came out and we ended up quite warm. In fact, warm enough that Todd considered taking a dive into the ice cold lake off of the infamous "jumping rock". 

Our first view of Phelps Lake, before we hiked down and around it

Our lunch stop

We finished the hike and returned to the car just as the snow started! We went out to eat in town for my birthday that evening.

Snow fall on the tetons

On Sunday morning, we walked to a coffee shop for breakfast before heading into the park for another hike. We hiked to Taggart Lake & Bradley Lake. It was very cold and snowy!

Taggart Lake

Bradley Lake

We decided to drive back home via Teton Pass. At the highest elevation the snowfall was heavy. It was beautiful!

Besides that weekend trip, we haven't been up to much lately. Coaching has started back up. The kids have named winter training "Crack"...the combination of cross country and track. They enjoy the reaction they get when they say they're doing crack. Todd went to a 3-day coaching clinic put on by USATF at the University of Utah. He's planning to take a test today to become Level 1 certified as a cross country/track coach. He is off from school until Monday!

My fellow sports dietitians and I spent the last football game on the sidelines giving out hot chocolate & broth to the athletes as they came off of the field after each series. I would have preferred snow to the pouring rain we had! The football players loved it! We kept them warm while also replacing carbohydrates and electrolytes. 

We hope y'all have a wonderful Thanksgiving! We will miss being with family!

October Adventures

What an exciting win for the Utes last night! Bowl eligible for the first time in the 3 years I've been working with the team--very exciting! I was able to get some extra tickets, so Jessie and Brian Strike joined us in the biggest crowd ever in the RES.

Brian & Jessie Strike joined us for the game

Blackout Game!

While we're on the topic of football, Todd and his gophers have earned the bragging rights over me and my Wolverines in the Mitchell household for the next year...something that is so very rare, but so very exciting for him. Until next year...(or basketball season??).

The leaves in the mountains (and somewhat in the valley) are starting to change. I'm hopeful we'll have some fall weather soon. I went for a trail run up in the mountains to enjoy the colors. It was breathtaking!

Millcreek Canyon

One of my wonderful graduate school classmates was back in Utah for vacation a few weeks ago, and she planned a get-together for our class. I hadn't seen most of my classmates in quite some time, and it was wonderful to catch up with the people I spent what felt like "every waking moment" with for those two years.

7 of my 13 CMP classmates

Todd & I went to a pumpkin patch and corn maze a few weeks ago. We didn't get completely lost in the maze, but definitely had a retrace our steps a few times. We picked out a few pumpkins that we have yet to carve, and then went out to dinner together.

Ready to go!

Our cross country season has come to a close. For the first time in Olympus High School history, both the boys and girls XC teams qualified for state. The boys team took 8th at state and the girls team took 12th. The girls team battled many injuries over the last month, and so we were proud to still make it to state and to not get last at state! We are looking forward to the celebration banquet in a couple weeks. Also, we will be taking about 20 athletes to California for the Footlocker West Regional Meet in Walnut, CA. Should be a lot of fun!

Todd is happy to see the varsity boys running as a pack

Goofy boys

Team Picture

Varsity girls running for Natalie, who's out with a stress fracture

Pre-race Prayer

I'll miss these seniors!

State Finals Team Picture

Last week, Grant & Allison flew from MN to UT to visit for a long weekend. We spent 3 days & 2 nights down in Zion National Park. Weather wise, this is probably the best time of year to be down in Zion. We camped on BLM land outside the park and loved our campsite! We hiked Observation Point, which is the trail that takes you to the highest elevation in the park. There is a beautiful view of the canyon from the top. The next day, we hiked up the narrows a ways. The water was low and the current wasn't too quick, so we could make progress fairly quickly. Back in Salt Lake City, we spent time together playing games, walking around downtown, and doing a sunset hike. We also drove up Big Cottonwood Canyon to walk around Silver Lake. We were happy to have visitors!

Hiking up to Observation Point

View from the top

Sunset over Salt Lake Valley

Walking around Silver Lake

Beautiful reflection

We are planning a trip to Jackson Hole & the Tetons this coming weekend. Now that the cross country season is over, we have more freedom to take small weekend trips. We're looking forward to some more hiking!

Fall?

We're in the midst of fall activities here...going to football games, coaching at XC meets, but there is definitely no fall weather yet. I hoping today is the last day in the 90's. I'm ready for changing colors in the mountains & crisp fall weather. I always miss home the most in the fall, because SLC falls just can't beat Michigan falls. The colors aren't as vibrant & fall only seems to last a week or two.

Our cross country team is doing quite well! The girls' team has the potential to finish in the top 5 at State Finals. The boys' team has made another step forward from last year. It's been great to see how well they are running in packs and starting to understand that cross country is more than just individual, it's a team sport. We also enjoyed a day trip to the Jordanelle Reservoir. We started with a trail run around the reservoir, and then played some games and swam.

Ultimate frisbee at the reservoir

Jordanelle Reservoir

The Girls' Team with the 1st trophy we've ever won!

Coach Todd doing his thing

Utah's fall sports teams are off to a great start! We've enjoyed watching the football team go 3-0. The WSU game this weekend will start the conference play. Soccer is undefeated so far, and volleyball only has one loss. I'm excited to be working more & more closely with the Utah XC team this year. I know nutrition makes such a huge difference in running, so I'm glad to be making an impact.

At the Utah vs. Fresno State game

We've been pretty boring outside of going to sporting events. We get so worn out from coaching on Saturday mornings, that we tend to crash for the rest of the day. In fact, our plans for a date night a couple weeks ago (out to dinner & a movie) ended up being take-out pizza and Netflix, haha!

We spent the past weekend in New Jersey with Holly, Matt, & Lily! We had been looking forward to meeting Lily for so long, and we had a great time. She is so precious! We visited a really neat aquarium on Saturday, and watched the Utah vs. Michigan game. On Sunday afternoon, we walked along the Cooper river. Todd flew home Monday morning, and I stuck around for one more day. I got to babysit Lily on Monday while Holly & Matt worked. We went on a couple walks, played, and Lily did lots of sleeping. It was fun to see her smiles! It was hard to leave and know she'll be completely different when I see her next at Christmastime.

Smiles!

Sleepy time

So good to see them (and Matt too!)

We've felt God watching over our families in the last couple weeks. Grandma Klein-Wassink suffered a minor heart attack last week, but is home and doing ok. She had a stent put in and besides the one blocked artery, her heart looks healthy and strong. Praise God! This weekend, Todd's mom got rear-ended by a Mack Truck, and is doing fine. She's sore and the car is wrecked, but it could have been much worse.