Company, California, & Competition

Hello Friends & Family!

We are enjoying warmer weather in Salt Lake City, although the beginning of this week is going to be a bit colder. Tulips are blooming outside our front window & I planted an herb garden on our patio last week. After 2 1/2 years in Utah, I know to thoroughly enjoy this time of year before we are consistently experiencing temperatures over 95 starting in June.

Todd raced in the Leprechaun Lope 5K on March 15th. He placed 3rd overall. Lots of the high school athletes that we coached came out to cheer him on despite chilly weather. Following Calvin tradition, Todd sported a mustache for the race.

Some of the Olympus High School track team

Todd and I embraced the last bit of winter by tubing at Soldier Hollow. I'm not sure you could have even called it "winter"--the snow was man-made and the temperatures were above 60. Despite having to work pretty hard to get from the top of the hill to the bottom without stopping on the slushy snow, we had a great time.

Jeff & Lindsey Lombardo and Ben & Alivia Plankis came out to Salt Lake City for a long weekend. The Lombardos ran a 50K race on Antelope Island on Saturday morning (what an accomplishment!!). We were unable to watch their race since we were coaching an a track meet that morning, but we enjoyed hanging out the remainder of the weekend. We went on a hike, played some yard games, went out for Thai food, and enjoyed catching up!

High School friends reunited

We've enjoyed watching our good friends Mark & Jenna Moffatt's beautiful baby girl grow up! When we babysat her most recently, she was moving around and pulling herself up on everything. She's a happy, curious little girl!

Harper & Todd

We spent Todd's Spring Break in California. We filled the week with lots of sunshine, sleep, running, and relaxing. We spent a night at Death Valley National Park on our way to Newport Beach. 

The weather was warm!

Artist's Palette. All of the coloring on the rock is from mineral deposits caused by volcanoes.

At the Devil's Golf Course. Todd was tasted the crystalline salt formations to see if they tasted salty!

Badwater Basin--lowest point in the Western Hemisphere

We arrived at our resort at Newport Beach just in time to catch the end of the Michigan vs. Kentucky game. We watched the sad ending of the game while we waited for our room to be ready. Based on a recommendation from one of our high school athletes, we ate at Mama D's for dinner. The restaurant has won an award for "best spoil you service", and we found that to be true.

We spent Monday at Corona del Mar, a beach near our resort. It was a quiet, beautiful beach. I braved the water for a while, but it was cold!

Inspiration Point

Little Corona del Mar

We grilled for dinner and ate on our deck

We spent Tuesday walking around Balboa island. We houses were beautiful! We ended the day on the Newport Peninsula with a delicious seafood dinner.

Balboa Island

Trying a Frozen Banana - a local special

The highlight of the trip for Todd - taking the car ferry from Balboa Island to the Newport Peninsula for only $3

Dinner at Newport Landing

We started Wednesday morning with a nice walk down to Crystal Cove State Park for breakfast at the Beachcomber Cafe. The Crystal Cove area was originally a vacation location for a group of families in the 1920's. The land has become a state park, but the cottages original to the 1920's remain. It was a neat place to explore. Since Wednesday was a cooler day, we stayed at the resort and enjoyed the pool and hot tub.

Crystal Cove State Park

Breakfast at the Beachcomber Cafe

Thursday was spent in Laguna Beach. We got lunch at a place I had been with my mom and Uncle Bruce 11 or so years ago, and then we relaxed on the beach for the rest of the day.

Lunch at Wahoo's Fish Tacos

Laguna Beach

I did my last long run for the Boston Marathon on Friday. It was nice to run in a new location! Todd joined me for the first 4 miles, then took the ferry to my half-way point (the end of the Newport peninsula--10 miles) and then took the ferry back to run the last 4 miles with me. What a great guy! We drove up to Huntington Beach for the rest of the day. We ended the day with shakes from Ruby's Shake Shack and watched the sunset from Ruby's deck.

Street performer at Huntington Beach

Huntington Beach

We were able meet Uncle Mike, Aunt Elaine, & kids for breakfast yesterday. They were in Salt Lake City for the morning before driving down to Southern Utah for Spring Break. It was nice to catch up with them!

We've been staying busy (in a good way) with coaching. Many of our athletes competing well at an invitation yesterday. It is so rewarding to see their hard work pay off!

Now we are looking forward to the Boston Marathon. I can't believe it is only 8 days away! After 5 months of training, I'm more than ready to race! My training has gone better than I could have hoped for, so I'm ready to see what I can do. We're really excited to see Holly and Matt! We'll be flying in to Philadelphia and staying with them in New Jersey for a couple days before driving up to Boston together on Saturday. I'm so thankful that I'll have family to support me!

Stay-cation

University of Utah has Spring Break this week, so I'm enjoying a stay-cation for the most part this week. Besides an appointment with an athlete, some hydration tests, and planning for football nutrition education, I've been able to be home getting more things done around the house.

Olympus Track is officially underway! We started "mandatory" practices last week Monday and held our time trial yesterday. We are hosting the first meet of the season next week Tuesday. We've had beautiful running weather--50's and sunny most days. Todd is running a 5K this weekend and many of the athletes we coach are coming to watch. Since he's been training hard to keep up with the fasted boy on the team, he's running pretty fast right now. Should be a great race! My Boston Marathon training is really picking up, and is going really well! It's pretty intense though and I've seemed to need 9+ hours of sleep--crazy! Less than 6 weeks to go!

We've continued to go to Utah sporting events. Men's tennis vs. BYU was exciting! We've never watched a match except on TV, so this was a first. Todd was convinced to go based on the free pizza that would be at the meet--but he ended up liking more than just the pizza. We also went to the Washington vs. Utah Gymnastics meet. Utah has an excellent team--ranked 5th in the nation. We're following Utah in the PAC12 Championship. Won in the first round!

We're back to consistently going to our church small group on Wednesday nights. We love the community we've found in this group of young couples!

We are looking forward to next weekend when the Ben & Alivia and Jeff & Lindsey come to Utah. The Lombardos are running a 50K trail race on Antelope Island. We also have plans for Todd's Spring Break! We're going to spend the week at Newport Coast in California. We'll also stop at Death Valley National Park on our way there--one of the few National Parks in California that we didn't stop at last summer.

That's all for now. Hopefully next time I'll have some pictures to share--but I haven't taken any lately!

Spring?

Todd and I are enjoying a day off of work today--thanks Presidents! The weather here has been so warm, as high as 60 degrees! All our snow is gone in the valley and we've been getting a lot of rain. It feels like Spring!

We had a great time with Grant in town for a long weekend in January. We all went skiing at Snowbird for a day, and then Grant and Todd went back for a second day. Grant taught me how to turn better, so I no longer go straight down the mountain. Thanks Grant! Todd and Grant had a powder day the second day, and were a lot more adventurous without me along. 

Todd and I have been busy most weekends with indoor track meets. We had a meet at BYU, two at the Olympic Oval, and last weekend we ended our season with a meet in Pocatello, Idaho. Three athletes broke school records--the boy's long jump, girls 1600 meter, and girls 400 meter, so I'd say we're off to a good start. The meet in Idaho was the Simplot games, which is a 3 day meet with 1,800 high school athletes competed. Many states as well as Canada and Mexico were represented. Todd competed in 2 coaches' mile races at these meets. Last weekend he ran 4:50 and placed 6th out of 23 coaches! 

We went snowshoeing with our friends Jessie and Brian Strike a few weekends ago. We drove up Millcreek canyon a ways, and then hiked uphill through lots of snow. It was so beautiful and peaceful! 

We're looking forward to a few track meet-free weekends ahead. Maybe we'll get a chance to attend a few more Utah sporting events and do some more hiking before the outdoor meets start up!

Missing our friends and family all around the U.S.!

Todd after a day of skiing

Coaches' Mile

Coach Mitchell's cheering crowd

The group we took to the Simplot Games in Idaho

Happy New Year

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

We are home to Utah after time with family and friends in Minnesota, Iowa, and Michigan. We got to see Ben and Alivia Plankis while we were home in MN, and then headed down to Iowa for Christmas with the Mitchell side. Grant's fiancé Allison made the trip with us which was a lot of fun, and I think we managed not to scare her too much. It was a good time with family although a bit cold for running. After Christmas in MN we headed to Michigan.

In Michigan we celebrated Christmas with some of the Klein-Wassink side of the family. We went to see part two of The Hobbit and went bowling. We went for a chilly hike in a park and built a giant snowman (about 8.5 ft. tall). Jake and Alissa Baker came over to play some games. We went out to eat at McFadden's on trivia night, unfortunately we did not win. For New Year's the Haagsma clan came over to play games.

We packed a lot in a short amount of time and are now gearing up to go back to work. Today we went to the US Cross Country Ski Nationals and watched two of my high school teammates race. Next weekend Grant is coming out to visit and we are planning some skiing!

Christmas in Iowa with the Mitchells

Todd & Skip

Having fun with hats

Christmas with the VanWyks in Michigan

We went on some cold runs!

NYE with the Haagsmas

US Cross Country Ski Nationals

 

It's the most wonderful time of the year

We haven't updated this page since the start of the fall semester...and now it's the end. 

Here are some of the highlights of the fall:

-We enjoyed our first season of coaching XC together. The Olympus XC team was much bigger than in the past, and the performances improved throughout the season. We are now in the midst of winter training, and have 10-15 athletes faithfully coming. Todd set up a great end-of-the-season banquet in October that most of the athlete's families attended.

-Todd's job is going well, although he has some challenging students. He is getting to know the other teachers better this year. As always, he gets a kick out of using sarcasm and telling stories in class.

-My job is also going well. Things have slowed down now that the football season is over, but now we are in the swing of things with basketball. 

-I was accepted into the Boston Marathon. It was a close call, since they made the cut-off faster than previously due to increased number of runners wanting to participate, but I'm in!

-Bonnie came out to Utah for a quick visit. We enjoyed some hiking around SLC, along with a one night trip down to Canyonlands National Park in southern Utah.

-We traveled in Minnesota for Thanksgiving. Along with Thanksgiving celebration, we took a trip to Iowa for Grandma Kathaleen's 90th birthday and watched Grant's team in the 3rd round of the DIII football playoffs (all in a 4 day weekend!). 

-Now we are very much looking forward to almost 2 weeks in the midwest with our families! Leaving in just 3 days!

Hiking the Red Pine Trail 

The view from the "top"

Carving pumpkins

Whose is whose?

Trip down to Canyonlands with Bonnie

The Olympus XC Team at the Region Meet

And the school year begins...

This year the start of the school year didn't mean going back to school...for the first time in 20 years! I am enjoying my new position as a sports dietetics fellow at the University of Utah. We have moved into a beautiful new facility with an athlete dining hall, unbelievable athletic training room, fueling station (which I manage), football offices and locker room, and more. Moving into a new place at the start of camp for the fall sports was a bit chaotic, but we're feeling settled now. Our fall sports are off to a good start with a win at the first football game, 3 wins for volleyball, and 1-0-2 record for soccer.  Todd and I were able to go to the football game (knowing the right people is helpful!) and I was on the field for post-game recovery beverages.

Todd is enjoying his 3rd year at Olympus High School. He is teaching a new class (secondary math 3), which is a part of the new common core that Utah schools have adopted. He still does not have a textbook, so lesson planning can be challenging. We went to the first home football game at Olympus last Friday, and the home team came through with the win.

The high school cross country season is underway. Todd is once again the head coach and I have been "hired" as a volunteer coach. We have had 4 meets already. The team is looking better than last year already, and it continues to grow. We are looking forward to cooler weather for future races. Most of the races thus far have been in 90+ degree weather. Todd took the team to Park City for a team bonding trip a few weekends ago. They went for a trail run and then spent the afternoon at the Jordanelle Reservoir. Our last race was called the American Fork Grass Relays and involved jumping over haybales in the 10 mile relay race. At the end of each lap was the "gauntlet", which required the runners to jump over 10 consecutive haybales. The team really enjoyed this change of pace.

We enjoyed a visit from Uncle Bruce in July. We went on a couple of hikes and gave a tour of downtown Salt Lake. We browsed the downtown farmer's market on Saturday morning and also visited the Red Butte Gardens. We were thankful for some cooler weather during his visit, which made hiking and walking around town much more enjoyable!

Hiking on Rob's Trail in Park City with Uncle Bruce

Red Butte Gardens in full bloom

View from the cross country course at our first meet. Yes, there were cows on the course.