New Year, New Addition

As I'm sure you all know at this point, we are thrilled to be expecting a baby in July! I'll be 18 weeks along this week, and overall I've been feeling pretty good! We get to have our big ultrasound later this month. We're excited to find out whether we're having a boy or a girl. We're savoring these next last several months as the "two of us"--but looking forward to the adventure & joy of becoming parents.

We've received lots of love and support, and are very grateful for this! I've been overwhelmed by the wonderful baby/pregnancy packages I've received from friends & family across the country.

Thanks Holly, Mom, Kristen, & Alissa! Y'all are the best!

Now, since I haven't blogged in quite a while, I'll share what we've been up to "lately". We traveled down to Las Vegas for a long weekend in December. We cheered on the Utes in their bowl game against BYU, went to our first ever Cirque de Soleil show (Zarkana), and enjoyed some R & R.

Royal Purple Las Vegas Bowl

We really enjoyed our time with both of our families over the holidays! We especially looked forward to sharing the news of our pregnancy with our families.

Grandpa & Grandma Mitchell came up to MN for a few days while we were there.

Since Christmas, things have been fairly uneventful around here. We're enjoying a slower pace after doing a lot of traveling in November & December. We've started to scour online listings for used baby things--and begun to clear out our second bedroom to make room for baby. We purchased a rocking chair last week.

Olympus High School has competed in 3 indoor track meets already. We're grateful to live near the U.S. Olympic Oval which has an over-sized indoor track--perfect for running fast times indoors. Overall, the team has been doing quite well! We've had 6 indoor school records broken already this season--and one meet record as well!

That's all for now. Happy Valentine's Day!

That's a Wrap

Many of the things Todd & I have been involved in this fall are wrapping up now...the end of the high school XC season, the utes football season, and the school semester. We're in the middle of a very busy stretch...6 trips in 7 weekends!

Todd spent the weekend before Thanksgiving in Casa Grande, Arizona. The Nike Southwest Regional Meet took place that weekend, and he took the top 11 boys and girls down to compete as a team. The meet consisted of the top teams from Utah, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, and Nevada. The boy's team finished 10th. The girl's team didn't make it into the championship race (since their state performance wasn't fantastic), but they ran really well in the open race!

We spent Thanksgiving weekend in Salt Lake City. We enjoyed "pie breakfast" with friends on Thanksgiving day--a Park City tradition. We gathered at Brian & Jessie Strike's house for potluck style Thanksgiving dinner. It was a great day! We went to a home basketball game and football game that weekend as well. Both teams pulled off a win!

A snowy football game to end the season

Last weekend, we traveled by charter bus down to Los Angeles for the Footlocker West Regional Meet. Schools from Hawaii, Alaska, California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico were represented at this meet. We traveled down as a part of a larger group from Utah--800 athletes and 17 charter buses. We had 33 athletes from Olympus High School go to the meet. All of our kids ran well; but the highlight was Olivia Hoj finishing 3rd in the seeded race which qualified her for footlocker nationals! Aside from racing, we spent some time at Newport Beach and an afternoon/evening in Disneyland. 

Newport Beach

Pelican

Boys Varsity

Olivia Hoj - 3rd place!

Disneyland

This weekend, we were in San Diego to coach Olivia in one final meet--Footlocker Nationals. As coaches, this may have been a once in a lifetime experience. How often do you coach an athlete who is among the top 40 in the country? We flew down with her parents for a whirlwind weekend, arriving Friday late afternoon and leaving early Sunday morning. We stayed at the Hotel Del Coronado, which was so beautiful! Olivia had a fantastic race finishing 24th against very tough competition. It's really amazing that this is only her first XC season ever!

Hotel Del Coronado

24th place!

So cute! Lots of kids asking for autographs.

 Coronado Beach

Christmas Tree in the Lobby

In case we haven't been away enough, we are planning to go down to Las Vegas next weekend for the Utah vs. BYU Las Vegas Bowl. Then, the next two trips are the ones were looking forward to most! We'll be going to Minnesota & Michigan for Christmas & New Years to be with our families. Can't wait!

Happy Fall Y'all

We're enjoying a restful Saturday...the Utes have an away game and there's no cross country meet! Since I last posted, we've had two visits from family and wrapped up all in-state meets for high school cross country.

Back in early September, Todd's parents came out to Utah for a long weekend. We all went to the Utah vs. Michigan football game. All I've been hearing lately is how we're glad we played Michigan when we did!! Jeff & Bonnie cheered on our high school cross country team at the BYU Invitational that Saturday. They were able to put some faces with the names they see in our race results online. We also drove up Big Cottonwood Canyon for a walk around Silver Lake, and then took the scenic route to Park City for lunch. Unfortunately, I did not take any pictures that weekend. As always, it was great to have family in town!

In late September, I did my first trail race as a part of a marathon relay team. The University of Utah Athletic department had 4 marathon relay teams for the Northface Endurance Challenge in Park City. It was a fun experience....I might have to do some more trail races!

Coming down the hill at the end of my leg

Athletics Department runners

Holly & Matt visited us last weekend. Lily stayed home with Grandma & Grandpa...we missed her, but our trip would have looked a little different with her along. The day they arrived, we hiked up in Big Cottonwood Canyon on the trail that leads to Mary, Martha, and Catherine Lakes. The fall colors were pretty in the canyon.

Lake Mary

We went up to Jackson for the next three days. We had beautiful weather there...much warmer than it typically is this time of year! We did the Bradley & Taggart Lake loop the afternoon we arrived, and then hiked up to Holly Lake on Saturday. We saw several moose, including one that was only 10 feet off of the trail. It was rainy Sunday morning, so we drove up to Yellowstone instead of doing a wet hike in the Tetons. We watched Old Faithful erupt and did some short trails through the geysers and thermal areas. 

Hiking up to Bradley lake

Taggart Lake from above

Moose! She was splashing in the water

All we could see was his antlers!

Holly Lake

On our way back down

So close!

Buffalo

Old Faithful

We wish they lived closer to us! And we're excited to see Lily again at Christmas time!

We just finished our high school cross country regular season on Wednesday with the state meet. The boys team finished 3rd and the girls team finished 8th! Both teams improved greatly from last year, and the boys' 3rd place finish was the best they've done since 1975. We've got two post-season races on the schedule: Nike Southwest Regional meet in Arizona & the Footlocker West meet in California. 

Enjoy your Saturdays! And GO UTES!

Summer Lately

Hello All! Hope you're enjoying the last few weeks of summer! It feels mostly over here. At the University of Utah, I'm a week and a half into fall training camp for football, volleyball, and soccer. Todd has already started contract days for Olympus High, and the students start on Wednesday. Our cross country team has their first meet on Thursday of this week! And Todd starts graduate school tomorrow. He is pursuing a Masters in Coaching and Athletic Administration.

We crossed something off our bucket list in July...hiking Mount Timpanogos! Timp is the second highest mountain in the Wasatch Range at almost 12,000 feet. It's a 14 mile round-trip hike, so we camped near the trailhead the night before to get an early start. We saw a moose and 20+ mountain goats!

Snack break! Caleb and Amanda Rottman hiked up with us.

Emerald Lake. It doesn't look emerald from here, but it is from above!

Glisading down the glacier

Almost to the top!

Made it!

The wildflowers were beautiful!

Can you spot the mountain goats?

Looking back at the peak on the way down

Last month, we got to see both our families! We first flew to Iowa to join Todd's family for Grandpa & Grandma's 60th Anniversary at Lake Rathbun. We celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary while we were there. Since our hotel was right on the lake, we spent a lot of time on the water...kayaking, canoeing, boating, and jetskiing. It was wonderful to be all together.

While the guys golfed, the ladies biked around the resort...

...and went kayaking

We had two pontoons on the morning of Grandpa & Grandma's Anniversary

The lovebirds!

Family pictures

Goofing off in the pool

Canoeing

"Minute to Win it" games

"Minute to Win it" games

From Iowa, we flew to Atlanta and drove up to Bryson City, North Carolina for a family reunion with the VanWyk's. It was wonderful to see all of my family - many of whom I hadn't seen since our wedding. We stayed in cabins near Smoky Mountain National Park. We enjoyed hiking, rafting, tubing, and exploring the Biltmore estate.

We went White Water Rafting on the Nantahala River

Storytime with Great Grandma

The sunset from our front porch

Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Lily & Grandma

Bathtime!

Cousins vs. Uncles Football

Splish Splash

We spent a long weekend at Bear Lake for Olympus XC Team Camp. The kids had a great time running, boating, playing team-building games, and setting goals for our upcoming season. 

Team Trail Run at Tony Grove Lake

Team Building Games

Fun at Bear Lake

Team Run up Logan Canyon

We are really looking forward to a visit from Todd's parents in a couple weeks!