T-Wolf Trot

The XC team put on a T-Wolf Trot for elementary and junior high students on Monday. I went and helped set up the course in part because I was available to help, and also in big part because the team was practicing during the set up and I wanted to be around in case Rockwell had a hard time breathing again. Luckily he was able to breathe just fine, thank goodness! I'm hoping Saturday was just some weird fluke and that never happens again. :)

Jody had all the Freshman run the junior high race since technically they are in Junior High. Haha. I had left to go get Tessa and Damon ready for the race so I didn't see Rock race. When we got there he told me he felt great running race pace and didn't feel any trouble breathing. That's a huge relief.

He took 1st in the junior high run.

Tessa and Damon were really excited about running a race like Rockwell does.

The high school kids each ran with an elementary kid, which was really cute. Rockwell ran with Damon and Elsa ran with Tessa.

It was freezing, and every time the kids passed by, their faces were more and more red.

The elementary race was 1 mile, and that was tough for the kids! When they finished and were catching their breath, they both said to Rockwell, "Running is hard!" He thought that was funny, and told them that he and his friends are pretty crazy that they do it for fun! Haha.

Damon took 3rd place for 4th grade boys and got a t-shirt. :)

State XC Meet

The State JV Cross Country meet was in Spanish Fork this year. My mom was spending the day with us while my Dad was at a conference. Grandma was excited to watch Rockwell run. Emilie and Matt came too, and it was great to see them!

Rockwell was excited and nervous for the meet, and really wanted to do well. He had a great start out in front of the pack.

I wasn't excited about leaving Tessa, Damon, and Grandma alone at the chairs, so Grandma and I just went to one spot along the trail to see Rockwell pass by. He had fallen behind a bit, but the kids all trade places many times throughout the 3.1 miles, so I didn't think much of it.

The next time I saw him was at the finish line. He was expected to place in the top 10 (let's be honest, top 5!) based on his time at the Region Meet. Quite a few boys came through the finish line, and Rockwell was nowhere in sight. Paul, Matt, and Emilie came running over and said he had fallen quite a ways behind and wasn't looking good. He finished with a time of 19:08.53. That's two and a half minutes slower than Region. Those two and a half minutes waiting for him to come through felt very long! I was worried he had an injury and was stuck somewhere. When we finally saw him coming in the last stretch, we could tell something was very wrong. The poor thing looked like he was in serious pain.

Coach Amanda and Paul ran right over to him when he crossed the line. It's always very crowded behind the finish line, so the rest of us stayed back at our chairs. Paul called after about 10 minutes and let me know that Rockwell couldn't catch a breath. For the last half of the race, he hadn't been able to get a full breath in or out. My mind (and Damon's, poor thing) went right to Drew and that made me very concerned. Paul took him over to the pavilion to try and see if sitting down and getting out of the crowds would help. We packed up our stuff and slowly made our way over there, and when we got there Rockwell told me he was feeling better. But I could still hear that he wasn't breathing fully. I simply was not comfortable leaving him like that, but he insisted he wanted to ride the bus home with the team. Paul and I agreed that Rockwell shouldn't be left alone, so Paul said he would stay and watch from a distance, and then follow the bus home. That made me feel better, but I was nervous until Rockwell got home. His breathing was back to normal, but he still took a long, steamy shower. We were talking later that day and I told him I was impressed with how well he was handling the results of the race. He is usually pretty hard on himself if he doesn't do his best. He said, "Ya, it turns out I care a lot more about breathing than I do about winning. That was really scary and I'm just really grateful I can breathe again." I have experienced what it feels like to have an asthmatic-type episode like that one time at the top of the Grand Canyon hike, and it truly is scary. I feel so bad that he went through that. Man am I grateful that he was able to get back to normal relatively quickly (even though it felt very long at the time!). I know things like that can end up very differently, and I'm so so so thankful that he is feeling better.

Halloween

Damon was Harry Potter this year.

He looked so cute!

And Tessa was a devil.

She looked so cute too!

It was fun to go to the Halloween parade at the school.

Tessa and Emily planned their costumes together.

Super cute angel and devil!!

Coach Benson sent out a text telling the kids to wear their costumes to practice. Rockwell and his friends decided to go as the Fat Freshmen. Haha!

For practice they ran to multiple cemeteries and walked through them. Then all the boys had a party at Bridger's house that night.

Grandma & Grandpa Ham, Al, and Hallee came over for dinner and trick-or-treating. The mummies, ghosts, pumpkins, and witch fingers are always a hit!

It wasn't too cold of a night, which was so nice! Grandma and I linked arms and we all headed out.

The kids loved sorting and trading their candy afterward. It was a fun Halloween!!

Around Our House

Al, Mel, and I went up to visit with my parents one evening. Matt happened to drive up to Utah that day for a work thing so that was a fun surprise to have him there too! 

We got to visit for quite a while after dinner, and it was so fun to laugh with my parents! My mom is anxious, confused, and crying most the time now, and it was just the best to see her laughing.

She likes to take showers, I think it helps calm her body from all the anxiety. She took one while we were there, and wanted to dry her hair before bed. Al offered to dry it for her, and it was really sweet to hear them talking in the bathroom while they did that together. 

Sara and I went to Sharon's book tour together. Sharon published her first book, The Small and The Mighty, and it's a great book full of not-well-known stories of people making a difference in the history of our country. It was a fun event full of Governerds. :)

We made a fire one night and roasted hot dogs and marshmallows. Sawyer was over and we had a great night just hanging out around the fire.

We went to our Ward Halloween party. We had dinner and the youth set up games for the primary kids. There were quite a few Harry Potters there. :)

The Young Women gave out the costume awards, and Rockwell was given the Lamest Costume award since he didn't dress up. :) He thought that was an awesome award. Haha.

Fall Break

Our van, Vanessa :), started having some engine problems that were a death sentence, as our mechanics put it. Tessa gets very attached to things, and she had to say goodbye to Vanessa before we traded her in.

I did a lot of online research and then Paul and I went and test-drove a few cars. We decided on a Toyota Rav-4. It's our first-ever brand new car, and we've enjoyed having one that feels very dependable. Vanessa was breaking down quite a bit in her last months, so it's nice to not worry about that any more.

Kai is serving a mission at the MTC now, and so he won't be in the library at the high school with Paul anymore. Junko brought Paul a nice gift basket on Kai's last day to thank him for all the years of having Kai help out. 

There was a gift card to Top Golf in the basket, and we were all excited to use that over Fall Break. We always have fun there!

My mom was hanging out at Al's one day while my dad was visiting Sandy, so Tessa and I went over to hang out too. Jonah was so sweet and gave the girls a few of his candy lei's from the Senior Night football game. I can't believe Jonah is a senior!!! He's having an awesome year on the football team, and is such a cool kid. He made me a fried egg while I was there. :)

Rockwell went on a campout with the Teacher's Quorum one night. They were planning on going to Strawberry Reservoir, but there was too much snow there that day and cars were sliding off the road. Brother Tanner called it and they turned around and went to Utah Lake instead. They had made crawdad traps and Rockwell was really excited to catch and cook those, so it was a little disappointing to just camp at Utah Lake and not be able to fish at all. It was very cold in Orem, but we didn't have snow on the ground. Tessa really wanted to hike over the break, so we went up the canyon and hiked Upper Falls. 

It was pretty to see the fall colors with some snow on top of the mountains too.

Everyone felt like doing more after Upper Falls, so we walked down to Bridal Veil Falls too.

Tessa and Damon painted their pumpkins.

It warmed up quite a bit and Tessa and Damon had a blast playing outside the rest of the break. Rockwell was off with friends all week, and these two played in our backyard all day every day. It was really nice that they were totally happy playing with each other and didn't ask to do much besides hiking. It was a fun, relaxing Fall Break!

Every time I looked out the window, they were laughing and having a great time together. I loved it! 

They wanted to show Paul and me the funny things they were doing with their coats on the tramp. They were laughing so hard they could barely tell us about it. It was cute!