SoCal Ragnar

Ragnar Ready??

Lets get this party started.

Friday April 20 was the day. 

Team Bonk! start time was 6:45 am. I think they left the hotel about 5:30, ouch!

By Friday morning I was I ready to get the race going.

With the van packed with our race supplies and decorated with team name we were ready.

Team support...Teri was awesome. Her traveling companion had to opt out of the California trip at the last minute and she was left to navigate Southern California and Ragnar course on her own.

However, with her amazing ability to travel and read her "old school" fold out paper maps, and a handy dandy "BradMag" She was ready and able.

Alittle love before climbing in the van.

Van #2 girlie's

Amy, Lindsay (My new favorite, had lots of fun with her), Brooke and me

Ragnar Ready, Baby!!!

Forest Gump made an appearance on Team Bonk!

Cameron was amazing.

He did not shave his beard from Las Vegas Ragnar to So Cal Ragnar.

He was awesome to wear the outfit is the sweltering heat.

I just love this girl.

Trent=AMAZING.

I am constantly in awe when I see him run. It was about 90 degrees and it didn't slow him down.

Who is this happy when they run....uphill in crazy heat???

Amy received the nickname "The beast" among others.

Dad awaiting Amy's hand off to start his first leg.

Alittle water provided by Amy

Lindsay and Amy awaiting Brad's arrival to hydrate him again

Not really sure what happened, but Brooke was put into time out.

When showing James the picture he asked, "I think next time I see Brooke I will ask her why she got time out. She seems really old"

Gotta love that kid.

I think I was only in my leg about 1 mile and I was thrilled to see Amy awaiting to hydrate and dump water. It was so HOT, 99 degrees.

Our team would be waiting for us to give us water and run along side us so we didn't have to stop. If I would have stopped I never would have been able to get going again.

Another hydration station provided by Amy

Half way through my first leg runners and van went in different directions. I was dying!!!! It was so hot. I only had a little bit of Gatorade left in my water bottle. My hands started to swell and I had left my wedding on and my finger begin to get bigger and bigger and my rings were getting tighter and tighter.

I was struggling.

As I came atop a hill I saw my Dad come over headed in my direction with a water bottle in hand.

Has he began to run toward me tears instantly came and came.

I was so happy to see him.

He poured water on my hand and poured water over my head.

He then ran ahead to the awaiting van got another water bottle.

As I ran by the van I grab a handful of ice from the cooler and drank more water.

I was soaked from head to toe running to the exchange to pass of to Brooke.

Once Brooke had the bracelet there was my Dad once again with an ice pack to hold.

One of the hardest thing I have done. I was beat.

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We were able to stay close to Brooke during her run to give her lots of water.

We saw plenty of runners struggling through the heat.

We got through our first legs.

Brooke finishing and the pass off to Chris.

I love the major exchanges where we get to see the other van.

Dinner and alittle help for Teri and her iPhone.

We had two hotel rooms that team Bonk! shared.

Jake is a Genius.

He suggested getting the rooms and it was heaven.

No sleeping on the ground for this team.

Saturday morning at Torrey Pines. There was so much fog we didn't get to see it.

Trent getting ready to take off on his last leg.

After Trent took off we had some time and we were able to go pick up Teri and she joined us in the van on our last legs.

I loved having her along, spreading a little good news.

The Machine on his way to pass off to Lindsay

Lindsay starting her last leg, and it was her birthday

We made so many visits to the potties

Brooke!!!

I love this picture of Dad and Trent with the purple "thing"

Trent and Dad were walking ahead of me, Amy, Teri, and Brooke. Amy said she would owe me a BIG Diet Coke if I could get Dad and Trent to go stand by the thing to get a picture.

I was able to get them to do it....so Amy I am awaiting my super super sized Diet Coke.

Amy stretching

Hydration stop for Lindsay

Doesn't this look like fun?

Amy, "The Beast" her last leg was 11.1 miles and she was on fire.

However, we were in downtown San Diego and the van pulled over to wait and give Amy water. While we were waiting I got a call on my phone from a out of area number. I answered it and it was Amy. She was lost!!! She had flagged down some guy to use his phone to call us.

We got her on the right course and she was passing us in no time.

Van support

Happy Birthday Princess.

Doesn't it look like she is having a great birthday?

Brad taking off on his last leg.

I hate to admit that Dad also took a wrong turn.

Amy getting some rest

My last leg, and once again I got lost.What is wrong with us?  I was running up a bike path and saw about 5 other runners walking toward me. One runner had a phone and was talking with her van and was able to send us in the right direction.

Brooke's home away from home

Sprinting to the exchange.

I saw Brooke waiting and I was so excited to pass off and be done.

The hand off

At the finish awaiting Brooke to come down the tunnel

Love Team support!!

Thanks Mom

We were on the beach waiting to run to the finish when we saw Brooke and it was FREEZING. Could we not have had the heat from the previous day.

Forest was excited to shave "this animal off" his face

So excited to see Brooke come out of the tunnel.

Team BONK! after crossing the finish line.

It felt so good to be done.

We were all so cold we left pretty quick.

We stop in Old Town, San Diego at a Mexican restaurant for some food, then off to the hotel to shower and get some sleep.

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Sunday morning breakfast at McDonald's. The best part was we all piled into one van.

After breakfast we checked out and had to drive back up to Los Angeles to catch our flight back home.

It was an amazing trip.

Loved being in California with Brooke, Jenny, Mom, Amy and Lindsay.

I love running with team BONK!

The BradMag

Any Ragnar runner knows the importance of getting the Ragmag upon check in.

The Ragmag has all the info that your team needs to navigate thru the race.

However, in Southern California Team BONK! had the BradMag to get through the race.

Dad, Brad put together the a very detailed book with all information needed; maps, exchange points, van directions. 

We even had an excel spreadsheet with all runners, pace, distance and projected start time and finish time.

Let me mention the cover and bounded book along with tabs to quickly get to the desired information.

Each van had two BradMag and Teri was even given one to use along her way down the coast.

It was our go to book through out the race.

It is the new "bible" of Ragnar.

Dad, Thanks for all your hard work on the BradMag.

I loved having it.



Southern Cali

This last weekend was Ragnar in Southern California. We have trained and planned for it since last November. Since we were headed to California for the race we needed to head down alittle early and enjoy being down there.

The Girls all headed down two days early to get in plenty of shopping and lots of laughs.

Wednesday we boarded a plane headed to LA.

Once we landed and picked up the car we headed straight to Sante Alley.

Heaven for the bargain shopper.

We found many things we just couldn't pass up.

Everyone needs matching dresses.

Lindsay is Amy's friend that was running on our team.

We had lots of fun with her.

Brooke found a dead bird to adorn her arm.

I am pretty sure she passed it up.

One long alley full of treasures to find

The next day we headed to Santa Monica Pier to take in the sights and life of the Pier

We saw so many weird and crazies

I was even asked by a man if I "wanted to kiss on him" gross





We headed down to the water

The ocean and sand just speaks to my soul

The water was FREEZING, but always good to feel the sand and ocean water







Girls were ready for race

Teri is Ragnar ready.

Nothing better than traveling with Mom.

She has everything down to a science.





After Santa Monica Pier we headed to LAX to pick up the men folk to prepare for Friday morning start time.

Team BONK! was ready to run.



 Race pictures coming......

Easter Sunday

Easter was a success!!

How do I know....

Sunday night once the kiddies were tuck into bed, I laid in my bed completely exhausted.

Holidays are one fun activity after another.

I have such WONDERFUL childhood memories of holidays. One fun activity after another. I am sure that my parents were on board and happy to have so many things going on.

As a parent holidays take on a new form.

Having Spring Break and then Easter we were all fun out

(okay, I was) I am sure the boys would have gone another few rounds.

Sunday morning was perfect.
The boys were so excited to go find their Easter baskets
and the weather was perfect, perfect I say for the day.
I wanted pictures of the boys in their clothes and it is like pulling teeth to get my boys to look at the camera and smile.....

I was happy to have our local stylist on hand to help out

After a"shortened" church we headed to Dodee's for some Easter fun.

Upon arrival we had lots of fun playing Frisbee and throwing the football.

What Easter is not complete without a photo shoot on the bench?

Following the photo shoot we had to have a dog pile on Big Brad.

I think we only had one participant leaving in tears.

On to the main event....Dodee giving instructions for the Egg hunt

Checking out the loot.

It was so much fun.

I LOVED Dodee's house as a kid growing up, and I love that I am able to have my own kids enjoy something I loved growing up.

After Dodee's we rushed up to Bentley's for dinner #2, races and another egg hunt.

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Jackson was excited to get into the races with the rest of the cousins.

After a week of amazing activities, countless egg hunts, lots of family, and enough candy to last a lifetime.....I was grateful for Monday morning and back to a routine.

Thanks to everyone that made Easter and Spring Break a success.

Spring Break Part 3

With the spring break drawing to close we made one last effort to "enjoy" the break.

Saturday morning the Boys did and Easter Egg dive up at Dimple Dell.

Each boy left with a large bag of candy.

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Brad took the boys to a movie and then came home to pick up Jackson and myself and we headed to Trafalga in Lehi for some excitement. I am sure Jackson enjoyed more than anyone else.

We wrapped up the day with a fine dining experience at Chick fil A.

On the way home we had excited boys for Easter the following day.....

Spring Break Part 2

Right in the middle of Spring Break we had a wonderful East egg hunt up at Trent and Amy's.

We had perfect weather

lots of colorful eggs

many kids

It was a fabulous day

Thanks to Amy for hosting the craziness.

Best part of the day...

Amy kept James and Josh for a sleepover.