Utah Trip, July 2011

Sarah and Brian
Alyssa and Anna did a photo shoot of Allie. They probably took 100 pictures or so, in at least 3 different outfits. So cute! I think Allie enjoyed it.


Me and my sisters!
Alyssa and Anna having a photo shoot


Alyssa participated in the BYU basketball camp this summer. She drove down with her friend Tana and Tana's family. At the end I had to drive down and pick her up. I made the best of the trip by arriving a day early to spend some time with my sister Sarah, then going to Price afterwards to see Liz and her family.

I really enjoyed my time with Sarah and was glad to get to know her new husband Brian better. They have a cute little apartment, nicely furnished. It was neat to see how they live. Sarah and I hiked Ensign peak and did some shopping on Friday before I picked up Alyssa.

On Friday evening, Liz and I, with kids in tow, met up with our old friend Emily Asplund, from Kingston. We spent a couple of hours catching up and reminiscing at the Wilkinson Center. Emily got married 2 weeks later. I am super happy for her.

At Bryners we went for a hike, played games, went to church and did lots of visiting. On Monday, I got to see what their day to day summertime life is like as the kids had swimming and piano lessons, etc. On the way back through Salt Lake, we caught a quick dinner with Brian and Sarah before heading home.

Thank you Sarah & Brian, and Liz & Christian and family for being such great hosts! It was awesome to see you all!

Magrath Days, July 22-23, 2011

On the Friday of Magrath days, the Alberta Treasury Branch hosted a free pancake breakfast. We decided to go, but Austin and Preston very much didn't want to. They complained and fussed but ended up going. It's just so hard to go a block from home for your food. Then, at lunch time, Holland Insurance was hosting a free BBQ lunch. We again forced the kids to go--this time two blocks. Preston exclaimed in exasperation"What? First we have to go to breakfast, now lunch. What's next supper, too?" As it turned out Alyssa and I also got free supper as we helped at a friend's wedding...we didn't make the poor, overfed, over-walked boys go.The cousins looking for their chance to get candy at the parade


Preston, at the top of the Astrojump.

We had a great time at Magrath Days this year. Granny and Grandpa brought Nathan, Kaylene and Chad over for the parade, lunch and activities in the park. The parade was fun as usual, even if we chose a bad spot for loading up on candy. Austin marched in the parade as part of the school cadet band. He did really well, but was awfully tired after marching the parade route playing his trumpet. Of course, he finished before the parade was over where we were watching. By the time we got home, there were already 3 messages on our answering maching from him to pick him up at the school. Unfortunately, the roads were not accessible because of the parade, and grandpa picked him up on foot and walked home with him. At least grandpa carried the trumpet!

There were lots of fun activities in the afternoon and evening this year, including lawn mower races, a show and shine, quilt display, petting zoo, astrojump, 50 cent swimming, races, concessions, a silent auction, etc. Later, the town provided beef on a bun and there was a stage with lots of performers. In the evening our local country music celebrity, Trevor Panczak performed an outdoor concert, followed by fireworks. A great day in all!

What we make kids do for an ice cream cone!

When I was a kid, we used to garden a large garden plot at Inverary about 15 minutes outside of Kingston. Every week or two, we would go out to that garden to pull weeds or harvest vegetables. After an hour or two of work, as we drove home, we would beg for mom and dad to stop at the McDonalds drive thru for "8 soft serve cones, please." Sometimes, they would relent and we would be delighted with our ice cream treat.

Yesterday, I was reminded of the ice cream cone bribery that worked so well on us as kids. We took the kids to Waterton for the day and did a fair bit of hiking for my poor boys' little legs. Austin really wanted ice cream from the store at the town site, so Rob made them a deal. If they hiked all that we wanted them to and didn't complain, we'd get ice cream cones. First, we drove over to Cameron lake and hiked the lakeside trail 3.2 k which was beautiful as you can see. By the end of this hike, Preston and Austin were very tired. There was another very short trail (1 km) to Akamina Lake right next to Cameron lake and so I insisted we go there too, since we had driven all that way.

Finally Rob's deal with the boys included hiking up Bear's Hump, which for those of you who haven't hiked it, gains 200 m of elevation in 1.4 km--or in other words, is climbing a mountain. At the top there is a beautiful view of Waterton Lakes and the townsite. Preston and Austin started out and did their best, but bless their hearts could not do the whole thing. Alyssa and I went ahead, and got pictures from the top.

After Bear's Hump, we got dinner and ice cream. Austin couldn't stop talking about how good the food and ice cream were. I think it had something to do with working up an appetite!

At the end of the Cameron Lake trail. They don't let you go all the way to the end of the lake because Grizzly Bears are known to live in the meadow at the end of the lake.
Hiking the Cameron Lake trail. The snow covered mountain at the end of the trail is actually in Montana!
Alyssa at the top of Bear's Hump

Another day at the lake

I've been slacking on picture taking this summer. Today, we went boating at Jensen's reservoir. Alyssa and Preston brought friends with them. It was a beautiful hot day. We've been to both St. Mary's and Jensen's Reservoirs a few times this summer. Preston has actually learned to kneel up on the knee board and grab the rope. He wouldn't do it today though, and of course, last time I forgot the camera.

Preston's friend Jarod is in the middle of the tube. He was quite apprehensive about tubing, but warmed up to it after he got going. He did not want his turn to end.

Raymond triathlon, July 30, 2011

12 DOIG, BECKY 3820 SP30-39F 00:10:31.80 6 1 00:43:42.15 11 2 00:25:34.05 11 2 4 2 01:19:48.00 MAGRA

Last Saturday, I entered the Raymond Triathlon. I had hurt both my foot and my back waterskiing almost 2 weeks before the race. I was able to bike and swim to train, but had to limit my running leading up to the race.

The Raymond triathlon swim is in a pool. My swim time was 10:31 for 500 m including about 30 seconds of transition time. This was 10 seconds faster than my time for last year, 3rd/16 women and the 6th /28 overall. It was about 15 seconds slower than I have been swimming in the pool at home though, but I guess you have to consider sharing a lane and also needing to save some energy for the other disciplines.

My bike was 43:42. I thought that was great at the time, because last year I was the 2nd fastest woman with a time of 45:58. However, the wind must have been more favorable this year. I was 11th on the bike this year, 5th/16 women. I borrowed my friend Tabatha's bike. Although it is a very good bike, it didn't fit me quite right.

My run was 25:34, 11th overall and 6/16 women. My run went way better than I expected. For almost 2 weeks, it felt like a had a bone out of place in my foot. I had been to the chiropractor, but not until I had run a couple of times on it and it was inflamed and sore. Anyway, as of race day I hadn't run since Tuesday. Before the race, it still felt like the bone was a little wrong. Anyway, during the race it didn't hurt at all and after the race everything seemed to be back to normal. It's a miracle!

I have really enjoyed doing triathlons again this summer. It is so fun! I apologize for putting in so much about results. This is the closest thing I have to a journal.

In the days before the Raymond triathlon, I started researching and shopping for a road bike of my own. One day, Rob and I went to Lethbridge and went to all the bikes shops in town and picked the employee's brains about what to look for in a road bike. We also brought home brochures for several different manufacturers. I also read lots of reviews and promotional material on the internet. I looked on ebay and craigslist and kijiji. On the day of the triathlon, an ebay auction for a Trek 5500 carbon bike was ending during the triathlon. I had been watching this bike, and made a quick bid before going to the race. When I got home, I found out I won the auction and had bought myself a bike. It's an older bike (probably 1999), but was a high end bike in its day. I hope it turns out to be a wise purchase. I think I will be pretty nervous until I get and and can try it out. I appreciate Rob being willing to allow me to spend so much money on something on the selfish side for myself. I hope I can put it to good use. With a bike of my own, my next challenge needs to be an olympic distance triathlon!

Wasa 2011

I completely slacked on taking pictures at Wasa this year. Luckily, Sherylee and Michelle got some great shots. They also about nailed the analysis of how the holiday went on their respective blogs. Michelle's post was titled "Wasa 2011: the year of the bloodsuckers." The mosquitoes were really bad this year. I always took for granted that there were very few mosquitoes at Wasa Lake, but I found out this year, from talking to the campground host, that they pay a mosquito tax to pay for helicopter delivered larvicide programs. However, this year, something went wrong and the larvicide didn't work.

Also, the weather wasn't ideal this year. It was cool for a couple of days and there was some rain each day, too. However, looking at the forecast in advance, I thought there was no way it would be nice enough to boat on at least 2 days. In reality, though, we got the boat out each day and even on the cool days, it was warm when the sun came out in the afternoon.

Everyone was in good spirits regardless of weather and mosquitoes. In addition to boating, we played lawn darts and made crafts. Granny nailed the food as usual and it was fun just being together.

I really enjoyed biking and running with Sherylee. I also loved how Kayden hung out with the girls and made them feel special. It was really neat that Chad learned to ski and wakeboard and that Keston learned to kneeboard and also got up on the wakeboard. Although I missed it myself, I also heard Tylissa skiied. It was fun to see Alyssa and Kaylene double kneeboard too. Of course there was also lots of tubing, and Monte rocks when it comes to dumping kids off the tube. On one occasion, Alyssa, Kaylene and Keston got dumped in sensational fashion. The tube flipped and they all went tumbling in respective summersaults over top of each other. Alyssa also had a pretty spectacular landing after a slolam ski. Rob was dropping her off at the shore, and apparently she was coming in too hard. She landed on the beach and sommersaulted over her ski. She got pretty bruised up, but miraculously was not badly hurt. Unfortunately, no one recorded it on video for America's Funniest.

We missed those of the family who couldn't be at Wasa this year...it seems the family continues to grow up and spread to the wind. On Tuesday, it turned out Paul had the day off work, so he drove out just for the day with a friend. As he arrived, he ran down to the beach and jumped straight in the water. It was sure nice to have him there, if only for the day. One really nice touch also, was from Kendall who is on a mission in the Phillipines. He wrote individual Wasa letters to everyone in the family. Looking forward to Wasa 2012!

I Swam the Dam, again!

Official results: 16:06 swim (750 m open water), 51:06 bike (26 km) and 26:22 run (5 k), 1:33:35, final, 4/53 women, 21/94 overall. So much fun!

I participated in the Magrath triathlon again today. It was a super fun event! The water was pretty chilly this year in the dam (late run off from the mountains this year). My swim time was almost identical to last year, just over 16 minutes for 750 m. I ran into lots of people this year swimming. I had a tough time with my first transition (swim to bike) as I went down the wrong aisle to find my bike, then was a little dizzy. In spite of that, though, my bike time (which includes both transitions) was much faster than last year at about 51 minutes for 26 km. This is due to having borrowed a good road bike. I also ran faster than last year, 5 km in 26:22. My overall time was about 1:33:30 (waiting for official results). My time put me 5th (I think) for women out of 53. I was super happy with that. For a while I thought I came first in my age group, but it turned out someone else who was faster had a problem with her timing chip. In total my time was about 8 minutes faster than last year.

Below are videos that Austin took of the race.