The Nutcracker

My mom picked up tickets for Ballet West's The Nutcracker again this year.  My girls decided they would rather stay and hang out in Logan this year, but the boys were excited to go and join me.  Camille and Hannah brought their kiddos and we made a day of it.  Unfortunately my mom was so, so sick that week that she couldn't come down with us.  As a bonus though, it meant that my Aunt Lisa could join us.  

The performance was great.  I ended up sitting right behind the boys which meant that I was able to watch their reactions the entire time.  They would turn and smile at each other when there was a scene they remembered or when a particularly funny moment happened.  They truly enjoyed being there which meant that I enjoyed being there.  I don't know how long I can get companions for the ballet each year, but I'll enjoy it while I can.  

Afterwards we all went out to eat at Warrens; hamburgers and shakes, because no ballet performance is complete without ice-cream!

Cold Plungin'

Cold plunge in Rick's Spring?  Why not?  It's only...freezing outside...and freezing in that water...but ok!  I stood guard while Jeremy jumped in and enjoyed the craziness of it all.  Kenzie forgot her swimsuit but would have gladly joined them.  They're both crazy!

 

Thanksgiving Dinner

We may have been a few days later than planned, but we made it to Utah.  We changed up the meal planning a bit to accommodate our changing schedule and that meant Daxton could help.  He helped make the rolls and the pies.  He was a rock star baker.  

We drove all day Thursday and arrived in Logan just in time for dinner.  Luckily everyone was able to make it and it was a fabulous feast.  

We are getting big enough that we now have an adult table, big kid table, and little kid table. Kelton felt pretty awesome that he's big enough now for the big kid table.  

Cousin shenanigans.  

Grandma Stratford came up so we got a family picture with her since we weren't able to at her 90th birthday party. 

Thankful for this Johnson crew.

Broken and Bummed

This girl cannot catch a break!  Ok, maybe that isn't quite accurate, she did catch a break, but not quite the one she wanted.  The first week of high school wrestling season she was at practice and it was almost over but she decided to roll one last time with a girl who was way out of her weight class.  Cambrie was tossed, and as she turned to roll off her back this girl landed on her.  Cambrie heard and felt the collar bone snap.  At first she didn't think it was that bad and even after the trainer called me she insisted she could drive home.  About twenty minutes later she called me back in hysterics.  She hurt so badly.  She couldn't drive, she couldn't move, she was stuck and hurting more than she's ever hurt in her life.  I immediately went to go pick her up from the high school then we drove straight to the ER.  She was in very obvious pain and kept screaming because it hurt so much.  The X-ray confirmed what we suspected, that she had broken her collar bone, but we didn't think it would be such a fabulous break.  

It was too late to do anything about it that night so they wrapped her up and sent her home.  At the follow-up with the orthopedic surgeon the next day there was no question about the fact that she needed surgery to repair it.  Unfortunately there wasn't any room in an operating room for four days, so all she could do was sit in bed...and wait...and hurt...and hear the bones clicking together each time she moved.

Surgery was scheduled for the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, which meant that we rearranged all of our travel plans (again... This girl is on a roll).  The surgery went really well and as soon as she woke up she was in significantly less pain than before.  Watching her come out of surgery was funny.  Cambrie talked non stop about physics, koalas, and calculus equations.  Seriously, the only thing to get her to stop talking was offering her some green slushy.  She's all patched up and ready to go, but this means that her wrestling season was over before it even began.  She was so excited to be a part of this team.  She has spent some time with them in pre-season and was already making friends.  She is so talented as a grappler that she was hoping to make the varsity squad, but as it stands she won't be recovered in time to compete.  She's planning on staying on the team as a manager just so she can spend time with her new friends.  It just isn't quite the senior season she was hoping for. 

Student Council Happenings

Daxton has been loving student council.  One of their responsibilities is the food drive around Thanksgiving.  They were in charge of advertising the food drive to the school, and then assembling all of the meals.  They gathered enough food to prepare food for 100 families!  That is some pretty amazing work.

 

IM AZ

In a bizarre twist of fate, both Jeremy and I ended up registering for Ironman Arizona.  Chuck and talked Jeremy into the race, even though it was only three weeks after Kona.  And I was supposed to race Augusta 70.3 but it was cancelled because of Hurricane Helene, and so I deferred to Arizona.  Chuck's brother lives down in Queen's Creek so Jeremy and I literally just tagged along for the ride.  He knew that the race was going to be hard off of his Kona performance, and I just didn't know if I was ready for a full distance race, but it seemed like a good opportunity to qualify for Kona.  One thing we didn't take into consideration was the distance from the house to the venue.  It seemed like we spent a lot of time in the car going back and forth. But we managed to get everything taken care of and spent the rest of the time relaxing at Cody's enormous house.

Checking in.

Checking out the swim course buoys and trying to strategize our lines.

Pretty places in Tempe

Race morning drone shot.  Gorgeous right?

I had no idea if I was nervous or not for this race.  But as long as I just "colored by the numbers" then everything was going to be fine.  Based on the course and our splits, Jeremy and I thought it might be possible to come off the bike at the same time and possibly run together for the first time.  Let's see what's going to happen eh?

The swim was fine.  We had heard that it was going to be really cold and so we prepared for the worst.  Ultimately it wasn't nearly as awful as Indian Wells was last year so I'll take it.  My line was a little off and my pace was a little slower than I would have liked because of the cold, but ultimately it was just fine.  Jeremy had a decent swim, but Chuck didn't fare so well and almost ended up with hypothermia in the water.  He had to spend a bit of time in T1 just trying to warm up before hoping on the bike.  

The bike was a three loop out and back, which meant I got to see Jeremy a lot.  My goal was to bike strong enough that he would have a hard time catching me.  Each time we came into town we had a boost of energy from the spectators before going back out again.  The cold water from the swim was a little rough on the bike, but eventually it warmed up to be pretty comfortable.  Yet, like always I was really glad to get off the bike safe and sound.  Jeremy pulled into T2 at exactly the same time I did, which was so surprising and so much fun.  We also saw Lindsay and Ty at the dismount line too which was awesome.

I flew through transition because I knew I was in the top five overall, and I wanted any advantage I could get.  Jeremy got caught up with volunteers in the tent so he didn't follow me out.  Some of the spectators mentioned that I was fourth, and if I pushed just a little bit I could catch third and get a bike escort.  I've never had one of those so I was excited.  It didn't take me long until that "3rd place female" bike was following me.  I could see Jeremy on one of the turn arounds.  He could see what was happening and was cheering me on.  I felt so good on my run.  My pace was a lot faster than I had held before and I thought maybe I could break 3:30 for the first time.  On the second loop I passed the second place female and now my bike escort said "2nd place female."  The coolest thing about that escort is that everyone knows how well you're doing and you get a lot of extra cheers.  You also get a lot of people calling out splits which was so, so helpful. I knew I couldn't quite catch the first place girl, but as long as I held of third I was going to be so happy.  It started getting harder, and I lost sight of Jeremy which made me worried about how his Kona legs were holding up. 

The finish line took forever in coming, but when it did I couldn't quite believe what I had done.  I took second overall!  It was an age group win, but only one girl on that course beat me, and only 24 guys.  It was an incredible day.  Chuck's family greeted me at the finish line and it was so awesome being able to celebrate with someone.  

I changed into warm, dry, cozy clothes and went to the finish line to wait for the guys.  When Jeremy came across he was not happy.  His legs gave out on him and he had to walk a good portion of the run just to make it to the finish.  Chuck was smiling, but feeling the worst out of all of us.  He had a rough day out there.

Bed time anyone?

The next day at awards was pretty great.  I finally got to stand at the top of that age group podium knowing it was the best performance I think I've ever had.  

Carly raced too, had a PR, and was hoping for a Kona roll down slot at awards.  It didn't come, but it's always great to have a friend there anyway.  Arizona was a surprise, but definitely a good surprise.

Annette: Swim 1:00:03, T1 4:45, Bike 5:24:55, T2 1:31, Run 3:25:03, Overall 9:56:16 (first time under ten hours!!)

Jeremy: Swim 1:14:49, T1 5:29, Bike 5:05:40, T2 2:03, Run 4:59:43, Overall 11:27:44

Chuck: Swim 1:42:22, T1 15:15, Bike 5:27:01, T2 8:32, Run 5:35:10, Overall 13:08:20

Grandma Stratford's 90th

My Grandma Stratford turned 90 years old this year.  That is a pretty incredible accomplishment.  There was a great party in Brigham City for her.  Mark interviewed her about her life.  There was a timeline with photos and stories.  But best of all there was family.  Most of my cousins, aunts and uncles were there and it was great to visit with them.  It's really weird to look around at these family gatherings and see a bunch of adults now instead of a bunch of little kids!  

I was lucky enough to spend the night with her and we just shared stories as we ate our waffles for dinner.  Happy birthday to this inspirational woman!

5A State Champions!

What an amazing way to end a season-as state champions!  With the season these girls have had, we expected to walk away from this meet with a solid victory.  Even though McKenzie didn't make the varsity squad this year I went to cheer on her team and watch her love this part of her life.  She cheered for every girl out there, hugged her friends on all the other teams, and was generally having the best night. 

 After floor and vault, we were sitting in first.  But after three girls fell on beam we dropped to second and were so nervous about being able to make up the points needed on bars.  While the girls were working their booties off during their bar routines, the parents were on the side lines completely losing our minds.  We were cheering like we never had before. We all had our calculators out tracking every score.  

Waiting for Frankie's final routine was intense, but as soon as she dismounted we knew we had the win and everyone was crying; the parents, the girls, the coaches. I don't expect a three-peat next year, but just maybe we can have the state champion magic like this again before McKenzie graduates because it was pretty spectacular.  

Go Stangs!

The Legacy Girls

The freshmen

Katie, Carrie, Becky and Kyle

Kenzie and Ev (everyone wanted a turn with that trophy)

The very wild support crew

Kenzie, Brookie, Denali and Ev.  Best buds no matter what team they're competing on.

So proud of this girl for making this season happen!