General Conference and Grand Canyon trail running, South Rim to North Rim R2R

 I always look forward to General Conference. I love that twice a year we get to hear from the living prophet and the apostles. I loved President Nelson's talk on thinking celestial, as well as many others. 

We don't make cinnamon rolls very often, but we always do for Christmas and sometimes for General Conference. We decided to make some for this October conference. We also made a batch of the rhodes cinnamon rolls to compare side by side to our homemade ones. The frozen rhodes are pretty good too, and way less work, so we may have to do those again sometime. Although I do want to experiment with our homemade cinnamon roll dough and try using the dough recipe we use for normal dinner rolls and see how those turn out. 

Between sessions we went to the park to play. 

The Thursday after conference, Thursday October 5th, Kim J, Elisa L and I drove down to south rim. Here's my hiking gear: hat, cooling rag, water containers and water filter, hiking poles, extra socks, my running bag with food inside, running belt to hold more food and phone, and my patagonia hoodini running jacket that folds up tiny, and fits in the palm of my hand. 

Here's the food I carried with me:

mini bagels, waffle stingers, pb&j packet, gels, protein bar (that's non-melty), propel electrolytes and salt stick tablets, chia seed squeeze gel, salty trail mix, payday salted carmel roll bar, stinger gummies and caffeine jelly beans, dried mango and a layed fruit bar. I didn't eat the Clif Bloks but ate pretty much everything else. I also carried a map, chapstick with spf, bag balm for chaffing, top ramen packet for emergencies (hyponatremia), bandaids and hand sanitizer. 

The drive to South rim was supposed to take 8.5 hours, but it took 12 because of a bad car accident that happened ahead of us before Kanab. We got out of our car for a couple of hours and walked down the street to see what happened. There was a passenger van filled with runners from a race that hit a semi truck head on when it crossed over the median. Then another car hit the van from behind. A few people were life flighted out. And it took awhile to get the one tow truck in kanab area to the scene plus police and investigators to see what happened before they moved everything. 

We stopped in Page so I could see the horseshoe bend which we hiked out to. It was about a mile round trip. 

So beautiful! 

Thursday night we met up with friends at Yavapai Lodge, ate dinner and stayed the night. We got up around 530am and were out the door around 6am heading to the South Rim. 

Elisa L, Kim and I trail ran and our other friends, who had hiked North to South the day before were hiking back. (I have hiked r2r2r twice now, but didn't want to try that trail running, just yet. Thought i'd do one way trail running first)

South Kaibab to North Kaibab with the addition of Ribbon Falls is about 23 miles.  You have over 5700 feet of elevation gain up North Kaibab and about a 5000 ft drop on South Kaibab. So I was definitely sore the next few days, mostly in my calves. 

We began our trail run at 620am. It was absolutely stunning and the weather was beautiful! When we've gone in September in the past, it would be over 100 degrees in the bottom and 40 degrees at the north rim start. But this time it was in the 50s when we started and the high in the bottom was only 87 degrees which was much, much better! 

First stop, after 1.5 hours at Tip Off Tonto East for a quick potty break. 

We were crossing the Colorado River at 815am. 

We stopped at Phantom Ranch to buy some ice cold lemonade, to fill up our waters and have another potty break. From here on out it was uphill, although it wasn't a really steep climb until we got closer to North Kaibab and the Pumphouse/painters cabin/manzanita.

By 10:15am we were crossing the stream to get to Ribbon Falls, which Elisa L nicknamed Ribbon Falls Spa because it's beautiful and a much needed rejuvenation spot before we began the steady and steep climb up and out of North Kaibab. We ate lunch at Ribbon Falls and relaxed for about an hour. 

And then we were off again! Once to the pumphouse/manzanita, we had about 5.7 miles to the top. The last few miles the girls weren't feeling great, Kim especially, so we slowed down and made more brief stops. But we all made it! 

Once at the top, Kim got sick and so we didn't get a picture with her at the end, but we all did it and Kim started to feel better shortly thereafter, although it took another day to completely recover. We're not exactly sure what it was, maybe not enough water or real food, in combination with the elevation. We went straight to the bathrooms and wiped down and changed into fresh, not-sweaty clothes which felt so nice. 

Then we drove 2 hours to St George and had dinner at an Indian restaurant that Elisa L likes. It was delicious! We stayed the night at Elisa's house in St George and Janelle and Shauna joined us there later that night once they were done coming out of the canyon. It was a fun weekend/girls trip and I loved every second of it. Scott and I are hoping to do this again next year with some friends, so we need to get planning! 

Nate Bargatze comedy show, half bday dates, soccer, Lake Blanche and Elisabeth N Quito Ecuador mission update

 I had heard about the clean comedian Nate Bargatze this past year from friends and family and had watched a couple of his short videos. Mid September, my sister Becca said he was coming to Idaho the last weekend in September and her and Blake were going, and I wished we could go too. But Idaho is too far for a date night. The next weekend I was out running with Elisa L and Kim and Elisa mentioned that he was coming to SLC that very night and she was going. So I ran home and jumped online and found that there were still some seats left so I booked tickets for Scott and myself to go see Nate Bargatze for our date night that very night. It was last minute and more than we'd normally spend on a date (around $130ish which included our $35 parking fee) but I'd totally do it again. It was fun to do something other than our normal dinner, temple, games or movie at home and we loved it. We ran into some friends from the neighborhood/ward while we were there, the Matsons, and later found out several other friends from the neighborhood/ward were there as well. 

We take the kids on individual dates twice a year, once during their birthday month and once during their half birthday month. We usually go out to dinner so we get a chance to visit and they get a chance to pick where they want to go eat since we rarely take the family out to eat. Annabelle and I went to Nielsen's frozen custard where she got a burger and we shared my favorite Cookie Dough Shake with extra cookie dough. The only problem is neither one of us can handle too much dairy, so sharing is good, and we also took a lactaid pill before, but even still, it led to some bloating uncomfortableness. It was worth it though. 

Nora and Annabelle had their last games of the Fall season in October. We only really had a couple of cold games which was nice. Annabelle played provisional because they're older, which meant we were playing girls in much higher levels than us so it was rough. The Spring should be better, but first we have to endure winter indoor which is the same as Fall but worse because they can score so many more points in a short period on the tiny fields. 

Scott coached both of their teams and he loves doing it. I love that they get this time together and that I don't have to drive carpool very often since he takes them.

Scott and I have done a couple of morning date hikes recently. And we finally went together to my favorite hike, Lake Blanche. 

It's such a beautiful hike! Water, mountains, big rocks, trees!

I kept my hiking poles on my bag the entire time and we ran down to see how they would do attached to my bag while I ran since I would be doing the same thing in Grand Canyon in a week. It worked great. I absolutely love my trail running pack (Ultimate Direction brand).

Scott's coach friend Parker got remarried recently and we drove out to his reception (an hour away). Spencer came along since Lani was working that night and he enjoyed the foods. 

Jane and I went to Costa Vida for her half birthday date. Annabelle and Jane's birthday dates should've been a month apart but we got a little behind. 

We got out our Fall decor, which isn't much. 

Annabelle's battle wounds from soccer games on her leg. 

Both Nora and Annabelle's soccer teams went to an RSL monarchs soccer game one evening. They are so good! 

Temple date with Scott. We try to go together a couple of times a month. 

I'm the Relief Society President in our ward and have been for the past 14 months which means I get to do a lot of service with the sisters and families in our area. We have put on multiple activities to help women get to know eachother better. For this particular activity we played a friendshipping bingo game and had fun foods to snack on. 

Elisabeth is doing well in Ecuador. Sister Vega from Bolivia was her first companion and trainer. The first couple of weeks were hard, but then she started to feel more comfortable and by week 6 she was loving it. 

We're grateful we get to talk to her thru a video chat on FB messenger every Monday for an hour or so.