Role Reversal

This morning, Henry and I had the following conversation.

Henry (pointing at a flower on a pillow on our couch): What's that?
Heidi: That's a flower.
Henry (clapping): Good job!

Green It Is, Then

I'm bored. The boys (Joe & Henry) are asleep and I'm not tired, usually when this is the case, I read, but I'm in between books and I don't have a fresh magazine, so I've been playing online. It's a silly waste of time, really.

Anyway, so I was reading a friends blog and she took a quiz to determine her color. I also took the quiz. I'm not sure what the other colors on the spectrum are and what they mean, but I'm green. Is it right? You decide.

Heidi, your true color is Green!

You're green, the color of growth and vigor. Good-hearted and giving, you have a knack for finding and bringing out the best in people. Green is the most down-to-earth color in the spectrum — reliable and trustworthy. People know they can count on you to be around in times of need, since your concern for people is genuine and sincere. You take pride in being a good friend. For you, success is measured in terms of personal achievement and growth, not by status or position. Rare as emeralds, greens are wonderful, natural people. It truly is your color!

Long Beach

I mentioned in my last post that Joe and I were headed back to Moab. I lied. We decided, at the last minute, to head to a slightly warmer climate. We went to Long Beach for a few days... Joe, Henry & I all needed a change of pace and what we got was the fastest possible pace. You know those vacations that, when their done, you have to go home and recover - it was that kind of vacation. We had a great time!!

Highlights from the trip:

We went to the Aquarium of the Pacific the first day in Long Beach. The aquarium was by far the thing Henry liked the most. He literally ran from tank to tank or display to display to see all the new fish or touch the sting rays, sharks or whatever else was available. I've never seen him so excited. It helps that the Aquarium of the Pacific is awesome. It's nothing like Salt Lake's notoriously crappy aquarium - it has hundreds of huge tanks, fish bigger than me, seals, sharks, and lots of other cool things.

Next day we went to Mexico, TWICE. I'll save my soap box for another post, but let's just say I HATE THE BORDER. Joe and I, due to poor judgement, mostly on my part, missed the last USA exit on the freeway. No big deal except we don't have Mexican car insurance and we were in a rental and I signed away my life swearing not to cross the border. So, as soon as we discovered our malady, we turned around to cross the border again this time back into the USA. We ended up in a special lane reserved for busses and "sentry" guests who were pre-approved to cross the border. Because of this we were treated like enemy combatants, made to wait in stupid lines so they could search our car and treat us like discarded trash, only to push us back into the USA with a warning that they'll confiscate our car if we're in the wrong lane again. I love America. We did end up going back, this time by foot, and had a great time wandering around in Tiajuana.





Disneyland was okay. Henry's still too little to care and we hated the lines which were really long. Once we figured out how to enjoy the park, we had a great time. The Tower of Terror in Calfornia Adventure is by far the best theme park ride ever built.

And, of course, Henry loved the airport. He loved to watch the planes.

Why we love Moab and why we're going back next week

A list of the reasons why we loved Moab this weekend:

1. The swimming pool. We stayed at the Moab Valley Inn which is a decent hotel, nothing special. We just loved hanging out in the indoor/outdoor swimming pool and sitting in the hot tub (which was typically packed with sore runners).

2. The hiking trails. We hiked two awesome trails this weekend. Negro Bills Canyon and Hunter Canyon. Both trails run along streams - the scenery is beautiful. Hunter Canyon was really cool, it's at the bottom of what I thought to be a scary drive down into a large canyon. There's tons of soft sand all along the hike that Henry really liked to play in. Plus the trail has tons of huge boulders and crevasses to play in. I highly recommend this hike (which unfortunately, we didn't get to finish because of nap time).

Hiking in Negro Bill's Canyon

Playing in the sand in Hunters Canyon

Hunters Canyon

3. The weather. A cool but seemingly warm 50+ every day was perfect for the adventures we chose.

4. The company and the change of pace.

Negro Bill's Canyon

Since Joe's on Spring break soon we're going to go back sometime either late this week or early next week if anyone else is interested.

The race and more

My race results:

Overall Rank 1186 of 2899

Class Rank 118 of 368

Pace 00:09:13

Chip Final 01:59:30

Sex Rank 474

Final 02:00:56

What does all this mean? Well it certainly means that I'm not a good candidate for competitive road running - that's for sure. I feel pretty good about it though. It took me 2 hours to run the 13.1 miles which comes out to about 9 minutes per mile. The chip time is the exact time from the start line to the finish line. The final time is the time from the gun to the finish line (and since I lined up about mid way it took me a minute to get to the starting line).

My goal was to finish and I expected it to take me 2 hours. I'm proud of myself, even if it's not a competitive finish time.

I'm glad that this was the race I chose to run because it was perfect weather, beautiful course and a relatively easy course too - lots of downhill running. I would recommend this race to anyone, especially first time racers. My favorite part of the whole run was at the 10 mile marker where a group of about 10 women were playing huge Native American drums along the river - it was invigorating. My least favorite part was downing an energy shot about half way - those things are DISGUSTING!!

Photos aren't available yet, when they are I'll try to post some so you can all see the painful look in my eyes. You can also check for yourself here I was bib number 648.

Mischief

If you have kids, you recognize that ominous silence that occurrs while your child (or children) is doing something he shouldn't. I heard that lack of sound this morning while in the shower. Here's the result:

Henry found an old bottle of mascara in the garbage can and decided to use it. He was really pleased with himself. Unfortunately, this paticular mascara was waterproof so we had to do some serious scrubbing with soap to get it off of his face.

The Presidential Candidates, What I Love & Hate

This post might be boring if you decide to watch all of these videos at once. I created the post more for my own benefit. I couldn't (and to some extent still can't) pinpoint the exact reason why I do and do not like certain candidates so I tried to do some research. I really like John McCain, but I cannot vote for him because of his position on the war in Iraq. I'll likely vote for Obama, assuming he's the party's nominee. I guess you could say, I'm hopeful. Enjoy!

WHAT I HATE:

CLINTON

Ridiculous political tactics.


MCCAIN

ps - He's wrong. The Japanese people have been trying to get rid of the American base since at least 1995 when a 12 year old was gang rapped by American soldiers.

OBAMA

I don't hate the honesty part, obviously, it's the topic that bugs me. And,

WHAT I LOVE:

CLINTON

Ha, Ha. I don't think she's going to get the nomination, so I decided not to take her seriously. Honestly though, as a woman, I do have to say that it's about time we had a representative in the highest office.

MCCAIN

Plus he supports stem cell research. Thank you!!

OBAMA

Obama motivates people to love America.

AS A SIDE NOTE, THIS WAS FUNNY