Where Angel's Fear to Tread

Angel's Landing

Zion's National Park

Walter's Wiggles

Last February, when Ashley and her friend came down to St. George with me, we drove over to Zion's to do some hiking. Ashley REALLY wanted to hike Angel's Landing, but after seeing trails with snow and ice, and told her, "No way, no how! People DIE hiking Angel's every year." (yes, I know, I am a wimp). That got me out of it then, but on this trip to St. George, Ashley's pick for our day adventure was--yep, you guessed it!--Angel's Landing. With the current temperature soaring in the 100 plus degree range, we had no worries about running into snow and ice, or even rain. We loaded up on power bars and water and headed on over to Zion's. We hopped onto the park shuttle and rode it to The Grotto stop. We began our leisurely walk along the nicely groomed pathway, which quickly turned into a steep ascent. The switchbacks and incline of the trail, along with the intense heat quickly sapped our energetic pace, until we had sweat POURING down our faces, backs of necks, arms, etc. This baby was whipping us good! We have hiked this trail several times before with no problem, but we were ready to call it quits before we even got to the part of the trail called "Walter's Wiggles" (don't you love that name!) None of us dared suggest pulling the plug. Even when we got to Scout's Landing, a very respectable place to turn it around without shame, we kept going. I had forgotten how much I hate heights, especially when my children are scrambling over them, with sheer cliffs on either side. With my heart in my mouth, and a steely set to my face, I just put one foot carefully in front of the other until we reached the glorious top. And then we had to make the hideous journey back down. By this point, we were completely out of water. We just had to steadily go forward until we reached the cool shade of the bottom of the canyon. I was very proud of the toughness of my girls for not giving up when the going got hard and uncomfortable. It is adventures like this one that I hope they will draw strength from when they are faced with difficult challenges. Because they faced fear and extreme conditions, they proved to themselves that yes, they CAN do hard things.

S'nores!

Nope, that is not a typo.

When Markelle was a little girl, she would call her favorite campfire treat "S'nores." We loved it and it has stuck.

We have had some upheavals in our family, and I know that I have been feeling a little unsettled, so at Steve's suggestion we extended an invitation to our girls to join us for a barbeque to celebrate the 4th of July. Kelsey and Covey were up at Hebgen Lake with the Covey clan, so they couldn't join us, but Markelle (and boyfriend), Madi (and boyfriend), and Ashley (and her friend that is a girl) joined us and it was just what I needed. I loved having everyone over to share good food, a lot of laughter and good company around the fire. We ended the evening with good ol' fashioned "S'nores!" Thanks, Steve. As always, you are brilliant!

Ragnar 2010: RUN, Walk, crawl

(The whole team: back row, Alicia Tebbs, Karen Mordue, Lisa Coles, Misty Mower, Kayley Taylor, Heidi Lowe,Lisa Serio and front row, Ali Hale, Stephanie Maynard, Leann Brinton, Lauretta Sechrest, and Heather Passey)

RUN, Walk, crawl...

12 women, 188 miles, 30-something hours=tough and awesome!

(Van#2; Lisa S, Stephanie M., Lisa C, Karen M., Alicia T., and Leann B.)

Van # 1 had to start up in Logan at 6:45 a.m., while my van (#2) got to sleep in and leave Bountiful at 10:00 a.m. We drove up to Eden to meet the first half of our team as they finished up their first legs of the race.
My first leg, a steep 3.1 incline, was the one I was most worried about, especially since Alicia just finished an even longer ascent with no walking. She was my inspiration to keep running when my legs were burning!

Since I was runner 12, I was the very last to come in. As I was running the path next to the road, I could see the HUGE, long line of cars trying to turn in to where the finish line was. I was running a really good pace, (considering that I was going on 30 plus hours at this time on about 4 hours of sleep, 160 miles of driving and 14 miles of running) but when I saw the cars at a stand still on the road, I wondered to myself multiple times why I was pushing it so hard---I didn't even think my team would be at the end to run in with me. However, as I rounded the corner to the finish line, I could see the girls from my van waiting. Wow, what a moment of excitement and joy to see these cute and awesome ladies! We were jumping up and down and pumped up to run the last .10 mile into the finish line, when Alicia got word that Van #1 was still stuck in the crowd and wouldn't be there for about 15 more minutes. We just had to chill off to the side until the rest of the team made it, and THEN....

...we all crossed the finish line TOGETHER! What a great feeling to accomplish something that was so hard for all of us. I am so proud of all of these women, and so grateful that I was able to spend the time with six of them. Thanks Alicia T, Lisa S., Lisa C, Stephanie M. and Leann B.!