November 2012

2:00 am and can't sleep, so I'm checking out the computer . . .
We've been busy and are moving on day by day. October 3rd we took our son Cody to the Missionary Training Center to send him on an L.D.S. (church)  mission Costa Rica. Well, that was an emotional time. He'll be gone for two years. No cell phones even! Sometimes it's hard to enjoy the stages of small kids with tantrums, diapers, and so on, but it turns out the "old moms" were right. They do grow up too fast! Two of our kids are already grown and gone. Amazing.
Well, Cody was supposed to be "set apart" (begin his mission) the evening of October 2, but his dad sent a message from the operating room that he'd be working late (got home after midnight), so our Stake President graciously offered to set Cody apart early the next morning. That meant Cody and his brothers got in one final Star Wars viewing, and Cody and I got in one more run together, quoting Run Fatboy Run most of the way :). The setting apart was spiritual and insightful, with President Frei promising Cody he'll be a successful missionary if he loves the people and is obedient.
We drove 300 miles to Provo (during which everyone slept except the driver, moi), ate lunch, and experienced a much-too-quick good-bye. The mission will be a great serving and learning experience, but it was an isolating feeling. At least Connor, Dylan, and Wyatt got to enjoy choosing prizes at the BYU Bookstore and then watched movies during the drive back home.
October 6th, my sister Jody, son Wyatt (12), and I ran the St. George Marathon. Worries this year were 1. Wyatt's only "long run" training was running the Bryce Canyon Half Marathon, 2. My achilles tendonitis (have been mostly water running this past month), 3. Jody's bursitis, pain radiating down the leg. Yeah baby! We were totally ready! Well, it turned out a good day; we all finished and were happy. We had a bit of tail wind, the temperature was about 10 degrees cooler than the past two HOT years, and the pain wasn't so bad. We stayed together for about 17 miles. Wyatt wowed us all with an extraordinary finishing kick (turned around about mile 20, saw his very old mother, determined there was no way she would beat him, and finished at a 7 minute mile pace)! Apparently his 12-year-old legs didn't need long runs! He finished in 4:12 and placed 3rd in 14 and under. His talk went from "just one time," and "I'm only doing this to check it off my lifetime bucket list," to (one day later), "Next year I'll train!" and "I'm going to do an Ironman!" I made the Ten Year Club (a t-shirt and an annual spaghetti dinner, totally worth it! :). The tendonitis has been really bad since, though, and I'm wearing a lovely ankle brace and trying the Celebrex/ibuprofen approach to life.
Other October highlights were getting tickets to see General Conference from about the 8th row in the Conference Center (we especially enjoyed Elder Holland's talk on the Apostles, "Feed My Sheep"), and Ashley coming to babysit her brothers while Scott and I enjoyed a trip to Europe. If we can't see Cody, we might as well not see him from thousands of miles away . . . Our first trip to London, so I made my own London Top 10 List:
1.  Shakespeare's "Taming of the Shrew" in the reconstructed Globe Theater (shocking pre-show and costuming),
2. "Chariots of Fire" at the Sir John Gielgud Theater (nice staging, track, Olympic theme for London's 2012 Olympic year)
3.  The amazing relics and art of The British Museum
4. Windsor Castle
5. The Tower of London (creepy)
6. Westminster Abbey (cool but also creepy? So many gravestones there seemed hardly any room left for God)
7. The London Eye
8. Big Ben/Parliament
9. The Red Bus Tour and Red Phone Booths
10. The Chunnel Train to Paris :)
(Least favorites: bone-in fish and chips, cold, rain, fog, no empty taxis).
We also enjoyed Paris and Zurich, and Scott observed some hip and knee replacement surgeries. Then we finished in gorgeous St. Moritz, good except for a spooked horse and a now-recovering husband.