Big!

Jeff, Jay, Rose, Amber, and I each had at least one Big Thing happen this week.

Even my neglected garden managed a Big Thing this week: I swear this giant pumpkin appeared overnight. How big will it be by the time it turns orange?

Grizzlython 2026

After a six year break from fundraising, we brought back the Grizzlython this year --our high school cross country team fundraiser-- and made it into a 24 hour relay, because why not start the grueling school year as sleep deprived and exhausted as possible? 

Week One

We joked that this was a "garbage date:" rolling the trash can out to the street together at sunset last Sunday night. It's the time of year where any solo activity together becomes a date, haha.

SVU again!

I loved visiting SVU so much back in June that I went again last week! Actually, my friend's daughter Kennedy is interested in attending SVU. While Kennedy and I were talking after a cross country run one day in July, I offered to go visit SVU with her if she needed a companion. Her parents (also my friends) ended up taking me up on my offer, and they booked me and Kennedy plane tickets! Less than a month later, on August 19th, Kennedy and I were flying to Virginia together to see SVU! I have coached Kennedy for cross country and track ever since her 8th grade track season, so we know each other pretty well. I felt honored that her parents trusted me to take her across the country! We had so much fun on our girls trip, exploring, running, hiking, eating ice cream, and lots of good long talks. I loved showing Kennedy one of my favorite places in the world! 

The end begins

The end of the summer has begun. It doesn't happen all at once because Jeff goes back to work as a teacher a week before the kids go back to school as students. First, Jeff goes back to work. Then, fall sports practices begin. Then comes the first day of school. Basically, the end of the summer begins with Jeff starting work, progresses with Jeff and me both starting to coach official cross country practice, (with Jay and Rose attending as members of the team and Amber attending as daughter of the coaches), and finishes with all of the kids starting school. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't feeling all of my usual end of summer beginning of school year emotions, plus a few new ones since this will be Jay's senior year of high school.

Sheep Lake Smoke Escape

 Wildfire smoke blew into our valley on Monday, August 3rd, and would not go away. The AQI hovered in the red zone, between 150-190, for four days. Even though this has happened in the past, worse, and for longer, it is never fun, and it messed up our outdoor plans (running and yardwork). I took Tuesday off from running, and it felt nice to have a recovery day. By Wednesday, though, Jeff and I were both ready for a real run. So we hauled Jay, Rose, and Amber up to the highest mountains that are the closest to Sunnyside: Chinook Pass. Rose drove us the entire 100 miles (1 hour and 50 minutes) to the parking lot by the Pacific Crest Trail in Chinook Pass. 

Sunset on Tuesday night was thick and smoky. We had low-grade smoke headaches, even after a day inside. It was time to escape to the mountains!

Torrey Pines Adventure

On the morning of the wedding (Saturday, August 1st), I went on an urban-nature fusion adventure run to Torrey Pines Preserve. At 8am I caught the city bus #30 and rode it for 45 minutes up to the base of the steepest section of Torrey Pines Road. Jeff had run that segment the day before, and I was curious what it was like. After a quick pit stop at a gas station, I started the ascent. This section of Torrey Pines Road is about 1.5 miles uphill, but it's only about a 5% grade so it was very runnable. I didn't push the pace; I just ran up. When I got to the top, I decided to follow the mental map I had created with research and continue along North Torrey Pines Road to the Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve. 

San Diego Wedding Weekend Day 2

Saturday, August 1st was wedding day!! I started the day with a nice long 10 mile run (that's a separate post). We were instructed to meet at Balboa Park in downtown San Diego for wedding pictures at 3pm, so we left our motel at 2:15pm to give us time for traffic and parking. Except...we couldn't get out of the motel parking lot! A large SUV had parked crooked and half out of a compact car space next to us, and a big pickup truck had parked in the space behind ours, and our rental Mazda mid size SUV did not have the requisite tiny size or turning radius to squeeze out. I had to go to the "lobby" building of the motel and wait for the guy to help us. Thankfully the owner of the badly parked SUV was in his room and was able to come out right away to move his vehicle, but the whole process still set us back at least 10 minutes. 

San Diego Wedding Weekend Day 1

Jeff's brother Sam got married!! We went to San Diego for it. Our original plan was make the 20 hour drive from Sunnyside, WA to San Diego, CA, but the closer it got the more I dreaded the 40+ hour round trip of driving. We were going to swoop up through Utah on the way home to check out BYU. It was going to be a whole weeklong family road trip. Jeff's health is generally good during summer break... until it's suddenly not, like when he accidentally eats anything with even a smidge of tomato, potato, or chili pepper in it. This summer Jeff has also been navigating how to hydrate sufficiently with his dysautonomia, with bouts of dizziness and migraines in the mix. If any of these carefully managed areas were to be affected while we were on the road, the potential fun of a family road trip would be OVER. 

Those thoughts came to me over and over while Jeff was dealing with a flare-up a few weeks ago, prompting me to find relatively cheap plane tickets on the budget Allegiant Air to replace our road trip. When I crunched these new numbers and discovered that flying and renting a car for 3 days would actually be $1,000 cheaper than driving, I was sold. We flew, rented a car, and arrived at our motel a little after 8:30pm on Thursday, July 30th.

Budget Travel Woes

We made a quick trip to San Diego for Jeff's brother Sam's wedding last week. It was a 3.5 day trip, from Thursday afternoon, July 30th to Sunday, August 2nd. We crammed a lot in during our short stay: 2 epic runs, 2 visits to the beach, 2 train rides, 1 pre-wedding party, and 1 wedding plus reception on a boat. It is always happy to show up for family and support them on important days. I loved being there to see Sam marry his true love, Katherine. I will write about  all of the happy wedding festivities. But first, these are the words that I needed to siphon off before I tell about the many fun beautiful parts of the trip. I don't want my memories of the happy wedding festivities to be overshadowed by the woes of budget travel. Trust me, this whiny princess post has nothing to do with how glad I was to be there for Sam and Kat.  

Rose in Wonderland

Rose and I went on a mother daughter hike on Tuesday, July 28th! I love spending time outside with my kids, and it was so sweet to have one on one time with my Rose girl. 

The Quiet Week (FSY)

The Quiet Week Outline:

I. Heat Advisory
II. Lincoln Grade
III. Violin Surgery
IV. Presentation
V. FSY