Utah Part I - Grandma’s 100th Birthday Party

My Grandma Ikhaml turned 100 years old on Thursday, May 21st. A big party was scheduled for that following Saturday and I knew I wanted to be there. The original plan was just for me to fly down to Utah for the weekend but as the event neared there were so many more reasons we felt it would be great to take the whole family down. The kids had Friday off of school due to an unneeded snow day and Monday was Memorial Day so we already had a four day weekend. Carly's wasn't getting back from her overnight field trip to Mount St. Helens until late Thursday night so we couldn't leave until Friday morning. My mom posted this picture on Facebook on Grandma's actual birthday. 

I love that my Grandma spent her 100th birthday in the Provo Temple. And don't let the wheelchair fool you. She was strong enough to even stand and participate in the prayer circle.

Our goal was start the nearly 13 hour drive to Utah by 6am and we were backing out of the driveway at 5:59am. A perfect start to a perfect drive. Ok, so perfect would consist of a much shorter drive, but the kids traveled beautifully. The drive was peaceful and pleasant and we made awesome time with only two brief stops for gas and restrooms.

Unfortunately, the day we drove to Utah also happened to be Drew’s birthday. Nothing says Happy Birthday more than being woken before the sun and restrained in a 5-point harness for 12+ hours, right? Good thing Drew is such an awesome kid and didn't mind at all. Bonus of it being his second birthday is that he was able to move from his rear-facing baby seat to a forward-facing car seat, which means he could watch movies with the rest of the kids.

Near the end of the drive we started awarding high chews when one of us spotted certain scavenger hunt type items (pink car, lighthouse, triple trailer, roadkill, a boat, etc...). As we entered Utah we also gave a high-chew to the first person to spot each temple. The kids also made cards to add to Grandma Ikhaml's basket of 100+ cards. No one even asked to play the DS the whole way down. Like I said, couldn't have gone better.

We pulled into Herriman 12 hours and 20 minutes after leaving Snoqualmie and went directly to Cafe Rio to get some dinner to enjoy at my Mom’s. My Aunt Kay and Aunt Marlene and her husband Bob were also staying at my Mom’s.  It was nice to have some time to visit with them. I don't think I'd seen any of my Aunts since my Mom and Val's wedding 5.5 years ago.

Grandma’s birthday celebration was held at a church near the Provo Temple. Each of her eight daughters was assigned a color for their family to wear. It actually was a brilliant idea since there were over 160 of my relatives there and it helped place them with the aunt they belonged to. 

Marlene, Laurie, Linda, Joyce, Fran, Barbara, Kay, and Eileen

Getting everyone in place for a family picture was quite the task.

My family less my sister Robyn who was out of town with her husband, my brother Lee who lives in Iowa, and my oldest niece Kaitlyn who is serving a performing mission in Nauvoo.

And my own little family. Crazy to think that someday my posterity may fill an entire stage.

There was a neat display of pictures from each decade of my Grandma’s life – including a picture of an automobile and telephone from that time period.

The gym was also decorated with pictures from past family reunions and a display with the latest Ikhaml posterity statistics.

It seemed strange to me to see that I was one of only 46 grandchildren.  Not that 46 is by any means small, but when I was growing up it seemed I had hundreds of cousins because some of my cousins had kids my own age.  And then when you add in spouses on top of these numbers – Wowsers!

There was a yummy catered lunch and then each of the sisters was in charge of a certain part of the program. 

We sang Happy Birthday and divvied out the cake

My mom was over the guessing jars. Guessing jars were a part of every Ikhaml family reunion we had growing up. I remember winning a glass jar of runts when I was in college. Each sister brought some sort of jar and the Hipwell family ended up taking home half. Some claimed conspiracy, but we Hipwells just have mad math skills. (Not pictured is Justin with his winning jar of coins!)

Emily won the jar of jelly bellys

Ashley won the red vines

Caylee took home the pretzels

After each sister introduced her family in attendance the grandchildren all sang “Love at Home” and “Signe Ikhaml’s Favorite Things” to the tune of “These are a few of my favorite things” from the Sound of Music.

Signe Ikhaml’s Favorite Things

Eight charming daughters and hundreds of grandkids;

Thousand piece puzzles and card games with high bids;

Re-unions and cabins and wild horseshoe flings –

These are a few of your favorite things.

M&M’s, licorice, butter on bread;

Landscaping, fruit trees and one murphy bed;

Sewing new dresses and quilts tied with strings –

These are a few of your favorite things.

Going on road trips and luxury cruises;

Matching recliners to watch the late news;

Lladros and art works and bright diamond rings –

These are a few of your favorite things.

When the styles change, when the chair’s old,

When that color’s through –

You simply re-paint it, re-build it, re-do

And then your house looks brand new!

My Aunt Barbara had a “special presentation” for Grandma.  A high school diploma!  I had no idea my Grandma never graduated from high school.  In addition to a diploma, the high school also sent her a 1933 yearbook and mug.  So awesome!

We watched a slide presentation of Grandma’s life and then my Aunt Laurie, who has been compiling my Grandma’s history for the last few years, had a book printed for each of the grandchildren to take home.  What an incredible keepsake!  It is so well done and even includes a CD of all the pictures and documents collected throughout Grandma’s 100 years – I love this kind of personal history!

My cousin took this picture later that afternoon in my Grandma’s apartment.  So much love for these sweet lady!

After the party the Hipwells decided to pop into Waffle Love for a sweet treat. Yum!

A little bizarre to spend the day walking around town in matching green shirts.

We had a little time to do some shopping before heading even further south to the Payson Temple open house. We were so excited for our kids to be able to attend their first temple open house! We had tickets for a 6pm tour, but since it was the last day of the open house it was CROWDED and our tickets meant absolutely nothing. We had to wait about 35 minutes to get in, but Oh My! It was worth it! Everything about the Payson temple is elegant and exquisite. I can see why they have record number of weddings scheduled this summer. It is gorgeous! 

We couldn't be so close to the Evans family, friends from our 10 years in Auburn, without stopping in to say hello and meet their new baby. It didn't take the kids long to become reacquainted and we nearly had to drag them out to the car when it was time to head back to my Mom’s.

Day one was non-stop fun and wore a few of us out.

Mother’s Day 2015

My Mother’s Day was quite different this year since I spent it in California with two friends instead of five kiddos.  It was still a wonderful day though in an entirely different way.  I didn’t get my traditional Mother’s Day picture with the kids – perhaps I should make a note to take one this Sunday instead – a few weeks late is better than not at all, right?  Anyhow, I did want to post the cards Katie and Jason gave me when I got back.

A few of my favorites from Jason’s fill in the blank card…

What do you LOVE TO DO THE MOST with your mom?  Play games

What kind of stuff is your mom REALLY GOOD AT?  playing monobly (no mercy!)

If you could CHANGE ONE THING about your mom, what would it be?  to run more. (what??)

What’s ONE THING you think your mom should do LESS OF?  Clening up

What’s ONE THING you thing your mom should do MORE OF?  Playing monopoly

What’s the CRAZIEST THING you’ve ever seen your mom do? run (he’s got that right!)

Complete this sentence.  I know my mom loves me because she said so

Disney Tinkerbell Half Marathon Weekend

** I was waiting to post this until I received the pictures that Megan took during the actual race, but at the request of my faithful friend and fellow blogger Chrystie I will post sans photos cause even without them this may just be one of the longest posts ever  **

Last summer my friend Laura decided to take up running and begged me to join her.  Running has never been something I’ve wanted to try (I had friends that ran in Auburn everyday for 10 years and never once was I tempted to join them) and besides that I had a series of hot yoga classes I had regrettably purchased and needed to use up before I could force myself into any further exercise.  I told her I’d run once with her before the end of the summer just to prove to her that I wasn’t made to run.  I did a couple short (under a mile) runs with Abigail in preparation, but it was hard.  Laura was running with a fun group of women, but there was no way I was going to jump in and try to keep up with them so it was just Laura and I on my first attempt around the 4-mile Mill Pond loop.  It was hard for us both and we were slow.  We walked part of it, but I did it.  When I got home Justin and the kids were shocked. Here’s the girl who hadn’t run in nearly 19 years and probably never more than a mile – I had survived a 4-mile run/walk at a pace of 11:49 min/mile.

It was near the end of that first run that Laura asked me to run the Disney Tinkerbell Half Marathon with her and three other friends in May 2015.  It took some convincing, but she promised to be by my side and help me train during the next nine months.  Within a few weeks I had registered for the run, bought a plane ticket, and was running twice a week with Camden – the best running partner a girl could ask for.  My heart became stronger, but my body seemed to become weaker.  After about a month I started to experience severe knee pain anytime I ran more than two miles.  The race was nonrefundable so I was determined to find a way to get through it.  I’ve become quite familiar with knee braces, frequent icing, Ibrophen, rolling and stretching. 

The training program I decided to follow (entitled “To Finish in the Upright Position”) started in January adding a Saturday run every weekend with a long run every other week.  I continued to have problems with my knees on the long runs and during my last long run before the race (a 14 miler) I was in so much pain I had to run/walk the last few miles.  It was a discouraging last run to have going into the race. 

While I stuck to my training program all sorts of commotion was occurring with my fellow Tinkerbell runners.  In January, Laura decided she wasn’t up for the half and finagled her way into the 10K by raising money for a charity team.  Another friend had to back out to attend her sister’s wedding in Scotland that same weekend.  And just days before the trip another friend needed to stay home for IVF treatment.  So our group of 5 half marathoners dwindled down to just me and Megan running the half and Laura running the 10k (which we affectionately called the Diaper Dash). 

Our flight left at 6am Friday morning.  After picking up our rental car and checking into our hotel in Anaheim we picked up our racing packets and headed to Disneyland.

So official!

Laura is the Queen of Selfies so there were lots of pictures like this…

We picked up some Minnie ears to complete our racing outfits and wore them the rest of the day.

That’s my bag of racing stuff hanging from between my legs.  We were going to rent a locker, but instead just decided to carry them around all day.

Exploring Disneyland without kiddos is completely different.  We didn’t even enter areas like Fantasyland and Toontown opting instead to focus on just the big rides.  I’ve always said Disneyland is my kind of amusement park – I don’t like super intense thrill rides that are found at other places like Knott’s Berry Farm and Six Flags.  I can handle every ride at Disneyland & California Adventure with the exception of the Tower of Terror.  To be honest, of all the trips I’ve made to Disneyland never once have I actually ridden on the Tower of Terror, but I’m familiar enough with the concept of sudden death defying drops that I’ve always been happy to volunteer to stay back with any kiddos too young to ride.  Laura and Megan weren’t going to let me stay behind this time.  Let’s just say I nearly lost my mind.  I cannot believe I’ve sent my four year olds on this ride, year after year!  

This picture is deceiving in that it looks like I was smiling, but I was pretty close to having a massive panic attack (to Megan’s absolute enjoyment).  I couldn’t handle not knowing what would happen next and exited the ride pretty much in hysterics.  But if you ask my dear friends what their favorite ride was I’m pretty sure watching me lose my cool would rank the Tower of Terror at the top of their lists.

I thought we’d close the park down, but our early morning caught up to us and we decided to head back to the hotel early and get some sleep.

So the big race…

Megan was a big time runner in high school but hadn’t run more than six miles in many years so we had no idea whether we would be running together or not.  I didn’t know how long my knees would hold up and knew there was a good possibility I would be walking myself across the finish line. 

Here we are waiting for the race to begin.

As well as 13,047 other runners!

When we registered for the race I had no idea what kind of pace I could keep so based on my estimated time we were placed in one of the last corrals (F) – I had no idea how much that would impact my race.  Turns out it totally sucks to try to keep a 9-9:30 pace amidst thousands of runners pacing at 15-16.  Our slowest miles were by far miles 1-4 because we had nowhere to go.  Super frustrating.  I tried to weave myself through the crowds but I kept losing Megan and it was really only adding extra mileage onto an already long run.  Once I accepted that my time wasn’t entirely under my control it was easier to deal with the crowds and enjoy the race.  We even stopped several times to take advantage of some photo opps inside Disneyland…

** INSERT PICTURES FROM MEGAN’S PHONE :) **

The race itself was surprisingly good – only my right knee gave me problems, but I was able to power through it and run the entire race (when crowds didn’t interfere).  I was so glad that Megan and I were able to stay together from start to finish.  When I was slowing down she picked up the pace and vice versa.  Laura was at the finish line cheering us along.

I sure earned this bling!  Megan and I finished the race in 2:20:29, which I couldn’t be happier with especially since that includes so much walking in the first four miles, photo taking, and a quick bathroom break.  According to my phone I picked up an extra half mile (due to all that weaving) with my final stats at 13.68 miles with an average pace of 10:10 min/miles.  No, I’m not going to win any awards for speed, but I feel great about my times.  My fastest miles were mile 5, 12, and 13 at 9, 9:03, and 9:11 min/miles which is where I’ve been training.  

A few pictures from the Disney photographers:

I look pretty miserable don’t I? The next two are a little better:

The Three Mouseketeers – even if one of us did only run the Diaper Dash ;)

The rest of the weekend was spent shopping, eating, and relaxing.  Megan hooked us up with a bungalow at the Pelican Hill Resort, a super posh hotel in Newport Beach for Sunday night.  I’ve stayed in some nice hotels, but this was by far the most luxurious.  The only place I’ve been with a more luxury cars was in Monaco.  We sat by the pool enjoying the lemon water and sunshine while we waited for our room to be ready.

Unfortunately I didn’t get many pictures of the actual resort so I pulled a few off the internet.

Our room was just as fabulous

We walked along the beach

Watched the sunset while enjoying milkshakes and french fries

Laura desperately wanted to go on a whale-watching excursion on Monday morning.  We hoped that the hotel would give us a late check out so we could come back and enjoy the pool and shower before heading home, but I think they caught on that we were mere mid-class woman who’d gotten lucky on Priceline and they wouldn’t budge.  So our morning was a mad dash to get everything thrown into the car and still make it to the pier in time to get on a tour.  

We saw some sea lions on as we pulled out of the pier; however, this was the extent of our whale sightings…

If you can’t tell, that’s a grey whale with her young calf.

What was lacking in whale sightings was more than made up for when we came across a playful pod of dolphins.  

A photo of the $15 souvenir photo collage we didn’t purchase.

We had just enough time in the afternoon to get pedicures and lunch before heading to the airport.  Just as we were finishing lunch two police officers walked into Chick-fil-A with masks on and headed straight back to the kitchen.  Um, interesting… 

So the big question is: will I run again?  Yes, I will run.  In fact Camden and I were back on the loop yesterday morning (though my right knee was really painful – it’s really is a miracle I was able to run the whole race).  Not sure if I’ll run another race, but I have truly enjoyed my early morning runs with Camden over these last nine months.  She keeps the conversation flowing and my feet moving.  My knees may be miserable, but my heart is happy and healthy and I got an awesome mini-vacation out of it as well.