6.30.2009

Seattle Rock and Roll Marathon


April Boston Marathon - he trained

May and June took time off from running, ran 4 maybe 5 times no more than 8 miles, started visiting chiropractor about pain in back, had x-rays,

June 24 another chiropractor appointment

June 25 decides to run marathon

June 27 runs the inaugural Seattle Rock and Roll Marathon to help coach some friends during their first marathon.

Randy, Jason, Jolynn, Aaron, David, Rob

This was Jason, Aaron, and Jolynn's first marathon and Randy ran with them as their coach. David ran the 1/2 marathonl, with little training. Rob went for a marathon personal best and got it!



He totally loved it, he wasn't running for time, no pressure, it was an absolutely perfect, sunny yet cool day. Is this the face of someone running a marathon? Seriously, this is crazy! When he saw us along the way, he stopped and gave the kids kisses.














He felt good the whole race. He was totally relaxed enjoying the run. Randy already signed up for next year. Still trying to talk me into doing a marathon, I am sticking with 1/2 for a while. I've seen the work it takes, plus who wants to train in the rain, you have to be seriously dedicated. "If you can't be an athlete, be an atheltic supporter." For now, I am a supporter.













Aaron and Jolyn at mile 19 and looking good.



The kids and I headed out about 6:30 a.m., fueled up on breakfast burritos and hash browns, passed by the race at mile 2, met up with Randy and the group at mile 7,


I asked the kids if they wanted to hit another spot or head home. They were totally infused with the electric vibe of the event and decided to catch Dad of "Poppa" as Makenzy calls Randy at another point in the race. We headed up to mile 19 where the kids played at an elementary playground until I thought the group should be close to coming by, went to our spot, caught them about 8 minutes later. At first, Randy passed right by us until we called out, "Hey, it is us Randy White your family." He wasn't expecting us to be at another spot. He stopped and came back smiling.


It was so great to cheer them on. The kids are awesome athletic supporters. Way to go team!!!


Cayden thought it was pretty comical that one of the band members kept saying, "Hey, why do you keep running away, was it something I said?"


















I snapped a shot of the crowd sitting back listening to a little of Paul Brownlow's Band bringing a healthy mix of guitars to serve up classic American and roots rock motivating the runners forward.














The acoustic duo Everyday Jones blends humor, harmony and talent at mile 7.


Hats off to those that trained so hard. Running a marathon is seriously an amazing feat. Jolynn dropped by a little note twith some yumma cookies that said, "...on race day you went above and beyond. You were amazing! I cannot tell you how much it meant to me to have you there encouraging me every step of the way." Randy was an awesome coach, he actually ran more than a marathon because he went back and got them some extra water, and ran ahead and back to get them their goo and drinks so they didn't have to slow down. Way to go, EVERYONE! You all did amazingly well!

6.17.2009

Dixie Flyers - Class of '89 High School Reunion


It was a fantastic weekend. Randy flew down to Vegas and met up with his sister Carrie and her family for lunch before heading up to St. George.

In high school Randy had a Gremlin that caught fire in the McDonald's drive through, 20 years later Mr. Dixie pulled up in a smokin hot rental, a Geo with push locks. It's all about the image.

Thanks bunches Jason and Cami for having Randy at your place. Scott, thanks for giving Randy your physical therapist opinion on his pinkie that now has arthritis from being busted 20 years ago during high school football. Good friends let you bum a place to stay and give you some advice, thanks!

Class of '89 ..... twenty years later! Voted "Cutest Smile" in 1989 is smiling on the back row, next to the D.
Randy was stoked to find out a basketball game had been set up with their formal rival, PineView who was also holding their 20th reunion at the same time.
Matching jersies, a crowd, an announcer calling out their plays, it was totally reliving the high school dream.
The game started out with a few pleasantries, "hey, good to see ya," type of stuff then the exhibition got competitive. PineView came out with a strong lead in the first half, but then Dixie slammed their rival PineView by 29 points and bragging rights for the next 20 years! Randy had the second highest score, 18 points. Way to go Flyers!

The Team - Scott, Jason, Kelly, KC, Randy, Bill, front row, Jimmy, Wade, Jason
Scott, Jill, Marianne, Randy, Shawn (holding his little girl they recently adopted from China) at Paula's restaurant, getting ready for a little mexican cuisine. Afterward a stop at Frost Top, the happening place on the Boulevard where they stayed late up late talking and chatting about stuff like the classmate that won the coveted title Mr. Gay Utah and families and how life did and didn't turn out the way they thought it would. They didn't want the night to end. After Frost Top closed, they zipped up to the "D" to get that Dixie feel on the red rocks.
High School Friends -
Thanks to all the ladies sitting at Randy's table because they read all the family blogs and profile updates so they aced the quiz on "what are they doing now" trivia game and scored gift cards to Home Depot.
Casey, senior class president, opened up the evening dinner by building on all the buzz and talk that Randy hadn't changed a bit since high school, in fact he looked so young that many people commented, "hey, where is your daddy boy?"
He had a total blast!

6.16.2009

Luau Lunch

Makenzy, Madalyn and friends, this year there are 3 Madalyn's in her class. So far only once, has her lunch money been credited to the wrong account.
A couple times during the year, the kids' elementary school hosts a parent barbecue.

I always like to go,

and so far we haven't been rained on,

though I've sat on wet grass a time or two.

This time, not so, it was so hot, I brought a squirt bottle to cool the kids down. Cayden asked to keep it for the rest of the day and was envied during PE time when he unscrewed the lid, and gulped down the remaining water.

The kids usually brown bag it, only occasionally taking school lunch when there is cheese pizza which is every other Friday, or brunch for lunch. Madalyn likes Thursday chicken nuggets.

Of course, Cayleb thinks school lunch is great - this time he even got sherbet ice-cream.

Madalyn and Cayden got DQ chicken tenders, but the slushies melted. They still gulped down the high fructose, neon colored sugar water.

Cayleb, Cayden and friends -

After lunch, Madalyn showed me how fast she can spin her friends on the tire swing, the previous day Hannah threw up after getting off,

Cayleb decided not to climb on,

Cayden stroked me along at tether ball then smacked it so hard, I thought I was playing with at least a tenth grader,

he won.


The "French Girls" - Cayleb says this while raising his eyebrows and giving a little smile, they are the girls in the matching green sun dresses.
Cayleb and his friend Timothy met the twin french girls at the park while I struck up a conversation with their mom about recently moving from England.
They turn 5 in June just like Cayleb. He thinks they are cute. They are his first crush.
We periodically bump into them, he keeps asking to go back to the park by their house, and wants me to stop the truck when we see them to say "hello".
Ooooh, la, la! Cute now, probably not so cute as he gets older.

Award Night

Makayla and Maddie - Social Studies Department Honor - Makayla

Presidential fitness certificate- Makayla

4.0 All Quarters, All Year Award - Makayla

What can I say, I am proud one proud momma.

The picture of the trophies was enough, she doesn't want them out in her room, but said I could have them in my room if I wanted.
Nice program

but,

outside it was the warmest day yet, in fact one of the warmest on record for this time of year,

92 degrees outside,

high school gym,

full of students,

parents, grandparents, and a few siblings too,

no air conditioning,

except if you consider the program accordion folded into a fan.

Yes, we went out for ice-cream. We definitely had a reason to celebrate and cool off!

Pinewood Derby

It's true what they say. No matter how early one gets the official BSA pinewood derby blank, you will still be sanding the weekend before the big race,

AND

it's hard for AKELA to keep their hands off! (for those that don't have scouts and have no clue who Akela is that is scout talk for parents or perhaps a great name for a dog).

This year Cayden totally designed his car,

cut some of it out, thanks Meyers for letting him use your cool tools, it was that or the kitchen knife,

sanded it,

painted it,

o.k. and then I helped here after the paint gooped in spots to the point where his fingernail could scrape the paint off and frustration was getting high,

and

red wheels and decals came courtesy of Mark a big THANK YOU.














Cayden took 2nd in his division, way to go speed racer!
Brent, his scout leader, made ALL the boys the neat wood display for their cars.
Cayleb was so psyched, he can't wait to build his own,
the girls cheered loudly every time Cayden's number was called to race, way to be supportive,
and Makenzy must have been a nervous wreck watching the competition because she ended up throwing up,
on me.
Prior to the race, Randy promised Cayden that if he DIDN'T come in 1st, 2nd, or 3rd place, he would take him out for ice-cream. This is the type of psycho games we play on our kids so that they don't feel too bad if they lose.
After the race, we modified the rules,
it is part of the mind game,
and because we just had to further celebrate,
so ice-cream treats at DQ for everyone because they had a great attitude.
Kenzy and I went home for a bath.
One more down and derby done!

6.10.2009

Memorial Weekend

A tradition for our family is to go camping on the "opening" weekend of summer. Over the years, we have tented it (might I add with a 2 mo. old baby Cayden), moved up to a tent-trailer Randy's Aunt Jerri gave us, bought a 1969 Dodge Fireball motor home that was so old it didn't have a/c or seatbelts and we drove it out to Chicago/
Nauvoo in the humid summer going no faster than 55 mph, might I add that was an extra long trip, our current trailer is the Rockwood Roo, for "Roo Whooo" fun times.

Part of the reason I am o.k to camp for awhile is that Cayden and Randy do most of the cooking. And just in case, it is a flop, we have otter pops in the freezer and potato chips, it is pretty much a staple at home too.













Canoeing on the little pond. Makenzy did not like wearing a life jacket - so we didn't last too long. Which was fine, because the Korean LDS branch was doing a couple of baptisms in the water. We were camped by their group, and later in the night were treated to some Korean Karoake; Josh Groban in Korean was well, interesting.



The kids used the stage and we made up our own plays. Cayleb and Cayden were trying out their hand as jedi knights, but Cayleb busted up laughing his cutest boy giggle when Cayden tried to act like Captain Cody. I absolutely thrilled the kids with my West Side Story dance - it literally drew them out of the audience and they joined me on stage, snapping and bopping our legs -or perhaps it was their giggling that got them on stage to mock me.






The rope swing -











My darling girls.













Each time we go here, the kids have to ride the horses.








































O.k. I am still pretty much a newbie with my camera, and it set to autofocus 95% of the time while I figure out how to use it. However, I totally love these pictures of Madalyn and Cayden. They were leaning against the trees while we were watching and listening to 2 squirrels run up and down the tree. I can even see Madalyn's dimple!
























Going down the slide.























LOVED rope swing - we kept going back, and back, and back!










Girls and Friends

So while the boys were at their camp out, the girls had their friends over for a girls night, I skipped out for a bit to play games with 3 other couples, I went stag, had fun, ended up "being the lesser peon" in the Great Dalmoodi game, shucks missed wearing the crown, it matched Sara's shirt perfectly anyhow, I think she planned on winning early in the night. Makayla and Maddie -
Hannah and my Maddie -

Makenzy just being the cutest toddler there is -

Father and Sons Camp Out

O.k. so I wasn't invited.

It is a boy thing.

Randy started taking Cayden out the event when he was 2 years old - he came home with two holes in his red pants from the fire's cinders; loved fire then, loves it now.

From what they said, and the very, very few pictures I got, I see they had a good time. Randy and the boys always look forward to this weekend. In carrying on with tradition, they always have a big can of ravioli just like Randy would have with his dad when they went camping.


I think sometime around this time I got my evening call - Cayleb was hollering in the background, "I love camping."

My first Attempt

I just tried making my first banner for the blog without photoshop (since I don't have it but would love to purchase it). It is a little cut and paste looking well, because it is, but I found all the instructions on this site for anyone else that wants to give it a try, http://napnotes.blogspot.com/2008/06/how-to-create-blog-banner-without.html

6.08.2009

Cayden - A Perfect 10!


From a little 5 lb. 8 oz. baby wearing preemie diapers to a football build body, this kid has finally gotten meat on his body.

He loves sports - he is his dad's son.

And for the second time, he wanted a sports party, time to hang out and play with his friends. What an easy party!

We sent out sports themed invitations.

Then as the boys arrived they put on their "team uniform." Cayden wanted to be the team captain, so his was a little different.

Then they warmed up with some drills by Coach Randy. As a family we were already pretty warmed up, Randy and the boys arrived home from their father and son camp out about 45 min. before party "kick off" time.

Coach Randy made a triple play as both the Coach, the ref, and sometimes the opposing team.

The boys loved playing with "the man."


a little football -
a little basketball -
Half-time.

The heat (believe it or not it was a hot day here) started to melt the "threads" on the cake. This was so easy and the litmus test was all the boys saying how cool they thought it was. I baked up a cake, put down "dirt" (chocolate frosting) for the turf (colored coconut), baked up the football in a mold I have, and piped on the "threads" and "happy birthday Cayden #10." Easy!
Super-bowl munchies, drink. Cake and ice-cream, forgot the spoons so we used pretzel rods and oreos to scoop up the ice cream, different but tasty. Had a little hazing to intiate the players into Team White by having them all wear pointy, football party hats while singing "Happy Birthday."
Time for team pictures. Check out the muscles, or is it the odor?

Madalyn was the cheerleader.

Here, the camera battery died, hopefully it was because Coach Randy got a lot of pictures of the boys at their camp out.
Played some relays and bocci ball. Pulled out the flour and chocolate for an encore to the game played at Makayla's birthday. Boys got flour all over, patted myself on the back for having this all outside!

Taught the boys to sing/say "heavy, heavy hang over thy poor head, what do you wish this person with a bump on the head?" as they gave Cayden his gifts. They liked the head banging part.
Ended it as all great games end, with the dumping of the cooler over MVP Cayden. Have video of that, I'll have to get it up.

Cayden then his team mates home with their team jerseys a football gift bag with a medal, sports sticky balls, bottled drink, basketball ruler, and a candy bar with a custom wrapper that had a picture Cayden in his football uniform that read, "thanks for playing in the birthday bowl with MVP Cayden White #10, Player of the Year 2009." Cayden thought the allergy warning about the candy containing traces of peanuts or other nuts that could make your face swell, throat close off, and head burst was pretty funny.

Happy Birthday Cayden!!!