Sophie

Sophie is doing well in school. They had their annual olympics. This was the report: Sophie went to the special olympics today, she won first place in two events, and second place in another.

So it looks like Daniel wasn't the only one winning medals this week.

Way to go Sophie!

Draper Temple celebration

May 29th at 8:00pm at the conference center is the Draper Temple Celebration. Anne and Stephen will be participating in it by singing with their YW/YM group. It is the first temple celebration experience in the Salt Lake Valley since the one for the Salt Lake Temple. The parents of the participants get tickets automatically, so we are going (Yay). But we also have potential tickets available first thing Wednesday morning, so let us know if you are interested. It will be broadcast to many stake centers also, but that is not the same as being there. There has been a lot of practices that have gone into this, so I am sure it will be great.

Anne CVMS band concert

Anne has an end of year concert on Thursday, May 21st. (I think around 7:00pm, but call if you are thinking of coming to make sure on the time.

We got to hear one of her songs tonight when the band and the orchestra joined up for one song. It was "Jupiter, Bringer of Jollity" from "The Planets". One would think that something with the word Jollity in it would be good, and they definitely delivered tonight. Way to go Anne and we are looking forward to more on Thursday.

Daniel - Ogden Marathon. Dad 5K

Saturday Daniel ran the Ogden Marathon. I did the 5K. Daniel finished the marathon in 3 hours 30 minutes. If you happen to see the official results on the marathon website, it is misleading. It says that he finished in 4:20 and placed 28th. But he missed the bus up to the starting point and ended up starting 50 minutes late. If you look closely at the official results, you will see how that worked out. They show the split times at several points in the race. The seven mile mark had others passing at 40, 50 or 70 minutes. Daniel's is recorded as a blazing 9 minutes 20 seconds. (thus actually being 59 minutes). Anyway, we know that he covered the marathon in 3:30, which puts him at 7th place in his age bracket. That is just above 8 minutes per mile!. His last mile was 6 and a half minutes. And then he felt like he was going to pass out but didn't.

We are so proud of him. I told him that 3:30 was amazing for a first time marathon. He also informed me that it will be great for his last marathon also. He said that when he had just gotten past the " I'm about to pass out " stage. I will be curious to see if that statement holds up in the future. I can see someone he knows doing a marathon in 3:29 and he just has to go beat it, but we shall see.

I too started late. I was about 2 minutes late, (much construction between here and Ogden). So I did not get in on the official times on the marathon website. But I have the T-shirt and number to prove that I was there. I finished in approximately 41 minutes on the 5K. (which is 3.1 miles). I jogged, I ran a little and I walked in between. I was a little worried to put my post surgical ankle/foot to the test, but was very pleasantly surprised that I didn't have any problem at all with it. My muscles in my legs are just now getting over being sore, but it was a very good sore. It helped remind me of why I liked to run so much in the past. Even with being sore, my body feels so much better. So I now have a baseline to measure against and beat. 41 minutes. There are 5K's for all kinds of occasions and I am going to enter some as they come along. (Plus you get cool T'shirts!)

I remember reading in a running magazine about how excited guys were to hit the milestone ages, 40, 50, 60 etc. Because on those birthdays, they found themselves as the youngest in their age bracket and more likely to win a trophy, medal or cash award. Looking forward to a milestone age like that sounds good to me, instead of dreading its arrival. So that is my plan for keeping a young outlook on life.

Speaking of medals. From what I understand, Daniel got one. Cool.

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I went to post a big thing about Daniel and his Marathon on Saturday and my 5K. It was lost in the blogging system at error bx 74102 (or something like that) I will redo it later when I have more time.

Happy Mother's day

I am grateful for Mothers. This is a Mother's Day that most will experience at some time in their life, but never really think it will happen until it does. That is that I lost my Mother this year to a stroke. As a Father now, I realize what my Mother went through in raising me and my brothers and sister. I understand the importance of her being there for every little need and even just being there when there wasn't a particular need. I am grateful for the influence of my Mother throughout my life and I am grateful to know that we can be reunited after this life.

As I look at how great my kids are turning out, I have an immense amount of gratitude to Sharon for the kind of mother that she is. Sharon, you are doing a great job. So in addition to being my sweetheart, thank you for being such a wonderful mother to our children.

Dave