Christmas Letter 2011

As I look back on the crazy adventures and changes of years past it seems that nearly every year we have had something amazing or big to report, like a new baby or move. This year is no different except that it seems to be marking the beginning of the end of the adventure. I’m not sure I like that plan so I’ve decided I’ll just have to get more creative in the future creating new kinds of adventure!
The adventure this year was our big move from Okinawa Japan back to the United States. We have purchased our first house and are settling permanently here in the small town of Washougal Washington. It’s a great town located along the Columbia River Gorge just across the border from Portland. Tom is working for his brother at Discovery Dental. It’s a beautiful, well run practice and Tom looks forwarding to becoming a partner with his brother in the future. Here are a few of the highlights from this past year, including some of the things we miss about Japan and some of the things we are enjoying here:

January: We enjoyed celebrating the Japanese new year, a month long celebration!! Hayden changed from the second grade to the third grade and loved it! He fit right in and enjoyed the new challenges. Alyssa lost her two front teeth due to a fall and was fitted for some fake ones (it pays to have a dentist for a dad!) We enjoy lots of hiking and being outdoors!!


February: We took our BIG trip up to mainland Japan with Tom’s brother Dave and wife Adina.
We had a fantastic time in Sasebo, Nagasaki, Fukuoka, Kyoto, and Tokyo! Great food, beautiful, scenery and amazing people!


March: Tom and I got scuba certified and Tom began going every chance he got!! He’s in love and now misses it all the time! We even saw a shark!
Hayden was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints out in the East China Sea. I pulled the girls out of their preschool and we enjoyed home preschool with more time to spend together and to enjoy the parks and cultural experiences in Okinawa.


April: For the third year in a row we went and ran the Iejima Half Marathon and went camping on the nearby island. Later in the month we did a three day, 230 mile bike ride around the entire island of Okinawa. So amazing!! Oh, how we miss the beautiful island, the weather and the friends who enjoyed it all with us! The kids enjoyed lots of island sight seeing. Hayden enjoyed soccer and Danica tried it, but hated all the pressure. We were really panicking about not having enough time left in Okinawa for all the fun things we wanted to do!


May: Put in an offer on a house in Washington after seeing a video of it. Took more trips to fun places like Okuma. Enjoyed watching Alyssa‘s ballet/tap recital and spent every possible minute with our friends in Japan knowing that we were going to leave them all too soon.


June: The month is a blur of last minute adventures, packing, prepping, playing and saying good-bye. I was happy to say good-bye to my van and my house, both of which were literally junked and condemned when we left them. However, I wish I could have stayed with the people, the weather and the beauty. Nonetheless, mid month we began the jet lag, trying to drive on the other side of the street and adjusting to being back in the states. I remember just being cold all the time, feeling overwhelmed walking into the huge stores and wanting the stability of my comfortable Japan life to return. Fortunately, we had good friends and family here to greet us and help us begin to settle in. We moved in with Tom’s parents, finally saw the house we had put an offer on and began to process of waiting for it to close!


July: Tried to stay warm in the cool Washington summer, it was frigid compared to the temps we left in Okinawa. We took a great trip to Utah and spent time in the sun with my family there. The kids got reacquainted with their cousins and traveled so much they learned to sleep wherever we decided to call home. Poor Alyssa got confused every time we changed to a new location and would ask if it was our new house. At the end of the month we ran the Northwest Passage Ragnar with a team made of Tom’s siblings, spouses and mom! We said good-bye to July with our annual trip to a houseboat on Lake Shasta in California. Heaven.

Tom started working at Discovery Dental. The practice belongs to his brother Dave and its amazing. Fantastic staff, beautiful location, recently updated and remolded inside, and just run really well. It's been an adjustment after being in the military but it's a good one and Tom looks forward to being partners with Dave in the future. He's already got his name on the sign!


August: Alyssa had two great things happen on her birthday- she finally turned 4 and we closed on our house! It didn’t seem possible that my little sweet baby was getting so big but she couldn’t be happier. She is such a fun, smiley girl who wants to make everyone happy. She loves all the girly things her sister likes but also enjoys getting messy, being loud and playing with Hayden. We closed on the house, finally, and were thrilled to move in! Compared to where we have lived this house is so big and new. It’s been fun to organize and decorate. The neighbors are great and I think we’ll be happy here for a long time. I’ve been promising pictures for ages...sorry. In August we also ran on a Hood to Coast team and had a blast!


September: Hayden started fourth grade. He was nervous and it was hard to be the new kid but he’s settled in and is doing well. Danica started kindergarten and is in love with all of it except the chaos of P.E. Alyssa started at preschool and enjoys going and being a big kid but is happy when I pick her up and we get to spend the rest of the afternoon together. My parents came to visit and I was so excited to show them around and to let them experience how beautiful it is here. Of course it rained the whole time they were here. Tom did his first triathlon, a sprint, and totally rocked it. He is hooked and just signed up for a half ironman next year...intense!


October: We enjoyed seeing the leaves change colors as we up our miles during our marathon training. It was fun to run around exploring the area in preparation for the Leavenworth Marathon. The race was great, a lot of fun to run it together and I actually won! First place for women! A great memory. Danica is in love with riding her bike and the new gymnastics class she is in. She is doing really well and is set to start in the advance class at the first of the year. Hayden goes to Lego club and loves it, tried flag football and didn’t love it. Alyssa is doing ballet and has become best friends with a girl in her class she knows from church. We enjoyed great Halloween festivities and took the kids to a pumpkin patch for the first time in 4 years!


November: Thanksgiving was spent enjoying a wonderful reunion with my brothers and sister in Utah. We stayed for the week after Thanksgiving to have more time for skiing, sledding, bowling, museums, games, Temple Square and trips to the gym! It was wonderful being all together and hearing the cousins just laugh and laugh.


December: As usual it’s a crazy month at our house! Danica turned 6 years old and continues to be the sweetest, most loving and caring girl around. She can’t get enough of coloring, cutting, singing, dolls, and playing with her sister. Tom and I were fortunate enough to go to several great concerts bringing our concert total since moving here up to 8. Some favorites were Andrew Bell, Milk Carton Kids, Lights, Naked and Famous, Grouplove, and Young the Giant. We also celebrated our 11th wedding anniversary! Hayden turned 9 years old and enjoyed a day spent playing video games and nerf wars with his friends. He still loves to read and is finishing up the Harry Potter series right now. It’s been fun to see him spend more time playing with his sisters!

Christmas will be spent here in Washington. We are looking forward to all the fun and will post some pictures when it’s done!!

We hope the end of this year finds all of you happy and ready for whatever adventures come at you next!!! Please keep in touch!

November is Gone Already?

Yet again, an overdue update, in reverse order. I know I have forgotten a lot... this is the stuff I had pictures of. I'll have to add in the rest when I remember it! And this has not been proof read...sorry for the inevitable mistakes!

DANICA IS 6!!!!! On December 12th we celebrated her birthday!! She doesn't have school on Mondays so I took her and Alyssa to a place called JJ Jumps that we heard about on Groupon. Some of her cousins met us there and then we all met up with Grandma Barb for lunch at Wendy's because Danica LOVES chicken sandwiches! Then for dinner she had her favorite food: Chicken and Broccoli Casserole.

Her favorite thing to do right now is to color with markers. She would do it all day. She loves art projects and any sort of craft. She loves to read, play with dolls and barbies, and have tea parties. She is very girly, still shy and very sensitive. A stern look or disapproving voice will leave her in tears. She's a great helper with doing her chores, is a master bed maker and fantastic at cleaning her room and taking care of her sister in every way. She goes out of her way to make sure that Alyssa is happy and well cared for. I don't think there has ever been a girl as lucky as Alyssa to have such an outstanding big sister.

She's such a funny kid. Over Thanksgiving she was sick with a stomach flu for several days and it has left her obsessed with washing her hands and not eating too much candy. She is very conscientious. She is such a responsible sick child that she is terrified to not have a bowl with her at all times if she feels like she might throw up. In fact, she had to sleep with it and I found her one night with her head literally using the bowl like a pillow...so sad!!

DECEMBER TO REMEMBER:
Last week we took Concert Fun to a whole new level during this amazing event where they have fantastic concerts every night! We managed to make it to three of them: Young the Giant, Awolnation and Group Love. It was a blast!


UTAH-- THANKSGIVING BREAK AND THE FIRST WEEK OF DECEMBER:

We spent our Thanksgiving day driving for 12 hours on the way to Utah. Eating options were scarce but the drive went well and we arrived as planned and prepared for a week of fun! I hadn't seen my younger brother in a couple of years and he was able to come to my parents house late that night and stay for the next week so we did the same. My brother that lives in Utah took time off work and pulled their son out of school as well so they could come up and spend the time with us as well. It all made for a fantastic week of vacation. I wish I had time to add more details but I need to get to addressing Christmas cards and making arrangements for a weekend trip so this short summary is all I can do. My summary looks very similar to the trip journal Hayden had to keep while he was happily out of school for a week!!
Friday: Hit some black Friday sales and then we played racquetball at the gym before enjoying our Thanksgiving dinner, just a day late! That night we rocked out to Karaoke! I hope someone will send the videos soon!
Saturday: Family pictures, a trip to the aquarium, then the adults went to a comical rendition of It's a Wonderful Life.






Sunday: We went to Temple Square after church- Tom's photography skills really show!





Monday: Matt, his wife Chelsea and Tom and I went skiing at Snowbird. My mom watched all the kids!! it was a great day although I went to bed that night with nightmares of skiing down the mountain and being unable to stop... I suppose I was little more scared then I wanted to admit! I haven't skied in years and years so it was a bit tricky!
Tuesday: Sledding!!

The kids had a blast, so much giggling!!! Alyssa couldn't believe there was so much snow. Growing up on a tropical island means that she had never seen real snow like that. It was fun to experience with her and watch her awe. Then we went bowling and my brother Ryan and his wife Amy made prizes for everyone. It was a huge hit! Then I had to take Tom to the airport to fly home to work.
Wednesday: Matt and Chelsea let me leave the girls with their new best friend- their cousin Isabel that they hadn't seen in years! I took Hayden up to the Natural History Museum at the U of U and had a nice time learning and exploring. Then we headed to Provo and spent the afternoon with my grandma. We took her to the Life Science Museum at BYU and Danica rode with her in her wheelchair. They loved it! That night we went to Ryan and Amy's house where they used their gourmet cooking skills to serve us authentic Phillie Cheesesteaks and homemade donuts. We also had a contest to make Turkey costumes. Hayden and I got to model them!!
Thursday: A low key day of packing and playing and celebrating Christmas with Grandma!!! The kids were all spoiled! Then we went to see Breaking Dawn while Matt watched all the kids (thank you again!)


Friday: Got up at 6am and drove all day. Kids were good and I enjoyed an audio book.
Saturday: Got up early and drove to Salem to run a 7 mile trail run with Tom's sister Anne and her husband Peter. Tough run. Very tiring after spending a week on vacation...although it may be tough any time!!!

There is much more to add and hopefully I'll get to it. But for today, this is enough!!

Happy Halloween 2011

Our festivities were abundant and I was so sick of the kids eating candy before we even got to Halloween but they were loving it!!
It started two weeks ago when some of our Oki Family, the Balls, drove down from Seattle to spend the day with us! It was so nice to be with friends and we are so grateful they made the drive!! We went to pumpkin patch and the kids loved it. Alyssa kept saying how it was so great it was her first time going to a farm! We did all the standards with corn mazes, picking pumpkins, petting zoo, etc. But they also had this pumpkin sling shot where you tried to land them in a bucket. We didn't see anyone do it in all the time we were waiting in line but when it was Danica's turn they got it in. Everyone was cheering! Danica loved it!

We had a ward trunk or treat Friday night (I took the kids while Tom watched game 7 of the World Series...there will be other trunk or treats after all!) Saturday night we had attended the annual Stinchfield Halloween Party! We've heard about it for years but never attended and we were so excited to do it this year! We stressed about our costumes but never came up with anything amazing so the kids just chose their own. Tom and I tried to coordinate... it sounded better on paper: He was Steve Jobs and I was the dancing shadow from the iTunes ads.

Look closely and you can see Hayden in the middle...he is something dark and hooded every year...the girls were dying to be super heroes again... sounded good to me because I love the costumes and they cost a lot!!!

Some great food from the Stinchfield party:


Hayden made this and named it "Skello Jello" He thought he was pretty clever... I had to agree!

Sunday night we carved pumpkins. Can you guess which child designed and drew their own?

Monday we went to the Halloween parade for Hayden at school. Then I stayed to help with the class party and helped the kids all make carmel apples. That night we hit the streets and the kids got their loot. We went out with some cousins, Taylor, Parker and Morgan. When the little girls got cold and tired we came home and the big kids got to keep going. Hayden was loving it!!! All around a great year!




These are from back when we were in Leavenworth, we went on a beautiful hike. We had to cut it short due to the cold but we enjoyed it while we could!

The Leavenworth Marathon

(Front: Adina- half, Barb-half, Tracey-full. Back: Dave S.- full, Tom- full, Peter- half, Dave O.- half)
Last weekend we set out on a great adventure to participate in the Leavenworth Marathon and Half Marathon. I wasn’t sure I would ever do another marathon after my first disaster but some how while we were still in Japan we decided this would be a good idea. The rest of the family was running it so we just tagged along. There were three of us running the full marathon and four running the half plus the amazing support staff who watched the kids making it possible for us to run! I am sure that everyone has their own unique experience to share but this is my blog post so you get to hear my experience.

It started Friday night when we drove the 5 hours to Leavenworth Washington after Tom got off work. We didn’t want to waste anytime or fill up on on hamburgers so I made a pan of homemade mac ‘n cheese, salad and some smoothies to eat for dinner on the way. It was great. Then we met up with everyone at the RV park, said hello and headed off to our hotel to try to get some sleep. Originally we had planned to get an RV as well but the price scared us off and luckily Dave found a hotel room at the last minute. At the hotel we laid out our gear for the morning, coordinated wake up and shower schedules, set alarms and then tried to sleep. It’s always hard to sleep before a race, add 4 adults and two little girls in one hotel room with loud drunk oktoberfest guests all around and it gets a little worse. But none the less, the three of us marathoners arose around 5:00 and headed off to catch the school bus to the starting line. (Big thank you to Adina who let the girls stay asleep at the hotel with her, she got them up and dropped them off to Anne at the RV park when she picked up the other half marathoners...the support was amazing!!! Never could have done it with out them!! Big thank you to Anne as well!!)

So Tom, Dave and I loaded the school bus and made the long dark drive up the canyon. We got off the buses and noticed two problems right off, it was freezing and there were only 4 port-a-potties...we got in line and hoped to make it through before the start. With only 4 minutes left before the start I gave up on the line and went to meet Tom and Dave at the start. I reluctantly peeled off my sweats and made then made the worst decision of the day. I took off my running gloves because I figured I would get too hot and then what would I do with them? Needless to say, I never got too hot. Lucky for my bladder the official announced a 10 minute delay for the start, the friends I had made while waiting in line for the bathroom were still there and they let me back in line. Phew. So now I was really ready. Ready for a marathon. It was still dark and cold, 7am and about 32 degrees. They yelled start and off we went. Tom and I pulled to the front fairly quickly, so excited and having a great time. Our hands and noses were so cold we wanted to cry but we pushed ahead. A mile or two into it was pretty light out and my nose had thawed. My hands were still aching though. Nonetheless, we were enjoying flying down the mountain with beautiful scenery all around. The runners had thinned out and we were just coasting along. Tom’s hands warmed up but mine still hurt really badly and at one point he took a hold of my hand and warmed it with his while we ran. I wish I had a picture of that. It was a great moment.

We both felt great and just kept going and going, enjoying it all the time. About 10 miles in we came out of the canyon and ran through the city until we caught up to the trails by the fish hatchery. Then we looped around on this dirt horse trail for a few miles and it was really killer. It was impossible to get solid footing and we had to slow down and it just hurt all our joints. I kept reminding myself it was pretty and nice to do something different...it sort of worked. Eventually we came out and ran past the starting line where the half marathon runners were getting ready to start. Kenn was able to get our picture as we ran by! This meant we were half way and now just had to run the half marathon course. We still felt great and were really excited to reach this point.


As the miles passed under our feet we just kept up our fast pace and talked while enjoying the scenery. I’m so glad I was running with Tom, it made the whole experience so much more enjoyable! At mile 16 we again passed a guy in a yellow shirt that we had gone back forth with the entire run. We chatted again briefly and then cheered when I saw the mile 16 marker. He murmured something about still having a long way to go and we started to agree but then stopped ourselves. Quickly we changed our out look and said, “Oh no, we’re doing great and we’ve only got 10 miles to go. How many times have you run 10 miles? We can do this!” And we took off. (Side note, turns out that guy was one of my best friends brother-in-law, they somehow made the connection after the race and she called me. Small world.)

The next 4 miles were still good, we nearly missed a turn but luckily caught it and enjoyed running through a river side park. Tom’s knee was starting to bother him more and he was beginning to feel the 20 mile "wall" coming. Our training program was not conventional and a little less than ideal. His knee had been causing him pain so he hadn't been able to finish training the way he had hoped and it was catching up to him. At that moment in my mind I was about the reach a great point in the race. I had told myself I was running miles in sets of 10/10/6. This summer I made a decision to change my short runs to being at least 6 miles, so I knew I could easily hammer out 6 miles, I just had to reach 20 first. I’m not sure what Tom was thinking but he was not getting the adrenaline rush I was getting. He began to lag behind a bit and I wanted to be with him but he told me to just go, to push it as hard as I could and to just do it. I looked down at my Garmin and saw that I was still well under 3 hours and the 20 mile mark was just up ahead. I swallowed my last gel chew, gulped some water and powered up the only hill on the course.

With just 6 miles to go I put my music on and forged ahead. I couldn’t believe I was really going to make it at my goal pace. I couldn’t believe I still felt good. I couldn’t believe that people on the sidelines were shouting to me that I was the first woman! This just made me want to run faster! So I went. The last two miles caught up to the sand trail again and it was agony. My hip flexor was over tired and the unsteadiness of the sand nearly did me in but I was so close I just kept thinking of my running friends that would be so happy for me. I wanted to so badly to finish and go call them so we could rejoice together! Thankfully I survived the sand, kept up my pace and crossed the finish line while the clock read 3:14:40. Faster than I had ever dreamed of running. The crowd was actually all cheering. I’ve never finished a race and had the crowd cheering. It was awesome. (There was a minor error in the course so my actual finish pace was 7:35, time of 3:20, still plenty fast to qualify for Boston's new time requirement of 3:35!)

I waited at the finish line and just 5 minutes later Tom came powering through with a time of 3:20. So amazing!!!! His knee gave him grief but he managed to push through it anyway and didn’t give up. He just kept going and going, dragging his leg along and PR’d by nearly 40 minutes!!! Outstanding! No one was at the finish line so we just hobbled around and got some snacks and such. My hip flexor was killing me and I was dragging my leg around but we made it back to the finish line in time to cheer for Adina, Peter and Dave O. as they ran in from the half marathon!

The stats were posted and we were able to see that in fact I actually was the first woman to finish the marathon! There were
only 9 men ahead of me. Tom came in close at number 14. He took second place in his age division! What an accomplishment!!! We waited around for the awards ceremony and it’s a good thing we did because we both got nice pint glasses for winning in our age divisions and I got a glass boot and a beer stein for being the first place finisher!!!



You can check out the race results here: http://www.accustatsportstiming.com/results3.asp?ei=108

After finally sitting down and taking a brief rest my hip felt better and I was just so happy and excited. The race was actually fun, enjoyable thanks to having Tom’s company and exciting in the end to actually win! Calling my friends and family was as fun as I had hoped it would be. It’s great to have friends who love you so much they are so happy for your success. All around a great race. We spent the rest of the day in Leavenworth but I was too tired to remember much of it. I do remember my favorite part was sitting around the fire eating delicious tri-tip. Thank you everyone. The list is long including the help with getting the hotel, the food, watching the kids, encouraging me to run, pushing me to run fast, and simply cheering from the side lines. For being such an individual sport it sure does take a whole team to make it happen!