BYU Summer Ballroom Camps

Well, my busiest week of the summer finally came and seemed to pass by just as quickly!

This camp takes so much preparation because it does not run like any other camp we have all summer (mainly because it involved adults). You might think that the kids camps involve more work...but I can assure you that this camp is by far the most work of them all!

But the camp is always a blast, I meet wonderful people from all over,

and the professional dancers are always great to work with!

This is basically were I spend my days during the camp: manning the information tables.

Next are pictures of me with all the professional instructors that we had at the camp.

Again, they were so great to work with.

This is Christian Perry.

If you watch DWTS, he's been on there a number of times as a choreographer and guest dancer.

He also did the "Khaki's Swing" commercial for Gap a long time ago (among other things).

I still stand by my statement from last summer: he resembles a tan Nicholas Cage.

Urs and Agnes. They were here for 2 weeks because they worked both Adult and Youth Ballroom camps. Urs is German and Agnes is Polish.

There dance numbers at the banquets were AMAZING!

Pierre and Mireille.

The cutest couple!

They are from Canada and have the sense of humor to match.

Such a great couple and I was shocked to see how well they still fly across the dance floor!

Thomas and Isabella.

These two have more energy than you could find ANYWHERE!

Rumor has it it's all the caffeine (mainly for Thomas).

They are both from Poland.

They had the most energized performance at the banquet.

Tomas and JT.

Two of the nicest people I've ever met. Very kind, very gracious!

JT is just this ball of spunkiness and

Tomas...well, he's always voted 'best looking instructor' by the girls in the office.

Tomas is also Polish and JT is from the good 'ole US of A.

After a FUN FILLED Adult Ballroom camp, the next week began the Youth Ballroom camp.

I'm able to breath a little easier this week while my student planner, Amy,

steps in and handles alot of it!

This is me with Jonathan and Anna.

They are frequent dancers on DWTS.

They are both hilarious and very down to earth, and you can see how much

fun they have in together in their marriage.

I was able to drive them to the airport that morning they left and they were just so chill.

I seriously can't believe how much they travel every year...INSANE.

Amy and I with both couples at the Youth Ballroom Banquet.

All the professionals are so gracious in taking SO MANY pictures at the end of the

banquet with all the participants who request them.

And Agnes was nice enough to give me her flowers at the end of Youth Ballroom because they were headed to another event and she couldn't take them with her.

Time to start preparing for next year already!

If you want to learn how to ballroom dance from some great professionals,

come on out!

The Spudman Triathlon

On July 25th Rand and I competed in the Spudman Triathlon in Burley, ID.

This was my second time doing this triathlon and Rand's first.

Last time I did this triathlon (3 years ago), I trained about 5 days a week for over 2 months prior to the race.

This year, since I am in far worse shape than I was 3 years ago,

I decided to train just a handful of times!

NOT WISE!

Basically I had only a few goals going into this race:

1. Don't drown (always my #1 goal)

2. Finish the race

3. Don't walk during the run

I'm happy to say I accomplished all three goals. One day I'll set a time goal too! haha!

It was definitely fun to have Rand competing with me this year.

His parents all came up with us to watch and cheer us on.

Here we are finding a good spot to leave our running gear for the bike-to-run transition

the night before the race.

Setting up our bikes the night before as well.

Always important to remember where you put your stuff or your transition times are horrible!

A few minutes before Rand's heat began.

Once they are in the water, it's hard to know who it who since most everyone is in wetsuits and wearing the same color cap.

Rand's mom found me after the swim as I was heading out on the bike portion.

Rand at the bike-to-run transition.

Here Rand is running into the finish line.

It's definitely nice to finish on a downhill!

Here I am coming in to the finish (in the middle).

I had been running with the girl in front of me towards the end, but my knees were killing me (lack of proper training) so she went ahead for the last quarter mile.

But the competitive side of me always kicks in and we crossed the finish line at the same time.

Here we are SO happy for the race to be over!

Rand finished 16th in his division (out of 94) with a time of 2:21:30

I can't wait to see what he pulls off when he legitimately trains for a race!

I finished with a time of 2:55:55

I can't tell you my actual placement because there were girls in my category who

started with an earlier heat, therefore shaving 20 minutes off their time.

I think I officially finished in the top 1/3.

My time three years ago was 2:54:48 (I finished 22nd out of 63).

So my time this year was very comparable to 3 years ago.

I wonder how I did that considering I am in MUCH worse shape and trained less.

Let me assure you...the pain I felt after the race this year was the difference!

And of course, what better to throw into your body after a big race than something like this:

Seriously, for some reason after a big race this is all your body craves!

And we feel it only necessary to reward our bodies for finishing such a feat. :o)

After the race we drove back to Utah.

My sister-in-law Lacey was visiting her family and we decided to stop by and see her.

It was my first time seeing my new nephew Efraim,

and it had been about 7 months since seeing his big brother Hyrum.

They were so excited to see us as you can see in the following pictures!

Oh well!

Loved holding Efraim while he was asleep, and it was definitely good to see Lacey!

Besides, we made a trip out to see my family in August and we got

plenty of fun time with these kiddos!

More on that later!

The saddest thing about this triathlon (which is my favorite one) is that I won't be able to do it next year due to my work schedule. This year the race was the day before the start of my biggest camp (how I pulled off doing it was insane).

But next year it is the Saturday after that same camp. Seeing as how the camp ends around midnight, I don't think I'll make it up in time for that race (nor would I have the energy!)

2 Years!

Rand and I celebrated our 2 year anniversary in July.

Because the summer is so insanely busy for me, and Rand was swamped himself with school, we decided to keep things small with just dinner and a movie.

I thought it would be great to go to one of our favorite restaurants.

We went there quite a few times when we were dating and we always loved it!

It had great food (one of the few places this picky eater could try something new and not fear!)

It also had this nice, quiet and chill atmosphere.

The owner (who was actually Italian) always came around EVERY time I had been there and would ask how your meal was.

And occasionally, some nights, there was live music roaming throughout the restaurant.

It was perfect...a nice, personal touch for us on our busy anniversary.

We got dressed up, parked down the street so we could walk a few blocks together

past one of my favorite parks (we also went there one of our first dates...

and it was the same street where we first held hands.)

All was going well...

and then we arrived at the restaurant.

and it was closed!

This is me by the note informing everyone of it's closing.

I couldn't believe it! I was heartbroken. Seriously one of my favorite restaurants ever!

They apparantly sold a few of their recipes that would be sold through Costco and decided to follow that venture and get out of the restaurant business.

So we went to another restaurant instead.

It wasn't the same! It never could be.

But Rand and I still had a wonderful time together, of course!

It's crazy that it's been two years already!

As Rand will always say if you ask him, "Two blissful years." :o)

2 down...and an eternity to go!

I'm back!

Okay, time for some catch-up. I know it's been a long time, but that's what happens when the summer hits for me! My work schedule pretty much takes over and any free time I have is spent creating blog 'memories'...so then there is not time to actually blog about them. :o)

There will be a number of catch up blogs now, so check back often and there will be new stuff!

Well, our last big event was our Hawaii vacation.

Let's be honest, nothing since then seemed quite big enough to blog about after that!

ha ha...just kidding.

For example:

Rand's men's intramural softball team won the t-shirt!

If you haven't participated in them at BYU, then you should know that

winning a shirt is a coveted thing!

You will also notice that there IS NOT a picture of me with my shirt for women's softball.

It's hard to win when people flake out and don't show up to games.

We ended up forfeiting out of tourney, which was lame since I know we had a good enough team to take the whole thing if everyone would have come to the games!

That's the hard part about spring/summer ball...all those vacations get in the way!

FOURTH OF JULY!

I love waking up on the 4th in Provo, looking out the window and seeing all of these in the sky:

'Tony' and the Pig are Provo balloon parade classics!

(thanks to my friend Tawna who I got these pic's from)

I also tried to get somewhat festive and make this flag cake.

Easily done with pound cake, cool whip, blueberries and strawberries!

We went up the canyon and had a BBQ at the park with some friends.

Here are Rory w/his daughter, Chase and Rand.

Chase and Dana

Rand and I watching the BYU Stadium of Fire fireworks with everyone

It was a fun and relaxing fourth of July!

I also posted a little on that day here