Mud Run Fun

A few months ago, Brandy mentioned some Mud Run in Monterey Bay, California which is roughly 2 hours south of where she lives. She thought it would be great for the family to come out for a visit and participate in this run. I had recently gotten my knee scoped at the time, but I felt I could maybe still do it. As the weeks drew closer, I started to think that maybe I shouldn't risk further damaging my knee. And then of course the frostbite hit and I thought it was the end. Well against all advice from Mike and with my doc and physical therapist not knowing, I did it anyway.

Mike went on an all guys ski trip back in February, so to make the trip a little more affordable I decided I would be the only one traveling to California. I have to say how much easier it is traveling alone! I was really excited to be able to hang out with Brandy and play with my nieces without having to worry about my kids.

My mom and I flew in on a Wednesday night and Jeremy picked us up at the airport. My dad was already there since he drove from Utah earlier that day. Delta charges for the first checked bag now, so I was able to let my dad take my luggage. Brandy, my mom, and I hit the outlets that night and then I headed off to stay at Brandy's apartment while my parents took Ava for a sleepover at their hotel. I started to get ready for bed when I realized my toiletry bag was missing from my suitcase. I had packed my bag a week earlier for my dad to take and I was sure I had put it in there. I started doubting myself thinking maybe I had left it back home. I was so irritated because I would now have to buy a toothbrush etc the next day. I called my dad to see if he knew anything about it and he denied any wrong doing. Brandy came in with a smile. They had hid my bag! Then, I got into Ava's bed and instantly started laughing. My dad had short sheeted the bed! We used to always do this back in the day on our soccer trips. Seriously how old is my dad?

The next day, we woke up bright and early (just kidding I was on vacation without kids and without my dad staying with me!). Anyway, Brandy, my dad and I went to San Fransisco to rent bikes and ride across the Golden Gate Bridge. Everyone in my family had already done this on previous trips and it was finally my turn.

Growing up my dad would always put himself between us and say he was the rose between two thorns. For our first pic I suggested this and he busted up laughing.

I'm not sure how far we biked, but you can tell how far away the bridge is and this wasn't even the starting point!

I had to get a picture of my dad walking his bike up the hill. Notice who was in front of them taking the picture. Brandy and my dad thought they were biking with Lance himself! J/k. Seriously though my dad did awesome. He recently had shoulder surgery and probably wasn't even supposed to be doing this.

We are getting closer!

Here's Brandy and I at about the halfway point on the bridge. It was beautiful. Kinda scary though. I guess people commit suicide about once a month by jumping. They had crisis phones hanging all along the way.

We rode our bikes into a town called Sausalito and had an ocean side lunch.

We took the ferry back into San Fransisco and road our bikes to AT&T Park where the Giants play baseball. I think just about every trip my dad goes on he has to take a picture of him by some sort of stadium or arena. It was neat to ride around the back and see where people paddle canoes trying to catch a home run ball that makes it out of the ball park.

After all of that biking we had to treat ourselves to the one and only Ghirardelli's. I picked up the tab and 3 ice creams ended up costing $28 and took a mere 3 minutes to eat. Yummy!

On Friday, my dad and I picked up Cami and Todd at the airport. We drove to Monterey Bay and explored the town. We ate at Bubba Gump's Restaurant. We aren't much of a fish family so this wasn't my favorite place to eat.

Saturday was race day. This is how the website described the race: The Mud Run is an approximate five mile loop course beginning and ending at Freeman Stadium on the CSUMB campus. The course is partially on the road and partially on trails and includes hills, water, obstacles, five foot walls and four mud pits. You will get wet and you will get muddy.

The website left out some important details. First of all, maybe a mile was on the road and it was all UPHILL! Secondly, the trails were mostly UPHILL and in SAND!

Brandy, Cami, Todd, and I started out together but Brandy and Todd quickly left Cami and I in the dust. Cami started getting a side ache and I couldn't stop once my knee was warmed up so off I went. The first mile was uphill on a road and then we turned onto the trails where we met our first mud pit. It consisted of roughly 5 barricades in muddy water we had to jump over. Brandy and I thought the weather was going to be cold so we wore tight capris. Dumb idea! They were soaking wet and heavy the remainder of the race. I had to keep pulling them up. A little ways into the trail I caught up with Brandy and Todd. Todd had said he only trained up to 1/2 a mile but I thought he had been kidding the way he took off with Brandy in the beginning. Well, he wasn't kidding. He was huffing and puffing so bad trying to stick it out. Brandy went on ahead, I followed a little behind and Todd dropped off. We continued on the trails and forging through sand up and down hills. I caught up with Brandy again and we stayed together the remainder of the race. We came upon mud pit #2 where army men were kicking water at us and we had to climb over a 5 ft wall. Anyone that has played soccer with me knows I have no arm strength whatsoever. I never threw the ball in for this reason. Brandy jumped up and made it over the wall. I kept jumping but I wasn't able to pull myself up at all. I kinda started getting a panic attack. The mean army men kept splashing me and I didn't know what they would do if they saw me run around the wall. I screamed for Brandy who came back around and pushed me over.

We continued running until Todd zoomed past us. We picked up our pace to match his but he was dying. He said he needed to walk a minute so we did. We started up again and came to our 3rd mud pit. We had to run over a balance beam, climb over another 5 ft wall (which I made this time because there was a plank missing I used for a step), swim through muddy water, climb up a mud hill, and then the mean army people demanded 10 push ups out of you. I went first and later I found out that Brandy followed closely behind only to have Todd shove her off the beam into the water. Glad we waited for him.

Another mile or so, we made it to our final mud pit. Army people were shouting orders and we had to duck under a mesh netting in water and climb up a mud hill. We ran into the stadium and made it to the finish line. Funnest run I have ever done! We are already making plans to do it again next year!

Before the race.

Off we go! I think I can! I think I can!

Here's the final mud pit. You can see Brandy and I at the top in black.

In we go!

This is Brandy and Todd. I had already made it out of the pit.

We made it in 1:00:17. Give me my medal!

Todd made it in a close 1:00:37

Cami eventually made it. I am so proud of her. She didn't even train and she did it. I don't think I could have done that.

One last look at the final mud pit.

After the big race, there was no time for rest. My dad took us to see the famous Pebble Beach Golf Course. Mike and my dad aren't ever going to let me live this down, but I was really hurting (not my knee) so I didn't get out of the car to see the famous course. I might have overdone it a little.

My dad said this was some famous tree they always use as a symbol for the golf tournaments.

On Sunday, we drove to Santa Cruz where they have a boardwalk on the beach. Only, they replaced the boardwalk with concrete about a year ago. Still it was really neat to see an amusement park right on the beach.

Sunday night, Cami, Todd, my mom and I flew home. Of course our plane was delayed 3 hours due to bad weather in Vegas.

I had so much fun. Thanks Brandy and Jeremy for letting us come and visit. It was great going on my own, but I sure did miss my boys. Thanks Mike for taking care of things while I was gone!

Itty Bitty Hoops

Gage started playing Itty Bitty Hoops last week. I sadly had to miss his first game, but from what I hear Gage had a great time. The first 1/2 hour is simply instruction given by the city and the second 1/2 hour is a game against another team. Gage has always been my rule follower and Mike said he listened intently to the instructors. Gage informed me that you are supposed to hold your arms up and if you have the ball you need to pass to someone on your team with their arms up. I was able to go to his game today and I saw Gage grab a rebound and quickly pass it to someone on his team.

They are each given a colored wristband that matches someone on the other team. They are told to guard and stay by that other player. Gage is a little too concerned with his matching opponent. During the game today, I saw Gage running down the court on offense and turning around motioning for his opponent with the same colored wristband to follow.

Here's Gage waiting for the game to start.

Here's Gage and his teammates. His buddy Zach is on the end to the right.

Apparently Gage was determined to be number 5 which was Mike's soccer number.

My friend Heidi was snapping pictures for me since Tanner wasn't being too cooperative. I thought it was nice of her to take one of me because I am never in any pictures. Mike never seems to take on the picture taking responsibilities.

Landen is such a great support for his brother. He is always so excited to go and watch Gage play. Although he never ends up watching much as you can see he's facing the wrong way.

I Love This Weather!

We have been fortunate enough to have nice weather this week. The kids and I have taken full advantage of it. The boys love to be outside and I love to have them out of my house! They will play for hours just running around getting dirty. I love listening to their imaginations and the fun games they invent. The other day Gage and Landen made a course of climbing up the swing set, going down the slide, running around the basketball court, and then jumping off the tramp. Gage had learned about the number 100 that week and they were determined to do this course 100 times. They claim they made it to 73.

We live on what could potentially be a busier road than I had hoped so I am grateful we did a basketball court in the back. It is perfect for Tanner to ride his car on.

Tanner loves this car. He hasn't quite mastered going forward but he is a mean backwards driving machine! He usually ends up backing himself right into the sandbox and needs help getting out.

Down Gage goes!

Gage and Landen always try and do the spider. It never really works out. Someone ends up in the sand.



Tanner loves being pushed in the swing!

I love how all three of the boys are learning to play together. They were off on a flying expedition.

Tanner Gets Tubes

Today Tanner got tubes put in his ears. Earlier in the week, I assured Mike that Tanner would have an early surgery because they always try to do the little ones first right? I obviously forgot that at PCMC most of them are little. We didn't have to be there until 10:30 and his surgery was scheduled for noon. I was totally freaked out about not being able to let him eat until noon. It actually didn't turn out to be that bad except one sad moment. Tanner was able to drink juice until 9 am and then we were in the car running Landen to school and Gage to the sitters. About halfway to PCMC, Tanner started crying and signing the words "more" and "eat." That broke my heart. I couldn't even look at him.

We first went to check in. Mike took care of the paperwork while Tanner and I went and sat down. They had a huge fish tank and toys to play with. Tanner however knew something was up. He immediately started waving and saying, "bye" in a sad little voice. That's what he does when he's ready for the doctors to be gone. After a few minutes, they took us back for the nurse to take vitals and weigh Tanner. He immediately started crying and clinging to me. The nurse said she wasn't even going to attempt a blood pressure because it wouldn't be accurate anyway. Then, the nurse practitioner came in and tried to assess him. She suggested giving Tanner some Versed to help calm him. Downside of it is kids usually wake up from anesthesia angry but it helps them forget the whole event.

This is Tanner right after the nurse left.

Tanner was much calmer after they gave him an Elmo sticker to play with and left the room.

Down went the Versed and it started working pretty quickly. Tanner sat on my lap and let the anesthesiologist examine him. He did cry when I handed him over to her, but I think it would have been a lot worse without the Versed.

We went into the waiting room and checked in with the receptionist. She looked at her list and said it wouldn't be that long of a wait. Some parents came in after us and checked in. The woman was crying. The receptionist looked at her list and said what they already knew. The surgery would take awhile and to let her know when they came and went so she could update them with any information she received. At that moment I realized how blessed and fortunate I am. My kids have been extremely healthy and I am so grateful for that. Every time I go to work I recognize what I have, but having my child go through a surgery at the same time others were going through extremely serious and lengthy procedures hit me. It almost wasn't fair what they had to go through in comparison to me.

It was literally five minutes later when Tanner's ENT came into the room and said everything went great. He said the fluid had cleared up and the retraction had improved as well. I was able to go back to PACU and be there when they woke Tanner up. He looked so small lying there. He was pretty sleepy so they had to use a washcloth to get him going and he immediately asked for milk. He gulped down two sippy cups of apple juice and we were transferred out of PACU into another transitional area. This is when the Versed started wearing off. Tanner became a mad man and nothing would calm him down. Tanner wanted more juice and freaked out at the sight of crackers and I ended up with pudding all over me. The nurses didn't want to give him more juice because he had already drank so much and feared he would throw up. He started arching his back and screaming. The nurses finally offered him more juice, but it was too late. Tanner wanted nothing to do with it. All we could do now was wait until the Versed was done. Tanner threw up all over me and then fell asleep. A few minutes later, the nurses said we could go when we wanted. They said to leave the pj's on him and I could bring them back when I worked next. They were afraid the mad man would come back if we tried to change him.

Thankfully we left the pj's on because when we got to Bountiful Tanner threw up everywhere and everything. We had to stop at Mike's grandparents house for a cleanup. He drank way too much apple juice. Good thing I'm a nurse and kept wanting to give him more.

Tanner is now sleeping comfortably. Hopefully we will have far fewer ear infections.

Seriously Pathetic

I am seriously pathetic when it comes to sweets. I just cannot control myself. In my defense, I get it from both my parents so I had no chance whatsoever. I will eat just about anything that is sweet, chocolaty whatever. It would be fine if I could just have a cookie a day. Oh no that would be too easy. When I buy a bag of cookies, I have to eat the entire thing in a day. When I bake brownies, the entire pan is gone in a day. Then I know they are gone and I don't have to worry about them anymore. I also have a confession to make that many people know already. I get up in the middle of the night 95% of the time to go to the bathroom. After that, I am wide awake and instantly hungry. I go and get a snack to eat and it has to be sweet. Then, I can go back to bed. Mike gets so mad because sometimes I bring my drink and snack to bed with me and munch while he's sleeping. I thought moving into a two story would stop this habit because I would have to walk downstairs to get to the kitchen. This hasn't seemed to have affected me at all.

Sometimes when I buy treats, Mike has to split it and hide his portion or else he won't get any by the time he gets home from work. Tuesday morning (yesterday) I brought home from work thin mint cookies I had bought from the Girl Scouts. I gave him a box and I had a box for me. Mike likes to put his in the freezer and wasn't able to hide his. He wrote "Don't Touch Stacey" on the box and said he had counted how many cookies he had left. As I am typing I am finishing off my box of thin mints. What Mike doesn't know is I also bought two boxes of Somoas one of which is gone and the other I busted open in the middle of the night. I am seriously pathetic.

The Merrills Go To The Rodeo

Last Friday, my aunt Kathy got us tickets to go to the College Rodeo at the Golden Spike Arena. My uncle is actually Weber State's Rodeo Coach and was named Coach of the Year this year. I told Landen where we were going that morning and he was so excited to see real cowboys! I told him I had to go to physical therapy and then we would go after that.

This is what Landen was wearing when I got home. Mike said he got dressed himself out of the kids' dress up trunk. Doesn't he look so cute?

We met my parents at CJ's in Ogden to eat dinner before. My dad asked the waitress how old you had to be to eat off the senior menu. The girl shrugged her shoulders and replied, "I'm not sure 62?" My mom instantly spoke up and said, "I thought it was 55." The girl started laughing and said my dad could order off the senior menu. She said she wasn't going to ID him. So when she brought my dad his food she said, "Here's your Senior Country Fried Steak." My dad quickly said to her, "Hey don't say that so loud!" I was laughing so hard. My dad loves being a senior for the discounts, but he doesn't want it known to the world that he is senior eligible.

Dinner was really fun. My kids acted great even Tanner until the end. Tanner sat in between my dad and I. Occasionally Tanner would put his hand in my dad's water when he wasn't looking.



Landen was all business. He loved seeing the "real cowboys."

Tanner sat like this for almost 2 minutes.

Here's my aunt Jodi with her cute granddaughter Avery.

Gage wasn't real excited about being at the rodeo, but he was happy Grandma Pedri was there.

I think we are going to have to get Landen a real cowboy hat. The plastic dress up one just wasn't cutting it for me.

I am so jealous of Avery. Tanner does not give out kisses easily. It is few and far between that I tell him to give me a kiss and he does. My camera has a delay when taking pictures so we had to keep telling Avery and Tanner to do it over and they did!

The Joys of Frostbite

So pictures of my knee currently would be too graphic for others to look at. Let's just say it has blistered and popped. Now I can't do my exercises and losing this precious time isn't something I like. I must be the dumbest nurse because I am not sure what to put on it. I was thinking burn cream because it is kinda like a burn. I have been putting Bacitracin (an antibiotic ointment) on it but it doesn't seem to be helping much. Any ideas of what to put on a bright red open blister due to frostbite?

Some Things Are Colder Than They Appear

Have you ever heard of anyone getting a touch of frostbite from icing down after a workout? If not, you are about to and it of course would only happen to me. As if I don't have enough problems with my knee already.

On Wednesday, I went to physical therapy. My favorite part is the end of course where they put the electrical stimulation machine on and top it with a bag of ice. If you haven't tried it, it's a must! My knee always goes numb and the stim machine makes my muscles feel so good. Well, they ran out of their usual ice bags wrapped in pillow cases so they went to the back of their freezer and pulled out an ordinary blue ice bag that probably hadn't been used for like 6 months. They plopped it on my knee and turned on the stim machine. My knee was instantly numb as usual and I was in heaven. Ten minutes later, they removed the ice and electrodes and what do you know? My knee was frozen! The top of my knee what white and hard like leather. We quickly moved my skin around and warmed it up. I thought nothing of it and we all kinda laughed about how cold it got.

On my drive home, my knee starting itching like crazy. I lifted up my pant leg and my knee was bright red and it looked like it had a huge hive on it. I had a touch of frostbite! Here are some pictures of my knee two days later. Just ignore the chubbiness of them. I am still trying to get my muscle back. It feels like a burn and stings every time my pant leg rubs across it. The redness has gone down a lot and so has the swelling. I go to physical therapy today and I can't wait to tell them what happened!

Gotta Love Cowboy Boots

Landen absolutely loves his cowboy boots that he got for his birthday this past November. However, he rarely wears them because he doesn't want them to get dirty with all of the snow and rain. I can already imagine what he will look like rolling in his boots this summer with shorts on. Anyway, his buddy Ava came over last week because she got new pink cowboy boots and had to show Landen. He of course had to put his on.

Don't they both look adorable? Ava's boots even light up!

Tanner Goes to the ENT

Tanner has had 5 ear infections in his 18 months. For 3 of the 5 ear infections, we have had to use multiple antibiotics. My pediatrician felt it was a good time to see the ENT. So today I headed down to PCMC. Tanner absolutely hates the doctor. He starts crying the second he sees the cute medical assistant. Today he cried while being weighed and measured. He finally stopped when she left and started up again when the young resident entered the room. He looked in both of Tanner's ears and said there was fluid in both of them, but no infection. Sitting fluid isn't the best thing so the resident guessed that the doctor would let me choose whether or not I wanted to get tubes. He felt Tanner was borderline. Well, I am all for tubes! Gage had them and it was finally an end to multiple doctor visits at all times of the night. In the back of my mind however, I was thinking about how this was going to cost at least my deductible of $500. Money I don't really have. I thought maybe the doctor would say to wait for one more infection and I would agree with that.

The ENT came in and Tanner started up his screaming again. He looked in Tanner's right ear and asked me if I knew that his eardrum had burst. I asked if he was talking about recently or if he was seeing a previous thing. He said it was from previously because he could see scar tissue. I said I knew one of them had burst at one time. I was thinking to myself is that really a big deal? I mean I know it's not the best when the eardrum bursts but sometimes you don't know they have an ear infection until it's too late. The ENT said that because of the eardrum bursting, it had thinned the lining causing negative pressure and making this lining cave inward. He said if we let it go the pressure would continue to pull it inward creating a cyst pocket which would need serious surgery. I was shocked. I asked what we needed to do to fix it. He said putting in tubes would equal out the pressure and hopefully the ear would correct itself. He also said Tanner would need to come in for yearly visits for the next couple of years even after the tubes fall out to ensure the cyst pocket never forms.

Well, I guess my decision was made for me. March 18th Tanner will get tubes. I am so glad my pediatrican took the conservative side and referred me to the ENT after only 5 infections. I have heard stories where it took up to 12 infections before tubes were placed!