Iceland (part 1)

This week I finally started telling people I was leaving because they literally CAN’T see me for PT. And some people get mad about that for whatever reason. Oh well. 

I helped my boss out at work, so she offered me “whatever I want” for lunch. So I chose steak. And ribs. And met Rog at Texas Roadhouse for a nice date. We even took a tour at Sportsman’s and saw Becky and Brandt eating too.

Per request, the older girls in YW met up to have a cooking night. We made tacos and brought some to a less active YW. The girls were the most scared about that part, but afterwards kept saying it was really fun. (The plan is working).

Rog drove me to the airport on Friday morning (early) both to beat traffic and make my flight. I flew out at 10 to Minneapolis on my first airline experience where I could check in early AND they couldn’t give me a boarding pass to my connecting flight (different airline). 

After several sweat hours, a layover, and a Subway sandwich, I made it to Iceland at 6am, aka midnight my time. That’s fine, we just dropped our stuff off at our hotel and ate at Brikk, my new favorite Icelandic bakery. 

We saw the classic church and explored the downtown. We walked the longest 2 miles of my life to the lighthouse, but we did get to take a break when we met a lovely Satanist who invited us in for tea and to her illegal cat museum. Which we did. Obviously. 

We had famous hotdogs for dinner and went on a whale watching tour to see 1 puffin. We did get vouchers to go on another tour free, but we’ll see. We crashed so hard after a nice shower.

The hotel had a 10/10 breakfast and we got our car to do some touristing that’s more my style. We drove to a crater with a lake inside that was cool but our GPS told us to do some off-roading to get there and that was definitely not necessary.

But then we went and explored under some cool waterfalls and did some glacier hiking with my boy Pavic. He taught us all about it including some scary realities about global warming.

We made it to Vik, all the while enjoying this beautiful countryside full of goats. And ate some fried camombert and pizza. 

Nice Face.

This was a recovery week still, but mostly from illness. My body felt pretty good to go starting Monday. As long as I didn't have to walk downhill too steeply. Which I did on Wednesday since I joined the deacons & beehives on a lava caves hike. It was basically straight down into a hole, around a loop, and back up. Worst part was actually "midget land" - where the ceiling is 3-4 feet high for about 50 feet. 

The descent.

My work schedule was a bit crazy this week since none of my patients ever wanted to see me. Every day, I redid my schedule like 3-4 times just to make sure it was full. But if they cancel the day of, there's not much I can do. So one day I was able to bring home some ice cream and meet Rog for a late spaghetti lunch. 

I didn't do much working out this week just because my lungs are still shot and I was trying to get some extra sleep. But I did go to my boxing class and made it all the way through. I stayed in my little corner and had a good time. 

Weird lighting, but nice lake.

Roger was really excited when I suggested a breakfast date and some archery practice post. Words he used to describe my shooting "wonderful",  "incredible". Let the record be set. (I also was only shooting at 20 yards, but still.)

Also nice face. 

He left to head up to Page and I went to get some sewing stuff at Joann's for a new project. And then to a dance recital which was wayy longer than I anticipated but also pretty dang good. One of our girls won an award and did a solo performance, which was cool to see. 

He's getting better at this. 

Sunday we went birdwatching and I did some final playing with the camera and tripod and some of my new lens filters. I'll be partway across Iceland this time next week. 

Ragnar #SuperFit&FlatChested

 What a week. After hearing Deek and Shannon were sick with possibly covid, I'm wondering if I had the same thing since I got sick like right after spending that second weekend up there. It seemed a lot like allergies and lack of sleep to start out with, but the fact that I'm still coughing to the point of making myself puke, it's a lil sus. Will I get tested? Probably not. I'm good enough and I have to wear masks and gloves everywhere anyways. 

Of course at a UT camp, we have to unload with THESE.

This week I put the hustle in so I could have a short day on Thursday. So my first three days were busy with lots of patients and lots of documentation, but I made it through. Rog and I went to BW's again for the Sun's game and some garlic parm wings. Consensus is still that the bone-in are better. I like the crisp. 

Before. (Minus 1).

 I also went to our combined YW/YM activity this week, where we were practicing the skits for Quest in a few weeks. It did not go well. Or efficiently. And by the end some of the girls were eying me to get them to wrap it up. That's what I'm good at.

The chute out the gate

Thursday, I had 2 patients and was done by 10am. Just in time to wait for Roger to get home. And to pack. And to decide he was ready. And to drive to Page. And to wait for Stu to pack. You get the picture? I'm so glad they were really pushy about me getting off early otherwise we never would've made it to Zion by 6pm. 

On his way to round 2 (the hard one)

We got unpacked and ate spaghetti and took all our vitamins and drank until we were constantly peeing. We checked out the village and scored some free swag and an earlier start time. And we just hung out and tried to sleep and woke up long before 8:45 to see Vanessa start out of the gate. There were 400 teams with 8 runners and start times every 15 minutes from 8:30 until 2pm. 

The end.

I started with the middle loop around 1pm and it was hot hot hot as I ran up a mountain. Then another mountain. Then back down in the sand. It was awful. I was runner #5 and by the time I got back, our 8th runner had actually arrived on site, so that was comforting. We had some fajitas and did some stretching and icing and took some shots of anti-inflammatories between legs. 

The most challenging photo.

My second leg was the easy track around 9:15pm and it was super fun except that there were some steep rocky downhills and my knees were not happy. I iced and got a snack and Rog and I chilled alone in the hot tub for a while before trying to sleep for a few hours. 

Just tryna look cool.

My last track was the hard one at 4am. The first half was the (arguably) harder part, because that's where the steeper inclines are, but I loved it. It was fun and beautiful to watch the sun come up at the top of the mountain. The second half murdered me. It was 90% just a really steady incline with no breaks and I was toasted. 

You know hard it was to get onto this platform?

We ended up coming in as the team with the 89th best time overall, which is pretty good since half of us (me especially) were terribly sick and the other half did no training. It was fun to run that kind of a team race. Would do again. Preferably less sick. 

Marriage Counseling #LetsGo!!!

Rog and I met Stu, Becky, and Brandt in Page for burgers, showers, naps, and IVs. Which were all necessary. Karen, Josh, Carol, and Ryan were all there too and it was fun to hang out for a bit - even if we were all so stiff that we could barely walk. Then we drove back to Flag and slept in our own beds.

Spiritual Gift

After not sleeping for 4 days and dealing with Roger's allergies (meaning that I really don't get to sleep at all), I was stoned out of my mind. I did make it to another useless meeting about Quest (that definitely could've been an email). So there's that. And I made it out for volleyball, so hopefully they'll stop bugging me for a while, especially since I can't do it regularly for a while.

I am increasingly frustrated with other adults that I have to deal with. In the church. Like, if you schedule an activity for the YW, maybe at least tell me? Or if you plan an activity, maybe make sure the facility you want to use isn't already reserved. BUT the good news is that the younger girls got their camp shirts done (and we had a good time), the older girls hopefully practiced their Quest skits (not sure how that went but we're doing it again this week), and everyone who went to Sedona loved it. And the YW all taught for Mother's Day and it went well. 

HMD to this lady who I appreciate more as an adult.

Roger and I went on TWO dates this week. We watched the Sun's game at BW's. And Rog was surprised I didn't immediately order our favorite kind of wings, because what if he wanted to try something new? No. Garlic Parm reigns supreme - and the bone-in wings do too. Wonderfully crunchy. We also watched The Kingmen, which is a funny, albeit ridiculous, spy movie. 

And over the weekend, I did nothing. I didn't go to YW or Oly and Roger didn't go fishing. We slept in. We had French toast. We put in the A/C and cleaned the house a bit. And we said hi to his grandma. And then Sunday, we went to Church and took a nap. 

The fit.

On another note, remember how my spiritual gift is getting free stuff? Well I was at a patient's house this week and the son comes in to chat, stops dead, and asks me what size shoe I wear. Because he got some boots to wear for his rock band, but they accidentally sent him women's. And that's how I got some new shoes and a lemon cake. 

Trevor's Wedding (parts 2/3)

 After finishing 75 hard, I did not want to go to the gym. I did do some stretching PRN and I ran 7 miles one day in anticipation of our Ragnar in 2 weeks. This week, I have a good mix of team workouts and running planned so I hopefully won't hate it too bad. And my new shoes are prime. 

Ready for some Uptown Funk. 

Monday night, I went to a violin recital for two of our YW. It was very casual compared to my past experiences. They both play in the advanced group, which was the best part by far. I was glad I could go support them. 

Me & Rog Mahal. 

Otherwise I had a pretty chill week. Lots of reading, since I had to finish Derek's House of Leaves - which happens to be the first book that I've ever read that I feel actually deserves some literary analysis. And I finished one other book that I've been reading as well as uploading some YT vids for my PT channel. (Which is doing pretty well so far). 

It took a lot to get her up in the tree house.

Rog and I drove up to Page late Thursday night and I immediately zonked out. Or tried to - I don't sleep well if Roger doesn't and he was suffering with allergies. It didn't help that we woke up at 4am to get up to Provo. We had a few minutes to relax before heading to Tucano's for my birthday fiesta and Roger's introduction into South American meats. No one left disappointed. Or hungry.

Nothing says classic chins like:
Who's got the butt this time??

Rog, Mint, MGH, and I booked over to the Bountiful temple, where MGH immediately crashed. And Mimi told me she's going to visit Zach's kids (and not Zach, lol). We got lost less often in this maze of a temple than in Provo, surprisingly. And we took our classic family photos, before heading to Ben's house for a swim with Lauren and back to Provo with Brick Oven and cake/ice cream for ol deek and shan's anniversary with some Smash or Pass on the Mummy 2 characters (90% smashes, if you're wondering). 

The Crew.

Saturday morning, we hung out with Roger's sisters Kaylee/Linn who provided biscuits & gravy and introduced us to an Argentine bakery where we feasted on facturas. Then we picked up Rog's mission comp and wife and headed to my mission comp, Carolyn's house for real brick oven pizza - with guest appearances by Mallory, Bryson, Adam, Hannah, MGH, and Minty Fresh. What a vibe. 

We try for nice photos sometimes.

We made it to Trevor's surprisingly well-done ring ceremony (especially since all the details on the invite were wrong). He has a bunch of friends fly out from CT to participate and there was a food truck. No dancing, but MGH got her Uptown Funk in the car. And the Momzilla and Han and I watched She's the Man. Classic. 

These might've contributed to the allergies. 

Rog and I dropped Hannah and Aurora off at home and Roger is already missing her. We need to get together more often. And we booked home - heads full of allergies and tired beyond belief.