What have I been doing for the last couple of months?

Yeah, I know. I've only posted one blog post on here in the last two and a half months. I've been moving and trying to get settled in up here at our new home in the Northwest. I have some photos to share of me running. I also have some pieces of news. I'll start with the fun photos. While I was in Utah in August and September, I ran quite a bit up in the Mountains. This first photo is on my first mountain run up to an 11,000 foot peak up Little Cottonwood Canyon. I think the name of this lake is Cecret Lake. Yeah, it's spelled really funny.


It was tough running up here because I had been living down at sea level. It was lots of fun though, I saw a couple deer and even a moose.

This next one was from a couple days later on a run up Big Cottonwood Canyon. It is a self portrait.


Great shot right?

While in Utah I also ran up Mount Timpanogus with Thayne. It was a really great run except for the fact that I sprained my ankle pretty bad on the way down. It popped really loud. I thought for a minute that I had broken it. I had to take a couple weeks off. but it's doing better now. Here I am at the top of Timp.


We had to be down from the top to block the wind. It was cold up there. We left at five something in the morning and made it to the top at seven something. It took just less than two hours to get to the top. Here's another one:


And here is a photo I have of Thayne.


If it weren't for him I probably wouldn't have made this run. Thanks for your blog. This photo was taken at the saddle, still a mile or so from the top.



Well, we had fun in Utah, then we made our way up here to the northwest. I started school and on campus I saw signs up that they were wanting runners for their new cross country team. I thought that sounded like fun and I've been running with them now for three weeks. I've already had two races. I took it easy at first because of my ankle, but I think my ankle is pretty much completely healed. It is still slightly swollen, but it doesn't hurt anymore.

Here are a couple photos from my first race. This was on October 4th.


My team is in the middle wearing the black uniforms. I'm the second from the right, in the second row.


And here I am running really fast right after the race started. I'm in front, my teammate following close behind me. He ended up finishing about 30 seconds faster than me. We run 8 Kilometer races. It's a lot different than running a marathon or a 50 miler, but it's still fun. I'm definitely not one of the faster ones.

Other than running, I've been doing a lot. My classes are all pretty easy. I already know most of the information and they are all online right now. Amanda is still doing her scoping work. It's been about a month now that we've been here. We still have a couple of boxes laying around that need unpacking. It will eventually get done. Probably about the time that we are ready to move again.

My parents live about two hours away from here if there is no wait for the ferry. I love going up to visit them. We have been up now three or four times. My dad is dieing of lung and brain cancer and I've been trying to get up to see him as much as I can before he goes. It is nice to sit and talk with him and help him out around the house. I think my mom needs just as much support as he does right now though too.


This is a nice three generation photo of my son, me and my dad. We all love my dad very much and can't stand the thought of loosing him. I hope you enjoyed the video I put together of him in my last post. It is a work in progress.

Well that's about it for now. I'll keep you posted on how my running is going. I only have three more races in this season. I'm not sure what I will do after the last race of the season, probably find a marathon somewhere to run.