Russell Family Chaos '08

most people spend their summer family vacations on an exotic island, soaking up the sun or at disneyland then to the beach....not the russell's. that would be too normal. so here goes the Russell Family Vacation 2008

Friday night to the cabin in midway---Saturday, 5 a.m. while my mom, brooke, kerri, and i were sleeping on the deck scott came to wake up my mom and tell her mattie is in labor and he's going to take her to the hospital. (guess he wouldn't be doing the triathalon anymore)...i was awaken 3 more times (once by my mom screaming in her sleep because a big red frankenmonster was coming after her) before finally my dad said it was time to get up and get ready for the triathalon...kerri and i got ready and my dad dropped us off at the check-in...we rode our rented road bikes about a mile and a half in, trying desperately to figure out how to shift down (i finally humbled myself enough to ask someone)...when we got to the check-in we realized we forgot i.d. my race was starting in 30 minutes, and kerri's in an hour and a half. the i.d. didn't get there in time for my race, so after riding back and forth 3 times (almost 9 miles total) one of the race coordinators told me i could still do the sprint length...we started about 10:05. the swim was first and i have never been swimming in a wet suit before...it was really heavy but i think i did okay. kerri forgot goggles so she kind of improvised swim strokes but did pretty well either way.

after the swim was the 13 mile bike ride. i tend to pace myself really slow when i bike cause i don't feel the necessity to go any faster than the speed i'm content with, so really it was a pleasant pretty ride until my butt started to hurt. i was only wearing running shorts over my swimming suit so i didn't have any sort of padding. the last part was a nice steep downhill (the same downhill i got in ragnar!) then flat the rest of the way.

the worst part was definitely transitioning from the bike to the run...for the first mile my backside was yelling at me so it was more like a survivor shuffle. i jogged past this lady and she said as i passed "you go!" then as i got further ahead she yelled "the hell you go, you're 19!" i was about to say "actually 18" but then i decided to avoid making anyone angry...the best way to describe the run is pretty chill. there was a lot of uphill and downhill and all the serious triathaletes were done by then, so everyone was really tired and just didn't seem to care to make some amazing time. it was basically a leisurely jog/walk for most...i got that last bit of adrenaline as i got close to the finish line and sprinted the rest.

after the finish we drove down the canyon and at 3:22 p.m. at 7lbs and 20 inches, Jonah Scott Russell was born! i won't give details cause i don't want to steal mattie's thunder when she posts, but he is so adorable with tons of dark hair.

we went to the hospital about 5 p.m. to see my first nephew then i remembered i hadn't eaten since 7:30 a.m. and i was starving and exhausted. after a satisfying meal at cafe rio and a hard earned ice cream from neilsen's i went home and crashed outside for a couple hours, woke up for about 30 minutes to talk on the phone then slept till 9:30...i slept about 12 hours in 24 and it felt so good. sunday (today) after nalu's farewell we went back to the hospital to see the baby again...he changed a lot in 24 hours- his cone head was gone and he had had a bath...we had cake and ice cream for my mom's birthday and gave out vacation souveniers, the best one being scott's--a liscense plate frame my mom and i found at the italian festival that said "for honor we go to don corleone"...the vacation ended up a little different than what was planned, but it's definitely one i'll never forget!

peace+love

peanut butter--bikes--and boys

as i make a sad attempt at finishing unpacking the remainder of my belongings i am musing about this past year and decided to take a break from my diligent focus on the task at hand...it has been a speedy two semesters but i've learned a lot, including about needs and wants...there are three things i could not have survived this year without: peanut butter, my bike, and boys....it would disgust anyone if i counted the number of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches i ate this year...my bike was my mode of transportation and it was wonderful! i had a basket for my backpack and it only took 15 minutes to school and 7 home...living with girls is not easy to say the least...so much hair, attitude, perfume, estrogen, all packed into a box-sized apartment...i really came to understand that boys and girls truly cannot live without each other...that is why all of the people i hung out with were boys...i don't know how much they loved me being the only girl most of the time, but i won't lie, having 5-8 guys to hang out with on the weekends without having to deal with any girls was a huge blessing...anyway, here are some highlights (and low) from the year...

• the halloween dance...it was the first social event i attended at byu and i went with emmett who had asked me out almost every weekend since the semester started...i was just playing hard to get...actually, it was the first weekend i decided to actually stay in provo and do something, and it taught me that i can find normal people in provo, and i liked hanging out with emmett cause he thought i was funny (even though i wasn't trying to be funny, that's just how i dance)





• the first snow...none of my roommates have lived where there was snow that stuck on a regular basis, so we did a snow dance and had hot chocolate and donuts at midnight...the next night (or sometime thereafter) it snowed!





• dating logan--despite the fact that he's not the nicest person on the face of the earth, dating him really was fun while it lasted...plus i learned a lot from the whole experience, including how to throw a punch (no-i never used it on him, but if the need presented itself at least i knew how)...
• volunteering at the youth detention center really was the highlight of every week...we worked with short-term boys...i use the term "worked" loosely - basically it was our job to come up with some sort of activity to do with them every week and it was a blast! the boys really were great with the biggest hearts and they loved having us there...and our group was amazing! we became good friends and want to volunteer together again in the fall...(picture of the group hopefully coming soon)
  
  
  
• the crazy stuff i did with the alta boys (mom's old students)...they became my closest friends who i hung out with every weekend...they were good at coming up with unconventional ways to have fun....from shaving cream wars, blowing up stuff in a microwave from D.I.,
  
  
  swimming in the hot springs to brandon farting on me, sitting around talking, or making a mess of ryan and steve's kitchen! i'm looking forward to the summer, we just got back today from camping at little sahara-what an adventure! (pictures of camping coming soon)

• the rex lee run! i suggest that anyone that goes to byu, do it! lani and i leisurly jogged it, finished in a sufficient amount of time (meaning like 40 minutes), came home and made chocolate chip pancakes...it really was like a big party!





• byu splash 'n dash (see related story below)
• spending my life in the library for the month before finals...i really ate 2 meals a day there and took naps--it's weird, but so fun!

i'm glad to be home...i missed my despo sisters so much and kerri and i have way too much fun beating up on each other, and congrats to mattie and scott-i'm so stoked about my new nephew! but i feel pretty great about life now that i survived freshman year...i've heard it gets easier, and one of the hardest parts of life is over...and the weird thing is, i actually enjoyed it sometimes! (don't tell anyone, but i think in 4 months i'll even be excited to go back...)
peace+love

BYU Splash n' Dash

on tuesday, march 25th i was walking around campus and saw advertisements for the Splash n' Dash, a triathalon sponsored by BYU...scott and i had been talking about the triathons and races we were going to do all summer, so i thought, hey i'm in pretty good shape and this could be a good way to practice so why not? i signed up for the standard level: 1/2 mile (16 1/2 laps) swim and 5k (3.1 mile) run...saturday rolled around, i woke up about 9:45 a.m., made a big bowl of oatmeal ate the rest of my wheat french bread...i sort of lazed around all morning, read my scriptures, and got ready to go...i got to the RB for my heat at 12:30 p.m. i swam a warm up lap and talked to the girl i shared a lane with..i was a little nervous just because i hadn't ever done anything like that before, but i knew i could finish...we started and i did not pace myself well at first...by the second lap i was breathing hard and knew my adrenaline had gotten ahead of me and i needed to slow down if i wanted to last 14 more laps...i paced myself and felt like the swim went really well (except that alicia, who was kind enough to count laps for me, had to pull me out of the pool cause my arms were so sore), anyway my final time for the swim was 16:34.30...pretty decent for an untrained swimmer....i threw on clothes over my suit and started running...the clock does not stop so there is no break between events...the first mile was sheer hell...i didn't give myself enough time to breathe, and was panting all the way down canyon road...i came to the uphill and thought i might die...probably .7 miles uphill and the whole time my brain was thinking "what have i been doing wrong in my life that would make God take me off the earth right now? what do i need to fix?" yet somehow my legs kept moving...i got to the top of the hill and thought i could recover on the short down slope...instead i got a crazy bad side ache on the left...i tried thinking about other things, i tried running with my arm above my head, but nothing worked...i think that the pain of a side ache is magnified at least twelve times when you're running after swimming 1/2 mile at least 2 minutes faster than you normally do...i couldn't take it anymore so i started walking...i had walked about 30 or 40 yards when this guy came running up behind me, passed me, then turned his head and motioned for me to start running again...he was yelling something but i had my head phones in so i just kept thinking "no, go ahead, just leave me here to die"...he kept waving and slowed down his pace so i reluctantly started jogging and caught up to him...to give you an idea of what kind of guy he was, we were right in front of the creamery on 9th and a woman had dropped her grocery bags, so he stopped, picked them up, and started running again...anyway, he started asking me questions and talking to me to keep me distracted and keep me from walking...i found out he had never done a biathalon, his name is bryan, and he hadn't really swam since he was 12 which is why he had such a hard time with the swimming...we ran together for about a minute and he asked if i could push a little harder, i responded "if i push any harder you'll be carrying me across the finish line" (okay i wasn't that witty, but give me a break, i was in pain)...he said "okay, i'm going to pick up my pace a bit, but you just gotta keep running" i said okay, thanked him and he took off...i was waiting for him to get out of sight so i could start walking again...then i saw him go out to the road, pick up a sign directing the runners where to go and put it back in place then continue running...after i saw that i thought, "this guy just slowed his pace and sacrificed his time to get me running again. the least i could do for him is finish this race running"...so i kept running....it was even more hellish than the first mile...i could feel my breakfast coming up and even threw up a bit in my mouth...every exhale was forced but i kept my mind distracted..i thought about all of these people that have been helping me lately and seeing how this particular experience could relate to life...i came to the road between the brick oven and the tennis courts and thought "i am so done with this race" and sprinted to the finish line...there was bryan, cheering me across...
from this experience i learned 3 things, but i'll let you figure out how it applies to life...
peace+love