Marine Corps Retirement

Last month, Josh officially retired as an active duty United States Marine.  I would love for him to sit down and write about his thoughts on this and what the last 11 years have been like for him, but I don't think that will happen, so this will have to do. :)

We have reflected a lot about what path our lives might have taken had we not decided to take the plunge and head off to Quantico in October of 2002.  When Josh first presented the idea of pursuing a career as an aviator in the Marine Corps, I really hoped it was just an idea that he wouldn't really pursue.  I was scared for a lot of reasons - scared to be so far from my family and out of my comfort zone, scared to have no control over where we live, scared of the deployments.  It turned out that those were all valid concerns.  Those three things presented significant challenges for us over 11 years.  Going through three cycles of IVF away from my family, and one while Josh was in Iraq, being on bedrest, having premature twins, living in places like Meridian, Mississippi - they were all very trying times for us.  But we got through it and it made us stronger.

I really have no idea, but I will say that I'm SO glad we did it.  It was even harder than I suspected it would be, but it has strengthened us as a couple, family, and as individuals.  We also met some of the best friends we've ever had.  We opened up to people who were different than us, who came from different places, backgrounds and had different perspectives.  I learned how much can be gained from a friendship by loving someone for who they are, and appreciating their own unique perspective, rather than always sticking to people who were more like us (not that I don't adore those friends too).

Also, I couldn't be prouder of Josh for taking the steps to make his dream come true.  It seemed a little "out there" to a lot of people when we told them what we were doing, but everyone thinks its pretty darn cool now.

In recognition of Josh's retirement, his command at RS SLC had a going away dinner for him.  Here is his CO presenting him with a retirement plaque.

Then, later that month, we had all of our family over for a little retirement party.  Nothing too crazy, but it was nice to have everyone there to recognize his service.  We put out a lot of his awards, patches, and a picture book that I made.

 That's it for now.  Now to figure out our next adventure...

Camping in Moab: First time in a tent!

 Earlier this month, we headed down to Moab for a weekend of camping and some fun in the side-by-side.  We went down with Brett and his kids and another friend and his daughter.  This was the girls' first "real" camping trip, i.e. sleeping in a tent.  They loved it - almost as much as they loved setting the tent up in the basement and "camping" there.

We set up camp in the slickrock area.  Here's our group enjoying some breakfast.  Josh made homemade scones over the fire.  Yum.

 Saturday morning, we all headed out to ride fins 'n things, a trail we've ridden before.  It was a little too hot.  Moab wasn't quite ready for summer to be over.

The girls had a great time playing with Leah (and Hayden too).

Heat + camping = a trip to the local Moab pool, probably a highlight for the girls.  There was an indoor and outdoor area, with big slides in both and the girls ran back and forth.

Next year, we'd definitely like to take more camping trips, but I will be more picky about the weather.  Call me a fair weather camper, but 95 degrees is no bueno when there's nowhere to escape.  But we did have camping on our summer checklist, so I'm glad we made it happen!

Big Cottonwood Marathon

This summer has been another summer of marathon training.  Lots of early Sunday mornings sweating it out for a few hours.  But this year I had company!  It was so much fun training with Brynn and we put our training to the test on September 14th at Big Cottonwood Marathon.  Our main goal for this race was to get a solid BQ time so we could go right home and register for Boston 2014 before it filled up.  We accomplished those goals and ran a solid 3:14 on a downhill course.  It was a lot of fun.

Here we are waiting at the top of Guardsman pass for the race to start.  The race did not get started without a hitch.  There were about 45 minutes where we were wondering if it would happen at all.  Here's why:

That's a bus, carrying a bunch of runners, trying to make the turn up Guardsman pass.  Mr. bus driver got himself high centered right over that hill.  This is a problem when the canyon is lined with other buses waiting to bring the rest of us up to the top of the canyon.  It's also a problem when there's no other way up.  We were still 3 miles from the race start, so there wasn't going to be any running up.  After a very amusing 45 minutes of watching a bunch of skinny runners try to push the bus off, while everyone else wandered around in the dark canyon trying to find somewhere to pee, they finally had us walk up 1/2 mile where another bus picked us up and shuttled us all up to the top.  Then eventually the bus was towed off.  We started 45 minutes late.  Oh well.

 The race itself was tricky.  It's difficult to run a course like that and we started out with a bunch of people who were trying to run a 3:05.  We paid for running that fast in the canyon and slowed WAY down after we came out onto the flat/hilly parts.  The last six miles were a bit of a death march - moreso than most marathons.  But it was enough to get both of us a PR and BQ.  It sure was fun to see our families at the finish.

 Now, we will take on a long winter of running in order to line up ready to go on April 21st, the day before Brynn's birthday.  Can't wait!!