The Chamna Chase

The Chamna Nature Preserve is a crispy-brown, dusty little pocket of a place down by the Yakima River that is cris-crossed by narrow one-man footpaths. Jeff and I ran a 10k trail race there on Saturday: the Chamna Chase. Jeff ran it last year as I stood on the sidelines with Jay, Rose, a big heavy Amber belly, and my aching feet. This year I couldn't have felt more different than I did that day! Grama Leslie came to the race with us to watch the kids while we ran. The race was put on by the Nomad Trail Runners of Eastern Washington, and they added just enough quirky zest to the event to make it a true gem of a race. I mean, they had a guy dressed in a hairy black gorilla suit wandering through the sagebrush like Sasquatch!

All week before the race I was kind of dreading the sheer effort of running 6.2 miles fast, and I was wondering why I had even signed up for another race at all. This was my second race post-Amber. I don't have anything to prove! I've finished dozens of 10k races in my life. Why do another one? Running takes considerably more effort these days than it used to. It sounded daunting and plain old tiring, right up until I did a 10 minute warm-up jog just before the race started. I felt as light as a feather! It was the great stroller liberation 2.0! My arms were practically floating without a 95 pound stroller weighing them down, and we were on a TRAIL. I had plans to start easy and build into a good pace to hopefully avoid hitting the wall at mile 4 like last time, but when the gorilla walked across the trail signaling the start of the race, I couldn't reign it in. I dashed! And it felt awesome! The first three miles were a breeze. I had to really work for the last 3 miles, but I managed to finish in 52:57. Jeff finished in 39:30--second place overall! I was the third overall woman finisher. My mile pace had a steady drop off the whole race but I was surprised that I managed to run the pace I did. Whew! We had several friends there running too, which added to the cheery ambiance. This was my favorite race that I've done since our Virginia SVU days. Good running vibes abounded throughout the sweaty dusty duration. 

Those Nomads took a TON of pictures and then shared them with everyone. Otherwise, you'd just have to take my word for it regarding Mr. Gorilla Guy... 

The guy must have been SWEATY in there.

To start the race, they did a three-two-one countdown and then the gorilla-man walked across the trail. That was the signal to start running. Bahaha.

That lady next to me ran both the 6k race and the 10k race--and WON BOTH races! A true trail Nomad.

Running with my friend Leslie. Yes, she's about 8 inches shorter than me. :) She's great!

Uphill finishes are rough. Ok, ok, it wasn't exactly a hill. But it was definitely an incline.

That's not the gorilla chasing me--Jeff came back and ran the last quarter mile in with me.

Awards with Rose--as if the free hot dog wasn't enough (I gave mine to the kids). I could not find a picture of Jeff's award. I promise I'm not trying to be selfish and make this all about me! He got a hat and a gorilla shot glass too!

Victory hats! Well, second and third place hats! We've been running races together since before we even dated.

 I let this tired little baby explore the dusty gravel. She even tasted it...eeek...

Those little fists!

Dust baby! Not pictured: dusty Jay and dusty Rose.

THE DUST!

My friend Leslie used Photoshop to create a picture of all the people from our ward who ran at the Chamna Chase. There was a kids' 1k, a 6k, and a 10k, and we had people in all three races. Jay and Rose said they want to run the kids' race next year. We all got a kick out of this funny Photoshop-ing. Running is more fun with friends!

Belle Mel

We went away for the weekend--again! September has been busy--we've taken a 2-4 hour road trip every single weekend this month. My sister Mel gave her mission farewell talk in church on Sunday and how could we miss THAT momentous occasion? We thought the 3 hour drive was well worth it, although Amber is so over riding in the car. We did the school pickup and go routine again on Friday afternoon: I picked Jay up from school in Grandview, then we went straight on to Sunnyside to pick Jeff up from school, and from there we drove to Bellevue. It was quite slick and streamlined--no backtracking for us!

We were there for about 48 hours, just like last weekend at the lake. Even though the time was short, we fit in plenty of west-side good times: we walked to the park, Jeff enjoyed a mountainous trail run on his own and I enjoyed running on the mountain with my dad. I'm still sore from that! I stayed up late watching a chick flick with my mom and Mel and her friend. And we all enjoyed spending time together eating my amazing mom's yummy food and being a family. Amber climbed all the stairs.

On Sunday afternoon during church, Mel and my dad sang a lovely, simple rendition of How Great Thou Art together with my mom at the piano. Right after that, Mel gave her talk. Her testimony shined out. I have noticed this while watching each of my three missionary siblings speak in church--Brad, Kyle, and Mel--they SHINED. It's not exactly a physical light glowing in their faces, but every time I looked at their faces while they were speaking, I felt something. They truly had the image of God in their countenances! It gave me the impression that I was looking at a bright light. The gospel is true. It is simple. It is beautiful. It shines forth! Mel was gorgeous up there. Her testimony is strong and firm. She is going to be a powerhouse sister missionary in Cambodia! She leaves on September 30th. I feel so happy and proud of my sweet sister for her firm faith and her desire to serve. Yay for Mel!!

The pictures:

True joy is: a baby in a swing.

These two monkeys could be twins. I love how they are best buddies. 

We love this park--we call it "Grama Meri's park" because the kids have been going to it their whole lives, basically every time we have visited my parents...

Baby Jay at that park

Baby Rose at that park

Baby Amber at that park

Ahh, the legacy.

Ok, now for the rest of the pictures:

Sisters are the best.

Helping Grama make waffles

Watching a movie with Aunt Mel.

When we were looking at pictures on the wall, we realized that Amber looks like baby Shaina. Well, kind of--I couldn't get a picture of Amber in the same pose.

We had to leave after sacrament meeting in order to drive home in time for dinner and school-night bedtime. But we didn't leave without one last picture! {Jay really thought he was smiling} These kids love their Aunt Mel!

We're sure going to miss Mel. See you in a year and a half, sister!

Tonight's family home evening

We had such a dear FHE tonight, I want to write it down so I can remember this sweetness later. During dinner, Jay announced that he had a lesson for family home evening tonight. So he taught us about ways to remember Jesus. He thought this all up on his own! He said "There are lots of ways that we can remember Jesus." Then he proceeded to list some ways, with Rose pitching in every now and then. I wrote them all down in a list and when we were done thinking them up we talked about why it's important to remember Jesus (my contribution to Jay's lesson). Then I explained to Jay that most lessons end with a testimony, which is telling what you know is true and how you know it and why you like it. So he said "I know the scriptures are true. I know Jesus lives. I know we can remember him. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen." WHAT A GREAT LESSON! We told Jay how he's going to be an amazing missionary if he's already this good at teaching the gospel when he's only six  years old.
Here's the list--Jay thought of all of them unless otherwise noted.

Ways to remember Jesus:

* take the sacrament
* do what he says
* pray
* be nice and kind (Jay and Rose both chimed in on these two)
* let people play your games
* don't pick on people
* remember him like you remember everything else with  your brain
* share
* read the scriptures (Jay thought of that with a small parental prompt)
* look at pictures of him (again, a small parental prompt)
* go to church
* make good choices
* go to the temple (parental prompt)
* serve others--help them (my contribution)


After the lesson we had Jay and Rose get ready for bed (cue a Rose-meltdown about hoisting her blanket up into her bed--after some melodramatic sobbing on the floor she finally gave in and listened to my coaching on how to get her blanket up into the top bunk bed. She felt better when she succeeded and we celebrated with her--whew).

Once everyone was ready for bed, we read family scripture and had family prayer. Amber joined in the circle at prayer time, so I helped her kneel down (she's getting pretty good at kneeling these days since she's always up on her knees to reach things). Then we tried teaching her how to fold her hands. Arm-folding seemed too advanced for her 10 months but when everyone in the circle folded their hands over and over a few times, Amber caught on and did it too. It was SO CUTE to see her little soft body kneeling with her hands folded! We all cheered for her. She was glowing with the biggest grin! Then she crawled over to me and climbed/gnawed on my folded hands while I said the family prayer.

Last we played our family game: ring around the rosies. It was Amber's first time playing and she liked it. Jeff and I each held one of her hands and we lifted her around in the circle while we sang for two rounds. She loved the end when we all fell down and then beat the floor with our hands saying "Cows in the meadow, eating buttercups. Thunder, lightning, we all stand up!" She tried beating the floor with her little hands too. The last round we played was an old family favorite, invented by Jeff a few years ago: ring around the rosies, zombie style--aka, ring around the BRAINS. In a loud zombie-ish voice we say "ring around the BRAINS, pocket full of BRAINS! BRAINS, BRAINS, we all EAT BRAINS!" and fall down. Jay improvised the getting up song with "cows are in the meadow, eating buttered brains." HA! We were cracking up.

It was a simple GOOD family night. I'm writing it all down because family home evenings that are as fun and happy as this are kind of rare for us. I loved tonight and I love my family.

Weekend at the lake

The White family got together at my parents' lakehouse this weekend. It was a whirlwind of a trip but we had a nice last slice of summer for two days. We left straight from Jay's school on Friday afternoon and picked Jeff up from Sunnyside High School on the way. It takes us about 3.5 hours to drive to the lakehouse, but it felt longer this time around for some reason. Like most things, long drives are easier in the morning. Oh well, we survived and rolled into the lakehouse just after 6pm on Friday night. Jeff's brother Sam, his mom, and his sister Steph with her husband Jasen were there, along with the two cousins Tate and Layne. What did we do? Lake stuff! We left Sunday afternoon and got home 48 hours after we left. Like I said, it was a whirlwind!

Driving through Chinook Pass is always scenic.

Amber liked the fresh air when we stopped at the top of the pass.

 Amber did NOT like sleeping in a port-a-crib at the lakehouse! She sobbed and cried the first night so I went in and held her till she was sleepy enough not to care. The baby that usually is asleep for the night by 6:30pm didn't go to sleep till 9:30 the first night we were there! Eeek!

We let Jay and Rose stay up an hour or two later than usual both nights we were there since the visit was so short...they were pretty tired!

Relaxing with The Lion King on Saturday afternoon.

Ready to swim!

 Layne and Rose are becoming cute good friends. They're 20 months apart in age, and they play so well together most of the time. I love these cousin friends.

The water was rather cold and Rose didn't last long in it. She spent more time warming up than swimming!

Jeff manfully got in the cold water with the kids. He held Amber out there for a while too--above the cold water level.

I tried an artistic photo.

Jay decided he was ready to kayak on his own, and he did a great job! Jeff swam in the water behind him just to make sure he stayed on course.

Jay took Rose for a ride!

LUNCH.

The annual cousin picture! I had hopes of getting an actual White family picture of all of us but Grampa Dan couldn't make it so we settled for a cousin picture.

All dressed up and nowhere to go...Sunday morning we showed up at the local chapel only to find the parking lot empty. We missed the memo--it must've been stake conference or something! Oh well, points for effort, right?

On Sunday we put everything away, cleaned up, had lunch, and then drove home.