Turkey Trot and Thanksgiving Feast

Ahh the joys of blogging.

To some it may seem insanity to run 3.1 miles on an early Thursday morning at the end of November, not only run mind you, but pay hard earned American dollars to do so. But, for the 700 or so participants of this year's annual Mini-Cassia Thanksgiving Day Turkey Trot it is about more than that. What that more is I am sure varies by the person. For some it is the thrill of competition, for others it is about the good cause and money raised, for others it is about simply finishing. I believe Dani and I fall somewhere between simply finishing and the thrill of competition, but a good cause is nice. But, we must start with the beginning...

So, about a month and a half ago, the wifey found out about this 5K race held every Thanksgiving Day. A fun run I believe they call it. Now there is an oxymoron. Fun-Run? When is running ever fun? Running is a fight-or-flight mechanism programmed deep into our brains to protect us from things that could hurt us, things like bears, police, raging bulls, and Richard Simmons. Anyway, Dani and I decided this would be a good event and motivation to get in shape. So the training began. The going was slow but eventually we were able to get up to a point that we could run the distance without having to walk. We often had to run in the cold frigidness of night because that was when we could run together after work. But that was OK, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, or perhaps weaker, oh well. The looming day grew ever nearer and we gathered more and more excited. Eventually the time was upon us and we headed to Burley the night before Thanksgiving. You were encouraged to pick up your racing number, free t-shirt, etc. the night before in order to ease congestion on the busy morning of. Thus was our plan. However the address they provided was rather obscure. We tried Google and we tried Mapquest. We tried the globe and we tried GPS. None provided the solid directions we sought, but undaunted we thought we could "figure it out". Bad idea. we ended up going way too far to the east, and then way too far to the west. Eventually we wound up on some old dirt road driving out into the unknown wilderness with a boding feeling of fear and what may become of us. Was this Turkey Trot some myth devised to get unsuspecting travelers to journey this old dirt road only to have their cars found abandoned up on cinder blocks and never to be heard from again? We should have suspected so, after all it was called a "fun-run". Ridiculous. Well after some phone calls we realized that we had passed the place a long time ago and thus headed back towards the civilization from whence we had come.

All was well after that and after a good night's rest the big morning was upon us. The time was close and so everyone lined up at the start. The countdown began and Bang! we were off. Well sort of, because of the massive crowd it took awhile to finally get out to a decent pace. Eventually we got going and things went well. Dani and I separated and each tried to make our own best time. I kept a steady pace and thanks to some "motivational" music (aka Eminem "Till I Collapse" - I found it rather fitting as that is what I wanted to do) I was able to do well considering it being my first distance run ever. As for Dani she had a nice run as well; she thought there was a lot more to go when she came around the last turn and thus was pleased to know the finish was close but didn't quite pace it as she had hoped. At the finish line we were happy to enjoy the sweet taste of victory and knowing that we had completed our task. Overall it ended up being quite the fun-run!

Here's Dani chugging along coming up to the finish!

Here we are after the race along with Dani's cousin Amy.

And here we are with Lucky the Turkey

Now we just need to find another race to keep us motivated and in shape. Dani's time ended up being 34:16 and mine was somewhere around 28:30 (not sure as I forgot to look at the clock while crossing the finish line). Not bad for our first race. We stuck around to watch everyone else come in and see the presentation of awards. They also had a drawing and gave away a brand new mountain bike and a pair of running shoes. We weren't the winners of anything cool, but we did get free vitamin water and fruit just for participating!

After a good run we enjoyed the Thanksgiving Holiday...

It was nice, we journeyed to the land of the in-laws, mine that is. We went to Dani's home and had a good time. The morning and afternoon were spent making preparations. The kitchen was all a hubbub. Trying to let in some holiday cheer, I decided to turn on the glorious event that is the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Alright, it's not that glorious but it was nice to have some holiday tunes in the background. While the women cooked, the men headed downstairs to pay homage to the mighty X-Box and celebrate this day of thanks by condemning alien foes to a bountiful butt whooping! At least Dani's brothers did. I made a measly attempt with my pink controller (thanks again guys), but always seemed to end up in the negative. That is my kill-to-death ratio (I believe the gaming world calls it) was always heavy on the death side, and not the good kind in that I died more than I dealt death. In other words it would have been better for my team had I and my pink controller coward and hid from others rather than go out and get shot. Oh well. What's the fun in that?

Anyway, eventually the feast was ready and we emerged from the darkness of the basement with bloodshot eyes and cramped thumbs eager for sustenance. We were not disappointed. The food was grand and delicious, many thanks to the cooks. Here are some pics:

Here is half the table...

here is the other half....

here is the cheesiest half of the table...

and here is the most important part of the table. I LOVE pumpkin-ish things: pies, breads, cookies, cakes and shakes. Dani made this specially for me, the picture doesn't even do it justice, it was delicious!

That was the gist of our Thanksgiving Holiday. The rest of the day was spent napping and playing with family until we had to journey back home in order for me to work bright and early on Black Friday.

New Moon!

Of course I had to go see New Moon as soon as I could. As I've said before, I was disappointed by the first movie, but the trailer for this one looked pretty intense so I was pretty excited for it to come out. So on one of my weekend trips to Burley, a bunch of my family got together to go see it. It was interesting that out of the eight of us in our group, only two or three had actually read the book, so it was fun watching the movie with them and seeing what they thought.

And now for my movie review:

WOW!! This movie was AMAZING! Sooo Sooo SOOO much better than the first one. I was nervous about how the animation would be with the wolves and how they would do it without making it look cheesy, but I thought they did a great job. And I don't know what it was about the characters, but even their acting seemed better and more believable. I liked Kristen Steward and Rob Pattinson a lot more in this film compared to Twilight. And Taylor Lautner!...enough said.

I also liked the screenplay to New Moon better than Twilight; it seemed to stay truer to the book. However there were a couple of parts they changed and a couple of cheesy parts that I didn't like - but not enough for me to not enjoy it. I couldn't believe how fast the time went by - I easily could have sat there for another hour and not have noticed. I've heard that the next movie should be coming out next June so that will be exciting - not too long to wait!

So now I have a dilemna: Team Edward or Team Jacob? I've ALWAYS been Team Edward before, but now I'm just undecided. Good thing it's not a make it or break it decision right? :) Here's a pic of some of us in attendance that blessed night: Jill, Me, Syd, Jamie, Kelsi and not pictured: Linds, Tysi, and my momma (she sure got a kick out of it!)

(Photo courtesy of Jill - thanks Jill!)

Good Ol' Family Bonding

November has been a busy month for us. My sister, Lindsay, and her daughter, Katelyn, were here visiting from Chicago for three weeks. Sadly, I had to work (actually I shouldn't say sadly, because I feel very blessed to have a job at the moment), but I drove to Bur-town every weekend that they were here so I could spend as much time as possible with them. We had lots of fun! We went out to eat, played TONS of games, went shopping, watched movies, went to the movies (NEW MOON!!! Don't worry, this event will have its own special post), taught Kate some of Michael Jackson's "signature" moves (Linds wasn't too thrilled about that part of her visit), and all in all had a great time. I miss them already. Here are some pics from our activities.

Me and Brandt with the little stinker at Syd's basketball game. Kate likes
to put her arms around two people and say "Cheeeeeeese!"

Linds, Kate, and Brandt playing "Ticket to Ride"

Kate and Grandma singing "Popcorn Popping"

Aunt Nada, Brandt, me, Jill, and Linds playing "Five Crowns"
(photo courtesy of Jill) This was my first time playing this
game and it is tons of fun.

The Girls

The whole family; this is a terrible pic, but due to the fact that my
brothers are retarded and like to screw up photos, this is the
best-looking one of about 20 that we took.

Me, Kate, and Grandma at Cafe Rio. YUM!

Me and Kate sharing a popsicle and playing Phase 10
(I wasn't kidding when I said we played LOTS of games!)

And Rex - All of our playing was a little too much excitement for him!