Just your average, week....

So far I've had a pretty cool summer. Been places, met people, done things... ran a lot. It's been rather uneventful at times, where for example, my week would consist of me getting up at 8 to go on a run then doing almost nothing for the rest of the day. Between these weeks where I have the opportunity, nay, the pleasure of watching the grass grow I have also had many days of adventure.

It all started 2 weeks ago. I was shipped off to Oklahoma and Missouri for a C.A.R. conference, which went pretty smooth. (except for the parts where I got home sick, and when I overslept and woke up 30 min before my plane departed) I was on my way home. I had made it as far as Portland and was becoming quite concerned for the baggage claim carousel had not spit up my bag. As it turned out I had made it home alright but my bag had decided to go to Seattle with out me. I was assured that it would soon be Fed Exed to me and would arrive with in the next day and so with that I drove home.

Upon arriving home I learned, to great disbelief and disappointment, that my dad’s 100 mile race in California had been canceled due to forest fires. Seriously though, that’s like canceling the Olympics, it’s just something you don’t do. Anyways, so we decided to climb Mt. Rainier instead and were able to rope in Zachary as well. So I rushed to put what little clothes and necessities I have in another bag for my mom to bring up later. Right as we were leaving Fed Ex arrived. On the way up, literally we were reaching Portland when we made this decision, we decided we didn’t have enough time so we hopped on over to Mt. Hood instead. It was an adventure, highlighted with me getting sick and Zac complaining about Devil’s Kitchen (a sulfuric smell omitted from rock crevices about Mt. Hood). Upon descending we went to a friend’s house in Castle Rock to go to church and chill for a day. After church we left for Portland where we went to the arboretum and rose garden before my dad dropped me off for another C.A.R. conference.

The conference was a blast, Zachary won the coveted Regional Enthusiast award and I gave a speech on my state project. Once the conference was over my mom rushed us over to our family reunion which we had been missing out. We spent roughly two days there full of fun and excitement celebrating my grandmother’s 70th birthday, rushing down the zip-line and sharing our talents.

Shortly after arriving at the family reunion I learned that my car was no more. There was to be no resurrection this time. Suzy had passed the threshold and gone on to greener pastures.
Needless to say this left my family in a bit of a pickle, we had not taken the van up and where depending on Suzy for the trip home. I don’t even know how to explain all that happened the Friday following the family reunion only to say that God must have had a hand in it for how smoothly it worked.

It was the 4th of July, after the family reunion my mom had scheduled us to march in the Hillsboro parade with the C.A.R. float and I was going to run a race right before in Wilsonville and rush over there in time for the parade. With out a car this plan did not seem feasible. Fortunately Grandma and Grandpa where willing to let us borrow their car for the morning. The race went alright, (except the part where we overslept and made it from my bed in Corvallis to the starting line in Wilsonville in 75 minutes). I feel my conditioning has slacken the past few weeks, so my time was not all that spectacular but I finished second female overall. I changed into a dress in the car on the way over, the C.A.R. float was scheduled relatively early in the parade and my mom kept calling in panic to make sure we were on our way. Zac was with me and we almost missed the float, imagine: a girl in high heels and skirt running down a side walk her sleepy brother falling behind, she jumps through a crowd of people exclaiming, “Excuse me, State President coming through!” and jumps on to the passing float with an action that can not easily be described graceful. You can stop imagining, that’s what happened. The parade was a lot of fun, we threw candy to kids, I ate some of it, and afterwards we went to a picnic.

Due to the lack of cars we decided it was best to leave Erik, Gideon and Katie Mae with my mom’s mom. We had already planned to do this due to the trek, we just left them three days earlier than planned. So my mom left with Esther to safely deliver them to my grandma’s while Dad, Zac and I went to Grandma Olsen’s house to return their car and decide what could be left behind and what was necessary for survival for the next week. By being highly selective, we had just enough room for the essentials and a huge box containing the new printer I helped my dad pick out as an anniversary gift for my mom. As it got closer to 7pm Dad started to get antsy, he had wanted to watch the Olympic Trials at the Eugene Festival and my mom had not yet shown up. She soon did though and we packed some of our luggage into the back of our car, the vast majority of our luggage still resides in Grandma and Grandpa’s garage (THANK YOU!).

So we trekked on over to the Eugene Festival and where able to see the 1500 women’s trial, Jordan Hassay is amazing, as well as the women’s 5000 and men’s 10000. After we watched Abdi, with much amusement, jump in to the Steeple Chase pit we decided it was time to go home. And home is where I’m glad to say I’ve been for the last few days; and home is where I’ll stay… at least until the Pioneer Trek tomorrow. :D

So, how’s everyone’s summer going?

-Emily