* Team Sparkle *

On March 27th & 28th I participated in the Ragnar Del Sol Relay. It was my second time doing it.  If you are not familiar with what it is, it is a 200 mile relay that begins in Wickenburg, goes down to Tonopah, then to Surprise, up to Anthem, over to Cave Creek, through Fountain Hills, Scottsdale and then ends at Tempe Town Lake. There are 12 people on the team with 6 people in 2 vans. There were over 400 teams participating in it.  The Ragnar staff do an amazing job in putting the whole thing together. This year was more of a challenge than last year. When I was  in the middle of running my first leg in full sun and 84 degrees it took all I had to finish. I wasn't used to running in the heat since last Fall.  Thankfully my team mates followed along with me and kept offering me water and pouring cold water all over me to cool me down. I was worried about running my second longest leg at midnight in the middle of no where that ended in Anthem, but it ended up being my best and most enjoyable run of the relay. After that it was time to try and get some sleep while the other half of our team kept running. We only had about 3 hours to try and sleep in a camper that one of our runner's husband so graciously set up for us in a Cave Creek parking lot. I think I slept for about one hour after we got back in the van to start our next segment of the race. At 10:00 the next morning I started my 3rd and last leg of the race for our half of the team. It was north west of Fountain Hills and it was getting pretty warm but the hardest part were some really steep long hills that took a lot of praying to make it up them. I tried to focus on how beautiful it was to be running in that area. I think if I had not been running on basically no sleep it wouldn't have been as difficult as it was. I was so happy to see my team mates cheering me on to hand off the relay slap bracelet to the next runner. 

 Participating in a Ragnar Relay is one of those experiences that when you are in the middle of it you ask yourself why you would put yourself through such misery, but after it is all done you remember all of the fun parts and you can't wait to do it again. We had such a great team with all of the best women you would ever want to spend 32 hours with in a cramped van driving all over Arizona. Team Sparkle Rocks !!!

Tinkerbell's Birthday Lunch

We had so much fun going to lunch together. When I asked her where she wanted to go she quickly said,  "Sweet Tomatoes". She only likes to eat 3 things on their menu. They are macaroni and cheese, a brownie muffin, and ice cream cones. After lunch we went to Target so she could pick out her present. We had so much fun.

Here is the Steeple

Here is the temple and here is the steeple look a little closer and see the little people. We are so excited to have a temple for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints built in Gilbert. I was so thrilled to see the steeple started I had to stop and take pics.

Gilbert, AZ Temple Feb. 14th 2012

The Best Chocolate Cupcakes Ever !

We celebrated Kris and Meghan's birthdays with these fabulous cupcakes. Oh and did I mention they are vegan? No they don't have tofu in them and yes they have a lot of sugar. I never said they are healthy, they are just so yummy. The Reeses Peanut Butter Cups are not vegan so leave them off if it matters to you.
I found the cake recipe on Oh She Glows and the Chocolate Frosting I found on Google but I don't remember where.

Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes

1 Cup Vanilla Almond Milk

1 Cup Sugar

1/3 Cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1 T. Apple Cider Vinegar

1 T. Pure Vanilla Extract

1/2 tsp Pure Almond Extract

1 1/2 Cups Unbleached All-Purpose Flour

1/3 Cup Cocoa Powder

1 tsp Baking Soda

3/4 tsp Kosher Salt

Preheat oven to 350* 

Beat together almond milk, oil, sugar, apple cider vinegar, vanilla, and almond extract. Beat on medium speed for a minute or two.

Sift in the dry ingredients (flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt). Mix well, until smooth.

Scoop into cupcake paper lined cupcake tins. Using a large cookie scoop works great. Fill two thirds full for each. Bake for 22 minutes, or until they spring back when pressed with a finger. Makes 13 cupcakes.

Allow to cool before frosting.

Vegan Chocolate Frosting

6 oz Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips

6 T. Earth Balance

6 Cups Powdered Sugar

6-7 T. Almond Milk

1/2 tsp Vanilla

Pinch of Salt

Melt chocolate chips and Earth Balance in pan on low heat. Mix in sugar. Mix in almond milk, vanilla, and salt until smooth and glossy. I used an electric hand mixer.

What Ever You Set Your Mind To

Freestone Park

What ever you set your mind to run is what you will be able to do, as long as you have been training.  A 4 miler can be as hard as a 6 or a 10 because it is what you set your mind to do. That is why they say so much of running long distance is a mental game. This last Saturday I had made my mind up to run from my house to the GHS Pancake Run which was a 10K and then run back home. It was 3 miles to the Riparian Preserve which is where the race was at. It was a fun course. I had planned on running a total of 12 but after doing the 10K I felt pretty good so I decided to add 2 more miles to make it a total of 14.  It helped me to feel prepared to run Ragnar in 2 weeks. I will be running a total of 16 miles for the relay. Last year I ended up with a stress fracture in my foot after doing Ragnar. I felt like I hadn't trained enough for it. I had to run an extra leg last year because one of our runners got sick at the last minute, so I ran a total of 19 miles. I had only trained up to 10 or 12. Even though the runs are broken up it is still a lot of miles pounding on your body in a 24 hour period. Gilbert is a great place to run.

Riparian Preserve

7 Days 3 Cities

We had a lot of fun traveling this last week. We first flew to Oakland CA and met up with Kelsey and Joey. They had been on a 4,000 mile road trip to check out Law Schools that Joey had applied too. We went into San Francisco the first 2 days. Sunday we attended a Samoan Ward in San Leandro. It was really fun. They were so welcoming to us and it was so amazing to listen to them sing in Samoan. They harmonize so beautifully.

We ate lunch at Tony's Pizza in North Beach. We had delicious pizza and brussel sprouts for a side dish. I highly recommend it and would go there again. It added to the experience to sit out on a sidewalk table. It was nice they had heaters above us because it was really cold until the sun came out.

This beautiful church was across the street from where we ate lunch.

After lunch we drove to Lincoln Park and hiked a trail down to the beach. We had beautiful views of the Golden Gate Bridge and the ocean. It was extremely windy which made the waves big and turbulent.

                                               




We walked our legs off the next day. We walked a total of 8 miles. We started at the Ferry Building and walked along the wharf to Sports Basement which is at the Presidio near the Golden Gate Bridge. I love walking there. It is the best way to experience the city and the beautiful views.

Tuesday we flew to Seattle. It snowed that night and we woke up to this. Luckily we didn't have to do a lot of driving. All the travel advisories said not to go on the roads unless you had a 4 wheel drive vehicle. We had rented a Camry which handled it quite well. We only slid a couple times on our way to the airport. I was totally amazed to find out our flight was going to be on time.

This is a picture of the runway in the background. We got on the plane on time but we had to wait 45 minutes for them to De Ice the plane before we could take off. The take off was perfect and we had a surprisingly beautiful flight to Oakland, CA and then onto Ontario, CA.

As much fun as it is to travel, it was so good to get home.

Merry Christmas to All

We had a great Christmas and I hope all of you did too. Our Christmas started a week before. All of our family got together early because it was our off year. Everyone went to their in-laws on Christmas day except for Kris, Tiersa, & the girls. We had our traditional grilled cheese made with Boudin's sourdough bread (yum) and tomato soup. I also made the 13 bean soup. Then we opened presents. The grand kids had so much fun and so did we just watching them.

Christmas morning Warren and I watched the Christmas devotional, which was a beautiful way to start the day with inspiring music and guidance from a prophet of God. It helped us to focus on the true meaning of Christmas which is the greatest gift that has ever been given to man,  our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  We went to church with Kris, Tiersa, the girls and Maxcine.  Tiersa was one of the singers along with a few other people in the program. She sang beautifully. Then we went to their house to see the girls presents.

We spent the entire evening Christmas night talking to Elder JT in Thailand on skype. Skype is the best thing ever. We were able to have Steven and Marianne in Utah on at the same time. It makes having him gone just a little easier. Everyone else in the family came over to talk to him too. He is doing so great. He is so happy and loves his mission. We are so proud of his willingness to serve the Lord and teach the people in Thailand His gospel. He will be home in less than 4 months.  It was so good to see him and it made Christmas perfect.