Man Camp 2012

One of my favorite things to do each year is take my boys to Man Camp.  We experience all of the excitement of the first day of the deer hunt, but don't actually hunt deer.  My boys love drinking Diet Coke (they can't drink Coke any other time), burping, and peeing outside.  This year Hudson and Brian came with us and the kids all had a great time. 

It was yet another quick trip down and back this year.  We left after work on Friday night so when we got to Cedar City it was just about 10:00 p.m. Dad had come down on Thursday morning so he had the cabin warm for us and we visited for a few minutes before turning in. 

They boys all slept on the king bed, but after Landon fell out the 3rd time, I moved him into a bed with me.

When we woke up in the morning Landon noticed that one of the mouse traps had caught a mouse!  He was so excited. Dad showed the boys how the mouse trap works.

We donned our orange gear and started out to take down the fence.

Riding ATV's is one of the best parts of Man Camp.

But the work we do every year is take down the fence. Landon is getting really helpful at fencing.

Here is the Man Camp fencing crew this year.  Much of the work had been done by my uncle Gary and Dad when he came down earlier in the week.  After just an hour or so we were done with the fence.

We also like to hike.  I taught the boys how to break sticks agains trees and they loved it.

 

This year I taught Logan how to drive the ATV.  He was in heaven.  Despite the picture, he never rode it alone.  I was always with him but he got pretty good at driving.

For a short while they worked on a fort.

Less than 24 hours later we were heading home again.

Before we left Cedar we stopped for a short visit with Arlene.  She doesn't have much time left so I wanted to say goodbye.  The doctors are giving her weeks to live.  She is 92 years old and has lived a good long life.

On the drive home I think we tuckered everyone out.

St. George Marathon

The kids are off track now so Jill took them to a new park for a picnic.  Neptune Park in Saratoga Springs opened this past summer.  It has a huge pyramid that the kids loved!

Alyssa played too.

I was out of town most of this week for work and got home in time to travel with the family down to St. George.  It's marathon weekend and I ran it for the 3rd time. We stopped in Cedar City and had lunch at the Pizza Factory.  It was much less busy than the Pizza Factory in St. George.

We stayed at the Holiday Inn Express by the Hurricane exit.  The hotel seems brand new and was very nice.  The kids mostly loved the pool.

We had dinner with all of our friends at the Yeager's parents' house.  It was so fun to have a pot luck pasta dinner with the Hadas, Gutzmans, and Rob (Kevin's friend from dental school who lives in Oregon).  We have been running together for years but barely know each other's families so we enjoyed getting to know each other.  The Palmers even came at the end to visit for a while.  After dinner the guys drove up to my cousin Michelle's house in Enterprise to spend the night.  We had a fun man sleep over and the next morning she drove us to the start of the race.  Michelle is such an amazing cousin and I had so much fun visiting with her.

Tom Gleason, Dave Gutzman, Cade, Pat, Ron Hada, Kevin Yeager, and Rob all slept at Michelle's and enjoyed her hospitality. We were all able to get more sleep because she lives just 12 minutes from the start line which was so much better than getting on the bus 2 hours before the race started.  We all got to the starting line with just enough time to make one last port-a-potty stop and start running.

This was the first race where I didn't have anyone to run with.  I took my phone so I could listen to music and I zoned out and just ran.  I tried not to focus too much on my watch and just run to the pace that felt comfortable.  After a few miles I checked my watch and could see that I was right on track with an 8 minute mile.  The highway patrol helped me get into the race so I wore a highway patrol shirt they created for those with ties to the organization.  Just at the bottom of Veyo hill I ran into a trooper so he and I talked as we ran up the hill.  I ran the entire hill which is something I have always elected to walk up to conserve energy before.  The pace felt great and with much cooler temperatures than last year, and a slight breeze, the weather was great.

Having ran the Top of Utah Marathon three weeks ago also helped my body prepare for this race.  I simply felt great almost the entire time.  I felt so great that I decided to push myself rather than call Jill to tell her when I would be coming in.

Mile 25 was where it started to feel tough.  Knowing it was hard I pushed myself to run through all of mile 25 and then at 26 I walked for a couple of minutes.  It was after mile 23 that I knew I was going to set another Personal Record.  It felt great knowing I would beat my previous best time, and knowing that made it hard to keep running hard.

My goal was to get across the line inside of 3:39:59 so I could say I'm a 3 1/2  hour marathoner.  At this point there was no question I would reach my goal.  But I thought maybe I could come in before 3:35, so I started to run again (probably the hardest running of the whole race).  Somewhere I found the energy to really push it. With about .4 miles to go Kevin Palmer called me, although I didn't know it was him, because the band and the applause was so loud.  He yelled, "I'll call you back", but then he didn't hang up his phone.  So my music wouldn't kick back on because he didn't hang up.  It was rough because I was sprinting at this point trying to make my time.  Just as I was focused on the finish line and running pretty fast, my mother yelled "Cade!"  For a brief second I saw all of my family cheering me on.

The sprint at the end helped my time and I finished in 3:35:23!  I absolutely can't believe it!

In the end I came in 9th place in my division and trophies are given to the top 8.  Now I have to decide if I want to keep training or relax for a while and take some time off.  I'm really enjoying running right now so I think I'm going to keep at it for a while.

Saturday night dad and I went to the Priesthood session of conference while the ladies shopped.  Then Sunday after breakfast we went for a small hike looking for lizards.  The real goal was to get out some energies before the long drive home.

This vacation was so much fun.  Alyssa slept both nights all night long and she even traveled well to and from St. George.  Having Mom and Dad there to share the fun made it even better.  Now the kids are getting older vacations are getting so much more enjoyable.

We made terrific time home and went up to the Roundy's house to celebrate Cameron's and Addison's birthdays. We also got to see Rob who was in town.  Now I had better wrap this entry up so I can register for the Ogden marathon in the Spring.

Campout Canning

When the cooking gets tough, the tough cook outside.

The tomatoes couldn't wait any longer so we had to chop them into salsa.  It was so much more difficult to do this without a sink; however using the camp chef stove in the garage worked pretty well.  We just can't wait to get our kitchen back.  Thank goodness the cabinets have all been installed although they are still missing the doors and drawers.  Tuesday the countertops come and we will have a sink and dishwasher again!  Tuesday marks one month, to the day, since we lost our kitchen sink.  We are so excited that our kitchen will be back to normal soon. 

Monday September 24th, was a huge day in the Bunkall family.  Aaron, Amy, Addison, and Cameron, welcomed Colton Jonathan Roundy into the world.  He came weighing in at 8 lbs 2 oz.  Addison loves holding the baby and I could only hold him a couple of minutes in the hospital because it was Addison's turn.  Cameron wouldn't even look at his new brother, and when asked if he loved his brother Cameron responded, "no."  It's tough giving up the title of youngest in the family. 

Our kids finally got to see him at Sunday dinner.  They happily welcomed the newest future ninja to the family.

Jill and Alyssa holding Colton.

Zoo

No matter how much excitement this week could have brought, it would have undoubtedly been less full than the week before.  Our kitchen is making progress.  We now have some cabinets, but due to a last minute change on our part we will now be without a functioning kitchen for another week and a half.  It's not been easy not having a sink and dishwasher, but we have been enjoying restaurant food and eating on paper products.  We are choosing to enjoy this time, but looking forward to home cooked meals again soon.

Saturday was soccer and the zoo. I don't make it to the zoo very often and it works out very well that Jill and the kids go to the zoo once or twice a year.  This Saturday I went along because Dr. Heiner, our in vitro doctor, had his annual bash at the zoo.  We love to go and enjoy saying hello to him. 

His office provided entry to the zoo and cookies and ice cream cones.  All of the children loved it.

Sunday was the temple dedication of the Brigham City Temple.  All church meetings were canceled and everyone could go to one of three dedications at their local stake center.  Kids over 8 years old could go, so Logan just missed the cutoff.  We swapped kids with the new neighbors and we watched their 3 girls in the morning while they attended the meeting.  They are cute girls and our boys are old enough to be a bit bashful in front of girls.  They asked the girls, "Do you like ninjas?"  The girls responded "no."  Boys: "Do you like video games with fighting?"  Girls: "no."  Boys: "Do you like Legos?"  Girls "no."  Boys (with a frustrated and angry tone): "What do you like to do then?"  Jill had prepared a lesson and we played a board game.  They went outside and jumped on the trampoline and had a good time.

Jill and I attended the noon session and came back to the boys doing crafts with the girls and having a great time.  It's funny how boys and girls are different.  It doesn't change very much as we get older, either.  After all Jill still doesn't like Legos or ninjas or video games where you fight.