The new Olsen family

Camie Cleone Olsen


I'll let Anne and Peter fill you in on further details but Camie was born yesterday at 4:30 pm. She weighs 7 lb 4 oz and is 19 inches long. Those of you who are friends of Anne on Facebook already know!!!! She is so cute.

Janie Bear minutes after getting her braces off. Isn't she gorgeous?
Brooke via iPhone

"We write to taste life twice..." Anais Nin
and this past month was too delicious not to indulge in leftovers. Frankly, we've been so busy living there hasn't been much time for writing. I think that perhaps a photo essay might be best. So much for writing, eh? A picture is worth a thousand words anyway.
We can't believe how blessed we are to live in this gorgeous part of the world. To live here is to believe in God. We had several rainy days but we also had many clear days and we tried to make the most of them. We took a walk one Sunday out at Point Lobos. Mike took our wagon on the most wild ride of its long life. Ellyn happily walked the parts where we had to carry said wagon over rough terrain. As a side note, Jane is wearing a sweatshirt that I bought in England when I was 15. I love that thing and it has been so good to me.

My cute cousin Jess called at the beginning of March and asked if they could possibly spend their Spring Break with us. YES!!!! We partied all week long, all of us living on almost no sleep.
We planned something for every day. This was our hike up 2200 feet and back down. At sea level you hike through these enormous Redwoods. Mike and I are imitating Edward and Bella in New Moon. Why must every conversation they have be so intense?
Jess and Tony- tree huggers
Here we are taking a little rest about 3/4 of the way up.

Different day- exploring a litte cave at Point Lobos.
Okay, you can't see it, but this was a spaghetti dinner out on our front porch. I didn't have any pictures of Sadie and Ellyn and they are both so cute in these that I had to put them on. This was our Tuesday night dinner.



After dinner we hurried out the door to hit the Farmer's Market. It was already closing up (an hour early) so we walked down to Fisherman's Wharf. Where...

We sampled clam chowder and chose which restaurant we would be visiting later in the week. Fisherman's Grotto won and it was delicious.

We are holding our aching bellies. Sooo good.

Of course our trip included trips to the beach, nap times were disrupted. Sawyer attempts to catch up on some zzzzz's.
It was an amazing trip, we did the Aquarium and the Cheese Shop and downtown Carmel. Almost every night we stayed up playing board games (and much later struggled with children that don't know how to sleep well-Ind and El- that's you two). I am so glad they came, I hope it becomes a tradition. That's the plan anyway.

So... the morning Jess and Tony left we had big plans-

Mike and I joined three of our friends in a crazy, 5 mile "Mud Run," which included jumping over barriers, 5 foot walls, four pits filled with mud and water, push ups, and soldiers yelling at you all along the way. We had such a great time. I was cleaning mud out of my ears for 3 days.

The Mud Turkeys (turkeys made from all of our kids hand prints, that's why Mike and I have so many more) ready to run. Junior, Beth, Mike, me, and Jason- we are all in the lottery for the St. George Marathon as well!
Beth and I climbing the wall- Mike laughing at me.
We loved our medals, but you can't see them very well. Our teeth look amazingly white and I actually look like I have a tan!

That's March in a nutshell. BLOG OUT

So, Fukashi ordered us what he called "Japanese Pizza". It has another name which Mike remembers. I do not. However, I know that it moved and that was all that it had to do to spook Barb before she ate it. Yummy.

In the spirit of this family-on-the-run, Dave and I also ran this weekend - the Trout Lake Half Marathon. We did this one last year and signed up at the last minute because many of our friends were going to run it. Then, of course, everyone else dropped out and only us 'die-hard's actually ran. We ran with Mindy & Voss, who are also on our relay team this year. It wasn't nearly as exciting (or life-threatening) as the hot and humid run in Japan, but we were challenged by the fierce winds and the cold weather. At one point in the race, I was using Dave as a shield, drafting off him to avoid the wind. And the photo is all blurry because our lens kept fogging over in the 38-degree weather. But it was a beautiful and peaceful run, and we did well by our own standards. I finished in 1:49 and placed third for women overall (clearly it's a small race) and Dave was right behind me. He was battling a sore calf after having a serious cramp this week while swimming - we were a little worried if he would be able to run at all. Voss whooped us all and this was Mindy's first half - she runs with asthma, so she's pretty much amazing.
Looking forward to the Hippie Chick Half in May with Barb, Paige & Kim...

Adina

We drove down to conference last weekend with Brian and Paige. Halfway down we stopped in Boise so that the kids could swim and have some fun together. This is the whole crew together in the pool. They really love hanging out with each other.

Alright, so, we have been out of touch for a while, at least as the blog goes. We had a wonderful time with Mom and Dad here which deserves its own post. However, I am just going to post about the half marathon that we completed yesterday. It is a run that we did last year also because it is on a saturday. We luckily had great friends that were willing to watch the kids so this time we elected to just ride out to the island the day of rather than spend the night on the island. We were not very impressed with the expensive accommodations that we had last time. Also, it seemed like last year we just did too many things the day before and the day of the half marathon. For some reason the Japanese schedule a large amount of their races in the afternoon. This is stupid. Who wants to eat lunch then go out for a long run in the toasty sun. So, the morning as we left our house was awesome. It was like 65 degrees. There was a little sun but there were a ton of clouds in the sky to make it cool. So, we were really looking forward to the race. We dropped the kids off and were off to the ferry. All went fine with the ferry. The water was calm so it made for a really beautiful ride over to the island with beautiful views.






When we got to the island we retrieved our shirts and saki and just rested in a shady part of the port building until around race time. We did notice that on the promotional poster for this race there is a picture of the starters from last year and we are in the group so I snagged one for memory sake. We then walked up to the race and by this time the sun was really beginning to shine down on us. It still was only about 76 but that is warm when the sun is coming down hard on you. So, we started the race at 1510. That is just stupid, let me say that again. This time I actually had my ipod functioning, not like last year when I got to the starting line only to find the ipod on and drained of all power...Where is Taylor when I need him? Anyway, this time I had a back up shuffle in my pocket of my shorts and a backup set of headphones in my shorts also just in case anything happened. We started off quick. The first 3-4 miles were at a really good pace and Tracey had determined prior to the race that she was going to stay with me the whole time if she could, and that woman has some serious will power so I was convinced she would. She says that for the first 6 miles it was really tough to stay up but that after that she felt really good. I on the other hand was really having trouble. Tracey tried to leave me a few times and I caught up with her each time because I was not going to have my pride hurt. Every long run we went on during this training schedule has ended with me leaving her at the end because I was going to fast and now it was race day and I was going to let her just go ahead? No way. But, I can only do what my body lets me do. So, we ran as hard as we could, walking through water stops only. The last 5K seemed like forever even though I have been doing 3 miles in my sleep. It seemed like each Km, and they mark each one, lasted forever. I hate that it is listed on the side. This does not help. I have a watch for that.

So, toward the end of the run there is a long hill, so I headed up the hill as fast as I could. I past up Tracey and just kept going hard into the finish. I was feeling completely drained but I had already missed my target so I just wanted to do as well as I could. Tracey stayed very close behind but the fact of the matter is that my legs are twice as long as hers. So, I finished hard, passing up 6-7 guys on the hill and into the finish.



Yeah, I beat yellow guy.






And then, I lost it. As soon as I crossed the finish line I was dizzy, I felt like I was going to fall down. I managed to make my way to a chair in a tent as multiple japanese people crowded around me. I requested an IV because I felt drained but they did not understand me. They gave me water and this brown sugar square that I immediately threw up. I made my way to the ground and my shoes were removed. I apparently asked them for a foot massage which was not granted. I just remember being very delirious and just wanting to go to sleep. I tried multiple times to get up but just could not do it. I have never felt this way. So, I sat on a chair eventually and threw up another load of water. I guess all of the water that I was consuming during the race was not making it past my stomach.

So, I had to be moved over to another area to free up room in the tent I was in. They kept wanting to send me to the hospital but I refused. After being moved, one of our friends saw me and immediately identified it as heat exhaustion and instructed people to pour cold water on my body. She said I looked like death. My pulse was very fast even 30 minutes after the race and I was pale. I got cramps in my legs and feet over and over again. It was very painful. So, in the end, we made it home. I threw up another time on the way home out the car door. It was all the water I had drank during the race. I must not have had anything in me. I am fine now. Frustrated at the whole thing and what it took out of me to not reach the goal we had. But, we did well. Both Tracey and I finished around 1:42. So, it is my PR, but Tracey has a more amazing PR so she had to settle with me. I am not sure why this race has my number, but it does. I could go out any other day and run 13.1 at 6 in the morning and get my goal. I did it every time we did the long runs. But, something about the rolling hills of the run and the heat, you are virtually exposed to the suns rays the whole time, it makes it really difficult. So, we are done. On Garmin we were actually very consistent pace wise. It did not feel like that. Here are some charts if you care and some pictures. I guess we just have to always have interesting experiences with races. We will continue to because we are not going to stop running.