Ski Bunnies (JK We're Babes Now)

There is a tradition that as taken place since I was barely able to walk that my family refers to as the Ski Bunnies.  As you might have guessed, this tradition has something to do with skiing, but I'm not totally sure how the bunnies part came about.  Anyway, the Ski Bunnies is the annual ski trip that three mother-daughter pairs make to Park City for a weekend in the winter.  On average, there is a nine females at our house during this weekend each year.  A few years there has been eleven if the younger siblings come along, too. 

When my family moved from California to Utah before I was born, they left behind many of their friends and family members.  My dad's sister's friends all had babies the same year my sister was born, 1998.  These women became good friends with my mom.  The women all had other children that were born around the time I was, but they weren't all girls and we didn't have the same relationship all the 1998 girls had.  So because of this, I tag-along with the older girls on the Ski Bunnies trip. Now all of the older girls are about eighteen years old, I'm fifteen, the other younger girl is fourteen, so we are not quite cute little bunnies anymore, but more so some serious Ski Babes....hahaha totally kidding, we don't quite possess supermodel status.

A stylish bunch...check out Claire's Crocs and my gauchos!  From L-R: Grace, Emma, Gretchen, Claire, Braden, Mac, Me

City of Roses

As I mentioned in my previous post, my favorite times of year are the times when I do not have to go to school.  It's fabulous and this past week was another one of those times.  My sister is a senior in high school so everything is about college currently.  We have toured several colleges in different states over the past few years.  However, this was the first tour that we were going on since she had applied and been accepted to college.  We traveled to Portland, Oregon - aka the City of Roses for those of you that didn't piece that together quite yet.

As the acceptances and scholarships came rolling in, she had seriously been considering where she wanted to spend the next four years of her life.  College costs the big-bucks and you want to go somewhere you'll like, so it was a big decision for her.

We went to Portland to visit one of her top contenders, the University of Portland. I had never been to Oregon before so I did not know what to expect.  I just knew that it rained a lot.

After we got off our plane, we drove over to UP to walk around.  It was one of the greenest campuses I've seen.  The campus overlooked the shipyard and the Willamette River below.  Claire's friend gave us a brief tour this day and on Monday we came back for the actual tour.

The Monday tour was LONG.  I believe we were there for six to seven hours!  It was presentation after presentation, but it was somewhat interesting.  The best part was that we got free food from their cafeteria for lunch.  They have some yummy options!  I also enjoyed seeing the dorms and different parts of the campus.  It was exciting for all of us, but my sister was pumped!

I was rudely cut out of this picture.  Photo Courtesy of: My Mom

Flying High in the Sky

After a particularly hectic first night, the rest of our vacation went swimmingly.

The food was incredibly delicious and fresh in Zihuatanejo.  The first night, almost everything was closed and we had no clue where we were.  After walking up and down the streets by our condo we stumbled across a cute, candlelit restaurant.  I had the best Caesar salad ever and it was about three dollars.  The piña coladas were delicious, the ice cream was to die for and everything was crazily inexpensive.  It was great.

I was way over-motivated to go running the first few days.  I am way out of shape and practically melted from the humidity and heat so I gave up on that after two runs.  I did enjoy the two I went on though and I did a lot of walking and swimming so same-same (means I basically ran everyday).  The hills were also insane in the area that we were staying in.  They were steep and super-duper long.

One of the hills by our condo. 
Photo Couretsy of: Clarita

The locals in this town were so friendly.  Many of them engaged in conversation with us and would practice their English while we practiced our Spanish.  This one man walked out from the beach as we were turning down this road.  He wasn't wearing any shoes or a shirt and was carrying a fish in his hands as he talked to my sister.  

Each day, my family would walk down the stairs and be on the beach.  We would hang out here all day.  Relaxing in the sun was amazing!  I haven't felt the warm rays of the sun on my skin for months.  We were situated on Zihuatanejo Bay.  This means that there were only little baby waves and the water was extremely warm and clear.

Trouble in Paradise

My favorite part of the school year had finally arrived (winter break) and my family was going to Mexico for a week...how perfect!

Well, it would have been more perfect if I didn't have to run while I was away.  During break we were all supposed to run just every other day.  That's not so bad, but still.

As I stepped off the plane and onto the stairs at the airport, it hit me.  The humidity was overwhelming and I immediately started sweating.  I was wearing leggings and a long-sleeve because it was snowing back home.  That morning, before the sun even rose, we were trudging in our snow boots through the foot of snow that had accumulated on our driveway to our friend's car.  It was crazy.  Don't worry, I didn't wear snow boots in Mexico, we changed our shoes in the car.

It was an extremely long travel day for us because we had a layover in Mexico City.  Luckily, we took care of the Customs stuff in Mexico City so we could go straight to our condo once we got off our second flight in the small fishing town of Zihuatanejo.  Once we safely stowed our bags in the trunk of the taxi, we were off.  As we turned a corner, about a mile from our condo, there was a loud thunk.  I assumed we just hit a pothole or something so I didn't mention it.  Claire looked out the back window and noticed the trunk was open.  Uh oh.  She alerted the cap driver but he didn't pull over for a while.  The roads are narrow and there are a lot of cars so it wasn't exactly safe to do so immediately.

A map of Zihjuatanejo.  We were on La Madera Beach. 
Photo Courtesy of: Zihjuatanejo Condos

My Brief Stunt as a Sniper (After the Race)

Now let me tell you all something- while I enjoy going to these big races (as described in my last post), the majority of the fun is held after or before the race.

After we got back from the NIKE race, the party really got going (JK it was a school trip so there was NO partying...).  A group of us ended up in this luxurious pool for an hour or so.  It's a high possibility that we ruined someone's wedding day because we were loud and they were getting married outside.  I tried to keep the peeps from gettin' rowdy, but what can ya do?  As they preceded past the pool, probs on the way to the reception, we got some weird looks from the actual partygoers.  This was most likely because us girls lacked proper swimming attire so we were in our racing outfits and because, well, we were rambunctious.  Oh yeah, did I mention that instead of going out the door of our suite, we climbed through the window?  So it really was like a party.  Going through doors is just so not cool anymore.

The swimming was like the cocktail party though.  The real fun had not even started.  Now, you may be doubting that  I was ever actually a sniper, but I most certainly was one (maybe a very terrible one, but still).  We left more than thirty minutes late because guys take forever to get ready.  I mean, come on, throw on some pants and lets go.

To Golfland Sunsplash we go.

Golfland itself.  It is truly a majestic fortress.  Photo Courtesy of: Golfland

Seriously? (The Race)

Knock knock knock!

Guys do not plan well.  The attention to detail is somewhat lacking in their personalities.  So this was how my weekend in Arizona ended, with three of my coaches banging on my door at 6:49 in the morning.  Yes, I remember the exact time.  Things like that stick in my mind when I am oh-so rudely awakened from my peaceful sleep.

Anyway.  Onto the interesting parts of my short-lived vacation...

As I have mentioned previously, I was going to attend the Nike Regional Championship cross country race in Arizona.  This trip came the week before Thanksgiving break and I was stoked because I did not have to go to school on Friday and it was gonna be warm!

Unluckily enough, we had to meet at the park-and-ride at 5:50 in the morning.  For reals?  If I'm not going to school can I at least sleep in?  Ha-ha-ha, funny one Camille.

So our journey started.  As I mentioned before, men don't think about details, so the idea that the airport might be busy did not cross their minds.  This left us running to the other security line so that we would make our flight.

Once we arrived in sunny Arizona, it began.  Being runners, we went to a delicious buffet for lunch then off to the movie theater to see The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part Two.  It was horrible (well, not as exciting as it could be).  After we ran the course to get a feel for it, we waited in line to buy swag.  This took at least forty-five minutes.  It got dark and dropped TWENTY (not really) degrees while we were waiting in line.  That is how long it took!  The thousands of people coming to this race all wanted shirts.  Every single one of them and it seemed like they were all in front of us.  It is quite difficult for me to understand what takes so long to buy a single shirt.  Pick it out, try it on, exchange it, pay for it.  That can all take under a minute, definitely under five, but no.  The freaking people were probably paying with pennies and spelling out their words.  And then some people would have one girl get in line before her WHOLE team hopped right in.  Hell no, get your booty to the back of the line.

Thank you, Mrs. Obama.  Photo Courtesy of: Towns County Tourism

Boise Bound (Part Two)

As I explained at length in my last blog post, I really wanted to go to Bob Firman.  So, when the week of the race rolled around I was quite excited.  Another plus about going to this race was that I didn't have to drive down to Roosevelt on a school bus to race with the other JV peeps.

Anyway, we drove to the high school and sat around in Steve's room until our Le Bus arrived.    Three of our four coaches came, and our team brought six boys and fourteen girls to race.  As you can imagine, the bus was quite the party.  Just kidding.  We watched movies, played cards, and tried to sleep.  The sleeping part was difficult because of a loud buzzing noise that would not go away.

We stopped for lunch in some town in Idaho.  While driving to the parking lot, a group of us spotted a Noodles and Company.  Yes!  Who does not love pasta?  Once off the bus, the majority of us walked toward the noodles that were awaiting us and we actually started running.  We ran into the restaurant and realized that it was under construction and would not be serving us noodles anytime soon.  Dang it!  Don't get too worried, we did find other food to eat after much ado.

Before going to get dinner, we swung by the race course at Eagle Island State Park.  The purpose of this visit was to pre-run the course so we knew what to expect and the coaches could give us tips.  However, it was ninety-four degrees!  That's HOT.  Needless to say we all struggled.

After changing on the bus, we drove to the Olive Garden.  The cross country team is super classy.  This was actually a lot of fun.  It is a tradition for the team to pretend that it is someone's birthday.  This year we picked Alec, one of the twins on our team.  He doesn't talk a whole lot, so when everyone pulled out their party hats and horns then started to sing, he was very confused and a little bit embarrassed.  It was great!

At our quaint little hotel, we got our room assignments, I roomed with Haley and Daisy, then went swimming.  We neglected to bring swimsuits, so we went in our running garments (that word was for you, Hannah).  These two little girls were very intuitive and told us that we must like the boys that we were with.  Hahaha, we definitely don't.

Bedtime.

The next morning, we got dressed, ate breakfast, and shuffled onto the bus.  My race was the last one, so we sat around and cheered on our teammates for a couple hours.  Let me tell you something, this race was huge.  The lines for the portapotties was insane!

After we warmed up, laced up our spikes, and grabbed water, we made the trek to the start.  I was not necessarily nervous because this was a fast-paced race and a new, interesting course.  Of course, our start was delayed so that the previous race could finish.  Our teammates had taken our waters back to the tent, so I could not drink anymore water.  Luckily enough for me, the coach for the team next to us brought his team a few water bottles.  Naturally, I asked the Davis girls if I could have some water.  They gave me a weird look, but kindly shared.  Thanks!

The Bob Firman race course
Photo Courtesy of: RunnerSpace