Run. Drive. Sleep? Repeat.

 Halloween happened. Emmy was Wonder Woman, Cousin Itt, and Doug the dog

 The cast of Up and their trick or treating buddies

 After learning that people put candy in whatever bag you are holding, 

Emmy starting carrying a bag everywhere she went

After successfully completing their first half-marathon as a married couple Jarom and Alixa moved on to stage 2 of their fall race schedule. Race week began on Tuesday with the arrival of their babysitters, who were kind enough to schedule a long layover in Dallas on their way to Hawaii. All three kids were thrilled to spend a few days under the watchful eyes of Jarom’s parents, because that usually means lots of fun times with Grandma and Grandpa. Sadly, Jarom and Alixa didn’t get to spend much time with them because they took off on Wednesday morning to catch their flight to Vegas.

After a typically amazing Spirit flight they were met at baggage claim by their favorite host, Grandpa Winn. The first stop, as it always is whenever there is one within range, was at Café Rio for lunch. Then it was Walgreens to get some sunglasses, because Alixa forgot hers and it was marvelously bright and sunny all weekend long. Wednesday and Thursday were hang out with Grandpa days, eating wonderful meals, visiting the strip, checking out the new baby lion cubs and dolphins at the mirage, stopping at the Bellagio, eating more wonderful meals, and generally enjoying not having nap times and trying to feed toddlers and hearing the kids yell. In their absence the kids were having a blast with the grandparents, and except for the time Alixa sent Grandma to the wrong location for a birthday party things went well back in Dallas. On Thursday evening in Nevada the Carters arrived with Jeremy. They spent the evening chatting and playing cards, and everyone went to bed relatively early. That would be the last decent rest for the weekend.

 First stops: Cafe Rio and a movie theater with recliners

For the uninformed, Ragnar is a 12-person, 200 mile relay race. The team is broken up into two vans of 6 runners each, and each runner has 3 legs they must run of differing lengths and difficulties. The race began Friday morning, but the Winns were in van 2 so they didn’t start until noonish. Alixa and Jarom had opening runs that were about the same: 5.5 miles, almost exclusively up steep hills. Their van was done around 5 and only a few miles from Grandpa’s place, so they met him for dinner and then headed back to his house for showers and a brief rest. That rest was about 2.5 hours. Then they were off to their next run, this time through the dead of night. Alixa’s was 6 miles, mostly downhill, and Jarom’s was 5.3 and very downhill. Combined with the cool night temperatures the second runs felt much better than the third. After finishing around 3am they headed back to Grandpa’s place for showers and another brief sleep. Then they were up and out for their final runs. Alixa finished with another 5 mile run and Jarom only had to do 3, but they were both uphill again and the repeated runs without rest was starting to get to them. Even Dave, the groups best runner by far and the relay anchor, was struggling by the end and even got passed by a few people. The crew finished the course in about 29 hours, which was good enough for a distant 23^rd place out of 305.

Pre-running

 Post port-a-potty and feeling great

With the strip behind her 

 Lix had the misfortune of following a mariokart racer

In total Lix ran 16.6 miles at an 8:15 minute pace and Jarom did 13.7 at 8:30. Most people have confused looks when you tell them you are running a race like this and ask you why. The main reason is the atmosphere. It is fun to try and push yourself to see what you are capable of physically, but hanging out with good friends that you don’t get to see very often is a ton of fun too. The lack of sleep and exhaustion from running makes for lots of silly and memorable experiences, and doing it all against the backdrop of Vegas with our favorite Nevadan as a host makes it all even better. After finishing up the group grabbed one more bite to eat and then the Utahns took off driving north. The Winns just relaxed with Grandpa for the afternoon, catching another few hours of rest and a last nice meal before boarding their red-eye flight home. There was no sleeping there, and when they got back they had to retrieve the kids from Nate and Kenz and start getting back to normal life. It was a few days of recovering before they really felt normal, but they had a great time and loved seeing everyone. And for now their race schedule is over. But they’ll probably end up doing something like this again soon enough.

 Finish line pics

And Bo playing piano, because I think it's funny

Girls rule and Boys drool

Alixa has been working super hard to lose pregnancy weight and get into great shape over the past year. So early this summer she decided that she wanted to run a half marathon with some of her friends and Jarom said that he would do it with her. You may or may not recall that Jarom did a half two years ago with his brother Nate. It didn’t go very well. So this time he decided to shed about 230 pounds and see if he could break 2 hours. It became clear very early in their training that this was not going to be a challenging goal for Alixa. Her target was more like 1:45. She did an amazing job with her training, working out diligently most every morning. Jarom’s training did not go nearly as well, and at age 33 he is admittedly in the worst physical condition of his life. One of the perks of being a stay-at-home mom is that Lix has a standing appointment at the gym every day, whereas it is a little tougher for Jarom to make the time to get there as regularly. Also, Jarom is lazier than Alixa.

 The kids took a day off to feed the goats and pick pumpkins

The race started early Saturday morning, so Lix and Jarom left the kids with Mimi and booked a hotel room downtown near the race start. That way they didn’t have to get up an extra 45 minutes early and they could come back and shower and take a short nap before driving home after the race. Alixa spent the hour before the race using the bathroom about 50 times. I’m not sure it helped, because she still had to stop mid race to go again. Other than that pit stop that cost her a minute or so, the race went very well for Alixa and she cruised into the finish line at 1:48. Then the long wait began for her husband. Jarom came in 8 minutes behind her at 1:56. That time was better than he expected given his training and condition, and was a PR by nearly 30 minutes. Now that he has a respectable time on his resume he will likely not do any more of these half marathons. On the flip side, Alixa enjoyed her training and will probably continue to do these until she gets below the 90 minute mark, because she’s borderline insane. But we are all very proud of her.

 Pictures from the finish line. Looks like Jarom got tired and fell asleep.
Fast people take selfies with their medal

After the race they walked back to their hotel room and slept for a couple of hours. It was amazing. They hit up five guys on the way home for a greasy post race meal that hit the spot. In their absence Bo scored 4 goals in his final soccer game of the season, and self-reported that he also stopped them from scoring 3 times. We’ve tried to explain to both him and Jenna that defense is just as important as offense, so he’s started keeping track of that as well. 

Then the whole crew took off to a fall party about an hour north on a farm with some friends. There was a four-wheeler to ride, which Jenna and Bo loved. There were frisbees to throw and tractors to play on, a hay-less hay ride, a nice potluck dinner, pumpkins to carve, kickball to play, and nice people to chat with. It was a really great evening. Bo stepped on a fireant nest and it was about 90 degrees, but other than that it was a great time. And in an interesting twist the friend who invited us up to her family’s place also happens to be the half-sister of the lunatic who got stake basketball cancelled here in Frisco. And he brought his buddy from the game a few years ago. You can read about it here.

DIY-ish

For far too long Jarom has been wanting to do some renovations in the master bathroom. Alixa’s been holding him back, but after asking for the millionth time she finally relented. Unfortunately the first estimate they got came in at about $10,000. Things are going well at work for Jarom, but not that well. So they had a few other people come by for estimates. The prices were better, but still a little loftier than they were hoping for. Fortunately, we have a good friend who does these sorts of things and happened to be unemployed and looking for some work. So we figured we could give him a job, he could make some money, we could do the demo and some of the little things to save a few bucks and everyone comes out a winner.

 If only we really knew what was ahead of us at this point

So early in August Jarom and Lix spent date night at Floor and Décor picking out tile patterns and stuff. Super romantic. Shortly after that Jarom started tearing out the existing tile in the shower and on the floor. That happens to be one of the worst jobs ever. Or maybe they just used a special super adhesive mortar in the bathroom here. Either way, every time Jarom went to work in there he regretted his decision to do some of the demo himself. But it was a good way to release some anger.

It didn’t take long before the bathroom was in shambles and completely unusable. And that’s when things got interesting. Our unemployed friend got a job! Rah. While we were all very glad for him and his family to be getting a paycheck once again, we all knew that our 1-2 week renovation just became a 1-2 month renovation. So the weeks-long joy of sharing a bathroom with the kids and needing to wear shoes to get to the closet began. Everything in the master bedroom and bathroom was dusty all the time, and you had to keep an eye on Emmy so she didn’t go in there and step on (or eat) a nail or something.

Here's what else happened during the construction:

 Lix cut her hair short. Then she cut it shorter. She's 30 now. Time to start acting like an old lady.

 Lix and Bo went to Krispy Kreme on talk like a pirate day. They were supposed to get 2 dozen donuts for free, but the stingy cashier lady only gave them one.

 Emmy won't part with her babies. Alixa has to take her workout selfies in a disaster zone while she trains for her upcoming races. She is WAY faster than Jarom.

 Jazz doesn't care about the construction. She did injure leg somehow this month and had to wear a cone of shame for a little while.

 Bo feeds Tobogo the giraffe. On the way home they stop by that same Krispy Kreme and get 6 dozen free donuts thanks to a strongly worded email about their experience on pirate day. Boo-yah.

But piece by piece, bit by bit, new tile started to go up, and somewhere off in the distance there was a light at the end of that tunnel. We put in new tile with an accent strip in the shower, along with a frameless glass door and a new fixture. The bathroom floor got a dark hardwood-looking tile and the wall got a fresh coat of seabreeze or aquafoam or melonberry paint. I can never remember what they call the colors. It’s blue-green. When the maid came the day after the project was all completed she said that it looked like a hotel bathroom, and I think she is right. It was WAY over the projected time and $500 over the projected budget, but it is all done now and everyone is pretty happy with how it turned out.

 This little beauty is so Lix has a place to set her foot while shaving her legs.

But it may be a long time before Alixa lets Jarom start another home improvement project.

The final product