This weekend Kristie ran the last installment of the Salt Lake City Track Club’s winter series, a 15k (9.3 mile) race out by the Saltair Pavilion in Magna. Her doctor figured that since she’s been running 5 miles a day since she was a fetus, she’s probably just fine doing it now. Kristie told me she had no interest in running fast, she just wanted to run. Well, she certainly surprised me.
Not bad for a girl that’s almost 6 months pregnant!
The race atmosphere was pretty exciting, and it was so funny to walk behind Kristie and watch people steal sideways glances at her belly.
According to Kristie, the toughest part of running 9 miles in her condition has been not peeing her pants. (I apologize, probably TMI.) I think it’s those little things that get lost on us guys.
And a special thanks to Grandma Hiller for putting us up in SLC the night before the race. She’s an angel, and the world’s biggest Jazz fan.
The Wagstaffs (family friends of the Tanners) invited us up to their beautiful cabin at Solitude ski resort this weekend. Being the ski bum that I am, I was beyond excited for another opportunity to get out this season. So Friday night we picked up Houston and made our way up a snowy Big Cottonwood Canyon, arriving at our destination just after dark. It wasn’t long before we settled into deep couches to watch the Vancouver Olympic opening ceremonies with a big group of family and friends.
The next morning a bunch of us struck out early to the lifts, hoping to get in as many runs as possible. It had snowed a bunch the evening before, and it snowed the entire day…so conditions were perhaps the best I’ve ever skied. Since Denny had been coming to Solitude his entire life, he and his son Drew were able to take us directly to the best stashes of thigh-to-waist deep powder. I decided to forgo lunch and ended up skiing for seven straight hours. Pure bliss.
Kristie “I Don’t Want to Squish the Baby” McConnon wasn’t feeling quite up to skiing, so she decided to run 9 miles at their home gym and play with Therese’s adorable nieces back at the cabin instead. That night we watched moguls, short-track, luge, biathlon and a bunch of other awesome Olympic competitions, taking a few breaks to play Scatagories and some other fun games. Watching Apollo and Kearney take silver and gold respectively were certainly highlights.
[check out that gnarly curling iron burn on Kristie's neck. That has to be some kind of record, poor girl]
On Sunday we went to church at the Brighton Branch, which was literally at the base of a ski hill. It was one of the prettiest churches I’d ever attended. Later on we had a big family dinner and dessert, complete with a Valentines Day party put on by the little kids.
We were planning on heading back that evening, but one of Kristie’s client’s rescheduled and I didn’t have work, so we didn’t have to take off till this morning. All in all it was a wonderful weekend escape with great skiing, great activities and really great company.
At about 2:30pm on Thursday I got a text from Kristie at work, informing me that she’d prepared a Valentines evening and I wasn’t allowed home till 6:00. Suffice it to say I love that girl.
Now that we don’t work together any more, us LJ alum met up to grab some good curry and catch up. After dinner, Andrew and Rebecca invited us all over for an extremely tasty dessert and rockin’ round of Blokus. The work place certainly won’t be the same without bizdevbear and the ppc wizard. #goodtimes
p.s. Andrew – notice anything missing from that picture? Automagic.
Tonight we had dinner at the Pizza Pie Cafe Provo with a most excellent group of friends that we haven’t seen in quite some time. For the rest of the gang that couldn’t make it, here’s some choice updates:
Bobby and Kathryn were running a little late because Bobby was called in at the last second to assist with a C-section. I still have a hard time reconciling the distinct personalities I think of as “dilophosaurus Bobby” and “doctor Bobby.”
Jeremy and Kedra brought their adorable newborn Rebecca for everyone to meet. She was as cute as a button, and probably weighed less than all the pizza I consumed that evening.
Theron is still working hard on some rad engineering projects and enjoying the new place he bought. Katy and Nate (who unfortunately couldn’t make it) are staying with him until they finish remodeling their new home.
Joe is starting a new booking company called Hungry Tiger Agency (with our boy Matty P), and will likely run the music biz in a few years.
Richie is taking some classes at UVU and is as wild as the guitar solo Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Free Bird.
It was so good to see everyone, and I’m kicking myself for forgetting to bring a camera.
After some good eats, a bunch of us headed over to Velour to catch the Imagine Dragons show. The energy was high and the band some great new tunes. Here’s a video montage of the trip they just posted (footage from the show begins about 40 seconds in)
Our actual anniversary is Monday the 15th, but since we’ll be away that weekend with other plans, we decided to stay the evening in SLC tonight and go to The Melting Pot for a pretty amazing 4 course fondue experience. I had the hottest date in the whole city.
On Thursday night we took off to Idaho to visit Kristie’s family. We had a wonderful, relaxing weekend hangin’ out with the fam. It was a particularly big weekend for Cole, who was celebrating his 16th birthday, getting ordained, etc. He had actually planned his own surprise party for Saturday with a couple of friends, where he wanted to surprise all the people that had come to surprise him. But in a classic twist, his mom told his friends switch the date of the party to the evening before, so he was completely confused when he walked into a yelling room of friends on Friday night.
[Yes...that's Cole's head]
We also got to see Kenny, Mari, Grandma, Grandpa & others at the Tanners on Saturday night where we watched BYU stomp on Utah in a great men’s basketball game.
Friday was the last day of work at my previous job. It had been a terrific 3 years, and I’m really proud of the things I learned and accomplished. My decision to move on came about when I received a job offer from another company–but then within days of that first offer, I was given a second, even better one that I couldn’t pass up. As a result, I’ve accepted the position as Director of Marketing at Qualtrics Labs, a really awesome survey software company based in Provo. The people I’m working with are terrific, and I can’t say enough about the unique company culture.
As a result of this shift, I had a week of unemployment that I spent most judiciously. Skiing became priority #1, since I received a few complimentary lift passes as a gift from my new employer. If any of you have skied Deer Valley, you’ll know why it’s been rated the best ski resort in the nation 3 years running. I was lucky enough to have the company of Jer and Nathan for two of the trips. The picture below is of some of the amazing terrain we got to ski.
I can’t wait to get rockin’ and rollin’ at Qualtrics this next week…
It’s official, Kristie and I are going to be the parents of a baby girl come June! We had the week 20 ultrasound today and she looks healthy, active and squished and adorable. I think she’s gonna be a daddy’s girl if I have anything to say about it.
We’re so excited. Thanks all for the love and support — we’re probably going to need a lot more of it!
