Nolan's Cheddar - Mouse And A Mousetrap

relate this to your trials in life

the summer of my 27th year!

So TJ asked me if I could do anything this weekend what would I do, I answered watch the fireworks at Grand Lake, and he said, let's go! So we did! We phone my step-mom who happened to be visiting Denver and they let us stay in their cabin on Mt Evans, just off the I-70 in the Arapaho National Forest. It's actually the highest 14er in CO and the highest paved road in the US. In case you were wondering.





























We picked up the key Saturday night and I took TJ to down town Denver at about 11 to see real city life. Little did we know that we would not only smell like the bumbs we saw that night but by the end of the trip but also come home to find one living in the abandoned house's garage next door to us that looks into our basement apartment. Luckily we were well prepared as we had searched the cabin in the middle of the night with axes to make sure there were no hermits in the cabin upon our arrival. If you read the blue bull is says Colorado has an average of 300 days of sunshine that's more than FL or CA. If you suffer from seasonal affective disorder I highly recommend CO. It also has more parks than any other state, I love you Colorado and please don't you ever forget it. I also found it interesting that I forgot to take my allergy medicine up there and didn't wake up with my usual sneezing fit, but don't worry the minute I crossed the UT border they were back. I also photographed the classiest McDonald's I've ever seen and just might have to get those faucets for my own house one day. The Columbines were in full bloom up on Mt Evans. On Sunday Nancy and her fam came up the cabin for a BBQ and then Tee and I headed down or up North to Grand Lake my most favorite place for fireworks!!!!! The fireworks are actually launched from a barge that looks like it's on fire. The fireworks reflect over the water and right ontop of you, TJ and others even got hit by pieces of firework, he brought it home as a momento. The boomb echoes off the mountains that surround the lake, oh man I love it! A golden retriever snuggled up to me before the fireworks, her name was Bailey and I think her owner was jealous, she said this is HER dog more than any other dog she's ever had and I should consider it a compliment I didn't even have food. Anyway her daughter another golden named Anna is hopefully pregnant and I want one of her puppies!! This dog sold us on her grand baby, she had the best character, was really smart, beautiful and super soft even after swimming in the stream all day!!!! The next day we slept in and hiked/ran around the cabin and rediscovered some of my favorite childhood bridges and spots, I wish we had a week to spend up there!!! I love that place!

Girls Camp

Last week I was able to attend my church's girl camp as an activity chair person. I LOVE girls camp. Being away from the hub bub of the world and out in nature is so refreshing. It was a perfect setting, the weather was great, nice, breezy and cool at night, a few hours of heat during the middle of day which necessitated a dip in the lake! Canoe rides with sweet tinkling Beehive voices singing brought little tears to my eyes, I miss being that sweet innocent little beehive, it's one of the most beautiful things! I really felt at home at girls camp, just like when I was in girls camp as a young woman. I adored every woman up there especially my committee TJ was mopey without me so I asked him to pick me up and the missionary couple that watches over the camp told us to enjoy the property and lock it up on our way out. TJ and I had canoes, lakes, ziplines, and rope swings all to our self on this chunk of property up east of Heber, it was so peaceful and gorgeous, I wouln't be opposed to my own mountain estate! I also forgot to mention that my previous post on life was further reinstated. We were over getting speakers for the young women. The topic was over coming trials with Christ. We thought of many of my favorite women. One of the them is actually my grandmother in law, and while I love her dearly and look up to her, I thought there is no way that she can relate to this topic she has never had to work a day in her life she probably didn't even have to get a real degree from college. But I felt good about her as a speaker and thought well maybe this is what some girls need. As she spoke she talked of how her husband had been hit by a car never fully returning to himself. She had to go out and be the breadwinner and that is when it hit me that she is so amazing not because she lived a "perfect" life whatever that is, but because she has been refined and strengthened through her trials. Really you can not judge anyone, I mean it!!! Same with our happy bubbly camp leader, she worked the night shift full time while her husband had heart problems for 15 years. And another woman I look up to on our committee her husband quit his stable job to work for himself so he could have more time. These are all women I admire very much, women of great faith and I always just assumed that they must have the "perfect" life otherwise why else would they be so great and happy! Anyway, my understanding and love has grown for all men and for my trials. That's why we are here, if you don't want them you came to the wrong place, by coming to earth because this is a place where we learn and grow by our trials and by coming closer to Christ. One of the speakers showed this you tube video I will have to post, it's not only funny but relates to the topic http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYMdPQ0IGnQ&feature=related

Too much fun

So the last couple weeks have been a whirlwind of summer fun. TJ and I took my mom, lil' sister and her husband to the Manti pageant, it's basically a show on the hill below the Manti temple depicting the history of the church, and the Book of Mormon.

Growing UP!!

The other day TJ and I went to help his friend Ben and Laura move. After like a hundred trips up and down stairs I sat in a chair and watched TJ and his friends load up the moving truck. They had all known each other since Kindergarten and 3/5 are married. I could see the little boy in all of them and pondered on how these boys had the courage basically what besieged them and made them decide they were old enough and ready to get married. Like what does it take for a guy to decide well I think I'll get married. I know all of these guys love families and come from really great families and were probably excited their whole lives to get married. It's fun to contrast them next to their fathers who were once young men doing the same thing, now much older and wiser. I wonder for a moment do they think they are crazy? Maybe they do but I think they mostly understand because that's where they started too, and the only way to gain wisdom and grow in this area is by jumping right in!

Life

I seem to write about life a lot, my old blog was actually entitled life. Life is such a unique experience and the only measure I have is did I do my best? I look at so many people I love and think they have the most wonderful and perfect lives, it's easy for me to forget that there is so much I do not see. A few months back I was a bit bitter as I looked at my kindergarten's best friend's little sisters face book profile I thought, wow could her life be anymore perfect, she is one of the most beautiful people I know inside and outside, she came from an amazing family, a very well off family, she was able to graduate with a great degree right after she got married and moved immediately into a really nice house and has already started her family. I'm so happy for her, but at the time I looked at her life at least what I could see of it and was bitter, did I not deserve those things, I tried my best! Does she realize that most of the world doesn't live that standard. After further reading her sister's blog I read some grievous news about her little sister the one I admired with the perfect life. Turns her life isn't so perfect we just have different trials. I admire her even more for what she's gone through and her faith through it all. Now when I find myself looking at others and thinking those things I realize there is so much more than we see. When others look at me I'm sure there are people who think the same thing. Things like wow that Liz has the best husband in the world not to mention he's pretty handsome as well and I hear he always does the dishes for her too, wow Liz is such a great runner, wow Liz has traveled so much, only the hot sisters get sent to Temple Square, etc. They don't see the weaknesses I see like, I wish I had a better career, I wish I was a mom, I wish I lived above ground level, I wish my husband was done with school, all things that these other people probably already have that I admire. I love my life truly and I feel ridiculous for even writing about the things I wish I had. Besides kids they are all pretty nominal and I have so much more to make up for it all.

Ragnar

My favorite race in the whole world so far is the Wasatch Back, it's a relay consisting of well this year 190 miles. Two years ago my roommate Megan volunteered me for this race as a group of pharmacists she works with asked her to cover a drop out's spot. She hating running and me loving running gratefully accepted. The last two years I've tried to put together team Connolly as TJ's family is born fast with ridiculously long gazelle like legs. No luck! So one morning as I was loving life and lamenting on my run that I just wish I could run the Wasatch Back this year, I arrived home to a text saying the same team more or less, well mostly less got back together and was making another go and they needed me. Last race I ended up running 30 yes 30 miles! One of the random other replacements they had found didn't show up that morning, come to find out this year, he was a security guard for the IHC who got put in prison for stealing checks and writing them. No offense Mr but I'm glad you didn't make it, 30 hours in a van with you probably would have left me with some bad checks forged by you! There were also several injuries as pharmacists tend to think I'm a Dr I can do anything no need to train. For TJ and his family that works but not so much for the Dr's. Anywho so this year I'm signed up for van 2, last year I slept 4 hours in a nice warm pool room of a high school. This year we slept a total of one hour not counting the times my head drooped and bobbed, usually right before something exciting happened. Our entire car was struck with running nausea, not fun!
Highlights of the run include, one of our teammates, John almost getting abducted by another team as they arranged to meat a John at the exact same time and place and he thinking well it must be a sub, hopped right in their car! Luckily we got him back. After our hour 1 hour "nap" that we paid $2 for in Morgan HS where I laid down and played Pacman on my phone we drove in the dark looking for the other half of our team along the way. I had barely seen the other half of the team and the whole way everyone said "is that Brennan?" , "no that's Brennan", "no that's Brennan", "that's Brennan because that's Jacob holding out water" I agreed with that one to stop the madness, then everyone realized I had no idea who either of them were and the madness continued even though I tried to explain it was a feeling I just knew!
When our teammate Melissa went for her night run at like 12:30 we started to look for her, she had on these really wide leg gray sweats, the madness of "is that Melissa" started and I said "no she had droopy gray sweats!" to which the team answered that her pants were not droopy unless maybe she had pooped her pants.... moving along to my next leg TJ tries to meet me at Echo Reservoir to run 10 miles, I start before he gets there and I am tearing it up. I averaged 7 min miles on my first run and about 8:30 on this one passing hippies and witches really! I see my team's SUV pull up and yell you better be ready early 'cause I am flying, TJ hops out and comes running with me! Come to find out later they had dropped him by another lady they thought was me and really wasn't. It was amazing the stars were out and the reservoir was glistening. I made a pit stop behind a tractor and when I arrived at my exchange KC wasn't there. He wasn't there the first time bc his nose was bleeding this time it being 4ish in the morning started yelling KC!!! Everyone else yells too for KC and turns out this time he's in the honey pot, I yell tell him to go behing a tractor like me, I used a year old goo pack to wipe! I realized later that I even recognized some faces in that crowd but man was I loopy. I'm hoping right now no one reads my blog. Anyway I fall asleep in a steamy sweaty sleep and wake up freezing!!!!!!! I buy a ragnar jacket as all my clother are sweated right through. We stop by a high school to shower in the community showers, well they were locker room showers but they might as well have been community showers, they put the women in the men's locker room, the one that the men had used the year before, luckily we headed all men off at the doors but I almost had a heart attack when a 7 foot woman walked in. We finally get to our teams last stretch, my last run is up Guardesman pass or the Ragnar

Ragnar was a 9th century Norse King. He was a pirate, a raider, a conqueror, an explorer, and a wild man. The tough, fearless, rugged attributes of this Norse King are shared by all who participate in a Ragnar Relay. In much the same way, a Ragnar Relay provides runners the freedom to roam, to explore - a free-spirited curiosity to get out there and experience outdoor adventure. And maybe even to conquer. And though tough or rugged may not perfectly describe you, these attributes become a goal - something to strive for.

In a Ragnar Relay the wild nature of this Norse King is embraced by many participants. Participants who aren't afraid to paint their van plaid, to bring along their own hair band, to join together in yelling as they cross the finish line. You may think that you are not one of them, but you are. Everyone has a wild side and nothing brings it out of you like a Ragnar Relay.

Long live the Ragnar in us all!!!!

I start up my run and run right pass a moose, which happens to be the Ragnar mascot, luckily I'm so fast ;-) I miss the charging he supposedly was doing as my van drove by. I'm beat so the story must continue some other time, but our race ended with a Gondola ride up to some Village in Park City, and some Cafe Rio salad that put me into a deep slumber!