. . .pool hose has holes in it and. . .
. . .the spa has brown fur in it and . . .
. . .their peach tree has no peaches on it. Our resident bears on the Mesa have been visiting on a fairly frequent basis over the last week. It has been hot and they have cooled down quite a bit in the pool.
Here are 8 of the 12 team members of the Big Kahunas - Jeannie, Nathan, Ian, Allison, Alana, Danny, Annie and Erin. The team mascot was Nemo and he was passed from team member to team member at each exchange.
In the above picture, Alana is about half way through her 7 mile run in the Heber Valley. It was just starting to rain and she had a 2 mile uphill left to run so we were all cheering her on.
This is van #2's rest stop from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m. on Friday evening where we had a light dinner and tried to sleep. Then we started our 6 legs of the race at 11 p.m. and ran until 5:30 in the morning. We were beat!
Teammates Annie and Ian, holding Nemo, point to the mountains that they have to climb in their legs of the relay - and it rained on them too.
Our van was decked out moderately compared to some of the vans. One vehicle had two tusks and a trunk attached to the front of a Suburban, ala prehistoric mammoth. Another had a skeleton in a lawn chair on the top of the car. There were some very clever ideas for team names and vehicles.
We just started the Ragnar Run about 2 hours ago in Logan, Utah. It is a 188 mile race from Logan to Park City. The team, Big Kahunas, are shown above, ready to run. Grammie and Grampie are the inspiration for this race and will meet all of us at the finish line in Park City tomorrow. It is a round-the-clock run. I think one of my legs is at about 3 a.m. tomorrow. . .I'll let you know when I crawl into the van after I finish.
Evan is shown here with Nemo, our team mascot, starting the race. There are 675 teams competing, with 12 members on each team. Then there is a big party in Park City afterward.
We decorated our vans too. . .we have two vans with 6 team members in each van.
Gavin and Brielle took a little time out to go for a swim in the hotel pool where we stayed the night before the Ragnar Race.
For my birthday, I went to Disneyland with Gavin, Meg and Elise to get my annual pass. I wasn't sure what rides Gavin would want to go on but I figured the King Arthur's Carousel was pretty benign. The expression on Gavin's face would indicate that he feels that Disneyland is NOT the Happiest Place on Earth.
We went on a couple of other rides and Gavin's favorite was It's a Small World. 
In the afternoon, we went to a statue dedication of Pope John Paul II at the City of Hope. The donor of the statue is good personal friends with the Italian tenor, Andrea Bocelli. Bocelli was at the statue dedication and sang for 1/2 hour for the 200 people that were present. It was absolutely incredible to hear him.
Reyna Diaz, Brad, Margaret, Gavin, the Italian sculptor of the statue, Mayor John Fasana, Grammie, Evan and Grampie in front of the statue. The white marble is from Carrara, Italy and the red marble is from Pakistan.
Last month, after James' graduation, Margaret, Evan, Alana, Grammie, Grampie and Helen drove to Ohio to spend time with Georgine and Bob Finlay. In addition to visiting the Amish Country, Kirkland and various sites around Akron, we were able to
After leaving Akron, we drove to Connecticut, across Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Along the way, we stopped in Hackettstown, NJ. Grammie's father spent some years of his youth in Hackettstown. In the town square, there is a monument to veterans from this town who fought during WWI. James McMullen, Grammie's father, is listing on this town plaque. We also stopped by West Point, before our final leg of the trip into New London, CT. 
Georgine and Bob hosted a wonderful dinner party with the Healey and the Piquettes. The Finlays, Healeys, Piquettes and Grammie and Grampie have been dear friends for many years. It is a real testimony to their friendship that they still stay in close contact with each other. 
We were able to visit Bill and Sara Schwager, neighbors of our's in Bath. Their son, Paul, was able to stop by for a visit also. It was fun getting caught up with each other's families. 
We decided to take a walk in Cuyahoga National Park along the towpath. The weather was just beautiful and the scenery quite picturesque. This is a journey we will long remember.
Evan and I took the train up the coast to San Luis Obispo where my parents picked us up and we spent a couple of days at the beach house in Morro Bay. We got to see the new door out to the deck in the family room and it really opens the room up.
The poppies were in bloom in the front yard with the other drought-tolerant plants and the yard looked beautiful. We went bike-riding along the water and saw a lot of otters out in the bay sunning themselves.
