My workout class and a little more

I started attending a weight training class last September. I work out three times a week and it has been great for me. I have improved my flexibility, strength and confidence. It is hard but I always go and I am always glad I did. Here are a few pictures I stole from Celissa, the trainer.

 

Anthony, my friend Hannah from work, and myself are the regulars in the evening class. However there always seems to be one or two extra people every night:) 

I am always so tired and sore by the time we start to stretch.

We have a lot of fun in class and occasionally we good off.

 

We have all gotten so much stronger. One activity that I don't actually hate is wall ball sit-ups.

 

This week there was a girl that came that is a lot smaller than me and so I had to use the 40lb slam ball. It was so heavy and a lot harder than the 30lb ball.

 

I survived but man my back has been sore. It was either that or the rice rounds of ten reps of deadlifts we did.

In other news the weather has warmed up a little bit off and on. I have tried to get out and take advantage of it as much as possible. Lots of Y hikes!

 

One night I had to hike it twice because Moki took off. That dog, there are days I could kill her. It happened to be on a gorgeous evening.

 

Aaron and Brady got to work together because Aaron had to help evacuate the Oroville inmates while the dam scare was happening. They just happened to take them to the jail where Brady works. So funny that these two friends ended up in the same career.

 

More hiking with Moki. This day Hannah and I hiked Stewart Falls. Moki moved during the panorama and ended up with multiple legs!

 

Andrew likes to dress himself so you never know what you will get. This was his outfit on a warmer day when we were shopping.

 

I have tried some fun new recipes recently and they have been delicious. I have also been loving broiled vegetables.

 

Tonight I had them with Salmon and watermelon. So delicious.

I really enjoyed having two and half weeks off of coaching sports. Track has started again so life is a little bit crazier. I also got in my first outdoor bike ride of the season. 25 miles in the wind. I was exhausted when I finished but it felt great! Life just seems to be going so fast!

Mom visits Utah

The whole dam incident actually caused a little anxiety for me. Mainly because I was so worried about my mom and wanting her to be safe. Thankfully once school was officially canceled she was able to fly to Utah. She stayed for ten days and it was fun to have her here. I only saw her on the weekends because I had to work. She came down to Provo on Friday night and all her Provo kids joined her for dinner at Wingers.

The first Saturday she was here we hiked the Y. Did inititories at the temple. Then visited a lot of her Utah siblings at a family barbecue. It was really fun to see everyone. We then did Sunday dinner at my house the next day. 

She was in town for Presidents' Day and so I was able to spend that day with her. Amanda brought Andrew down and then my mom and Dan took him to see Lego Bateman. Afterwards we took Andrew swimming at the rec center.

I took Tuesday off work. We spent the morning at my house building forts with Andrew.

 

A teepee and a canoe this time.

 

So fun.

Then we surprised Andrew and took him to the aquarium. It was fun. He is a great age for the aquarium.

 

He really wanted me to take a picture of the sting ray swimming over us.

 

And we loved the new Asia exhibit. The leopards were so cute.

 

After the aquarium I dropped Andrew and my mom off and headed back to Provo for my basketball banquet. That went really well which was great.

The next weekend she came down again on Friday night. We were all pretty tired so we got dinner and then went to bed. Saturday I woke up and hiked the Y while she walked on my treadmill. Then we went and did a session at the Provo City Center Temple. Dan then grilled meet and all the Provo kids visited with her for a little bit before I drove her to the airport. 

I know she was ready to go home but it was so nice to have her here. It really helped me not worry which was great for me. I love my mom and I really look up to her. I am alsways grateful to spend time with her.

My Birthday

I had a really nice birthday. It was on a Sunday which is my only complaint. On Saturday the 11th Dan made a delicious steak dinner and I had some friends over and we played games. It was really fun and nice. 

My actual birthday was great but there was a little drama at the end. I went to church and them my brothers came so we could car pool to Loralie's house. Dan had me open the present he got me.

 

My very own mumu!!! He felt like I needed my own since I borrowed my moms last summer. 

 

At Loralie's we played badminton and visited before dinner. It was Scottys birthday as well and he requested pizza and so that's what we had.

 Right after we started to eat we found out that there was an emergency in Oroville. The dam is full this year because of all the snow and for the first time in 47 years the emergency spillway was being used. As the DWR people watched it they noticed a lot of erosion was happening really fast and they feared the emergency spillway would break. So lots of Oroville was evacuated because officials believed it would break within the hour. My mom was on the evacuation list. All of a sudden we were all glued to the TV and it made for a long night.

The emergency spillway did not end up breaking but lots of damage was caused and Oroville was on careful watch for two weeks. School was canceled as officials tried to put a band aid on the dam. Here are some before, after and during pictures.

Before. The lake is so full. Such a great sight after years of drought.

 

After they started releasing water over the normal spillway some damage was seen.

 

Unfortunately there was not time to repair the damage because the lake was filling up so fast. They were forced to let water come down the spillway.

 

The water created a new path, this is not good. Even though water was being let out they couldn't keep up with how fast the lake was filling. For the first time in the history of Oroville dam the auxiliary spillway was used.

 

 

It looks pretty until you see all the erosion it is causing.

 

It completely wiped out the road. The auxiliary spillway was used for a couple of days until the water got low enough to stop flowing over the top.

After the lake got below the auxiliary spillway level they were still forced to let a lot of water out on the actual spillway because more storms were coming.

 

So much water. It is so powerful!

 

It is easy to see why so much damage was caused. Here are some pictures of the spillway now that they were able to stop the water from flowing.

 

 

 

I stole these pictures offline but it is easy to see why people are scared. There are billions of dollars of repairs that will now need to happen. The other really sad thing is that because the Feather River was so full lots of flooding happened down stream. Lots of damage was caused all over the state.

I have never watched the news as much as I did the two weeks following my birthday. It really has been a crazy situation and I don't even live there anymore.