Quextival or Bust

April 2014

 Quextival:

Cotopaxi Quextival is a 24-hour outdoor adventure race where teams of 2-4 people compete by completing challenging and fun activities for points and document them via social media.  

Jess told me about this a week or so before he left for Hong Kong. And even though he had major jet lag AND had just missed a week and a half of school AND had finals to study for....being the awesome husband he is, bought us matching shirts, water bottles and we set off for 24 hours of AWESOMENESS!!! YAY!

The start time was 6:00 p.m. in Provo where we signed in, were given backpacks, and a list of the challenges.  We'd charted the things we thought would be fun the night before and tried to plot them so we could maximize our points.  Scott and his friends were a team, and we buddied up with them for a bunch of it.  (extra points were awarded for camping with another team and a few others to boot).  

We probably did at least 50 different activities but here are some of the favs:

Scott's apartment had a pool which is where we started.

'Jump into a body of water with clothes on"

Row across a body of water + Float on an air mattress on water 

(see how we combined those two--woo woo)

Eat a hot dog with hot sauce wearing hot pants in a hot tub- 6 pts.

Later we 'Played a pick-up sport with strangers (played a water polo game with some guys at Scott's pool)

6 second handstand in a public place- 3 pts

(Jess planked for 30 seconds outside the BYU art museum and we videoed it as people walked in and out.  It was hilarious....) 

We ate at a Peruvian restaurant-, watched the sunset then bought ourselves some fancy spandex from the window of a costume store for our hike!

Hike the "Y" mountain-  10 pts.  (extra 5 points for hiking in spandex-woo woo!)

The hike was amazing.  The weather was nice and cool and we had our awesome headlamps.  Jess has horrible HORRIBLE feet, but luckily they weren't that bad that night.
He was making his blueberry spandex work!  Ha ha--he's so so funny.

That night on the way to the campsite Jess "yodelled in a public place" --inside the gas station.  We picked up donuts and hot chocolate to share with Scotts team for our 'random act of kindness, where we warmed up chatting and talking with Scott, Nate and Alyssa--sooo nice and fun--huddled by the car for extra warmth since we didn't start a fire--ha ha.  Then set up our camp.  (which we promptly moved about 5 seconds before we all fell asleep because apparently we were on someone else's reserved campsite. They got there about 1:00 and just asked us to scoot over a bit so they could use the trees (extra points for sleeping in a hammock). The campground was soooo crowded that night!

Shared a campsite with another team,

Slept under the stars,

woke up and 'observed nature for 30 minutes' before getting out of our snug warm bags.

Then started a fire without matches (so this worked AMAZINGLY well for Scott who used flint and stone, and my battery method sorta worked....but not to fruition--just to get some good sparks.  Way way cool though that either of those started a flame! Watched the sunrise (sorta again--it was overcast--who really knew when it came above the mountain for sure...)

Roasted pop tarts over said fire...

Drew a picture of a llama with charcoal- 2pts.

How amazing is that drawing?! For reals.  That boys got mad llama skills.

Went sledding 

(we were going really fast...and I wasn't sure about how our ending was gonna go on that hard icy snow.  That's legit fear on my face right there.)

That morning we saw the sunrise, saw a waterfall

 Hit Sundance Ski Resort and then we all stopped for Breakfast at McDonald's--then back to the race.

 We stopped home for a quick shower (we're not animals :),
Put on Cotopaxi Llama tattoo's! BAM!-- 2pts.

planted a flower, swung on a rope swing

Saw the kiddos that mom was soooooooooooooo nice to watch during the race.
For reals though. She's so so nice.

Went to a local sporting event (Go Viking Baseball!), went down a slide at a park, picked up 10 pieces of trash on a trail, 

Hiked the "G"--which I think is a lot harder then hiking the "Y"

Ate from a street vender 
(BEST 'street vender' EVER-- We had the most delicious Monte Cristo
and for dessert had a Strawberry Smore Sandwich.  mmmmmm)

Went to the capital 

Then hiked the 'U'
HA HA--hiked is a very loose term there.  It's like right off the road....so...it wasn't super 'strenuous'....

Visited This is the Place Monument, Went to the zoo and had our picture taken by the llama's, Went to the natural history museum to have our picture taken by the Allasaurus , then Trolly Square, then to The Leonardo Museum to donate a dollar

"U" "G" "L" "Y"
Got 20 points for finishing all 3 hikes and making this fancy "L" shape in Lehi.

And to finish off the day:

Milk a farm animal-5pts.
I was soooooo happy about this one.  I have always wanted to milk a cow for some reason. I didn't know anyone with cows so I didn't think we could do it. We pulled into the parking lot at Thanksgiving point and tried to find the finish line.  Jess pulled over so I could ask some fellow Cotopaxians (there really was such a fun bond with anyone you saw around town doing the race!) where it was.  They told us and also said that we could milk a cow right where we were- WOO WOO!  Apparently it was a little petting zoo and they let people milk a cow for like an hour each day.  Special special day for me. :)

We had something like 250 points by the end (Which was pretty average.  The winning co-ed team had 629 and the lowest teams had 1).  We had soooooo much fun!  Running all over town being so random, and just hanging out.  I love this guy.  If they ever do this again we're totally bringing the boys with us.  We Loved It!

Mom was a SAINT and watched the boys so we could do the race.  

She even made tye dye shirts with them. How adorable is that!?  Adorable.  She's great. 

Thanks mom!

Jess visits ASIA

Jess is loving law school. Sure he's got tons more kids then the average none that his classmates have.  And sure he's got ADD and his mind is ridiculously busy all the time and has an extremely hard time focusing it to read bajillions of books every night.  BUT--he's amazing and still somehow finds time to spend time with us.  He's awesome.

He was picked as part of a small exclusive team he called VIS 

(Willem Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot to be precise)

From the sound of it, their competitions were similar to debate teams.  They'd get an issue, and as a team of 2 debate another schools team and both would be judged for their performance and material presented and law cited and what not....(I'm kind of guessing here...I've never seen it but it seems? like it was like this???)

He had competitions at school, one in California, and one it, WHAT? HONG KONG! 

Now, for anyone who knows Jess, he's not exactly a jabber-mouth, but here are some fun things that I was able to get out of him.  (chatting with him and then furiously typing to get the gist of it :)

The team, plus a couple of parents who came along (10 people) stayed in one tiny apartment.  Their days consisted of competing until about 2:00 each day.  Jess felt pretty good about his rounds.  He said the competition was fun.  And that he learned a bunch about the types of things he might really see in that field (which is his favorite at the moment--International commercial arbitration---How to really help companies with arbitration disputes and what not.

After the competition each day they were able to go site-seeing!  

He saw some really interesting rural communities but his favorite place was visiting the giant Buddha. 

 "It was at the top of a giant hill and we got to see lots of rain forest-y type jungle."  

The surrounding area was a group of monasteries.  It had such a reverent and holy feel in the monasteries.   It was fun to walk around and see the care they had taken for the gardens and see the mist rolling through the valley.  The atmosphere couldn't have been better.

While there, Jess paid an old lady the equivalent of .50 and got to pick a stick out of a big bundle of sticks-it matches with  a fortune in this giant book.

This was his:

They rode a gondola that had a glass bottom that was 'pretty neat'.  

(Julie and Emily--do you hate the idea of this sooo much?)

Jess said that the most shocking thing to him was: "The density of the people!  I was really anxious the entire time. Everywhere I went someone was touching me.  So many people." And seriously! Look at this picture! Even if there was no one on that entire street, with all those signs and advertisements everywhere I might have gone crazy!  Wowza!

He LOVED the horse races. "It was a drizzly night.  They have a big huge ornate track right in the middle of Hong Kong. The horse races are a big important business event for Hong Kong. People go there to talk shop and make deals.  We stood right up against the fence and watched. It was fun to see them go past so close."  

"I lost $2 betting on a horse"

Monkey Mountain: "Poop everywhere and the monkeys were super mean."

Jess and the other guys were fitted for suits at a little custom shop out there. He got to pick out EVERYTHING.  The lining, stitching, outer materials.  His was a subdued blue and green plaid suit--I love it !  It was super cheap comparatively.  This is what he had to say about it: "My friends at Andover Tailors (Paul and Mohammed) did a great job of making me feel like I was the most important customer in the world. :)  It was lots of fun."

 They tried lots of interesting foods.  This is something he had for breakfast one morning (gag) that he said was actually pretty good:

His favorite food though was a chicken dish that he at in a little fishing village.  They got there by taking, "the worst bus ride in the world" (through the mountains in the fog in such a turn-y road that they were nauseated quite a bit by the sounds of it) and walked into a restaurant in the middle of the lunch rush and were surrounded by locals.

 

Jess picked something that he saw someone else eating, and said it was delicious! 

Best choice ever: Upgrading to a larger seat for the 14 hour flight home!

The end.

B.J.'s 2 week visit!

Hooray! So B.J. is a super smarty pants and is going to USC in for Physical Therapy.  He had a 2 week internship in March and guess where it was? SALT LAKE! So yay!  He stayed with us and it was awesome.  Yes he had to work, but he also had lots of time to play!  Then Kara even got to join us at the end. Bonus!

I love watching my brothers play with my kids.  It's the greatest cutest thing ever.  Plus my boys love them like crazy!  Turns out B.J.  and Scott AND Kade and Luke love the same game on the Nintendo (I know it's not a Nintendo...but to me all GAMING is done on a Nintendo....cause that's the greatest one) Super Smash Bro's.  It was adorable to watch the four of them playing this little game and cute that they're practically on the same level competing.

One Sunday afternoon we all decided we wanted to play volleyball...only no one had a net....or a ball.  So what do you do?  Improvise!  It was super special--but we tied a rope from one side of the house to the fence, then hung clothes on it so we had a lil--net-type-thing.  Super classy--not ghetto for those concerned :).

We all went to Trafalga and played laser-tag--cause it's essential to a good time.

One of my favorite Jack Handy Quotes eve which was very appropriate: 

“Laurie got offended that I used the word "puke." But to me, that's what her dinner tasted like.”

One of the nights I decided to try a new recipe.  B.J. helped with dinner....(afterwards mom had a talking to me about how many times a week I should "try new things"...apparently this was one too many HA HA--you win some you loose some right?)  Well the picture in the book looked amazing and I knew all the ingredients looked good---all except one that I'd never tried--Farfalle Cheese.  Apparently this little cheese is the taste of throw-up...and made the whole thing sooooo nasty.  

We all had cereal for dinner instead.  

We played racquetball, cards, scrabble and talked and talked.  It reminded me of all growing up. Anytime I wanted to play any game at all B.J. would jump up and do it right away.  Even when no one else wanted to have a tea party with chocolate milk using Nikki's teeny-tiny mini set--who would say yes every time?  B.J.  I love him!  Thanks for the visit! 

Hooray for Sis. WINN!!!

Sister Winn Returns from her 18 month mission in Arizona!!!  

We love her!  So, besides Rhett being born on March 25th, now we love the day because Aubrey came home on that day too!  Andrea made some amazing signs we all held; including ones that said, "Someone said there was food", and  "Welcome Home?",  "Hooray!", and my favorite, "I made a sign".  

Isn't Andrea doing the most amazing face in the back of this photo?  Cause HA!  I laugh every single time. I think the fuzziness adds to the amazingness of it all.  Also I like this photo cause me makes me think of how Aubrey was probably feeling that day: everyone is fuzzy except her, because her world was changing so fast at that very moment!  But she's just got this expression of peace and contentment (even WITH the weirdo behind her :) and I love it.  Just love love love it!

And, since we sent her off by going to Chuck-A-Rama, whats a better welcome home then going to Chuck-A-Rama AGAIN! Hooray! We love that place.  Also Aubrey.  We love Aubrey.

Super Rhett Turns 4!

Is this not the cutest thing you'veever seen?  AHH!  

So Rhett turned 4 and you guessed it, he wanted another superhero party!  That little guy is constantly in costume.  I wash his spiderman costume almost as much as his regular clothes!  And he usually doesn't go by 'Rhett'; it's either Super Rhett, or Ninja Rhett, or Red Ninja Turtle Rhett, or our favorite, Super wolf-spider-bat Rhett-which consists of a combination batman/superman cape, wolverine full body muscle suit and a spiderman mask.  Occasionally he'll throw in a hulk glove or two.  It's pretty amazing. 

Since we only throw "friend parties" every 4 years, this was his first big party!  Woo woo!  He invited all his cute little friends and we had a super-hero training camp. Complete with costumes and stations to see if they had what it takes to be a superhero.  (Super-man station: obstacle course which ended in fighting bad guys (mustache helium balloons) with silly string.  Flash speed relay races, Hulk Strength tests (kids running into red butcher paper with drawn on bricks), and a Professor X Memory game. In the end (spoiler alert) turns out all the kids passed the tests and received their super cape.  (Funny---I remember making capes for Kade's 3rd birthday party....before the every 4 year rule was made. First kids are lucky that way)

Since Rhett couldn't decide on just ONE favorite superhero, we did three for his cake.

These two love each other so much!  They play so so well together.

Rhett LOVES to climb. He can easily climb to the highest part of the tallest pole.  He has those sticky Adams feet.  Lucky! :)

One of my favorite parts of his whole party was how each time someone was "testing" the rest of the kids shouted and cheered for them.  So sweet!  I wish all of us could be like little kids.  They're just so great.

Andrea's the best aunt EVER and takes the kids out for their birthdays. She had driven down to take Rhett out for ice cream, a week or so later and Max was so excited to see her that he decided he was going too.  As I was saying goodbye to them Max came out wearing Kade's shoes and eager to go along.  So since it had been his birthday too Andrea scooped him and brought both.