K-1 Crew, NIKE Invitational & HCP Moves

airplane selfie - Hilary & Heather

Malin, Kaylynn, Hilary, Heather, Cyd (Keri taking pic)

Spending a long weekend with the K-1 Crew (Nov. 1-4) is good for the soul!  Coordinating a few days away for six busy moms is no small feat but something we've managed to do every few years.  The lovely weather, cheaper airfare and WorldMark accomodations meant we all met up in Las Vegas again.  Hilary and I were the last to arrive late Thursday night and we chuckled to see five of us wearing a shade of purple?!?

A family-style meal at the Cheesecake Factory is a must whenever we get together.  And so is sampling a few of the cheesecakes of course!  I'm pretty sure we walked several miles just getting to the place after exploring the old part of downtown Vegas.

Cherry-chocolate cordial cheesecake won - yum!

 I had zero expectations when Kaylynn asked if we'd be interested in attending a Friday evening performance of World of Dance Live Tour since one of the dancers happened to be Austin's (Kaylynn's husband) cousin's son.  I'm all about supporting the young and talented members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and there happened to be three of them dancing with this tour group.  I was blown away by their crazy good talent!  Not sure how people can physically accomplish what we saw on stage but it was inspiring to say the least!  We felt like teenage 'groupies' getting a pic with Andre after the performace but our kids sure thought we were cool when they found out we mingled with 'famous' dancers.

Hilary, Keri, Kaylynn, Andre, Cyd, Malin, Heather

Saturday morning we opted to cover new ground for our hike and checked out some cool petroglyphs nearby.  We happened upon a ranger who enjoys his job and he gave us a run down on the area.  Later, some went swimming, we shopped at the outlets and ate Chinese/Thai meals before parting ways.  By Sunday at noon, Hilary and I were the only ones left.  We checked out of one room and into a studio for the day since our flight didn't leave until Monday afternoon.  It gave us extra time together - we walked to church and Ubered it back for a relaxing afternoon of reading/eating leftovers.  We still stayed up too late talking but it was a great change of pace!

I know to anticipate "backlog" whenever I return from being out of town.  The following week was no exception.  And having a few back-to-back weekend trips interspersed with Aaron's mid-week work travel, has made November yet another busy month.  Oh, I haven't even mentioned basketball but that will be a post for another day.  On Friday (Nov. 9), Ainsley's mom, Kristi, and I carpooled to Boise so our girls could race in the NIKE Northwest Invitational.  I drove and made the hotel reservations but we split the cost.  It worked out well.

Anna & Ainsley - downtown Boise

We stayed in the Eagle area but drove to downtown Boise to pick-up the girls' race packets on Friday night.  Ainsley was all about the dancing party so we endured for a bit then made our way back to the hotel so the girls could get some decent sleep.  It was mighty nippy at 10:15am on Saturday (34 degrees) but that did not phase Anna as she focused in to race on the new-to-her course at Eagle Island State Park.  The NIKE Northwest Invitational hosted over 2,400 runners throughout the day from six states - WA, OR, ID, MT, WY, HI, AK (didn't see anyone from HI).  

Anna in white/black - racers hit sandbar section twice

Approaching the big hill where
Anna passed this girl from Yakima, WA

Anna ran in the "Rising Stars" race (JV) and finished with a 5th place finish (200 runners) - 20:07 (PR) 5K on a tough course.  She was hoping to break 20:00 but was the only Madison runner to actually improve her time from the state race two weeks earlier.  It was an impressive scenario especially considering she had try-outs and made the freshman basketball team immediately following state XC.  Anna managed to fit in a few speed workouts but that's about it with her daily commitment of basketball practice.  In fact, we had to leave Boise soon after the girls raced because Anna had her first basketball game that very evening!

Anna & Ainsley - leaving hotel

It was an awesome way for Anna to finish up her first cross-country season!

The middle school recently held an art show and Elsie's drawing was selected to be the invitation/flyer the school send out to annouce the event.  She was happy to win a box of crayons and this little trophy:).

Elsie - at the art show

After serving as CEO of Home Care Pulse for the past 10 years, Aaron recently announced his decision to step aside from this position so he could pursue his next passion as an EOS Implementer for Vue Advisors.  Wow - that sentence was short and sweet but the process thus far sure hasn't been.  And I've had to laugh when some people actually think he's retiring?!?  Nothing could be further from the truth.  They simply don't know what it means to be an 'entreprenuer'! While Aaron was out-of-town speaking at a conference this past week, the HCP office has been busy relocating (so much work!).  I know this because ultimately, I'm in charge of the cleaning crew (Brinley, Jantzen, Anna).

Space for past 4 years

Brinley helped paint this wall years ago.

In between a zillion other things, Brinley and I met at the office to do a final clean before the carpet cleaners came in the following morning.  The landlord stopped by and didn't know who we were but kept talking about how much he was going to miss HCP as tenants and how amazing Aaron and Eric have been to work with over the years.  He was almost emotionall about it. Brinley and I chuckled when he left because we didn't bother telling him we were Aaron's wife/daughter.  Needless to say, we left the place better than we found it.

Brinley - packing up cleaning supplies

I wish we could say we found conditions to be the same on the other end, but that hasn't been the case.  The new location has one pro for the cleaning crew - no more bathrooms!  It's a bigger space with common bathrooms used by the entire building (other tenants) but it's a maze with tons of glass windows (ugh) and dusting/vacuuming.  The location is better situated for married-student employees and the parking lot can accomocate the growth HCP has experienced.  Now we're just waiting for a missing piece to the vacuum backpack to arrive and for things to settle down at the new office space so the kids can learn a new routine.