Blackham Bunch Quarterly Recap ~ Q3

 July, August, September ~ 2025

The third quarter of 2025 was full of activities ... basketball, pickleball, Zumba, races. We had the 4th of July (and 24th), an anniversary, some birthdays. A few getaways. Colton home for the summer then back to Oregon for his sophomore year. A move for Landon, and the addition of furry friends. Milkweed and monarchs.

• Races: Gray has been a little step crazy (Symphony competition) and he had one 62k day! He did multiple half-marathons, two triathlons, the "Rooster Ride" (100mile bike) and a 10k with Colton and Cooper. Coop also did his first half marathon.  
• Basketball: Cal had several men's leagues and tournaments going, and pulled Colton in to join while he was home for the summer. Colton did a few tournaments with his buddies too. In July we got the sad news that Colton's coach has passed away (he had been having some health issues, but still unexpected). 
• Landon's New Position/Location/Companions: LKL asked Landon if he'd consider a new position at the Spanish Fork location. To reduce the commute, he moved from his Midvale apartment to one in American Fork. With BlackhamBoy muscle and Gray's trailer, they got everything shifted. And if that wasn't enough change, add in a new roommate (Valentina) and two furry friends (kitty Sabrina and puppy Pedro). Valentina changed jobs too, so newness all around! Landon promised he's still commute to family gatherings and pickle ... and he has! 
• Work/School: All the guys have stayed busy at their respective jobs. There was a bit of a shake-up at Coop's work, which has increased his responsibility (and pay). He's also trained to drive a forklift in the warehouse. Coop's work/DLP also happily welcomed Colton back, instant full-time employment for him for the summer. Nice that the boys could carpool (which came in handy when we needed to get cars into the shop).  Colton got settled back in his apartment in Oregon and classes started at the end of September. Kate left her job and is pursuing a Masters at UVU.
• Getaways: Cal&Kate had a St. George getaway. Colton joined his girlfriend/her family in Vegas. Cal&Keaton had a Moab retreat with work/Camson, and Grayson had his own Moab retreat. Many of his races ended up being overnighters as well. 
• Holidays etc: For the 4th of July, several of us went to watch the West Jordan drone show. Landon and Valentina had been to one in Park City as well. Jen went to see the "Parade Preview" at the expo center. G&J had their 33rd anniversary, and we celebrated birthdays for Coop, Keaton and Landon. The five brothers raced go-karts, and we went out to Rodizio for dinner. Lots of birthday cake!
• Coop's Crew: A couple of Coop's friends got married, and Cooper had some luncheons and receptions. He and his buddies also gather virtually online for "Minecraft Monday" every other week. One of Coop's buddies came over to check out some of our old Gameboy supplies.
• Extended Family: Gray and Jen got out for a Westra dinner date with Mom&Dad and Scott&Amy. Grayson and Scott got out biking a time or two. Landon and Valentina joined Olivia for a dinner, and Olivia gathered all the nephews for a "Top Golf" night out. She also insisted on taking Colton out (with Haley and Coop) before he returned to Oregon. I'm thinking there was a haircut house call sometime this quarter too.
• Injuries/Illness & Repairs: Colton fell on his foot badly during one of his basketball games. He went into the Instacare just to make sure nothing was broken. That sidelined his activity for a couple of weeks.  Landon was sick enough that he went to the Instacare as well, and it was good he went as he needed an antibiotic to treat an infection. The stove in the kitchen has been having issues off and on ... the repair cost is $$$, but the stove has actually been working since the diagnosis, so fingers crossed that it continues. Colton's Charger failed emissions and we had to have it into the shop several times for fixes before it finally passed. New tires and a new windshield as well, and we hope it gets him through at least another year. 
• Iphone Upgrade: It was past due ... Jen finally upgraded her iphone. She no longer has a home button! It's nice that the process is so painless. Easy transfer!
• One Wheel/Unicycle: Fully joining in the "one wheel" community, Keaton added another vehicle to his stash ... a unicycle (not the bicycle type!)  He joins community rides with other enthusiasts and does a lot of solo rides and rides with friends. 
• Disk Golf: Colton got into disk golf while he was home this summer. There are several local courses and he and his friends hit several of them. He introduced it to Haley (she flew in at the end of the summer for a few days, then kept Colton company on the drive back to Oregon). 
• Super Saturday Sourdough: Jen was asked to teach a little class on sourdough for the stake "Super Saturday" ... it took some prep and energy, but was a good experience. A good trial a couple weeks before with niece Addie who came over for a lesson (and shared a picture of her first successful loaf shortly after). 
• Monarch! A flash of orange, an egg ... a little caterpillar, a chrysalis, and a beautiful butterfly. It was a monarch summer (the experience got its own blog post/write up).  

Ah summer ... pickleball every weekend, a growing garden, high A/C bills. Now comes the cooler weather, and Coop's fantasy football has started up, Colton's college basketball season will be starting up soon. What else will the final quarter of 2025 bring?

Here's one more "live" look at July, August and September ... One Second Style.

 

 July ~ https://youtu.be/kGOfhpZrSaU  

August ~ https://youtu.be/HeCgtAr0ef0  

September ~ https://youtu.be/Ty14kg3Iy34

Run Gray Run (even in the Rain)

 

Gray Black is a runner. He has a loop in Centerville from his Symphony Homes office and that's one of his routine runs. With his AppleWatch and Strava, he gets some fun feedback.  He started tracking this run November 2022 ... almost to 150 repeated runs!

Saturday, October 4, was one of the few "open" weekends for my half-marathon man. It was raining a lot, and I texted him (he'd headed North catching up on some work) that I was glad this rain hadn't happened last weekend (the half marathon he and Coop ran). But then I remembered Gray LIKES to run in the rain! And sure enough, he'd done a bigger run and did a little write up to me. It was eloquent enough, and with the Strava shares, felt like a built in blog post!

I had charted a big run up north and with the rain in the forecast was looking forward to giving it a go. After last week's disappointing half (for me) it was a chance to redeem myself, as if that is even a thing. I could see storm clouds in the west as I got to the office - some lightning. Up north I got prepped and on the run right around 6:00. Conditions were great - cool, not cold, no wind - few cars and pretty peaceful. As I reached mile 4 or so I could tell the storm had moved toward the east, where I was running. Some light rain began to build.

Within about 10 minutes the rain was in full swing - not torrential but very steady and pretty heavy. Soon a wind from the south was blowing. This would be a headwind for around mile 5 when my route turned to head back toward the office. I wish I had a camera that could show the conditions. It was something to see. None of this bothers me. The only thing that concerns me in a rainstorm is lightning. The odds are generally VERY slim at getting hit by lightning but it's still intimidating. I had one lightning strike seemingly directly above me at mile 5. There would be 3 or 4 other strikes that didn't seem particularly close like the first one. That was about it for lightning.

The rain began to ease around mile 7 or so though the wind kept steady, pushing against me. But I felt good. I wasn't gassing out. My legs kept their strength and didn't feel heavy. It was starting to lighten up around mile 7 or 8 and by mile 9 I turned back toward the north and the headwind was now a tailwind. Nice. Rolled back into the office feeling very content. 10.28 miles in all. Not a half but still a major run by my measurements. This might have been my favorite run of the year - it cycled from dark to light, from dry to rainy, from calm to windy - all in the same run. My body felt great. What a morning :)

 

It had stormed quite a bit the night before too ... lots of lightening. I know that is something that Keaton likes to catch on camera (A Little Look at Lightning) so I checked in with him to see if he'd taken any pictures during this storm. He had ...