10k x 3

 

Grayson has completed several half-marathons in 2024, and Landon did his half, a milestone after his ACL surgery earlier in the year. While Coop is uber active, often hitting 30k in steps in a day (between work and treadmill or other activities), 13.1 miles in a single go might be out of his comfort zone. Even a 10k is slightly more than his regular run ... but doable. When Grayson brought it up, both Landon and Coop were willing to give a 10k a go. There was a local race that Saturday. Gray got them signed up and picked up the packets on Friday.  Gray and Coop headed out Saturday morning,  a little before 9:00, picked up Landon along the way, and headed up to the University of Utah. The 10k started at 10:00.

Of the Blackham boys, Coop finished first at just under 45minutes. 15th overall, 3rd in the Male/20-29 division.  Landon was next at 49 minutes, with Grayson at 54 minutes.  They didn't stay for the awards.

I asked Coop how it felt (as the distance and outside weren't his usual, plus the challenge of the crowd) and he replied "the crowd cleared up within the first mile, so that part wasn't bad. Running outside is definitely different. Bobbing up and down while moving vs doing it in place felt really weird, but I got used to it."  Gray, having done a majority of half-marathons starting up a canyon, mentioned that there were some uphill portions of this race that were places he had to push through. 

There was a photographer on hand at the race, so here are a few more photos!

Callahan had stopped by a couple nights before the race, and we jokingly commented that Grayson hadn't included Cal and Keaton in the original group text. So Gray DID invited them, but they weren't up to a last minute 10k (Keaton said maybe a 5k ...). We've had a few family 5k races in the past (2018, 2017, L&C2017, 2016GKC&Maga, 2015).

While the boys were gone, I walked two miles on the treadmill in 40 minutes. 

Gotta do what you can!

Halloween 2024

 

It was a cold Thursday Halloween night in 2024. Grayson brought up a memory of several years ago, when it was still quite warm and he set up the projector with "The Great Pumpkin" playing as he handed out candy. That was before he got "scrooge-y" (so he says, although that's a Christmas, not a Halloween reference). 

I'd bought some candy and had it prepped and ready ... and Coop and I snuck some of our favorites in the days preceding the holiday. We didn't get our first visitor until fairly late, after 7:00, but then we got quite a few groups. I was on door duty this year. 

My Zumba class had a couple of seasonal songs; Skeleton Sam, and of course, Thriller.  I remember the Terra Linda 6th graders performing it, so I have video of both Cooper and Colton doing the dance back in the day. Similar steps in each, based on the original music video.  99% of the time I'm just in my traditional gray/black at Zumba, but I sported an orange Halloween t-shirt this year.  I snagged the picture of a cute little red riding hood and a scary wolf from K8's Instagram.  Landon and others at LKL dressed up at work (more Landon pictures below).  Gray had his usual "Pal"oween with his work buddies (the Friday before). He's Deadpool. I didn't get a Halloween post up for a few years, but in 2022 ... he was the danger (from Breaking Bad). 

I wasn't super familiar with Landon's character costume, but he sure looked cute!

Loved the freckles!

Kim Possible and Ron Stoppable ... Disney series.

Landon said they made some of the traditional sugar cookies shaped like pumpkins and decorated with candy corn. We didn't get around to making them at the West Jordan Blackham abode.  Fingers crossed there will turkey cookies come Thanksgiving though! 

Gray and the Subway

Grayson has had a lot of activities this summer ... hiking, running, biking. Almost all with buddies from work. One buddy had a buddy who had pulled a permit for The Subway in Zions for a group of twelve. So Gray joined. It didn't fit into the schedule that well, Monday, October 7, but you have to take what you can get. Per the info about it ...

The Subway is a classic semi-technical slot canyon hike in Zion National Park. To complete the hike you wade/swim/scramble/climb down the Left Fork of North Creek. The stream is the trail for most of the route. Some of the holes are deep enough that you do have to swim, and the water is cold.

• Trail Head: 37.339954, -113.075776
• Trail Type: Canyoneering
• Length: 9.5 miles, 7 to 9 hours
• Difficulty: Technical

The hike is somewhat like the famous Narrows, only more intense. You climb down waterfalls and scramble over boulders. Serious rappelling is not necessary but ropes come in handy to help get people over cliffs and to lower packs.

Most canyoneers do this canyon from top down - it is very difficult to do it bottom up. A shuttle is required. You must have a permit to hike this canyon; permits can be obtained at any Visitor Center. Get detailed trail information before doing this hike. Only attempt this canyon if you are hiking with an experienced canyoneer.

During the first part of the hike you stay on top of ridges and cross shallow washes, until you reach the of Left Fork Canyon and Russell Creek. That's where you scramble down the steep hillside into the slot. Once in the slot you just hike downstream, finding ways over or around obstacles. The semi-technical part of the route ends at the bottom of the Subway (at a spectacular small waterfall where canyon walls arch overhead and almost close to create a tunnel-effect - a subway). From there you continue hiking downstream past a large boulder covered with dinosaur tracks. Exit the canyon where you see a sign marking the trail up the ridge to the Left Fork Trailhead. It is a steep, hot climb out of the canyon.

In addition to some climbing gear, everyone needed a wetsuit for the water portions. Between Gray's camera, and a couple others, there were a lot of pictures to capture the experience.

Landon ~ Big Fish

Landon works for L.K.L. Associates in the roofing department. One of the shingle manufacturers had a trip planned for for several guys from L.K.L as well as some of their customers. They were off to Louisiana for some fishing! A four day trip, he headed out Monday, October 21 and returned Thursday October 24, two days traveling, two days on the water. Landon checked in with a write-up and some pictures ...

Day one ended up being a long day. We landed in New Orleans and had to wait roughly an hour for a car rental. After that, we were all quite hungry. We went to Texas Roadhouse simply because it was on the way to our destination and had a big group. We finished eating, but I happened to be with the subgroup that stayed out late to visit Bourbon Street. That ended up going much later than I had hoped. We didn’t get to our lodge until 3 am and we needed to be up by 5:30 am for breakfast before heading out on the water.

So after a mere two hour nap, we got up to get ready. The three who had been drinking didn’t get up in time to join us on the water today. I was paired up with one of the customers we invited and started catching speckled trout right away. Before I started catching the trout, I first caught a catfish, which needed to be released. The next fish I hooked after that I believe was the fish of the day for the whole group. It was a red fish bull, “bull” meaning it was too big to keep. It was 40” which is a gnarly fish to reel in. My partner was reeling in the trout super easy, but I had to fight this bull for a solid five minutes. My arms were so tired once I finally brought it in. I was a little nervous I wouldn’t be cut out to keep fishing the whole day, but that was by far the biggest fish I hooked.The spot we were getting the trout was amazing. We hit our limit of 30 within an hour. The rest of the day we looked for more red fish, but they were harder to find and trickier to reel in. Still an awesome time.

Finishing off our time on the water, we returned to the lodge, showered up, and took care of a bit of work. Then for dinner they prepped some of the trout we caught and it was glorious. I wanted more, but was completely stuffed. The rest of the evening was pretty chill. A bit of drinking and playing games, but I was so ready to hit the hay.

Day three was basically the same deal as day two. I was with two of the guys that missed the first day of fishing, so compared to them, I was feeling like a pro. We launched from a different area where there was a lot more open water. The first two spots we went to treated me so well. I’d cast my line and within seconds I’d have a bite. There were lots of small fish that we couldn’t keep, but I didn’t care. Just hooking a fish and reeling it in was a blast for me. Especially when I had a decent streak of five or six casts that I got to reel in. I didn’t hook anything crazy like the 40” red fish from day one, but I did reel in a decent 29” black fish that put up a fight. We made a competition of course for the biggest fish, but also for the fish with most spots. I thought that was lame compared to the biggest fish, until I reeled in one with 17 spots. Our guide hyped it up a lot and got me excited about it. To finish out the fishing for the day, we went to a very open area where we hooked up bigger fish. Oscar, one of the customers we invited on the trip reeled in the biggest fish on our boat. About a 31” red fish. To end the day back at the lodge, some of us tried to catch up on work and others just relaxed. A great day.

Thursday they finished up and made the flight home in the evening.

Back to work!

Landon - Blister Boy!

 

The Antelope Island Marathon had four distances. Full Marathon, Half Marathon, 10K and 5K. Landon opted for the 13.1 distance (half-marathon). He's been playing pickleball, and doing some running and hiking, but this was his first official race, and longest distance, since his ACL surgery last March. He didn't really even tell us about it until the day of ... Friday, October 11, 2024.

Per the race website: Antelope Island is home to 600 bison and the largest island on the Great Salt Lake. This course is a true marathon in that it is not all downhill like many. There are several rollers for the runners. The views of the race have the Great Salt Lake to the East and Antelope Island mountain on the West.

He said that his knee held up really well during the race, but that his shoes were rubbing pretty early one. Hot spot ... and big blister(s). He had to sit out pickleball that weekend. 

 

 

Cal&K8 ~ San Diego

 

Cal and Kate arranged for dog-sitting (Kate's mom taking care of Vera) and they jetted off for San Diego (October 5-7). As Grayson has made several trips there (earlier this year with friends, last year a trip with Landon in January, and then with Coop and Keaton in August) he had some recommendations of things to see, places to eat. One was Del Friscos, and he said he'd even pay for their meal.

They went to Del Friscos.

Kate said the butter cake was 10/10.

Some additional food photos ... and yes, the traditional finger photo with ice cream.

It's a Blackham thing.

A Tale of Two Toasters ...

 

A toaster ... I'd imagine most kitchens have one. I remember we had an old white one when we first moved into this house. When we switched out the appliances to stainless steel, I replaced the toaster to match (you can catch a glimpse of the replacement in the Pantry post).  It finally went out on us, so I ordered a new toaster off Amazon. 

I received some teasing about this bare bones tiny toaster ... "How much did this cost? $10?" It was actually $15.99, but yes, it was one of the more inexpensive (but still decently reviewed) ones there. But ... it's a TOASTER, what bells and whistles do you need?

There is actually one feature the family uses a lot. The "lift" ... bringing up the bread a bit higher, easing getting it out (we do have the little wooden tongs for when we still need additional help). The ends of the sourdough, or banana bread ... they are pretty small and that little boost is needed. This also had no "beep" when the toast is done (pros and cons to this, the old one was a little annoying with its beep). 

After some teasing, I told the others (Coop, Colton, Gray) that I was more than happy to let them pick out a different toaster. Cooper took me up on that. He saw a toaster on TikTok and it's all modern and digital with lots of options (although you do still have to push down the lever manually ... unless there's an app for that?) It does have the little lift ... so I'm happy with it.

Seedeem Toaster 

LCD Display & Touch Control: The wide slots toaster has a colorful LCD, so you can see the bread type, shade setting and the remaining time easily. You need to touch 6 buttons to select the mode you want. Memory function will keep the bread type and shade settings from the last toasting.

50% Faster Speed: Superior to the conventional toaster, the 1350W toaster has made a revolutionary breakthrough in toasting speed. It is 50% faster than leading toasters, which can get even toast and save you half the time of baking bread in the morning.

Special Mid-range: 7 Bread Shade Setting provides bread from light yellow to deep dark. The specially developed medium setting--4 gear, can bake delicious bread that is not too dry but full of burnt flavor.

Multiple Functions: Not only Cancel, Defrost, Reheat functions, we also specially added Bread Type and More Time functions. There are 6 types of bread to choose from, including bagel, white, waffle, eng.muffin, gluten free, grain. If you are not satisfied with the browning color, you can touch More Time to add time for 45 seconds.

Easy Operation & Cleaning: 1.5 inch wide slots can accommodate different thicknesses of bread. Flexible lift lever for smooth dropping and auto ejecting of bread. Removable crumb tray helps you collect and dump falling crumbs to avoid staining your desktop.

Who knew? A seven-bread-shade setting! And it's 50% faster (I actually DID notice that it seems super fast, and it's nice to have a countdown so you know exactly how much time is left). That "lift lever" though, that's the feature I'll look for on any future toaster purchases.

Colton moved into his college apartment in Oregon, and his roommates had the kitchen furnished pretty well ... but no toaster. Colton likes his cinnamon toast, and he asked me to order him one (as I now have all this experience with shopping for toasters). I had this one delivered to him ... I made sure it had the "Toast Boost" lift, and I even threw in a shaker of cinnamon sugar (not sure that the bachelor boy's apartment would have sugar, or cinnamon, or a shaker). Alas, he's too far away for my fresh sourdough!

Colton Goes to College ...

When Colton made his decision to play for Clackamas Community College, the main question was, "where will he live?"  Unlike my experience at Snow and BYU, where campus living/dorms are part of the experience ... CCC is more like SLCC, where it's a majority of students living at home, in the area. There were no dorms, no set housing.  There was another player coming from out of state, and another from Oregon, but not close enough to commute, so the three basketball boys planned on finding a place together. Sight unseen, with parents co-signing the lease, the guys had a three bedroom/1 bath apartment close to campus.

Conner (the Oregonian) had done most of the work getting everything set, and was able to round up quite a bit of communal stuff (couch, table/stools, kitchen and bathroom essentials), so that Colton and Kobe, coming from out of state, just brought their clothes and sundries. Once there, both families scrambled to get a bed, desk and whatever else was needed to set up the boy's bedrooms. 

I asked for pictures that would help me get a feel of Colton in his new place.

He obliged. 

Here's a little video tour ...

https://youtu.be/vM2hpGp3ERA

The apartment does NOT have air conditioning, as Oregon is pretty temperate. Most of the time. They were having a heat wave while Gray and Keaton were there helping Colton get settled (luckily the Vrbo had AC) and his first week+ there was HOT, even higher temps than Utah (where we have AC ... although out of possible commiseration with Colton the AC here at home decided to go out during this time too! We got it fixed pretty quick - Grayson has connections!)

There's not a washer/dryer in the apartment, but there's a laundry room at the complex. Two parking spaces and there seemed to be plenty of visitor parking too. I'm not sure how well I prepared Colton for living on his own. He CAN do his own laundry, although he doesn't have a lot of practice. Washing dishes ... cooking, shopping for groceries? It will be a learning and growing experience for sure!

 

Off to Oregon

After entertaining a few offers from colleges in the NWAC, Colton committed to Clackamas Community College in Oregon City. So at the end of August ... it was off to Oregon! Gray was in charge of getting him there, and brought Keaton along (Keaton is great at putting things together and was an extra driver for the travel there). So Colton squished in as much as he could. He could take whatever the Charger would carry (leaving room for two passengers and their luggage). 

The iconic Multnomah falls ...

...lots of eating out along the way and after they arrived. 

They stayed for a few days to shop and get Colton set up ...

... as Colton hadn't had much room to bring things with him, and the apartment was unfurnished, they had quite a bit of shopping to do! Fred Meyer and Ikea. No sales tax, but no shopping bags either. And STILL not much room in the Charger to transport purchases. Poor Keaton got squished more than once! Luckily one of Colton's new roommates had provided a lot of the community/kitchen items. You can see Colton's apartment HERE. 

... a few more pictures

Then Sunday, September 1st ... Colton drove Dad and Keaton to the Portland airport. He dropped them off ... then drove away. On his own in Oregon. 

Ready for College Colton Clips

I post a lot of #mycoltonclips on my Blackhamball instagram. Those are basketball highlights. The "clips" being featured in THIS post, are the kind that cut cute curls from a Blackham boy head. Aunt Olivia has been the family hairstylist for years now. As Colton was packing up everything in preparation for his move to Oregon, he visited Livi for one last haircut (and HUG). 

She was so cute - she created this step-by-step tutorial that he could have on him to show the next stylist exactly how to keep the cut Colton' likes.  She also got him a GreatClips giftcard to help the poor college student with costs.

Built in blog post ... and I figured it might be good to have it here for reference!