Paul Gets Baptized!

Paul got baptized on Sept 6th, 2014. He was actually baptized Christian 10 years prior, so he calls this really a renewal of his faith. It was a great experience no matter what. 
Paul took the discussions with the missionaries in Utah at his friend Brandon's house. He and Brandon had been friends since like fourth grade in Washington, so it was all pretty crazy how things ended up. I basically had nothing to do with any of it, which was good because, as Paul said, it left it all between him and God. Plus, the Howell family is amazing, and being with them was awesome in itself.
Paul's parents are so sweet and are so supportive and flew up for the occasion. Just so happens, I was flying up, too. So my introduction to the parents occurred totally on my own. At the airport gate. Before our joint flight where they managed to seat my right between the two of them!! Luckily, we all hit it off just fine. Paul's dad Ralph slept the whole flight and MaryAlice and I just talked and talked. It was actually wonderful.
When we got there, his parents went to their hotel and I went to Paul's RV.
The baptism was the next morning. I wrote my talk while I was there (sometimes I can space things!)- I gave the Holy Ghost talk, Stephanie Howell gave the baptism talk. Brandon baptized Paul, and my dad confirmed him the next day.
Quite a few of my relatives drove down from Idaho, and a few of my high school friends even came to see us!
It was such an amazing experience and so wonderful to be surrounded by so much love and uspport
Paul's parents even went to church with us the whole 3 hours the next day, which I thought was amazing.
So....basically, it all was great. My parents even said "maybe his parents and us should take a trip without you guys sometime." I think it's safe to say we all got along. :-)

yes, we already knew

Olympic Triathlon!! TriRock Austin!

A week later, I was in Austin, prepared to run the longest triathlon of my life. For five years, I said I would do an Olympic triathlon, and this kind of felt like "now or never."
An Olympic is a 1500m swim, a 25 mile bike ride, and a 6.2 mile run.
The swimming part scared me the most, even though to be honest, I'm not good on the bike part at all.
Anyways, I got there a couple days early and was able to spend a few great days with Byron and his family. We went grocery shopping, ate at a couple great restaurants, and went to church together.
Sunday afternoon, I dropped off my bike. There were so many, I was seriously so scared. But oh well! I'm scared before every race.
I ended up finishing in 4 hrs and 30 seconds. My goal was 4 hours, but I realized later 4 hours is kind of a crappy triathlon time. 3hr and 30 min is much more respectable :). To be fair, it was SO HOT and SO HUMID and I had to walk half of the run because I was approaching heat exhaustion.

The swim was the best of my life. It was exactly 40 minutes, and they had us start 2 at a time and marked off every 100meters. Both of those things changed everything for me and made me so calm. The bike was hard, but the view of the capital was gorgeous, and that was so fun.
Byron was such a great supporter, and gave me a 5 gallon bucket the night before, some sunglasses, and made sure I had everything ready to go the night before. He even called Paul during the race to keep him updated.

Later on, we all went to Rudy's for bar-b-que dinner and I had my first deliciou Round Rock donuts.
It was an amazing trip, and was so awesome to have that all under my belt! Yay!

The boys and me 5 years ago and this year

DONE!!!