Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Remembering and Reflecting-Memorial Day


It was a special day full of many things I want to remember.  The morning started out with a 10K run in American Fork called the "Remembrance Run" to benefit people who have served our country.  I was honored to get to participate.
 I have been reading the Hungry Runner Girls blog for about a year now and I was so thrilled to finally get to meet Janae in person at the race.  She is just as cute and peppy in real life as she is on her blog.  It was also great to see Julia again.  I just really love going to a race and being able to see a face or two I know. 
Then I saw this family I knew, the Buker's, who actually live in my ward.  Marshall and Kirsten were running the 10K and the kids were running the 1 mile fun run.  I love this gal next to me.  She is in my Sunday School class and is one smart little cookie. 
 Amy ran her 1 mile in 8:15 and Scott ran his in about 9:00 minutes.  I'm pretty impressed they would actually get out of bed on a morning they could have slept in.
 The race started at 8:00 pm and it was beautiful weather for a run.  After having run 15 miles on Saturday on the Draper canyon trails I had no idea what I was going to feel like running 6.2 but I was mentally up for the challenge.  I started pretty close to the back of the crowd and pretty much stayed there the whole way.  I wasn't in any hurry but just wanted to keep a steady pace.  Around mile 5 we got to run through the cemetery and it was so beautiful to see the flowers all over the graves and the flags blowing in the breeze.  I also thought about my Porter as I ran here.
 It was pretty awesome to see this helicopter from way up the road landing here in the middle of the street.  I had to stop and take a photo of that.
 I finished with a time of 1:10:17.  Not my best time but also not my worst so I was happy with it,
 all things considered.
 
The end-of-race-treats, which I have made known before, is my favorite part of a race, were bananas, oranges, watermelon and fresh bread.  Pretty decent.
 After cleaning up and doing a little grocery shopping we gathered together as a family and had a bbq and visited and laughed and just enjoyed a fabulous late afternoon lunch. 
 Dessert was cookies, candy, and ice cream bars that my dad called "Fat Man's"
It's pretty rare to get this little guy to actually sit at the table with all of us and eat his dinner.  I was impressed at how long he lasted and how much he ate.  He must like grandma's cooking.  Or I just picked out a pretty delicious watermelon.
 Miles has perfected the art of saying cheese.
We were missing Jordan who ended up working today so I have no picture of him, sadly.
 After we had stuffed ourselves and could hardly move we headed on up the road to the cemetery to visit Porter.  We were so surprised and touched to see additional flowers at his grave besides the ones we had left on Saturday.  It's so sweet and tender to me that after more than two years people still are thinking about him too.
Miles is always so content and happy at the cemetery.  He has so much room to just run his little heart out.  He has fun discovering trinkets on other people's graves but of course they are returned promptly.  We continue to tell him about his "Uncle Porter" and even try to get him to say it.  He calls Cooper "Uncle Koo-Koo" and Jordan he calls "Uncle Jo-Jo" and he can say "Uncle Porter" pretty clearly.  I just want him to know that this uncle of his that isn't here, loved him so much and that he's continually watching over him.  Someday he will get it and understand and truly know.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

You have been running so much! That's so great! Looks like the perfect Memorial Day!

Julia said...

your Memorial Day looks absolutely perfect Susette! looking forward to seeing you tonight:)

wendy said...

What a lovely day.
I could tell you to "go sit on the sofa and eat an ice cream sundae"
and YET NOPE, you'd be out running!!!
Which is awesome.
I missed not being able to go see Matt's gravesite this year (I was there last year)
It is hard to miss out on those events.