All American All Tron

Hey Internet-
So as I've mentioned in two posts already, this weekend my family and some friends and I ran the Wasatch Back Relay. It's a relay race from Logan to Park City and the 180 miles are divided up among 12 people and it takes somewhere between about 19 to 32 hours to finish depending upon your overall team speed. There were like 570 teams this year and with 12 people per team, I'm sure everyone in Utah knows at least one person who participated and has heard about it. So the question is, how many photos of something that is potentially annoying to talk about can you post at once? Let's find out!

Friday morning, Luke speeding through the first leg

Luke's Isabelle and Dylan, aka THE WORLD'S MOST ADORABLE CHILDREN

Megan to Amber exchange

Megan and Mikey camera trickery!!

Subway

my gorilla run

first blister surgery

brother

wife to husband night exchange

Tron car/dance party car

second blister surgery

Saturday morning big brother Sterling surprise!

face punch Luke to me exchange

Katie's last run, best victory fist ever

this is how I roll

duct tape ace bandage

team!

group nap while the second van finished their final legs

nerds

Saturday afternoon at the finish line, this is a good idea of how All American All Tron functioned the whole time

Van 1 Megan, Amber, Emily, Luke, Katie and Mike

Van 2 Scary Clint, Kristen, Logan, Katie, Corey and Christopher


That's 22...too much?

little sister

Yesterday was my little sister Elizabeth's birthday, she turned 17. Earlier this week my two Salt Lake brothers and their wives and I went to my mom's house in Kaysville for a birthday dinner to celebrate her birth those nearly 2 decades ago. It seems like usually in the birthday hoopla of a friend or family member I think about how I am glad that specifically that person was born. As I wrote my little card to Elizabeth on Tuesday I mentioned that thought. And as I wrote it, I realized that Elizabeth is the only person on the planet so far who I remember thinking that actually at her birth. I remember going to the hospital when Logan was born, but I was like four so that's about it.

But with Elizabeth I remember everything. I was seven I believe when my parents announced to the family that my mom was pregnant. We were 5 children already; I had Katie and Sterling older than me, both early teenagers who were in very different life stages than I, and Christopher and Logan younger than me. While it's just 18 months between Christopher and me, as little kids he and Logan were much closer because you know, little boys and toy guns and Legos and whatnot. We were sitting at the dinner table and my parents said they had something to tell us. Katie joked that what, mom is pregnant? And both my parents just looked at each other like they were caught and said yes, yes mom is pregnant. Katie insisted they were too old, that she was going to be too old to even know the baby, that we were too poor and I remember a comment about my parents being rabbit-like (which is all so hilarious to talk about now). I don't remember much of a Sterling reaction and the little boys just seemed giggly. I was seven, didn't super have a sibling buddy and loved babies so I couldn't imagine anything more wonderful than getting one of my own. I was sure it was going to be girl, a boy didn't even enter my brain as a possibility. And while the 7 of us in our family were living in a little tiny house and resources were tight and Elizabeth was COMPLETELY unexpected and who knew how it was going to work...I remember sitting at the dinner table and already thinking I couldn't wait for her to come.

And then she came! And she was perfect! And I was so proud of her (and such a teacher's pet) that even though school was out I made my mom take us to Mrs. South's house to show off that little Elizabeth baby I had gotten the first week of summer break. And Elizabeth was seriously, the cutest thing ever. We all fell so hard for that tiny being. My parents were always holding her. The little boys loved to try to make her smile and they called her Bessy from the get-go. She had a power over grown-up brother Sterling to make him coo and cuddle, much to our amazement. Katie just seemed to know how to take care of her and I wanted everyone I knew to see her and think she was as adorable and wonderful as I thought she was. As she grew we loved to watch her learn things as she turned into her own little person. Of course, we loved that as siblings we could make sure the first song she learned the lyrics to was The Joker by Steve Miller Band or that by age six The Beatles were her favorite band because, what is the point of a much younger sibling if you can't make them cooler than the other kids their age?

Elizabeth has always seemed older than her actual years. She has always been such a clever little thing with a brain that usually thinks beyond her age. She has a lot creativity inside her and it manifests itself through sewing projects and collages or doodles on napkins everywhere she eats. Her taste in books and music and movies seems adult and all of my friends enjoy her company just as they enjoy the company of my other, actual adult siblings. But I thought earlier this week as we had all arranged to get to my mom's house on a Tuesday night and there were my little brothers all grown up with wives and one with a baby on the way, about how Elizabeth was turning 17 and not 27. She is a teenager and everyone else is mid-twenties or beyond. I thought about how even though she seems so grown up, she's still our little baby sister because we were excited to give her our presents and see her reaction and cus Logan made her blow out cake candles twice since he was out of the room the first time around. And even though we were five kids for quite a while, we weren't complete until she came around and made us six and I don't think anyone can't imagine life without her being born seventeen years ago. I definitely can't.

political science

The summer between my junior and senior years of high school I attended Girls' State. It's a leadership and citizenship program for high school students and in the course of a week on the Southern Utah University campus we set up mock city, county and state government. I throughly enjoyed it and gained a real appreciation for the democratic process of electing representatives and leaders. I better understood my civic duties and rights as a citizen and ever since I have been kind of nerdy in love with America (but I will never like that 'God Bless the USA' song or Kristy Lee Cook for singing it).

So some months ago I really appreciated Megan's coming out politically post. You see, I voted for George W. Bush the first time around. A few years later I listened to Colin Powell present to the UN the reasons we needed to invade Iraq and I agreed based on that information. Days later I was off to Armenia and heard bits here and there but was largely unconcerned and uninformed about American politics beyond knowing some version of a war had begun. A year and a half and I found myself home in Utah a mere three months before the 2004 elections. And what a mess that was. Maybe those reasons for declaring war weren't completely complete? Colin Powell was resigning? John Kerry was the Democratic candidate? God was owned by one political party? All of these things were surprising to me. A few heated discussions with my father later, a lot of discussing with other people and a bunch of informing myself led me to not vote for President Bush again. Who knew?!

I was 18 the first time I voted and 22 the second time. I made political choices at those ages based on what I felt were the best decisions. This exciting election year I am 26. I understand more about economic issues cus guys, I'm totally an adult. I care about tax changes and I do think we need a more socialized healthcare system. I wonder about the future of social security. I think the gas tax holiday is a bad idea and I am really interested in energy proposals that require utility companies to use a percentage of renewable sources. I think we need to get out of Iraq. I don't think Jesus is a Republican or a Democrat because remember how he's perfect?

I know the President doesn't magically solve problems, I know often he or she has little control even and I totally know my little vote is lost. But I believe in democracy so I think it's important that I do my part to be informed and vote for what I believe in just because I love America. I think on either side of a political line and everywhere in between people mostly just want to live their lives and want kids to get nice educations and sick people to get care and terrorists to stop being a-holes. The means to those ends might be different but that's okay.

I was never on board with any Republican candidates, so the past five months have been intense. I thought Hillary was pretty alright and in the words of Tina Fey, bitches get things done, so I think she could have made it. But last night when I heard Barrack Obama is for real the Democratic candidate I felt a sense of excitement for this game to be on.

Teenagers may look way hotter than me in swimsuits this summer, but come fall I'm totally pumped up to be the one who gets to vote! Snap!

baby boy

The baby boy Christasha have made is going to be the first baby born unto the Clifford family so far. Roast on my parents for having 5 adult children who are mostly Mormon and no grandkids yet. Mikey took some great photos, but to get you started Katie, behold:

Rebekah did the flowers and Julia made the world's cutest case for the party favor CD mix I made.


this guy is about to be a father


enchiladas


face game


this is what Danny thinks the baby will look like


parents


friends


family


Chuck and fetus key chain prize


Elizabeth and Jeremy taste testing baby food


party people

wait, what?

don't we have a family blog already? do we now have 2?
awesome.

canyon arrow

My grandparents own the house in Logan where my grandmother was born. They don't live in it, it's currently a guest house for visiting friends and family, but it has played host for all kinds of family events for as long as I can remember so Cache Valley feels comfortable to me and I figure its about as beautiful a place as there is on this earth. Once you pass Davis County, the lake and mountains are beautiful and Sardine Canyon takes my breath away in any season. On your way into Logan, as you peek out of the canyon and over into the valley...well I just love it every time.

My grandparents have lived in California and St. George during my lifetime and while I'd visited (and loved) those other places, it was just a few years ago in the autumn when I caught up with them in Logan for a weekend visit. With them I went to the wedding reception of a distant cousin and sat and laughed at a table outside with people I didn't know well but who, remarkably, came from the same place as me a generation or two ago. I went for a run in the quiet neighborhoods surrounding the old house. We ate salmon tacos under that big blanket of a sky at a local restaurant in the cool fall air. My grandma told me about the car rides she used to take with my grandpa when they were dating and my grandpa talked about how quickly he fell for her. My grandparents are a delight; they are hip and young acting and have always been so much fun to kind of show off. But suddenly, their whole lives felt more real...alone with them in those few days their stories of life felt so real to me and I think finally as an adult I could look at them beyond being my grandpa and grandma.

The weekend really stayed with me and I have since found myself looking for ways to spend more time with them to soak up who they are. Last Memorial Day I went again but was with just my grandpa. He took me to his tiny hometown of Clarkston just North of Logan and with his siblings we laid flowers on the graves of my great-grandparents at the little, windy hilltop cemetery there. My grandpa then drove me around showing me where he had lived and the places where he used to cause trouble and I heard more about his live and how much he loves my grandma. Sitting at lunch with great-aunts and uncles and watching them all interact I thought about a grandchild of mine hanging out with my brothers and sisters sometime far down the road and I was overwhelmed by the circularness of the family that came before me, the one ahead of me and the physical places that have been at the root of our generational bonds.

This year Elizabeth and I together spent a lovely little while with them for the Memorial Day weekend. We stayed up until 1 o'clock with our grandparents and then slept in my favorite bed in the guest house. We were told multiple times that there was plenty of Diet Coke in the fridge. We went to the Logan cemetery with a couple of my grandma's brothers to visit the only great-grandparent I ever knew and in the course of our stay my grandpa kept his arm around one or both of us almost constantly. It was rainy enough that the bikes Elizabeth and I took never even made it out of the car, but oh well...that place and that couple of old people are worth it a million times over.

gently take my skull for a ride

This Indiana Jones week has worn my old body out. But also, fun! We haven't started anything before 11:00 so I passed out like 1/2 hour into The Last Crusade the other night (which was fine cus I'd watched the second half on Sunday). I had to drink my weight in Diet Dr. Pepper yesterday to prepare for the 9:45 screening of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull we went to last night but boy was it worth it because Christopher actually did this.


The movie was fine, the jungle Tarzan branch swinging part should not have been allowed and hello, aliens? There were some eye-roll parts, but you know, whatever...Harrison Ford was awesome and I think Shia LaBeouf is a great choice for the future of Indiana Jones. Plus Marion!! I didn't know she was in it and I thought how she fit was really great.

But perhaps the best part of the evening came after the movie when everyone enjoyed what we will call "Stranger Corn".


Enjoying Stranger Corn, opened up Janelle's mind and eyes and she zeroed in on a giant candy bar in the theater (it wasn't opened, she had opened it at this point). It was like a Bible story candy bar because that Milky Way just kept feeding everyone and didn't run out.


This one is just (mostly) a joke. (For what it's worth, Kristen does always try to get Logan to think when we egg him on to do potentially harmful things)


And then outside we realized my brother must be an alien!!!!!!!!!!