Regionals and Nationals

On November 15th, Andrea ran the race of her life and we all got to be there to see it. She ran the Regional Cross Country race in Ogden. What started out as a very cold day, turned into a very manageable and fun day. My parents flew in the night of the 14th and since Ethan was in Oregon all week, I decided to go up the night of the 14th and spend the weekend with them until Ethan got back. The morning of the 15th, we drove up to Ogden and had breakfast with Uncle Roy and Aunt Patti and then headed over to the race where we meet the Kidds, Snelsons, and Jed's whole family. Like all cross country meets, we all lined up to watch them start and then honestly I can't remember a thing until the finish. Occasionally we would all do a stop check to make sure we could still see each other kind of (especially the littles) but for the most part it was every man for himself. Ogden is a very spectator friendly course so we were able to see Andrea quite a bit which was AWESOME!! The only person we never saw was Dad and we just assumed he was either in the back woods, or had had a heart attack and died somewhere along the way. (its a big family joke that dad is going to have a heart attack at a race and die one of these days. He just loves them so much!)

Andrea finished 1st for BYU, 9th overall,  and made it to nationals all by herself! Then the exciting news came that her whole team had made it too! It was a great event and not gonna lie, I got really emotional watching her finish. She just looked amazing. So strong, so powerful, so happy, so in control, so.. EVERYTHING!! It was like all her hard work and good eating and good life paid off in this one race and we all got to be there to see it. When she would fall behind the lead pack, there was no look of panic. Only determination and calm. Its like she knew that they were going to pull ahead and she was okay with that because she would just catch up in a sec, which she did! It was the best race ever. Nice job Andrea!! We are all so proud of you!!

The race:

Everyone was ready to capture the start

This is actually the second start because someone fell down, which always makes you nervous because you use up all your adrenaline the first time, but Andrea handled it like a champ. 

Comin in strong!

The spectators:
Jed and a very happy Andrea

Kelsey and mom:
 

Kelsey was in a stroller the whole time and when it was time to run, she would just hold on and we would go. She started laughing so hard and then would cheer for the runners as they would pass. Hailey or Whitely was with us the whole time and so she would laugh at them too. I bet we did look funny all running around like crazy and cheering like crazy, but that is the beauty of the sport. When we finally let her out of the stroller, she ran free and loved it! 

The Kidds

Uncle Roy and Aunt Patti

The Snelsons

Yes. Dad is smiling!

Jed's wonderful family. They were so cute. They haven't been to too many of these events but they were totally into it. Jed's dad was following Scott around and kept saying, "Okay where do we go nex?!" He totally loved it. It was super cute. I love how much support Andrea gets from both sides

After the race, we still had a lot of time with my parents. Andrea spent the rest of the day with her team and the rest of us ate dinner at the Kidds. On Saturday we all went down to Provo, I picked up Ethan, and after the game we went to dinner and played games. It was a fun few days with my parents. They were very generous and so happy to see everyone. 

Andrea by her AWESOME banner!

The next week Andrea and her team got to compete in Nationals in Terra Houte Indiana. Only my parents and Jed got to go, but the whole race, the rest of us were watching on line and texting each other making sure that we were all in the loop with her status. Not gonna lie though. I'm kinda glad we couldn't go because it looked and was FREEZING!!! You could see the wind blowing the girls, you could see the spectators just dying, and the mud and muck everyone had to run through just looked so painful and awful. Despite all that, Andrea still got 89th and looked very strong. When conditions are that bad, time is never a factor so we didn't even bother asking. She looked so strong though and was so happy with her performance. It was a great finish to an awesome season. She was first for BYU in every race, but one, PRed and just got stronger and stronger. It makes me excited for her track seasons, and also a little sad that cross country is now over. We only have a few more of these left as a family EVER!!!!!