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till over 16 hours away we had reached the summit but not the tippy top as casey called it after a short rest eating and drinking and applying sunscreen we took a fifteen minute hike that wrapped around to the top of the crater we had made it to the top my eyes started to water and it wasn t the altitude i felt a wave of emotion and warmth that i had only experienced a few times before completing a marathon reaching the top of kilimanjaro and witnessing the birth of my first and second child it was a completely unforgettable moment that made it all worth it it isn t the people that are in the best shape that make it to the top of mt rainier casey had explained the day before it s the people that want it the most you ve got to really want it i m sure there is a metaphor in there somewhere for life but due to the altitude at 14 410 feet i m not sure what it is the sad part of the story is that in reality we were only halfway done we had completed the mentally challenging part but the real physical test was only 50 over our legs were done but we still had a long way to go the next four hours we had an exhausting but breathtaking decent over glaciers and crevasses that were only shadows on the way up as you can see the snow was very soft on the decent casey really pushed us to hurry because as the snow melts the conditions can become perilous very quicly he kept telling us to stop talking and listen for snow and ice falls in the darkness we had crossed this massive crevasse on a 2x1 piece of plywood stretched across an aluminum ladder it was much more intimidating in the light you had a small chord that you pulled up on with your left hand while you carried your ice axe in your right hand to walk across the ladder i think it was pretty awesome phil and natalie didn t think it was quite as much fun i m not going to go into a ton of details on the rest of the decent but it was exhausting after we got back to camp muir we loaded up are sleeping bags and gear in our bags took off our crampons and switched to our trekking poles for the final three hour hike back down to civilization there was a lot of sledding and stand up skiing down for the last stretch until we got back to the dirt trailed we were dirty smelly and sunburned and as we got down to the main trail we eventually started passing little kids and elderly folks out for a short day hike did you guys make it all the way the top a kid in hawaiian shorts asked us all the way to the tippy top we responded proudly with over 150 summits of rainier and 3 of mt everest i m sure casey was just shaking his head we may not be professional mountain climbers but we sure felt like it today these shots were snapped in our last mile as we reached the end of our journey a cooler full of lemonade welcomed us to the trail head where the rmi shuttle was waiting to drive us home i had three glasses char was waiting for us back at the rmi offices and as we loaded into the van she was nice enough to pretend we didn t stink we took one final shot of rainier as charlotte drove us back to our hotel in seattle it was a great adventure but i m glad to finally have it my rearview mirror posted by unknown at 7 54 pm 1 comment saturday april 20 2013 pictures i am honestly not sure if anyone reads our blog anymore why would they i never post but i thought i would put up some recent pictures for good measure thanks to my brother spencer who took all of the warm weather pictures during our trip to st george first photo together as a family of 4 taylor s first ski trip he loved it this is what happens when i try and take pictures of my boys st george fun with the cook cousins adrian taught everyone how to do headstands and front rolls posted by natalie at 10 23 pm 9 comments saturday january 19 2013 ezekiel introducing ezekiel zeke philip dayton born january 14 2013 7 lb 14 oz 21 inches posted by unknown at 7 58 pm 11 comments wednesday october 31 2012 why mitt romney winning matters in 1929 the stock market crashed the following year there was a run on over 9 000 banks nobody trusted the economic system and so instead of investing their money it was hidden safely under their mattresses when money is kept out of circulation it has a devastating effect on the economy companies can t borrow money families can t buy houses and unemployment remains very high in recent years we have experienced a deep recession and while it wasn t as acute as the great depression in the beginning it doesn t show any clear signs of stopping many economists point to one word to describe the problem uncertainty investors aren t hiding money in their mattresses they are simply keeping it in their bank accounts billions of dollars are just sitting on the sidelines because of this uncertainty companies that are experiencing good quarters aren t investing in new hires they are saving up against another possible downturn middle income families that used to trust index funds and other safer equity funds aren t so sure anymore so they wait to invest mitt romney so what does mitt romney have to do with this the us economy is fragile and those with substantial money to invest are waiting for the right moment to jump back into the market they are waiting for a signal if mitt romney is elected it will send a very strong signal that we have someone in the white house that understands the complexity of our economy obama is good person someone who i think is very intelligent but he doesn t have the same skill set as romney in the second debate the town hall format with candy crowley asking the questions i think the crucial moment of the debate was completely missed by much of the media and the public candy interrupts romney to question his budget plan if somehow when you get in there there isn t enough tax revenue coming in if somehow the numbers don t add up would you be willing to look again referring to possible tax hikes romney s answer here is key well of course they add up i was someone who ran businesses for 25 years and balanced the budget i ran the olympics and balanced the budget i ran the state of massachusetts as a governor and balanced the budget all four years romney isn t guessing that he will have the ability to make the numbers work he has built his reputation and his personal fortune by making the numbers work now democrats scoff at this reply claiming romney s plan won t work his numbers don t add up this is where i part ways with the democrats they are trusting a junior senator turned president with 4 years of experience and 6 trillion of deficit spending to come up with a better budget they think that somehow a savvy politician will do a better job managing the largest economy of the free world democrats may feel secure in this ignorance but investors don t they are scared of what obama might do in his second term and this uncertainty will only persist if he is re elected obama did have a chance though there is no question that there was a moment when the stars were aligned for the president a few days after he was elected he rounded up all the leaders of both parties into the white house for a meeting in this meeting obama could have secured his future right then and there by building consensus and looking for the best ideas in the room but that isn t what he did instead he shared that he would be willing to listen to ideas but reminded the republicans we won making it clear that the democrats were in charge in this moment he torched any chance he had at building consensus obama lost his moment and opportunity to be a real statesmen some place the blame on congress but obama had 2 years with both houses to put through whatever legislation the democrats wanted all we have to show for it is the national healthcare plan when obama had both houses at his command he was effective but once he had to work together with republicans there was gridlock would romney have fared better he did in massachusetts as a republican governor in one of the most liberal states in america he balanced the budget all four years mitt romney has a track record of getting things done in the face of opposition we don t know what to expect from obama and that is the problem but what about the social issues mitt romney isn t running as president to repeal roe v wade or pass an amendment to ban gay marriage mitt romney has never been about hot button social issues he isn t looking to get elected to advance some social cause he wants to get elected to serve his country and lead america out of this recession and i believe that he has a very unique skill set that could help accomplish that either way we will recover from this recession eventually americans will do what they always do pull themselves up from their boot straps and find a way to rebuild they don t need the government s help to do that what they need is the confidence that nobody is going to stand in their way four years of obama have left us with nothing but uncertainty i think it is time for change four years ago i voted for obama next week i m voting for mitt romney posted by unknown at 10 00 am 3 comments sunday october 7 2012 st george marathoner after a fitful sleep i was fully awake at 3 45am 20 minutes before my alarm went off today was the day i had been training for the past five months and i was very excited i walked up the stairs to the dark kitchen that was lit only by the st george city lights out the large windows i poured a bowl of honey nut cheerios but could only eat three or four bites i was too nervous to eat and that was not a great way to start out my morning i took a shower put on my running clothes that had been neatly laid out the night before and took a look at myself in the mirror i was nervous but i was ready natalie and taylor jumped in the car to take me down to where the buses shuttle the runners up to the starting line and about two minutes into the drive i asked natalie to pull over those of you that know me well know that when i get extremely nervous i also get nauseous on the morning of my wedding just before giving my homecoming talk and while climbing mt kilimanjaro well that last one may have been more due to the altitude but they all resulted in me throwing up i didn t realize it at the time but my marathon was doomed before it began i arrived at where the buses were congregated and hundreds of anxious runners were in line i got in the back of the line and started talking with my fellow racers it was very cool being able to say i was a first time marathoner i climbed onto the yellow school bus and took the front seat to avoid the chances of compounding my troubles with car sickness as the bus climbed through the black and grey hills i chatted with those around me and my spirits started to lift this was going to be fun after about 30 minutes i saw some huge spotlights in the distance we were almost to the starting line i exited the bus to a rock concert like atmosphere music was blasting bon fires were raging and there were tables full of oranges bananas coffee and water the nausea was subsiding a little bit so i grabbed a glass of lemon lime gatorade and joined my fellow runners alongside one of the closest bon fires i was able to drink about 4 oz of gatorade but still felt a little queasy after warming up by the fire i waited in the long line for the restrooms applied anti chaffe and vaseline as necessary threw my jacket and pants in the provided bag to the drop off area and suddenly it was five minutes till race time i hurridly consumed my gatorade pre race gu and found a place in line near the 4 hour pace the gun went off and it took about 5 minutes to cross the starting line there was great energy and i had to hold myself back the energy was inviting me to start fast but i had a plan 9 10 during the first half and then if i was feeling good enough 8 50 miles during the second half it was a realistic plan especially since the st george marathon had a second half that had much more downhill than the first half i blasted explosions in the sky from my mp3 player as i started the run and the first mile i finished in just over 9 minutes i was feeling pretty good the next 4 miles passed the same way a couple of the miles were downhill so i really took advantage clocking a few 8 40 miles i wasn t drinking very much though even though i was feeling good my stomach didn t feel great but i took sips as i took my walk breaks i was running the galloway walk run method with 4 30 second splits so basically i was running for 4 minutes then would walk for 30 seconds during my walk breaks when i remembered i would drink from the bottles of gatorade i carried on my running belt at about 45 minutes in it was time for me to have a few bites of my powerbar triple threat i had experimented with a half dozen bars over my long runs and this was the tastiest and most digestible in my experience not today though i took two bites but couldn t eat anymore in retrospect i should have stopped and walked until i had eaten half of it this bad decision along with not drinking enough in the first two hours would come back to bite me at mile 7 we hit the infamous veyo hill a monster of a hill rising up over the horizon i had my strategy set for the hill i would slow down move my legs faster but take smaller strides there were a lot of runners passing me but i was confident in my strategy you are saving your legs for the second half i thought to myself not worrying at all about the overanxious runners passing me when i got to the top of veyo hill i felt a pretty good sense of accomplishment what i didn t realize is that the next three miles were going to be a steady uphill climb i was trying to make up from my 10 30 mile while climbing up veyo so i kept my miles around 9 00 even though i was going uphill i should have just slowed down at mile 10 or 11 i was finally getting to the top of the series of hills to the point where it would be almost all downhill for the rest of the race unfortunately i would never be able to enjoy it the next two miles went by fairly quickly i was almost to the halfway point and my mile times were very strong i crossed the halfway point of the marathon 13 1 miles at just about 2 hour and 2 minutes right on schedule for my goal of 4 hours only one problem my legs were really starting to hurt i had done 20 22 and 23 mile training runs and my legs always started really hurting by mile 18 or 19 but never this early then i had my first surprise i heard something land behind me my iphone had fallen out of my pocket shattering the screen it was an omen this just wasn t my day a few minutes later a wave of nausea hit me and i had to slow down maybe if i just walked for a minute that didn t help maybe if i drank some gatorade but i was too nauseous at the next water station i tried to drink a little water but i couldn t really drink much looking back on it i guess i was already pretty dehydrated so i just kept on walking a sinking feeling hit me i had just hi...