Sad Times...

I am just going to throw this out there...  Cancer SUCKS

The last few months have been extremely sad for the Utah Olympic Park (UOP).  First if you are new to this blog the UOP is my family.  I have worked there since the summer after my freshman year of college.  It has been the best place to grow up and find out who I am and who I want to be in the future.  I couldn't have asked for better people to help me along the journey to figure all of that out.  Given that we are a family at the UOP that explains why this has been a really hard few months.

Earlier this summer we lost Warren Allen.  Warren was the best park host that the UOP ever had or ever will have.  He knew everything about everything and was so motivated by the Olympic Movement that it was contagious.  Warren was also amazing at everything he did, from being a pioneer in the sport of aerial skiing (ballet skiing) to bowling back to back perfect games, one with his left hand and one with the right hand!  Warren was an amazing man and I don't know what the UOP will be like without him.

This week I got the news that track manager David Dinger, who also was diagnosed with cancer about a year ago, is in the last stages of his life.  When I think about Dave and him not being around it instantly brings tears to my eyes, not only because he has been a huge supporter of mine but because he has to amazing little boys that are losing a great dad.  Dave has helped me in any way that I have needed whenever I needed it.   He was instrumental in helping me to be the jury assistant for the 2009 FIBT World Cup in Park City, which lead to my internship at the USOC, where I discovered for sure that Olympic sport is where my passion and future lies.

Dave was also instrumental in my brother's recovery from drug addiction.  Josh applied for a track crew job after de decided he was ready to get his life back together.  Dave hired him and even though Josh had a few times where he had to miss a significant amount of work at a really inopportune time, Dave had faith in Josh.  I truly believe that because of that faith and the chance(s) that Dave extended to Josh, he is now on the right path (of course Josh's will to get better had a lot to do with that as well).  It's hard to express in words, but the faith that Dave had in Josh wasn't something that he was getting outside of our family.  Josh's whole world had basically told him that anything he did was wrong and that he would not be able to do anything with his life because of his past mistakes.  Through his actions Dave told Josh that he could be a leader and could get his life back on track.  I will be forever grateful to Dinger for that!

Not only did he change my life, but he helped my brother out of a very difficult time!

Check out this awesome VIDEO that some of the bobsled/skeleton athletes from around the country made thanking Dave for changing their lives as well...

So if you see me and I look like I am about to burst into tears, I probably am...  It's a sad time

Summer Blog

I am going to blog about my experiences at the USOC on this blog:

My Life as a USOC Intern

If you're interested follow me there!

Anxiety and Anticipation

Less than two weeks from today, my mom and I will be driving from Salt Lake City to Colorado Springs so that I can begin my adventure as an Intern for the USOC.  While I am really excited about it and really excited to get there and get working, I have this weird anxiety about it.

I've never really just picked up and moved for three months leaving the majority of my life somewhere else.  Yes, I went to college away from home but every summer I can home and worked at the Utah Olympic Park (UOP) and I have worked at the Park for part or all of every summer since that first year (2004).  I don't know what it is going to be like to not go back there and work for at least part of the summer.  It was my safety net, where I learned more about myself and met some of the most amazing people I know, and it has always felt like home to me.  No matter where I went, I knew that my UOP family was always there in the end.

Likewise I've always had two separate lives wherever I came and went.  I had a life at Michigan when I left for the summer, and it was still there (and more exciting) when I came back.  I also had a life at home with my UOP family and my skating friends.  My skating friends have now become my family out here and they are always there for me and I love them for that more than they probably know.  I don't have a life in Colorado Springs, and I am starting to realize that this is going to be like when I first went away to college and had to make all new friends.  I haven't had to do that in 7 years and that is what is making me anxious...  I really am ready to take this step but its the butterflies in my tummy that make me a little uneasy.

Just wanted to get that out in writing...  On the lighter side, my sunburn is turning to tan and I had the best week in Florida with my family!

What I have been doing with on my vacation...

Reading, tanning, and having pool time!

Mother's Day in Seaside, FL

We went to ArtsQuest in Seaside for Mother's Day.  This was the cutest town I have ever experienced and everything is steps from the Gulf!  I could live there forever :)

Gulf of Mexico

Some of the buildings in which I would like to live :)

Cute arch

This pot at the antique store was so old it had spider webs

The resteraunt where we ate lunch.  I had yummy balsamic salmon salad, but I also tasted my brother's cheese grits and wanted some to take home!

Everyone that knows me, knows that I LOVE Vera Bradley!  They have an Inn in Seaside...  So cute, we didn't go in because the make members of my family were not interested, but I was salivating!  I love Vera, which makes me want to live there too!

Study Break

Yesterday was the first Monday in May, which means FREE REDBOX day!  Since I just finished an exam and was needing a little mental break, I went to redbox and rented this gem.  It was such a fantastic movie!  I didn't want it to end...  Movies about real people, and the things that happened in their life so long ago, are just so fascinating to me.  It was such a beautiful love story and it also made me think about letter writing because Victoria and Albert wrote so many letters to one another.  I think letter writing is one of the most romantic thing that has fallen by the wayside in our technological world.  Getting a letter is so much better than a text or an email, there is just something so personal about letters!  I will now try to write more letters to the people in my life (plus getting mail is so fun!) :)

My First Team

I coach skating at the Utah Olympic Oval.  I choreographed and coached this program to Circle of Life from the Lion King.  We only had 3 weeks, 6 sessions together, 30 minutes each.  The first time we didn't even have any music!  So basically these girls learned this minute and a half program in 2 and a half hours...  This weekend we had the ice show and they did so well!  The amazing thing is that we had girls from Basic 1 through Freeskate 1, but they all worked together so well, I couldn't have been more proud of them!