HELLO HUNGRY RUNNER WORLD!!!

Janae’s pilot brother here!

I made the title in all caps for a reason. Something you may not know about our family is that we are loud!  My wife can always tell when I’m on the phone with one of my family members by the ear splitting volume in my voice haha.

18 miles!  That is my biggest running accomplishment lately.

My oldest daughter Emma decided to enter a “Last One Standing” race. It consisted of a 6 mile loop that you had 90 minutes to complete. Every 90 minutes another loop started (sorry if this is obvious and I’m Dad-splaining what this race is, I had never heard of it). The race went on for 24 hours. 

Emma set a goal to run 30 miles!  Her previous longest race was a half marathon, so her goal seemed ambitious. She had friends and her sister setup to take turns running the first three laps and then my wife ran the fourth. I ran the fifth lap with her which I thought would be the end if she reached her goal. Well, she seems to be cut from the same cloth as Janae because she ended miles 30 and 36 feeling so well that she ended up doing a seventh lap!!!!  42 miles!!  I am totally blown away by her stubborn determination!  It was my privilege to do the last 18 miles with her, which is, by the way, the furthest I’ve ever run!

Janae’s Green Smoothies That She Drinks

Have you tried them yet?!  Last time Janae came down to St George she had me try one and now I am hooked!  I am terrible about eating greens.  Within the first three days I had probably consumed more greens than I had in the last 46 years haha  I legit feel like it helps me eat healthier throughout the day and have noticed an increase in energy and less “getting older” pains. I like them so much that my wife makes a few before I go to work, freezes them and then packs them in my lunchbox. 

Family & Flying

These are the two topics I get asked about the most. I married my best friend in the whole world! 

We have been married for 23 1/2 years and have seven kids.

Our house can be pretty chaotic at times, but we love it.  One of my favorite things about having a large family, which may sound counterintuitive, is individual time.

My wife Emilee and I have always been sensitive to making sure that none of our kids feel like a number or lost in the shuffle. I am continually looking for time and ways to spend individual time with each one of my kids.  As a benefit of my job, we take lots of family vacations together, but we also love to take individual kids on their own trip with just me and Em. Everyone gets a turn and we let that kid pick the where, why and what of the trip. Our oldest chose Tokyo, one daughter Paris, another daughter Italy and my younger son chose a Caribbean cruise. I also LOVE daddy/daughter dates and father/son outings!  Even if it’s just an hour or two running errands, grabbing an ice cream cone, or playing mini golf, I live for the one on one time I get with my kids.

“What’s your route?” 

That’s probably the most common question I get. The real answer is, it depends. Each airline is different and has their own scheduling quirks. At Southwest we bid our schedules monthly, so it can change each month. You choose from a group of schedules and they are awarded based on seniority. Within the month sometimes you’ll fly the same trip each week or each trip could be totally unique. Currently, I’m in a pretty lucky spot and I mainly just do our Hawaii flying.

I usually work 12 days a month and split that up into either 3-four day trips or 4-three day trips depending on when Emilee needs me home. We have the flexibility to pick up extra flying as well. As an example, my next trip goes like this: Wednesday fly from Las Vegas to Kona (24 hours in Kona), Thursday fly to Honolulu then to Maui (16 hours in Maui), Friday fly to San Jose, CA then to Portland, OR  (17 hours in Portland), Saturday fly to San Diego then back to Las Vegas. My base is Las Vegas, so each trip starts and ends there. We live in St. George, Utah which is a little less than two hours away and I don’t mind the drive since it’s just a few times a month. Especially because it means I get to live in my favorite place on Earth!

“Does your wife like your job? How does she handle you being gone?”

It is a unique job no doubt. When you are gone, you are gone. If something breaks at home while I’m gone, I can’t provide much more than, “Did you try unplugging it and plugging it back in?!”  However, Emilee loves it!  She is very independent and loves having her time as well as having me home on random Tuesdays during the middle of the day. I know I’ve been home too many days in a row when I hear her voice go up an octave and ask, “So, when do you go back to work?”  Story time: I came home from a trip, open the front door and hear a strange noise. I ask my wife what it is and her response was, “It’s the fans.  Oh, did I not tell you?!”  Apparently one of the kids told my wife the toilet was clogged. Not an emergency, she put it off until she finished what she was doing. Thirty minutes later, kids run up from the basement yelling that it’s raining down there.  Turns out when my daughter said the toilet was clogged she meant the handle broke and the toilet was overflowing the bowl!  No problem, Emilee shut the water off to the toilet, wiped up the water, pulled down the drywall from the basement ceiling, wiped that all up, borrowed some industrial fans to make sure everything dried quickly and then went back and fixed the toilet.  Yeah, she didn’t mention that lol  I’d say she handles it pretty well!!

I hope you are all having a wonderful day!  We are so excited for some big things this year!  Our oldest kid is currently serving a two year mission for our church and gets home in March!!🥳  It will be so good to have everyone together again!  Thank you so much for your support of Janae!  It makes me so happy that you get to enjoy her positivity and love for life that we as her family do!!