ULCER Ride!

One thing I didn't mention when I updated last was news from the ULCER ride we did on August 8. The ULCER stands for the Utah Lake Century Epic Ride. It began at Thanksgiving Point and heading out to Provo and then circled around Utah Lake! It was 108 miles and Brandon and I are proud to say that we completed it! Our first century ride! This is like the "marathon" of the cycling world.

I know I couldn't have done it without Brandon. At mile 90 I was feeling pretty beat down. My "tank was empty" is what I told Brandon and trying to make me laugh, he said "What about a skank?" Not funny! We had been battling a strong headwind around the backside of Utah Lake that makes it feel like you are trying to ride your bike uphill even if it's flat, which it wasn't, there are a lot of rolling hills along that part of the lake! Just after we broke for lunch at the 50 mile mark, Brandon began having some muscle cramping and we had to stop here and there to stretch, but he pushed through it and found his stride. But just when he started feeling good, is when I hit my wall. It was right as we were going through Saratoga Springs, my legs were still pushing the pedals, but my mind had checked out! Brandon gave me some words of encouragement and we made it to the last rest stop at the 100 mile mark.
At that point I thought we had 11 more miles to go, but I was excited and relieved to find out that the course had been cut a little shorter to just another 8 miles to the finish line. After refueling on some gatorade and some food, we headed out to finish our "epic" ride.

And epic is what it turned out to be! We left a little after 8am and arrived back at Thanksgiving Point at 5:45pm. We logged just over 7 hours of seat time and 9 hours and 45 minutes of overall time being out on the course. Brandon burned over 7,000 calories and I burned over 5,000! Quite the day! We weren't the last ones to arrive, but most everyone else was already long gone by that time.

We definitely learned a few things! A) Shorter rest stops B) We didn't take enough food like the engergy packets etc..C) Try to stick with a group of riders D) Ride more!

Biking has been something that I wasn't sure if I would get into, but it's been a pretty enjoyable way to exercise, get outdoors, and spend time with my husband!

I've got a little Triathalon coming up next week, needless to say, I'm not worried about the bike portion of the race!

Summer, Summer Time! Time to sit back and Unwind!

Last week on a lazy Sunday afternoon, Brandon and I decided to take a picnic up Little Cottonwood Canyon. We went up to Alta and found a little trail that took us into these stunning wild flower filled meadows!

I've never seen so many wild flowers! This would be a great place to take family pictures or engagement photos!

It was fun exploring this area. I grew up close to Provo Canyon and am pretty familiar with that area, but it's been nice getting to know the Canyons that we live nearby now. Little and Big Cottonwood Canyons are just beautiful. We've had a few Sundays that we've gone on these little exploring adventures. It's nice to get to spend time together doing those types of things! We both enjoy it.


Last week we went camping up to Flaming Gorge with some of my family. We drove through Vernal, and what I love about Vernal is the whole focus on dinosaurs. This particular T-Rex gets a new costume with every season and holiday. I've seen it with bunny rabbit ears, and even a pioneer bonnet! It looks like he is decked out like a cowboy in this one!

Here's a view of the Green River! Our rafting trip started out with great sunny weather, then quickly changed to overcast and off and on rain with thunder and lightening in the distance.

Brandon and I sporting our lovely life jackets! Gotta love them!This is where we stopped for lunch. The water was so high, that a lot of the beaches along the way were underwater.
My bro-in-law Cameron has been coming to Flaming Gorge for years and he has made it a tradition of having water fights on the rafting trip. Having the kids along only made him do it a "little" bit less. The water was freezing and I wanted to cry along with the younger kids when I got drenched over and over. But I guess you can't dish it if you can't take it right? I did get pushed in, thanks to my bro-in-law John. That rush of adrenaline when your whole body gets submerged in that cold water does make you feel more alive than ever, but oh man it's always a shocker!
Here's Brandon trying to dunk our nephew Spencer into the river after our trip! What a nice uncle!
It was a really fun trip! We went cliff jumping in the reservoir and swam around. The reservoir isn't nearly as cold as the river, so we didn't freeze our butts off! We had delicious dutch oven cooking, smores around a camp fire, great time with family, and made fun memories!

Summer Time!

It just seems like time has flown by since Brandon and I were married 9 months ago! We feel like we are finally settling into our lives together and are enjoying married life. This summer has gone pretty quickly as it always does! I've been enjoying the mornings that I get to sleep in and say good-bye to Brandon as he heads off to work. That'll all change for me as next week I head back to work to get ready for school to start.
We've had a good summer though starting off with a trip to Kansas, to visit Josh and Lindsey for the blessing of their new baby boy. We've never been to Kansas before so it was quite the new experience. We had to fly into Denver, CO, then drive 4 hours to the small town of Colby, Kansas. There's not much to see on the ride out there unless you enjoy the never ending views of green fields stretching out as far as the eye can see. We had a good time visiting with Josh and Lindsey and were glad we could be a part of that special time for them and their baby.

Me, Josh, and Brandon disguised as Buffalo Bill, Calamity Jane, and an unidentified Indian Chief. Brandon and I with the Clarks.

We had our Tour de Cure ride that was a fundraising bike ride for Diabetes. It started in Brigham City and went out to the Golden Spike State Park and back. It was a cold, breezy, over cast day with sprinkling rain off an on throughout our ride. I completed 62.5 miles and Brandon did 73 miles. It was a tough ride but it was worth the hard work and for the cause we were riding for. I got to the finish line and was waiting for Brandon and was able to snap this picture as he finished his ride.



Next on the agenda was a trip to California to help babysit my sister's kids while she and my oldest niece attended their Stake's Girls Camp. It was fun to be able to spend some time with my nieces and nephews and escape the rainy June and enjoy the California sunshine.

My nephew Brigham all dressed up like a Gladiator ready for battle.

Kennan, Brig, and Morgan having a great time at the park.

Getting to hang out with the kids was fun! They are such good kids, and I admire my sister and bro-in-law for the great job they've done in raising them! I also got to get to know the area where my sister lives outside of San Jose pretty well. Even though I got a little turned around after I dropped off Brandon at the airport, but thanks to Kennan who reminded me that they had a GPS in the car, we made it home okay. I got to hang out by the pool everyday while the kids had swim team and so my summer tan got off to a nice start! I was tuckered out every night and slept like a log! I really enjoyed getting to spend some quality time with my nieces and nephew that I don't get to see very much.


For the 4th of July weekend, we went down to Cedar City and spent time with Brandon good friends the Haltermans. They were so nice and we had a great time with them! Brandon tells me that they were like a second family to him when he was growing up.

Me posing in my 4th of July headband!

Brandon, me, Helen, and Tim (Brandon's parents). They took us on a beautiful drive from Hurricane to Kolob Resevoir near Zion's National Park. It was nice getting to spend some time with them over the 4th too! We decided to take the scenic route home and went up to Cedar Breaks National Park. The temperature dropped almost 20 degrees up there and it was just beautiful! Here's Brandon attempting to fly off the ledge of the view point. You can't tell, but it was super windy up there. That is what inspired this pose!

The Days of 47 Rodeo rolled into town and my good friend Traci invited Brandon and I to go! And glad we did! I mean, have you ever seen a giant boot with the flag bearers spinning around inside? Well I have, and it was fantastic! Though the tickets are a bit pricey for a rodeo, I think it was worth it, to have air conditioning, seats with backs on them, and not having to use a Port-o-Potty at your typical rodeo. Good times!

This was our half-time show. If you can't tell what this is, then I'll explain. This is a border collie who was rounding up goats and being ridden by a little monkey! That along with the giant boot, brought another first for me! Never saw a monkey riding a dog before!

Ride 'em Cowboy! Sadly this cowboy did not make it to 8 seconds!

And the summer is not quite over! There's more to come!

Ride of a Life

Last year I took up cycling as a form of exercise. It has allowed me once again to push myself to the limits of my physical fitness. Something I have not been able to do since my knee injury in 2000. Several months ago we purchased Anne a bike so she could ride with me. It is a joy for us to spend time together as we ride. not to mention Anne's natural ability has been fun to see.

On May 16th Anne and I signed up to ride in the Salt Lake Century. For those of you who are unaware, a century ride is typically an organized group road ride for a charity. Usually there are three route offerings, 40-50 miles, 60-80 miles or 100 miles (this is why they call it a century). For this particular ride Anne signed up to ride approx 40 miles and I had signed up for the 72 mile option.

As we reached closer to the first turn around Anne much to my excitement decided she would carry on after we take a break so she could complete the 72 miles! Well I could not let Anne out do me so I told here that I may go for the 100 miles! The great thing about this is up to that point Anne's longest ride was approx 20 miles. This means that to complete the course she would more than triple her longest ride. This is a huge undertaking. As for me my longest ride was in the range of 35-40 miles. So i had to double my efforts.

Net result was Anne completed the 72 miles, burned about 3000 calories and spent almost 4 hrs on her bike! I ended up completing 88 miles. I skipped riding out the causeway to Antelope Island because everyone was choking on bugs. it was nasty. Anyway, I spent 5 hrs on my bike burnt 5000 calories and averaged just over 17 miles per hour.

We had so much fun that we will be riding the Tour De Cure ride in Brigham City on June 13th. This time our fundraising efforts will benefit those living with diabetes. The American Diabetes Association puts on several of these charity rides each year throughout the country. We are happy to be part of this particular event.

If you would like to help make a difference and fight diabetes you can sponsor us by clicking on the two links below.

http://main.diabetes.org/site/TR/TourdeCure/TDC530148030?px=4783408&pg=personal&fr_id=5629

http://main.diabetes.org/goto/BrandonPack

Home for Sale!

Brandon and I decided we would put our condo on the market and see if any fish are biting. Though we've been happy there, we'd be happier if we had no neighbors overhead and a garage! In Brandon's mind, a 3-car garage would make him really happy too!
I bought our place in December of 2007, brand new, and now the new developers who have taken over the project from Trophy Homes, which is apparently bankrupt, are selling the new condos for about $18,000 less than what I paid! Just trying to move them. I know many people are worse off than that, but man! It still stinks for us! The new condos that they are advertising haven't even been built yet, and won't be done for 9 months to a year, but we thought if we are going to at least break even on what we still owe on it, we'd better get it on the market before these new ones are completed.
We've had a few people come and see it, so who knows? We'll see what happens!
Other than that news, Brandon and I are heading down to St. George tomorrow so that Brandon and a group of friends can compete in the Cactus Hugger Bike Ride on Saturday. I opted out of it when we drove the 42 mile course and was discouraged by the major hills, one of which is affectionately called by the local cyclists as "The Wall." There is also a 60 and a 100 mile option. No way, Jose! I'll still bring my bike down and ride a bit though and cheer Brandon on.

"I am never skiing again!"-Brandon

Well as you can tell by the title of this post, something bad must've happened to Brandon when we went skiing a few weeks ago. For our one month anniversary I came home and found a pretty vase with flowers in it along with a lovely card and two lift passes to the Canyons ski resort. My thoughtful Brandon knows that I enjoy skiing and believed it would be a great gift and a fun activity for us to do together. If only he knew what was in store!

I took a day off from school and we rented some skis and headed up Parley's Canyon. It was a gorgeous day. Absolutely beautiful! Sunny and new snow. Perfect for a day on the slopes! After a few small delays we finally started our first run of the morning. We both were trying to feel out our ski legs and had routed out some ideas for runs and then were headed off. Not 5 minutes, probably more like 3 minutes into our first run, was when "it" happened.

Right next to a huge orange sign draped across the middle of the run was the words "SLOW DOWN" with a ski patrol guy standing next to it. So we slowed down but then suddenly Brandon's left ski comes loose and he's shot forward and lands sort of on his side with his left arm extended, head pointing downhill. His other ski breaks loose and he tumble slides to a stop dropping his poles too. I'm behind him and can't believe my eyes!

I get to him almost as fast as the Ski Patrol guy. I grab his gear so that it doesn't go sliding down hill and check what happened. Brandon feels like he may have dislocated and then popped his shoulder back in, and it hurts really bad to the point that he feels sick to his stomach.

The Ski Patrol calls for a sled to be brought down so they can take him to the clinic that is luckily right on-site at the Canyons with a full medical facility.

A little lady shows up with the sled in tow and the two ski patrollers proceed to help move Brandon into it. As they are tucking him into the sled I hear Brandon say, "I am never skiing again!" Just before they wisk him away at top speeds down the rest of the run blowing a whistle to clear the way. I follow behind much slower.

We get to the clinic where they have a nurse, a doctor, and even an X-ray machine. Here's a picture of Brandon waiting to see the results of his X-ray!
You can tell is thrilled to be there! He actually was being a great sport and kept joking with the nurse. Here are the X-rays:
You can't see much from this, but as the Doctor explained to us, Brandon ended up with a Greater Tuberosity Fracture. Sounds fancy huh? It is basically on the top of his humerus bone and he actually has two small fractures on the round part on the top. If you know about shoulders and arms, you know that there are lot of ligaments and muscles that attach to this bone and hold it in place.

The verdict was that Brandon would be in a lot of pain for the first week or so and that it would take 6 weeks to heal! This bummed him out. He was looking forward to getting out on his road bike and training for the Cactus Hugger in St. George in April. Definitely can't ride his bike with this problem! Sad.

I had to ride the gondola down solo to get the truck and come and pick Brandon up at the clinic. We did get another lift pass for the both of us and a refund on our skis that we think weren't set right, not that Brandon is going to go with me.

The good news is that Brandon is on the mend and can now ride his bike for short rides. I also got a road bike, so we can enjoy getting outdoors together! But just not skiing anymore.

President Day Weekend Catch-Up!

This post is a continuation off of what Brandon wrote about Valentine's Day! We checked out of our hotel with "character" as Brandon called it. I thought it was a cute place, a little outdated on somethings, but hey I had a lovely bubble bath in the jetted tub and it was great!
We weren't ready to head back to reality, so we decided to take a drive out over to Strawberry Reservoir because Brandon had never really been in that area before.
It was my job to plan Valentine's this year and I had really wanted to spend an afternoon snowmobiling out by Strawberry with Brandon; but we decided not to because of the fact that neither of us are really very familiar with the sleds, only having done it once or twice. So when Brandon saw all the snowmobilers out there having a great time on that beautiful sunny day, he really regretted that decision.
After driving towards the end of the reservoir we decided we probably ought to turn around. So we pulled off the road that followed this stream. It was a real pretty spot, we didn't have anywhere we had to be, so we decided to do a little exploring in our new truck.
We drove past some homes and cabins and ended up in this place called "Camelot" it was a campground type place that you can do like family reunions etc..there were some cabins and also areas to pitch tents, pavilions, etc...there was a road that ran alongside it that headed into what appeared to be another canyon. So we decided "why not?" and started to follow the snow covered dirt road. There were another set of tire tracks and snowmobile tracks that were fairly fresh so we knew people had driven on it too.


Here's Brandon checking out the best way to get across the washed out road. The first time we crossed it, he totally gunned it through because he thought we would get stuck in the mud out in the middle of nowhere. Only he didn't tell me he was going to do that and I was very surprised as we went flying through it.






We hopped out for a quick photo on our exploring trip into the unknown. We traveled along our road for nearly an hour without passing a single person. We weren't sure how much further the road went, we kept thinking it would come out eventually but we had no idea and it just kept going and going. It was really pretty scenery and we were having fun. Good thing I had thought to bring some beef jerky and treats on our trip because we did get hungry! We finally decided we better turn around or else end up completely getting lost. On the way back we did see an eagle eating what looked like it could have once been a rabbit. Gross, but kinda cool in a National Geographic sort of way.

We stopped at the Daniel's Summit Gift shop on the way back into Heber. If you like cowboys and western type stuff, you'll love this place!

All in all it was a really fun and memorable trip.

Will you be my Valentine!

We decided this year that Anne would be in charge of Valentines day. Anne planned a whole weekend worth of getaways and activities. I must admit she really showed me up from last year! What a great woman!

Here is a picture of Anne's Valentines flowers. I stayed up late to get these arranged and in the vase so they would be a surprise for her Valentines morning. In the morning it took her about ten minutes after she came into the kitchen to realize there were flowers on the table! Well- she loved them!












It all started off with Anne booking us a room at a little bed and breakfast in Midway called Inn on the Creek. It was a cute little place with lots of character. Of course Anne came prepared with some candy treats and drinks for us to enjoy throughout our stay.






Anne had also scheduled us for a romantic Valentines dinner at the Blue Boar Inn. This particular restaurant is known for their culinary expertise. It is the type of restaurant that has a one page four course menu, a spoon and fork for each course and a professional chef that makes food into art! Needless to say our meals were delicious and unique. My favorite part was when the bill arrived. Anne's eyes just about popped out of here head! It was double the price she had expected. When she made the reservations no one mentioned to her that the Valentines special price was per person! It was pretty funny. The thing is, Anne and I were able to share that time together in a unique setting and build some fantastic memories, that is worth more to me than we could have ever paid.


We ended the evening looking at the stars while being pulled along in a slay. It was a great time with lots of fun memories and gassy horses!













Stay tuned for more to come...

Lost and Found

Many of you know that just recently Anne and I purchased a truck. We made the purchase after getting stuck in the snow several times during Christmas! It came down to purchasing the truck or loosing my toes to frost bite! Just a day after ownership we found out the four wheel drive was not working! I'll share that with you at another time.

The point here is that since Anne and I have purchased the truck she has been driving the Volvo. The Volvo which is a wonderful car was cluttered and really needed a good cleaning. I had been promising Anne that I would clean the car and get it detailed for her. Well, on Saturday with some persuasion from Anne, (strong persuasion, i am thick headed!) I went out and cleaned the car.

Everything was cleaned out. The floor mats were removed and cleaned,I pulled out all the papers, spare change, old lost jelly beans, and all the other garbage I could find. And even after I complained and acted bothered that I had this chore to do, I received several nice surprises!

1. I found Anne's "lost" drivers license. We both looked everywhere for weeks. Anne came to the conclusion that Zions bank stole it! Hey Anne, it wasn't the bank... it was the seat!

2. A $35 gift card from our wedding showed up. We are now $35 richer at K-Mart!

3. After a trip to Moab last June, I was unable to find the my camera. Anne searched, I searched and it was nowhere. Used twice lost for months! So I ended up buying another camera for us. Just last week after about 8 months I finally threw out the charger and book for the old camera. About 4 days later as I am cleaning out the car I reach down into the deep, dark bowels under the seat completely out of visibility and there I feel an item out of place. Yep, the old camera! Best of all the battery was still charged! here are a few pics....

We went for a ride on the mountain bikes. This view is looking back to where we left the car! Anne went over the handlebars once! What a trooper!

Anne says she has to remind me to smile when the camera is out. I say look at the ride we just did, I still have to make it back!

On our way through Arches. Just spectacular views anywhere you look. The wind was blowing so hard it almost ripped the door off the Volvo!

Happy Birthday Brandon!

Happy Happy Birthday Brandon Dear!

Brandon's birthday was on January 6th, but he had to fly to San Francisco for a few days for work, so we celebrated the big 31 when he got back. I made loads of Chinese food, which I was scrambling to finish when the guests started to arrive! Brandon says I take too much on, and I would have to agree! Everything turned out good for our 15 dinner guests (yeah our little place definitely filled up, we even had 2 of our friends stop by with 3 of their nieces and nephews just to say "hi" for a minute, so our little place was packed to the gills!) Then after some cake and ice cream we went to Wise Guys Comedy Cafe for some good laughs.

Our friends Liz and Marcelo. Liz was in our old ward and Marcelo works with Brandon.

From left to right, Kelly, one of Brandon's bestest old high school buddies, Traci, my old roommate, and Brandon's little brother David.

From left to right, Jon, Jeremy, and Kyle and ladies they are single!

If Liz and Kristi only knew who was behind them! Watch out!

All of the friends at Wise Guys Comedy Cafe. The headliner was a ventriloquist and not all that funny. But the one of the opening comedians had us all laughing so hard! It was worth it for that guy! Is Brandon closing his eyes here? Yep.


We did a little family party for Brandon and my niece Katelyn at my mom and dad's house. This is Brandon and Katelyn giving each other five for blowing out the candles.

When you start talking about Katelyn's eyes, which are really big brown ones, she likes to cross them to be funny. So we caught it with our camera. She also says that because her eyes are big, she can see farther than other people with small eyes. Maybe it's true? I don't know, because I have small eyes. She's a kindergartner who says she doesn't need to go to kindergarten because she already knows everything. She's a sassy one, to be sure! Kinda like her Aunt Anne!

In other news, Brandon and I just spent a really nice 3 day weekend with his family down in Hurricane and St. George. We drove down Friday and just relaxed in the much warmer and clear sunshiney weather. It was nice to get out of the smog we've had here all week.
We brought our mountain bikes down with us and went on a 12 mile ride along some country roads in Hurricane, where we got chased by 2 big white shaggy sheep dogs who were, I guess, trying to protect their sheep from us. At first they were just chasing us along the fenceline, acting fierce and loping along like "wolves" as Brandon describes it, jumping over ditches and growling at us, until one of them found a way out of the field and got right behind Brandon. Brandon yelled "Get outta here!" really loud and wouldn't you know, that big dog slowed down and stopped, and then turned around and left us alone. So pretty adventurous.
I tried out the new heart rate monitor that Brandon gave me for Christmas. It is pretty cool, it can measure all kinds of things, and it even as a GPS! I burned nearly 600 calories and Brandon burned 1200! That's amazing! It just felt so nice to be doing stuff outside and not freezing. We are eager to get back down there and do more riding. Brandon is planning on doing a big bike race in St. George in April. Go Brandon!

San Francisco!!!

For the first time in just under two months since our wedding, I was seperated from my sweet Anne by more than 30 miles! In fact I am in San Francisco for MacWorld. Here are a few phone pics. Miss you Anne.

View from my room at the Westin St. Francis.

The PineCone 24 hr diner where I ate my birthday dinner! It was a dive but

I enjoyed the turkey omelette!