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!