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!