Fall Break

Another fall break spent in St George, with a little bit of Cedar City thrown in for fun.  Good thing Greg and Tracy let us stay at their house because we sure love it down there!  Now that we mountain bike, fall break = state championships.  Last year the course was in St George.  This year it was in Cedar, but we decided to stay in St George and make the drive.

The race was so fun!  Zack had his best race of the season.  So glad he ended on such a good note!  We got to the course Thursday afternoon to pre-ride it.  I got to ride the course, along with a million other people.  It was a really fun course, but way more technical than what we normally ride.  Tons of rocks to ride up and down.  I had a lot of fun riding it, but can't imagine trying to ride anything like that in a race.  These kids are amazing!  Zack raced at 8:30 Saturday morning, so we had to leave St George at 6am.  And then I almost made Zack miss his last race of the season.  It was horrible.  Jake will never let me navigate again, which is fine by me.  When we pre-rode the course I was driving so Jake got us there.  I assumed he just typed the area into apple maps and followed the directions.  Not the case.  Apparently he clicked on the link in their flyer and that's how we got there.  Well, Saturday morning Jake was driving so I typed Three Peaks into my phone and we headed on our way.  At one point Jake said, "Are you sure we shouldn't turn there?"  But I double checked that I typed it in correctly and assured him we were going the right way.  And then, a little after 7, we were told we had arrived and to park our car.  On a dirt road.  In the middle of nowhere.  I almost started hyperventilating.  I was going to make Zack miss his last race!!  Thankfully, we were able to get the right coordinates into google maps (never using apple maps again) and we got there just in time for him to warm up and get to the start of the race.  Phew!  Just a little stressful. 

Anyway, we spent the weekend mountain biking (Jake and I went for a long ride one day, Jake and Kate went for a longish ride, and the three of us went for a quick ride), swimming, eating yummy food (we found some really good mexican places), and a fun dusty razor ride.  A good time was had by all.  Except for maybe Sage.  On Friday morning while Jake and I were on our ride (of course) Sage crashed bad on a scooter.  She scraped her face up, had a fat lip, and chipped her tooth.  She was very upset in a very dramatic way (because Sage is drama).  It did look pretty painful, poor thing.  So for most of the weekend she was pretty sore and not her usual spunky self.  A definite bummer.  But other than that the weekend was great fun!

We celebrated my birthday in St George.  Sage put this together at home and got it all the way there.  She's the best!

Sage trying to have fun at the park even though she hurt really bad

They had to ride up these rocks at the finish line.  It was crazy and fun to watch.

Last race done!

Ready to go for a razor ride!

This is a super cool gypsum mine.  You can cut really cool rocks right out of the hill

Sage driving the razor.  Sadly she did better than Kate

This is what we looked like when we got back.  So dusty!

Poor Sage and her sad face.

Hiking Timp

Zack really loves hiking.  He especially loves hiking to the tops of mountains.  Mostly I think this is cool, except I kind of worry that he'll start doing crazy things as he gets older.  Oh well, there are worse things to worry about I guess.  Anyway, he's been wanting to hike to the top of Timp for years.  And for years we say this is the year it'll happen.  And then life gets busy and another year goes by.  So this year was finally the year!  It was very last second, as is everything in our life.  Poor Kate.  She LOVES to plan ahead.  Like at breakfast she asks what we're having for dinner.  She would love to have every second of life planned out.  And I have to keep telling her sorry.  Right now we live minute to minute, so I can tell you what I think might happen, but there's a good chance that will change.  She loves it.

Anyway, that was a total tangent.  Jake and Zack decided Friday night they were going to hike Timp the next morning.  At first I wasn't going to go with them, but then I decided this is one of the few peaks I can probably make it up, so I better join in the adventure.  I hiked Timp once a long, long time ago.  Like pre-mission.  And I hiked it from the other side and in the middle of the summer.  So this was really different.  We hiked from our side of the mountain and started a little after 6am.  It was so beautiful.  The millions of pictures I'll post don't do it justice.  We hiked across snow, saw waterfalls and mountain goats, and scrambled up rocks to get to the top.  Usually I'm warm blooded and never cold when I'm exercising, but not for this.  There was a cold wind blowing most of the time, and it went right through my clothes.  Apparently I need better wind gear.  I was so cold at the peak that I stayed up there for all of 5 minutes and then took off.  I thought I was going to die.  Gratefully it warmed up for the hike down.  The last couple hours of hiking were kind of a suffer fest.  You're tired, want to be done, but still have lots of miles left.  My feet don't handle lots of miles anymore.  And if I'd known I was going to do that hike I probably would have gotten new shoes.  But we made it to the top and back down again.  And I'm really glad I went on this adventure with my boys!  They were even nice enough to wait for me once in awhile.  And now for a million pictures.

Taking a break after getting down from the peak

The leaves were beautiful!

Ready to go!

I'm sure they were waiting for me here

This is at the top.  Can you tell I'm so cold I want to die?

September Happenings

September was a low-key kind of month.  We stayed plenty busy, but nothing too exciting.  Only one mountain bike race because the other was cancelled due to rain.  Major bummer.  But we got to spend an exciting weekend in Vernal to race.  We actually camped at a pretty cool place.  But we set up camp in the dark and left in the dark, so we didn't get to experience much of the coolness.  Kate and Zack both raced this time.  This was Zack's first race back since his wreck.  I was way more nervous than normal.  He had to start clear at the back because he missed the last race.  He managed to move up 20 spots and not wreck, so I'm counting it as a win.  That course is not the funnest.  The weather is always brutal.  Last year they raced in huge gusts of wind, this year it was so, so hot.  And there isn't a single tree on the course, so you just bake.  As I always say, good thing these kids are young and strong.

The weekend the other race got canceled, I decided we would have lots of fun cleaning out Zack and Kate's rooms.  Unfortunately, they didn't get Sage's organizing gene.  Kate's messy room bothers her.  Zack could live in ten tons of filth and not care.  Heaven help us all.  Anyway, the kids were super excited to spend their day cleaning.  On top of that, I made Zack go clothes shopping with me when he was done with his room.  I let him drive clear to Park City, so that made it a little better.  The kids didn't love the day, but I sure did!

Camping in Vernal.  This was the moon, not the sun.  Huge!

Passing the time waiting for Zack to race

View from my bike ride.  This time of year is so beautiful!

Fall hike.

Kate got glasses!

Zack's room after cleaning

Kate's closet

Vernal camping

Kate ready to race!

Zack was really happy to have a cold towel around his neck and a hawaiian ice when he finished