A Ride In Paradise

I'd like to thank all the people I follow on twitter from Denver for making it seem like we live in paradise here! It may have been cold (38 degrees to be exact) and windy, but at least we've still got dry, clear roads, and the sun was shining! To top it off Pete was at home, and Elle was taking a nap. How could I not go for a ride?

I donned my nice, cold-weather gear (if you look closely, everything except my helmet have the little pearl izumi logo on it. Pete used to work there, and he gave me all of this stuff.) and headed out. I also added a light jacket on top.

I was a little worried that I would be wanting a hat, but my head was fine, and my face was only cold for less than 10 minutes. The only things that were a little too cold were my toes. Nice and numb when I got back. I guess it's time for the toe covers.

I did a 1-hour ride on pretty flat roads. I had a headwind on the way out so that meant I got to have fun on the way back. The wind must not have been helping me too much, though, because I never got going more than 22mph (borrrring!). Just kidding, it wasn't a boring ride. It was fun to just go out and push it really hard. I tried to keep it at a harder gear than I would normally use, and kept reminding myself that this was just for an hour.

I was kind of disappointed to get back after exactly an hour, and only have gone 14.8 miles. That's pretty pathetic for what I thought was going to be a speedy, flat ride. Oh well. It was good to get out. It had been too long. I hadn't been out since my ride up City Creek Canyon, almost 2 weeks ago!

I was thinking about how awesome it will be to just focus on running this winter and get faster at that, but then I don't want my biking to suffer while I do that, and I haven't been swimming either. I hope I don't lose all the progress I made there this year. What's a girl to do? How can I get it all in without the crazy hours of my Ironman training?

Don't get me wrong, I loved training for Ironman, and I really miss it, but I also don't want to spend that much time away from my family again, at least not for a while.

If I get faster at running, that will help my times the most so I think it's a good thing to focus on. I'll just try to keep spinning on the side.

I Am Not a Jogger! Anymore.

Photo by Elizabeth Taylor Frandsen

This morning I went straight from dropping the kids off at school to the gym so there would be no backing down. Elle really didn't want to go at first, but in the end she had a good time, like always. I ran on the track and did sets of 800s, aiming for under 4:00.

I did a nice 9:30 warm-up mile. I kind of felt like I wanted to run faster, but I kept reminding myself that I was just warming up and tried to reign it in a little. Then I started my 800s. Here are my times:

1. 3:56
2. 3:45
3. 4:06
4. 3:55
5. 3:57

Looks like I'm getting pretty consistent. All but one of them under 4:00, which was my goal! I think doing #2 so fast is what cut down on my speed for #3 so I need to be careful with that. I just get listening to Foo Fighters and get a little crazy!

I might need to start shooting for 3:50 instead of 4:00.

In between each set I ran slow for 2-3 laps, and even walked a little bit. At the end, I did another cool-down/recovery mile in about 10:30.

I'd like to get where my recovery pace is 10-minute mile, but I guess I can't expect that right away. I mean, that has been my normal pace, race pace even, for a long time!

It was a hard workout, and I felt good about it. The best thing about today, though, was that it was fun! I sometimes forget how fun running can really be! I kept thinking about the Pearl Izumi "we are not joggers" ad campaign. Here's a quote from my favorite one:

"Take a look at any school playground. See anyone jogging?"

We sometimes forget that running is supposed to be fun! Check out the rest of the ads here.

Farewell Good Weather

I've made a goal to put more post more pictures so here's one of our beautiful little pear tree out back. Of course this was taken back when it was still summer - last month.

I can not wait for daylight savings to end. I hate having to wake up when it's still dark, it makes it so much harder. I couldn't get the kids out of bed this morning until after 7:40, and even then they were moving really slowly. I was so mad, and they were late. I've been trying to get them to school on time this year, but there was just no way that was going to happen this morning.

I don't know what was wrong with me, but I wasn't feeling very well either. I put cartoons on for Elle and went back to bed when I got home.

After my rant yesterday, Pete ended up being able to work from home today. It was a good thing too because my phone was dead when the school tried to call me. They got through to Pete right away and told him that Mindy was complaining about a stomach ache, and that she never complains so her teacher was worried. I immediately went and picked her up. The poor girl looked so sad sitting in the office.

When I went to pick her up it was snowing giant snow flakes. It was really pretty. For the most part, I hate snow, but I do love it when it snows with big fluffy flakes like that. We had a little snow stick, but I don't think it will last. It did seem like we were suddenly thrust into winter, though. It was quite a rude awakening, and I didn't like that. It's weird how quickly we forget about winter when we're enjoying the summer. It just makes summer seem so fleeting. I need to try and enjoy the winter though. We've got a good 5-6 months of it to go.

I didn't workout at all today, even though Pete was home all day so it would have been a good time to go out. Except for the snow and the cold...

Now I'm feeling better and could go set up the trainer, but I don't think I will. I hate working out in the evening. Maybe tomorrow will be better.

Modes of Transportation

This morning I really wanted to go for a run, but I had to get the kids to school then take Pete to work. Ug. Ok, here's my rant about Pete's new office building:

A few years ago we were living in the beautiful Heber Valley when Pete got this job here in Salt Lake City. For about a year he commuted, driving the hour in and hour back every day. Well, we got stick of that after a while. We decided we wanted to be able to see him more and be a little more environmentally/economically sound by using less gas. We bought our house here, and sold our car. We still have our Jeep, but we try to use it as little as possible. We can now walk to the store, and ride bikes to the school, library, and parks. Pete bought an awesome city bike so he could ride the 2 miles to work. It was just perfect.

Then they announce they're moving to a new office building in Riverton which is about 20 miles from downtown. Not as far away as Heber, but still an annoying commute. It worked out fine for a while while the weather was good because he could ride his bike in, get a ride with friends, or work from home. Now, it's dark in the morning and getting too cold to ride comfortably, and they're saying they have to go in every day. No more working from home. Pete didn't get a ride this morning and he needed to be there by 9 for a meeting, but I needed the car in the afternoon to take Min to ballet so I had to take him in. That's an hour off of my day. Ok, I know I wasn't really going to do anything anyway, but still it's a little too much driving.

Ok, no more ranting. That was it. I'm grateful Pete has such a good job and that we even have a car (that will be paid off in 2 months, yeah!!).

I had planned on going running at the gym, but when we got home Elle didn't want to go to the daycare, and I didn't really want to drive anymore so we decided to go run with the stroller. It was a hard run, and slow, slow, slow! But I figure it's good for me. Resistance training right!? Now I'll just feel faster when I don't have to push that thing. Plus, you know, I have to stop more when I've got Elle with me, and I'm more careful crossing streets, etc...

I used Pete's Garmin, and here are my mile splits:

1. 10:49
2. 10:42
3. 10:01 (and I was really pushing to get this one!)
4. 10:47
5. 11:14

Total time: 58:00

Total distance: 5 miles

My top speed was 8:02, and that was probably just for a second while I ran down a little hill.

Here are some fun memories with our lovely double jogging stroller:

October 28, 2006

Mindy and Ethan at the zoo 3 years ago (wow!) for halloween. Elle was just tiny and I had her in the sling. I ended up losing Ethan for about half an hour when he wandered away from the playground. It was so crowded that day. So scary! But I found him at the security office telling him that his name was "2."

April 19, 2007

Probably the first and last time I tried to run with both of them in there. So heavy! I'm a loner when it comes to running.

July 17, 2008

Here we are at Lagoon!

P.S. Does anyone have a single jogging stroller that they'd like to trade for a double one? I'm thinking something a little more streamline would be nice since Elle's the only one who ever rides in there now.

Pumpkins, Weeds and Zombies

Where to start? Where did I leave off? Oh yes, my tempo run on Tuesday. Hmm, maybe that should be my new thing, "Tempo run Tuesday"! Sounds good, doesn't it? But then what should I do tomorrow??

Wednesday

Can't remember. That was like 4 days ago! I must not have done anything....

I did see a truck-load of pumpkins spilled on the highway, though! It looked like something out of a Richard Scarry book... only the driver wasn't a cat, pig or raccoon farmer.

Thursday

For some reason I thought Thursday morning would be a good day for the kids to ride bikes to school. I don't know why I thought this because we were already running late and I was already stressed because they kids were complaining about their pancakes (what's wrong with these kids!?), but we headed out on our bikes anyway. We didn't make it too far before Mindy and Ethan colided and Mindy crashed pretty hard. She was crying, and I knew there was no way I could get her to go on, so we went back home to get a band-aid then drive to school. They were very nice and excused her tardy since she crashed her bike, and the kids in her class were all so worried about her and asking her if she was ok. It was sweet!

After all the stresses of the morning, I was really glad that it was my day for Spin class followed by Yoga. (You know, since I do that every Thursday now.)

Spin was awesome and hard, and yoga was relaxing and hard. I felt so much better, and had a great day afterwards.

Friday

I started out planning on going to the gym, but then Pete was just going to take the car so I was going to go run real quick before he left, but then he ended up finding a ride so I ended up going to the gym as originally planned. Whew.

I ran a nice semi-slow pace for about a mile (on the indoor track), then I did a fast mile. I recovered for 4 laps (thats....not quite 400m), then did another fast mile. I recovered for another mile before picking Elle up and stretching, etc.

I had Pete's garmin on from when I thought I was going to run outside, so I got my exact split times, and here they are.

1. 8:12
2. 7:55

Yeah, I've done better, but the 7:55 was pretty good right?

Elle and I went to Costco after the gym, and got back just in time to pick Min and Ethan up. Then I spent the rest of the afternoon pulling weeds from behind my garden. No more mice or snails hiding in there! I wish I had before/after pictures, I felt like a machine pulling all that out. It was quite a mess. Here are the weeds I pulled out. You can kind of see the grow box and the bare ground behind it where the weeds came from. That was only 3/4 of it too! I just ended up mowing the rest.

(via Ethan)

Saturday

Saturday was a busy day! I wanted to do a long run, but ended up not having time because I slept in until 10! Wow. I didn't want to stress myself out by trying to fit too much in so I just focused on making zombie outfits for me and Mindy. We had to get ready for the Thrill The World dance we were doing that evening. Thrill The World is an annual worldwide simultaneous dance of Michael Jackson's "Thriller" for world records and charity. We had one last 2-hour practice, then performed it at 6:30 at The Gateway here in Salt Lake. It was so much fun! We had around 100 people there, and most of us dressed up like zombies.

Doesn't Mindy look scary!?

It was a fun day, but it was over way to fast! Next Saturday is Halloween, and, as Elle would say, "That's so exciting!" I"ll try to get some good runs in before then.

Run or Sleep?

Yesterday I waited all day to go run when I dropped Mindy off for ballet at 4:45. As we left the house, I thought, "Oh, it looks like it might get stormy, I'll bring a jacket." Then we got in the car and I realized my ipod was dead. Then, when we were half-way there, I realized that she had ballet at 4:00, not 4:45! That's Wednesdays! Seriously, I can not handle having it at two different times. This is the second time I've done that!

By the time we got there, her class was half-way over, and I would have only had 20 minutes to run so I just hung out and watched her dance which was fun too. We got home, and Pete said, "Just go now." But it did end up getting stormy, plus my ipod was dead and I had already decided to skip it so I didn't go.

This morning it was raining, and I felt really tired so I had to ask myself the age-old question. "Go running or back to bed?" It was hard, but I knew, at the end of the day, I'd be much happier about going running than going back to sleep. I would probably just feel better too. Naps always make me feel yucky.

I borrowed Pete's Garman for my run and these are my splits (that I'm very happy with!):

1. 9:15
2. 9:10
3. 9:06
4. 8:47

It ended up being nice running in the light rain, and my ipod was all charged up with some new songs so it was a really fun run. Plus it was awesome having that watch vibrate every time I did a mile, and I could always see how fast I was going. Isn't technology great!?

I was really tired at the end, and I didn't bring a heart rate monitor so I don't know how high my heart rate got, but I'm happy I was able to run that fast for 4 miles! I think I'm actually getting faster! Slowly, but surly, I'm getting faster!

I did some crunches and pull-ups after my run, and I felt great. I'm so glad I went!

Starting "long" runs again

Tuesday Pete worked from home so Elle and I ended up going to lunch with him and two of his work buddies. We went to the little restaurant up in The Avenues that I'd never eaten at, but that I've stopped at several times on my long runs. I love that place for having such nice bathrooms, and never getting mad at me for using them as a non-customer! Being up there made me want to do a long run in The Avenues again so I planned to do that on Friday. That day I had already planned a bike ride up City Creek Canyon, which I did and it was BEAUTIFUL!

I didn't get around to doing the long run on Friday, but I squeezed it in on Saturday. I just carried a little flask in each hand, one with hammer gel, the other with water, and headed up 2nd Avenue. I ran until I got to 35 minutes, then turned around. I made it to K Street. I might have gone a little longer, but I didn't have time.

There are some pretty steep hills to get up on that street, and it was pretty hard. Coming down was really fun, though! I took the gel and water just after I turned around. Next time I'll have to just bring the fuel belt, though, because it wasn't quite enough water on such a warm day. Or maybe I'll buy one of those water bottles that strap to your hand....

I got home, and of course didn't look at my watch right away. After I'd stretched a little and started walking inside, I looked and it said 1:12 so I'm pretty sure I made it home by 1:10. I got onto google maps to see how far I'd gone in that time (hoping for at least 7), and it was exactly 7 miles! So I averaged 10-minute miles for my long run with some hard hills. That's fine. I do want to get faster, but I don't need to push it on my long runs, that's what my speed workouts are for. Right?

I act like I know what I'm doing here, but I really know nothing. We'll see how it goes. :)

A Mouse Story

Yesterday I was pulling weeds in the garden when I suddenly saw what looked like the dirt moving! I jumped a little expecting a big yucky spider or some other bug, but then I looked and it was this cute little tiny mouse! I had my gloves on so I didn’t hesitate to just pick it up and show Elle! She ran into the house to tell Pete, and when he didn’t come running out to see it, I thought he must not have understood her so I brought it in to show him. All he had to say was that it’s vermin and it shouldn’t be in the house. Ok, well, I agree it shouldn’t be in the house, but it’s not like was going to let it go in the house.

We brought it back outside and put it in a little tub that was handy. I told Elle to put some grass in with it so she ran over to the pile of grass clippings and grabbed a big handful for it to burrow in.

I went back to the garden, and there was another one running around. It couldn’t get out of the grow box so it was easy to catch, and it put it in with its brother. Now I was really careful with the shovel, not knowing how many more would be in there, and sure enough, I found the little nest of grass buried under the dirt. I took that out and there were two more mice in there to add to our tub.

Elle had so much fun taking care of the mice while I worked on the garden. She put a snail shell, a snail, a couple worms, some dirt, a carrot and more grass in there with them. She kept saying, “I hope they like it.” It was cute. She even picked the mice up a couple times, which made me a little nervous just because of if they bit her and she got rabies or whatever, but she was really careful with them, and I got her to leave them alone after a little while.

Of course, when Ethan and Mindy got home, Ethan and Elle go out there and start picking them up while I’m not there, and 2 of them jumped out of their hands and escaped. So, now we were down to 2. The kids really wanted to keep them, and I couldn't make up my mind about what to do so I kept them in the tub in the garage over night. They are so cute! And don’t worry, I had the kids wash their hands really well after being around them.

Today Elle said, “I want to go see my mice.” so we took the camera out with us. The poor things at least survived the night.

Here's one.

Here's the other one. We gave them some carrots to eat, but they didn't appear to have touched them.

Elle's holding mouse #2 so you can see how small it is! It was all shaky and scared, though. Poor thing. I was worried about whether it would live.

I looked up what wild mice eat and if it’s a good idea to keep them online. Some people said it would be better to keep them because they might just die if you let them go, but other people said they would be fine because of instincts. Someone said that they have something that if they get to stressed out they get sick and die and this is likely to happen in captivity, and someone said that it’s not fair to take the mice away from their family because mice have feelings and that would just be sad. Most of this is from forums so who knows what’s what, and I didn’t know what to think.

I wasn’t quite sure how old these little mice were. They did seem small to me, but they also seemed like they could run around and dig so well that they might be old enough to take care of themselves. Watching them today, though, I just felt bad for them because they pretty much just huddled together and didn’t seem to eat, and I just kept thinking that they would probably die if we kept them.

I decided we should just let them go so we went back behind the garden, close to where we found them and where one of them ran off yesterday. I put them into the tall weeds, and they just sat there shivering. I didn’t know what to do, I was having second thoughts about letting them go on their own like that so I just stood there watching them for a little while. It didn’t help that Ethan was crying his head off, not wanting them to go, saying he’ll miss them and all that.

While I was standing there, suddenly 2 adult mice appeared, and I just said, “Here’s the mother!” The kids came running over to see, and, of course, scared them off. So then I got the idea to put the babies where the “mother” had been. It seemed like she knew they were there and she was looking for them. So I put the babies where she had been, and one of them immediately dug into the weeds, but the other one just kind of stood there. A minute later, the “mother” came back and just, quick as a flash, picked the one baby up and ran off with it! I just couldn’t believe it! So, I got the other one out of where it had buried itself, and put it where the other one had been. This time we had to wait a little longer. I was starting to get worried that this one would be left all alone, but after a few minutes, she came back and grabbed the second one!

I felt so much relief when I saw that, it almost made me want to cry! The mother had found her babies! It seemed like something out of a fairy tail. I keep thinking of The Secret of Nymh and Mouse House. I know I was the evil human in this story, but I feel better thinking the mother might have her babies back. And in the end, Ethan said, "Actually I want them to go."

Let’s just hope that really was the mother or at least a mouse that’s going to take care of those sweet little things. I wish I could have followed her to see where she took them, but it’s probably best to just say goodbye.

Turbo Jam + 3 miles

There's a group of women who meet at the church (which is across the street from my house) every morning to do some kind of workout. They bring their little kids so they can all play together, and it's really fun. Last time we went, Elle didn't want to leave, and it's been really good for me to get to know some more people.

I was planning on doing a run today, but thought I'd go to this too, mostly for the social aspect. Well, today Elle was having a hard time and kept crying because "the other kids wouldn't play with her". At least that's what she said. I didn't know she cared so much about that. Anyway, I kept having to pick her up or help her so I only got about half of the Turbo Jam video in. It was only 20 minutes to start with anyway. We also ended up leaving early because she just didn't want to be there so I didn't really get to chat with the other moms. Oh well, better luck next time.

We left the church and headed strait for the gym, which for some reason she was fine with. She was a little sad when I started to leave her, but then they pulled some puzzles out and she didn't care about me anymore. She does always end up having a fun time there (except for the time that baby hit her in the head with a dinosaur) so that's good.

I just wanted to try and run 3 miles at a 9-minute-mile pace. I did it before so I knew it was possible, but today I was just a little bit over. I finished the 3 miles in like 27:06 (or something, I actually can't remember the exact number, but it was just over). I think the problem might have been that I didn't warm up long enough. I kind of felt like I was already warmed up because of the little workout I did at the church, but then I had to drive all the way to the gym and everything. I think I was just a little too anxious to get the 3 miles done so I only warmed up for like 3 laps. I will make sure to warm-up for a full mile next time. I did cool down for a whole 11-minute mile, though, so I got a total of about 4.5 miles in.

Interval Running Fun

I decided to go to the gym and do 5 800s on the track, and try to do them all in under 4:00.

I did a nice easy mile to warm up. I don't remember how long it took me, between 9 and 10 minutes I'm thinking.

I took a bathroom break then got going on my intervals. My first 3 800s were pretty good, and I tried to keep a pretty good jog going for 2 laps in between to recover. Here are the times:

3:50

3:57

3:59

After the 3:59, I thought I maybe should recover for a little longer so I jogged for 3 laps instead of 2, switched my shuffle off when it got to Elbow, then went for it again.

4:11

What? You can tell I was getting tired. Sorry, Elbow. I love you, but you didn't get me through that one.

I thought about just ending it at 4 800s, maybe I wasn't ready for 5. But 5 was my plan, so I just took a nice recovery, slowing down to a walk for 3 laps. Then I even stopped so I could find my Muse (literally - on my ipod) before starting my timer again. I don't know if it was the better recover or the song, but this was my fastest one!

3:49!

Thank you, Muse and your Uprising! Love that song! I even felt so good when I finished my 800 that I kept going for at least another lap, then just slowly slowed down as I did one more mile to cool down. It ended up being a really slow mile. Like 12 minutes. Oh well, it was a cool down, and my knee was starting to hurt and I was really tired! I was happy with the work I did, though. I went down and got Elle to come with me while I stretched and did crunches. She likes to do that, plus it takes a little off my tab for daycare.

So, my total mileage today was.......(dong the math, doing the math).... 5.5 miles.

According to my daycare time in/time out it took me 1:02 to do that. That includes walking over and up the stairs twice, and the bathroom break, though.

Ok, time for some relaxation and some apple cobbler. Good night.

Moab for UEA Weekend

Last Friday we had dinner with some friends, Paul (Who we went mt. biking with last Saturday) and Tiffany, who casually mentioned they were going camping in Moab for the long weekend coming up, and they asked us if we wanted to come along and bring the kids. Pete and I looked at each other for a second, then we both said, "yes."

I really hope they weren't just being nice, inviting us with the intention of us saying no. I mean, really, who says yes to going camping for 4 days with such short notice? Well, we do. We're that kind of spur of the moment people, and besides we were kind of looking for somewhere to go during UEA since Pete was no longer doing the St. George Marathon, and we knew the kids would love to go camping one more time before winter sets in.

Day 1 - Thursday, October 1, 2009 - Goblin Valley

We got most of the packing done the night before so we just had to do the last minute loading up on Thursday morning, including putting the kids bikes on the bike rack. You could practically taste the excitement!

Here's a map of Utah for those of you, like me, who didn't know where Moab is. Even though I grew up in Utah, I had never been there. It's actually pretty sad how little I've taken advantage of living in this beautiful state.

We left Salt Lake (A) at about 10 am, and I can't tell you how long the drive took because we stopped for lunch then stopped at Goblin Valley (B) before actually getting to Moab (C).

Goblin Valley was awesome. We spent about 2 hours there just wandering around, climbing on, in and around all the "goblin" rock formations. It was beautiful, and the kids had a blast! This is the only place I have pictures of from the trip because my camera has a very small SD card.

We found one little cave that went back in the rock a little ways, and it had a little hole in the back of it. Paul went around the outside, and we managed to put the kids up through the hole. This of course, made me want to try it, and with just a little help from Pete (I left a footprint on his back), I was able to pull myself through it. It was a pretty tight squeeze, and I was quite happy I fit!

That night we got to the camp ground just before it got dark so we just had hot dogs and marshmallows for dinner, and set about getting the kids to bed. Elle did not go down easily, and I ended up just driving her around to get her to fall asleep before putting her into her sleeping bag. This became our MO for the next 2 nights.

Being in such a hurry to get the kids to bed, and setting up in the dark, we didn't really make room for the space heater Paul and Tiffany lent us. They had their camper so we could use some of their electricity. We all slept with extra blankets, wool socks and hats on, and we all managed to sleep quite well despite the fact that we could see our breath in the morning. Brrr, it was cold! Luckily that was the coldest night, each night got a little warmer (especially with help from the heater that we made room for), and the last night some of us even slept out of our sleeping bags.

Day 2 - Friday - Gemini Bridges

In the morning, Paul dropped Tiffany, their two oldest kids, Becka and Nathan (11 and 14, I think), their dog, Emmy, our bikes and I off at the top of Gemini Bridges road. It was pretty chilly still, and it took us a while to warm up because it was down-hill for a ways. This wasn't nearly as scary as my first experience with mountain biking, though. It was on a jeep trail, and not too steep. Plus, I was on Pete's bike with not so touchy breaks and shoes that clipped in. I think that helped me a lot.

We rode for a while then stopped to hike over and see the actual Gemini Bridges. They were quite a sight, and we were very high up! It was beautiful, and I wished I had my camera, but oh well. After that short break, we headed back onto the road, and from here on out it got a bit rougher, and we did have a pretty steep hill to climb before we got to the parking lot on the other side where Paul and Pete and the kids picked us up. It took us about 2 1/2 hours I think. It was a fun ride, and not too hard! I had a great time coming down after we finished that climb!

Pete and Paul went off to do their own ride when we got back to camp. They went up Baby Steps and Klondike Bluffs, and the rest of us went to the pool/hot tubs at our campsite then got cleaned up for dinner. By the time the guys got back, it was dinner time, so we just headed into town and ate at Zax, a very busy pizza/pasta place. Being UEA weekend, it seemed like everyone had the same idea as us to come to Moab. The tiny town was just packed with tourists, and almost every vehicle we saw had bikes, 4-wheelers, or a trailer hooked to them.

Day 3 - Saturday - Dinosaur Tracks and Klondike Bluffs Trail

Saturday the guys went out first, and I can't remember where they went. Somewhere really hard. They got back just after lunch time, then we loaded everyone up and headed to Klondike Bluffs. This trail leads up to a site where there are dinosaur tracks in the sandstone, and the kids were really excited about this. Tiffany and her kids took off (including the 9-year old Eric), and I followed behind more slowly because Mindy, Ethan and Elle were having a go at the trail.

Pete and Paul stayed back with Elle, and they stashed her bike pretty early on, but Mindy went until she crashed in the sand trap. It is deep sand, and I don't blame her for getting discouraged. I had to push my bike through it too. Ethan had gone on ahead, and made it passed the sand! I caught up to him a little while after I left Mindy with the guys. He had crashed, but he was ok to sit and wait for the other to catch up to him, then he would go on. Finally I decided I better catch up to the first group. I rode for a while, and I was starting to get nervous that I was on the wrong trail or something. Why wasn't I catching up with them? They had a 9-year old with them!

I finally did find them, though. They were stopped at the dinosaur tracks waiting for me. We looked at the tracks a little, then left Eric to wait there for the rest to catch up. Nathan, Tiffany, Becka, and I headed up to finish the route. Nathan left us in the dust pretty quickly, so it was just us girls for most if the ride. A lot of this trail was on slick rock and there was just a doted white line telling us where to go. We soon found out it was more of a guide-line than a strict path to follow, though! It was a little tricky in parts, but it was really fun, and we had a great sense of accomplishment when we got to the end of the trail and finished it out with the little hike to the top where you can see all the way around. It was a beautiful view, and though we saw a lot of people on the trail, there was only one other guy up there with us. Again, I wished I had my camera.

Coming back down was so much fun! I got really brave, and went faster that I probably should have! I guess it was a good thing because at one point I hit a sharp dip. I leaned so far back my stomach hit the seat. It was crazy, but I made it! Tiffany said she thought I would crash, but I was lucky to have the speed to make it!

We got back to the car, and everyone one else was already there. It turned out Ethan rode his bike almost to the dinosaur tracks, and did and awesome job even though he crashed again. He was so excited about it and I was so proud of him! He says it was his favorite part of the trip. I'm glad he got to do a little bit of mountain biking too, he's been wanting to do that. They all played around at the tracks for about half an hour then headed back, beating us by another half an hour. I think this ride also took us about 2 1/5 hours. One great thing about this trip was that I was in shape to be able to do these two rides without getting sore at all! It was just fun.

It was dinner time by the time we got back so we just ate out again, before coming back to make dutch oven apple cobbler. Yum, it was good! And it was a good time sitting around the fire talking to finish out our trip.

Day 4 - Sunday - Homeward bound

The next day we just packed up and headed home. It was really a lot warmer, but it also was raining on and off so we were glad to be going. We had planned on listening to General Conference on the way home, but we ended up only getting reception for half an hour or so. It took us a little less than 4 hours to get home. We left just after 10, when the first session started, and got home just after 2, when the second sessions started. We were able to watch an hour of that, but then the power went out! Luckily we have the internet, and we've already caught up on the first Saturday session.

It was an awesome trip, but next time we won't plan on having reception to listen to the radio when we're in the middle of nowhere! A big thanks goes out to Paul and Tiffany for inviting us and sharing their camping spot and their vacation with us! They took us to all the fun places and made our trip way better than it would have been if we had gone alone. We probably wouldn't have done any of the stuff we did. So, thanks guys!