I LOVE MEGAN WAY MORE THAN I LOVE MY BIKE(s)...

I am a Really Fast CX Racer

2011-11-22T13:18:00.000-08:00

I don't usually brag about what i do because rarely do I have anything that is bragworthy.

But I have now beat Kelly Glenn of Glenn Bros Racing 2 weeks in a row. If it had only been one week then I might have thought it was a fluke. But two weeks in a row? That is a streak.
As I have lay in bed for the last two weeks, falling asleep with a smile on my face, I try and think what it was that gave me that competitive edge over Kelly when it really mattered.

I could be the little things like that fact that I am clean shaven and he has a beard and that lack of aerodynamics are slowing him down. It could be that i opted for the thermal skinsuit where he went with the regular skinsuit and he is not getting his muscles sufficiently warm during pre-race warmups. It could be that my wife only had 2 babies and his wife had 3 babies so i am getting 33% more sleep than he is right now.

It could be the fact that he can't keep his bike upright and parts keep breaking off during the middle of the races. I don't care. I will take it. A win is a win. And by "WIN" I mean that I was in the middle of the pack of the rest of my field, but I was in front of Kelly.

Now if I could just figure out how to take down James, I could die happy.

Actually all I have to do is wait for his rear wheel to explode, (which is going to be any day now) and I can walk away with the "W".

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

WOW! They look so similar...

2011-11-01T12:53:00.000-07:00

...How do you tell them apart?We take a sharpie marker and put a dot behind the ear of #5.Megan and #2 doing the Cross out Cancer 5k at Wheeler Farm.
The next Saturday Megan ran the Halloween half marathon.
Not bad for giving birth to twins a few months ago. Not her fastest time but not her slowest either.This picture is just because i couldn't do a post without including a picture of #4.

DNF?

2011-10-17T16:01:00.000-07:00

During the fall and early winter of 2005 i started noticing bikes on the top of people's cars covered in mud with number plates and wondered what they were doing. After some research, i learned about cyclocross and went and watched a race at Wheeler farm. It looked fun so i found out where the next race was and went up to Fort Buenaventura and did my first cyclocross race on my mountain bike. Actually, it was my first bike race ever.

I was hooked. I finished in the middle of the pack in the lowest category but had a blast. The problem was that this was the last race of the season. I would have to wait for 10 more months to be able to do it again. I bought an inexpensive cx bike that sat in my garage unused for the better part of the next year.

The next year i decided to do LOTOJA as base training for CX season. I trained with my brother and friends all summer for this one event in September. I put in the miles. I did the work. I baby stepped. The week of LOTOJA came and i found myself with a sinus infection. It was preventing me from being able to get a good night sleep. My choices were to go into LOTOJA without any sleep, or to get on an antibiotic and not know exactly how it would effect me and at least try and get some sleep.

I got on the antibiotic.

We started out and my legs never warmed up. It was cold but my legs just felt stiff. As soon as we started the first climb at about 40 miles in, my chain broke.

The Robot was a little ahead of me and i yelled but he didn't hear and kept going. Luckily i was climbing better than the Doctor and cousin kevin and they were behind me. They came up and saw what had happened. I had a chain tool so i bent down to fix the chain and immediately, both of my legs locked up. I was cramping 40 miles into a 206 mile race. this was not good. I got my chain fixed and remounted my bike but knew i was in trouble. the Doc and Kevin paced me up the first climb and into montpellier. It literally felt like i was being stabbed

in the leg during every pedal stroke. I was an emotional wreck because i had just dedicated the last 9 months of my life training for an event that i was afraid i was going to have to pull out of 80 miles in. Once i got to Montpellier, i decided to push on and see how far i could go. The Doc and Kevin waiting patiently and helping me along the whole way. I struggled for the next several hours being towed along and feeling as if my thighs and calves were going to explode.

It turns out that one of the side effects of the antibiotic i got on was dehydration.

When we were just outside of Jackson, i was struggling but i knew there was only a few miles left to go so i sent my escorts ahead to finish. They could have gone much quicker but they waited and helped me along the whole way. They came into the finish and my wife, who had seen me at the feed zones knew what i was going through wondered why they left me. I rolled along slowly for the last 15 or so miles until a mile from the finish. I shifted my rear derrailleur but i was already in the easiest gear. This sent my derrailleur into my spokes breaking 3 of them and knocking my wheel so far out of true that it wouldn't spin. I was a mile from the finish so i ended up picking up my bike and carrying it the last mile across the finish line.

A couple of Saturdays ago, 6 minutes into a 60 minute race, my derrailleur got caught somehow and ripped the whole derrailleur hanger off my bike, wrapping it around my axel and exploding the derrailleur. I ended up picking up my bike, watching the guys that were behind me on the course pass me, and i ran back to the pit where luckily i had a spare bike. I kept racing even though at this point i was down a good 4 minutes on anybody else in the race. I lost my drive and eventually got lapped by the leader in the A group...twice. But i finished.

I have only DNF'd once in my life during a road race when i was sent the wrong way by a course marshall and ended up coming through the start finish line the wrong direction. I have seen a lot of racers pull the plug on a race if it is not going well. I have come to the realization that i will never be a professional bike racer since i am old, I have a full time job, I have a half a dozen kids and i was given a genetic crap-hole of a body to work with. I know that i will rarely win, but the one thing i will do is finish a race if i have any way of doing it. The only thing worse than a DFL is a DNF. There have been times when i really should have pulled the plug but there is something about quitting and event that i have a tough time sleeping with.

Cousin kevin signed up for his first marathon a few years ago and started cramping at mile 21. It was closer to his car than to the finish line so he just ran to the car instead. (i must note that he has done a few marathons since that first one but that have all been after a couple mile swim and 112 mile bike ride)

Why do you compete? Is it because you have a chance at the olympics or because you enjoy pushing yourself to see what your personal limits are? What is the final straw that would make you pull the plug on a race? A crash? Having your foot fall off? Cramping? A mechanical? All of the above in the same race?

Strider Cross

2011-10-05T06:43:00.000-07:00

LOTOJA 2011

2011-09-19T07:50:00.000-07:00

I signed up this year for a few reasons. My older brother had his leg cut off and now was going to do 206 miles with one leg and my fat dad was going to buckle down and get on a training program and do LOTOJA for the first time at 65 years old. I also have reached the point where i qualified to receive my 1000 mile club award.

My one legged brother is actually riding stronger now than he has ever ridden and qualified to race the paracycling world in Denmark so he bailed on me. My mom's health was rapidly declining at the time of registration so my dad decided that his time was better spent with her.

I knew going in to LOTOJA that considering the events that took place this year, my fitness was not what it could have been. Still, i paid my $169 entry fee and had 2 hotels booked so i figured i was going to do it. Early on, i was afraid i was going to have to do it self supported, but

eventually i was able to talk my wonderful wife into finding a place for the 4 older girls to stay and to bring the twins and strap them on while she drove for countless hours while feeding me and them between stops.

We had 8 guys from our team signed up in the cat 3/4 group and with the field that had signed up this year, we had a good chance of having a strong finish.

The temperature at the start was in the 50's which was a pleasant change from the 30's we have been starting in the last few years.

We took off a little after 6:30 and did the neutral roll out of town. We made the right hand turn into the outskirts of town and immediately a guy named Tom from USU attacked. I figured that my fitness wasn't great, i might as well go with him and try and get a head start on the

Strawberry climb. We worked together for the first couple of hours. We caught and passed the masters 45 group ahead of us and started the rollers out of Preston. I could tell that although

Tom was a little bigger than me and could do a good pull on the flats, he was not going to be good at the climb. Within a few miles i asked him how he was doing and in a strained voice he told me he was done. With that, i left him and tried to climb at a comfortable pace while still

pushing it. Toward the top of the strawberry climb, i was caught by the leaders from my group. I rode with them for about 5 minutes, but the 3 hours of early effort along with my lack of

fitness let me know that i was not going to be able to keep this pace up for another 6 hours. I knew i could not win. Kevin was in the lead group and was looking good so i told him to go

ahead and i would wait. I sat up and waited for my brother Zach and cousin John.

This was Zach's second year. He finished last year in 11 hours and some change with cramps and this was johns first time doing LOTOJA. I rolled along slowly waiting but i eventually got in to Montpellier with out them catching me. Someone came in and told me that Zach flatted before Preston. John came in 20-30 minutes after i got there and Zach eventually rolled in almost an hour after i got to the feed zone. Going hard for the first 3 hours, then sitting for an hour is hard on the legs. Zach rolled in and said he was cramping and he was done. My words were something like "I have been sitting here waiting for you for almost an hour, get back on that #$*& bike and lets go"

Reluctantly, he remounted his bike and zach, john and i headed out.

I could tell this was going to be a long day but i kept thinking back to my first LOTOJA and how Cousin Kevin and the Doctor helped me get through it after my bike broke, i cramped at mile 40 until the end and then my bike broke again and i had to carry my bike the last mile to the finish. I figured, i could help Zach finish and i would never need to do this race again.

After we got going i could tell immediately that Zach's legs were not wanting to pedal so i told john to jump on the back of the next big group that came by and just go. Within a couple minutes he was gone and i was standing on the side of the road with zach while he tried to stretch out his legs.

This continued several times over the next stretch of miles. Zach developed a case of situational Tourette's syndrome every few minutes and we stopped several times before we hit the bottom of the last climb at salt river. As we approached the climb i could see a group of cyclists on the side of the road all standing around one rider who was sitting on the guard rail not looking good. It was a group of guys i ride with and i recognized what was going on. One of them had an ice pack on his shoulders and was suffering form heat stroke.

My wife happened to drive by at this point and pulled off a few hundred yards up the road to see if they could help. Zach saw this as his exit strategy and unceremoniously withdrew from the race and went and got into the car. Yep, although my dad always taught us as kids that we as Bradley's don't quit, he quit. At exactly 103 miles into the ride, he DNF'd.

Remember the scene from the Man from Snowy river when all of the guys are chasing the Brumby's and the Brumby's jump off the cliff and go down the very steep hill. All of the riders stop there because it looks too hard, and one of the guys says "You can bid the mob good day." But then young Jim Craig rides through the group and jumps off the cliff and cracks his whip and single handedly brings the pack of wild horses in. He didn't do it for the reward money. He did it because just like me, his dad taught him not to quit. I guess that lesson was lost on Zach.

After Zach abandoned, i ended up riding with this other group of friends. I figured i still had 103 miles, i mights as well do it with a group. We started up the last climb and it was obvious that one of the guys was not doing well.

This is how we ended up getting him up the climb. we eventually got to the top of the climb and he abandoned with severe heat stroke. Chills, shaking and incoherent and in no shape to make the 45 mph descent down the backside of the climb. The warmer temps at the start made for about 10 degrees warmer than usual in the middle of the day.

I rode with these guys to the Afton feed zone where we pulled up and grabbed my feed and was ready to go. Everybody else pulled up and started eating their subway sandwiches and relaxing. When i am doing an event like this, my legs just like to keep going at a steady pace. The starting and stopping and changes in effort are much harder on them than just going. But knowing i still had a long way to go and this was a group of around 15-20 guys i waited for them to finish lunch and rode with them. We got to the Alpine feed and i experienced a similar situation. John's wife told me that john had left 5 minutes ago and that i could catch him. I figured i would just wait for them to get their food and stretch for another 10 minutes. This time i was a few hundred

yards away at the opposite end of the feedzone. As soon as i saw them get on their bikes and start rolling out, i started pedaling slowly, waiting for them to catch me. I coasted and pedaled slow for several minutes and they still were not making up any ground on me. I finally decided that i was just going to put my head down and go hard and try and catch john. I caught him at the next neutral feed zone and rode with him to the finish.

It was the longest day i have ever spent on my bike. My Garmin has an auto-pause and i actually only had a ride time of around 10:20, but my finishing time was over 12 hours. I took dead last in my category. I finished over 2 hours slower than i have in the last 3 times doing this event. But the good news is that i finished and Zach didn't so i can make fun of him for the rest of our lives.

Mitchell had a good finish in 8th for his first time riding it.

Kevin wasn't paying attention and got dropped by the lead group going through a feed.

The Robot showed that he is vulnerable to the elements and while in a two man break off the front and looking good was hit with the stomach flu....but he still finished.

John rode with me and finished his first time and decided that next year he will save the money and just have someone kick him in the crotch and go on a tropical vacation instead.

Thanks again, Megan!

Tour of Utah 2011 Photo Recap

2011-08-16T10:45:00.000-07:00

Here are some of my favorite pics of the event.

levi warming up

levi prologue

dave z as goofy as ever

Henao finishing his TT and losing the yellow jersey to levi

Tejay taking off like rocket and winning the TT on his 23rd birthday

Tejay getting some NuSKin Love

Tejay warming up for the prologue

Lots of salty sweat

Slyfox handing out some washington's and some benjamin's to the riders, team cars, course marshals, police escorts and fans

levi chasing at the capital

George bored while waiting for the start of the Ogden stage

George's serious veins

The only time the peloton was together on the downtown circuit race

levi finishing his tt that was good enough to move him into the yellow jersey

ben king at the prologue

The Columbian's celebrating. Considering that i had never even heard of these guys a week ago, they did a great job of animating the race.

Levi and Janez celebrating at Snowbird

BFF's at the end of stage 5. Henao threw everything he had at levi but still couldn't shake him.

Levi and his very relieved parents At the end

Steve put on a world class event

Stacks of the winners jersey's a the end waiting to be signed.

4 Canyons of fun in 1 or 80 Miles of Nowhere

2011-08-01T16:10:00.000-07:00

First off, for those of you that don't care about biking, here is is picture of chips and salsa. Eventually they went to the bathroom all over this blanket.

In years past, around this time of year, i round up a few people with nothing to do on that particular saturday and ride little cottonwood, big cottonwood, Millcreek and Emigration canyons in one day. This year i was looking for something a little bit different. With the twins apparently sticking around for good, I didn't want to stray too far from home, in case Megan needed help breastfeeding or something.

I decided to do Little cottonwood, then little cottonwood, then little cottonwood until i couldn't do it again. I sent out an invite hoping for a few people to come but knowing that most were either racing or out of town or are just anti-climbing at this point in the season. In all honesty, there was only one person i did not want to come and in the end, he was the only one that did come. Truthfully i was really glad he did come but seriously, gain a little weight already.

I got to the mouth at 6:01 and the Robot was not there yet. I texted him and told him that i was going to start without him because he would be catching me before too long anyway. Sure enough, after about 20 minutes he caught me, we exchanged a few words and he kept going. I got to the top a couple minutes after him. We turned around and came back down.This Time the fashionista was waiting and with the distance from his car in the parking lot to the road as a warm up, we started up again. The weather was pleasant, the traffic was minimal and my legs felt ok since i never got into the red zone actually trying to keep up with the Robot. I just rode at a comfortable pace and did my thing. It is interesting that i like it when people do these climbs with me but in reality, we see each other at the top and the bottom and that is about it.

To the top and turn aroun

d and back to the bottom. Megan met me and gave me some fresh bottles and we turned around and started back up. The forecast was calling for rain and although that would have felt good on the way up, Little Cottonwood is not fun descending in the rain with carbon rims. We got a few sprinkles but nothing that amounted to anything.

When i started from my house at 5:45, the temp was around 65. At this point in the day it was gradually climbing closer to the predicted 95.

After the 3rd time up for the Robot and i and the second time for the fashionista, he decided that twice was enough fun for one day and he went home and left the Robot and i to continue on without him.

On the fourth time up, my knees were starting to feel it. I was nearing the top of the 4th time up when the Robot came down and met me and told me he had had enough fun and was going home. I decided that 4 was enough as well and when i got to the top, drank most of the rest of what was in my bottles and turned for the descent back home. Interestingly enough, your legs can recover quite a bit in a 15 minute descent so when i got to the bottom i turned around and started up for number 5.

i was feeling ok for this point in the ride, but the problem now was that i was all out of my drink except about an inch worth of warm sports drink in one bottle. If i had thought at the top of the last trip up that i would be going up again, i would have stopped at snowbird and refilled but i did not.

14:27 into my 5th time up and 6:32 into my ride, i checked the temperature on my computer. The temp coming off the asphalt was reading 100 degrees and i had no drink left. I turned around and went home to see if megan needed any help with the twins. She didn't.

Fatigue, boredom, weather, accident, knees, fuel.

I wondered what would be my limiter on this day and in the end it turned out to be the temperature and lack of planning on my part.

Megan's New Ride

2011-07-12T22:12:00.000-07:00

Megan has been through a lot in the last little while and for all that she does for me and the kids, I thought it was time that I spoil her a little bit.
I went to the dealership and picked her up a cute little, brand new, 2011 jet black mercedes.

She was very excited and surprised and all of the kids love it. It gets good mileage and is fun to drive. This is the first, brand new car I have ever purchased but nothing is too good for my baby.

Life with twins one week later

2011-07-08T19:50:00.000-07:00

Everyone came home together on the 4th of July and they are all healthy.

I'm pretty sure #5 and 6 are sleeping through the night already.

The older girls are a great help and even change diapers.

Neighbors and family have been great and have provided meatless meals this week (which is apparently tougher to do than i previously thought)

Megan is really milking this whole C-section thing to prevent her from doing any heavy lifting. What a lame excuse for getting out of yard work.

The twins have evened out in size and color so it is hard to tell the "Chips" from the "Salsa". A little dot from a Sharpie marker behind the left ear helps me keep track of them.

ROLLER COASTER

2011-07-01T16:00:00.000-07:00

Over the past few weeks i have experienced some of the ups and downs of what this roller coaster we call life has to offer.

i spent some time on my bike.

I watched Luke run the leg of RAGNAR that Bunny ran a couple of years ago.

I watched the RAGNAR team my wife has run on for the last few years but couldn't this year because she was great with child.

I celebrated #4's 3rd birthday.

I saw a couple of great shows.

I cancelled a trip to Italy but Joey and chris still went and had a good time anyway.

I spent quality time with family and friends that i do not spend enough quality time with.

I watched my dad cry, but he was not alone.

I said goodbye to my mother and tried to convince myself that this was a good thing.

I said hello to #5 and #6 and and tried to convince myself that this was a good thing.

Huntington Beach-Worst Vacation Ever!

2011-05-02T09:39:00.000-07:00

A few months ago, we generously invited to a surprise birthday party for Lindsey. I have seen some of her online videos and thought they were mildly amusing but i had not actually spent much time getting to know her. She was cousin john's wife, so i figured she couldn't be that bad. The catch was that the party was in Huntington Beach. First off, what an inconvenience. Chuck-E-Cheese is 10 minutes from my house and would have been much cheaper and i would not have this rash in my nether region.
I packed up the kids and my pregnant wife and we made the long voyage down to California.
When we got there, I realized that vacationing with the Parry's is not pleasant at all.
They are extremely MEAN people. They are always yelling and threatening people.
Luckily i had a camera with an expensive lens to document some of what i am talking about.
You be the judge. Here is John repeatedly hitting baby Maggie in the head with a shovel and then laughing about itHere is Mark showing what happens if you disagree with a Parry. Notice his ARMY visor he got after working out with the army on the beach earlier that day.Someone ate Lindsey's Cheetos and would not admit it so they took all of the kids and buried them up to their necks in sand and left them there for 7 hours without food, water or sunscreen. You can see how #2 was starting to go crazy after a few hours of this.Here is Kevin yelling at one of the kids because they said they were hungry and wondered if they were going to get lunch that day.
Kevin made it quite clear that no, they were not getting lunch that day.Here is Layla when she asked her mom if she could get into the pool and play with the other kids. Her mom told her to be quiet and keep rubbing her feet.I asked Maia what happened when her dad comes home from work and the house is messy and she showed me how he spanks her. When Maggie was tired and ready for a nap and started to whimper, the Parry's started throwing her around and yelling at her telling her that she better be quiet or they would give her something to cry about. Here is Todd explaining to a very interested John how to tap someone on the shoulder and then when they turn around, you smash dog feces in their face.
Oh, yea...it was also #3's 6th birthday while we were down there and she got an awesome kite with a kitten on it from Lindsey's Mom.

If you are ever asked to go on vacation with the Parry's, even if it sounds like fun and you can get a good deal on a room, I suggest you pass. My #4 still can't sleep with any covers on because she has flashbacks of being buried in the sand and left.

Hell of the north 2011

2011-04-04T08:39:00.000-07:00

Another road biking season started out in a painful way. Last year I was lucky to finish this race, getting dropped from the lead group on the 2nd of 10 laps and flatting somewhere along the way, coming in close to last place. This year the course was as fast as I have seen it with a good tailwind coming out of the south making the gravel section dangerously fast. When you hit a pothole at 35 mph, it can be painful and very hard on a bike.
I was able to make the selection on the first and second laps when our group that started with 30 but got reduced down to 10. I was feeling as good as I could with my heart rate never seeing south of 170 bpm for the first hour and 20 minutes. After we had whittled it down to 6 guys my legs gave. I got popped somewhere around the 7th lap (i lost count of the laps
In there somewhere) and limped to the finish, getting caught by one guy that was riding very strong and just unfortunately went down in the first corner of the race and had to fight his way back, and then by a group of 2 guys from my race that had attached on to the back of a cat 1/2 break and sat on.
The pirate did well finishing in a respectable 13th with only One leg. I wasnt there when he crossed the line but i wonder if he pointed to his stump for everybody that came in after him.

photo courtesy of cyclingutah.com

Why do we have so many daughters?

2011-03-21T10:41:00.000-07:00

This study may suggest why:

Single girls have always grumbled that good-looking men are difficult to find.

But science may have just proved them right – because beautiful women are more likely to have daughters than their plainer counterparts, according to a study.

As parents tend to pass on genes that determine looks, this could result in handsome men becoming rather thin on the ground.

Dr Satoshi Kanazawa, of the London School of Economics, analysed data from a survey of 17,000 babies born in Britain in March 1958 and tracked them throughout their lives.

At the age of seven, their attractiveness was rated by their teachers.

When they reached 45, they were asked about the gender of any children they had.

Those rated as attractive were equally likely to have a son or daughter as their first child – but the unattractive sorts were more likely to have a son.

Put another way, the beautiful women were more likely to

have daughters than those who were less blessed in the looks department, the journal Reproductive Sciences will report.

A previous study of 2,000 Americans suggested that women are becoming more beautiful over the generations because attractive women have more children than plain ones – and a higher proportion of their offspring are girls.

Dr Kanazawa believes that parents tend to produce children who benefit from their own attributes.

Beauty, he says, is of more benefit to a woman than a man, and so it pays for attractive women to have daughters.

But couples blessed with strength and aggression rather than looks are better off having boys, as these characteristics are of more use to males.

It is because my wife is beautiful and I lack strength and aggression.

I just figured i was plain enough looking that i could have tilted the scales towards a boy just a little bit. I guess my wife's attractiveness far outweighs my plain looking-ness.

New Movie

2011-02-08T05:00:00.000-08:00

2010 was an challenging year for our family.

According to the Chinese calendar, this is the year of the Rabbit. We are looking forward to what we can expect from 2011.

I have been busy that last little bit writing, directing, filming and editing this latest movie.

I hope you enjoy it.

Family Portrait

2011-01-04T15:42:00.001-08:00

We were able to get a family picture done this last December.

We are very excited about how it turned out.

Final CX RACE of the 2010 season

2010-12-29T14:34:00.000-08:00

Although this was not my category, here is some footage of the highlights of the Masters 35+C, the juniors men 14-16 and the Clydesdale category held out at Butterfield park out in Herriman.

Cold that cuts through your clothes, 40 miles an hour wind and mud,..mmmmmmm, good times.

What to Take to Disneyland....

2010-11-10T08:17:00.000-08:00

...someone in a wheelchair.

Can you believe Megan's Brother is still single? After his 3rd knee surgery, he is legitimately, temporarily handicapped. That worked out well for us. On Storm mountain, he got 9 of us straight to the front of the 60 minute line. It turns out that Walt has a soft spot for wheelechairs. Most rides have a separate handicap entrance. You roll up to the front of the line with your group, you get out of the wheel chair and onto the ride and the when you are done, you get right back into the wheelchair. After this fact, i started noticing A LOT of people in wheelchairs.

Kevin just got his own place so he no longer lives in his parents basement. Let me know if you want me to line you up with him.
As it turns out, the Jazzy® was also very convenient for carrying all of the overpriced Disney paraphernalia we purchased.

It rained the day we got there and the day we left.

Weather was sunny and in the 70's-80's the rest of the week. Water was cool enough that all of the local surfers had full wetsuits, but the kids didn't seem to mind since it was snowing back home.

We spent some time in OLD TOWN San Diego and had dinner at a Mexican Restaraunt. When there is an item on the menu that dares you to eat it and then makes you sign a waiver before you actually eat it, it might be a good idea to order something else.

Here Ryan is sweating and eating and the Hot burrito of Death, or something like that. He only made it about 1/4 of the way through it. He paid for it all night long.

RAGNAR Vegas & CX RACE in SoCal

2010-11-02T07:32:00.000-07:00

I realize that almost all of our vacations are based around either a bike race or a running race of some kind. Well it just turns out that this year, we planned a trip to Oceanside with Meg's family, and then it worked out that Meg could go a couple days earlier and run RAGNAR in Las Vegas with a bunch of friends. We could pick her up in Vegas and keep driving to California. We could spend the week in Oceanside with the in-laws and then i could do a Cyclocross race in San Diego before driving back to Utah.

We came down and saw Megan at her second exchange and then went and stayed with my favorite Aunt Barb for the night. We woke up the next morning to homemade waffles and lotsalaughter.

We went and saw the ladies finish their 195 mile run and drove to CA. It was much prettier than megan had anticipated since you did a giant circle around vegas starting in Valley of fire, heading to Lake Mead and then down and around, ending up at red rocks casino.

We spent a wonderful week having a great time in Oceanside. We had to be out of the Beach House by 10AM saturday morning, so that was just enough time to drive down to Balboa Park, clean up some kids throw up in the back seat, warm up, and do a couple of races.

I really take for granted the CX scene we have here in Utah. You can sign up for whatever category you want and don't have to have a racing license. The fields are huge and growing. Going to California, i was confined to race with the cat 3-4 field since i am technically a Cat 4 cyclocross racer. I figured i would do 2 races, not knowing what the fields would be like, how big, how competitive etc.

I started with the Masters 35+ 3/4 race which only had 12 guys line up. I missed the hole shot and settled back into 4th place to see how the competition was. After a lap, i had worked my way into second. I attacked on a long, hard, muddy section and got around front. I kept the pace high and stayed there. Around the corners i could see a gap starting to open so i drilled it some more. By three fourths the way through the race, i couldn't see the 2nd place guy anymore. I eased up a bit knowing i was going to be racing again after this race was done. Now i know how Bart Gillespie feels.

The 3/4 race started right after the masters race was done, so i had time to pin on a different number and get back in line. This field was a bit bigger with around 20-25 guys. I started and dropped into 4 th place again. we rode like this for a lap, but i could tell this was a lot faster pace. On the second lap, the guy that was sitting in 5th came around me on a corner that there wasn't room for 2 bikes and ran me off the road. I am fine with racing aggressively, but don't run me off the road only to ride the same speed as i was that early in the race. I passed and dropped him a lap later while another guy and i were swapping 4th and 5th place as the first 3 riders were 10 seconds up the course. Most of the race went like this until about a lap and a half to go. I realized at this point that it was now about 2 o'clock. I had breakfast at 8 o'clock, which consisted of a bowl of frosted flakes and a couple of donuts. This is the point where i dropped from 4th place to 10th place and was just glad to get in the car and make the 7 hour drive to St George.

The good news was that for winning the Masters race i did get some socks, a water bottle, a gift certificate to a bike shop in San Diego that i would never go to, and some beer which i also gave to the 2nd place finisher.

The Main Course is the Most Important Course

2010-10-18T19:27:00.000-07:00

When we have dinner, we will sometimes splurge and get an appetizer, or a dessert. Our drink is usually water. The main course is always important. That is why Megan and i were not sad that we didn't win prizes for our other dishes at the 3rd annual fall harvest smackdown . We did, however win the prize for the best main course with our waffle smothered in cinnamon syrup steeped in Habaneros.

At 5 o'clock on friday evening the secret ingredient was revealed for this year, which turned out to be the Habanero Chile Pepper. We were all expecting this ingredient last year but instead got the crappy Jellymelon.

Not having cooked with raw Habaneros before, most of the competitors were a little concerned about the heat. My sister got some pepper on her finger and touched her eyes. She ended up having to get milk in a syringe and squirting it in her eye to get the burning to stop. It was a fun and challenging ingredient and produced A LOT of really good food. i think this year there were 25 entries ranging anywhere from a tropical drink to peanut butter and Habanero Jelly sandwiches, to home made oreos to salmon, to sweet potato fries to ice cream to peach and habanero trifle.

Within 5 minutes of when we started eating, most people were red and sweating. I was actually a little surprised that most of the dishes were not hotter. It was a pleasant surprise to eat something that tasted good and then had a little, subtle heat at the very end. Team Mo' Shizzle really redeemed themselves this year and walked away with 2 prizes after being shut out last year.

Run for Bun

2010-10-15T06:25:00.000-07:00

I have always been on the other side of the table during packet pick-up for any athletic events. You pay your money, you show up and pick up your packet, pin your number on and expect that the event planners have thought of everything and expect that you can just concentrate on doing the race.

After the last few months, i have a new appreciation for how much time, energy, effort and manpower it takes to put on an event. I guess the good news is that because i helped with organizing things i didn't have to actually run.

My contributions were very minimal compared to what Megan and some of the others put into it, and this race was only a 5k. It's hard to even imagine what it takes to put on an Ironman, or a 200 mile bike race through 3 states? The Run for Bun was a little different, in the fact that it was a very short timeframe from conception to event, EVERYONE was a volunteer, and everyone in every capacity had never organized anything like this before. We did have some helpful direction from events planners at Draper City and many of the organizers had participated in events, but none had actually organized one before.

All said and done, we raised somewhere between $40-50,000 to be put towards the creation of a trail in Draper in Bunny's name. It will probably be a few years before they are able to secure enough funds to do the whole trail, but what a wonderful tribute to a wonderful person.

A few things that really struck me were the volunteers and people that came together to help. Businesses that gave of their services or goods to support this event. People that gave of their time and money.

A guy that went to school with Luke and had not seen him in 15 years and wasn't sure Luke even remembered him showed up to help at packet pick-up because he wasn't going to be around to run the 5k but wanted to do something to help.

Megan talked to the woman that was in charge of all of the registration and put countless hours helping and getting everything set up and running smoothly before, during and after the event. Megan asked her how she new Bunny. Her response was that she had never actually met Bunny. There were lots of people that had never actually met Bunny but she touched their lives anyway.

She made me as a cyclist realize how vulnerable i am. She made me as an athlete realize how powerful i am. She made me as a parent realize how precious my children are and how powerless i really am at protecting them. She made me realize as a sibling how grateful i am to have a family i can count on whenever i need them. She made me realize as a husband how much Megan means to me and how completely lost i would be without her. She made me realize as a child of God that this short mortal existence isn't all there is and at some time in the eternities, Someone has a helluva lot of explaining to do.

Cyclocross 2010 #1

2010-10-06T18:35:00.000-07:00

It is a little hard to get excited about cyclocross racing when it is 91 degrees outside. That was the temperature of last Saturday's race. I really love the muddy, dirty, wet races. I just wish i had a mechanic to clean my bike afterwards.

I achieved my goal of not taking last place. It was hard and fast and i didn't have the kick to stay with the lead group....or the 2nd or 3rd chase groups. It has been a long biking season and i am caught between my mind wanting to go and race

hard, but mentally my body just wants to lay around eating megan's baking.

The loss of daylight is making it tougher to get out and ride during the week which makes getting into the Pain cave and staying there for 60 minutes hard. Maybe i will just change my diet and start eating spanish beef.

Lil Bills dad was supposed to start his cyclocross career on Saturday, but after taking him out and doing a few practice laps on the course, he decided to lay down in a goat head patch. We both thought it wise for him to practice a little more before strapping on that number.

This weekend i will miss the race but for a good reason.

If you are not doing anything Saturday morning, come and run, jog, walk, crawl, scoot or hop with us. You may be thinking to yourself, 3.2 miles is so far, i couldn't possible run that far. My 1 legged, pirate brother is doing it, so unless you had both of your legs cut off, your excuse is lame.

It's Not Like You Love Your 4th Child Any Less...

2010-09-21T16:55:00.000-07:00

...it's just that you don't have the energy to care as much what they look like.

LOTOJA 10

2010-09-13T10:10:00.000-07:00

I ended up getting a different Hotel in both Logan and Jackson than the other guys on my team this year because of what Kevin did last year. I figured i would rather have it be a little harder logistically but get a good nights sleep than be awakened in the middle of the night by the fire engines again.

When we rolled out in the dark just after 6:30 it was around 35 degrees. I shivered for the first hour. About an hour and a half in, the pace picked up climbing the first climb and i got dropped by the lead group. I caught Cousin Kevin who lasted 2 minutes longer than i did and we rode together. My intention was to ride with the lead group as long as i could and if i couldn't stay with them, i would drop back and ride with Jose and Lil bills dad, who was doing it for his first time.

Still Smiling at 20 miles into the ride

As i pulled into Montpellier, somehow, i dropped Kevin. I sat up and soft pedaled for a minute waiting for him and my legs started cramping. It is a funny thing that as long as i would keep a nice consistent cadence going i would be fine, but any time i tried to speed up or slow down, i would cramp. I got the time split back to the Jose group and it was around 25-30 minutes. I knew my legs couldn't wait that long so i had to keep going. I set out doing a mellow pace and figured Kevin would catch me from behind. I stopped and waited at the top of the geneva climb and saw a group of cyclist that looked like Kevin was in it so i started descending with them. It wasn't Kevin but another guy from our team riding in a different category. I rode with them for a couple of miles and then sat up and soft pedaled some more. I had a pedal giving me problems and luckily my wife and Jenn drove by so i had them pull over. I had a spare set of pedals in the car. I have learned over the last 5 years that over 206 miles, just about anything can happen. While i was switching my pedal, Kevin pulled up. We rode together for the rest of the day. He flatted going through a construction zone so I stopped with him for that. We got that fixed and he pulled from the last right hand turn all the way to the finish to keep our time sub-10 hours, if only by a few minutes.

Like the jerk that Lil Bills dad is, he had Jose pull him the last 15o miles while he suffered, and then he jumped him at the line to come in one place ahead of Jose.

You may be looking at his outfit saying, that is a really cool helmet. I thought those are only available in the Europe and not the States, but wait, it doesn't really match the rest of his biking costume. What gives?!?

In typical LOTOJA fashion, Lil Bills Dad wanted to kill me and said it was the longest and hardest day of his life and he would never do it again, but by the next day he was already trying to figure out how he could do better next year. SUCKER!

Luckily next year, we are taking it at a much different pace.

If i can't keep up with a 60 something year old fat man and a one legged pirate, i am really in trouble.

The old man did climb all the way up to Snowbird yesterday which is a great improvement from when he tried to climb little cottonwood a couple of years ago. I can't figure out why he didn't want me to film it this time?

Thanks to the best looking support at LOTOJA. not just for Saturday, but for all year long, juggling around my rides.

Why you should NOT go Mountain Biking with Cousin Kevin aka the Green Hornet

2010-09-08T07:16:00.000-07:00

I am embarrassed to admit that aside from an occasional race, i have never really mountain biked in Park City. It never fit in with my schedule. I was always crunched for time with my bike rides, so driving an hour before i even started riding was tough to justify. This weekend we had someone offer us their condo at Deer Valley so we jumped on it. Cousin Kevin was up there too so he and I met up early monday morning and went for a ride starting at Deer Valley's mid mountain lifts. We cruised up the recommended uphill route which turned out to be a lame service road.

We came back down homeward bound and Kevin insisted on riding as many of the freestyle features as he could find. We got back to the bottom and talked to someone and they pointed us up the mid mountain trail and up team big bear. Kevin had to be back for his pedicure at 11 so we ran out of time. Instead of coming back down the way we came up, Kevin thought it would be better and faster if we blazed our own trail back.

With loose rock and 45 degree angles, your brakes actually don't do any good. It was only after we finally made our way back onto a trail that Kevin decided to pull his junk out and relieve himself, much to the surprise of the guy that came around the corner a few seconds later.

Here is some video of Kevin on one of the freestyle features. You tell me if he rides like an 8 year old little girl.

Uninvited Guest

2010-09-07T08:10:00.001-07:00

When Megan decided to get a cat for the girls, we knew we didn't want it to be an inside cat. We figured we could just leave the garage door open 6 inches at the bottom and it could come and go as it pleased. We went out of town for labor day weekend and poured a bunch of cat food in a bowl and left. When we returned home, all of the cat food was gone, which was a little surprising since the cat is still fairly small.

We got everything unpacked, got the kids to bed and Megan went out to the garage to get something out of the outside fridge. She caught a raccoon eating the cat food while the cat was hiding terrified in the corner.

Instead of running out of the garage when Megan came out, the raccoon went and hid in another corner of the garage behind a shovel. Megan came and got me, so i retrieved our BB gun, which ironically we got in our first house to keep the neighborhood cats from using our yard as a litter box. After shooting the raccoon 4 times and it not even moving, Megan suggested i use the shotgun she gave me for my birthday a few years ago. Apparently she has no idea what a 12 gauge would do to a raccoon or our garage at short range. I told her i would use it if she agreed to clean up the mess. A few shots from the BB gun later and the raccoon ran off into the night.

Now we need to rethink this whole cat thing. Maybe we will get one of these instead.

#3 Starts Kindergarten

2010-08-30T16:15:00.000-07:00

#1 and 2 started school last week.

Although Megan tried all kinds of ways to talk #3 out of starting kindergarten , she started today anyway. #3 has been counting down the days ever since her last day of preschool last spring.

She promised me she would not get into any fights today.

Now megan is left home with #4 and a cat, both of which go to the bathroom where they aren't supposed to.

Megans First REAL Triathlon

2010-08-26T17:16:00.000-07:00

Megan has done a few triathlons, but they were more of the informal, neighborhood triathlons on the 4th of July where you show up in the morning and everybody decides what distance they are going to do.

Before

After

I can really only take megan's word for it if she did the olympic distance or not.

She claims she did a 1500 m swim, 40km bike and 10k run in 3:06. She looks as fresh in the after picture as the before picture. For all i know she could have taken a couple of pictures in the transition area and then went to the spa for the morning.

I wasn't there to see her. When i did my first open water swim, she came to see me and even almost got our car towed because she was afraid i was going to drown. 100 yards into the swim, the thought did cross my mind. I got my swimming merit badge when i was 13 years old, they didn't have other people hitting and kicking me during my swim. This video shows how to properly train for an open water swim.

Bunny was supposed to do this tri so megan took bunny with her.

When it rains it pours 2

2010-08-20T09:49:00.001-07:00

What I meant to say was:
When it rains it pours, and when it pours your basement can flood.

Matt, I am sorry we were late and only stayed a few minutes at your 40th birthday/amputation party. We will make sure we stay longer next time you get something amputated and have a party.

3rd annual, 4 Canyons of Fun

2010-08-16T17:14:00.000-07:00

Every summer i like to spend a long Saturday with friends climbing the 4 major canyons in the salt lake valley.

Last Saturday was the day for this years fun filled event.

Seven of us met at the mouth of little cottonwood canyon at 6 am.

Temperatures started out nice and cool and we started climbing.

Little cottonwood was recently repaved, so it was nice and smooth going up and really fast coming down.

Big cottonwood was fine and a guy with a broken chain at storm mountain provided a short break while we helped him get fixed and rolling again.

The second half of Millcreek was painful and demoralizing as usual. I can never tell when the canyon is actually going to end.

Emigration Canyon was just hot.

This year was slower than years past and was much more painful for several reasons.

My fitness isn't where it has been in years past. I had an 11-28 cassette and found myself looking for another gear.

As i climbed up little cottonwood canyon, i couldn't help but think about the first time i climbed little cottonwood on my bike. The Doctor dragged me up it.

I remember riding on the shoulder and in the gravel, hoping that i would get a flat so i could stop pedaling for a few minutes. I was cursing him the whole ride.

You see, the Doctor was the one that got me into cycling.

We have ridden more miles together than i care to remember. Some mornings we meet up, say "where do you want to go", ride for 90 minutes without saying another word except "goodbye" and other mornings, we would talk for the whole ride.

I have always envied his aggressive, attacking style of racing. Something that i have never been able to do. He is acting the same way with his recovery.

It will be a little while before me and the Doctor are able to ride together again.

With his attitude, i don't think it will be too long.

He is so positive and ready to get on with life and not dwell on the fact that he was diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer and had his leg amputated. He considers himself extremely lucky to be where he is.

Until he is able to get on a bike again, i am expecting him to follow us in a car on our group training rides passing out homemade cookies. I am a little worried since it was his right leg that was amputated, so he will need to learn to drive with his left foot. I figure i will probably get bumped from behind a few times for the first little while until he gets the hang of driving again.
Luckily he got rid of his car with a manual transmission a few months ago.

As we climbed Millcreek canyon, i hadn't thought much about it until we rounded the corner and came upon Log Haven, where Luke and Bunny had their wedding reception. The rest of the ride, I stopped thinking about the Doctor's stump, and thought about Bunny, Luke and the Girls.
I am a very shallow person that doesn't think much, but 7+ hours on a bike gives you some time to ponder a few things.

Life, death, loved ones, health, mercury in retrograde, legs, family, God, chocolate milk, pain, charity.

I couldn't help but realize that I am extremely blessed.

At the end of Emigration, instead of riding home, I headed to the Huntsman Cancer Institute to see the Doctor. He was positive and a lot more coherent than the night before. He had gotten over his urge to punch the anesthesiologist in the face because the epidural didn't work.
He ended up leaving the hospital to go home Sunday morning.

Zach just started riding a bike this year and he did all 4 canyons. That was pretty impressive. As impressive as Zach's ride was, the most impressive ride to me on Saturday was Parker.

This kid only rode the first 2 canyons but watch the video and see his sweet bike.

Post surgery

2010-08-13T23:25:00.001-07:00

12:30 and Matt is on his way to a recovery room.
The doctor said the surgery went as well as it could have. He felt good about the whole thing.

I didn't get very far through the 88 pictures the nurse took of the surgery before stopping.
Something about a picture of my big brothers leg, detached from his body and sitting on a table makes this whole thing a lot more real.

On the bike ride up here, we were trying to think of stage names for matt once he becomes a one legged stripper. He thinks there will be a high demand for these and that nobody is currently fulfilling that demand.
If you have suggestions for his stage name or you are having a bachelorette party and need a one legged male stripper, leave a comment.

If we're not laughing we're crying.

-- Post From My iPhone

The doctor pre surgery

2010-08-13T17:06:00.001-07:00

We dropped the doctor off via bike at hunstman cancer just before 2:00

He has been sitting up there waiting for a surgery room for the last few hours.
Surgery is now scheduled for 7 pm
And should last around 2.5 hours

They finally got him back at around 8 which means he will be done around 10:30 and off the drugs and with it enough to see anyone around midnight

Why is this whole cancer thing not working around my schedule?

-- Post From My iPhone

Cat:Part 2

2010-08-10T17:30:00.000-07:00

About 18 hours after taking the cat home, i was on a mountain bike ride and got a phone call from home. Megan rarely calls me on my bike rides unless i am a couple hours late and i knew i wasn't late yet, so i thought it was weird.

It was #1 and this was our conversation:

hello

*sniff* dad *sniff*

yea?

*sniff**sniff* can you make some lost cat posters?*sniff*

yes.......why?

*sniff*the cat is gone*sniff*

I can make them when i get home, but i won't be home for a couple of hours.

*sniff* okay, thanks *sniff*

I love you, i'm sorry, i will see you in a little while.

bye*sniff*

I couldn't help but think about THIS

I finished my ride and loaded up the bike and drove home.

As we were pulling into my street, we ran into #1 who apparently couldn't wait for me to come home and make the posters. She was hanging her own lost cat sign on the light post at the end of the street. We hadn't had the cat long enough to have pictures so it was mostly just a poster with text, a description, and a phone number.

We did have the little piece of paper that was on the outside of the cage at the humane society that had a small black and white picture of the cat with the sex, age, description etc.

The girls ended up taking that to about 100 houses in our neighborhood, knocking doors and asking if they had seen the cat.

Since it was going to be an outside cat, we kept the cat in the garage, but somehow it had escaped.

Not more than 18 hours after we brought it home, we already lost our cat.

I talked to Lil bills dad to see if the cat showed up at their house, looking for her sister.

He told me with his infinite wisdom of having given up his masculinity years ago to open a can of tuna fish and put it by the garage door. It has a strong odor and cats like it.

30 seconds after opening the can, the kids could hear meows. #3 came running in and told me that they could hear the cat but couldn't find her. I walked out in the garage and she was sitting under my table saw.

Apparently she never ran away at all but had been hiding for the last 4 hours out of fear of being loved to death.

Her sister cat may die of a similar fate.

On sunday afternoon, we went to my parents for dinner and took the cat up to see her sister. As we were leaving, the cat ran and hid behind some boxes and wouldn't come out. I guess Megan is going to be going to Costco and buying Tuna in bulk.

I have ordered the Tabby Tote, but it won't be in for a few days.

Hopefully this will make it easier to not lose the cat.

Cat:Part 1

2010-08-09T08:44:00.000-07:00

I had dogs growing up and even went and got one against my mothers wishes when i was 16. A few years later the doctor got one too. Then we got some more and had a dogsled team for a while.

I eventually put my first dog down because he had diabetes. It got to the point where he was blind and couldn't move. It was hard explaining to my daughters that i was taking the dog to heaven. They had been taught about heaven in church and when i left with the dog in the car, it confused them that i could drive to heaven.

Megan and i agreed to wait a while before getting a new dog. That while turned out to be about 2 weeks. Megan got obsessed and ended up doing lots of research on what breed would best suit our family. It turned out that a labrador retriever was best suited for what we wanted in a dog. The only drawback with a lab is that there are so many of them that sometimes the breeding can be compromised. We found a reputable breeder that had both the mother and the father so we could see both of them and then had its hips and eyes checked. We bought a puppy and took him home and went through all of the highs and lows of having a puppy.

He grew up big and had lots of puppy energy even at the age of almost 4.

Right as we moved into our current house, he started having seizures and we found out he had epilepsy. We got him on medication but within a few months we ended up having to put him down as well. Megan never really had a chance to have a calm dog curl up at her feet and look up at her adoringly while she read a book that she was so looking forward to. I have offered to do that for her but she just thinks it's creepy when i do it.

We again agreed to wait a while before getting another dog. Megan wasn't ready to do the puppy thing with me being at work all day, and i was okay not shoveling poop for a while.

We had various rodents and fish, as well as fish that were accidentally fed to the rodents. The life expectancy of rodents is not long so it is hard to get overly attached to a mouse. Especially since we set mouse traps in the garage.

Megan recently became obsessed again.

This time she figured that the girls have too much love to keep bottled up and they need to give some of that love back to one of Gods creations. This time she decided that the recipient of all of that love was going to be an outside cat. They live longer than a year, they bury their own poop and when you go out of town, you just dump a bunch of food in a bowl and they are fine. It's not like a dog where you have to board it or pay some neighbor kid to come over and take care of it. I have been telling the girls for years that i was allergic to cats, but if it was going to be an outside cat that i didn't have to touch, i would deal with my allergies.

I figured we could just wait until we saw someone giving them away at the grocery store and pick one up for free.

Megan talked to lil bill's dad who had their cat run away a while back and it was decided to go to the humane society and get litter mates together. Lil' Bill stole the kitten that we wanted and we had to settle for the second best kitten there.

We filled out an extensive application and then gave urine and blood samples and had a psychiatric evaluation, we were finally able to take the cat home.

I have officially given away any small piece of masculinity i had left.

When it Rains, it Pours

2010-08-06T08:01:00.001-07:00

3531 Days

2010-04-23T11:22:00.000-07:00

3531 days ago, my only sister was diagnosed with cancer.
Brain surgery removed a softball sized tumor.
Lots of treatments, lots more open brain surgeries, and she is still here.
My oldest niece Maia decide to put together a team for Relay for Life to raise money for the American Cancer Society. Pretty amazing for someone that won't even be able to drive for a couple more years.

We raised money, walked, ate licorice and pizza and walked some more.

8

2010-04-15T11:53:00.001-07:00

This video is mostly so she can remember what life was like when she turned 8.

The big 3-0

2010-04-06T07:33:00.001-07:00

Conversation at dinner last night.

Me: Do any of you know what special day it is tomorrow?
#2 excitedly: Yes! it is uncle G G's birthday.
Me: You're right. Is it anybody else's birthday that we know?

blank stares and crickets chirping

Me: Do any of you remember that it's your mother's birthday?

I guess i am not very good at building up for birthdays.
The kids were all disappointed that there would be no singing gorillas with balloons.

At least they remembered Jeremiah's birthday.

Happy 30th Megan

Pizza is like sex...

2010-03-30T21:11:00.000-07:00

...when it's good it's good, and when it's bad, it's still pretty good.Let me start by saying that before going to Italy, I LOVED Italian food.

After visiting Italy, I realized what is the case with a lot of things. I love the Americanized, gourmet version of the food. When i go to Grappa in Park City, I leave thinking "That meal was amazing!"After every meal in Italy, I left thinking "that was pretty good."

My wife is a wonderful cook and i am treated to a lot of great food. I had heard that real Italian pizza was different than the American version, but i wasn't sure how i would handle that. It turns out that it is pretty good.

I don't know if part of it is because i have been spoiled by my wife's cooking, or if we were in very touristy parts of the cities so all we found was what the foreigners are looking for in the cheap pizzas and pastas.

I tried gnocchi and spaghetti and ravioli and LOTS of pizza. To be honest, the pasta wasn't anything you couldn't have gotten at the Spaghetti Factory here for $6. With the dollar being weak over there it was more like $20 a plate.
Don't get me wrong, I could have been quite happy eating nothing but that pizza and pasta for the rest of my life, but it wasn't amazing.After every lunch and dinner, we would walk around and find a gelato shop for dessert. Now Italian gelato, on the other hand, is amazing. Much better than ice cream and better for you, or so we convinced ourselves.

Niki and Joey were in Germany for a few days before we got there and we were lucky enough to have them come down and meet us in Italy. Joey and i had some meetings for work and squeezed in some days of sightseeing between appointments. Lucky for us that Niki was there, otherwise we would still be in the Venice airport wondering where our hotel was and how we were going to get there.It was amazing to walk around and look at the buildings. These are the kinds of buildings that Disney pays set designers lots of money to come in and build at their amusement parks. These buildings looked this way just because they were genuinely old.But soft! What light through yonder window breaks?

It is the East, and Juliet is the sun! Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon Who is already sick and pale with grief
We went and saw where Juliet lived (even though she is a fictional character). We learned that it is believed to be good luck to rub the right breast of her statue. After watching Joey, i have a feeling he is going to have A LOT better luck than the rest of us.
It was great to see some of the art that i had learned about in art history classes in real life. Those 2 x 3 inch black and white pictures in the books don't really do them justice.
The statue of David was absolutely breathtaking, but they wouldn't let me take any pictures of it. Actually, they wouldn't let you take pictures of a lot of things over there and the things that you could take pictures of were either half covered in advertising banners, or scaffolding because they were under construction, or they had cranes around them because something nearby was being renovated. I don't know how they get those beautiful postcard photos you see, because half of the cities are constantly under construction. I guess that's the trade-off for having buildings thousands of years old.
By the end of my trip, my neck was sore from looking up so often. The architecture was amazing.
I found a statue of one of the phases of the beard i left off when i recently shaved. I guess i will have to start growing again.

I would love to go back and see the Tuscany country sides when things are green and growing, but now i really want to go to Paris and see the art there. I guess in another 35 years i might make it to Europe again.I was a little nervous about how megan was going to do without being able to play words with friends on her phone while we were gone, but she did okay. Once in a while i would catch her just getting it out and looking at it and wishing she had an international data plan, but then she would put it away and we would go and see something else amazing.

Bike Races and Weight Loss

2010-03-08T08:02:00.000-08:00

The 2010 road race season started on Saturday.
When i walked out my door to head to the race, i still had 5 inches of snow in my yard.
It was fitting considering last weekends rides in St George.
The wind was enough to keep all of the early breakaways from sticking and everybody was a bit tentative after not having ridden at intensity or in a group for 5 months.
A 4 man break got off with a few laps to go. With 1 lap to go, the break dropped to 3 men and the barely held it to the line. I was in good position coming around the last corner for a mid season race, but this early in the season, no one can hold their sprint for very long and i ended up getting out front way too early and burning up.
Lil bills dad came out and did his first race ever and caught the bug. He did very well and hung on until a half a lap to go. I remember being dropped from my first several crits at around the halfway point, so to be able to hang on until the final lap on his first race is great.

I thought i was on doing fairly well with my weight after the holidays for the upcoming race season until i went and bought a REAL scale and stopped using the $7 scale we got several years ago. I was off by about 7 lbs.... in the wrong direction.
The doctor is worse off than me in trying to lose weight for this race season, and is going to very extreme measures to do it. He decided that he would just scrape off large areas of excess skin in hopes of getting down to his race weight. It seems a bit extreme and painful if you ask me.
The Dr. and DC also have a bet that they need to be down to their goal weight by May 1st. If they are not to their goal weight by then, the other one gets to pick out and outfit for the loser to wear on our next big group ride.
I have money on neither of them making their goal weight so i am picking out some sweet princess dress ups for both of them.
Stay tuned for when and where they will be prancing around in sparkles and tiaras.

There are times as a cyclist, you have to question your masculinity.
I wear spandex that leaves nothing to the imagination, i shave my legs, I worry about my weight and have started eating more salads than burritos. I have several pairs of expensive leather shoes and i have become increasingly conscious of the fact that lots of times, my shirt, shorts and socks have all matched each other.
I guess the only response i have for this is that i still love my wife very much and have never found another man to be attractive, whatsoever.

But still, i can' t help but be a little insecure when i find myself looking twice at another guys legs, and i'm not even a leg guy.

Sunny St George Cycling

2010-03-03T20:56:00.000-08:00

We got to go Down to st George over the weekend and ride in some nicer weather.
By nicer weather, I mean it was 4 degrees warmer in sandy than in st george on Saturday.
Friday we did Utah mountain to mesquite and back and saw patches of snow on the side of the road at the summit. Actually we turned around at I -15 and got something to eat at the dam store because there was a wicked wind we were going to be fighting the whole climb back.
cousin Kevin is training for the st George ironman and put the hurt on the rest of us who are all a year older and a little fatter and not doing 4 hour trainer sessions right now.

Saturday we went out to quail hollow then to zions where we had another headwind going out, but by the time we grabbed something to eat and turned around it had all but died.
After most of the guys we rode with turned off to where they were staying or where they had parked their car so they wouldn't have to ride the whole distance, it started raining.
We got to ride the last 45 minutes in the rain.
Awesome warm st George riding.After riding in the rain, I was really looking forward to a nice hot shower.
Right after taking off all of my soaking clothes in the garage and walking in the door, we were greeted by the kids all wearing swimming suits.
We headed over to the community pool where we swam for almost 20 minutes before they shut the pool down because someone poohed in the pool

Here is the guy that had to scoop it out

The main reason for this post is so the child molester picture isn't the first entry when you pull up this blog.

Uni-Bombers to Adult Film Stars

2010-02-08T20:03:00.000-08:00

When you find split ends in your beard hair, it is time to shave.

Minnie T. Mouse (May 17, 2009 - January 27, 2010)

2010-01-27T07:39:00.000-08:00

Why is it that the stars that burn the brightest also burn the shortest?

She lived a very full life in the short time she was with us.

Minnie brought so much joy to those that knew her.

We laughed at her trying to jump out of her cage....

...running through the mazes that were made for her out of blocks....

...pooping on things.

Our lives will all have a small hole in them that cannot be filled, but it is better to have loved and to have lost than to have never loved at all.

Minnie will be greatly missed but the smell of a mouse cage will not.

R.I.P very little one, and may you be happy in the great cheese wheel in the sky.

A short memorial service will be held in Minnie's honor on January 27th at 6:30 PM in Minnie's back yard. In Leau of flowers, please donate to a Haiti Relief Fund

Tooth Fairy

2010-01-18T05:42:00.000-08:00

If any of you know the tooth fairy personally or have any way of contacting the tooth fairy, i would appreciate if you would forward this letter.

Dear Tooth fairy,
My children and i were talking the other day and we have a few questions for you.
We hope that you will respond because we are very curious.

Are you a boy or a girl?
what do you do with all of the teeth that you collect?
where do you get all of the money that you leave under the children's pillows?
Why do you leave different amounts of money for different people?
How do you know when someone loses a tooth?
How do you get into the houses?
Have you ever been arrested?

Why didn't you bring #2's tooth back to her when she decided that she would rather have the tooth than the money? She put the money back under her pillow and was expecting her tooth back?

Why does it usually take 2-3 days after a tooth is left under a pillow for you to come and get the tooth and leave the money?

thank you,
#1, 2, 3 & 4

#3's singing career

2010-01-14T13:27:00.000-08:00

You may remember the hit song from high school musical that stole the hearts of dozens.
She is back.

"Mom, What's the song I sing with my pretty voice that has "crystal lite" in it?"

Sorry it is only audio, but it is worth it.

Bringing in the New Year with Red Dye #5

2010-01-04T11:28:00.000-08:00

We got an invite to spend New Years Eve in the Uintas with Russell & Co.

See the father and son matching tongues

A "Short Cut" getting there almost left us stuck in the middle of nowhere in a snowdrift. Luckily we had enough firearms and ammo to feed and clothe our families for at least a year.

With some digging, we got out, turned around and drove the "Long way" through some of Evanstons' nicer trailer parks and up the back route.
After a short ride in a snowcat (where do you even buy a snowcat) we made our way to the cabin. We spent a couple days sledding, snowmobiling, doing ziplines and playing card games that may or may not have involved removing articles of clothing with a losing hand.
Hey Nancy, have you been working out?

No stitches or broken bones and i consider it a successful weekend
When we left Saturday afternoon, we had gotten through a 1.9 pound package of swedish fish and almost all of the 5 pound package of gummy bears.
Red dye #5 and food grade carnauba wax never tasted so good.

December 09

2009-12-27T14:58:00.000-08:00

Taking the girls picture for the Christmas cardNativity angels
Waiting at the top of the stairs to go down and see if they received any presents#1 and #2 got cameras for christmas so they can do photo blogs.
You can find them right here and right here

This year for Christmas, #3 asked for a real phone to call real people, a real weiner dog, and a collar that her dog could wear that when it barked, it would tell her what her dog was saying.
Instead she got a gun.

She also told me that "Santa lived at Jesus Christ's house"

Photo Shoot and Renewing of Vows or The Cyclist goes 7 Days Without a Bike Ride and Contracts an STD

2009-11-19T02:08:00.000-08:00

Last week Megan and i were luck enough to have been invited to go to Kauai while Cousin Long John Leather Couch and his wife Lindsey renewed their wedding vows. He only invited the people he really, really likes.

It was a simple and elegant service performed on the beach.
John works at the Hyatt at Lake Tahoe, so it made sense for us to stay at the Hyatt in Hawaii.

We had all of the employee benefits without having to do any work while we were there.

We were there for a week and the service only took 10 minutes so we had lots of time to kill laying around drinking Lava Flows.

This time of year it can be rainy and on the north end of the island, one of the days, they got 23 inches of rain in one day. I guess that is a lot. We tried to go for a hike to a beach and then up to a pretty waterfall. Lindsey was quite literally a wet blanket and had the trail not been so muddy, at mile 3, she would have sat down in the middle of the trail and refused to go any further. Since the trail was muddy, she eventually stopped and just stood there until she convinced everybody else that the waterfall wasn't really that pretty and we should just turn around. See how happy she is once we decided to turn around. I can't figure out why John wanted to renew his vows to her.

Instead we went and found some surfboards and hung out on the beach for a while. See, Lindsay can't even surf. What does he see in her?

Here is a picture of me jumping out of a tasty barrel.

Megan Paddle surfing in a hurricane Luke being a jerk and making fun of Bunny because she is pregnant.

Megan had a great time doing the ziplines.

The other thing John wanted to accomplish while we were there was to get a few pictures for his portfolio. He is looking to do some more male modeling and was looking for some swimsuit shots.

We tried to fly home sunday night at 9:50 but the plane broke. At 2 AM, we finally checked in to a hotel. We set an alarm to wake up at 4 AM hawaii time so we could call megans mom at 7 AM Utah time and let her know that we would not be coming home and she would have the kids for another day. I guess being stuck another day in Hawaii is better than being stuck for and extra day in North Carolina.Megan taking it easy on our extra day

When we finally got home, i had some inflammation, irritation and infection in a very sensitive part of the body. I was examined by a doctor and told that i have a very painful case of Otitis Externa. Thanks Hawaii, I owe you one.

And now for some interesting educational facts about Kauai:

Years ago, polynesians came to pick sugarcane and brought chickens with them as a food source and for fighting. A hurricane hit the islands in 1992 knocking over cages and freeing many of the chickens and roosters. On kauai, there are no natural predators so these fighting cocks roam the island at will and start crowing at 4 AM. It takes an average of 21 days for a chicken egg to hatch so you can see that in a short time with no predators and only one KFC, there are a lot of chickens.

All but one company producing sugarcane on the islands has stopped and there is no more commercial pineapple growing being done in Hawaii anymore. They can both be grown cheaper in South America. Now the land is either being built on or being used for GMO corn. The locals are very excited about all of the chemicals being pumped into the land and water. THere are still a few small pineapple fields that sell their fruit at farmers markets, but most of the pineapple that you buy in stores today is grown in Ecuador.

A picture of an old sugarcane processing factory that is now converting to corn production.

Halloween '09

2009-11-08T12:11:00.000-08:00

This year the girls were out of school on friday so they had the festivities on thursday, then we had trick or treating at my work on friday afternoon followed by a neighborhood party that night and then the real holiday on saturday.
3 days worth of halloween this year.
In years past we have enforced a limit to how much candy they can actually keep and do what they want with, and the rest goes back to work with me.
This year we decided to let them have as much as they want after explaining to them the advantage of moderation in thins like sweets.
After eating more than their share of sugar for three days straight, we thought they would be sick of it.
in the middle of the night, we were awakened to the sound of #1 throwing up all over her bed and then all the way down the hall. She did actually get a few drops into the toilet, but most of it was in her bed.
Luckily for megan we have these.
There was some arguing and some yelling(we tend to do that when we are woken up in the middle of the night to clean up vomit) mostly about how #1 was old enough to know when enough was enough and she wouldn't have thrown up if she didn't eat so much candy.
We finally got back to bed, but were awakened 2 more times by the sound of someone vomitting (luckily into her throw up bowl at this point)
The next morning there was some more yelling about eating too much candy.
It wasn't until her fever of 103 that we figured it might not be the candy.
She was officially diagnosed with the swine flu that afternoon.
The rest of the kids fell like dominos, one after the other.
It is amazing the difference in kids when they are sick.
Some get nicer than usual, some get meaner.
here are pictures before we became a sick ward for the week.

Slickrock Mountain Biking with #2

2009-10-22T21:41:00.000-07:00

While we were in Moab, we went over and spent a little time at slickrock. It was the girls first time riding there but both #1 and #2 had a blast. We did the practice loop.....in jeans. I only thought #2 was going to die 2, maybe 3 times.
This instructional video was made with T-Dub in mind but could not have been made without a generous contribution from Andee & Amy, my biggest fans.

The Other Half Marathon in Moab

2009-10-21T06:45:00.000-07:00

There are typically two different trains of thought when you here the words "Stake Conference".

The first is, "Well golly, what a wonderful chance to be spiritually fed."

The second is " Hell yea, a vacation without having to find a substitute to teach my 14 year old Sunday school class"
Last weekend, we went to Moab.
Megan ran The Other Half Marathon.
It was not a personal best time, but she loved the course, even if it had a difficult profile.
God put the uphill sections in just the right places, and the scenery was beautiful.
She posted her fastest mile for the last mile and was excited to finish strong.
After we gave her enough time to take a quick shower, we went and hiked around Arches for the rest of the day.
The next morning, we woke the kids up at 5:45 AM and hiked in the dark up to see the sun rise over Delicate Arch. When i proposed the idea the night before, i was expecting a lot more resistance, but everybody was in for it. Sure we paid for it on the drive home that afternoon with some tired kids, but it was worth it. They even asked if we could "Race the Sun" again when we went on our next vacation.

Heber CX Race

2009-10-20T10:14:00.000-07:00

#1 dusted off her bike, put on some bling and threw down for her first cyclocross race of the season.
She pulled off a podium finish even though she doesn't do it to win. She just does it to have fun.
Big foot showed up wearing vans slip-ons and handing out the washingtons to the junior racers.

Human Pinatas and Home Grown Produce

2009-10-13T09:25:00.001-07:00

CX season '09 begins with a painful bang

2009-10-04T20:57:00.000-07:00

I was not first and i was not last
Moving up a category and doing 60 minutes instead of 45 is A LOT longer. At about 45 minutes, i started feeling some fatigue and started getting sloppy through the barriers. I made a little bobble and the guy right behind me ran up my back with his front chainring finding my calf.
Does anybody know how to tell if a wound is infected?We need moisture because breathing dust for 60 minutes can't be good for the respiratory system.
Fox was there handing out the Washington's and making it fun.
The Dr. strategically dropped off the back of the pack a little bit so it would be easier to grab the bills. He has heard that weddings are expensive so he is doing what he can to cash in.
Tip of the week: Don't change to a different kind of pedal right before a race. DC, shown here leading our pack, broke his collarbone in 3 places when he wasn't able to get out of his pedal coming into a barrier.

Daddy Daughter, Daughter, Daughter, Daughter Date

2009-09-21T07:49:00.000-07:00

Megan left us this weekend to go and spend a relaxing weekend in lake Tahoe doing things like getting sagebrush and dirt-pack spa treatments.(Thanks for rushing over to help her up Lindsey)

Me and the girls were left here in Utah to fend for ourselves.
And by fend for ourselves, i mean, Megan had all of our clothes picked out, all of the meals planned, and our schedules laid out to the minute for the whole weekend.
We did deviate slightly from the schedule, but everyone is still alive, so i count it as a win.

Megan has only been away from our family for more than 24 hours, 2 times since we have been married. At one point or another during the weekend, all of us cried a few tears because we missed her.

I got the girls off to school without missing the bus.
I did the girls hair.
We went up to Snowbird and hiked around with cousin Kevin, who's wife also left him for the weekend.
We were only 3 minutes late for church. My mother told me she was surprised and that she wasn't expecting me to show up until church was half over.

#4 proved that although she may look like the nieces and nephews from my side of the family, she acts more like Megan's side.
I think that Megan is entitled to a weekend away from us once every 6 years, and i look forward to the challenge again in the year 2015.

Another Year, Another Couple Hundred Miles

2009-09-14T11:18:00.000-07:00

During most bike races, at some point or another, i think to myself...."Self, remind me why we are doing this again?"
Unfortunately, during a race that takes over 9 hours, those thoughts tend last a lot longer.
Fortunately, within seconds of the race ending, i can't remember having those thoughts and can't wait to do it again.

We started at 6:37 with a lot of guys from the team in my start group.We knew it would be fast and painful and that most likely, not everybody would hold on to the lead group.
The only person from our team that could hold on to the winning move half way up the strawberry climb was the Robot. He killed it and had a great ride this year taking 5th.
The rest of us regrouped into a couple of different packs and chased for remaining 160 miles.
I dug a little too deep trying to stay with the leaders over the first climb and paid for it the rest of the day.
I spent much of the day looking at cousin Kevin or DC's butt. We eventually got into Teton Village 3 minutes slower than i did last year with a 9:46.
Despite it being a long and stressful day for the wives, Megan did a wonderful job setting a personal best for feeding me.

After seeing a bunch of friends finish and spending a little time in the icy stream, we made our way over to the Hotel.
We showered, changed and found a restaurant that would take 20 of us for Dinner.
I ordered everything on the menu and we finally made it back to our rooms around 10 o'clock for some much needed sleep.

It wasn't until just after midnight that the fire alarms started going off and we got a frantic knock on the door saying we needed to evacuate the building.
We hurried and got dressed and made our way out into a smoke filled hall, and then outside the building into the parking lot with a couple hundred other drowsy hotel guests.The fire department was called and eventually started trickling in 15 minutes later.
After about a dozen Volunteer Firefighters eventually showed up and made their way in and out of every room a few times and checked the whole building twice, they came out and announced that it was safe to re-enter the building, but if we heard a fire alarm during the night, that we should take it seriously and evacuate the building immediately.
As megan and I were making our way back to our room, I saw the hotel manager waiting at the door of Cousin Kevin and his wife, who were a couple doors down from us.
Apparently, after dinner, Jenn was either cold, or Kevin wanted a special mood set, so he lit a fire in the fireplace in his room. There was a little plaque in the rooms on the mantel that told how to light a fire in the fireplace in every room except Kevin's. Someone had stolen it so all you could see on his mantel was a little bit of glue left over from where the sign was. Unknowingly, Kevin neglected to properly open the flue and ventilate the fire so it started a backdraft and after a few hours of smoldering, the smoke eventually started seeping into the hall and rooms surrounding his room. One of the guests woke up and called the front desk, which led to a frantic manager running up and down the halls with a fire extinguisher, knocking on everybody's door and telling them to get out.
On behalf of me and the other 300 guests that were able to stand in the freezing cold parking lot in the middle of the night, after just riding our bikes 206 miles, I want to say, THANKS KEVIN!

We eventually got back to bed around 2:30 AM.

FYI: if you have a comb-over, even if you are evacuated from a building in the middle of the night, make sure your comb-over is combed-over

#3 goes to school

2009-09-08T09:11:00.001-07:00

It is a strange concept for me to tell my kids when they are doing something bad that if they don't shape up, i won't let them go to school...it works though.
They love it and i am ok with that. At least they are not smoking crack.
#3's first day is a teddy bear party. She is very excited because this year she goes for 3 days a week.

Top of Utah Half Marathon

2009-08-30T07:36:00.000-07:00

Another fun weekend vacation in a crappy 1 star motel to attend a race of some kind.If you can't read the giant sign that was made, it says "WOW, MOM!"

The #1 fans gave out lots of sweaty high fives at mile 9.

I have commented to Megan several times about how biking is superior to running and you can easily tell by looking at the peoples faces that are doing each sport. Runners almost always look like they are in pain and on the brink of death where cyclist, on the other hand are usually smiling and look like they are having a great time.
In this picture, Megan made a conscious effort to make it look like she was having a good time.

It's amazing the lengths she will go to to get an hour and forty seven minutes to herself. It was a new PB.
In order of appearance from left to right:
1.The Clydesdale who decided to forgo any running the whole week before and instead supplemented his training with several homemade cookies every night instead.
2.The wife of the clydesdale who did a great job on her first ever half marathon
3.axl rose's much faster and much cuter female counterpart
4.The bake-a-holic
5.the suburban cowgirl who finally got a pair of real running shoes
6.the running sixpack who is 9 weeks great with child
7. the sucker husband that had nothing better to do on saturday morning.

Don't Let the Door Hit You on Your Way Out

2009-08-26T08:25:00.000-07:00

I have read a few accounts lately of how mothers cry when their kids go back to school.
I think there will definitely be tears shed at our house today.... tears of joy!

More Bike Races

2009-08-24T08:03:00.000-07:00

Saturday I took part in the 1000 warriors race from Park City to Snowbird.
I was feeling good for 92 miles, but missing all of your feedzones will eventually catch up to you.
I was on track to get in around 20-25 minutes faster than i did last year until i hit the bottom of Little Cottonwood Canyon, and then it was lights out. A climb that usually takes me a little over 40 minutes took around 85 minutes. That's what happens when you have to get off your bike every mile and go and stand in the shade and stretch your cramps out and try to stop the dizziness and stars.The next day, we went downtown and #3 did her first bike race. After learning to ride her bike a few months ago, she figured she was ready to race her bike. She did great and got a free hot dog, a waterbottle and a medal at the end.
Since we were already down there, we figured we would stick around and watch the pros race.
Zabriskie drilling it in a 4 man break, wearing a plain jersey after being fined for wearing the wrong clothes earlier in the week.Jose found this picture that someone else took of #4 being dropped from a helicopter at the downtown crit.

When a friend of mine had his first baby a few years ago and they went in for a check-up with the doctor, he asked the doctor when he could start throwing the baby up in the air. The Doctor replied with a horrified look that it was never ok to throw your kids. I wish you could have seen the look on #4's face because she loves it, just don't tell our doctor.

Some days you're better off staying in bed

2009-08-16T20:47:00.001-07:00

The corner a dodge neon came fish tailing around into my lane almost hitting me head on

The gas station we sat in for 30 minutes drinking hot cocoa trying to stop shaking so we could get back on our bikes and ride the rest of the way home

The clouds that eventually dropped rain and hail on us with winds strong enough to blow Eric off the road

The souvenir of hitting a wet spot doing 30 mph around a corner

4 Canyons Day 'o Fun Take 2

2009-08-09T19:21:00.000-07:00

It was so much fun last year that we did it again this year.
Last year i fell short of 13000' of elevation gain by a few feet so this time i made sure to go back down one of the canyons a little bit and come back up.

I added a few miles, a few hundred feet in elevation gain and shaved 4 minutes off my time.
The weather was much cooler this year and i wasn't expecting to have my teeth chattering as i descended the last canyon at 1:30 in the afternoon in the middle of august, but they were.

Lots of people came for parts of the ride but only, jose and jj were there for the whole day 'o fun.
jj's comment after we started down the descent of the last canyon was something along the lines of "i don't know whether to hate you or thank you."

Advice for kids III

2009-08-07T17:19:00.000-07:00

This is the last batch of advice cards i did for the kids just before they got out of school.

My new Cyclocross Bike for this Season

2009-08-04T09:37:00.001-07:00

With all of the heat lately, i have been getting very excited about cyclocross season this year.
My new cyclocross bike arrived yesterday.
I got it dialed in and i am very excited to go and rip some laps on it.
It came in a little heavier than i thought it was going to be but it is still nice and clean and ready to be abused. See the picture below.

I know that some of you are thinking "Someone with 10.5 bikes, two of which are cyclocross bikes can't complain"
by no means am i complaining, but this is not something cool to spend a large sum of money on.
It's like when your car needs new tires. That is not something fun to spend money on.

My brother in law Kevin needed to replace the tires on his last car, so instead, he just bought a new car.

Buying a new car or a new bike=FUN

Buying a washer and dryer or tires for your car=NOT FUN

Monday Mornings and Dead things

2009-08-03T17:22:00.000-07:00

In my neighborhood, monday morning is Garbage pickup, which means when i go out for my monday morning ride, i hold my breath and pedal as fast as i can until i am out of the neighborhood.One of the joys of riding a bike is the constant, communion with nature. You are so much more aware of your surroundings on a bike than when you zoom passed something in a car.
For instance, when you are riding a bike and enjoying the beautiful scenery, and then you smell the unmistakable stench of something that has died and has been rotting in the hot sun for a few days. You just can't get that in a car.

Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them

2009-08-02T08:34:00.000-07:00

When deciding on a hike for this week, the girls all thought Donut Falls sounded good.
They were all quite disappointed when we got there and it was just water falling over the rocks.
No glazed or chocolate anywhere. Who names these hikes and why do they lie so much?
So much love to give trapped in such a small body

Pioneer Day Weekend

2009-07-29T17:24:00.000-07:00

Megan got up REALLY early and went and ran the des news 10k. She was happy about the run until she found out she missed her goal of doing it sub 50 mins by 8 seconds. It was kind of a flashback to her Snow Canyon half last fall. The rest of us slept in since she was done before 7:00 am. We got in a nice hike with the kids and ran into a couple of these eating 10 feet from the trail. Cousin Afton wanted to ride the moose but wasn't sure how to get on it's back.
If you haven't been up a canyon lately, all of the wildflowers are in full bloom so hurry.Lit some stuff on fire and #4 had a great time watching it burn After the incident on the 4th of July, we ended up getting glow sticks instead of sparklers

Finally a "W"

2009-07-27T17:25:00.000-07:00

As seen in an earlier post, i was really good at 4th place in my races.

I have been watching the Tour lately and i am glad Megan talked me into the DVR, because being able to cut a 4 hour stage down to 60 minutes is really, really nice. Cavandish had 6 sprint wins with some odd victory celebrations/salutes.

Contador gave his signature pistol shot when he won his mountain top victory.

It got me to thinking about what kind of salute i would do if i ever won a race. I was thinking of keeping a picture of my kids in my back pocket that i could pull out and kiss and then hold to the sky as i crossed the line, or maybe a pacifier that i could put in my mouth as i victoriously came across the finish line as a shout out to my youngest daughter. Unfortunately, those have already been done.

The other problem is that i never actually win races, so it would look weird that i show up to every race with a pacifier in my jersey pocket but never actually pull it out. It looks kind of lame if you do an lavish victory salute when you come across the line in 4th place.

When i went online to register for saturdays race on thursday night, there were only 7 guys registered in the Cat 3's. After my sound whooping last weekend by the Pros when they combined the fields, i wasn't in the mood for another 80 mile training ride. I decided that since it was a masters state championship race, i would race in my masters category which had

almost 50 guys.

I had a few teammates in my group and they helped keep the fast guys in check throughout the race. In the end, it came down to an uphill bunch sprint. I came around the wheel of the guy in front of me half way up the 0.75 mile finishing climb. I was thinking this was way to early and i was surely going to fade. I kept waiting and waiting for someone to come around me but nobody ever did.

I was seeing stars at the line and forgot all about a victory salute.

I have been working on a salute that has me unclip from both pedals and i lay on my saddle on my stomach and pretend that i am superman, but it is sort of tough with an uphill finish because you lose your momentum when you stop pedaling really quickly and then tip over.

There were no podium girls to give me kisses, which i guess is okay, because i would have felt like i was cheating on my Megan.

Actually there was no podium at all. Just an awkward guy giving out state champion medals from of the side of his minivan.

Capital Reef Classic '09, Then some much needed R&R at the Death Ranch

2009-07-21T17:14:00.000-07:00

Bike Stuff Here:
I got my upgrade from a CAT 4 to a CAT 3 road racer a couple of weeks ago, but this was going to be my first race as a CAT 3.
Friday morning had an 8.5 mile individual Time Trial, Friday afternoon had a 53 mile circuit Race with some short but steep climbs and plenty of rolling hills to keep it interesting, and then Saturday morning, there was an 81 mile road race with a good 10 mile climb up to Fish Lake and then back.
The racing fields were small so they decided to combine the PRO 1/2 field with me in my newly upgraded CAT 3 field.
As a cyclist, i have occasionally found myself wondering how i would stack up to the guys that race in the PRO 1/2 field. After this weekend, I no longer have to wonder.
It started with the fast guys doing the 8.5 mile TT 2 minutes faster than me. I was OK with that because the TT it has never been my strong point and i don't love it enough to spend a lot of time getting better at it, although i at one point in my life could justify buying an actual TT bike and pointy helmet. The good news is, I did not take last place so that pointy helmet was totally worth it.
Next was the circuit race. When these fields go slow, they go really slow, but when they go fast, it is rip your legs off and leave you in a muscle cramped, whimpering mess on the side of the road calling for your mother. Just ask DC, he experienced it first hand. I got dropped on the 2nd of 3 laps around the circuit course. The good news, I did not take last place.Saturday morning, Megan took the kids with their second cousins once removed on a hike to find some petroglyphs while i did the Road race, which turned out to be a long, hot windy training ride for me. I did not take last place.The most difficult weekend of racing i have experienced, but it was really nice to have the family down there, as well as some random guy that was picking his nose in front of our tent. The temps in Torrey were only in the mid 90's instead of the 100+ temps they experienced up in the capital city, so i guess that was a blessing.
A couple of the guys in our field will be doing the Tour of Utah in a few weeks, so i shouldn't feel too bad about my performance....at least that is the spin i am putting on it to try and make myself feel better.This picture is proof that i was with the leaders at one point in the race.

Family Stuff Here:
After the race we headed up over a mountain to stay with Trigger and Regi. Almost an hour on a dirt road to anything paved and then a while longer from there to the nearest town.Time spent at the ranch with Trigger can only mean one thing,...

DEATH!

For someone that was a hardcore vegan only a few years ago, even going so far as to not eat honey because it was made at the expense of Bees, he sure swung to the other side of the spectrum. Working full time on a cattle ranch and now eating nothing but meat.

Last time we were down there, Trigger and the kids spent plenty of time gathering up bugs for a Bug Battle Royal. It wasn't really fair since they would pull off the rear legs of a grasshopper or handicap most of participants in some way to keep them all together and fighting. In the end, we found the army ants ate everyone.This year they approached it a little differently. Because the army ants were the defending champions, it was a matter of catching insects one at a time and then throwing them in a bucket and seeing how long they could last against a couple dozen army ants. The scorpions were the most entertaining battle, but in the end, they too were eaten.

The girls went with trigger to check the beaver traps. There were no beavers, but one muskrat was decapitated by a 30.30.
The girls made the comment that maybe they should have stayed at the ranch house, although they did start to get the hang of how things work down there.#1 told me when she grows up she wants to have a ranch and have horses and dogs that she can train for movies. She was totally in her element with all of the animals (except that muskrat)Cass-man is now potty trained and with no more catheters, and by potty trained, i mean he doesn't go to the bathroom in his pants. When you live on a ranch, the world is your toilet.
He already has callouses on his hands from working with his dad a few days a week.

We were down there when Regi gave Trigger his weekly tick search. You can see Tayler in the forground still a little shell shocked because Regi is VERY thorough with her search and Trigger is very open about his body.
I believe his exact comment was "Them lil' sonsabitches can burrow just about anywhere and i'll be damned if i'm gonna let one of them suck the blood from my arse."
#1 and #2 were having so much fun that we left them at the ranch and came home with hopes that maybe the Doctor will bring them home when he comes home in a few days. You can stay as long as you want when you have a pretend job like him.

Oh, the Places You'll Go!

2009-07-11T23:40:00.000-07:00

"Congratulations!
Today is your day.
You're off to Great Places!

You're off and away!"

It is a glorious day around here.

#3 finally is riding her bike without training wheels
I don't think she has any idea how this could change her life.
There was some crying and some blood, but there was also some cheering and some laughing.

Independence day 09

2009-07-08T18:38:00.000-07:00

What a great idea to have Friday the 3rd off .
That i way i can get in a 90 mile bike ride and not feel guilty about missing parades and fireworks on the 4th.Sure i still got in a short mtn bike ride on the 4th, but that was after the triathlon we did as a family and after the Parade the girls were in but before the neighbors BBQ and then the other party and then later, the fireworks.
Megan ended up beating me by about 10 seconds in the triathlon even though i wore my super aero helmet and cool triathlon shirt and rode my TT bike.
After doing the triathlon on Saturday Morning, it reconfirmed by belief that the farthest anyone should swim is from the back of a boat to the end of the water ski rope.
#2 is the smartest kid in her class, or so her teacher told her when she asked her. But those brains don't always apply to street smarts. Like when you are doing sparklers in the street in front of your house, the smart kids were all wearing shoes. #2 was not and stepped on a firework. We have been told that 2nd degree burns usually don't scar.

As the Simpson's counsel us:
"Celebrate the independence of your nation by blowing up a small part of it."

#4 turns 1 and we finally get around to giving her the ceremonial first birthday cake

2009-07-05T14:43:00.000-07:00

Spelling Bees and Bike Races

2009-06-28T15:26:00.000-07:00

"TRIED"
"T"
"R"
"Y"
"E"
"D"
"TRIED"
After out-spelling all of the other kids in the 3rd grade, it came down to our #1 and a girl named Bella.
She is a good swimmer and soccer player, but an even better speller.
We were very "P" "R" "O" "U" "D" of her.

#1 gets her smarts from her mother who won her third grade spelling bee, but was then ignored by her classmates who instead went and congratulated the 2nd place speller who was much more popular than Megan.

After the spelling be we drove up to Pocatello to stay the night and go and do a bike race on Saturday.
We got to Idaho early enough that i could go and pre-ride the race course for the next day.
When we found the course it started hailing so hard i thought the windshield was going to break.

Instead of riding it, we drove the course and almost slid off the road a couple times. When you have a road covered with quarter sized hail, it is tough to keep your car on it.

The weather was quite nice the next day but my legs were tired and i did not finish nearly as well as #1 did in her spelling bee.

Guest Post - RAGNAR, Wasatch Back Relay

2009-06-21T20:01:00.000-07:00

Hey, it's me, cyclist's wife. Since the only blogging I do is recipes, the cyclist was kind enough to let me take up a page or two over here. I think he thinks that if I put the experience in writing, I'll stop gabbing his ear off about it. (Haven't stopped talking about it since.) Anyway, I thought my cookies and cakes would feel a little self conscious around this healthy stuff. (I don't think they know that I run).

Our mascot: to all you who have been asking, yes the cyclist designed it, and no it wasn't me who posed.
Heather, Erin, (two of my Sis-in-laws) and Me pre-race

I just got back from the funnest weekend I've ever spent without the cyclist. Eleven incredible women and I ran in the Ragnar Wasatch Back Relay.

The general gist of this relay race: 188 miles, 12 runners, two vans, 36 legs from Logan to Park City. I was in van one, runner three.

Van One at the Start Line

We started out the race on Friday at 10:30 a.m. in Logan. We weren't quite prepared for the heat of the day (we moms generally have to run before the kids are up). As each girl ran, the van would leap frog them. We'd drive about 2 miles ahead and wait with water and cheers. That first leg we poured more water over our runner's bodies than we poured into their mouths.
We ran from Logan, through Providence, Nibley, past the Hyrum Reservoir, up and over Avon Pass and down into the Ogden valley where we passed the wristband off to our second van.

Heather pounding it 7 miles up Avon Pass

While van 2 ran their six legs through the Ogden valley, we went to dinner.
We met back up with our ladies at about 8:30 p.m. Friday at the Snow Basin resort. We donned our reflective vests and headlamps and prepared for our second leg through the night.

We ran through quiet towns (with the exception of my team's excited honking) and ended up at East Canyon at about 1:30 a.m. We were exhausted. We drove the hour and a half to the South Summit High School and crashed on the gym floor.

heading to the high school to "sleep"

I was so worried about sleeping through the next exchange, that I only slept for about 30 minutes (surprising, considering how soft a gym floor is.) We left the high school at 6:30 to meet van two at the Oakley Rodeo Grounds.
We were still exhausted. Mentally, we were tired and our legs felt like lead. We were just glad that we were embarking on our last runs. We knew if we could just make it through these last miles, we could rest. Unfortunately, my last leg was also my hardest and longest. The rest of my van had their easiest runs left.
I started in Francis and ran 8 miles to Jordanelle Reservoir. I had pre-run this course the weekend before, so I knew what I was in for...a nice gentle down hill into a beautiful valley, followed by a three and a half mile climb.

I won't tell you the mantra that was going through my head. It's not really an "out-loud" word.

The cyclist and my girls drove up to cheer me on and help me up the hill.

me and #2

We finished our legs in Heber. We were so relieved. Now van 2 just had to make it to Park City (by way of a 3000 foot climb up and over Guardsman Pass). The run over the pass has been nick-named Ragnar: "in mythology and legend, a man, often of divine ancestry, who is endowed with great courage and strength, celebrated for his bold exploits and favored by the gods."

The two ladies from my team (Holli and Hilarie) that ran up that hill fit that description. They were my heroes. Very little of the road was paved and it had been raining on and off all day. They were running straight up a muddy,muddy road. My van followed and we watched in awe.

28 hours after we started, we met up with our last runner and crossed the finish line as a team.
Can you see those clouds?! They let loose about five minutes later. We were soaked. Thanks to the cyclist and girls for sticking it out!

Van One at the Finish Line
We don't look too worse for the wear, unless you consider the fact that we're missing Lindsey. She had to rush home right after she ran her last leg.

Me and the ladies from Van 2 (I wish there was a way to cram all of us into a school bus or something so we could stay together)

Mom Therapy at the FINISH! Check out the socks and those smiles! What an exceptional bunch of women!
hilarie, rian, julia, pilvi, alycia, erin, andee
me, holli amy, heather

I have been on a complete runner's high since the second we finished (actually it started when the whistle blew and Erin led us off). I can't believe that we ran 188 miles without a hitch. No injuries, no major complications. We did lose Heather in the middle of the night (sorry Heath, we know it was hard to take off that wristband when you were so tired ;) ). And some of us saw a lot more of a strange man that we wanted to (word of advice: LOCK THE PORTA-POTTY DOORS). We all stayed on pace and actually finished almost an hour faster than we wanted to. (How does seventh place in the women's open division sound?)
I have never had that much fun on a race in my life. I think about it almost constantly, I have looked at my pictures a hundred times, and I can't believe that we have to wait a whole year to do it again! Baby steps to June 18th 2010. Thanks ladies! Couldn't have done it without you.

#4 turns 1

2009-06-17T18:49:00.000-07:00

she has finally gotten to the fun stage where she does stuff besides eat, sleep and poop. She is still very good at those 3 things, but now she can walk, say "hi", give bodyslams, make faces, laugh at my jokes, feed herself, talk on the phone, and play peek-a-boo. She is still trying to figure out the point of peek-a-boo, but it can keep her entertained for hours

From One Season to the Next

2009-06-08T21:25:00.000-07:00

We are transitioning right now from the soccer pitch to the swimming pool. It is great that i have 4 of the most non-competitive daughters in the world and they always want to do competitive sports. They have fun and it gives us something to do with our evenings (every single evening of the week) Swimming keeps them active and gets them out of megan's hair for almost 2 hours a day. since they are on year round school and don't get out until July 3rd, their swim practice is everyday after school.
#1 wanted to go swimming with me the other day so we could race. I don't think i am up to that kind of humiliation right now.
It was bad enough when i did my first triathlon several years ago. Even though i told her not to come, megan insisted on coming just to make sure i made it out of Echo reservoir alive. When the women's heat that started five minutes after the men's heat started coming out of the water, and i still wasn't out, megan started to panic a little bit. Although my swimming merit badge couldn't have prepared me for an open water swim with 150 other swimmers, i did get it, and i did finish the triathlon....barely. I know how to swim well enough to get from the back of a water ski boat to the end of a ski rope.
I don't need to know that my 9 year old daughter can swim faster than me.

What Does Frankenstein's Monster and #4 Have in Common?

2009-06-01T06:37:00.000-07:00

4th Place is Awesome!

2009-05-28T17:17:00.000-07:00

Last fall at LOTOJA, i thought i finished 2nd place, but 2 guys got off the front of our group that we didn't know about, so i ended up 4th. This started a chain reaction for my placement for the road racing season.

One spot off the podium.

LOTOJA '08 - 4th

Hell of the North - 4th

East canyon-we are not counting this race.

Antelope Island - 4th- but i was bumped to 8th

state crit - 4th (2 guys got off the front that we didn't know about and were lost among the lappers so i thought i was 2nd and really placed 4th... again)

Sugarhouse crit - i raced this twice. Once in the cat 4's and once in the masters 35+b's. I placed 4th in both races.

I can't complain about 4th place, because it is still better than i did most of last year, but a podium finish would be cool one of these days.
Here is a picture of me after one of the Sugarhouse races crying.
It's ok, if you look in the background, i think the Robot is crying with me.

We've adopted a little white girl

2009-05-17T15:36:00.000-07:00

For Christmas in 2007, the girls got a hampster for christmas. You can read the whole story here. After that, we have not had a pet. The girls have been bugging us lately to get another pet. We told #1 to start saving her money. Over the last few weeks she has been doing extra jobs around the house and saving all of her money to get another hampster. When she finally had enough saved, she would ask every day if we could go to the pet store that day and get a hampster. On saturday, i finally took her and her sisters to the pet store to pick out her rodent.
As many of you know, there are several different breeds of hampsters. Some are better tempered than others, but some are cuter. I was afraid she was going to pick a dwarf hampster because she loves tiny things so much. Dwarf hampsters are mean, they don't like to be held and bite a lot. I told her to ask the guy at the pet store to help her pick a hampster that would be nice like to be held. He told her that actually mice are much better pets for that. Plus they are awake during the day, unlike hampsters. I used to get sick of hearing the hampster running around that wheel all night long.
He opened up the mouse cage and got one out for #1 to hold. It pooped in her hand and she instantly fell in love with the mouse.
The ironic thing is that we pay a pest control company at my work to make sure we don't have any mice. My first born just paid all of her hard earned money to purchase one.

I get so excited about sunday mornings because i get to sleep in until 7:30. This sunday morning, i was awakened at 6:45 by #2 saying "Dad, the mouse ran under the couch and now we can't find her"

I went downstairs and looked for a while and finally found her behind some furniture. I told #1 that if she loses the mouse again, we would be able to find her very easily because i would just set mouse traps all over the house and catch her. Is that wrong?
Last May, Megan was 8 months pregnant and so she couldn't run her favorite 1/2 marathon up in Ogden. This year she has been running a lot and paid the $65 entrance fee months ago because she was so excited to run it. A week before the race, she was running with some friends at 5:15 in the morning in the dark and stepped on a pine cone, rolling her ankle and making it painful to even walk. I race almost every weekend. She does maybe 3 races a year. I felt so guilty that i did not leave her home with a sprained ankle and the 4 kids to go and do the race that the rest of the guys were doing.
At least she has the RAGNAR relay to look forward to in June...if her ankle heals by then.

#3 makes 3 for 3 for me so far

2009-05-01T16:26:00.000-07:00

I am 3 for 3 so far with daughters that don't have a competitive bone in their body.
We went and watched #3's first soccer game. She is on a team with her best friend/cousin Afton. #3 was quite concerned with how her cousin was going to do through the game so she spent most of the time running right behind Afton with her hand on the small of Afton's back making sure Afton was doing ok.
Neither of them actually touched the ball but they had fun and of course the highlight of the evening was getting soccer treats. #3 has watched her older sisters get soccer treats for years now. Occasionally if she stands around after the treats have been given to all of the players looking like a cross between a homeless cute puppy and a vulture, she is given any extras.
But last night was her night.
Her turn to dance around eating her treats while her sisters looked on in hungry envy. We are hoping that next time she will actually make contact with the ball.
My mom came and watched the game with us and i drove her home afterwards. One of the girls asked my mom how i was at soccer when i was a kid. She said i was mediocre when i got a little older but i was really bad when i was young. She said i was too busy trying to dig my way to China to care about the game. My mom has started telling lies lately. I think this is one of them.

It is not my intent to make every post about #3, but she is so damn funny right now.

I Want it All

2009-04-28T19:53:00.000-07:00

After a dismal finish in another foul weather weekend bike race last saturday, i have given up on bike racing and i am going to start putting my energy into being a pageant dad.
This is a snippet of what we are working on for the talent portion.

Weiners, Weiners, Weiners

2009-04-26T14:33:00.001-07:00

I am still the only one with a weiner around here. To celebrate this we had WEINER WEEK. The girls cooked weiners over an open fire in the back yard on one of the days that it wasn't raining.
#3 wore her "I'm a weiner" shirt more than once.
We dog-sat Erin's weiner dog while they went out of town for the week to some fabulous, warm vacation with topless beaches.
The girls love Stella and fought about who got to sleep with her every night. They are all off track right now so they have been sleeping on the floor in a big puppy pile in a different location of the house every night anyway. Stella would get lost under the covers and nestle up in someone's crotch for the night.
On the Friday nightly news, we saw that the weiner mobile was going to be in Murray on Saturday. What better way to wrap up weiner week than to go and see the weiner mobile. Apparently it is on tour across the country visiting winners of an essay contest. We didn't know about the contest before hand so we were not able to enter the contest but we were able to go and see it and get on and look around inside. They let me sit down and honk the horn but would not let me actually drive it. Since i married a banker years ago i rarely carry cash anymore, but i wish i had a benjamin in my wallet to slip the guy so he would let me race it around the block a few times.#2 lost a tooth and left it under her pillow the night they slept on the floor in the living room. The tooth fairy forgets to take the teeth in our house A LOT. When #2 woke up the next morning to find her tooth still under her pillow, she was a upset. We told her that the tooth fairy probably didn't know where she was sleeping last night so that is why she wasn't left money. She wanted to know why the tooth fairy knew when people lost a tooth, but not where they were sleeping.

Happy 4th #3

2009-04-22T02:54:00.000-07:00

#2 turns 7

2009-04-15T17:00:00.000-07:00

She turned 7 today.
For her birthday she got what she asked for...some wollabwades.
When she was born, i wanted to name her IRiS but megan vetoed that.
She is going to give megan a run for her money in a few years. Luckily I will be at work or on a bike ride that day.

Easter 09

2009-04-14T14:29:00.000-07:00

#4 got her first haircut. I thought her mullet was coming in nicely but megan said if we trim it, it will come in thicker and fuller.

Aunt Erin made off with the most candy.

Advice II

2009-04-10T05:23:00.000-07:00

Confessions of a Bake-a-Holic Exposé or Happy Birthday Megan

2009-04-06T21:11:00.000-07:00

The life of a recipe blogger is very glamorous one. You get invited to all kinds of parties and receive compliments and accolades for your delicious creations. All the photos look Delicious and perfect and the recipes sound effortless. Almost like they were just thrown together with a few ingredients that were laying around the house.
But behind the cremé brulee and royal icing is a darker side. A side hidden from the public eye. A side they don't want you to see.

Rewind 11 years, to a beautiful newlywed bride and her clueless husband. They had both lived at home up to the point where they fell in love, bought a house, remodeled that house and then got married, all the while going to school full time, running a small business and managing a bank branch.
Never having had to shop for groceries before their marriage, they spent most of their grocery money on fruit snacks, tapioca pudding and and thin mint girls scout cookies. Eating out a lot, they relied on Sunday dinner invitations for any home cooked meals. They got the bulk of their nourishment from pizza and milk shakes.

Occasionally there was a home cooked meal, but it usually consisted of rounding up whatever was in the fridge and did not smell rotten and then either making it into a stew or some sort of pasta sauce to throw on top of over cooked spaghetti noodles. A couple of real standouts that come to mind are a neon green Lima bean pasta and a carrot pasta sauce that was choked down only because it was Sunday and they couldn't go to the store and buy something else to eat.

After the Bake-a-holic's husband gained 25 pounds in the first year they were married, they decided to change their lifestyle and eating habits.

Fresh fruits and vegetables started to make regular appearances in the fridge. Whole wheat bread replaced Twinkies. Fruiti-O's fruit snacks where no longer considered a recommended daily fruit allowance, and french fries were not considered a healthy option because they were made from a vegetable. Things really started to turn around for the couple. They added an active, exercise element to the mix and started to actually become somewhat healthy.
But that was all about to take a drastic turn for the worse. It all changed when the Bake-a-holic found out she was going to be doing a little baking of her own. She found out she had a bun in the oven. Now she was eating for two. Her husband didn't want her to feel bad about gaining weight, so he gained sympathy weight with her. Always eating double portions and having a tough time keeping up with the exercise schedules, especially when the bake-a-holic would get so sick that she would throw up so much that she would get dehydrated and have to go to the hospital for an IV to replenish her fluids.

The baby finally came. A healthy baby girl. Although with childbirth, the first 7 lbs were easy to lose, the rest of the weight was not as easy. Especially for her husband. Mix that with a lack of sleep, always having goldfish crackers on hand and having whole milk in the fridge and you have a recipe for disaster.

Fast forward to 2009.
The bake-a-holics is now chasing 4 healthy girls around and being active. She runs like a gazelle. She has been collecting recipes and cookbooks for the last 10 years and turning out food that tastes really, really good. Staying barefoot, pregnant in the kitchen for all of those years has really paid off for her culinary skills.

It is not always as glamorous as the photos make it appear. There are recipes that don't work. There are meals that don't get eaten or are complained about. Occasionally there are kitchen fires.

Sometimes there are whole wheat breadsticks that look more like pooh than food.

At times, the kids complain when home-made macaronni and cheese is made for dinner because they want the "REAL" mac-n-cheese. The kind that comes out of a box and is orange.

We have had our ups and downs which admitedly are all my fault, but I have become incredibly spoiled for really great food and a beautiful wife who makes it for me.
Thanks for not leaving me.

Happy Birthday

Hell of the North

2009-04-05T08:16:00.000-07:00

With the weather, you would think it was cyclocross season again.
snow was falling, there was mud and the race was short and fast.
This is Utah's attempt at a mimicking the Europeans spring classics. We don't have any cobblestones in the state so instead we do a circuit race over gravel and mud.
Our team controlled my race, but since most of us were riding cyclocross bikes, i didn't have the gearing for the final sprint. It was a gamble on which bike to go with. Ride a road bike and have the gearing but risk having a mechanical or go with a cx bike and have more clearance for the mud but be geared wrong. If i had really cared about the results, i would have put a standard crank on my cx bike...but i didn't.
That being said, i was happy with the team work and my finish was much better than last year so i will take it.
the lesson learned by some the hard way is not to give your keys to the guy that is going to be starting after you even if you don't think he is going to finish, because you could be standing there wet, cold and muddy for 45 minutes waiting for him to get back to the car. Also, if you are borrowing a bike, check the seat height before you get to the starting line. Especially if the guy you are borrowing the bike from is 2 inches taller than you.

apparently i got my summer haircut a few weeks too early

teeth

2009-03-29T14:52:00.001-07:00

Advice for the Kids

2009-03-20T17:28:00.000-07:00

I just finished reading the book "the last lecture". Yea , know what some of you are thinking. Lots of words. no pictures. How did i do it?
I read about 1 book a year, and although they usually have something to do with someone doing some amazing physical feat in real life (ie. beating cancer, having a testicle removed and then winning the tour de france several times, or running 262 miles without stopping) The Last Lecture was short, and an interesting concept. What would you say if you knew you were going to die in 3-6 months? Although he was full of himself, it was an interesting read. He mostly gave advice for his young children that wouldn't have a father growing up.
I got to thinking about what advice i would give my children.

For a while, our kids have eaten hot lunch at school some of the time, and cold lunch some of the time. Recently, we switched it so we send them with cold lunch every day but one. They get to choose from the menu what day it is that they want school lunch, but the rest of the time they get cold lunch from home. It is cheaper, but more importantly, it is healthier. I can't believe what they pass off as a meal at school now.

Nachos should not be considered Lunch!

When i was a kid, we used to get a full, healthy meal with green vegetables for school lunch. Now they get carnival food.
The kids make a menu with megan at the beginning of the week and she makes it for them every morning. They pick what fruits or vegetable they get, what kind of sandwich, What protein, what salty snack, and what kind of treat.
Since we were sending lunch from home, i started putting notes in their lunches with advice that will help them be better people.
As far as i know, i will not be dead in 3-6 months, so i don't have any deep meaningful insight into how they should live as they grow up. Really, i rarely have deep or meaningful thoughts anyway, but the advice i give them can help all of us be better people.

If you need advice for your kids, feel free to use these.
If you have any advice that i can give my kids, i would appreciate it.

Spring might really be Here

2009-03-15T18:49:00.003-07:00

i wanted to get up a couple more times before the snow was all gone.
i hiked up with BJ and a real doctor (the kind that actually helps people) and got first tracks on some untouched, pristine, crud. Spring skiing is great at around 2 in the afternoon. By 5, it has iced back over. I guess in these economic times, i can't complain about having a job i have to be at all day.It didn't make me feel too bad that the snow was crap since the first road race of the season was the next day.
i felt surprisingly good for the whole race until 4 laps to go when i broke a spoke, which knocked my wheel way out of true. I went and found a spare wheel and switched it out and hopped back in for the last 3 laps only to see the fake doctors chain brake with one lap to go.
Between the flat that TW got on the way riding out to Rocky mountain Raceway, and one of the guys that was riding out with us running into one of these, going down hard, and breaking his thumb. I was lucky that all i had was a broken spoke.Sunday was beautiful and 9:00 church is great for getting in an afternoon nap and still having time to get out and go for a family bike ride, while the sun is out.
This one got her first tooth.

Down South

2009-03-10T17:34:00.000-07:00

We got the chance to spend a long weekend in St George with friends and family. We made fun of some people who deserved it, there was some bike riding, some good food, some sore legs, Some HGH, some really good donuts, and some headwinds. the kids did some swimming inside and out, usually with swimsuits on.then there was some more bike riding

I am still waiting for the back rub that i earned by beating cousin kevin to the top of one of the climbs. Jenn didn't seem nearly as understanding about the whole idea as kevin thought she would be when we explained it to her after he lost.

Jack and the Beanstalk

2009-03-04T18:38:00.001-08:00

3 year old #3 retells the fairytale classic Jack and the beanstalk

The Whole FamDamily (almost)

2009-02-18T17:51:00.000-08:00

This is everybody that went on the cruise, which includes everybody in our family except the Doctor.
He decided that the eligible pool of girls for him to date on the cruise might be a little young even for his standards.
Good to see him finally draw the line somewhere. ZING!