Easter Weekend 2011 part 1

This year we did something a little different. We asked the Easter bunny to come visit us Saturday morning so that Steve and I could head to San Francisco for a quick weekend getaway and the kids could go play at Aunt Teresa and Uncle Deron's house. So, pictured below are the festivities before heading out on our trip.

Easter Outing with Grandpa Peres and Phyllis

Since we moved here Grandpa Peres has invited the boys to the annual Grandparents' Day Easter Activity. The kids look forward to it every year. There are games and activities, an Easter egg hunt, and then Grandpa takes us out to lunch.

Joshua playing games.

Scott decided this was the year he was too old for games.

Noah playing games. Note the typical Noah tongue.

Scott and Noah decided they were too old for a picture with the Easter Bunny.

Grandpa, Scott, Elizabeth, Joshua, and Noah.

Waiting patiently for the mad dash.

Noah.

Scott and Noah.

Joshua

Scott

Noah

Happy kids.

Sunday BBQ

Along with the great weather in April comes BBQ! We invited our good friend, Julie, for dinner and a little fun. Steve taught the boys how to play football and was making up all kinds of plays with the craziest names for them to execute. It was pretty entertaining.

Julie--"mmm, BBQ!"

Noah and Daddy

Executing one of Daddy's fine plays.

Julie and Elizabeth

Scott

Scott did a great job tending to the grill.

Steve

Joshua's hungry.

Crazy Noah.

Tis the Season for Sleepovers!

It's April and the boys love it when the weather starts to warm up because that means sleeping outside. Even more fun is when our next door neighbors, Tyler and Alex, join the fun.

Corduroy is back!

At the beginning of April Joshua's kindergarten pal, Corduroy, paid us another visit. The neighborhood kids, Scott, Noah, and Joshua had a great afternoon playing in the yard with him.

Boggs 8-hour Mountain Bike Race April 2, 2011

I have several teammates who have raced 8-hour and 24-hour solo races and team races. I have always been in awe of them and wanted to try it myself. I decided to go for the 8-hour solo first and see if I could handle that. I may still do a 24-hour race someday...maybe. I was pretty nervous about this race and knew I'd have to train quite a bit to be able to do it. I did several long 4-5 hour rides plus my usual training. It paid off. I felt pretty ready when the day came. Steve and the boys were going to be my pit crew, but Steve ended up having to work and so I asked my good friend Julie to be my crew. She did a great job! I had food, water, and Cytomax ready every lap. I spent very little time in the pit and just kept going as hard as I could. There had been a lot of snow just a few weeks before that. The snow had melted, but the conditions were really muddy and so the course had to be changed to fire roads instead of single track trail. It made for a very boring, monotonous day. A lot of people dropped out, but I was determined to finish. There was a lot of climbing and then a few long downhill sections. Not much in between. The course still had some really muddy sections which made it tricky and mucked up your chain like crazy. I tried to clean and lube my chain every few laps, but by lap 6 my bike just wasn't happy. I kept getting chain suck, but one time got it so badly that my chain was jammed and I couldn't get it out. I had to run with my bike in my bike shoes about 1/2 mile to the pit to get some help. It was determined that I had two bent chain rings. I had to either drop out of the race or ride only in the big chain ring. That meant pushing really hard gears going uphill. I decided to go for it. It was HARD, but I was determined. It actually made me faster in some sections. I kept at it and finished 14 laps total. All that hard work and determination paid off because I took 1st place in the Expert Women's category. Yay!!! Thanks to Julie for her awesome pit skills, thanks to the guys at Mad Cat for helping with my bike, and thanks to Steve and the boys for their love and support. I think I'll do it again next year!!!

Cleaning my chain with my water bottle between laps.

Eating one of Julie's awesome turkey sandwiches as I head out for another lap. Lovin' the muddy stripe up my rear end.

Eating on the run again.

Do you love my brown socks?

My poor dirty bike.

Finished! Thank goodness!

Julie and me after the race.

Julie did everything for me from that point on. Fed me, helped clean me up, loaded my bike. I was pretty spent.

The podium girls. Erin Upchurch took 1st in her women's single speed category, Jen Brandt took 2nd in her women's sport category, and I took 1st in women's expert category. Go Mad Cat girls!

On a few of the laps there were guys that had money sticking up out of soda cans and beer bottles for racers to try and grab. I grabbed $1. Go me!

I came home with a 1st place medal, a new Camelbak, and some tickets to some kind of expo that I wasn't able to go to.

Time to clean up my bike.

All clean and rested.