Peres Family Adventures: May 2010

Prairie City #6--May 12, 2010

Steve's back this week.

This week I am singing praises and hallelujahs. I borrowed the demo bike again, this time with the seat nice and tight and tires at the correct pressure, Steve stretched me out before the race, and I had a positive attitude. All of this contributed to a fantastic, pain-free race! I took 2nd place in Expert Women age 35 and up. I passed tons of people in my class and had strong, fast, consistent lap times each lap. I was so excited to finally "race" instead of just "ride". Now I'm working on building up my new bike so I can continue to be pain-free.
Steve took 9th out of 25 people. Nice work baby!

That's me at the end of the line. I end up passing every one of these girls!

Here I come!

Still coming.

Here I am!

I'm 5th from the back. This is actually part of the kids race course. Fun times!

Double Whammy of a Day!!!

This year my 36th birthday fell on Mother's Day. Steve and the boys did a super great job making me feel special with oodles of food and lots of fun presents and decorations. We even spent the evening before with our friends Mary and Mark Phipps eating BBQ hamburgers and banana splits. YUM!

Scott wasn't so proud of the "36" he made on the wall, but I sure loved it!

Yummy smelling candle from Steve and an I-pod Touch, lip gloss from Scott, and nail polish from Noah (picked out by Joshua).

Noah made this special for me at school for Mother's Day.

Surprise, surprise! I got a new mountain bike frame to help my ailing back. Now I need to build the rest of it up. Saving my pennies...

Scott made this beautiful pottery dish for me with lots of wonderful words of love on the card and gift bag for Mother's Day.

Joshua knew just what to get me when he went shopping with Daddy for my birthday.

My mom and dad sent me money in the form of folded up dress shirts. Super cute, eh?
'

The boys and me on Mother's Day just before church.

Steve and me on Mother's Day before church.

Mormon Helping Hands--May 8, 2010

We spent Saturday morning, after eating a hearty breakfast of donuts from Bill's Donuts, helping stain and fix up our local Castle Park. It's definitely a town favorite. The LDS Church all across California was doing a community service project. Pretty cool, eh? We all worked super hard for almost 3 hours. We were told our family won the prize for hardest working family. See? Cracking the whip at home pays off!

Scott with friends from church.

Joshua was such a good worker!

Scott with more friends.

You can see me with the boys in the top right corner.

Prairie City #5--May 5th

Another week at the races. This was a fun course with lots of whoop-de-doos. This time I borrowed a demo bike from the shop, Mad Cat Bikes. It was a Giant Talon 29er. This means the wheels are 29 inches instead of the standard 26 inches. It's the new thing and it's awesome! The race started off well, but it wasn't long after the race started that I discovered my seat was not on tight and continued to loosen throughout the race. If I stood up I would squeeze the seat between my thighs so it wouldn't come off completely. Let's just say it slowed me down a bit, but my lap times were still faster than in previous weeks. It was the bike. I ended up having back pain, but understandably so because of the seat. I just can't seem to win. It was a super rocky bumpy course and I found out after the race that I had 2 x more pressure in the tires than needed with a 29er. It would have been a much smoother ride if I'd done it right. Oh well. I took last again, but was faster.
Poor Steve was sick with the stomach flu and missed the race.

That's me just starting down the hill.

This was a fast fun decent.

Fun at Grandpa Peres' House

On May 1st the Peres clan (Rutherfords, Rodriguez's, and Peres families) gathered at Grandpa Peres' house to celebrate Anne's birthday and my birthday. It was a beautiful day. We played at the park and hung out at the house and ate yummy Chinese food. I loved watching the kids play in the beautiful peaceful backyard.