Beautiful Fall Weekend

We had a very relaxing weekend this weekend after our little boy took this week to stay home and recover from the croup. We had high hopes of going to the zoo for "Zoo Boo" where Cam could go Trick-or-Treating at the zoo, so we got him dressed up in his monkey outfit (I'm going to be the "Man in the Yellow Hat") and headed out Saturday around 11. We pulled up and saw thousands of people and a huge line/wait to get it. With Camden just getting over his cough and with me fully into my own cough/congestion - we decided we didn't want to be in such a huge crowd. I guess the sunny and almost 70 degree weather had everyone out with the same idea.





We decided to redirect and go to Wheeler Farm, which is an historic farm now owned and operated by SLC Parks. It was an awesome day and Cam got to see all the farm animals much closer than the animals at the zoo! Being in the Monkey outfit just helped with the fun!

It was a beautiful day that was perfect for picture taking.

Most of the leaves have already fallen in the mountains but down here in the valley they are now very vibrant. I love this picture of Amy and Cam playing in the leaves.

Cam wasn't to sure he wanted to pet a horse - it is a bit bigger than he is! It actually tried to eat the fake banana in his pocket

But boy did his eyes light up when he saw all of the ducks and geese!!

He could have stayed to watch and chase the ducks for hours. He thought it was funny to throw leaves and watch them react, or just chase them back to the water (Note to PETA - no wild fowl was injured in the making of the below photo)

We spent most of Saturday at the farm and got everyone home in time for dinner and to bed early. It was a full day for the little guy just getting over his cough. His little nose is still running but he is definitely acting like the fun little guy we love.

Sunday was pretty un-eventful as we stayed home most of the day to work around the house. We got the yard mowed and trimmed (hopefully for the last time this year) and our deck stained/sealed before the winter weather hits again. We were able to get all of this done and still have a little time to go the park for some fun.

Camden likes to climb the rock wall for the exciting......

SLIDE!!!!!

HE IS SO MUCH FUN!!!!!!!!!!

October Snow (Oct 20-21)

"If you don't like the weather in Utah - wait 5 mins and it will change" That was sure the case this weekend. Friday evening I went for a ride with my friend Eric on the mtn bikes up corner canyon in Draper and it was beautiful. It was so warm we were in shorts and short-sleeves. We got to the top just as the sun was setting. From here you can see into the Salt Lake Valley and into Utah County with Utah Lake in the distance. It's a fun ride and right out my back door.

We woke Saturday to rain mixed with snow on the benches. Camden had a birthday party to go to at his friend Jacob's house (Actually our friends Katherine and Bret) He was not acting his usual playful self and we soon realized why. At the party he got to play Pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey and other games. He was having fun but was a little grouchy. We thought maybe he was uncomfortable due to some diaper rash - but it was much worse than that.

Saturday night Camden started to sound really congested and was running a fever of 103. We called his Dr. who told us to give him some ibuprofen and make sure he stayed hydrated - which was not a problem as he was drinking everything in site. By the time we got him in bed that night he sounded really bad. He woke up at midnight and sounded like he could barely breathe. He was wheezing and struggling to catch his breath. We got up and decided to not chance anything and took him to the emergency room. By now the weather had changed again. Now all the roads are covered with snow and it is dumping in buckets! They checked his oxygen levels in his blood and wanted to x-ray him for pneumonia. I don't know if you've ever seen a 22 month old get a chest x-ray - but it was the most horrifying thing I've seen. They strap him into this torture chamber device and then tell you to leave the room while he screams for his life (OK - that sounds a little extreme, but that is how it felt at the time!)

The x-ray looked good and he was diagnosed with a viral lung infection and maybe the croup. (It has taken him a full week to get over this and he is still stuffy)

We woke up Sunday morning (after getting home from the ER at about 2:30) to a fresh blanket of snow on the ground. Really we didn't get much sleep at all as Cam was in bed with us. We stayed in today and watched movies. Camden loves Curious George and can watch it over and over. The first time he watched it he cried when the bad men threw a net over George to take him away - it was sooo cute.

Finally getting some sleep.

Amy stayed home with Cam the first part of the week and I did the last. He is doing much better now, but his Dad now has a sore throat and bad congestion! The snow has melted and the rest of the week was really nice - in the upper 60's and 70 without a cloud in the sky!

24 Hours of Moab 2007 (#3)

Here are a few pictures of the team out on the course:

Keith concentrating on his next move

And now wondering what the hell he's gotten himself into!

John looking very intense

I think he believes he is taking the lead here

Erika getting ready for the pass

Making it look easy (and fast!)

Smooth sailing

Whoa - I look like I know what I'm doing!

I couldn't be happier!!!

24 Hours of Moab 2007 (#2)

Here is a link to some more great pics that sum up the weekend pretty good.
These were taken by my teammate John:

http://cid-41e148179c3f5675.spaces.live.com/

Thanks John - we're racing DUO next year - so keep training!!

24 Hours of Moab 2007 (#1)

Another 24 Hours of Moab is completed. We actually got to race for the full 24 hours this year - last year the race was stopped due to a 100 year record rain fall that flooded the course.

This year we raced the "Just for Fun" category as we knew we were in no shape to be competitive this year (with the exception of Erika who is turning pro next year - she kicked all of our asses!!)

The team consisted of only four this year. Me (in the light blue), Keith (my brother on the left), John (in the helmet), and Erika (in front)


The new grocery getter was broken in on this trip as it was able to haul John and I to the middle of the desert with both of our bikes and all of our gear, food, camp, etc.


We set up camp as soon as we got their Friday which was around 2 in the afternoon.

Keith arrived around 3 and we all headed out for a practice loop on the course. As this was only the 3rd time Keith has ridden this course (and the fact that he has only been mountain biking for about a year) I could tell he was pretty hesitant on a lot of the technical aspects of the course. For those of you who do not know - this course is a mixture of rock, sand, roots, cliffs, steep climbs, rocky descents, etc., etc. - it's pretty technical and parts can be pretty scary, especially at night!

We all got to do three laps (each lap is about 15 miles and over 1500 ft of elevation gain) and we were even able to sneak Erika's husband in for one lap. Actually - Keith just didn't want to get out of his sleeping bag at five in the morning as I was just getting done with my 3rd lap, so he begged Dusty to ride it for him and use his name. This makes our results screwy on the official website as it looks like Keith had a really fast 3rd lap, but it is actually Dusty, We made Keith go out after Dusty under John's name, so on the website John's 4th lap is actually Keith's 3rd (confused yet?) We figured it was a "Just for Fun" race - so who cares? Erika was the only one with 4 laps and her 4th would have been really fast if it was not for the flat she got that consumed 15 minutes to get back going. I was really hoping to beat 1:20 on my first lap and actually rode it very well - riding all of the technical sections and only getting off my bike at the big sandy hill and the cliff they call "nose dive" (which is a 10 ft rock wall that you can barely hike) but ended up with a 1:26. My second and third laps were in the dark and my third had a little mechanical as I choked my chain between my rear cassette and wheel spokes. It took forever to get it unlodged and I had a terrible time on that lap - I think my worst in 6 years!

The official times were:
John: 1:40, 1:50, 2:01
Erika: 1:22, 1:35, 1:36, 1:38
Eric: 1:26, 1:39, 1:52
Keith: 1:46, 2:16, 2:07
Dusty: 1:27

This race seems to get bigger and bigger every year. This year there were over 400 teams entered and it is believed that more than 5000 people call this desert field home for the weekend.

The start of the race is a "LeMans Style Start" where they make everyone run out into the desert around a bush and then back to their bikes. This thins out the over 400 cyclists for when they hit the trail with their bikes. John got to do the start this year> I figured I did it for 4 years so I have served my duty.

Lining up at the start:

There's John getting ready to run:

It turns into a dusty mess in the dry desert. It's a challenging run and you breath in a bunch of dust. Your heartrate goes sky high from the adrenaline and run and excitement!



Here is a shot of Keith coming in on his 3rd lap on sunday morning. Although you wouldn't have known it with the way he complained all weekend - he did say he had fun!!

We ended up finishing in 12th place out of 51 in our category. It was a great time and we'll be back next year!!

This is a great shot of John on our way home Sunday afternoon. I think it sums up exactly how one feels after competing in a 24 hour race!

More Pics from LAF weekend in Moab

Here are a couple more Pics from our weekend in Moab for the LAF ride:

I must be the luckiest man in the world to be blessed with these two

Hiking with Cam can be slow going as every rock and stick on the trail provide plenty of entertainment and exploration:


He loves to explore and Moab is the place for that - check out this cool place we found along the Colorado River:

Moab is one of few places in this world where you can go from red rock desert to alpine mountains in the same day. It really is beautiful country and I highly recommend visiting it!

Lance Armstrong Foundation Ride in Moab

Amy , Cam and I had a great weekend in Moab for the Skinny Tire Festival benefiting the Lance Armstrong Foundation. I have a bunch of pictures to share but they were taken from my phone and some while riding my bike so I apologize for the poor quality.

We loaded up the car with 3 bikes, Camden's trailer, a playpen for him to sleep in and all of our gear on Friday and got on the road about 2:30 to beat the traffic. The new "grocery getter" wagon proved it was plenty roomy for all our gear. Friday night we had dinner in Moab and Camden was the hit of the night, showing off some of his many talents. Check out the pic of him sticking his spoon to his nose:

Saturday morning started early for me as the mass start for the century ride (104 miles) was at 8 am. It was cloudy and about fifty degrees and the weather man said there was a "chance" of rain. Well the down pour that started about 5 miles in the ride finally let up after about 3000 ft of climbing into the mountains - there it turned to snow! It was coming down sideways and packing my ear full of snow. I was part of the lead group of about 12 riders out of about 1000 that made it to the top. As I headed back down with 2 other guys the ride officials were coming up and turning people back due to the weather and not letting them finish the climb. I came down about 2000 feet and had to stop at an aid station to warm up. Everyone kept commenting that my shivering and purple lips were a sure sign of hypothermia, but I was able to do enough jumping jacks to get the feeling back in my toes and head down the rest of the way. Once back down to the canyon along the Colorado River the temps warmed up, the rain stopped and I was dry after fighting the wind back to the finish. Below are a couple of pictures I took while biking that morning. One shot is of the snow starting to land on my arm and handle bars. It was after this picture that I pretty much lost any motor skills in my hands and was not able to handle the phone to take any more pictures:

The rest of Saturday afternoon and Sunday was perfect weather. The sun was out and it was about 65-70 degrees. We took Cam for a short hike in the afternoon but he and Amy were pretty worn out from a morning of playing in the pool while I was riding. Camden was more interested in every rock and stick he could find along the trail than the beautiful scenery all around him. (I'll have to post the pictures from our hike on a later post) Cam really tested his hiking abilities and walking on some uneven, rocky surfaces but he did very well.

Sunday morning we got up early and loaded everyone onto the bikes/trailer and went into town for a latte' at one of the small cafes there. The ride on Sunday was a relaxing 30 miler that went along the CO River down stream by some awesome red rock cliffs. There were only about 30 people in this ride and Amy was a little nervous as she had never ridden in a big group like this. She did great and stayed in right behind Camden and I in the front 1/4 of the pack. We were able to tuck in behind some of the pro riders and let them block the wind from slowing Camden and I with the trailer. It was sunny and just the right temperature. The sky was a deep, dark blue behind the red rock cliffs. Moab is one of the most beautiful places in this country and I recommend to anyone reading this to put it on you top 10 places you have to visit before you die! Below are a few more pics from Sunday. Check out Amy riding in the group behind me. She's on the left in the first picture.

Here is another pic of Cam where he is trying to be like Daddy:


Overall we had a great weekend in Moab. I'll be back down there next weekend for the 24 Hours of Moab Race. Cam and Amy won't be making this trip with me but I will have some pics from the race next week. Keith (my brother) is doing it with me again this year with John and Erika who also raced with me last year. I'm looking forward to it but have now caught a cold (probably from biking in a snow storm) so hopefully I can shake it before this Friday.

Amy and I feel so lucky to have such a great boy who loves to go on our adventures with us! Everywhere we go people tell us how he is the cutest boy they've ever seen! He has such a great and playful disposition that makes him the life of the party no matter where we are!