Moving to Hood River!!

We are moving to Hood River this weeekend! Everyone has asked me to send them pictures of the area so here are some pics we took just driving around when we were up there for the Mt. Hood Cycling Classic.

Mt. Adams (WA) from a cycling route I do:

Orchards above Hood River roll on forever!

This is from above town looking at the Hood River running toward the Gorge:
Mt. Hood

Scenic biking route:

Mt. Hood again:

The Hood River:

The Gorge from town:

Wind surfing!!!

Kite Boarding!!!

The bridge to White Salmon, WA

Town shots:

The Gorge:

Mt Adams, WA from town

Jackson Park in town:

More Town Shots:

Spring in Utah

I have to apologize for not updating the blog in a while - I have no excuse (and I know Amy's mom is not happy with me) It's been almost 3 weeks so I will try to get everyone caught up (because I know you are all just sitting on the edge of your seats right now, waiting to hear what we've been up to!!)

Spring has been crazy this whole month of April. We've had 80 degree days followed by snow two days later. We woke up on May 1st with snow covering the grass and it's now mid 60's again. I've been hitting the riding pretty hard and was trying to get ready for the East Canyon Road Race. The pictures to the right and below are from a two hour "training" ride I did pulling Cam. He napped for the first hour and fifteen mins as we road around point of the mountain (just south of us) and then woke up part way through the 1500 ft climb back over the top of Suncrest. The pics below are of him as happy as can be after waking up and getting his cookies and water!


When we got back home to mom it was time for Cam to ride his bike. He has gotten his balance pretty good with the training wheels but is still having a hard time reaching the pedals at the bottom of his stroke. The whole pedaling thing is going a bit slow - after all, when dad pushes you - why pedal!??!?!


We had a great warm spell for a while and even had a margarita happy hour on the front porch with the neighbors. Luckily we have 2 other houses on our street that aren't mormon so we can actually have a Utah Happy Hour (bars are not allowed to have an actual happy hour in UT) Check out Camden with his drink on the front porch:

"This better be good!"

"What is this?!? A Utah Drink? Where's the Cuervo?!?!?!"

Last weekend was the East Canyon Road Race which is a 61 mile race that has 2 decent climbs - one is over 1500 ft. It is only opened to licensed riders and I was a bit nervous as I have not ridden competitively like this since 2003. I still do some of the usual races every year but have been just racing in the citizen group or "just for fun" I ended up doing much better than I thought. Our group of Cat 5 racers took off at a relaxed pace until about 7 miles in we hit the first climb. Once over that I was part of a 12 man group that lead for the next 45 miles and was actually one of about 5-6 guys doing all of the work at the front of our small peleton. About 10 miles from the finish we hit the big climb of the day and everyone attacked. We also caught up to a bunch of the Cat 4 riders who started 5 mins before us so now I could not tell who was in my Cat or not. I attacked the best I could and got into a group of 3-4 (we dropped one) after the climb for the last couple of flat and windy miles. Lucky for me the race finished with a steep up hill (where I do better) so I was able to win the last sprint with my small group. I ended up in 8th place out of 62 riders.

We also had a trip down to Saint George and did some hiking in Zion National Park with Keith, Stacey and the boys but I forgot our camera. If they send me some of the pics from that weekend I'll put some up here. It was beautiful there this time of year.

This weekend we bought Camden a scooter so he can play with all the bigger kids in the neighborhood who have them:

We live on a hill and he loves to take his trike and scream down to the bottom. It actually scares me because he goes so fast, but the kid has absolutely no fear. Today we figured out how to rig a tow rope from his trike to my mtn bike so I can pull him back up.

I pull him up the hill....

he pulls me down.

Tomorrow I hope to get in a really long ride. We have a b-day party to go to in the middle of the day and then I have to drive to Saint George late tomorrow night for a meeting Mon morning. I plan on taking my mtn bike and getting in some good riding while there. I'll put some pics from tomorrows party and my trip south on here next week.

By for now!!

Wedding on Topsail Island, NC

This past weekend we flew to North Carolina for a long weekend (Thursday night to Monday morning - back at work before noon) My nephew Nathan got married to Kim this weekend.

We have the most incredible little boy! He was not cranky at all - even after the long flight there, playing on the beach, staying up late dancing at the wedding and even getting up in the middle of the night to fly home. This weekend should have had his schedule all sorts of messed up and made him cranky - but no! He is sleeping through the night on his normal schedule again and we heard comment after comment from other passengers on the plane about how lucky and blessed we must be to have such a well mannered and happy child!! We are!


We got to Topsail Island at 2 in the morning after the 2 1/2 hr drive from Raleigh. My sister, Laura (http://www.abeachplace.com/) hooked us up with a great house right on the beach and very close to the wedding. We split it with Theresa and Chris and Cam's cousins - Hannah and Ashtin. I wish we could have stayed longer. The islands here are so relaxing. I could sit and stare at the waves for hours and not have a care in the world!

Friday we slept in and then played on the beach before the winds kicked up and the bad weather that was in the forecast arrived.




When it got to be too windy on the beach we retired to the decks. The views from this house are amazing and the warm spring sun felt good on the deck while shielded from the wind. Camden was enjoying his aunt Tess and relaxing on the deck chairs:


The wedding was Saturday and the weather was not as nice. We relaxed on the island and hit some of the stores and gift shops.

The wedding was really fun. Camden stole the show and danced with every girl there. He was definitely the life of the party!

Here are a couple pics of him dressed like a "little man" with his cousins who were junior bridesmaids in the wedding:















These pictures will give you an idea of what a ladies man we have on our hands. At one point during the dancing we noticed all the single girls dancing around Camden while all the guys were just standing and watching. It was like something out of a movie! He made his way around to every girl there and partied until after 10 o'clock that night (which was only 8 to him with the time change)









I don't even know who this person is, but she could not get enough of Cam. She told Amy (in her southern draw): "He makes me want a baby soo bad - and I don't even have a boyfriend!"

Check out everyone doing the Electric Slide - and Camden right in the middle being held by his aunt Tess:

Here are a couple more shots from the wedding:

Check out how beautiful my sexy wife is - we had a great night of dancing!

This is Camden with his great uncle Tim. I haven't seen my uncles Tim and Steve in over 10 years. They came to the wedding with my cousin Noelle and her sister-in-law, Melissa. It was great to get caught up with them after so long!