Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Sledding/Thanksgiving 2011

We had a little bit of snowfall, so decided to go sledding one afternoon after school near where Mark works.




This year for Thanksgiving, we were able to travel to Miles City.  The weather was great.  Everyone was excited to go.  We hung out with Grandma Denise, Grandpa Jay, Uncle Charles, Great Grandpa Ruben, and Great Grandma Helen.  Mark and I did a little late night Walmart standing around and waiting.  Rori and Rylie went to help Grandma ring the bell for the Salvation Army.  They're cute, so we figured they might pull in some more money! Rori got a little bit sleepy as you can see.



Friday, November 4, 2011

Spooktober-all of it in one post

Halloween has come and gone and here are the highlights!
Rori had her own party with 16 kids!  Her mother must be crazy, but it was fun.  Trunk or Treat with the ward. Trick or treating down Main and carving pumpkins.  Trick or treating on the walking mall.  Yes, we have a huge bowl of candy, so if you come by please request a piece.  Thanks!
Rylie was Student of the Month for September for her class!  


Rori, Bryce, Batman, and a witch attending the Halloween Party!

My monster cookies for the party!


Rylie, center, in the Red Ribbon Parade

Bryce insisted on wearing his penguin feet even when not in costume

Rori, the hay guy, Schoenfeld (Scarecrow from Wizard of Oz)

Hip Hop Ry


Mark and I went as our high school selves


Carving pumpkins



Penguin feet, climbing anything and everything

Ta da!

Thursday, October 27, 2011

Cyclocross

bikes
Mark went to Missoula last week and competed in a cyclocross race for the first time.  He did a write-up for the local bike shop where he is a team member. He is the one in photo on the right.  Thanks to Melinda Barnes for taking the photo.



After some prodding from some of our teammates I finally decided it was time to give cyclocross racing a try. I watched a couple of YouTube videos to get an idea of what to expect and a few days later I was in Missoula for the Rolling Thunder cyclocross races with fellow teammates Jesús and Melinda.
My first dilemma was deciding which bike of mine would get me around the course the fastest. I loaded both and hauled them to the race so I could make a game time decision. I have a full-suspension Giant Trance. It's a great mountain bike that hammers tough descents. It was overkill and overweight for this race. My other mountain bike is an older hardtail Gary Fisher Marlin that I put road slicks on a couple of years ago and use for commuting. It's slightly lighter than the Giant, but with the road tires on the bike I was worried about traction and flatting out. I consulted a few different people on which bike they thought would be the better option and I wasn't above asking some random dude that looked like he had done the cyclocross thing many times before. The consensus was either one would do just fine. I pre-rode the course on the Gary Fisher and felt good. With the skinny tires on there I thought it looked more like the real cyclocross bikes which made me feel less out of place. Just in case something didn't go as planned I placed my Giant and a water bottle in the pit area.
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    All of the cat 4 riders gathered excitedly at the start line. I was wearing the team jersey and my underoos. At least that's what it felt like. I always where some baggy shorts over my riding shorts so I'm not so…exposed. Tight shorts are flattering on some folks, many of you I'm sure, and then there are the rest of us. The decision to go with just riding shorts was made a couple days prior to the race while I was showing my girls my new technique for jumping off and back on my bike just like in the YouTube videos. They were less than impressed when I not just once, but twice, caught the front of my saggy shorts on the seat and never made it back on the bike. Decision made, no baggies.
    So at the starting line all 50 or so racers listened anxiously as the announcers called certain stud riders to the front. I listened carefully for my name and my proud walk to my place before lesser riders. It never came. Must have been a typo or something, so I started last. The course starts off on a paved straight away, around a parking lot and then enters the outfield of the baseball diamond. You ride the warning track from left field to right and as you round the right field corner you go through the bullpen and out onto the gravel section. After playing baseball and softball for so many years there was a weird satisfaction to riding through the field and then catching air off the pitching mound in the bullpen as I left the stadium.
    The gravel section was the worst. There was a u-turn in the rocks that slowed me down to almost a standstill and I had to put a foot down a couple of times after spinning out a bit. The course had a couple of sections of winding dirt track that weren't too bad, but I was wishing I had some knobby tires. There were two downhills, one was grassy and the other was a quick drop, banked and pretty smooth. The one climb was unrideable and it got harder and harder to drag my bike up that thing.
    A few laps in I was middle of the pack and yo-yoing a couple different riders, I passed them, they caught me. I did see Ed from team GDC out in front of me in his Metallica jersey. My new goal was to catch him within the next lap or so. I pushed a little but wasn't making much ground. Until I came to the downhill and the spectators were shouting, rider down, rider down. I proceeded down slowly and saw Ed dusting off and picking up his bike. He looked okay so I eased by and looked for my next pass. Ed was looking pretty strong and I'm not sure I would've passed if it hadn't been for the crash. The pace throughout the race was fast with some tight corners and Ed wasn't the only rider I saw go down.
    As I came around the corner towards the start of my last lap, within a hundred yards or so of the line, I got passed by the race winner. I assumed I still had a lap to go so I kept going and eventually finished. I didn't know the race results would actually say that I finished 1 lap behind. Ouch. The race results might as well have added, "1 lap back, was this guy walking?" Next time I'll know that if some young kid that I haven't seen since they called him out to take his special spot at the start of the race tries to pass me and lap me, do not let it happen. That's my goal for the next race, don't get lapped and maybe figure out a way to wear my baggies.
    I finished tired, happy and satisfied. The race was better than expected and I'll be back in the future. The support from the team and their families and other Helenan's at the race was great. The specifics—I finished 28 out of 49 and according to the Garmin I road just over 11 miles in about 51 minutes. Jesús Salazar was right there with me. Wish I could have stayed and watched all the races and supported the other riders, it was a great atmosphere.


Monday, September 26, 2011

First day of 2nd grade

Rylie is officially a second grader now.  She is at a new school and rides the bus from her old school to her new school everyday.  She is growing way to fast and we keep telling her to stop growing, but she is not very obedient in that regard.  She looked so cute on the first day of school and it wasn't raining, so it was all good!  I don't even think she was really nervous.  We had checked it out the day before!
Go Ry!




Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Last days of Summer

Well, it is official, I am now 35 years old.  We celebrated by having Papa Murphy's pizza, brownies, and cake provided by my great friend, Kara!
I didn't do a whole lot that day, mostly just waited for the cable guy to come and hook up the cable.
All my children were smiling!
Mark decided we should go and float the Missouri River one night before school started.  We loaded the boats in the truck after work and headed toward Craig, MT to put in.  Our youth in our ward had done it the week before so Mark knew where and what he was doing.  The kids loved it, except Bryce who cried and screamed and generally disrupted all fly fishermen we passed along the way.  It was a lot of fun.  Rylie told everyone that asked what she did this summer, that she floated the Missouri River.  We did do other things, but she must have loved this.
The pelicans stay in this spot



Bryce with a smile, which was a result of shoving fruit snacks at him.  He was not happy most of float.

The baby is not paddling the boat and his dad is holding on to him right there.

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Spokane Trip part 3-photos

The white dot on the right is me, Mark took this of me so you could see the scenery.  I had no idea a  very steep hill was just around the bend!




This was before we started.  This photo was taken prior to 6:15 am!  Love Nichole's hair!

We stopped for some fuel.  Heather apparently was all about the safety at dinner as well as running!



We made it to the finish eventually.  We were the last team to cross, but not the last team time wise.  Yeah!











Thursday, September 8, 2011

She is her father's daughter

So, a few weeks ago, Mark got an email from a guy he knows that runs and cycles and does triathalons here in Helena about putting on a kids' triathalon.  Rylie is the same age as his daughter and they were in swimming lessons together about 2 years ago.  We asked Rylie if she was interested in doing it and she said yes.  She is not a big fan of swimming just yet, but has made great progress this summer and has even been swimming without her life jacket by herself.  She did a great job.  She made it through the swim and thought that best thing was the cool medal she got afterwards.
Rylie with her triathalon number on her legs.  I think she was more excited about this than anything.




The girls with their legs up crashed on their bikes.  Isn't it cool that most of them were girls doing it!?

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Spokane Trip part 2

Well, we made it to the hotel in Spokane and I left the family before 5 am on Friday to begin our crazy relay!
It was a lot of fun, a lot of no sleep and a lot of running.  Everyone ran 3 legs for a total of 36 legs total, which matched the number of children we had between us all.  36 kids!  We were slow and steady and even rode the crazy rollercoaster at Silverwood in the middle of the night.
Ry, Rori, and I just before my first leg

The handoff and Rori wanting to run with me

I did pass the lady in the pink in front of me



The kids and Mark went to a park to hangout and play while we drove all over


It looks like Bryce is getting ready to hike the ball to Rori




Beginning my 2nd over 5 miles leg


Rori was racing up and down the sidewalk, this was in Coeur D'Alene, Rylie with the goofy hat