Like it, live it, can't live without it

Fresh air!  Get out and get some... I know I'm happier when I do:)

Friday 4.27

Toda I am off to pick up my little sister.  I'm and bringing her down to my house to watch my kids while Nick and I ride in the Tour of The Tucson Mountains tomorrow morning.  Wish me Luck!

Earrings

I think I need these earrings.  

I am kind of diggin' them right now.

Before

After

And that about sums up the demise of my Easter tulips:(  Good thing I love that little girls buns no matter what!

T-Rex?

Funny story... Last weekend my sister babysat the kids while Nick and I rode in the Tour de Mesa.  We returned home on Sunday night and when I went to change Farrah's diaper I found this!  

Sure enough, my sister gave the baby a tattoo.  We all got a big kick out of this, especially the other kids:)

Like it, love it, can't live without it

Breaking in a new pair of hiking shoes.

Weekend Plans

We are headed out to attempt a lake trip and ride in the Tour de Mesa. Wish us luck!

Special Visitor

Look who swung by our Superbowl party. Pretty crazy right! We were so honored to have spidey as a guest at our house. (and NO it's not Nick:)

Something Cool

iphone camera grip














I thought this little gadget looked pretty cool for someone who uses their camera phone a lot. I kind of want one now!

Easter

This year we had a great Easter.  Of course we missed Nick because he was working, but we managed to fit in some fun.

Saturday








































 

It was nice to dress up and talk about/ remember our Savior and the sacrifice he made for us.
It is so neat to see my older kids growing up and really being able to understand the atonement.  They are really starting to gain their own testimonies of Jesus Christ and the Gospel, and that is such a sweet reward for a mother!

Sunday

 
 

Like it, love it, or can't live without it

A good napping partner

Chandler Century Bike Ride

Nick's dad called us up and said that the City of Chandler was putting on a metric century and entry was super cheap.  So we decided to head up there and ride.

We got a pretty good group together.  It included Nick and I,  Don,  Nate & Katy, along with Nick's good friend Jaron and two of his brother in laws.  We tended to split into two groups, the guys in front being a little faster.  Nick and Nate were so kind as to hang back with us girls for most of the ride.

























It was a really laid back ride and we had a lot of fun.  I did manage to get two flats though:(  Nick changed the first one and I made it a few yards when the second tube also popped!  My wheels are smaller than most so I did not have any more tubes of the right size.  The guys put their heads together and rigged me something up using a tube that was slightly too large.  It held up and I was able to finish the last 9 miles of the ride just fine.

Nick and I also got some nice massages afterwards at the little expo they had.  Now we wish we could get one after every long ride;)




















The Porter boys

This is the longest ride I've done so far and I was a little anxious since the next longest I've ridden at once was 42 miles in the Tour de Tucson back in November.  I felt strong the whole ride and it has convinced me to do the longer distances in the Tour de Mesa and Tour of the Tucson Mountains coming up later this month!

Quail Creek 5K

Also in February I entered another 5k. It was located right next to my house and I thought why not? I was sick all week so I was a little slower than I had hoped, but that's just how it seems to work in this racing world. There's always something you could have done better or differently looking back:)

Here I am at the start.














This is my sister's puppy Ace. He came to cheer me on. This little guy got a lot of attention since this was an event you could bring your dog to. One lady even had her husband take a photo of her with my dad and Ace. We were cracking up about it later... after they walked off of course!













Here I am after crossing the finish line.


































Thanks to my dad for coming with me and taking photos. I ended up winning first place for my age division! Do not be fooled into to thinking that is impressive though... this 5K was put on by the local retirement community;) 


















I find it a little crazy that I got to take home this awesome mug for an 8:50 average, but I'll take it!

UHCH Duathlon

Back in February I entered a duathlon. It was a run-bike-run event. Training for it kept me motivated to continue my running and also eased me into my biking in preparation for the spring cycling events. 





















Luckily we had some awesome friends staying with us this same weekend and so Nick got to come and watch me while our friends kept our other kids at our house. He got there a little late and I was heading off on the second leg when he came up. So here are some pics of me at the end...






















I wish I could have been a little faster on the bike and second leg of running but it was a great experience and I definitely plan on doing another duo again sometime.

Elephant's Head

On February 4th I set off with Candice, Donnie, and Tyler to conquer "Elephant's Head". I can see EH every time I look out my back window, and I have been yearning to hike it for a long time. We had planned a trip last year but when I became pregnant with Little Miss Farrah I was too sick to make it so we cancelled.

 Candice, Don and I drove part way to the trail where we met Tyler. We all hopped into his truck since the road we had to travel down to reach the trail supposedly required a high clearance vehicle. There are two ways to get to/ hike this trail. We for some strange reason chose the longer and harder way to get there and the longer trail to hike. That was our first mistake! We soon realized it was a good thing we had met him. It was obvious we wouldn't have survived this crazy road in my car.

 Tyler was just getting off work after an over night shift. That made for some very fun conversation given his sleep deprived state. I won't go into specifics but there was a lot of talk about hot girls, Brazilian bootie work outs, and Tyler's marriage prospects. If you were there you know how it went, and if you weren't it's better not too:) I'll leave it at that!

After awhile it seemed like we'd been driving for hours. The road was getting increasingly difficult and we figured we were as close as we could get by truck.

 Here we are ready to set off with the Elephant's Head in the background.

Everything started off great. Tyler was telling us all about his Border Patrol adventures and we were making good time. Plus we were planning our next GC trip which is always a delight as you know!

We knew we were looking for a less used trail that would branch off of the one we were currently on. We came to what we though was the trailhead and began to descend into one of the two drainages that separated us from EH. This is where it all went wrong. I like to call this photo "the beginning of the end of my legs"… you'll see why soon.

After this we lost the trail and it took a LONG time to find it again. We knew where to go because the goal was in sight, but getting to it was another story.  We did some super intense bush whacking, which left us scratched up, hot, and frustrated. Tyler and I also got separated from Candice and Don. It took and hour or two of this before we finally reconnected with them and the trail. Trying to reach the base of the peak on the left hand side required us to cross two deep drainages and all through the most prickly and spiky terrain you can imagine. True "desert brush"

Tyler and I right before we got separated from the others. Can you see us? We are very tiny!

Candice Fighting her way through the brush.

We finally found the trail along with Candice & Donnie. Can you see him waving to us from the top of the ridge?

On the way back we were able to find the point where we got off course. If there is ever a next time we will be prepared. I'm not sure any of were thinking fondly of a second hike on this mountain at this point though! We finally got out of the brush and reached the second part of the hike. This was more of a scramble up the boulders along the elephant's "trunk".

At this point I knew I wasn't going to make it back in the amount of time I had told my baby sitter I would. Tyler had also gone into the hike thinking it would be a couple of hours and he could get home and sleep. I made some quick phone calls from the top of the hill where I finally had reception, and Tyler soldiered on through his sleepiness. I might add that his comments only got more entertaining the longer time went on:) After all this was worked out we carried on.

We finally made it to the top!  It was actually a pretty fun little scramble.

We made some friends up there who gave us some fruit and chocolate that tasted delicious after our efforts. We didn't get a photo of them, but they kindly offered to take one of us all together.

The  "Elephant Shrine" on the summit.


Here are my legs after I got home!  Ouch, but it was worth it... I think:)  Our 2 hour turned 6 hour hike was ultimately successful.

P.S. Check out Candice's version of events here:)

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Kids that do their chores with a cheerful heart!