Moments I want to remember

Ella has about 5 pairs of shoes. Of course she loves the ones she can slip on real quick. Her flip flops are number one, and her boots are number two. Mid getting dressed she decided she needed to head outside to give Toby a bone. This is her look that morning.

This picture is why I love iPhones. I was mowing the lawn. The kids were having a relaxing morning. I got this picture without them noticing. Tyler is reading Ella several good books while she drinks her morning chocolate milk.

Northeast Ridge of Mount Timpanogos- 4 Peaks in One Day

Saturday I woke up at 3:15 am. I drove to American Fork Canyon. Meet my group and climbed this... the Northeast Ridge of Mount Timpanogos. We started at the left of the picture and ended almost at the right of the picture. 9.6 miles total. (It felt more like 20) 15 hours of climbing. Total elevation = 5,343 feet of climbing

5:30 am- Started hiking. 5 minutes in we had to take off our shoes, socks, and gators to ford this river. It was wide but thankfully not deep.

Phase one- Hike up three long, steep, snow fields. We put on our crampons and hiked as the sun rose.
Here is the second snow hill on the right. We had to get to the top of that mountain for our first peak of the day.
This one was very long and very steep. We were cooking hot! This is called Wolley Hole I think
Finally got to the top of the second snow field ... one more to go. Time to rope up.

We are climbing Mnt Rainer in Washington in a few weeks. So we had to practice roping up incase of an accident. You have to be about 30 feet apart and not let the rope have to much slack.

The last of the 3 snow fields to climb. We have to make it to the top of this.

8:30 am -Finally we make it here. It was pretty windy all day. Utah Lake looked great in the distance. We were in coats and gloves, the people on the lake were in swim suits.
Our Goal- Hit 4 peaks before the end of the day. We had just summited North Peak - Elevation of 11,383 feet and our end goal was way in the distance. Timpanogos at 11.749 feet. On the way passing North Timp Peak and Bomber Peak.

Buckle in for a long day. You can see some of our climbing group- little ants down in the rocks.
We got closer and closer. Timpanogos is in the distance. We hiked on loose rock all day. A few times having to cross patches of snow. I didn't look down as I hiked on those snow patches, knowing if I slipped it would be a long long long way down. (we weren't roped to each other anymore!) You cant see the trail but just imagine walking along the top of this ridge for hours.
This is a great shot of what we hiked on all day. It scares me to look at the photo. Good grief, what were we thinking!

2:00 pm- We finally made it to the top. The hut on top was a great site to see.
We started to head down. Unfortunately there had just been an avalanche in the past few days on our trail out. It was too dangerous to go that way. So we opted for the next way out... the only other way out... the FUN way out!

We had to glissade on our tail ends. You sit down, you push off, you start to slide and when you get going to fast or come to a cliff you use your ice ax to slow down/stop yourself.

We started at the top of this picture and went forEVER! down, down, down.
Our tail ends were numb by the end. See the blue ski at the top of the mountain where the saddle scoop is... start sliding there ... go until you reach the end of this picture. It was incredible!
5:30 pm- Then the painful part. We were exhausted and had three miles to hike out. Our knees, toes, bodies were TIRED! We pooled our food, ate it ALL, and headed out the last three miles. We hadn't anticipated such a long day. So we literally ate every thing we had!

7:30 pm- made it out of Dry Creek Canyon in Provo. We had to call a friends wife to come get us. She then drove us back to our cars in a totally different canyon (AF canyon). Then I had to drive back to Sandy.

9:30 pm- Pull in the driveway. Eat a bowl of cereal very slowly. No food sounds good which is very strange for me... I just wanted a shower and bed.

10:00 pm- ZZZZzzzzzz

So here's hoping I can hack it on Mnt Rainer in July. OH BOY!

Let the Summer begin

Every summer is packed with fun adventures- and this summer is no different. This is the third summer my cousin and I have hiked with our kids. We have a pretty good group this year. My sister Candace is here from Florida with her 3 kids. It is good to have her back. Of course my cousin Julie and her 4 kids. Kari has been coming now for two summers with her 3 kids. Then a new recruit, Rochelle and her 2 kids. I have 2 kids. Add it all up we are 5 moms with 14 kids.

The kids are troopers. I am impressed how much improved they have gotten over the years. They fall down, and can just jump back up and keep hiking. Today we hiked two places- Rocky Mouth Trail to this waterfall and then over to Little Willow Canyon Trail- both on Wasatch. Beautiful. Enjoyed it all.
It is going to be a great summer!

Chicago with Savage

Once a year Darren's company does a Manager Leadership Conference. This year it was in Chicago. We got spoiled as usual.

Wednesday night we went a baseball game at the Wrigleys Field. It was such a pouring mess that the game kept getting delayed.

The company rented out a whole house for us. I guess the houses are famous. All the old homes that are across the street from the stadium have been renovated. They now have bleachers on their roofs. There were 4 floors of great food. Big screen TV's everywhere... and more and more good food!
So here is the house! It was so fun. The game finally started at 9:00. We didn't' stay long since we were so exhausted.
Thursday I had the morning to myself. Darren had meetings. At the recommendation of my sister Jenny, I went running down Lake Front Drive. It was great. I ran through Navy Pier, which is so exciting with all the fun booths, food stands, and carnival attractions.
Then I just ran. I did walk a bit as I talked on the phone. But by days end I had done 15 miles! My goal was a half marathon! DONE! My legs were killing the rest of the trip. I got back to the hotel with no time to spare. Everyone (we had 500 people in our group) seemed to be trying to rush up to their rooms before we board the bus- so the lines to get on the elevators were terrible. So. ... I ran up 14 flights of stairs! I was done!
We then headed to the University of Illinois where we assembled bikes for kids in Chicago. We then went to the best museum I have ever seen. The museum of Science and Industry. The company had rented the whole museum out for us. We had dinner in three different wings of the museum. Icecream sundays in another corner. Then we had until 10:30 to roam the massive place at our leisure. We defiantly didn't see it all!

Friday- We both attended meetings in the morning. Then headed to our private showing of the Blue Man group. Darren and I rented bikes for an hour and I showed him where I had run the day before. It is a whole new sport riding a bike on an extremely crazy board walk on a Friday afternoon when all the students just got done with school for the year and head to the "beach". The night concluded with a nice formal, fancy dinner.

Saturday - fly home.

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE TRIP- food, food and more good food. I didn't have to prepare it, or clean it up. There was so much food, I wish I could have eaten more! Also, I could just turn my brain off for 3 days. I followed the agenda, talked to people and just did whatever they told me to do. My brain and belly loved the vacation!

Wheeler Peak 13,063- Nevada

Wheeler Peak - over 13,000 feet. We hiked the through the trees on the bottom right, up to the saddle on the top right. Then along the ridge . We got to just past the center of the picture on the ridge line. Right before it climbs to the top summit. You can see the line of black rocks coming up at the top.

Well. I am climbing Mnt Rainer in Washington in July. This was a required peak to help in our training. I will state now.... we didn't summit. Here is the short story.

9:00 pm- leave from Provo with friend Andy Howell

12:30 am arrive at Great Basin National Park in Nevada

1:15 am - start hiking

2:15 am- wind increasing- we comment how the wind is kind of annoying

3:15 am- wind and ice increasing- switching from crampons to snowshoes as we climb up the ridge. Wind is increasing in speed. The estimated winds at the bottom of the peak were supposed to be 23 mph.

4:15 am- see the summit ahead of us. Have to cross a narrow saddle to reach the push of 1,000 feet to the top. The wind is so strong we cant even stand up straight. (Andy estimated the winds over 40 mph) On either side we have solid ice dropping for ever. If we had slipped with that horrible wind trying to push us over it would have been very difficult to self arrest (stop ourselves) with our ice axes.

4:16 am- we turn around 1,000 feet from the top.

As we head down I mention to Andy how strongly I felt we needed to turn around. My whole soul was saying TURN AROUND! Andy commented the same thing. We both said it was an instant relief as we turned around. I am glad we listened to the feeling inside.

Finally got back to the bottom. Feeling good about our attempt.

Sang loud songs the whole way home, trying to keep our selves awake. Stopped in Delta Utah for a wonderful cinnamon roll.

The End

First Camping trip of 2011- City of Rocks, Idaho

We got to go on our first camping trip. If you haven't been to City of Rocks you are missing out. I know I went as a kid and loved playing on the rocks. We stayed two nights. Perfect weather. (don't go in july and aug. It is way to hot)

The kids were great campers. And played for hours on the gazillion rocks everywhere.

Darren played with the kids a lot. He went for a nice mountain bike ride too. We ate good food and loved it!

I met up with the Utah Climbing Club on Friday and Saturday and climbed some great stuff. This is in Castle Rock right next to City of Rocks. It is a 5 pitch climb to the top of this tower. Easy fun climb.
The fun thing about climbing on Granite is that your shoes just stick to the rock. So you have to trust your feet and move up the mountain.
I got to climb with a pretty good climber and got to climb a few 10a's. I loved it. and have bruises and scrapes to show that I am not a great climber!
So look it up. City of Rocks in Idaho. Fantastic.

Little Red Riding Hood Century Ride

Every year the first weekend in June - the BBC puts on a ride called the Little Red Riding Hood Ride. It is not a race, just a ride. You can do several lengths. 30ish, 60ish, 80ish, and 100 miles.

I have wanted to do it for years but never trained and never felt good about it. But this year... I had a great trainer (my husband) who got me a indoor trainer for my bike so I could start spinning inside back in November. For months I spun inside and then in-between the rainy weather I biked outside.

I had lots of friends and family take turns watching my kids while I road- and a few more baby-sitters than we usually get. But the end result was total success.

Angela Isaacs is great- she road with me and made the day memorable in more ways than one.

We wore our SBR jerseys from our bike shop. It was fun to see how many people noticed us in them. They are really cool!

Anyway. We set off to do a 100 WELL! not just finish it but do it well. Ang has done several long rides/centuries before and knew how to do it well!

We did our share of "shameless drafting". We would see some fast riders going past us and jump in behind them and draft! This was the key to a good race. You get to do less work, and go faster. You just have to stay with them! We did do our own pulling too!

This is me at the finish. 100 miles felt like 50 because of the many rest stops with wonderful food:) and because drafting saves your legs, your back ... your energy.

Sadly- Ang crashed at mile 87. She got back on her bike until mile 90. but with a cracked helmet, gears that wouldn't shift, a ripped up jersey, a wobbly tire, and a black spot in her eye that was limiting her vision... she stopped. I am proud of her for stopping!
It is pretty amazing to ride one day with 3,000 WOMAN ONLY riders. I will do it again next year if someone wants to jump in with me. IT WAS AWESOME!