Post Olympic Let Down

Like many others in the world I have watched the Olympics these last two weeks. Okay I will admit, I did a little bit more than just watch a few events. I was a bit obsessed with the entire thing. I dvr'd two channels to watch when I got home each night. In the morning I couldn't go to work until I finished watching the match or race. I watched a little of pretty much everything. I could not believe some were even sports. I mean seriously, doubles badminton? I am sure the players in these events trained extremely hard and were excited to make it to the Olympics, but at what point do you say to yourself "I want to go to the Olympics playing doubles table tennis"?

I loved watching each of the swimming events. I was so excited to see Phelps win each of his medals and the freestyle relay was intense. Dara Torres is such an amazing woman, her devotion to the sport is unbelievable. I was so impressed by her to have the courage and sportsmanship to approach the judges to have them delay the heat so a fellow athlete could have the chance to swim after her suit ripped.

My favorite by far was beach volleyball. I am a beach volleyball junkie to begin with, but this year was especially fun. I had only slightly paid attention to the sport the last few years. I knew Dalhausser and Rogers and loved watching them each event that I caught on TV. But coming into the Olympics there was an all new team for me to really cheer for. The first time I saw Gibb and Rosie was their opening match and thought wow, he looks so familiar. I couldn't figure out why until the announcers said that he was from UT and had 11 sibs and was a twin. At that moment I knew this was Jake of Jake and Cole. I had heard so much about the twins while Joy and Dale were living at her in-laws while they served a mission. Each time a camera would pan out over the audience I would search to see if I could see Joy. I never did, but Jake put a really good picture of Dale on his blog.

Then of course, there was the Professor and the Thin Beast. I absolutely loved watching them. Their matches were always late at night and I would try to stay up so I could watch them live. I am sure that my neighbors were annoyed each time I did because I was yelling and cheering for them the entire time. The one time that I didn't make it and fell asleep, I woke up the next morning and couldn't go to work until I saw the entire game. I kept yelling at "the boys" to hurry up and win because I needed to get to work!

Now that the 17 days are over I don't know what I will do with myself. :-) I guess I will just have to go back to having a good nights' sleep, cleaning my house, weeding my garden and I might even have enough energy to get back on my bike again. I look forward to the 2010 Vancouver games and the chance to people watch again and hope that I get just a glance of Myriam (works for the city organizing the games) and anticipate the announcement of the 2016 games and hope that they will be held in Chicagoland.

breaking dawn

Like everyone else I know, I picked up the final book in the Twilight series this weekend (Saturday morning, not at midnight like Em). I started and finished it on Saturday. I started getting sick on Friday night and spent all of Saturday either reading the book or sleeping. All of Stephenie Meyer's books are easy reads and this is no exception. She did a nice job of wrapping all of the story lines up. Over all it was an enjoyable read and I would definitely recommend it. Now we all just have to wait for the movie coming out in a few months.

Heber Valley Girls Camp

Last week I spent time at my Stake Girls Camp. This year it was at the Heber Valley Campground. We stayed at the Marjorie Pay Hinkley campground. It was super special being there since it was named after such a special lady. We had so much fun there. We saw a couple of badgers, moose, deer and tons of potguts.

All the girls next to the Reeder Trail Sign. We spent an extra hour on our hike because of this trail. We eventually found a sister missionary and she led us back to the Abish Trail and we made it back to camp safely.

Ashley and Cambry on the Challenge Course. Michelle, Kaylynne and April there to support them.

Kylee, Megan, Kelsey, Hilary and Talor on the Challenge Course.

Jennifer, Amanda, Ami and Camille on the Challenge Course.

The Police

Bobby gave me and Brisco tickets to "The Police" Reunion Tour last Saturday. I took Libby and Brisco took his wife. The seats were totally kick ass. I had an unobstructed view for most of the show (the only time I had trouble seeing was when the drunk off her ass lady one row up kept walking back and forth saying "sorry").

Brisco made fun of everyone the entire time. There was this couple just down the row that were pretty amusing. About half way through the guy took his shirt off and was dancing towards the audience.

I spent the whole time dancing and singing. It was so fun to go to a show and know the words to every single song. Libby likes to leave concerts a little early to beat the traffic, but I just wouldn't leave. The Police are one of my all time favorite groups. I remember listening to the Synchronicity album back in elementary school and making up dances for the songs with Angie.

Thanks Bobby!!!

MS 150

It has been a while since I posted, but I have been busy. On June 28-29 I rode in "Utah's Best Dam MS 150 Bike Tour". It was fun, painful and fulfilling all at the same time. My team rode a total of 300 miles and raised $1100. There were over 3000 riders and over $965K raised.

Here are a few of the pictures from the event.

Team Pedal Pirates

My poor bike at the end

Self-portrait after I finished

Our campground

Little Red Riding Hood

I rode in the Little Red Riding Hood ride, my second long ride. It was raining in Salt Lake as I drove up to Logan and I kept hoping that it would be clear up there. When I arrived at the park it was brisk, but sunny. As the ride began there were at least 1000 women lined up and riding out of the small town of Wellsville. It was extremely slow going for the first 3 miles. Women of all ages and abilities were everywhere. After the pack broke up I kept a pretty good pace of 16mph, until about 12 miles into the ride I began to feel a sharp pain in my knee. I was coming up to the first big hill of the ride and I got about 1/2 way up and realized that I would not make it up with my knee. I hopped off and walked the rest of the way up. It was awful having to walk that soon in the ride. I kept telling myself I just had to walk it off and then I would be fine. About a mile later I reached the turn off for the 36 mile route. I had originally planned on going the 80 miles, but realized that I was not going to be able to do that. I was so mad at myself. I was able to do 80 miles 3 weeks ago no problem and today I was going to have to punk out at 36!! I told myself that I could at least finish in 2 hours and be proud that I kept a good pace. I skipped the next rest stop and headed to the next. My knee was hurting pretty bad, but I thought if I just grabbed a quick snack and kept going I would still finish in 2 hours. After about 5 miles it got to be so windy that I could no longer keep my pace. I slowed to 13mph and just kept pushing. I ended up having to walk for about 1/4 mile because my knee hurt so bad and my fingers were frozen. At the next rest stop I ate a little protein and thought you can do this, you only have 6 more mile and you will still make it in less than 2 1/2 hours. Not what I had hoped, but respectable considering the wind and the pain I was in. Boy was I delusional. About 1/2 mile from the rest stop was a hill that I didn't even remember coming down on the way out. I was in so much pain that I couldn't even pedal any more. I stopped and tried to walk, but that hurt too. After about 10 minutes of walking I finally made it up the hill and started riding again. Less than 2 minutes later it started to pour. I was now soaked through. I couldn't see because my glasses were foggy and wet. I stopped so I could take them off and just let the hail hit me in the face without any protection. I just kept telling myself, two more miles, two more miles. These were the most painful and slow two miles I have ever ridden. I could only go 8 mph and it hurt every time I tried to use my left leg. Finally after 3 hours I made it and could wait to get my wet clothes off and get warm again. It stopped raining and I thought I would go buy a $20 worth of raffle tickets since all of the proceeds went to a good cause (Huntsman Cancer Institute). I arrived at the pavilion and they were serving lunch. I thought okay, I need to get some fuel in me. I grabbed a sub, some watermellon and cheetos. I went to sit down and saw the fountain drinks. I don't know what it is about riding, but after a long ride all I want is Diet Coke. I filled a small cup and sat down. I took a bite of my sandwich and thought, wait where is my $20?? From the time I walked to the pavilion and sat down I had lost my money. I was ticked. I was wet, cold, tired, in a lot of pain and now I lost my money. It was then that I started noticing that I was wheezing. The cold air and rain had given me a bad cough and I was having trouble breathing. I thought great, I am finally starting to get in decent shape that I can ride these rides and my asthma is going to give me problems if the weather isn't perfect. I ate a few more bites of my sandwhich and a couple of chips and decided I was done. I gathered everything up and then threw it away. I started to walk away and I remembered I had my cell phone in my hand when I tossed my lunch and now I don't. I had thrown it and my license in the garbage!!! Luckily noone else had put anything in it so they were on the top. I walked to my car and said I am done. I am going home and not doing anything the rest of the day, and here I am. I took a shower and then slept the rest of the day away and decided I should blog this before I forget all of the details of my lovely day. Another lovely picture of me in my pretty blue jacket. :-)

Kids

As much as I love visiting Isaac and Khania in Evanston, I miss playing at the beach and watching the kids even more. They are so much fun to watch and Grant has so much energy that sometimes I am exhausted just watching him.