Pedro

I've been to Home Depot a lot this week. Our neighbor painted his house, so before he had that done he chopped down the trees and bushes along his house. He never sees that side of his yard and is not much into yard work in the first place. So I asked him if he had plans for the 5 stumps and weeds. He laughed and said that he might place some garden trolls on each stump and let nature take it's course with the rest. I told him that I would take over if he didn't mind. I have to admit that every time I drove up to Home Depot I was tempted to take a Mexican or two home to toil in my yard. But then that would be less fun for me to have in my yard. Plus, there's something satisfying in doing a job all by myself. Okay, I will admit that Bryan stopped by to borrow my hedge clippers and helped me remove a couple of stumps, but other than that I did it all. Okay, not exactly. When he stopped by again a couple of days later to check progress on his way to work he helped me dig a couple of holes. But otherwise, I am my own Pedro. I actually like yard work. My friend calls herself Consuela when she does all the housework without any help. I prefer Pedro. Don't know why, just do. Maybe it has something to do with a strange dream I once had where I went in for a facial and I came out with a whole new head. I had a Mexican man's head on my body and the head was extra large. At least he had really nice white straight teeth, but still it was disturbing. In my dream people didn't seem to think it was a big deal that I had a new head. At least I still had my own voice and body. It was just strange looking in the mirror.....

Anyway, I spent the week fixing my neighbor's yard and I think it looks pretty good.

Before the planting but after stump removal

After hours and hours and about 30 bags of bark (and new plants of course!)

summer, summer, summer

The past 3 weeks has been a whirlwind of travel, play, fun, and family. We started off visiting my good friend Angie in American Fork Utah. When we first arrived to Utah the kids were so surprised at how bright the sun was. Gavin wanted to camp out in Angie's basement the whole time we were there. He's not a fan of sunshine. He was happy when we went to Cabela's and on a hike. I enjoyed busting my butt at Angie's Crossfit gym. Never knew that I could be sore in that many places at once!

Next we went to Park City for our Crockett reunion. We started off with the Sheldon's barfing the first day, then mom the next day, followed by Gavin and then Lisa. Sweet. What is a family gathering without passing around one giant puke germ?

Mostly the kids were just happy swimming at the Marriott pool, which was just fine with me.

Gillian, Mary, Drew

Mary, Gillian, Georgia, Nora

Alice with her impression of Jack Nicholson in the "Shining"

From Utah we drove to McCall, Idaho for Darren's family reunion. We camped at the lake and had a great time with his cousins. Darren brought the boat and all of the cousins had fun tubing. Gavin was happy to see Connor, Mitchell, and Simon (the triplets). Finally, cousins his age!

All suffering comes to an end

I was thinking of titles for this blog and a close runner up was "Be ye prepared..." So this first picture is of me and my friend Ann before the Tour de Blast began. We were supposed to have 72 degree weather and zero percent chance of rain. Turned out that we had 60 degree weather and nothing BUT rain. The real problem I had was the lack of time I spent training. Most of the friends I rode with had spent a lot of time on their bikes this year. Smart. The ride started in a town called Toutle, just at the base of Mt. St. Helen's. It's 42 miles to the top at Johnson's Ridge. There were some pretty good climbs, mostly just a steady gradual uphill for the first 15 miles. Then it got crazy. After the first food stop we were warned that there was heavy rain and slick roads ahead. They weren't kidding. By this time the fog had also become very thick. A lot of people had bailed by then. It was kind of spooky fog with an occasional cyclist. The rain did let up a bit at times but there was usually at least a mist and always a spray of water up the back from the road. I have no idea why I kept going other than pure stubbornness. Darren drove up to the top and waited for me. It got colder and colder the higher we climbed (42 degrees at the top) and the last 20 or so miles my feet and hands were frozen, numb, tingly, scary! I didn't so much care about my feet but it was hard to shift gears or brake because I couldn't feel my fingers. At the top my saving grace was Darren, the car, and a dry set of cycling clothes. I tried not to linger too long because I was frozen and just wanted to get down. Our friend Robin had ridden the final stretch with me and was drenched, teeth chattering, but still willing to go on. Darren gave him his dry coat and Robin started off behind me for the long ride down. It's pretty steep at the top which was the worst part. I would rather ride up in those conditions any day than ride down. My teeth were chattering, fingers numb, road slick, foggy.... I was shivering so badly but I knew I had to just suck it up and go. Plus, I knew that Robin was right behind me and he was in just as bad shape as I was, but he didn't have new dry clothes. Then I saw a black Suburban pull alongside of me and slow down as Robin looked at me with a big smile from the passenger seat. That did it for me. Now I knew I HAD to finish because Robin and Bryan had both quit. My shoulders and neck and low back were on fire the whole last half of the ride. Once I got down to 3000 feet it wasn't so cold but I was completely soaked to the bone again. From there I'm not really sure what happened or how I got to the bottom. I had the song "Scripture power" (primary song) stuck in my head the whole time. My mind wandered to the most random things. And the whole time my feet were numb and my back and neck were in spasm. I've never wanted off my bike so badly in my life. I just kept telling myself that it would eventually come to an end, which it did after 84 miles. As I came to a stop by Darren I could barely get off my bike. I was soaking wet, muddy, and happy that I had stuck it out. Maybe next year I'll train before the event!

At least I blog inside my mind....

So many random thoughts float through my head on a daily basis. "Gotta blog about river rafting, gotta blog about George's cone-head...." And usually the thoughts just stay right there in my head. So, here are some highlights of the past 2 weeks....

Drew's final track meet. Notice she's always smiling when she runs.

Camping in Wenatchee with friends and river rafting. Gavin's first girlfriend (the 2 year old little girl on her mom's lap). He played with her all weekend, she is very cute.

Me and Katie taking a break from our paddling/rafting duties.

George got a sliver in his paw and wouldn't stop licking it so he needed the cone and antibiotics. He was having a hard time fighting off Holly in this picture. Note the bared teeth, I couldn't stop laughing at him.

So that's what's been going on. This is the last week of school. Sigh. I have a big bike ride next Saturday and I haven't trained much at all. It's 88 miles up (and down) Mt. St. Helen's. Not like it's a race or anything. I'm just going to do the best I can. Teaching Spin classes doesn't exactly translate into training for a big bike ride. Darn!

Memorial weekend

Darren was determined to do a Banks Lake trip before summer. We haven't ever been there before August so I didn't know what to expect. It ended up being a fantastic weekend. We headed out on Thursday and got there late Thursday evening and got there in a rainstorm. Luckily we had the camper.

We decided to take a chance and take the dogs. They had the time of their life and it was fun having them there. On Friday late afternoon the Peays and Bub/Joelle came. So there were a total of 10 kids, 6 adults and 4 dogs. Fun.

Darren wore his rubber boots all weekend, no matter the outfit.

Gavin was in heaven with his survival gear. We drank from pond water with his special water filter and whittled sticks with Gav's many knives. There were these awesome rocks to hike on right next to our campsite.

Gavin usually won't let me take pictures.....

Unless he's posing.

Good thing Gav brought his gas mask for the bathroom.

The sun came out a few times and we took full advantage. We found great beach that we drove to in the boat. The dogs ran, kids dug in the sand and clay, we relaxed and soaked in the sun. It was a great family weekend. No TV, no computers, no video games. Just campfires, hiking, boating, and friends.

The cleanup is horrendous but oh so worth it!

8th birthday, baptism, and Heather's wedding

The past couple of weeks have been very busy. Gillian turned 8 on May 7th and got baptized on May 8th. Lots of family came for the baptism, which was really great. Grandma and Grandpa Crockett came for a couple of days. After she was baptized Gillian followed me into the dressing room and was so excited. She said "I want to do that again!". She couldn't stop smiling.

Then this past Friday my niece Heather got married. Hard to believe that she was 3 years old at my wedding. Wow.

I was gone at the wedding/lunch all day and when I came home I found that Holly had eaten my Gerber daisies that I had just planted. There were 3 before I left and now there are 2. I mean she ATE them. Gone. Weird.

Gillian had 9 little girls over for her birthday party on Saturday. It was crazy. It was fun. We decorated flipflops with cloth flowers and stick on gems. They turned out really cute. Later in the evening Gillian was in tears because we didn't get to do everything that she had planned on doing. If we had done everything that she wanted to do the party would have lasted 10 hours.

Drew was a great helper with the activities.

Gavin strapped on his knife, got his survival pack on and followed me around wanting to talk about airsoft guns and knives. Not very helpful. And yes, he does own a gas mask. Never know when that could come in handy. Especially at a girl birthday party.

Just breathe

I really hate dealing with numbers. I would rather teach 5 cycling classes a day than balance a checkbook. So now I have a new job. Doing bookkeeping for the office. The weather has been gloomy, I've been teaching at the gym, I'm tired and the house is dirty. The dogs go out and run around and come inside before I have a chance to wipe off their feet. My beautiful carpet (HA!) is getting even more lovely! Yesterday I was supposed to be at Drew's class at 2:00 to do an art lesson. I remembered at 2:15, right as she was calling from school. I was deep into doing Quickbooks and just plain forgot. So now I get to do it today, along with all of the other things I didn't get done yesterday. I guess it's better to be busy than not.