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.

14, 4th place and other stuff

This is a very dark picture but it will have to do. Drew placed 4th at her gymnastics State meet on Friday night. Very exciting. She is long and lean and looks more like a ballerina but she does well at gymnastics. It was a very LONG meet on Friday night but fun to watch.

Ok, I can't believe that my firstborn is 14. What the heck happened? Am I really 41 and he's 14? He went on a hike to Mt. Si with Darren and the scouts on his birthday and later went to a movie with Darren and Spencer. No more Rescue Heroes, matchbox cars or GI Joe's. He just wanted a multi-tool gadget and a pair of Vans.

Spring skiing

I was a bit surprised when Katie Knopf suggested that we bring our swimsuit tops to go skiing. It hasn't been that warm up skiing this year, but we brought them just in case. After our first run in the slush we had sweat dripping everywhere so we thought it might be fun to try. It really was a beautiful day, and we couldn't even get up enough speed (due to slow slushy snow) to crash if we tried, so we braved the swimsuit idea. No gloves, no coats, no goosebumps! Really, I was surprised at how warm it was.

On the drive home, just outside of Sultan, is this tiny chapel. I've always wanted to stop and see what it's about. So we did.