Turning 37

Today, I turned 37. 

I woke up, prayed, exercised with Jillian Michaels, then took the boys to swim team.  While they were at swim team, I went on a quiet 15 mile bike ride alone.  I cherish the quiet in my life.  Those moments when I can think with out interruption are necessary.  

After swim team, I taught a voice lesson then a good friend watched the boys while I went to the bike store to do a fitting. My bike has been such a great treasure.  I had a few things fixed and I hope my next ride will be nice and smooth.  

Stephen and I went to dinner then got some gelato to finish up the birthday celebrations.

This last year was filled with amazing adventures.  Some high highs and some low lows.  I added a lot more work to my plate then I started clearing off my over worked plate.  It's funny being a stay at home mom with no "real" full time job.  I tend to over work myself.  I love getting things done and working hard; however, I have to remember to add in quality down time with my family.

January brought some big changes as far as down time and quality time with my family was concerned.  I started being much more conscience of how and where I was spending my time.  I have been seriously working hard on being a better wife and mother for my family.  

For me, family comes first. Always. 

A big shout out to my Mother for sacrificing her body to give me life.   

Swim team Photos

All the things....

Let's do all the things! 

I am so sad my friend Melanie moved.  I think I will grieve with lonely bike rides for the next few months. HA! My boys have loved playing with the Iverson's over the last year.  Nolen has already begged me to make a trip to Virginia.  He even said that we need to drive to Texas to meet up with them today. 

Saturday, I woke up early and met Melanie for our last bike ride, then Nolen had a swim meet, Edward had cub scout day camp, and then we helped the Iverson's clean their home and say good-bye.  All in all, an amazing Saturday!

Nolen placed 9th and 11th at the swim meet and Edward had a blast at day camp.  

A 50 Mile ride

I started riding a road bike almost a year and a half ago.  I had this secret idea to do a triathlon years ago but I was too scared to make it happen.  I convinced my older sister to do one with me, but when it came time to do it, I wasn't in a place in my life to make it happen.  

Well here I am, years later and I am making those triathlon dreams happen.  I borrowed a bike from a friend when I first started riding.  I had been taking spin classes at the gym so I thought I was completely prepared.  I picked up the bike from my friend last March and it had clip in pedals!! I had to order shoes before I could even get on the bike and ride it! I received the clip in shoes and then was too scared to put them on and ride the bike!  So, I took the shoes to spin class and clipped in for the first time on a stationary bike.  I am so glad I did because they are tricky to get in and out of while riding a bike.

*My bike friends from last year that taught me how to ride a road bike.

After 5 months of riding the borrowed bike, I was ready to invest in my own bike!  I had been riding with a few friends last summer and it was SO FUN! I was hooked.  I bought a bike in Kingman only later to learn the bike wasn't all it was cracked up to be.  UGH!

No big deal, the bike shop here in Albuquerque fixed my bike just this last Friday.  Stephen picked up my bike on Friday while I was at track practice so I didn't get all the details but at least my bike was fixed.  Melanie Iverson and I decided that Monday, June 18th was the day for our EPIC 50 mile ride.  I did not check on my bike because it was just fixed up at the bike store.  I figured I had no reason to worry. 

Well that was wrong. 

I woke up at 4:45 AM, got dressed, and headed out to the garage.  I took one look at my bike and saw the back tire was flat.  I had recently learned how to change a flat tire, so I was sure Melanie and I could fix the tire before we left.  

 I tried airing it up at Melanie's house but had no luck.  We were covered in yellow goo after trying for 15 minutes to get the bike tire aired up.  We decided to change the tire.  This was our first time ever changing a tire let alone a back tire!  However, we were successful and loaded up our bikes.  We hit the trail 45 minutes after we wanted too, but we were so glad to be on the road either way! After two or three miles of riding I started thinking I left the lights on the truck.  We decided we would just jump the truck when we got back if I left them on. HA!

About 15 miles in to our ride I asked Melanie how my back tire was looking.  She said, "Not good."  So we pulled over and tried to air it up.  We seemed to have some success so we kept on riding.  About a mile after that I hit some sandy patches on the bike path and my entire bike tire popped off my bike.  My tube broke open and began wrapping around my gears and chain!

WHAT?!

I yelled to Melanie who was up ahead of me that my "bike tire fell off"! An old man was riding past me right at that moment and yelled, "Woah!"  I clipped out in a matter of seconds, luckily.  It was so crazy.  At that moment I thought, "We are not going to finish this ride."  I was sort of sad, actually because Melanie is moving this Saturday and this was our only chance to do this big ride before she moved.  We had a really good laugh as we changed the tire and we were covered in yellow goo again.  

We tried to air up the tire with two of our Co2 cartridges and had no luck.  I had a hand pump on my bike, so we began pumping up the tire.  For some reason we could not get the tire completely filled up, but I wasn't going to push our luck.  I really wanted to finish the ride.

We got off the bike path just a few miles after that and started our big climb up to Tramway.  The bike bath was closed because of construction so we were forced to ride on the road with cars and construction.  We hit so much dirt that we had to walk our bikes on the road for a bit.  It was very nerve wracking.  I am so glad Melanie was with me because I would have given up once I saw the bike path was closed.  This part of our ride was going to be the hardest part of the ride mostly because the bike paths were hard to find.

We didn't find any bike paths as we made our way up Gibson and Central.  We stopped and ate a quick bite, looked at the bike map, then found a trail not too far from where we were stopped.  We were nearly to the trail and on a side street when I unclipped and lost my balance then fell over right into the street! Hilarious! Luckily, there were not too many cars.

Once we got on that trail we felt so relieved.  We rode through a homeless community that lived under the freeway and rode through a lot of goat heads.  The goat heads are what caused all of our problems from the start!

We got to the top of our climb then stopped to go to the bathroom at a gas station.  I hit pause on my watch at that point and forgot to turn it back on for five miles! ARG! We got started again and just as we did, Melanie did the same thing I did, unclipped and fell over.  A bike commuter watched Melanie fall and he asked her, "Is this your first time clipping in?" Oh how we laughed.  No, we have been riding clipped in for a long time.  

We road along Tramway with out any problems.  It was refreshing to be back on a bike path.  Then we hit the Tramway downhill and it felt like we were flying!  I loved the downhill.  It was such a refreshing reward for all our hard work that morning.  We pulled into the parking lot where we parked and had completed our 50 mile ride! 

Such an amazing experience.  We got to see and experience the entire city from our bikes.  I am really grateful to have a friend who is willing to wake up SUPER early, help me change my bike tire, and ride for four hours on a Monday morning.  Also, thanks to Melanie's early morning babysitter and my parents for watching our kids while we went on a bike adventure.

We did it!

Ps: I did not leave the lights on!

Cliffs, Camping, and the Wibit!

Nolen has been begging me to take him to Cliff's since school let out.  I just kept telling him that I needed to plan a good day for us to go to Cliff's.  I wanted Stephen to be able to come with us and I needed to have the time.  One of my piano students mentioned they were going to head to Cliff's the next day, so I asked if we could join them.  Sort of last minute for us, but it ended up being the perfect day.

 This was Nolen's first time riding the biggest roller coaster at the park.  He loved it so much, he went twice!

 

This weekend, I took the boys camping with our friends, the Landaker's.  I met Andrea when we moved to Albuquerque 10 years ago.  She was pregnant with her third child and I was pregnant with my first.  She was my first friend in town.  She has been such a good friend to me over the years.  She was my visiting teacher and our friendship flourished.   We had been talking about camping sometime this summer together.  She has taken her kids camping to all sorts of places around the state AND she is an expert camper.  

I talked to her about a triathlon I wanted to do in Santa Rosa and then my plan was to take my kids to jump on the wibit.  My plans changed dramatically when I hurt my leg on Memorial Day.  I haven't ran on it since Saturday June 2nd so that it could rest.  

We kept our plans to camp at Lake Santa Rosa then the next morning we would head over to the Wibit to play on the lake. We left Friday evening and arrived at Lake Santa Rosa just before sunset.  We quickly set up our tents then headed out for a little hike down to the lake. 

We had a pretty rough night sleeping because of the wind.  We were not planning to put the rain fly on the tents but we saw lightening in the distance.  The rain fly's seemed to flap against every tent in the wind. I don't think we got a drop of rain; however, the rain fly stopped the dirt from the wind from flying into the tent.

The boys woke up at 4 AM thinking they could see the sun coming up; however, they were wrong.  The really didn't go back to sleep even after lots and lots and lots of asking. HA! We ended up getting up at 6 AM and then tried to keep all the kids quiet because the camp quiet hours were from 10-7.  Although, our neighbors didn't really follow the quiet hour rules, we didn't want to be the loud ones.  That was almost impossible with kids who were giggling all morning long.  

We ate breakfast then we had nothing to do until the wibit opened at 10.  We found a park to play at for a few hours then we headed over to the lake.

We learned a lot about the wibit.  This was our very first visit and there are some funny things to know before you go.  You must wear their life jackets.  You pay $5 to park and then $10 per person to swim in the lake, jump on the wibit, slide down the slides, and use the peddle boats.  The $10 also gets you into the Blue Hole; although we didn't visit the Blue Hole on this visit. 

Once you get off the wibit, it is nearly impossible to get back on.  It is filled with air and you have to use a lot of upper body strength to pull yourself back up on to it.  I spent the better half of my time on the wibit helping kids get back on.  That was crumby.  Also, if you weren't tall or strong, you really couldn't do a lot of the stuff.  My boys did finally figure out how to climb back on to it alone, but it was not easy.  I helped a LOT of kids that were not my own kids and sometimes they were still not strong enough to pull themselves up on to the wibit. 

Once you leave the wibit you have to wait in line to get back in.  The line was over an hour long.  That was not cool.  Nolen and I left to get some lunch and we never got back on again. The line just kept getting longer.  The only way to get back on was if someone left.  It was really crowded on Saturday.  I asked the staff if it was better on a week day and they had conflicting ideas.  So who knows.  

 (The line to get back on the wibit)

All in all, the wibit was a blast.  Both boys loved it.  They were exhausted by the time we left.  We spent 3 hours at the lake and I was tired.  The two hour drive home seemed like it took forever.  HA! As soon as I got home, I laid down on the couch and fell asleep, still in my swim suit!  Just like a fun lazy summer day.  I woke up, took a shower, then went back to bed! 

Summer days are the best days!