Monday, October 25, 2010

Bleh!

EVERYONE is blogging! Except for me! Oh well I am going to pull out the I am busy card. In fact I should be sleeping right now! Good night (Morning!)

Friday, July 30, 2010

White Family Reunion

Kyle's mom's side of the family has a little get together every year. There are so many of them it really is like a family reunion. This is the second year we have gone up to the Spruces campground in Big Cottonwood Canyon. It's always such a fun relaxing day. We hike, we play, and of course we eat. I have never met two people more special than Jane's parents. They were both widowed and merged two semi large families into one giant one. To this day I have no idea whose kids belong to who, as they never raised them as his kids and hers. Sometimes I don't think they even realize. It's just so amazing to see a family merged so seamlessly. It's refreshing in today's world of crazy bitterness.

After the playing, socializing, and eating, Jane and Scott took the kids with them for an overnight trip to Park City. They left fairly early since Scott was supposed to be at work. Me and Kyle decided to go for a little hike to burn off some of those tasty calories. The trail we wanted to take was flooded and muddy, so we took a trail straight up out of camp. It had a pretty long steep section that I was not a fan of, but hey I had to get rid of those calories somehow, right? Anyway it mellowed out and we were chit chatting taking a stroll, and having a good time in the quietness of the kidlessness! Yeah I made that word up! Kyle spots a deer running up the side a couple feet in front of us. It was pretty cool. Then we round a corner into a meadow and all I see are moose antlers. I am thinking.. moose, moose, moose, Kyle, there's a moose, stop idiot! Then I think, maybe it's dead! Of course I had to think that because at that second he flicks a bug with his ears! Well Kyle finally notices the moose and stops. He probably took a half a step more then me! I'm a little dramatic. We only have our phones, so we take a couple pictures. Kyle wonders out into the grass to get a better angle. I follow, after he invites me. My dumb ass steps on a stick, of course. Well I walk calmly out, but now he is listening, so the grass brushing makes him stand up and stair at us. I high tail it out of there. Stop after I am around the corner and then brave women I am, send my husband back to take a picture! Apparently raising all three kids by myself never crossed my mind! Let's just say that our 30 minute hike in, took me all of 12 minutes to hike out of! Kyle pointed out later that if we had woken up early, planning on doing that whole trail that day, I probably would of been more mad then scared but as it is, I was pretty scared. I woke up twice that night, in a panic, just remembering how freaking close that giant animal was. He really wasn't even that big for a moose, probably only a couple years old, I'm just a wimp!

Here are some random pics from the day!


Hiking just out of camp, looking for squirrels!


Pretending they like each other for a picture! Actually probably trying to wrestle each other down the hill!

Cute kids! Man I love those faces!


I just love Brynn and Paxton in this one, Ethan was totally over the photo shoot by this time!


My attempt at a family photo! Apparently I break cameras when I am on this side!


Our original view, right where we stopped when we saw him.


After Kyle wandered out into the grass.


After we left, we were actually closer, this was after I sent Kyle back a couple steps to get a picture!

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Jackpot or bust..... mostly bust!

On Saturday July 10th Kyle participated in his second ever desert race. This time he got all prepared, bought a chest protector, knee guards, elbow guards, the whole nine yards! He even changed his front sprocket so his bike's top speed would be faster. He did all of this to race a measly 48 miles of 102, but I will get to that! The weekend started out like any other... me procrastinating packing to the last possible second. In this case Thursday afternoon after we were already supposed to be on the road! Not only did I wait to pack until Thursday morning ish, but Kyle had a million errands he still had to run as well. So 3pm (not 11am) we were finally on the road. We arrive in Jackpot fairly unscathed, minus a couple cranky kids that were ready to get out of the moto-home! Oh yeah, let's not forget that we left the quad's battery at home in the garage, flushing any chance of getting to pre run the course as a family down the toilet. :-(

Friday morning seemed to start off alright, but as Kyle was getting ready to go pre run the course a gust of wind kicks up and rips the awning off of the coach (I have lots of pet names for the motor home!). So Kyle quickly climbed up and got that fairly squared away, and he was off... to run the course at 25 mph! Ha, ya right. So there I am napping peacefully, in the blistering heat, when I hear, "excuse me?". Here is Redd with his 8 inch tall mo hawk, wondering if I can help him take the front tire off of my bike(hello, do I know you mo hawk dude?), because my husband as a flat out on the course. Okay no big deal, 10 minutes and Red is off to rescue my hubbs! Well 3 minutes later there I am resting my eyes and here comes Kyle, "Hey did Redd take the tire?" Umm hello do you see my tireless bike on the trailer? Well anyway, crisis averted Red hadn't left yet, so Kyle was off to rescue his damn self! (He was pre running with a couple of people that had cars, in case you're confused!) Oh and where are my kids? Causing chaos over with the neighbor kids! I could here them the entire time! Anyway back on track! I don't know how much longer later, but here comes Kyle on his bike, with a flat tire! no cars in sight. Apparently he switched over the tire and flatted my tire 100 ft later. Awesome babe, just awesome! He rode back on the highway with the flat tire, through town. Once again, awesome! So there we are, in the middle of nowhere with two flat motorcycle tires, and no tubes to fix them! What to do, what to do? Call for back up, I call Jesse (he is driving out to race as well) and see if there is somewhere on his drive through the middle of nowhere that might actually sell tubes. Then call my mom and ask her to do the same. Luck is on our side and they both pick up tubes! Jesse shows up a little after five, and they need to fix the tire(the car brought the other tire back), pre run more then the first mile of the course, before dark, and be to the racers meeting at 6:30! Good luck boys! Then it decides to poor! Well off they were any way. Well 7:30 rolls around and they're back! How was racers meeting? Well they didn't go because Kyle decided to crash. He hit a silt bed (Google it, if you don't know!), his bike stopped, he didn't, so over the handle bars he went! Landing right on his head and knees (so grateful for safety equipment!) at 45 mph, not 25! You're shocked, I know! So I get him cleaned up, he decides to get drunk, then finally we get everything ready for the race at crack thirty the next morning.

Saturday morning 5 am the alarms begin to go off, yes alarms up camping, who would do such a thing!? After only 6 hours of sleep. I did mention the drinking the pain away, right?! We are up and ready for the day! I make breakfast, the guys get geared up, and we head over to the starting line. Fast forward past some standing around freezing my butt off, and at 6:20 Kyle leads the bikes out of the gates. Fast forward more of me standing around freezing my butt off and at 6:30 Jesse leaves the gates. More fast forwarding through me doing nothing real exciting while I wait for them to pit! 7:25 Kyle pulls in and I throw some sunscreen on him, he tries to eat a granola bar, gasses up and is off. 7:40 Jesse pits, doesn't let me help at all. Granted I was not actually expecting him for 5-10 more minutes so I wasn't exactly ready but still! He gasses up and goes! Approximately 10 minutes later I over hear someone's radio that they have a bike down. Can't hear where or the number, but know instantly that I will not see Kyle pit again this race. So sitting around, knowing he's not going to show up but still hoping, and at 8:45 here comes Jes. Who has absolutely no information for me, other then Kyle was up and about and waved him on, and wouldn't let him stop. Again, doesn't let me help, throws in his own gas and goes! About 10 after 9 I decide to throw some shorts on and wonder over to find out when approximately I will see my hubby again! Well, he has not been reported! So they call to the check points to get his last times through to find out roughly where he's at and tell me that they will have course sweepers cleaning the course. I run back to camp and literally have to drag my kids out of bed so we can go watch Jesse finish at 9:45! WooHoo Jesse! We're standing around waiting for the trucks to start, and my kids decide they need drinks and they all have to pee, fantastic! So off I send them... hey it's a long walk! Well then I see Ethan picking on Brynn so I end up wondering over there anyway. Apparently Ethan woke up on the wrong side of the bed, and got to stay in timeout while the rest of us watched the trucks start. Finally the trucks start, which the kids thought was pretty cool, maybe not cool enough to wake up for, but they were less cranky after that! After the last truck goes, we head back to camp and who is walking towards us, my lovely husband, who is indeed in one piece! Plus he got to see the trucks start from somewhere just outside of camp, so not a total loss. The chain guide on the swing arm broke off, wrapped around the sprocket, and piled everything into the case. (Yeah sorry for all the car lingo, basically the chain that spins the wheel, and one of it's brackets, detached and crashed into the outside of the motor!) This is the second time he has done this! So his bike is currently in the shop getting a custom, hopefully sturdier, bracket made! Plus it cracked the motor case, so that is getting welded as well. So awesome!

I decide to take a nap, Kyle watches some of the cars come through pits and about 2:30 in the afternoon we say bye to Jackpot, Nevada! We stop in Twin Falls, to see the falls, very pretty BTW, and we head home. Stop in a little town at the border, that doesn't sell lotto tickets, WTF?, pay $3.60 a gallon, and head to Maddox for dinner! Unbelievably there is more bad crap that happened, but I can't remember right now. I'm sure there was a shorter version of this story, but oh well! Congrats if you made it trough the whole thing! Maybe I'll have Kyle feel in the blanks for me, after all I have been awake all night


Frog bird, taking a snooze, on the way there!


Ethan on the way down.


Paxton looking awfully mad while sleeping, on the way down.


Super gross! With knee guards even!


Me taking a picture of him taking a picture!


The guys getting ready at the crack of dawn! Literally!


Kyle starts the whole thing off, the very first green flag of the day!


Kyle's start


Jesse's blurry start


Kyle coming in for his first/last/only pit stop!


Jesse leaving his first pit stop


Jesse coming in for his second/final pit


Tired boys, who don't give a crap about desert racing and the moment.


Waking up is hard to do! Nice hair


Jesse's blurry finish


Jesse's finish


Aww, precious! Taking a nap on Saturday, racing is exhausting.


Shoshone falls, beautiful!

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Grrrr....

So once again I suck at blogging! I need to make an oath to start taking more pictures. I only like to blog when I have pics, so starting tomorrow, my camera is my new best friend!

Friday, June 11, 2010

Ahhhh... pics!

We had a little photo shoot today, here are the pics! Mo-hawks and such!


Too cool for school!


Purple hawk!


Silly face, 1/2 red 1/2 purple today!


Cheese


Silly, cute kids!


Silly girl


Cheese


Just likes to have her picture taken


No front teeth!


What?!

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

eh....no pics!

So over memorial day weekend we spent five days up at St. Anthony's sand dunes. I did not take one single picture. oops! However picture-less or not, we had a ton of fun! We got there Friday afternoon and let the kids loose after being trapped in the moto-home for 5 hours! Their little 90 definitely saw more hours then any other machine! We took my WSM and my little brother and sister with us, and I think they enjoyed themselves. At least I hope they did. They were heavy contributors to the hours that got put on the 90. Ethan lost one of his front teeth, well really he pulled it out and spent 30 minutes trying to get it to stop bleeding. (He lost his other one just this past Friday at the movies, pic to follow shortly!) We met the new owners of the Desert Oasis campground, which is now Idaho Dunes RV, and they seem really nice. It was kind of crappy weather till Sunday but we still rode a lot, and Mon and Tues were absolutely beautiful. Nobody sustained any serious injuries and we all came home exhausted, dirty, and ready for round two!

I officially have a 2nd grader! After we got home, Eth only had a day and a half left of school. He is officially on summer break, and I think after today he is already bored! I am apparently not as entertaining as a classroom full of 7 year olds!

Last weekend we actually stayed in town and spent the weekend together. It was really weird, I either work on the weekends or we go out of town. Friday night we took the kids to see Marmaduke and it was actually an okay show for a talking animal movie. Saturday we took the kids on a hike up to Bell Canyon Reservoir. They all did very well, and walked the whole time, even little bird. Saturday night we hung out and vegged on the couch watching movies all night...so awesome! Sunday we slept in and later had a family BBQ followed by a sweet (pretty pathetic!) game of kickball. I think we need a little more practice before our league starts at the end of this month!

My sole picture of the entire post. The boys climbing an almost vertical part of the trail without any help! So proud of them.

Monday I took Ethan to get his shaggy hair cut. He had decided last week that he needed a 'for-reals' mo-hawk, so that is what he got. Paxton decided he needed one too, so now they both have them. Pic to follow shortly!

Monday, May 24, 2010

Our pets


Paxton caring around our Chorgi (Chihuahua/Corgi), Izzy! He loves her so much.


I'm pretty sure Guido and Spiky are in love, they stare at each other all day long. Guido will let Spiky ride him! When Spiky is running on the floor Guido tries to peck him to get him to play, like Spiky is a dog too, it's cute.