The Heber Valley Girls

Before the Century began.

We are Pumped!

Tana, Me, Kim, and Mylissa at Lunch.

Pulling into the FINISH!

O.K. so I went a little over board on the pictures. Truethfully I elimanated several but I am knd of proud of all of us that accomplished this that I wanted to share it with others. I have to start off by thanking my sweet husband who was there for nearly 8 hour experience driving along, cheering me on and taking pictures! He only left to watch Gavin during his soccer game and get the kids situated.

The Heber Century is an amazing ride! I use the word ride loosley beacuase though it wasn't a timed race, riding a 100 miles in one day is quite the challenge especially this praticular century. We started at 8:00 am in Heber, went over to Midway, then over Jordenelle to Fransis, Oakley, past Rockport to Wanship, to Coalville then back over the freeway passing back through each of the previous towns on the loop back to Kamas and Fransis then over Jordenelle back to Heber! (That was a mouthful.) There were some good climbs in each 25 mile leg of the ride especially the last 25 miles or so. It took us just under 8 hours to ride the whole 107 miles including our pit stops, 6 1/2 hours on the bike, OUCH!

For me it was as much mental as it was physical. I broke the ride down in 25 mile sections, looked at the elevation levels before hand to prepare myself mentally, and listened to some great tunes on my Ipod. Unfortunately it died the last hour of the ride. I trained for this ride by working on climbing hills rather than the miles. The 2 weeks before I climbed over Jordenelle to Kamas and back and felt that even if I was left to go at it alone I could do it!

Though this was not my first completed century, (I finished the Little Red Riding Hood which goes through the beautiful area of Cache Valley in June of this year and only 57 miles in the Zion's Century in January this year.) it was one that I wanted to prove to myself that I could accomplish. I went with some amazing girls who I owe a lot to. Thanks especially to Tana and Kim for sticking with me even when they could have gone ahead at a faster pace. You know you are AWESOME. You both are also thoughtful and gracious.

Between around mile 60-70 or so I hit a low. I had even popped a caffine filled gummie something or other but just felt myself straining to keep up. I knew that if I could just make it to the next pit stop I would be fine. During this section of the ride Kim was kind enough to bike alongside me. She could tell I was fading fast and asked for my water bottle. I tried to take the lid off for her but couldn't and continue to ride, she proceeded with what seemed like seconds to take off my lid rip open a package and pour in some electrolytes all while riding her bike. I was oblivious to this until she handed it back to me. I was focused just on pedaling. Her kindness made the difference for me, I made it to the next pit stop and felt great the rest of the way!

I was wiped out once I got home, after taking my great anticipated shower I was unable to do much but lie around for the rest of the day but was pleasantly surprised to find that I was not sore the next day.

We were blessed with the most perfect weather we could ask for, not to mention beautiful fall colors everywhere! I had a fleeting thought after finishing the ride that maybe I didn't NEED to do that century again but the very next day I was excited to do it next year. So for any of you out there that want to take this challenge to do this either again or for the first time I will be planning on it so come join me!

"It Looks Like it's a 100 MILES But it's Not!"

Doing some tricks along the way

Riding up the hill!

This is the hill he biked up!

Gavin (who is 5) said he wanted to ride his bike to preschool. Over the summer I refused to drive the kids to their piano lessons, swim lessons etc. and told them we were going to save gas and get some exercise. They all did great but I had always had Gavin in the bike trailer while I biked to and fro thinking he would get to tired. But he did a great job biking all the way to preschool yesterday he only had to stop a few short times. The first time he yelled out that his bike wouldn't go anymore. I saw that his backpack strap was caught in the chain. I was able to get it out and then we were off again with the backpack on my back this time. When we were 2/3 of the way there he says "It looks like we've been going a 100 miles but its not huh?" What felt like a 100 miles to him was an AMAZING total of 2.07 miles! It was pretty flat except for a small hill just at the end. He was almost to the top of the hill when he said "I just can't take it anymore" I said look we are almost there and he just kept on going! Another cute thing he said along the way was "My hands are getting tired and they are say to stop but my legs are saying keep on going, keep on going!" I am so proud of him. If he keeps this up I'll have a new partner for my century rides in a few years!

A Feeling of Peace Among the Hustle and Bustle of New York

Our last day in New York we really wanted to attend sacrament meeting and see the temple. We had heard that they held church meetings in the temple. We finally found out when the meetings were held and the four of us (all small town country girls) made our way by subway to the temple. We were so proud of ourselves that we were finally able to figure it out. Sad to say that when we got there there was a sister Missionary standing outside to tell us that the meeting house section of the temple was under renovation. We were disappointed but so glad we had made the trip to see this beautiful modest temple in the middle of this huge city among skyscrapers.

Some More Big Apple Pics

It was so fun to go to the American Girls store. Unfortunately we only had a few minutes to spend before it was time to go to the airport.
Central Park

Watching Legally Blonde

The REAL New York Experience

If you've ever been to New York you may have noticed the street venders on the sidewalk selling things; perfume, souviners, purses etc. Well when we got off the subway in China Town an Asian man whispers to Mel "I show you designer purses!" He flashes a picture of some designer purses and says "Come." Mel follows him and the rest of our group follows her across the street, down anther sidewalk and then he opens up this dirty old door that leads upstairs. "Come quickly." He says. Meanwhile we are all saying to Mel "No! Let's GO!" "Come now or I get other people" he says. Mel insists that she will not go without her family and she grabs us by the arm and shoves us through the door "We are all going!" she says. My mom and I give eachother looks as if this may be our last good-bye and I keep close to Cort. As we are walking up the dimly lit staircase I notice how it looks as if it should be condemed but there is a tatoo parlor off to the side and we go up another flight of stairs. I was about to loose it and turn around when all of a sudden several women with stuffed black garbage bags pass us on the way down saying "It was really worth it!" We are all still quite scared especially when he unlocks a door, funnels us through and then locks us in. The rooms are all falling apart and dimmly lit and he takes us to a very small room with tons of purses. Some of our group purchase a few purses but they wanted us to make a purchase within a few minutes so they could bring more unsuspecting victims. I tried but to no avail could get them down to the price I wanted to pay so they said it was time for us to go.

So then it became the "mission" of eveyone else to "help" me get a purse since everyone including Cortlynd had bought at least one purse if not 15! (Cynthia) By the last evening Cynthia with her charm bought a cute green purse for me for the price I wanted to pay! Yeah!

Later in the trip we notice that "others" sell purses on the street from a bag at night. We were walking back late one evening when a guy whispers agian to Mel. How do they know that she will say yes? She follows him around the corner out of the light of the business and behind an electrical box on the street corner. He looks around for cops and opens up his bag of purses. A few minutes later a cop car drives by and he gets pretty nervous. We thank him and pull Mel away. She just laughs at both experiences and says "I just wanted you all have the REAL New York experience!!!

Stardust Diner

Kristy and Cynthia found this great diner where the waiters/waitresses sing songs from table to table in between serving. It was really fun and they all had great voices. All of them work on and off Broadway in minor roles too. We even noticed one of them at "Legally Blonde" the next day. I was surprised when all of a sudden this guy sat on my lap and started serenading me

Adventures with Mel

My Maralyn Monroe Impersonation

Mel and I with "Blinkie"

"D.J. Slim"

Chris

My sister in law Melanie is all about the adventure. If you want to have fun stick close to Mel cause you'll never forget your experience! We were on the 102 floor of the Empire State Building and I was wishing I had bought the "Empire State Building A Guide to the Views Souvenirs Map" like my wise sister in law Kathy. I kept looking out each window and didn't know what I was looking at. I mentioned this to Mel and she felt the same way. She asked attenedent if it were possible to go back to the souvenir shop (5th floor?) and then come back up. Yeah right like they let you do that. But Mel can get anyone to do anything you know. So she radioed down and got the o.k. Simple right? Well not exactly it. The elevator attendent told us to make sure we say we were Vinny's cousin and that we needed to get back up to the 102 floor. We thought he said to talk to Vinny's cousin. Well we get down to the shop and find the attendent who was radioed with our ok she told us to go back to the shop but make sure not to get in the line to go the rest of the way down. She said they would try to tell us we couldn't go back up but to try to find her. Well once in the shop we found out we couldn't purchase the books there that they were only sold on the 1st floor. So we talked to another attendent who said that if we talked to "D.J. Slim" that he might let us go down and then back up but we had to call him "D.J. Slim" loud enough for him to hear. So that's what Mel did. She called out to him and they both started laughing. Well he gave us the ok and said to talk to Chris on the 1st floor. So we get down there and buy our wonderful maps. We make our way back to Chris who lets us skip the enormous line and sends us back up to the 5th floor. We are welcomed by D.J. Slim and he tells us that the other guys name was "Blinkie". We talk to Blinkie and he tells us that he was the one to nickname everyone. He calls himself Blinkie because he always blinks. He even told us the name of the girl on his floor that we talked to was "Babyface". (It was straight out of a movie.) Blinkie got us up to the observatory and found our original elevator attendent who took us up to the 102 floor. Of course by the time we made it up everyone else was ready to leave (or had already left in Cort's case). We looked around with our newfound maps and enjoyed ourselves. On our way down to the observatory we mentioned to the nice guy that we never found cousin. He laughed at us and said "I told you tell them that you were Vinn'ys cousin." He said I'm Vinny! Who knew? (It was hard to undertand the thick New York accent at times.)

LOBSTER Anyone???

We ate at a wonderful seafood resturant. Great service/fun waiter! (Very expensive but Mel was gracious enough to take care of the bill.) I ordered lobster I was just surprised that I got the whole thing eyes, antenea, claws, and all yike s! My nieces were quite freaked out about it
and it became the joke of the evening! We then thought it would be fun to play a joke on our waiter by telling him that we couldn't pay but Brooke and Jaime would do the dishes instead. Of course none of us could keep a straight face and they couldn't even get the words out so we left him a nice tip in change! It was a fun night.

LIBERTY LADIES

It was WICKED!!

Wicked was amazing! Beautiful singing, freaking awesome affects and scenery.

Navy Pier

We finally got our family pictures and individual pictures of our kids. Its been a few years sad to say. They turned out great and I just had to show off how gorgeous they all are.

AHH THE EXCITEMENT AND INNOCENCE OF YOUTH!!

If your family has never been "Booed" it is quite the fun experience for the kids, but I didn't realize how much fun they actually had. Hunter was babysitting Graham and Gavin while Darren was at Bishopric meetings and Cort and I were at YM's when we got Booed this year. When Darren got home the boys were soooo excited to share with him what they got to do. They were so proud of themselves because they followed the directions and made copies of the papers and delivered their "Goodies" to not only 2 families but to 3. The part that I think is the cutest is what they gave as a treat. Family 1 got 5 cinnamon bears in a little plastic baggie, family 2 got a handful of peanut M&M's and family 3 got 3 fruit snacks! They were quite determined too. They told us how they would ring the doorbell and then hide but they wouldn't come to the door so they kept doing it until they came! They caught a couple of times too in their attempts to be sneaky. They even scared one family (whose husband was out of town) who called another neighbor to send out their older boys to see who kept ringing and leaving. Those boys scared our boys who were hiding in the bushes. Don't you just remember how fun it was to be so excited over little things like this and really sharing from the heart with others? I hope to remember this and be excited over the little things. FYI we did redeem ourselves and took homemade cookies (enough for the whole family) the next night and they again loved hiding and giggling in the dark as they waited for our neighbors to answer the door and find another surprise!

THE UNVEILING OF OUR BLOG!

I am officially starting our family blog. I started it several months ago but was so busy I never got beyond my 1st post which was probably not very interesting to most but I was grateful for the big nudge my sister Shannon gave me in doing so. She has helped me a lot and though I am quite the novice I hope to expand my knowledge. Mostly I want to do this for a record/journal for my family so that if I ever do get around to scrap booking I might be able to remember something. Plus I think my kids are so cute that I can't help but want to show their pictures off. So hopefully you will enjoy my updates from time to time. I actually hope to update at least once a week until I have caught up with the things we did this summer but I will try to send an email when I do. (I love it that Kayla does this for me.)

I Did It!

Though these pictures don't look like much I just had to make a note of their significance. It turned out that Cort, Graham, and I made it to St. Louis 1 1/2 hours before Darren and the other two boys made it. We weren't about to sit around at the airport for that long so- Drum roll please; I got the car from the rental and drove to the St. Louis Art Museum all by myself and then back to the airport to pick up Darren and the boys. (This was the fun part because I had Cortlynd navigating for me without turn by turn directions!) We had to figure out the directions turning in the opposite direction. Not so hard you think to yourself ahh we beg to differ. It actually wasn't so bad after we figured out where we took the wrong turns (yes plural) but in a big city that I had never been before I was pretty proud of myself. We really enjoyed the art museum too.

St. Louis Arch

On our way up to the top of the St. Louis Arch we were crammed in a tiny little 5 seater elevator that would go up as high as it would allow and then the elevator would turn and kink as we would go along the arch.

Poor Cortlynd is so scared of heights she was quite terrified and kept her eyes closed the whole time. She didn't even want to go but we forced to go.