Salt Lake Century

I participated in my first road-bike race!  I've been cycling regularly for about a month, but had never actually ridden more than 14 miles.  So I knew for sure that I couldn't do 100 miles!  Or even 70.

I opted for the 40 mile route instead.  (Honestly, 40 miles on a road bike is not a big deal.)

The first 20 miles took me about 55 minutes.  The second 20 took me three hours.  :)

I did take an hour lunch break in there.  But coming back to the finish line was slow-going!  And my bum was super sore from the darn bike seat.  Regardless, it felt great and I learned a few things.

1- Don't get too lost in your thoughts during a race.  I completely missed a turn, and everyone behind me just followed me and missed the turn too.  Oops.
2- Drink twice as much water as you think you need.  I thought I was drinking a lot but not much came out of me when I used the bathroom.
3- Find spandex that doesn't squeeze you right on your bladder- especially if you're pregnant. 
4- Don't assume that you can outrun a giant turkey, even if you're on a road bike.

I got one phone picture of the race- it's me and Natalie.  She's the super-biker who rode the whole 100 miles!

Happy Half Way!

I'm half way through this pregnancy!  Yay!

I've been on a blogging strike waiting for a friend to update hers first...  You know who you are...
But I don't want to forget these pregnant times.  So here's an update on the first half.

Month 0-1 I felt fine.

Month 1-4 I felt awful.  Nauseated, depressed, utterly exhausted, unmotivated, you name it.  One of these months I was supposed to gain one pound, I gained seven because all I could do was sit around and eat butter cookies and cheesecake (if I wasn't napping.)  Blah.  Todd cooked a lot of meals and cleaned up the house for me during those gloomy days (THANKS! PLEASE KEEP IT UP :)

Month 4-present I feel great!!  I woke up about 6 weeks ago and felt like weeding the garden!!  It was a miracle!  Since that day I have remodeled my bedroom, de-cluttered the house, held a garage sale, planned a vacation, picked up road biking, completed a 40 mile bike race, and even cooked a lot of dinners.  Thank goodness for the second trimester, I don't know if I'd have another kid if it were miserable the entire time.  This last month I was expecting to gain 4 pounds, and I actually lost one- because I'm finally exercising and eating fruits and veggies again. I have gained about 12 pounds so far.

That about sums it up!  Here are photos I've taken along the way.

We Have a New Hobby

Any guesses what it is?
(No, it's not dismantling bikes.)

Moab, Arches, and Canyonlands oh my

Todd and I tried out road biking for the first time around Moab last weekend. 
It was awesome!  I never fell off my bike or got stuck in the clip-in pedals. 
And it didn't hurt my back, as everything else seems to do...

Here I am, ever the photographer.  Notice the baby bump :) 

(Who am I kidding my stomach has always looked like that ha ha)

My camera was acting funny and only captured half of this photo.  At least it was the top half.


Todd got some good bouldering in at the Big Bend boulders.  Here he is on Circus Trick, which was more difficult to come down from than climb up.  He had to jump off the boulder because there was no other way down.


We biked through part of Arches and Canyonlands and camped in the "overflow" dirt patch with dozens of other tightly packed campers.    Canyonlands is amazing!



 

We drove home during an incredible sunset.  It made the drive go faster.

All in all it was a great trip. I love Moab!

Another Hammond Family Sleepover!

Once or twice a year we invite the Hammond nieces and nephews over for the night.  (We wish the Arizona Hammonds could come!!)

This time we let everyone paint again, which is always fun and really cool to see what they all come up with.

Somehow I only managed to take one picture all night.  I blame the pregnancy.

But there was food and paint everywhere, kids tripping on kids, furniture being pushed all over the place, drums being pounded, and yelling and laughing kids that trickled into the wee hours of the night.

This was serious fun. 

And the Hammond kids are all surprisingly clean- by the time they left there was hardly a drop of paint out of place.  (Thank you!! :)

Here is the one picture I took of the twins:

Add caption

Todd took a few with his phone:

I only made it to 12:30 AM before crashing. Todd was up past 2 AM, and I'm told others were up past 3.  We must be the coolest Aunt and Uncle ever! ha ha.  Let's see if their parents ever let them return after reading this post ;)

Here is Todd at 2:30 pm the following afternoon:

Till next time, Hammond nieces and nephews!

The Valley of Fire

I've been begging Todd to "take me away" for months now, and finally the weather, our schedules, and our sewer line cooperated and let us have the time.
Ever since I heard about the Valley of Fire by Vegas I've had it in mind, so we headed down there for the weekend.

The light from Vegas kept the horizon pink all night.

The roller-coaster ride into the park

The entire area is covered with red rock and slot canyons. 
I love this stuff.

3,000 year old petroglyphs

We got really hot hiking, so we drove to Lake Mead for a freezing swim.

Ever-the-climber Todd inspecting possible future routes

We stayed up late each night to take pictures of the stars (thanks Todd!)

Todd stands between two of the finest things in life: a Lamborghini and a '98 Honda Civic.

I was there too :)
I'm pretty bad at taking pictures of myself since I love being behind the camera so much.

Moe's Valley bouldering.  This was our first time here- we loved it!

Great News

Surprise... I'm in a "delicate condition" as my brother-in-law puts it.  (Ha ha)

I'm pregnant and so happy!

It looks like a bean but I'm pretty sure it's an embrio: