Pedals For Hope

The 6th grade at our school, with the direction and guidance of Kathy (yes my sister), Julie and Amy, put together a 3 day bicycle tour to raise money for the Huntsman Cancer Foundation. It was an amazing accomplishment. They started out by having speakers come to the school, into each classroom, telling students their stories with cancer, then there was a kickoff assembly to get the fundraising started. Each student in the 6th grade raised money, there were penny wars in the school, and tons and tons of volunteers helping with things like food, bikes, etc. The students also went to the Salt Lake Bicycle Collective where they spent time in a service project fixing bikes for kids while learning how to fix their own. The bike tour was designed, originally, to be 30 miles; 8 the first day, 12 the second, and then 4, up a big long hill. The idea was to "conquer the climb" as a metaphor for the battle against cancer. Well, the weather didnt cooperate so we had to go to plan B (then C, then D...). The kids made their first ride and ended up camping as planned the first night. Then, the weather hit. 30 mph winds came in around midnight, flattening the tents (with kids in them!) and making it pretty miserable, no one slept. At about 6:00 am, the rain came. Torrential. The ride that day had to be canceled for safety sake. We went back to school. The next day, we got the kids out again, made sure they were suited up in rain gear and headed out on the Jordan River Parkway, for a 10 mile ride. The kids were awesome, had a great time, and were challenged. Friday, we had an all school assembly to finish off the event, and to announce how much money they raised. Their goal was $3,000, and they raised over $5,500!! It was awesome!!

Parent visit #2...

Well, it has been some time ago now, but parent visit #2 has come and gone. We had a visit from my parents for about 12 days, most of the time n the library, but good nonetheless. We did get to visit the Spiral Jetty in the north part of the Great Salt Lake.

Last time we tried we had a flat tire in the parking lot of the Golden spike and could not go down the dirt road to the jetty. Seems so close, until you go on the road. Is actually 13 miles from the Golden spike, along a very bumpy, rocky road, that really gets bumpy and rocky for the last 1 mile. Once there it is a nice place to spend a bit and walk onto the jetty. Karen and I were there 2 years ago and ALL the rocks were covered in a layer of salt, with surrounding pink sand. This time only the rocks on the lake edge had salt encrusted areas, the rest were back to the black origins. Must have something to do with time of year and water level. We also did a trip to the Bonneville salt flats for a look. Interesting place. They had started to prepare for the racing this summer/fall. You could see a well worn path on the salt toward the race area.

Busy, time for the next couple of weeks for us. We go to Boise for a half ironman next week then in 3 weeks we go to Idaho for the full one. Did my longest training day yesterday (7 hrs) and felt pretty good actually?! Hopefully it will all come together this year and get me to Hawaii. We will try and be better with the blog.

Parent Visit #1

I'm a week late, as usual, but here is a quick report on Dan and Jane's visit. Rich's parents, John and Marty are here now, more on that in a couple of weeks, haha. Dad and Jane came in April 22, we went out to the Bayou for dinner after picking them up at the airport. The Bayou rocks! It's a New Orleans style menu with something like 300 beers to choose from.
Kathy got some incredible Jumbalaya, and we had fried Twinkies for dessert! :-) Wednesday and Thursday, Dad and Jane took a road trip to Flaming Gorge and Dinosaur National Park while we worked. On Thursday night we went to dinner at a new restaurant Rich and I have been wanting to check out... turns out the one we were going to go to was closed down so we ended up there - and so glad we did. This might be some of the best food I have EVER had (everyone else, too). Rich said he can never eat dessert again as the carrot cake there has spoiled him for all others. The restaurant is called Franck's. Friday, we all went to Moab for a little bit of a vacation. We had some difficulty with the reservation (Karen will not mention that she totally screwed it up, haha) and ended up having to share one room for all five of us (my sister Kathy, too). Anyway, we were in luck because there was a super cool, really really cool, classic car show going on there. We ate at Miguel's and watched cars and had a great Friday night. Saturday, we went to the park to view all the cars and then took a tour of Arches National Park. Sunday, Dad and Jane flew home. It was a great visit, although, as always, too short.