Xtreme Adventure Race

If you want to hear about a real adventure, well. . . .  you have come to the right spot!!  In December Jen (my sister) came to Todd and I and asked if we wanted to do this relay race with them.  It's called Xtreme Adventure Race.  So we looked up the information and thought, that looks fun, we can do that.  So we said yes.  The race was held in Moab Utah on April 5th so that gave us plenty of time to train.  We signed up as a 4 person team which meant that each person would participate in two legs of the race and there would always be two people together.  Well today is April 6th which means the race was yesterday.  It was the HARDEST, LONGEST, MOST CHALLENGING thing I have EVER done.  I guess I didn't study up enough on it, because it was so much different than I expected.

When we got to Moab on Friday we went to Arches National Park.  It was so pretty:

Amazing how these rocks are just everywhere!

Balanced Rock

The famous Delicate Arch (we din't get that close so its far away right in the middle of the picture)

Sand Dune Arch

The boys loved climbing on all the rocks!

That night we checked in for the race and got our race packet.  In the packet was a map of the area we would race.  On another paper were the coordinates of each check point we would need to find so we could stamp our passport booklet. We had to find each location on the map and find roads or trails leading to each check in point!!!??  CRAZY, no directions, no marks to show us where to go, no volunteers to point the direction, just a CRAZY map?

These are the pictures they took of us when we checked in Friday night:

Saturday Morning 8:15 a.m. First Leg:  Jen and Shannon Mountain Biking 18 miles:

This shows the 6 mile hill we battled.  We had an elevation gain of more than 2300 ft.  Oh my,  it was nasty.

Getting ready to start, we had no idea how CRAZY that hill was going to be :-)

This gives a little idea of how steep we rode (I mean walked, I mean pushed our bikes up)

You can see how high we were with the road in the background that we started on.  This was only 1/2 way up.

It just kept going up and up and up.

Then when we finally got to go down, we were on a single track mountain bike trail that looked like this.  Oh my gosh I was so scared.  At one point we had a cliff 5 ft away from us.  It took us 3 1/2 hours to complete this leg of the race.  We knew it would be hard but never imagined it would take us that long.  We were so happy to be finished.

Leg 2: Todd and Shannon running 8 miles:

The first two miles went great, it was a little down hill.  Then we had a 300 ft repel.  The next two miles went fine, but the last 3 1/2 we were back on a single track trail (just like the biking picture) going up hill.  My legs were tired and I was so hungry.

This is me headed down a 300 ft repel.  I was terrified, I am scared of heights. 

Look at how small the people look hanging from those ropes.   Once again, CRAZY.

This is a pictures a little further out, if you look close you can see the ropes hanging.

We did manage to get a picture together.  I thought we did a pretty good job of faking smiles, but when I downloaded them I decided we didn't do so great!  This leg took us 2 1/2 hours.  I was finished with my two legs and couldn't have been more relieved to sit and eat something!

Leg 3: Todd and Quinn Mountain Biking 16 miles

I'm not sure what Jen and I were thinking by giving this leg to the boys.  It was mostly downhill.  

The guys killed this leg finishing in 1 1/2 hours.  They had a blast going downhill.  They had an under 2 minute mile.  CRAZY!  Todd was now done with his two legs!

Leg 4 Kayaking: Quinn and Jen 8 miles

This part of the Colorado River didn't have much flow to it.

Sending them off!

That is them out there on the water!  It was beautiful, but after they got wet they were so cold.  The sun was starting to go down and the temperature only hit 63*  It took them 2 1/2 hours to finish this, the final leg of the race!!

We finally finished!  10 hours 15 minutes later.  6:30 p.m.  Wow, CRAZY.  We did come in 1st place for our division!!!!!  (I guess I have to mention we were the only 4 person team that signed up)  All the other teams were single racers or two person teams, which means everybody else did all 4 legs of the race.  CRAZY, how can people do that?  

Our team name fit us so perfect, "NOT SO BRIGHT"!!! We love wearing this yellow.  It makes it so easy to spot each other out on the course.  

I am so proud of us for trying something so different.  We really had no idea what we were getting into.  We did get to enjoy beautiful scenery all day,  along with great company!  Good Job guys!  I'm so proud of you!!!

Spur of the Moment

Saturday morning I went to the gym to run my 8 miles (I am training for a race) and as I ran I thought about what we had going on.  There was absolutely NOTHING.  No work, no games, nothing.  We do not have many days like this at our house.  What should we do?  When I got home I gave a few suggestions that I had thought of.   The most popular idea was to go to Park City.  So we made a hotel reservation, I took a shower and within 1 hour we were in the car on our way.  We grabbed lunch at Wendy's (does that surprise anyone?) and as we were driving Todd and I both got on the phone to get subs for our church classes (thanks to great friends who helped us out!) We had such a blast!!!

 First we went tubbing! There were not very many people there so we got down the hill plenty of times!

Ski hill all lit up! Our hotel was right at the base of that!

 We stayed at the Marriott Mountain Side Vacation Resort.  It was awesome!  This was our pool right next to the ski hill.  It was a heated pool and there were 5 hot tubs.  The pool was even warm enough for me to get in (that means it must be very warm!)

The hotel had lots of activities for the kids including bracelet making, cookie decorating, foosball, shuffleboard, mining and snow shoeing.  We took the 2 hour snow shoeing hike.  It was so nice outside, no coats needed.

We drove Main Street Park City, ate good food, stayed up late swimming and playing games and had a great time together!  I think sometimes the best times are Spur of the Moment!!!

Boys State Basketball

I have so many good memories of state basketball from my youth.  Growing up in Rexburg we always had the opportunity to go to state to support our teams.  They were such good times for me.  Swimming at the hotel, eating out and cheering at the games with friends who were also there.  I loved going to state.  Ever since we have moved to Idaho Falls and became Skyline Grizzlies we have cheered and hoped "our" team would make it to state.  State is always more fun when you can cheer for your own team.  Well we have lived here for 13 years and we have had many years with a very talented team, but they just couldn't pull off enough wins to get us to state.  That is until this year.  We were so excited to be able to go and watch our boys play.  We had 3 very close games, they didn't disappoint.  We also swam, went to lunch, dinner, played games and watched the games with friends and family!  Good times.  Braeden was able to go with the cheer team, and oh boy did they have fun.  What a party.  It just makes me happy thinking about it.  We had a great weekend!

Drive to Boise:

Watching and cheering for the Basketball Team:

Best Cheer Buddies:

Eating at Cracker Barrel

Lots of pool time with friends:

The drive home with the whole gang:  

(We were happy to have Braeden back with us!)