This weekend was so full of activities and events that I had to write about it and share with everyone what happened.
On Friday night I arrived home to find a surprise birthday (two weeks early) party for me. It was really fun and the first time I have ever had a surprise party. Brooke had the whole thing planned for weeks and for once kept a secret. I was a bit suspicious when I saw a bunch of familiar cars parked on my street, but it was a great surprise. We had swimming for the kids, a chocolate fondue fountain, a variety of rare and unique sodas for taste testing, food, cake and of course gifts. If you want to see the awesome gift I received from everyone, click
here. (Real pictures will follow once everyone gives them to me). I want to say thanks to everyone who pitched in and a special thanks to Brooke for making it happen.
Saturday was a big day as well with a lot of things happening. First of all it was the first day of The Tour De France, which is one of my favorite sporting events. It's very exciting and fun to watch. So anyone who hasn't been involved in the past, check it out this year. We also had a big day with the family up at Pineview Dam. Hopefully I will get pictures from everyone and put them up later. We had a really great time up there playing in the sand and the water. I am still feeling the pain of Wakeboarding for the first time in a year. Then we celebrated birthday's for Brooke and Carly. So Saturday was a really full day and it's a good thing we were able to get some rest on Sunday.
The fun never stops for Brooke, Hailee and I as we will be enjoying The Independence Day Holiday tomorrow.
Saturday I accomplished my first noteworthy ride as a cyclist. My fried Kirk and I set out on Saturday morning to ride the Old Snowbasin Road, from Huntsville to Snowbasin. I have been riding frequently but haven't done much other than ride on the flats. I wasn't sure that I would even be able to make it all the way up, it's about 1,300 vertical feet of climbing in 9 Miles. Initially I just planned on going as far as I could and turning around when I thought I couldn't go any further. But we ended up running into a friend of ours, Don Mueller, along with some of his riding friends. The added pressure of riding with a big group gave me the motivation to make it to the top no matter how long it took. So it was not only my first big climbing ride, but my first time riding with a significantly sized group. That turned out to be a big benefit to me as Don literally pushed me up parts of a few of the steep hills. We did eventually make it up to Snowbasin with only one minor mechanical incident which Kirk (The Expert Bike Mechanic) fixed. Then we enjoyed the descent from Snowbasin down Trappers Loop back to Huntsville. With a top speed of 43 miles per hour, it was quite a rush. Surprisingly I was pretty impressed at how I performed, although significantly behind the other riders, I felt pretty good about it considering I have only been riding for about 5 weeks. It was a fun ride and a good introduction to mountain riding for me. I plan to do more rides like this in the future. Next time I will try to take some pictures to post.
