Forget the Couch Virtual Race

I had so much fun on the Flatten the Curve Virtual Race that I decided to continue with the series and participate in the second race of the series, Forget the Couch.  This time though, I signed up for the biking portion of the race not running.  I also convinced Russell to do the race with me.  I am excited to finally try out my new road bike and Russell is excited to teach me all he knows. 

We did our first ride on June 1st.  We rode out to Paradise and back for a total of 17 miles.  Let me tell you, biking is much easier than running!  But it does take your butt a little getting used to.  

During June, we took a little vacation to St. George so of course we brought our bikes to continue with this challenge.  St. George is a perfect place to road bike because there are so many bike trails that go through out the city.  We went on about every trail in the city and biked about 135 miles this week

One awesome ride we went on while in St. George was through Snow Canyon State Park.

We did a 50k on the bike this day through Snow Canyon, Tuachan, Ivins, and more.  The views through Snow Canyon were amazing but let's just say the climb up Snow Canyon was a killer!  Sadly we both got passed by a 75 year old guy on his bike.  The ride back down through the park was so thrilling though!  I think we got to speeds close to 35 mph!

The next day we decided to ride to another state.  We rode from Washington to Arizona! This was an interesting ride. First we had to convert our road bikes into mountain bikes and go on some dirt roads, then we got lost somewhere in Little Valley (thanks Siri) and finally made it back home to complete another 50k. Good times!

On another day, we got together with my cousin, Shawna, and went on a ride with her.  We rode around the whole city this day. It was a nice loop but pretty hilly. Shawna showed us some new trails too.  It was pretty fun until we had to climb Hell Hole hill at the end...

No one becomes an official biker until they get a flat tire.

When we got back home from St. George, Russell and I got up early one day to head out on a ride.  We had high hopes to get some good miles in but unfortunately it was cut short at mile 4 by a lovely flat tire.  I hit a rock and totally slashed my tire.  Unfortunately, all three of our spare tires were bad so we selected the one with the slowest leak and gimped it all the way back home.  Now I have to get a whole new tire and a few extra tubes, not to mention all of the gear to change a flat because I don't have any of that stuff.  Thankfully Russell was with me because he was able to use his gear to fix the tire.  The next day I changed out my tire and tube.  Who knew I would ever have to use my childhood bike tire changing skills as an adult!  Go me!  So instead of riding, we went back home and picked up Emily for a short morning run instead.

Well we did it!  We made it to 200 miles in June.  Actually we ended the month with 315 biking miles!  We finished the month with a ride through Paradise, Mt. Sterling, and other surrounding areas.  We were riding pretty quickly because we were trying to beat a storm.  Luckily the rain held off until we got home.

This is why you should always wear a helmet while riding your bike.  My helmet saved me from a massive bird poop!

A few days after the end of the month, we received our Forget the Couch medals and swag!

This was a great challenge for us and we were able to do amazing things to push ourselves!  At the beginning of the month, Russell told me he could ride at my pace forever.  Well by the end of the month, he was complaining that I was a slave driver forcing him to do more miles! Ha! 

During this month, we were able to bike 315 miles which enabled us to place in our age divisions!  I earned first place in my age group earning me the Champion pin.  Russell was able to get second place in his age group!  We were super excited about our results.  Now on to a new challenge and a new month of riding!

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to this amazing Dad! Russell is a wonderful husband and father! I don't know what we did right in the preexistence to deserve him but we pretty much won that lottery. We love him so much!!

We sure love our Dad and we love spending time with him too.  To celebrate Father's Day, we spent the afternoon at Porcupine Reservoir on Monday.  

We love kayaking and had a blast at the lake.  The water is really high this time of year so it actually covered the trees and made a nice shady beach/docking area to play on.  We kayaked and floated all the way across the lake and explored the shoreline on the other side of the lake.  There were some nice rocks to cliff jump off of but we were not sure how to get up there.  This is a really nice lake to play in because it is a little less populated than Hyrum Dam.

One of my goals this year was to learn how to make a t-shirt quilt. I gathered all of Russell's old Fire/EMS shirts and made him this awesome quilt to use at the station. I love how it turned out and so does he!

For Russell's big present this year, he got this awesome shed.

Okay it is actually Happy Father's day, birthday, anniversary, and probably Christmas! This shed is something Russell has wanted and we have needed for quite a while now.  Thanks to the Covid-19 government stimulus check, we were finally able to make it a reality. 

Russell has been working so hard to get the ground prepped and ready for the day when his shed would finally arrive.  He even recruited the kids to help him out with measuring and hauling and laying gravel.  The kids found these awesome hammocks at Al's Sporting Goods and really wanted them.  We told them that they had to work for them and earn some money.  Russell decided hauling gravel was the perfect job for that.  They spent all day one Saturday hauling and laying gravel in order to earn their hammocks.  They did a really great job and the pad was ready for cement when they were done.  That day they went and bought their hammocks and relaxed the rest of the day!

  Little did we know that we don't really know how to prep a pad for cement.  When Russell's co-worker came over to lay the frames, he kind of laughed at us and said we needed a lot more grave.  We had to make the gravel level for the cement.  Because of the slope of our yard, this meant a lot more gravel to make it level all the way around.  The front of the pad needed about 2 inches of gravel while the back of the pad needed about 12 inches to make the whole thing level.  Well this meant another Saturday of hauling and laying gravel.  The next time his co-worker came to lay the frames, he was much happier.  Then it was time for the cement.  This also took a lot of man power so we were glad that a few of our friends were able to come and help.  Finally, the day arrived for Top Shed to come and build the shed.  When they were done, we were so pleased and it looked so awesome!

Happy Father's Day!!

Another fun thing that has happened recently is Charlotte has decided that riding her bike is fun!

She used to think it was way too much work to pedal her bike but now she realizes that she can go much farther when she is pedaling.  There are some nights that we ride around the block multiple times.  She thinks it is pretty awesome to go exploring on her bike.

St. George Va-cay

The whole fiasco with Covid-19 left us feeling really cooped up inside. The problem was we couldn't really go anywhere to get away and relax.  So instead of going somewhere different for a vacation, we decided to head to St. George and enjoy some sun and outdoors.  Yes, Covid was still around and we had to be careful but we got to go out and do some fun things while also spending time with family.  

We decided to spend a whole week down there as opposed to only a couple days.  For the first few days we stayed at Grandma and Grandpa Farnsworth's house.  We got to do quite a few fun things with them.  We decided to bring down all of our play things like our kayaks, four wheelers, and bikes.

Usually when we go to St. George, we just hang out and don't do much.  This time we told ourselves it would be different and we would go have fun at some places we had never been to before.  Our first adventure took us to Fire Park and Ivins Reservoir.  

This was a small little pond/lake but perfect for the kids and their kayaks.  The water was not very deep either so the kids could swim around.  They loved just splashing and playing in the water.  When we first got there, we realized this was a popular place because the parking lot was full.  We debated on even stopping but then we found a spot to park and got out.  Luckily there was a spot on the beach for us to gather and play.  After a couple of hours, we started getting bombarded by other people so we decided it was time to go.  This was a fun place.

The next day we headed to more water fun.  This time we decided to go to Lower Sand Cove.  This place was perfect because we had the whole lake to ourselves.  As we arrived, another family was leaving so we did not have to compete for space.  Tyler and Ashley came along and we all had a good time.

Once again our kayaks were a hit but with the water being so shallow, the kids preferred to just swim and wade around.  Near the shore was kind of mossy but they didn't seem to care about that. I actually preferred to kayak out to the middle of the lake and just relax in the middle of no where.  After swimming for a while, we decided to walk around and explore the area.

We found this cool tunnel that went under the mountain and out the other side.  This tunnel allowed the river to flow through the mountain to the lake.  We decided to explore the tunnel and wade through the river from one side to the other.  This was pretty cool but kind of perilous.  Even though it was a short tunnel, it was pitch dark inside and there were rock and boulders everywhere.  We kept tripping or stubbing our toes on rocks.  A few of us also fell in the river when we tripped.  Thankfully we came out unharmed.   

The next day, we took advantage of the cooler temperatures and went on a few hikes.  Our first hike was to the Aspiration Trail. This was really fun for the kids as they looked at all of the cool rocks along the way. This is a new hike in St. George.  It was a really simple walk designed for kids and the whole trail is lined with painted rocks with different inspirational or funny quotes on them.

Each kid found their favorite rocks along the way to pose with.  As we made our way to the top of the hill, we loved reading each rock.  There were more and more rocks as we got closer to the summit.  At the top there were piles of painted rocks and an awesome platform and American Flag.  It was pretty awesome to make it to the top.

Also at the top there were some great views of the surrounding desert.  We could see forever in all directions when we got to the top.  This was definitely an inspiring and aspiring trail!

Next we drove to Arizona!  We thought this would be a really good trip but the kids were not impressed... 

For our last hike of the day, we took a short walk up to one of the old Aviation arrows on the mountain.  These aviation arrows were used way back when to guide the mail and passenger planes between Salt Lake and Los Angeles. 

There are three other Aviation Arrows like this one in St. George.  The arrows are placed 10 miles apart all along the route.  In the past, these arrows were lit with coal or oil lamps during the night.  I have lived in St. George my whole life and I had never even heard of these arrows until this year!  It was pretty cool to see some history in real life.  We hoped to get to the other arrows while we were here this week but we were not able to.  Another trip definitely.

When we got back to Grandma and Grandpa Farnsworth's house, we were able to go swimming in their neighbor's backyard pool.

This was something the kids had looked forward to all day.  They are just like fish and love the water! They loved floating around, spending time in the hot tub, and especially making fun of Uncle Tyler and Dad as they had belly flop wars.

While at Grandma Farnsworth's, Emily figured out how to climb the tree in the front yard.  She used this tree to escape from the boys and have quiet time to read her books.

Before heading over to Grandma and Grandpa Morwood's house for the rest of the week, he had to take a few pictures in the tree.  Climbing this tree has been like a rite of passage at the Farnsworth's.  Once you can climb it on your own, you are considered grown!

While at the Morwood's we decided we needed to take the four wheelers out for a ride.  Together, with Grandma and Grandpa in the dune buggy, we rode up to General Steam.

While there, we enjoyed the cooler weather and had a picnic.  Sometimes it is just nice to get away from everything and get into the mountains.  Social distancing is not all bad.  After lunch we continued on up the dirt road to try and find new trails.  We knew that this road led to Gunlock Reservoir but we were not really sure how to get there.  We drove around for a while and didn't find anything but new scenery and fun.  We finally decided we had picked the wrong trail and headed back.  Even though we didn't find what we were looking for, we still had a great time.  We need to do this more often!

The kids kept begging us to play with cousins so that's what we did for the next two days.  First we had a blast with Cole, Cash, and Jessica at Virgin Falls.  We had never been here before either so we were so glad the Jess showed us this place.

The kids had a blast just swimming and wading in the warm water.  We had this place to ourselves too which was really nice.

While we were here, the kids caught about a million tad poles.  These little guys were everywhere!  They were really easy to catch because there were so many of them.  

The kids were even brave enough to go cliff jumping for the first time!  I was really surprised that they were not scared at all to jump off this cliff.  It was about as high as the high dive at the swimming pool which they are terrified of.  I guess that is the security of their life jackets kicking in.  

Even Cole and Cash jumped off!  Cole was a little apprehensive at first but then he did it.  Cash on the other hand was not afraid at all.  In fact, he was trying to jump off the cliff even before he had his life jacket on.  We had to catch him before he went over.  Then, once he had his jacket on, there was no stopping him.  He was crazy!

Another day we decided to do some science experiments with the cousins.  After searching the Internet for something cool to make, we decided on Elephant Toothpaste.  We read and re-read the instructions and put all the ingredients together and waited for the results.

Well we had to try a few times but finally the "toothpaste" started oozing out of the bottle.  The ooze was much slower that we thought it should be but it was cool nonetheless.  We will have to keep experimenting with this to try and perfect it.

After a fun filled week, it was time to go back home.  We were sad to leave but happy we were able to see family, get out and enjoy nature, and kick off summer with a fun mini vacation.