It has been a while......

It has been a while since I've posted - wow.  Bad Ann.

I guess my main excuse was that my camera was broken. Well, at least I thought it was broken. I got out the instruction booklet, found the 1-800 number and called it one day last week. I was put on hold for about 10 minutes so I started to fiddle with my camera. Turns out it isn't broken. Aren't 1-800 numbers great?

Had an amazing 24 hour mountain bike race over Memorial Day weekend. We took 3rd place in our category out of 21 teams.  I brought my camera to that event. Didn't take many pictures. Maybe it was broken.

Now that I've fixed my camera, I'm remembering to bring it to the places that I go. But, it seems that I've not gone anywhere interesting for a while. Or, I've forgotten my camera - who knows at this point. At least it isn't broken.

Alas, there is never a lack of doggie pictures. Here are some cute pictures of the dogs while on a recent walk. I tried to get pictures of her catching the frisbee but it is pretty much impossible.

I really think that Bitz has the dog form of ADD. She is a scatter brain and basically destroys our house daily. But, when she is outside with her frisbee she can be so intense and concentrate on her job. 

Spencer and Bitz at their favorite watering hole. The puddle is there even when it does not rain. I think it is a malfunctioning sprinkler head. I absolutely shudder to think about the puddle drying up and turning to mud. Right now it is just lovely brown water with an occasional junk food wrapper. Bitz and Spencer think it is quite delightful.

Puddle time is essential to any frisbee session.

Happy dog!

But wait! After washing in a mud puddle, one can never forget to exfoliate properly. Bitz likes to exfoliate while rolling in grass. Of course! 

She went back for more mud puddle.

Yes, more rolling.

This cycle goes on and on. Frisbee, puddle, rolling. It is the highlight of her day. 

So cute! 

Herding at Ewe-topia

We got a recommendation from Lisa at Friendly Grove (our kennel) to take Bitz to Ewe-topia for herding lessons.  Herding? Yes herding. Where the dog moves livestock around all the while under command. We figured the she would be quite good at it since Bitz is obsessed with herding toys, people, children and Spencer. Plus, it is a good way to build confidence in your dog. Bitz suffers from lack of confidence which is why she sometimes turns into the devil when we meet other dogs. It is getting a lot better, but she still has these moments where she transforms into an evil little creature.

So cute.

I just can't get enough of her little face!

Ewetopia is in Roy, about 45 minutes away from our house so it is a bit of a drive.Initially you just want the dog to get really interested in the sheep. The goal is to get the dog super motivated to go after (but not hurt) the sheep so that you can, at some point, start to control them around the livestock. The theory is (I'm told) that if you can control your dog around livestock, you can control them anywhere. Plus, it gives then a job and requires them to think about moving the livestock to different places. Thinking is good - especially for Bitz.

The two times I've herded with Bitz, she has been very shy with the sheep. I've had to get into the pen with her and essentially show her how to go after the sheep. Yes, I've chased sheep. I've grabbed their butts. I've growled at them. All in the name of showing this little dog how to herd. Let me tell you, it has been quite the experience for me. I have no shame when it comes to little Bitz.

Yesterday Brian and Spencer went with us to Ewe-topia. I really wanted him to come along to see her progress. Also I wanted him to take video of us herding because I knew it would be funny.

 Here is the first video. Bitz was very distracted at first. Spencer was outside the pen and she just couldn't focus on the sheep. She wanted to be with Spencer. It does have some good clips of me chasing and grabbing sheep though. The video was taken on my iphone and it isn't the best quality on a computer. I wouldn't view it in full screen. Hopefully you can still follow it though.

Since she was so distracted, the trainer decided to bring Spencer into the pen with her. Spencer was REALLY excited to see all the sheep. Bitz's whole demeanor changed after Spencer was with her. I think Spencer may have a future in herding too!

Slowly but surely she is gaining confidence. And, Spencer has found a new passion now that he is almost 13!

Stottlemeyer 30 (Mountain bike race)

I have a love-hate relationship with bicycle racing. It is weird. I hate the pre-race anticipation. Dreading the unknown climbing on the course. Wondering if it will rain and how that will affect the mud. Even worse, I hate a bad race. One that hurts from the moment you start. Where you feel demoralized when people pass you (instead of getting pissed and chasing them down).

A great race is really amazing. It hurts still, but you feel like you are on top of the world. It makes all the training and suffering you have done worthwhile. When you finish you feel like you could ride the course again and again and again. It makes you want to quickly sign up for the next race and gives you the will power to keep training and enduring more suffering. Or, at least that is what it does for me.

This weekend we rode the Stottlemeyer 30 mile mountain bike race. Normally my mtn bike races are around 15 miles or so. I was apprehensive about doing 30 miles during a race on a course that I knew nothing about. But, as good husbands do - Brian talked me into it and said I'd be fine.

Our goal was to ride it together and try to finish in under 4 hours. We had heard the course was very technical and had about 2500 feet of climbing per lap. We were doing 2 laps. You can do the math. I had lots of pre-race jitters. I was worried about the possibility of rain and whether I'd be able to hang with Brian.

The race began and I quickly settled into a pace that I thought I could sustain for the entire race. Actually, what I really did was found a girl that looked like she was relatively strong and decided to ride her wheel. I thought I was riding at a good pace until another women flew by me on one of the logging roads. Crap! I had to chase her down.

I was able to catch Brian towards the middle of the first lap as he had slowed down just enough for me to see him. We continued to ride together and really had a fun time. At the end of the first lap, I thought to myself, "Oh, that wasn't too bad. I can do that again." And we did!

The course was very technical, although it also had a number of logging roads that came in quite handy. Just when I thought I couldn't possibly handle one more diagonal slippery root across the trail with a twisty turn before and after it, the section would end and I could spin my legs on the logging road. My technical skills are actually improving. I only ran into 3 trees, did the splits once and tipped over/fell off the trail twice. It was a relatively good race for me!

Towards the end of the second lap I was feeling the affects of a longer race. I was looking forward to finishing the climb so that I could be done with the race. The climb was a bit twisty a turny (with diagonal roots of course) and Brian began to pull away from me a bit. Then, my back wheel seized up. Lame! I stopped riding to inspect my bike but really came up with nothing. I have no clue what to do when something goes wrong with my bike. A guy who was behind me stopped to help me. We deduced that my deralieur hanger broke. My chain was wrapped around there good. I was at the base of the climb and I couldn't even push my bike, the back wheel just stopped moving.

So, like any normal person, I picked up my bike and walked to the end of the hill. I figured I was about 2 miles away from the finish and I could walk there quickly. Wrong, I later learned (after walking forever) that my bike broke around mile 24. After a bit, a nice racer stopped to help me. He decided it would be better if I took my chain off. Doh! Then I could roll my bike and not carry it! Genius.

I watched four women ride by me during this time. It really sucked, but I was determined to finish the race. I ran for a while, coasted the downhills, walked the uphills and scooted my bike on the flats. All the while I kept my spirits up and looked forward to crossing the finish line.

Brian came back for me at the end. He wasn't aware that I had a mechanical but I am glad he didn't turn back for me on the course. He waited as long as he could - until he saw another racer in his category that he couldn't let pass! He came back for me at the end though and gave me a push up the last hill until we got close to the finish. I didn't want to get disqualified for getting a free push!

The only photo I have from the event is below. I can't believe I am smiling!

I ended up in 10th place out of 13 races. I believe I would have gotten 6th place had I not had a mechanical. That really makes me feel good because the calibre of racers in the top 5 places were impressive. Can't wait to do my next endurance mountain bike race!

Moab!!

Ever since Brian started mountain biking, he has wanted to go to Moab. It has always seemed like something we really wanted to do but could never find the right time to go there. This year I have really started enjoying mountain biking a lot more. And, now that we have Big Tom, it seemed like the perfect vacation for us. We planned on meeting my brother and his wife in Moab as well. We drove to his house in Smithfield UT and then the next day we caravanned to Moab. We slept at a trail head the first night. Below is a nice shot of both our vans first thing in the morning.

My brother converted his van on his own. He did an amazing job. We called it the "dodgemahal."

We saw a hot air balloon that morning as well.

Such a nice photo of Big Tom. We do love him so.

We headed off to our first ride, Porcupine Rim. We decided to ride to the trail head from camp. Ben told us it was a little bit of climbing but it wasn't too bad. I remember Jen disagreeing with him. I have to admit, Jen was right. (Sorry Ben)

Here are some photos from our suffering that day:

We climbed for 1.5 hours on roads that looked like this even before we got to the actual trail.

I crashed on this section. It hurt.

It was a really difficult ride. Fun, but more technical than I had experienced before.

The next day we had a little bit of rain so we took a tour through Arches National Canyon.

Ben, Spencer and Jen riding in style in Big Tom

After our tour, we set off to ride another trail called Kondike Bluffs. Jen had promised we would see dinosaur footprints. I was excited.

I took a picture of my foot so you could get an idea of the size.

The trail was very smooth and the views were lovely. Just what we needed as we were still recovering from our suffer-fest the day before. Thanks Captain Suffer! (Ben)

I just love this picture, I don't know why.

At the end of the trail, we walked into Arches National Canyon.

Jen showing off her snazzy new arm warmers.

Although the second day was a bit cold, we had a really nice time biking in the sun. I'll post more pictures of our next couple of days later. Enjoy!

Day 7 - Our last day......

Hillary was able to get the entire day off on Friday so we decided to rent a car. We were intrigued by the countryside and reports (in our guidebooks) of beautiful small towns and scenery if we traveled inland. I figured we could handle driving in France. I was really feeling brave. I took the train by myself, toured several cities and didn't get completely lost. We were feeling confident in our French (we had stopped responding in Spanish at this point). Why not?

Renting the car was easy and the price was reasonable. We picked up the car at 9am and needed to get it back by 6:30pm when they closed. No problem!

Here is a shot of our cute little Fiat:

We headed out to see a cute little called St. Paul de Vence. It was described in my guide book as the most visited village in France. It was gorgeous. Just absolutely perfect in every way.

Beautiful walkways everywhere!

Picture of the ground. So artsy!

We spent about 2 hours touring this little city and then decided to hop back in the ole' Fiat to continue on our way. One problem though, I couldn't get the car to go in reverse. It was a stick shift and I tried every way I could think of to put it in reverse. Push down, push the stick to the far right, swear at it, try it again. It seriously would not go into reverse. So, being the brilliant ladies that we are, I said to Hillary, "I think you are going to have to get out and push." And, she did!

We set off to find our next stop, I believe it was a town called Gourdon. On the map, it looked as though it was no more than 1 or 2 hours away. We drove up some beautiful mountain passes and saw gorgeous countryside. We were making good time, gabbing away and then we realized that we didn't quite know where we were. I guess we were feeling confident since we had a car GPS, two iphones, two guide books and an actual paper map. Who could get lost, right?  Funny thing was we knew that Gourdon was only a couple hours away, but every time we typed it into our car GPS, and it would tell us that it was six hours away. What? Fucking Gourdon.....

Anyhow, we drove and drove and continued to be lost. As frustrating as it was, we were still having a great time. Did I mention that I still could not get our lovely little Fiat to go in reverse? Ha! So, every time we decided to turn around Hillary had to get out and push. She was such a trooper! And, of course, I chose the most inconvenient times to say, "ok, I'm turning around now, go push!"

We stopped for lunch in a lovely little town called Comp. We brought our map into the resturant and asked the waiter if he could show us where we were on the map. He said, "oh, you aren't on that map, you are off the map." *&^%^%$@^# !!! It looked as though we would never find Gourdon. We had our lunch and decided that we need to skip the rest of our driving tour and start heading back to Cannes. We had to turn the car in by 6:30 and we didn't want to be late. The waiter helped us back track and we figured we'd eventually get to Gourdon. Right? Fucking Gourdon.

We cut off a portion of our driving tour, started to head back to Cannes and eventually found Gourdon. Unfortunately, in order to get back to Cannes by 6:30, we could only spend 15 minutes in Gourdon. Fucking Gourdon. We could have skipped it, but there was no way I wasn't taking at least a few pictures. I was making every minute count in this place.

It was cloudy at this point, but we snapped pictures as best we could

Ran into this guy. He kept saying, "I love you!" I'm pretty sure he was the town jester.

We headed back to Cannes and sat in a bit of rush hour traffic. As we were sitting there, I finally figured out how to put the car in reverse. I can't really explain how I figured it but it at least it only took me 8 hours to do it.

As we returned or rental car, we mentioned the fact that we could not get the car to go into reverse. Their response was, "why didn't you call us?" Hmmmm, yes indeed that would have been the way to handle it I suppose.  But then I wouldn't have had so many memories of this hysterical day. Good times. It makes me smile every time I think about Hillary pushing the Fiat.

Our last day in France was amazing. I had such a great time and feel bad that it has taken me this long to complete this post. Life certainly sped up a bit when I got back home. I am definitely going back to France in the near future. Can't wait!

Day 6 - Nice

I had received several comments from people about how much they liked the city of Nice and was excited to set out on my own to explore. My Rick Steves' book had a walking tour of Old Nice. I figured I couldn't mess it up if I just followed his map. Well, sure. Of course I can get lost due to my horrible navigation skills. To me - North is always straight ahead. South is, you guessed it, behind me. West is left, East is right. It doesn't make sense but unfortunately these are my navigational instincts. I'm "touched" in this department.

So yes, I got lost, but was able to backtrack to the train station and stopped into the tourism booth to get an actual map. I was on my way to Old Nice!

Carnival had just happened the previous Sunday. I was amazed to see their beautiful plaza and the gigantic floats.

The first thing I needed to accomplish on my walking tour was to find an olive oil store. My guidebook mentioned this store and I was on a mission to buy olive oil for me and some for Hillary. Due to my fantastic navigational skills I found it right away!

I was so excited that I found it I went right in and purchased 5 bottles of olive oil. There was a film crew inside this little store. I was hoping to see Rick Steves. It wasn't.

Anyway, me and my five bottles of olive oil began exploring Old Nice. It was great! Except for the fact I had five bottles of olive oil with me. I'm not sure why I bought them right away. I guess I was so pleased with myself for actually finding the store that I figured I'd never be able to find it again.

I walked all the way up to that big grey thing up there.

This was a really pretty church. I ate a nice lunch in this plaza. Life was grand!

I loved the colors of the buildings in Nice. You can definitely tell there has been an Italian influence in Nice. Well, that is what my guide book told me and guide books never lie.

I started walking up to the big grey thing on the hillside that I referenced a couple of pictures ago. Lots of stairs, lots of walking but the views were breathtaking.

Here is the big grey thing that I thought would be a castle or something. Turns out it was just big and grey.

The views from the top were amazing. Here a few of the shots.

It was up here where I had a special moment all to myself. Before my Mom died, I always thought that my brother and I would take her to France or Italy on vacation. I never told her I was thinking of taking her and I regret that very much. I think she would have loved France. No doubt about it. I've felt guilty for years about that and a lot of things with my Mom. Up here, I took an opportunity to release my guilt and say my final good bye. It was a tough one and there were tears involved but it felt very very good.

Did I mention the beach is nice in Nice? Ha! I didn't even try to write that - nice in Nice!

I just sat and stared at the ocean and the sun. Loved it!

Me and my five bottles of olive oil made our way back to the train station. On the way I saw this creepy site.

The cats were real and the guy was just standing there talking to the crowd. He wasn't like one of those "frozen" people in Vegas. It was creepy. Those cats had to have been drugged. I know French cats - they bite.