Catching up..

I know I'm way behind, but I promised a blog about the Triathlon, and a special musical number by my very talented sister!  So, here they are:

It was so fun, and soo hard!! We had been training quite a bit, or so I thought, but  it turns out that no matter how easy it is to run 3 miles, bike ride 14 miles, and swim 1/2 a mile, it is WAY harder to to them all at once with no time to catch your breath!  

Well, Saturday morning came, and after a "power breakfast", we were on the road to Ririe Reservoir.  We got there and we got to set up our transition area, which is where you keep your bike, shoes, towels, change of clothes, etc.  

At 8 o'clock, the race began!  The first event was the swim.  Now they had told us that if you know you are a slow swimmer to just wait for everyone else to go before diving in, or in my case, sliding off the dock gently to avoid the terror of jumping into the water.  So, off we went....what felt like 10 minutes later, I looked up to see that I was barely passing the first buoy, only about 30 yards away!! Needless to say, the swimming was my worst event!  I kept swimming till I felt like I needed to catch my breath, then I flipped over to backstroke for a while.  What I didn't realize was that it is much different to swim in open water than it is to swim in a pool, so about 2 minutes later, I looked up and realized that I had shifted directions and was swimming out toward the middle of the reservoir, perpendicular to the direction everyone else was swimming! By now I was the LAST person!! I couldn't believe it! I flipped over and started swimming my little heart out to catch up with everyone else! Also, by this time the "lifeguard" canoe had noticed me and was coming towards me asking if I was ok, I told them I was fine, but they kept a close watch on me the rest of the swim.  

Well, I figured that the triathlon would be like the marathon Tyler ran in, where there were "old ladies" just walking, trying to just complete it.  However, as I swam to catch up with everyone else, I wondered where those old ladies were that I could beat.  Why wasn't there anyone here who was just doing this for fun, like me?  It was about half way through the swim that I figured out the answer.  I realized that nobody would be stupid enough to say, I'll just go swim as far as I can out into a lake, and just hope I have the energy to get back! This was the same time that I realized I had NOT prepared nearly as much as I should have! The only way I could keep myself moving was by singing, "Just keep swimming, just keep swimming" and of course, I never got on my back again!

Anyways, I did eventually finish the swim, and I wasn't the last person! As you run out of the water there are "strippers" in the runway who help pull your wet-suit off of you.  After they YANKED mine off, I ran to put my bike shorts and shoes on and get on with the ride!  As I was running up the grass with my bike, GASPING for air, I couldn't believe that I was actually supposed to get on it and start riding 14 miles without ever catching my breath!  The first thing we did when we started the bike ride was a ridiculous hill! 

It was seriously about a mile long, at an 11% grade, that's really STEEP! After that, the ride was rolling hills, but I was just so excited to finally be passing people!  

At last, the time came to start the 3 mile run. I was so exhausted, but I knew I was so close to finishing! I quickly found out that, like the ride, this was all hills too! 

And half of it was trail running! Yikes! Leesa, I have a new found respect for you...trail running if HARD! I was still pretty paranoid about my ankle (I had sprained it while rock climbing the week before), so I practically walked on the downhill.  I was not about to fall and break my ankle when I was so close to the end!  

Finally, I reached the FINISH LINE! 

While I was doing it, I kept thinking, "There is no way I will ever do that again!!" but now I kinda want to do some more!! All-in-all, it was a very fun day!! and Tyler and I felt cool as we wore our matching Triathlon shirts around for the next three days! 

Next: Alyssa's performance of SHY BOY (by Katie Melua).  Not only is she a good singer, she's also a great actress! Enjoy!! 

4th of July Weekend

For the 4th of July, my little brother, Devin, got to come up to Idaho and visit us!  We tried to do all the fun things we could while he was here, especially some outdoorsy things that he isn't able to do in LA.  

While Alyssa and I drove down to Salt Lake to pick him up, Tyler went on an intense bike ride all the way up to Kelly Canyon!!!

Alyssa and I had so much fun in Utah because we got to meet up with Nolan and Marcy Nissle, our good friends who live in Arizona!! It was so great to catch up with them! 

As soon as we got back to Idaho, we got busy doing all sorts of fun things, such as touring campus, snorkeling in Rigby Lake, and rock climbing!  

Be warned-there will be a lot of pictures!

Devin did awesome for his first time!!

On Friday, we camped in Jackson Hole, WY.  

Fortunately for Devin, we only camped in our friend's backyard, so we didn't have to anything but sleep outside. 

On the 4th, we went to the parade....

There were some sweet cars! 

Devin picked up an ear of corn that some guy was giving away in the parade...and we ate it for dinner that night!

then our friend, Colby, took us on an amazing horseback ride through the beautiful hills of Wyoming!! 

Once again, a first for Devin 

Finally we went to see fireworks in Idaho Falls, which is said to be the best show west of the Mississippi.  

While we waited, we walked around the Idaho Falls Temple

The show really was amazing!

It was so great getting to spend a few days with Devin and the family!!

What a week!!

I'll just go in order:

Monday, June 22: We got a little over-zealous in our training for the triathlon we are doing next weekend, so at 5 am we swam over 1/2 a mile, at 3pm we rode 10 miles on our bikes, and by 6pm we had finished our 5 mile run.  Needless to say, we were exhausted! But, it was comforting to know that we are able to all the triathlon events in one day! 

Tuesday, June 23: RESTED

Wednesday, June 24: We wanted to get some practice swimming in the COLD water like we'll have to in the triathlon, so we went out to Beaver Dick park.  Tyler actually got in a swam for a whole 30 seconds!...I worked on my tan.

Thursday, June 25:  30 mile bike ride.  The first 15 miles were up hill and into the wind, it was tough! but the next 15 miles, we flew!!

Friday, June 26: We went and watched Alyssa perform in Jazz Night, where she sang "Shy Boy".  It was AMAZING!! She is such a good jazz singer! Everyone else thought the same thing, and she made it into The Best Of show (they take the best of all the shows throughout the semester and put them into one night...it's a big deal!) I'm definitely going to record it next time and I'll post it! 

Saturday, June 27: We drove up to beautiful Jackson Hole, WY.  

We walked around the cute little shops they have all around town, and Tyler posed with an Indian Chief

We enjoyed a hike...

We had to cross a log over a raging river!!

Later that day, we went rock climbing with Matt and Michelle, which is always fun!!! But Tyler slammed his head into the rock...there's just a slight scab and a little bump.  

(Don't worry, Cindy, he's worn a helmet every time since)

Monday, June 29: We went rock climbing for FHE, we were having so much fun, we stayed out for 3 hours climbing different routes! Tyler led a 5.10 for the first time, and he only fell once! I climbed a 5.11c (my hardest yet)! It was great!

Growth

A while ago we planted some seeds in our window hoping that we would be able to enjoy some fresh, home-grown herbs.  

It's been so fun to watch them grow.... I can hardly believe they started out so small!

Now they are huge!! 

We have our droopy chives, which I'm hoping to start using soon...

Our basil started out with these cute little leaves, 

but now it's our biggest plant!!

Finally, the day of harvest came....

I was so excited to get to use our fresh cilantro and parsley! They were delicious!

 Now we can't wait to have a house with a big yard where we can plant all kinds of things, but for now, this is good enough!!

Coming Soon: Consider the Lilies

Yellowstone, Half Century, and other adventures

In the last five days, Tyler and I have had quite a few adventures!  It started last Thursday when we had our weekly "family dinner" with Alyssa and her date.  We went rock climbing and had a delicious bbq!   This was only our second climb of the season, but Tyler did great leading, and I even "cleaned the chains", which means I had to take our gear off the chains so we don't loose them up there when we pull the rope down.  It may not sound like much, but you have to untie yourself from the rope and know what knots to tie and make sure you're tied back in before coming down, so it's pretty intense! We had tons of fun though! 

Then on Friday, we decided we wanted to go on a really long bike ride.  Now, the longest we went last year was about 25 miles, but Tyler's been training and broke that record a while ago. However,  I've just been riding to school this semester and have been do no such "training"! So I don't know what exactly made me think that I was ready to go on a long ride to break all our records.   I think I have some crazy idea that all Tyler's training transmits to me and I'm somehow just as in shape as him.....wrong!!   Well, I didn't think all of this through before we started on our ride and at 15 miles, I was feeling good!! Our plan was to go about 20 miles out, then come back home, but like I said, I was feeling good!  "Let's just go 25 miles, then come home! Wouldn't it be so cool to say we rode 50 mile!!?!"

...and those were her last words....  

Just joking! Well, at about 25 miles, I realized that I was not in shape to be doing this ride, but what could I do now, we just had to get back home!  Wow, 50 miles is a lot!  We hardly ever even drive 50 miles!!  Needless to say, I complained the whole way home, but Tyler, as sweet as he is, just kept encouraging me! Although, I think it would have been more encouraging for him to join in on my complaining so I didn't feel like such a baby.  But anyone who knows Tyler knows he would never be so negative, but after the ride he confessed that he was hurting too!  Well, 4 hours after embarking on this journey, we finally came rolling home! 

(can you tell I'm a little out of it!)

And, you know what? I think it was worth it! We are so proud to say we've done a Half Century! (That's biker lingo for 50 miles) Who knows, maybe we'll do our Century by the end of the summer!

Saturday was our recovery day, but on Sunday the fun started back up!  We went up to Yellowstone to camp for the night.  It wasn't the best weather, it rained most of the evening, so our tent was wet, which meant our sleeping bags were nice and moist!  But we woke up to beautiful sunshine!

...after only a few short hours of sleeping...who knew I was so paranoid about being eaten by bears in the night?! Poor Tyler learned this lesson as I woke him up many-a-time to ask if he heard "that noise" and if he thought it was a bear.  After several assurances that there were no bears in our campsite, and a journey to the potties, we finally got some rest!  

On Monday we did the whole Yellowstone thing:

And we saw lots of bison! They liked to just walk right down the middle of the road! 

That's not even zooming! 

We even saw some little baby bison! So cute! 

It's a date!

A few Fridays ago, Tyler took me out on an official date! By official, I mean that he asked me out in advance, he planned it all, and he even kept it a surprise.   He took me up to these hiking trails not far from Heise, which is where we go rock climbing.  We’ve passed them a thousand times and always thought about going hiking there, but we still hadn’t, so it was exciting to finally do it! 

Tyler scouted out our path and we started up the mountain!  It was really pleasant because the trails are nicely paved and there are little historical facts along the way.

As we got higher, we had an amazing view of the Snake River.

 

We came upon a beautiful little stream that is warm year-round (according to the afore mentioned historical factoid).   We dipped our hands in it, and it really was a good temperature!

 

When the trails ended, we decided to be adventurous and climb up to the top of the mountain on our own. 

 

We were, of course, victorious in our efforts!  It was pretty cool being up on top of the mountain (albeit a very small mountain), we were above everything around us, and we felt like we were the only two people on earth, which thought made us very lovey-dovey.

 

    After enjoying ourselves for a while, we started back down….it turns out it is much easier to go UP a very steep mountain than it is to go back DOWN it!  I thought we were going to die! Well, that may be an exaggeration, but it was pretty scary!  Eventually we made it back to the trails, and we drove off into the sunset.