bone collector with Noah

Ten days after our first snow on November 17, it had all melted and that Sunday we decided we needed a bike ride. We all brought our little people (Noah, Zeah, Ella) and drove up Bone Collector's hill (instead of riding) and rode the top loop. When we reached the ridge where we customarily take selfies, we stopped for another one, this time with the phone tripod Kendra had given me a month earlier. Um, I have to learn how to focus the dumb thing...

Which reminds me of the reason why Kendra gave me that tripod. We had done another little person bike ride on Skyline Drive in mid-October and I took this group photo with my phone propped on top of my backpack, leaning against a rock. I forgot to blog about this ride!

Back to the Bone ride... Zoe likes to amuse herself when we stop by bouncing or hanging on trees. She called these aspens/birches (who really knows how to tell the difference?!) the "panda trees" and taught all the girls (plus Noah) how to hang off of them. 

walruses biking in the rain

The day after Terry's birthday we hung out with Russ and Denise for lunch after church. Kate sent a picture of herself with straws on her teeth like a walrus so we reciprocated. Ha! We were angry walruses. Except Russ. He just looks like a chilled out walrus.

Shortly thereafter Denise, Zoe, and I went mountain biking at Bone Collector with Jazmin and Emma. As you can see in the above photo, it was quite cloudy to begin with, but since we haven't been getting much rain, we didn't think much of it. So of course when we got to the top of the mountain the heavens opened up and it started pouring. We are standing on a cliff here and ordinarily you can see for miles behind us. Not during a deluge though!

Usually Denise and Jazmin like to take their time climbing technical rocks over and over (not me...because I'm not very good! ha!), but we didn't do any of that stuff due to the rain. We booked it down in record time. Finally near the bottom it stopped raining and the sun came out. "It's so beautiful!"

That was quite literally the best and most fun bike ride I have ever done. SO FUN!

my 35th birthday

Two weeks after Terry's birthday was mine, my own, my preciousssss. Urm, I mean it was my birthday. I turned 35 or as Terry likes to say, I'm halfway to 70.

Terry suggested to Jazmin that they take me mountain biking. He didn't have to twist my arm or theirs! Off to Bone Collector we went. That was the same location where nearly two weeks earlier we biked in the rain. Here on this cliff is approximately the same location where we took our group picture amongst the clouds, but obviously this day it was perfectly clear.

The view! This is overlooking Johnson Siding and Rimrock Church.

After our slow climb to the top of the hill we stopped at the first obstacle, a log, and Zoe grew bored. To entertain herself she started bouncing on a skinny pine trees. Around the bend she was bored again and used another tree is hang off of.

Further down I made Zoe pose with the largest collection of bones on this ride, this skeleton with a new pumpkin head. Oh, and Denise being awesome behind her.

My scary face was actually very similar to the face I was given for our forking incident. Thanks Natasha!

Happy face. 

I got home around lunch time and just hung out for the afternoon. Since it was such a beautiful day, all for me, I wanted to spend more time outside. Thanks to some coupons, we picked up dinner (Culvers for the kids and Qdoba for adults) and went to eat at Sioux Park. 

We returned home in time to meet my folks for cake and presents. 

During Terry's birthday I had told him I'd prefer a cake made by my mom over a "meh" store bought one and that's what I got! 

Sometimes, or rather often times, I am over come by the desire to consume my youngest, squishiest child. Poor Ezra gets quite tired of this...but I don't!

My first gift was these lovely round lilac magnets from my brother the wood maker. 

Terry took over my job as photographer for the night and took a great deal more photos than I usually do. I think he especially attempted to capture me making weird faces because there's a whole lot of them. Either I was hamming up or I always make weird faces. Who can say?  

The kids get bored when they don't have stuff to open so they have to find ways to entertain themselves. 

A semi captive audience. 

Mom gave me a quality fry-pan and this shawl she crocheted herself. I've been wearing it on cool mornings during school! Oh, and Evie planted me some flower seeds she picked out especially during a trip to Hardware Hank that morning with daddy while I was biking. 

The kids were properly engaged after the presents were opened because it was time for the final act - a riddle guided treasure hunt. 

I was given the first card with this riddle in it to solve and move on to the next clue. The riddles were what Terry and the kids had spent most of the morning working on. Noah came up with this one all on his own!

I could not figure out what "gold" meant. Classic over think. I thought they were talking about real gold all the while everyone was saying the answer. They meant gold fish!!

The second clue was written by Evie. She might have had some help but not all that much I don't think. 

There was a "Warriors" cat book on the table next to the fish tank and that is where I found the next clue.

On the cat book was this clue by Terry. I incorrectly went to the tea drawer and came up empty. So next I correctly went to cupboard with the play tea set. 

Stuck in the tea pot was this riddle from Noah:

Inside the tea pot was another riddle by Noah. 

I got this one right away - under my pillow.

The kids were bouncing along behind me so excited to watch me figure it all out. What good kids. Under my pillow was the final clue, which again, I guessed right away.

Behind my pink dress coat in the storage/utility room in the dungeon was a big ol box! What fun, what fun!

We went upstairs where the littles were bored again. Time to fly planes. 

I started unwrapping my gift and apparently made this face... I'm considering making it my profile picture.

Terry panned back to Ezra. This one cracks me up. 

He got me a blender/food processor! I've been making smoothies for months and our generic blender was pretty terrible. This new one has been working great! Thank you Terry and kiddies. You worked so hard and made my day extra special. I love you! 

winter mountain biking

I hadn't been mountain biking since last summer when I fell in the mud but about a month ago Denise asked me if I'd like to go out with her and friends to Bone Collector. I'd heard a lot about it but never gone...plus I was intimidated by the name. Since Terry had been gone that week to Denver, we mutually agreed I could use some time away from the kids. It was cold and cloudy but so much fun. There was ice on part of the trail and I skidded out several times. I kept getting bumped off my bike. Plus my heart felt like it was going to explode. My legs were so tired that I couldn't even coast downhill squat/standing like you're supposed to. I had to rest on one foot. Oof. Challenging but great fun. Everyone said I did well even though they're all far better than me. And as a plus, Terry learned how to manage the pizza dough until I got home to finish it. What a good team we make. 

I also went with them the following week to Reder Road with a somewhat smaller crew including these peeps; Denise, Zeb, Jazmin, and Emma. Jaz and Emma are two of my small group girls who I love and apparently they love met too since they begged me to run a half marathon with them in June. So we're doing it. And mountain biking is good cross training. 

We are holding Jazmin's bike aloft because it was her last ride on it before she received her new bike the following week. 

biking & measuring a fall, Trouncer's bday

After church on May 6, Noah and I went on our first mountain biking excursion of the year at Bone Collector. Mary, Kyle, their kids Lindsey and Zachary, and David all went up.

There are bones hanging everywhere, hence the name.

We always stop at the top where these cliffs overlook Rimrock and Johnson Siding.

The real reason for our ride that day was to measure where Zeb had fallen exactly a week before on April 29. I had been invited to go along that day with the same crew plus Denise, Jazmin, and Zeb's girlfriend CJ but couldn't for some reason. Zeb had fallen off a cliff up there very near where Noah and I took the above picture. He ended up in the hospital (where Terry took this picture of him). It could have been so much worse though.

Further down the trail to the south is an expert trail that I didn't even know existed. Zeb lost his balance and fell the wrong way. David in the red shorts is standing on the little shelf where Zeb's bike landed.

David carefully climbed down to observe how far the fall had been.

Lindsey and Zach were on top and David was on about the same place Zeb landed. 

Here's one of the pictures he took. The yellow line is the tape measure. It was 17 feet from the shelf so probably about 20 feet from his bike!

This is David measuring with the tape.

Thank the Lord Zeb's fall wasn't worse. He was off his feet for several days but is getting along well now. 

The following day was May 7th, and that was Trouncer's estimated birthday. We're not sure about his birthday since he's a stray. But he came into the Humane Society on September 7 and when he measured his teeth, they judged they were about four months old. So they counted backwards seven months and hey presto, Trouncer's birthday was discovered.

During piano we visited Canyon Lake again.

The boys picked me many many "flowers."