100 Miles

Back in January I got this crazy idea that riding a road bike 100 miles sounded like so much fun.  Maybe it was cabin fever, but mostly I was sick of sitting on the sidelines as Aaron rode 3 centuries the summer before with my best friend.  :)  So I convinced my best friends to enter the all-girls Goldilocks Century bike race. 

It was quite the epic event.  The long late winter made training very limited.  And somehow that course felt uphill the whole way.  It was crazy windy the entire time (to the point of almost blowing me off my bike a few times). And while we were desperately looking forward to lunch at mile 50, we got there only to be given a few swedish fish and some pretzels and told that lunch wasn't for another 25 miles.  Oh, AND their bathrooms were out of order.  We had to stop in at a gas station along the way to grab a hot dog to hold us over, and to use the bathroom (which is a miracle I didn't catch hepatitis or some other disease in that disgusting place). 

But overall it was an amazing experience.  I am constantly amazed at the physical limits one's body is capable of.  I wish my other best friend Ashley could have done the entire 100 miles with us, but she had to leave at mile 25 to make her sister's wedding.  So Whitney, Lisa, and I had to finish it without her.  I will definitely do another one, but probably next time do one with Aaron.  I love to ride bikes with him and he always rides along side of me to hand me my water bottle.  (Whit had to sub in a couple of times, thanks).  But he was there at the finish cheering me on!  It was the best sight ever!

 This is the pic of Isla waiting at the finish line.  This is also what a 1 1/2 year old looks like when daddy gets her ready for the day.  :)

Short and Sweet

One of Aaron's favorite things = chocolate covered gummy bears

One of Lindzi and Isla's favorite things = cooking

See, we really are a match made in heaven.  :)

Spring - April/May

I actually have a good reason for being MIA most of the springtime.  My January through April was filled with nothing but STUDYING for the PE Exam.  The PE Exam is basically the hardest/most stressful, crappy, (insert your own expletive here), soul crushing, confidence killing, mind boggling, unbearable experience in all existence. 
Bless Aaron's heart for not divorcing me (and taking the child with him) during my 5 month hiatus from life.
The PE Exam is a 10 hour test.  An engineer will take this test after working 4 years of qualified experience (basically, before the PE exam you are completing the equivalent of a doctor's residency).  Then if you pass the exam, you are legit.  A registered Professional Engineer.  This test is about ALL things engineering, not just one's field of work.  AND, it has an average passing rate of 37%  YIKES.

So our life went something like this:
I wake up early and go study in my office until Aaron wakes up.  Aaron wakes up.  We have a brief and distracted breakfast together, I make him lunch, and he goes to work.  I work.  Isla and I have a distracted lunch of reading textbooks mixed with a few bites of PB&J.  I go back to work.  Aaron and I meet somewhere off the freeway to hand off Isla.  I go study for the night, come home, go to bed.  Aaron and Isla are left to scavenge dinner for themselves. Repeat. Occasionally I would try to slip in a run or a bike ride as I was also trying to train for both a century bike race and the Ragnar.

But alas, the day came for the test.  Months of stress-induced acne and throwing up would soon be over one way or another. Aaron drove me because I was way too nervous to get myself down to the city at 5:00 am.  And I knew once I was done, the last thing I would want to do is drive an hour back up the canyon.  10 hours, a lot of water, and all my stash of chocolate later... I dragged myself to the curb to meet Aaron where he described "a herd of nerds piling out of the convention center".

Then I had to wait.  2 MONTHS of waiting.  But finally the news came, I PASSED!  I cried.  I called Aaron, my parents, my boss, then my grandma, in that order.
It. Was. Awesome.

I could not have done all of this without an amazing support system. Of course Aaron was the most understanding, patient husband of all time.  He took on waaay more responsibility to cover for me, acting as both dad AND mom. Then my parents and best friend Whitney were constantly babysitting, bringing me dinner, etc. 

Anyway, here is a picture of my books.  This is a GIGANTIC rolling bag in real life.  Like, I could probably fit inside comfortably.  I think there were about 18 or so books in all. 

So Far Behind

I seem to have lost track of my blog.  And along with that, my camera for the last half of a year. 

But, we have had a great year.  I am going to try to catch up on some of the more monumental happenings around here. 

Backtracking...

Typically, weather permitting, Isla and I try to spend my lunch hour outside playing and eating a picnic lunch.

Isla LOVES being outside.  We recently discovered that she can now open the door all by herself.  Coincidentally all of our doors stay locked ALL the time now. 


She loves puddles.  Mud.  Rolling in snow.  Eating snow.  Riding the longboard down the driveway over, and over, and over (ugh).  Riding her bike. Rocks.  Bubbles. Jumping off high things.  And running from people.

The Problem with Facebook...

is I have found it makes me a lazy blogger.  

Mostly I feel bad because its so quick and easy to post pics on FB.  Then when I want to blog about it, I figure anyone interested in my blog has already seen the pics and doesn't want to read the lame stories behind the pics.

So for all of you who saw these pics on FB and now see a repeat here - First of all THANK YOU for caring!  haha.  Second, sorry.  :)

As most of you may know, this winter has been BRUTAL cold.  

Cold as in: vehicles won't start. 

Cold as in: the furnace can't keep up - resulting in $200+ heating bills

Cold as in: negative temps have become normal and this morning's 3 degrees actually felt like a relief

Cold as in: Aaron actually called in sick last week - sick of the cold weather

Cold as in: You don't even want to eat food because, well I dunno, just because it's too cold

Ohhh and the wind.  Ugh the wind.  Last week before wind chill, the temp was -23.  

But I love it. So weird. It reminds me of growing up in Woodland and feeding the horses in the mornings.  When you breathe in and your nostrils stick together. Chopping 12 inch thick ice for the animals.  The horses breath steaming so thick it makes a haze of fog.  Yes, it is wonderful this cold!  And it reminds me of all the little things to be grateful for like snuggling, down comforters, fires, soup, and hot showers.

Unfortunately despite the unusually COLD temps the snow has been less-than-epic.  Snowmobilingng has been kept to a minimum so far - hopefully to change soon.  Skiing has been hit and miss.  We have enjoyed some great skiing with friends.  Then Aaron and I enjoyed a powder day together ALONE (something rare for us lately!) which was amazing.  It took me back to the winter Aaron and I met when every weekend (and several weekdays) while dating was spent either at Snowbird or Park City, usually accompanied by Aaron's BF Casey.  And finally, to take advantage of the winter, we have been out snowshoeing a bunch. It's fun because we can actually take Isla.  And she LOVES it.

When we aren't outside we are working on the basement.  STILL.  Holy cow this is taking forever.  But we are doing it all in our down time.  And by down time I mean one-hour increments when Isla has gone to bed before we kill over from exhaustion.  So 9:00 - 10:00 pm, about 3 days a week.  But progress is being made.  We are just finishing the trimwork then it's one last touch-up coat of paint on the trim and carpet.  I have some pretty cool pics of the process but when the whole thing is finished I will do a whole post solely dedicated to THE BASEMENT (read that with a deep, echoing voice as in the Sunday Football announcement voice).  

Now when I went to blog I opened up my pics and realized we have hardly taken ANY pics lately.  I remember when Isla was a baby I seriously think I took about 20 pics A DAY.  Stupid.  But now I am lucky if I have 20 pics for the whole month.  I need to get better. 

In the meantime, here are a few.

Late night snow shoeing in Big Cottonwood Canyon.

The Pantone boys and their endless entertainment.

 Last month we started teaching Isla to ski.  I think Aaron was slightly disappointed only because he had this grand vision of her just taking off and ripping down the hill with him frantically chasing after her.  I had to remind him that our 17 month old daughter barely learned to WALK two months ago... so expectations should be kept pretty low.  But it was so fun.  We laughed and laughed and she would ski 10 feet and tip over and we would all laugh some more.  Overall, that was the true measurement of success - that we all had smiles and left wanting more.  :)