November 2008

Kresha and Tristan came for Thanksgiving!

We are so happy that Kresha's Papa got tickets for them! Mauri was counting down the days for weeks until her "Honey" would be here. She is so cute. All these photos are from those 4 days. My parents came from St George and Dale joined us for almost every event planned during the time they were here. My parents even stayed for a couple of nights. It was so much fun.






Lindsay has been rehursing with the American Fork Symphany for their Christmas concert in December and so she gave us a mini concert. She is Amazing! Tristan especially loved to hear the violin.




Steve took the kids riding Mauri's bike. Mauri is so great to share!








































































Tristan wanted to sleep on the floor closer to Mauri one night. That is the night I heard them singing! Ahhhhhhh!
























When ever Tristan comes to visit Grandma he wants a new counting chart so he can earn a prize by counting to 100 lots of times. Mauri is counting to 100 for her class too.

Thank you for coming Kresha, Tristan, Dad, Mom and Dale. Good food and great company!

October 2008

Of course I will post the Grand kids school photos! Tristan is 5 and Mauri is 3. I couldn't be more proud of them.

Tristan is in Kindergarten and loves it. He can count higher than I have been able to assist him with in one sitting. He can even count backwards from 100 with his counting chart. Oscar sent me a movie on my blackberry of him counting backwards! So awesome! He loves computer games and is very good. He loves to swim, play at parks, ride his bike, wrestle with his Papa and Grandpa, loves to draw dinosaurs, cars and pirates. He loves to play with his dinosaurs and cars and loves to cook. I am so happy that he is my grandson!

Mauri is in my preschool and is having so much fun! She can count to 100, writes her name and is so smart! She loves to play school and play house and loves to make any kind of craft. She can ride her bike faster than we can run! She loves to play rough with her Daddy and the rougher the better for her! She is loves to play pretend, go to the park and feed the ducks. She loves Costco! I am so happy that she is my grand daughter!


We took the trailer to Wasatch Mountain State Park in Midway with Steve's Parents and Glendon, Lindsay and Mauri. Glendon's family stayed with us for only the first night and the next day. We have had Barker's come with us (in their trailer) every October during the Fall Break to see the Autumn leaves. It is so much fun and beautiful. Barker's loved to be with Glendon's family.














Mauri really warmed up to Great Grandma Barker this trip. Glendon took the guys and Lindsay shooting.






I had the chance to ride my bike from Midway to Kamas and back. It was only 31 miles but my first grade 10 elevation (only 1 mile...but oh my!) It was great! Oh how I hate to see my outdoor riding come to an end for the season.











Mauri wanted to be a Witch for Halloween this year and of course she wanted to make a flying witch on her pumpkin too! She is practicing being scary! Lowder family Halloween costumes.

September 2008 LOTOJA

LOTOJA
LOgan TO JAckson...or as my jersey says..."1 day 3 states 206 miles"! This is a race with 1300 other riders!

My biking friends Lori and Donna talked me into this back in April or May. They figured that since I was going to ride RSVP I could handle being part of a relay team with them 3 weeks later! I didn't even get on my bike for almost 2 weeks after RSVP, but was ready on race day.

Lori began the race in Logan and rode 34 miles to Preston, Idaho. I don't do early riding well especially in the dark so I am so happy she rode the first leg.

Donna rode from Preston to Montpelier, Idaho 46 miles. Sorry Donna I was in the bathroom when you got the ankle bracelet from Lori and missed the photo. Oops!

I took the Montpelier to Afton, Wyoming leg, 45 miles. Lucky me I got to go over Salt River Pass! They call this King or Queen of the Mountain in the race and time this separately and give out prizes for the fastest! I found out that no prizes are awarded for relay teams, only individual riders. I think I was fast! I really pushed myself hard and bonked by the time I got to Afton. The 5th photo from the top is just before the pass, you can see the mountain peak in the distance.

Donna rode 34 miles from Afton to Alpine, Wyoming.

I took the last leg of 47 miles across the finish line from Alpine to Jackson, actually we rode to Teton Village. Does that sound familiar? The same ride I did this summer when we came up in the trailer, but faster this time! The 6th photo is me starting from Alpine. I had a tough time towards the end and had to dig down deep inside to keep pushing to the end. It was so cold and very dark. I will be getting lights for my bike before another ride like this. I had to ride with others who had lights. We made it in just over 15 hours! My total miles for the race is 92.

The next photo is our team with our support crew eating dinner in Teton Village. From front row, Left to right; Kevin (Lori's brother) , Seth (Lori's son and my former student) they were our support crew, then Heath (Lori's husband who rode by himself and finished in 10 hours I think!). Back row; Me, Donna and Heath's parents who were his support crew.

Here is great photo of Donna! I taught all 6 of Lori's kids and one of Donna's in my school. Thanks you guys I am really happy that I rode this with you. What about next year?

September 2008

It is tradition that we go to the Mountain Man Rendezvous at Fort Bridger, Wyoming every Labor Day! We have been going for over a decade at least. Steve & I went again this year. It is the same thing but we like to dress in costume and play. We didn't get a photo of us for some reason?

































We did however get a photo of this guy in an amazing bear outfit! Pushing the baby stroller only made the scene hilarious!

On the way home by way of Kamas we drove through our first snow storm of the year and got this great shot!

We are so blessed to have our Brazilian family in our lives, and that we still have contact with them! Nando travels to the United States often for business and visits us when ever he can. He came this month and we all spent the day in Park City. He brought a friend with him this time, Gabes. She is so fun to be with and we enjoyed having her in our home.

Mauri loves Nando so much and talks about him often but has been shy around him until this trip. She was so cute with Nando and Gabes this trip I had to share the photos. I am so happy to have Nando come home even for just a few days. I love him and appreciate his contributation to our family. I wish all our Brazilian boys had the chance to visit as much as he does. We love them all and miss them too. We just found out that we are getting another cousin, Louis Felip in August 2009! More information to come about that.

August 2008 RSVP

Ride to Seattle to Vancouver, BC and Party!

Oscar challenged me with this ride last year and here we are! Oscar's bicycle club in Seattle, Cascade Bicycle Club sponsored the ride. I joined last December and signed up for the ride the on January 1st 2008. Once I paid all the money I was committed to do the ride. That's motivation enough for me. It is not a race 1500 riders ride as fast as they can and have fun. 183 miles of scenic Pacific Northwest back roads. I have been training so hard to be able to do this. It was all I expected and more! I would do this every year if I could afford it.

The first day we went 11o miles to Bellingham and the second day 73 more miles to downtown Vancouver, BC Canada for a big party. The ride was amazing, beautiful, fun, and harder than I could have imagined! I found it (what ever it took) deep inside and finished probably out of sheer guts and the determination to not fail. That gets me to another Motto I have adopted, "Ride hard , or die!"

Oscar invited another friend along too. Carley is so much fun and the 3 of us made it to the finish line within seconds of each other. Oscar and Carley rode together and I rode ahead most of the time but we met up at food stops which is where most of the photos were taken. I met so many great people along the way.

It was amazing to ride a bike through Vancouver with all those bikers. This is a huge city and we rode with the traffic stopping at stop signs and lights with the traffic. A bit scary actually.

When ever we pass another biker it is a courtesy so say, "on the left" so that the biker knows that you are passing on their left. Well, as we were riding through the Chinese part of town in Vancouver where they don't speak English, the Chinese people were clapping for us and cheering and waving saying, "On the left! On the left!" They thought that it was a greeting or motivation I am sure. It was so funny and those that were riding with me during that part of the ride all loved their encouragement. I felt like a professional racer!

Thanks to Oscar for this challenging and that he thought I could do it. He has no idea what that has meant to me. He is the best biking partner I could have ever imagined! It all started 2 years ago when he asked if he could join me in Moab for my mountain biking trip. He hadn't rode a bike since he was 12. I had been riding mostly by myself for 13 years on a mountain bike. I agreed to have him come with me after he spent some time in a spin class at the gym. I got a biking partner! He loved biking after that and bought a road bike and has been riding to work and for fun for over a year now. He even rode from Seattle to Portland last year with Cascade Bicycle Club. He has been training for his first triathlon! Oscar you rock!