Family pic's

My mate Natalie took our pictures last night.
Here's the link to her blog.
Check it out if you like.
http://nataliemarieboisephotography.com/blog
Let me know which ones you like.
I like a lot of the family ones, I'm not too sure which one to pick.  What do you think?

Enduro cup

So Dru mountain bikes with a few friends.
He's grateful for these friends, because when he first came to Boise he headed out on his own to bike and didn't know where he was going and ended up doing one of the hardest rides and thought "screw this"
Then Bo moved in 2 houses down and a (mountain biking) friendship was made.  Boys and their bikes man.
Then Matt (Jobecka's hubby) joined in and a group was formed.  Matt brought a couple of friends with him and they became fast mountain biking buddies.
They're all roughly the same level as each other so it worked out really well for all involved.
Dru liked his group and they ended up biking 1 to 3 times a week together over the years we've been here.

Matt works with one of his good buddies DMo. They came up with an idea for an 'Enduro Cup' competition for the month of September.
Everyone was allowed to choose one ride and the best of the 6 rides won.  That's it in a nutshell but I guess there was way more involved.
Each man received points for where they placed and it was timed and recorded on a website called 'strava' for all to see and follow along with.
Ironically it ended up being 3 downhill rides and 3 uphill rides.  Perfect.
They made a blog, rules, survey's, we had a BBQ to go over finer details and it was set.  The Enduro Cup was about to begin.

Dru was pumped but didn't think he had a shot of winning.
Bo was a downhill racer and Matt has legs of steal which can't be beat on the uphill.  Dru always figured he was somewhere in the middle of those two with both up and down so figured this'd simply be fun to be a part of but knew it'd probably come down to either Bo or Matt.

Can I just tell you how fun it was to be in the front row watching these guys race each other?  They are all so good it's unbelievable to me.
They're all amazing and they blew my mind with their skillz!!  I'm actually very pleasantly surprized that none of them killed themselves!!  Men tend to get crazy when it comes to racing I've noticed, at least the men in my life!!  There was some crashes.  There was some grazes, scrapes, blood, sore muscles, tired eyes, choice words, but no one had to go to the ER.  What a miracle!!

I was getting Dru's bike for something and looked closely and saw this {above}.  I'm like 'is this blood babe?' to which he nodded like it was nothing.  Hahahaha so I thought I'd take a shot of it to record his 'dedication' to the cause ;)

Here's a nasty scrape he got on his arm.  This one hurt for a couple of days and we had to keep an eye on it.  It didn't stop him from riding though. Hahaha they're all crazy!!

One ride he did he BURNED HIS SHORTS TO HIS LINER with the crash he had. THAT'S HOW FAST HE WAS GOING PEOPLE!!!   All the guys thought that was worthy of it's own cup...........................Dru's pretty proud of that burn mark on his shorts.  Next time you see him in his Mt biking shorts ask to see the burn mark and he'll proudly show you. 
I'm just glad he came home that night.................

Another mate, Will, crashed into a tree!!  He was the most improved out of all of them though, he was the one who hadn't had as much experience as the others.  Although he didn't win, he sure proved himself, over the month, to be a worthy competitor.  It was awesome.  

DMo made playlists, wrote times on his arms, pitt people against each other and strategized  how to win.  He came out on top on one of the up hill sections.  We happened to be there when he did it.  The smile on his face was all it took for us to know he'd beaten everyone and was in first place on that section.  He didn't need to say a word and he deserved to win, he'd tried so hard.

Lee decided to just do all the uphills and I'm not really sure if he ever did finish all the downhills.  I think he was the only one who didn't crash the whole month.

Bo was the man to beat on all the downhills.  His skillz are undeniable.  If you give Bo a straight DH, he'll win every time.  He has enough skillz mixed with crazy to be unbelievable.

 Emiko and I took three of them one night up to the beginning of a trail  It was clear up in the foothills and took around half an hour to get up there.  We dropped them off only to discover that the car wouldn't start back up.
I told them to just go, I'd figure it out.  I didn't want to ride or 'shuttle' to be wasted and time was ticking by for their light.
Jobecka had all the other children at her place and was making us dinner!!  What a night.
Emiko and I spend about 40 minutes up there and then the car, magically, started and we headed back down the trail.
I made it back AFTER the guys did hahaha.  We ate at around 9pm and then headed home with a new enduro cup story under our belts.

 Emiko was a good sport about it all.  She didn't know, or care.  She was just hanging out with mum in the land cruiser.

It was, at least, beautiful up there.
By the end of the month the men were tired, a little emotional and over it. 

It was a close competition but in the end Matt won.  Dru was the surprize coming in with the bronze medal behind Bo and Matt.  He said that was his goal and he achieved it.
During the month he saw a glimmer of hope that he might actually have a chance to win and started strategizing about it.  In the end he decided if he did well on a certain ride he'd go for it and if he didn't he'd quit.
He decided to do this ride in the rain and wind and also riding blind since he'd never done that trail before.  He did really well but it wasn't good enough to boost his points so he threw in the towel and it was the most relaxed I'd seen him all month!!!
I'm proud of him.  He surprized me with his skillz and I already thought he was good.  I think it was good for him to push himself against some of the best around!!
I remember him coming home one night and saying "This is crazy, I'd never ride like this normally"
I think that's good.  I always think it's good for us to push our limits and see how good we can really be.  We always surprize ourselves I think, with how good we really are or can become.  I love it.

We had a dinner together, Will couldn't make it, on Saturday night and handed Matt the cup.
It didn't go quite as planned as you'll see in the video below but it made for a great memory and very fitting I think of the whole month.
Matt took it well and I loved his speech.  Very well said.

Here's a picture of all the boys except Will.
From left to right we have Bo, DMo, Dru, Lee and Matt sitting in the king's seat where he belongs.

Hahahahaha
Hat's off to Matt.  It takes a skilled rider to beat out these guys in the back row and Matt was the man with the skillz to do it. He rode like a champion and never gave up.  Plus he got sick in the middle of it all!!!  He deserved the cup in the end and they all knew it.
They've learned a bit from this competition and plan to have one 2015 but are making some changes to the rules.  I think it'll be a little better emotionally and physically next year for them.
Matt's the man to beat.
Good times.

Just a thought I liked.

So true, and just what I needed to hear right now. 

Love it. 

Tick, tock, tick, tock

So I've been having a great month mountain biking.  I've been on a couple of long rides and am amazed at what I can do.
I'm not good by any means but it's nice to be pushing myself and figuring out how to get better, what to improve on and to continue to set more goals in this area.
Here's some 'war wounds' of one ride I did with some mates one Friday.
The picture above is what my shoulder looked like the day of the crash.  I fell off of my bike around 4 times, nothing bad but enough to leave marks.
Apparently my right shoulder/hand was the target of the day.

This is what it looked like a few days later.  The bruise migrated down my arm.  The bruise is still sticking out of my T-shirts 2 weeks later!
That's ok.  Every time I ride I learn a little more.

I cut my hand up as well.  So since that ride I've purchased some gloves to wear so I don't cut my hand up again.  Simple solution that I would've never of thought of had I not crashed.  It's amazing how sore little cuts can be.
It's getting colder and colder and raining more and more and I can see my window of riding slowly closing before my eyes.
I used to like this season, but since falling in love with mountain biking this is the first year that I'm not enjoying this time of year, the colder and wetter it gets the less I can ride and that's upsetting to me.  Thank goodness Boise trails are so sandy and so I can ride a little longer than some places I guess.
In saying that though the other day I was up in the foothills with Jobecka and we looked down and witnessed such a wonderful array of Autumn colours we had to slow down and take it all in for a second.
It was SO BEAUTIFUL.  I loved that moment.
I really think it'd be nice to have the Autumn weather with the Summer light on either end of the days.  That's all I really want.
So for now I'll keeping riding while I can and then hope I won't get depressed during the Dec/Jan months.  Thank goodness for Christmas in December, who knows what I'll do in January to keep my spirits up.  Boot camp I guess and try to keep negativity out of my life as much as possible.
Easier said than done though, some people won't give up trying to pull you down, it's a battle I'm sure I'll be fighting for a life time.
Thank goodness for Jesus.

On a different tangent.......................Dru and I went out on a date for the first time in who knows when and went to this place called 'Trader Joe's'.  I'd tried some of this chocolate and so purchased it.  It's HUGE and really good.  It's been hard to find decent chocolate over here but this stuff is really good.  It's almost gone and it's only been 2 days!!  The kids have been helping.
We went and had sushi together and saw the movie 'Fury'  It was really good and sad like all war movies.  Really well done and left you appreciating all the people who fight for your freedoms and lives.
I feel bad that men are put in these situations where they have to fight and see such horror yet try to harden themselves to it to simply survive.

We had a good weekend this weekend.  That'll be my next blog post.

Takeshi's work

So I haven't blogged in a while.
There's no real reason apart from the fact that I've been super busy.
People will say "Oh now you've only got Emiko home in the mornings, isn't that nice and easy"
I'm telling you man, I've never been more busy in my life than what I am right now.
I simply think I'm not blogging because I'm run off of my feet!!!
Life is busy and I'm not sure when it's gonna let up.

So let's have a look at some cute work of Takeshi's shall we?

The says 'I am a penguin'

Then this says 'We like penguins'

This is his fire safety book.

'Don't touch matches'
I love the picture and the cute sentence he's trying to write.
Then underneath here we have the sentence 'Don't touch fire'
Very true Takeshi, very true.

Now we're back to penguins.
'I see a penguin'.

Then last but not least 'We like to like penguins'
I'm starting to believe him!

Takeshi is doing so well at school.  I volunteer every other week in his class and he seems to be doing a great job and has some friends which is nice.  His teacher is fine and more importantly Takeshi is happy at school.  I'm happy for him.

Yuki just finished reading the first book in the magic tree house series.  So at the moment both her and Masaru are reading that series. 
She's doing great at school and it comes easy to her.

Masaru is working hard at school and brings home work to complete at nights.  His homework isn't too bad but he's starting to bring home more and more stuff he's not getting done in class and so it's getting a little more complicated.  So hopefully we can get ontop of that.

The children are running at school in this programme they've got going on there and I love it.  They come home and tell me how many miles they ran that day.  It's great and they earn awards.

And just for fun here's a pic of Emiko.
The children had a Halloween party on Saturday and dressed up in outfits.  I didn't take any pictures.  Sorry man.
Emiko didn't go as this though, she went as supergirl.  It was pretty cute.
Masaru went as a samurai.  Dru and I worked on the suit for a while and it turned out pretty good if I do say so myself.
Yuki went as a pirate and Takeshi as a skeleton.  Thank goodness 3 out of my 4 children just picked out of the dress ups box so we just had to figure out Masaru's costume for this year!!!
It's nice it's done though.
Yaaa us.

Little things

It's the little things that keep my perspective straight sometimes.
Like this video of Emiko doing armpit farting noises with the help of her brother behind the camera.
My children have been showing me what's important lately and they don't even know it.

I've been going through a tough time this last 10 days with crazy, crazy things that I won't even begin to talk about on this blog.
It's made me think and think about who I am,  my REAL feelings and thoughts and what I REALLY want out of life and who REALLY truly loves me for me, flaws and all.
I've never proclaimed to be perfect, like................ever.  I've never asked anyone to 'judge christ' because of how I behave, I'm not that stupid.  All I'm trying to do is the best I can for myself and my family.  Sometimes that means I say no to people and what they expect out of me, sometimes that means I say 'be patient and give me time to work this out' so I can be true to myself and to others.
I'm anything but fake people.
But I find that people don't want honesty.  I find the more and more I'm around people they can't handle me and my honest feelings.  So I find myself having to 'make up' or 'ignore' stuff to not 'hurt their feelings'  It makes me sick.
I think people THINK they want honesty but when faced with it, get upset with it.  It's ironic isn't it?
Now I'm not talking about brutal honesty like 'Melissa I think your fat and ugly'
I think that kind of honesty needs to be left unsaid, but I think if you deem it important to talk to a mate about something in a non angry way, you should.  I always talk it over with Dru and maybe one other person so I can figure out what to say, how to say it and IF I should say it, and if I get past those couple of people I'll approach that person with high hopes that we'll sort things out.
But lately I've noticed that people are passive aggressive.  They don't wanna hear it, they wanna hide behind technology, fb, chats, emails their husbands etc.
We're all a little tougher when only communicating through these manners aren't we?
So wrong.

It's almost been like a forced 'sanctified by fire' experience.
It's hard to be abused, judged, condemned, ridiculed, bullied, threatened, ignored, name called, and the list goes on, and either a) put up with it b) ignore it or c) work out what on earth to do with it all
I'm at c) at the moment!!
All I know is that life will keep on throwing you surprises no matter how things are going or what's going on in life.
I'll never please everyone, ever!!
Sometimes your best will never be good enough for some people.  So you're at a lose lose situation because I refuse to be pushed around, bullied and abused by people.  At the end of the day I have to defend myself from negativity and darkness and sometimes that means cutting out the people who have had a permanent place in my heart.  It's really sad.  That's the thing that I struggle with the most, how sad it is for me to remove myself from them.
I love them and in there lies the inner battle.
But I love them?  But we used to be BFF's.  But surely we can work this out?  This isn't it is it?  Why are they doing this to me?  Don't they love me?  Can't they be patient?  Can I ever have a relationship with them without compromising myself?
I don't know, and that sucks.
So what I have to do with that is figure out how to please the Lord and how to please the people that matter most in my life and learn how to 'let go' of the rest.
It's been like a wrestling match in my soul because some of these people have been near and dear to me like I've said.
I don't know the answers, all I know is that I have so much to be grateful for and I have so much to give. 
I know that despite the horrible feelings and names I've been called I'm actually a really good person.  I don't think this because of other people and their opinions about me, other people are as imperfect as I am and, while I'm grateful for people loving me and having great opinions about me only the Lord knows who I really am, inside and out and when I talk to Him I feel this love and peace that only he can give.  He knows me for me and loves me and let's me know it.  Thank goodness for that or I'd be toast.
So I'll continue to talk to the Lord and Dru to try and figure out what on earth I'm suppose to do to protect myself while doing the best I can for others.
Wish me luck.

Family time

So the kids had no school Thursday/Friday.
It was awesome.
We had such a great couple of days together.  It was so relaxing and just what all of us needed.  I was very grateful for the time we had together.
I decided to make a 'home grown' recipe that I was brought up with.  This is called a caramel slice and I remember it being in the bakeries and stores back home all the time.  I used to love it and so I found a recipe for it that I wanted to try.
It was a hit!!  The kids couldn't get enough of it and I was so proud of myself.  I required the NZ ingredients, golden syrup, which I have, as well as a couple of blocks of NZ cadbury milk chocolate, which I don't have.  So for the top chocolate layer I had to simply use american chocolate chips melted down :(
It tasted good enough though and we shared with all the neighbours and friends that came over so my kids wouldn't die of a clogged artery from eating it all on their own.

I also bottled pear sauce.  It's nice cause it doesn't need sugar.  Dru said he thinks it does but he and I have different view points of what needs sugar and what doesn't.  I told him he can add sugar to his portion when he helps himself to it.  Masaru LOVES it and the other kids think it's alright.  I got 9 jars out of a box.  So I have to weigh up if that's worth the effort.  It didn't take too long but after being burned out on peaches it seemed more burdensome than what it probably was.

So this, my friends, is bear mase.  We happened to have some from a christmas party a couple of years ago as a 'gag' gift.  It's called a 'white elephant' party in the states.  You get together and bring gifts that are funny and exchange them.
This bear mase was what we got one year.  It's been sitting around the house since.
Dru and I have been 'autumn cleaning' the house and decided to put this in our 72 hour kit.  I put it by the mirror in our bedroom with the intent of putting it in our 72 hour kit under our bed later on that night.
Well let's fast forward to me in the kitchen doing the pears.  Yuki and Takeshi came running out coughing and saying Masaru had sprayed something.
I thought maybe he'd sprayed perfume or something in their faces and I was about to go talk to them then it hit me like a ton of bricks.
The mase gets to the back of your throat and you can't breathe.  You try to breathe and end up coughing and coughing until you almost throw up.
I yelled at all the kids to get out of the house RIGHT NOW and opened the garage door.  After I had coughed up a lung I knew I needed to get back in there and open up all the windows and doors if we had a chance of going back into the house any time soon.
So after saying some 'choice' words to Masaru, I took a towel over my face and went inside and opened up every window and door in the entire house and turned on all the fans possible.
Dru installed a fan in all the rooms and so it slowly disappeared from our house.
What a nightmare people.
So needless to say that bear mase will take someone OUT I tell you.  You get some of that in your face and you might actually die.........................................So now it's safe and sound in the 72 hour kit.
Dru got some in his eye.  If you wanna know if it'll drop a full grown man to the ground, then talk to him people, talk to him.

So once we'd gotten over that little mase party we went inside and finished off the pears and chores.
Then the kids played with their neighbour mates and had a blast.
I decided later on that afternoon to go for a mt bike ride.
It was a beautiful day and I'd felt accomplished and so went for it.
It was wonderful.

 So I have this app on my phone called 'strava'
I have a love hate relationship with it.  It's great cause it times you and gives you stats about your rides you do.  It's great.
It also shows you how you're doing in comparison to other strava riders out there as well, riding in the foothills.
If you get the best time you're called QOM or queen of the mountain.  If you get a trophy it means your in the top 10 of all women who've done that trail.
I only started strava around July and it's a game changer.  I have to think if I wanna keep it up or not.
But this particular ride was the best I've done on the up and the down.  It's the most trophies I've gotten in one ride.
It made me feel really good.
Mountain biking has brought new meaning in my life that I never new I cared about or had for anything.
I love it, like L O V E it.  It makes me happy for all reasons.  I'm glad I have it.
The closest I've gotten to QOM is 2nd trophy.  I'd have to get a lot better to start being QOM of anything and I dunno if I could ever do that.  One season maybe.  We'll see.

That night we decided to watch a movie together and hang out and have fun with each other.  It was so nice man.  I love my kids.  They're the best.

Friday we got up, did our chores and played with neighbour mates.
Yuki had a birthday part to go to at the nearby park and so the rest of us decided to go for a bike ride to the boise river.
We picked up Masaru's mate and took off.
Awesome decision.  I love biking around with my kids and hanging out at the river and watching them throw stones, grab huge logs and catch frogs.  It makes me happy and like I'm a 'good mum' hahahahaha
As if right?
So we played and played for a couple of hours together.
Here's some pic's and a video.

This crane was there the whole time we were.  This is the best shot I could get of it on my phone.  It was beautiful.  Almost like a silver blue colour.

Local frog just hanging out with the boys ;)

 I think they were pretending they were some kind of animal here hahaha

Busy being boys.

Emiko contemplating life as a 2 year old.  Beautiful right?  I love SE Boise.




Here Emiko is conquering the rocks.  She got totally wet and ended up just playing in her nappie (diaper) the rest of the time while I tried to dry out her clothes on nearby rocks. 

Here's all our bikes and a naked Emiko.
We then headed home and had a fun movie night together with some neighbourhood mates and my other mates kids.
We hung out and ate and then played wii till the parents came to get the kids for the night.
Dru was gone till after midnight helping a mate put his floor in his new house, bless his heart, and so it was me with 7 kids partying like it was 1999!!
Great night.

Saturday Dru and I got up early and met Jobecka and went for the longest mt bike ride I've done so far on my journey as a mt biker.

There's the stats.  Amost 21 miles and almost 3500 vertical feet.  It was AMAZING.  There's something about pushing yourself that is so, so euphoric it's hard to describe.  So I won't.
We did a trail called 'hard guy' first.
It reigns true to it's name.  It was 6 miles of uphill.  It was relentless and I had to stop about 3 to 4 times.  It made me realize how I'm not as good as what I think I am.  It was in a whole league of it own and I'm glad I did it with Jo and Dru.
Jo and Dru were way better than me and both Jo and I were amazed at Dru's riding.
There was this one section that, I kid you NOT, was so straight up I didn't think anyone could ride up it.
Then Dru comes thundering by and rips up it like some machine.
We were speechless!!!!
That's hard to do with Jo and I as well ;)
The downhill was WAY MORE FUN hahaha.
Then Dru left us to go help his mate and Jo and I kept going along another trail for another 7 miles all the way to camels' back park.  Hard guy is up bogus basin. 
Great, great morning of riding. 
We had no soccer this day either and so it was just fun, fun, fun for us and the kids.
We visited our friends in their new house and admired their progress. 
Then I came home and took a nap on the couch with Emiko while the kids played with the neighbours and watched bits and pieces of the movie playing.
That nap was AMAZING and much deserved I'd like to think after that bike ride.

That night we hung out together and laughed and played and ate ice cream.

Yesterday we watched conference, hung out with mates, served and enjoyed each other's company.

I'm so grateful for these last 4 days.
I didn't get any house work done.  I'm sitting here in a bombsite zone, but have zero regrets about the last 4 days, and what I did with the kids and Dru.
It was a much needed hang out time together and we all had so much fun.
I love my family, I love the life we have together, I love our place, area, neighbours, friends and all the blessings that the Lord has seen fit to bless us with at this time.  I'm overwhelmed with gratitude for how happy I am and the life I am allowed to lead and be a part of with my partner and kids.  It's days like these that I'll look back and miss when the kids are grown and gone, yet I'll remember with such fondness, it'll always be a warmth to my soul and a joy to my heart, like having a piece of sunshine with me to keep me warm in the 'tougher' times.

Eagle bike park

So Saturday was quite the day.
Dru and I started it with an awesome mt bike ride together.
Then we came home and spent from 10:45am till 3:30pm watching soccer with a quick lunch trip to McDonald's in between.
Once home we got a call from our mates who asked us if we wanted to go to the Eagle bike park.
Initially I wanted to say no, cause the day had been so exhausting all we wanted to do was sit and vege.
But I knew the kids would love it and I'd heard great things about it and couldn't pass it up.
So we said 'yes', pumped everyone's tires up, collected helmets and headed to our mates place to follow them to the park.
The park was a HUGE hit and we spent a couple of hours there at least.
Every child had a bike including Emiko with her cute pedal - less bike.
It was SO MUCH FUN.
There's even super fun down hill sections up above in the hilly area for the adults.  After the mornings bike my legs were tired and so I only went up a couple of times then gave up.
Dru LOVED it and is excited to go again.
Masaru was in heaven getting some serious air and the other kids had, like I said, the best time.
Yuki had an accident with a scrape, but apart from that we were accident free.





Here's Masaru trying to go up the down.



Masaru getting some big air at the cost of a slightly bruised 'family jewels' area




Here's Emiko showing us how it's done.

 I'm glad the park had a track for this little one.

Here I am at the top of the hills.  This down hill was called 'stormin mormon' and I've got no idea why.  I didn't read it but I dunno if it actually told you or just listed the rules.  Jo wanted me to get a picture infront of it, so I complied.
We didn't go down this one, we went down another one called the flow track.  I need more practice on it but it was pretty amazing.

Our mates have a go pro and the stuff to stick it on your kids helmet.  So they stuck it on Takeshi and Masaru.  They tried to stick it to Emiko's but it didn't work out.  Another time.
It's SO FUNNY.
So watch and enjoy.



Masaru's helmet kept falling down because it was his father's helmet.  He lost his and so is saving up to purchase his own helmet.  Dru and I are done with buying him things to lose.  So he has a helmet, soccer uniform and something else which I've forgotten now, that he's saving up for.  Drives me nuts man.

Anyway after we had the time of our lives we went back to the Thompson's house to have breakfast for dinner and combined forces and ate like kings.
It was wonderful, but a late night.
We'll be heading out there again soon I'm sure.  It's a pity it's getting cooler otherwise I think we'd just BBQ out there and spent a few hours out there with the kids and mates.
It's also a pity that it takes 20 mins to get out there.  Cramps my style man.