New Trail

Last night, Dru and I headed up to the top of Bogus, to do a ride on our mt bikes that we've never done before. It's called 'Around the mountain'
It takes 40 mins to get to the trail head, talk about crappy, but we're glad we did.
It was in the 90's (35 c) down in the 'lowlands' and so being up in the 'highlands' was way better. By the time we'd parked the car at the trail head our car said 75 (23c), which was great news.
We'd gotten really specific instructions from our mate Dmo and headed out on our new adventure.
Here we are stopping to take a selfie and to take in the absolutely gorgeous views from on high.
I was so happy. The smells, the weather, the views and the new trail was all so exciting to me and I had such a great time.
Dru said he loved it as well. It's a pity it's so far away, otherwise I think we'd go a little more often.


I mean check out that view behind us. A picture never does it justice though right? It would've been better with a 360 actually. Oh well.
I always enjoy riding with Dru, he critiques my riding, which sometimes gets to me, but I know he's excited for me to get better. I feel like I can try more with him and it makes me a little braver as he believes in me and my riding. I like it.
There were some really fun sections. We were loving it. We went back and forth leading each other and talking and stopping for potty breaks!!


The last section was a really fun down hill. It had sharp corners and so if you didn't know the trail, and decided to bomb it, you'd totally fly off the trail hahahaha
There were some bridge type ladders along the trail that you could choose to ride over. Some went over rocks and some when out over the side of the trail around the rocks.
I missed the first one cause Dru had stopped and told me to go over and I didn't know what he was saying. I waited and watched him go over the first one and then I hit the rest of them.
It seems easy when you watch the video, but there's something sketchy about going on a narrow piece of wood that, with one wrong move, you could fall to your doom, when you HAD the option to stay on the safety of the trail. That's, at least, is what's going on in my head.
But I thought to myself 'Come on Milz, you can do it' and I totally did and felt really good about myself.
I think I did 2 or 3 more, I can't remember. Dru stopped again and said "Did you do that last one?" I'm like "Yep" and he's like "Really?" and I'm like "Yep" and I could see the pride in his eyes through his sunglasses hahahahaha
Seriously though, we had a blast, hit chic fil a on the way home and talked about how great it was.
Dru never wanted to go up there, cause of the travel time, but I think we might hit a couple more trails before the year's ended.
I'm excited to try more. More riding on different trails is exciting, and getting better on the trails I know is exciting too.
Good times.

MTB in NZ

http://www.rotoruabikefestival.com/rotorua.php

Way pumped to go home and ride these trails. I'm so excited.

Emiko rides a bike

Emiko started riding a bike on her own today, thanks to Masaru.
It's a big deal man.
Now she has to learn to start and stop on her own, but that'll come quickly as she practices.
It'll be nice to have her riding properly instead of dragging her around in the trailer.
The more kids riding proper bikes, the more fun we can have as a family.

I don't mind what others do, I'm too old to care, but for our family no training wheels has worked out great. Kids have no options, just gotta learn to ride and it's totally worked.
I like the strider bike too to teach them balance.
That's it man, no more teaching kids how to ride a bike. Another last milestone done and it wasn't even done by Dru and I, totally done by the other kids, and that's how it should be. Good on them.
I loved that my kids learned how to ride young.
All 3 years old apart from Takeshi, who was 2 when he started riding a bike on his own, but that's to be expected right? It's Takesh we're talking about, Mr Fearless!!

I'm glad that I was living in NZ when Masaru was 2 and watched a boy skid into pre-school on his bike! That was the beginning of me knowing that a 2-3 year old could totally ride a bike. I'd never thought about it before then. I approached the mum and asked her "How long has your kid been riding his bike?" She told me for a while now and that started the wheels running.
I'm like "My kids could totally do that" and they all did.

When we first moved to Boise none of the neighbourhood kids could ride a bike, but because Masaru and Yuki were riding around it made the other kids and families think "Huh, I guess our kids could totally ride a bike" and got started teaching them. All the neighbourhood kids learned and they all biked around together because of the example of Masaru and Yuki. The parent's told me this, so I'm not making it up for show if you were wondering haha
Riding a bike is freedom and so much fun. I'm glad Emiko is finally on the bandwagon thanks to her siblings.
I'm glad they have each other.

Takeshi turns 6

Takeshi's bday was yesterday, but was semi celebrated early, due to Lake Powell and convenience. Here he's opening his gift from his Auntie Kristin.
 Then here he is opening his pressie from his Auntie Brooke.
 It's always nice to celebrate a little early to get the ball rolling right?
What I love about Takeshi, is every present, he's way pumped. I love it.

I asked him what he'd like to do. He said he wanted to go to a bouncy castle. So I looked, asked and searched and Boise doesn't have any. So I asked him for a plan B. He told me he wanted to go out to Barclay Bay and play.
So that's what we did. He had three friends (all I could fit in the car) and off we went.
Not before opening some gifts though. Lego's and chalk from his homie Carter.

A sweet shop gift card from his homie Kai.

And $$ from his third homie DC. Spoilt rotten I'd say.

I brought the raft, snacks and drinks for everyone and sat and watched the kids play.
Bonus is that it was totally free, but the weather wasn't the best. The kids kept getting blown into the bushes on the raft, it was so windy. So they had to figure out their own fun, which they did.
It was nice that all of my kids could come too, from Masaru to Emiko, it's fun for all.

Takeshi decided he was going to catch fish for a while.

 The kids decided to built sand castles.

 Proud of their work so far.

 Additions to the castle.

 More playing and fishing.

The one play thing at the bay, the purple dragon.

 We then decided to leave and stop for a snow-cone at the local snow-cone shack. Always a favourite.
Takeshi's obviously excited about it.
We then dropped his mates off and came home.

 He wanted a Pikachu cake and this is what we came up with. Dru and I made the foundation the night before and froze it. Then that morning I added the yellow icing on it. Then while I was hosting the party boy, Dru had come home early and put the final touches of the face on. It turned out so great. I love our team efforts. Takeshi thought it was great.

 When asked what he wanted for his bday dinner he said "Orange chicken, rice, brocolli, beans and carrots please"
So that's what we had, plus a little more.
We had Nawang's family over to help us celebrate. It was perfect. She brought her sister who we've never met. It was nice to met her.
Dinner was really good. It was a great choice.
We then decided to open presents, always a favourite.

His gift from mum.

 Legos of course. He told me he wanted Police Legos. So that's what we got.

 Love Emi's face is this shot.

 Cold, hard, cash from Grandma. Always great. Thanks Grandma.

 Fishing gear from his Auntie Les. He was pretty excited about that box and so was Masaru!!

He wanted these super sipper straws from the World Market here. So that's what he got from Dad, plus some cash. He loved them. I'm glad.

 He then got some rechargeable batteries from Nawang's family. Dru and I are excited about that gift, cause that's the gift that keeps on giving man. Honestly, this kid was making dollar store trips expensive, even, with all of his batteries he needed.

 Then his other Grandma's gift.

Rugby t-shirt, book, NZ mug, NZ chocolate, colouring in pencils, sunglasses and a HUGE card. Thanks Grandma, great, great, gift.

Closer shot of the T-shirt. Love it.

Then we sung 'Happy Birthday' and dug into some cake and ice cream.
It was fun hanging out and celebrating.

Nawang and her family offered to babysit the kids so Dru and I could catch a movie for our anniversary.
So nice of them.
So we went out and watched 'Terminator'
 I really liked it, but I'm a huge Terminator fan. I thought this movie was really well done and tied in everything really well. I'm glad we went and I'm grateful for good friends.

Takeshi's bday kind've snuck up on me and so the other day, Nawang offered to take the kids swimming so I could go bday shopping. I took Emiko and we got it all done. It's amazing how fast time flies when you have to run a bunch of errands.
The kids had the best time as she brought them lunch afterwards. Talk about spoilt.

Look at that spread....................
I'm grateful to know these guys. It's always nice when people love your kids and you know they love them. It's really nice since I don't have family in Boise. Good friends are priceless.

So there we have it, the 6 year old celebration for Takeshi.
I think he did really well and had a great time.

We love Takeshi and all those who meet Takeshi love him. He's hard not to love. He's always happy and full of life. I love his great attitude towards everything. He's contagious and a great example to me of what happiness really is.
I love his bravery and courage. I love that he tries things with no fear. I love that he loves food that the other kids don't like. I love that he loves left overs and got him some thermoses for his lunches this school year.
I love how kind and thoughtful he is to others. He'll often give up his seat, his candy, his turn, to help and give to others. He's just a really good kid and came that way.
I always get compliments to how good lookin he is too.
"He's the best looking kid"
"He's the cutest kid I've seen"
"He quite the looker isn't he"
"He's gonna break some hearts later on"
"He's so handsome"
It's all true and he gets most of it from his father. There's not much to Takeshi from me, when it comes to his looks, but I'd like to think I've got a little sprinkling of something that finishes his looks off well hahahahahaha
Love you to the moon and back buddy. You're an asset to the family and life wouldn't be the same without you.

Trampoline fun

I was watching the kids playing on the tramp on Sunday and was listening to them laughing and laughing and tried to get a video of them.
I pulled the phone out and that exact time Takeshi got hurt.
Then I waited until things had settled and they were laughing again to pull it out and got a little of it.
It's just Murphy's Law man, nothing goes wrong and everything is great until you try to get a shot of your kids happiness, then all hell breaks lose.

14 years

 So Dru and I celebrate 14 years together this weekend. We share it with Takeshi's birthday and so for the last 6 years we've been busy celebrating his birth, rather than our marriage, which is just fine by us.
We usually never do anything big on our anniversary. It's usually low key like dinner and a movie, which we both love.
Friday night we went out for a mtb ride together then hit chic fil a afterwards.
It was perfect.
We then watched a NZ film later on that night, where Dru fell asleep and I watched it by myself.
We're getting old, as you can tell in this picture below, but that's alright as well.

 My cowboy.

We dont' get each other gifts, which is great, we have everything we need.
So I figured I'd stick some pictures of us up here before we had children, to remind me of all the fun I used to have before kids...............................jokes man jokes, but seriously, here's a few pic's of us before kids, when we were less wrinkled and had more energy and sleep.

 Moab, before we were married.

On our honeymoon in Bali.

 Engagement pic's in Moab.

 Bali

Right after we came home from our honeymoon and spent another week in NZ.

 Lake Powell

Mexico

 NZ

 Angels Landing in Zion's National Park.

' Mt Doom' in the background there, in NZ

Uinta's in Utah. I was pregnant with Masaru here.

 We weren't dating in this pic. This was my first visit to Utah.

 Wedding day

 When Dru first got his dreads.

Wedding day.

Climbing up to Angels Landing.
Sorry the pic's aren't the best quality but you get the idea. Plus 14 years ago we were still taking film shots.
This is one of my most favourite shots of us ever {above} as it sums things up really nicely, without having to say anything.
This is what Dru means to me, this picture tell it's all.
Always beside me.
Always with his arm around me.
Always supporting me.
Always caring.
Always carrying the load with me.
Always listening.
Always there.
Always...........

Love you babe, thanks for always.........