So Saturday we went with our mates, the Cranes, to Boise's Japan Day.
Emiko was, basically a nightmare the whole time. But Dru took care of her, for the most part, which was nice. He's more patient with her than I am man. This picture sums it up nicely.
"I totally own you Dad"
"Yep"
The boys brought this hat to wear there.
They had stalls you could wander around and be a part of. We only did the free ones. So there was an origami table. The kids loved that and made these things there.
Then there was a table that had a Japanese woman who was doing the calligraphy for people. It works out great that our kids have Japanese names, at these things, cause their kanji is legit.
Unfortunately there's no where else where they'll find their names at vendors hahahahaha nature of the beast man.
We had to do Takeshi's name again because he told the lady his name was Takeshi but he put a Ya on the end, so says Takeshiya, so that's what she wrote, even though she thought that was odd.
Takeshi comes back and shows Dru and he's like 'Ah what did you tell her your name was? This has a ya at the end?'
So we went back and told her again, she laughed and figured it was Takeshi, but didn't want to upset him.
Lucky Dru can read it I guess, I'd never even know. I don't even know who's kanji is who's up in that picture. Dru?
The kids know who's is who's. I guess I could look on their walls.
Anyway....................they had some performances as well. There were some fighting sequences that went on. The first group just did fights with their bodies and holds and such, the next group wore almost like samurai outfits and fought with bamboo swords and made loud noises while they fought.
It was pretty cool.
Then we listened to the drums. Our favourite.
I love the drums. I love the Japanese drums, I love the polynesian drums, I love the band drums, you know the rat-a-tat-tat ones? I love bagpipes and haka's. All of them give me this rush. I miss poly drums man. I wonder if they have a polynesian day in Boise? I need to look.
Anyway I'm glad we went. It wasn't AMAZING but we need to support it and they've only been doing it for a couple of years. So I'm sure we'll be back each year, hopefully with our mates, the Cranes. Cesha is half Japanese like Dru, so they share a special bond ;)
Later on that night Dru and I decided to go out on a date together.
We went to dinner at Piper's Pub again.
We sat and talked the night away. Well, and I know you're not going to believe me, but Dru did most of the talking and I did most of the listening. Think what you want, but it's the truth. He loves to talk about work, so I listen. I love that he loves his job and the people he works with so much. They've recognized him as a hard worker as well and gave him the promotion he deserves. It's a name promotion so he was a 'staff attorney' and now he's 'assistant general council' He's pretty happy with his name change, but more importantly he's happy that they recognize his hard work. It's always nice right? This means that he's got more security in his job, which is really nice for our family.
Here's what we ordered.
I didn't take a selfie of us cause I've been sick all weekend and look horrible. I've got a serious allergy/cold attack that's lasted for around 4 days. It's knocked me out. Oh well.
It was a great day.
So my father never gave us 'back to school' blessings. Dru's father didn't give 'back to school' blessings either, so both Dru and I weren't brought up with 'back to school' blessings.
I dunno if it's just a Utah thing or what. Maybe certain families, and it caught on? Who knows.
The other week we were hanging out as a family for 'FHE' night and talking about going back to school and Yuki brought up the fact that she wanted a blessing to help her feel ok about her class.
Then Takeshi piped up and said he wanted one too. So Dru said he'd give them one on Sunday before school started.
They never forgot.
So Sunday rolls around and the kids are reminding Dru of their blessings that they want to get before school.
I dunno if it'll become a 'tradition' but for this school year, that's what these two wanted.
Yuki's blessing talked about having a good school year, making new friends, being good to her mates, helping to love them and care for them, finding strength through the holy ghost to learn and help others to learn, helping her teacher and becoming a peacemaker.
She was pretty happy.
Takeshi's blessing talked about learning to grow and progress, take a great attitude to school everyday, make new friends, others will feel good when they're around him, his mind will be opened to learning new things, he'll have focus over his mind, good health and he'll be a good friend.
Just a side tangent to him being a good friend. My mate, Jobecka, called me this morning and told me that her son, Hank, was out at recess with Takeshi. He's in the all day kindy class so they must have the same recess. Anyway Hank goes up to Takeshi and goes "Can I play soccer with you guys?" One of the boys playing goes "He can't play with us" Takeshi goes up to him, says a few words then turns to Hank and goes "You can play with us" and they played together.
Now if that's not being a good friend, making others feel good around you and having a great attitude, I don't know what is people!!
Emiko, not wanting to miss out on something good, begged for a blessing too. So she sat up, and Dru gave her one.
She was blessed to feel loved at home, have a good time with her mother, learn new things with mum, listen to mum and be a good help.
Dru asked if Masaru wanted a blessing and he said "No, I feel pretty good about my school year, I don't think I need one thanks"
So he never got one.
I need to talk to Masaru more about this as I don't know the thoughts behind this. Maybe he just truly feels fine about school and didn't see the need? Maybe he hasn't been taught about blessings properly? Maybe he has other feelings that he's not sharing? I dunno. When I remember, I need to talk about it with him. But we're not one to force...............at this anyway ;) so we left it and the kids went to bed.
We're blessed to have Dru be able to do this, and I'm glad the kids asked.
I really do hope their school year goes well, and as they listen to the spirit, they'll make good choices.
In other news.......................Dru and I decided to go for a 'quick' mtb ride last night.
Boise hasn't rained in forever and so all the trails are SUPER sandy man, which is a potential death trap. Dru and I both ate it last night on the DH. So here, for your viewing pleasure, is pictures of the results of sand, combined with rocky, ledgy, terrain and some speed.
"Wow, why are Dru's shorts gathered up like that?" you may ask.............
CAUSE THEY'RE MELTED TO HIS SHORTS!!! That's the way Dru likes to crash, full throttle or nothing.
I ripped the front of my leg up on my pedal while I was coming down off a few ledges too fast and got out of control. For a while I was riding on my seat with both my legs dangling off the side, not on my pedals. I thought I was a goner for sure, but I never did crash off of my bike. Modern day miracle.
This is the war wounds WITH his protective gear ON. I'm glad he has it.
This is the reason we wear helmets everyone, just in case you were planning on getting out there without one.
Elbow pads, protecting his elbows, but Dru skidded to much and they eventually got ripped on the material part.
This left a mark. It swelled up and there were a few choice noises made, while in the shower, cleaning it all up. Poor Dru.
It was fun though and is always worth it. You can't get better if you're not willing to feeling slightly outt've control right?
That's what our downhilling mate tells us, at least.
Of course he DID rip his face off so.......................
Time to get out the sewing machine and fix all the holes!!
Hahahahaha I love us.
So this morning I worked out and was home by 6:40am and the house was silent. Dru had woken up and had started preparing to go to work and I followed him around like a lost puppy.
Should I wake the kids? Should I leave them? If I wait, when should I wake them?
Dru was no help and left me to battle the day on my own. In his defense, he needed to go to work, which is great.
I decided to shower then I had Takeshi come in and tell me he was AWAKE and READY TO START HIS DAY.
He wanted me to prepare his lunch. I told him I was in the shower, and if he'd just relax, I'd make sure his lunch was done in time. It was his first day with school lunch, so I think he was pretty pumped about that fact.
Masaru was the next up, then Yuki. Emiko didn't get up until a while later.
I made them an egg with toast and a green smoothie then commanded them to clean their rooms and brush their teeth. Hahahahaha they were in such a great mood, they didn't mind the commands.
I quickly took their pictures and off they headed to school.
I threatened the older two children, that if they weren't there to pick Takeshi up, after school, they'd be grounded for the rest of their lives.
Here are the shots.
Yuki came home to show me her folder and asked me if she had homework. I told her no and was relieved. Her teacher seems pretty intense with the homework, lucky Yuki's awesome and will be able to do most of it on her own, so hopefully it won't be a big deal.
They didn't get to play outside today due to smoky air, and so she said she just played lego's inside. She seemed content, which is great. We'll see how to rest of the week goes.
Masaru came home happy enough. He said he watched a movie about people who live on the coast, at recess time. He thinks we should live on the coast as it's beautiful. Maybe we can look into it ;)
He said he had to read tonight, so he did.
He seems pretty neutral about it all and hasn't said too much. I'm not sure what that means. So we'll see I guess. He's up at mathnasium right now.
Takeshi seems happy. He said he showed up at his old teachers class by mistake then headed over to the right place.
He coloured and played with shape blocks for recess. He played with his one friend he knew and said he made a new friend. He doesn't know his name. I'm sure that'll come.
He didn't bring home anything with him today. So that's good.
Doesn't Masaru looked way pumped to be back at school?
Emiko wanted to join in on the action.
Emiko and I were out of the house the entire time the kids were at school.
We went shopping and visited two friends. We got home minutes before they got home as it was an early out day and they were home by 1:30.
It worked out pretty well that way, as I didn't have time to get all soppy and sad about it all. I think if I had dropped them off at school I would've totally cried all the way home.
Fortunately or unfortunately today has been an 'hour at a time' kinda day and so I simply didn't have the luxury of walking my kids to school and reflecting on them growing up and being away from me.
I hope they'll do alright. Tomorrow is my down day, so we'll see how I do with that.
So this is the last week of summer holidays for the kids and I have mixed emotions, like usual.
They're totally looking forward to starting school, but I'm not.
It's true, they're driving me nuts some days, but I think about them being gone next week and get all teary eyed and think about how much I'll miss them during the day.
I'm a wreck man.
Honestly, a mess.
They went down to look at their class lists and came back with mixed emotions.
Masaru is happy because he gets a male teacher this year, plus we've heard great things about him. So he's excited to see how that'll be for him. I'm excited too. I hope he has a great year with him. He also mentioned to me that he was happy that the two bullies of his class of last year, were NOT in this class. He was excited about that and then him and I had a talk about this bullying and what the entailed. I told him he needed to let me know during the year so I could help him sort it out. But he seems to think there'll be no problems since they're not with him anymore. So that's great news. It always breaks your heart to hear that there's a little bullying that goes on.
Yuki came home bawling her eyes out because she was with none of her close mates. I felt really bad for her man. So I hugged her and let her know that things would be alright, and she always had recess. I also let her know that this is a good opportunity to make new friends and I'm sure she'll find some great mates. She knows two girls in the class with her, but she doesn't hang out with them, but that might change. We'll see. She also said that a couple of 'bully' girls were in the class with her, which made her feel even more upset. So I'm going to have to keep an eye on that and see how that all pans out this next year in the classroom. We're not sure of the teacher, she's new, so I'll have to keep tabs on that as well. Ask her how it's going etc.
Takeshi got totally jipped and is with none of his mates. He's as down as Takeshi can get about it but thinks it'll be ok. He's also getting a new teacher, so I'll be interested to see how that goes.
So I'm going to have to talk to my kids almost daily about how things are going in their classrooms, and be THAT parent, if I need to be. So let's hope for their teachers sake's as well as mine, that things go alright for my children. Otherwise I foresee a long year ahead of battles.
I can't believe how fast the summer has gone by, and I'm not ready for it to end. But it is and I need to work it out man.
It's been such a great summer with so much fun going on for my children and our family, that it's hard to say goodbye to it all.
I was able to go to bootcamp classes later in the day and am going to have to ramp it up back to 5:30am which makes me wanna throw up.
I've loved just having the kids in the house and listening to them play and the hussel and bussel of the neighbourhood playing and swimming and fun goings on. I'm gonna miss it, like I always do and I feel a little sorry for myself.
I always LOVE summer so much and it never lasts long enough man. School swoops in and picks up my children for 6.5 hours of the day and I miss them. I love them man.
Plus what's up with Takeshi being old enough to be in 1st grade? Who said that was ok? He's my little man and he's leaving me for a full day now. No one told me that was gonna come this quickly. How's that even fair? I'm gonna miss him man.
I dunno how to handle this better, I never seem to be able to manage to get a better grip on it. I always get emotional and cry that first day of school.
I'm going to have to start a new routine with just me and little Emiko-ko. It'll be great to have her as my little companion. I'm sure we'll have fun together and I'm sure I'll find plenty of things to fill up my day. It still doesn't make it easier and I still need to 'work it out' I guess.
I'm very blessed to have the kids I do. I'm no mother of the year, and my kids aren't perfect and I'm not the standard to be looking at when it comes to family perfectness, but I try my best and they do too and I love them with all my heart and watching them leave me this next Monday morning is going to break my heart a little, like it does every year.
I'm grateful for the summer with them and hope it was as epic for them as it was for me.
So last week was a busy week for me. I had the youth in my church go on their 'girls camp' for the week.
There were full time people up there, which was a huge help to me. It would've been a nightmare for me to have found someone to watch my children for hours and hours a day and juggle all of that without family being in town with me. Well, I mean, let's get serious, I probably wouldn't have done it really.
So I went up on Tuesday and Thursday for a few hours and spent it with the girls. I'm really glad that I did. It was a wonderful experience for me and for the others.
There were some girls who were still feeling like outsiders, due to the ward changes over a year ago. I think this camp really helped them to bond with others and have fun and feel accepted and loved. It didn't even occur to me that they were feeling these feelings. So I'm really happy we had this week together.
Our theme was 'Finding the light of Christ' which was awesome. We did a presentation on Tuesday night, and talked about the light of Christ and what that was. It was nice. We gave them a torch (flashlight) with their names on it, as a gift. More practical you know. I thought it was great. It was simple, effective and fun.
Thursday night the Bishop did dinner and dessert and we shared our feelings with each other about spiritual things as well as struggles. It's always interesting to get a glimpse into their thoughts and struggles. It was special and I'm glad I went. I still feel a little like an outsider myself in this calling with them. I had a talk with the bishop about my feelings about the calling and he knows I'm trying my best and juggling my family as well.
I'm just doing the best I can and leaving the rest. I have good helpers at my side, and for that, I'm truly grateful.
Friday we decided to go camping with our mates.
I was a little stressed. I saw my mate Dani at the library and she witnessed me growling at my kids. She said 'Is everything ok?' and I said 'We're going camping later on today and I'm a little stressed'
She was understanding, which was nice and it helped me laugh a little at my stressfulness of everything.
We managed to be able to leave by 4pm and head off into the woods.
Once we were there, it was really, really nice. I was glad we went. Here we all are just hanging out.
We borrowed a tent from some mates. It was huge. It took us a short while to set it up, but there were these two poles that we couldn't figure out. So most of the time was trying to figure out where those poles went. It turned out they went on the rain fly that we never put up. Waste of my life!!!
Our mates, John, Jonas and Nawang.
We had plenty of food man.
There was a creek close beside us, that the kids played in.
There was also this cabin. It was so beautiful. I wonder if they get sick of the campers?
So pretty right?
Us taking pictures of each other.
Chewy was a favourite of the kids. I'm glad they brought her.
Takeshi just being himself.
It was really nice hanging out and talking and getting to know each other even more. I really enjoy Nawang and her husband. I'm glad they're our mates. I love camping. Dru works really tirelessly to make our camping experience good. He's irreplaceable. He just silently works hard around the place to make things set up, and pulled down and packed up and such.
We stayed up till midnight talking around the campfire. The kids went to sleep around 10 I think.
We slept ok, as well as you can camping I guess.
The next morning we hung out, ate, drank hot chocolate and slowly packed up our stuff while we chatted and chilled.
It was really nice.
I guess there's hot pools you can hike to, that are around. So we're gonna go camping again and try to find the hike so we can do that the next day together. That should be fun next time we go.
Nawang sent me a text and said that John really enjoyed himself and wanted to go again. She said she was shocked. Hahaha I guess we're pretty cool people to camp with right? That's how I"m gonna take it. The kids really like Jonas though, so that's nice.
We got home around 2pm and it gave us enough time to unpack and work on a few things before we headed out with our mates, the Jares, to celebrate the men's birthdays.
Boe and Dru both have a birthday days within each other. This is our 4th years biking into town and having dinner together.
We went to our 2nd year place "Piper Pub" for some great food with wonderful company.
Unfortunately we didn't get any pictures at all which is totally lame man.
It was nice to just take our cruiser bikes into town and chat the whole way in, then chat all night at dinner, then bike over to 'Ben and Jerry's' and get some ice cream, keep chatting, then cruise home and chat for 15 more minutes when we're suppose to be saying bye.
I met a kiwi who was working at Ben and Jerry's. It was nice to chat with him.
We love the Jares and really miss them being our neighbours man. It sucks not having them two houses down. We don't see them anywhere near as much and that's just sad.
I'm glad we had the opportunity to be with them. It reminded me how great it is to be with them and that we need to do it more often. Summer seems to have been busy and three months go past and you haven't seen anyone!!!
Dru and I slept well that night!!
It was a busy weekend and my house is a disaster, but it was a really nice weekend as well and so it's totally worth the messy house, cause friends are worth it.
So our mate Nawang had her son's 2nd birthday on the Sunday we came back from Stanley.
We promised her we'd make Jonas a cake.
He has this lamb soft toy, that's his favourite of all time.
She wanted a sheep cake and was thinking of paying someone to do it.
She then saw our pekachu cake and asked if we could do the cake. So we said yes.
This is the cake we did.
Hahahaha super cute right? Every time I look at it, it makes me smile.
Nawang loved it and Jonas too. It tasted alright as well, which is always a great thing.
I had to duck out and teach a Temple Prep class, but came back and kept partying with the kids.
Here's a video of Emiko on the swing.
She's learned how to pump, which is so great for us.
So Dru and I had a weekend mtb in Stanley. We had originally planned it as a swap with our friends who went back in June. We'd watched their kids while they went to Bend, then this weekend they were going to watch our kids while we went to Stanley. It didn't work out exactly like planned, but we still got our weekend and our kids were well looked after by two sets of friends.
They stayed the first night with Jobecka and the next night Hillary.
Here's some pictures, courtesy of Jobecka, of the stay with them.
I'm not sure what this face, from Emiko, means, but it looks like Matt is playing a mean set, right beside her.
The kids biked to their piano lessons the next morning then headed to the swimming pool and had some fun.
Is this guy peeing on them? What's going on here hahahaha
Always a fun time with the Thompson's, whom we're grateful to.
I'm glad the kids had a fun time.
Then there came the swap and Jobecka dropped the kids off to Hillary and Andy.
They had originally planned on going to Movie in the Park, that night, but it was too windy and the screen wouldn't stay up properly. So they just came home and watched a movie with popcorn at their house.
The kids said it was fun even if it wasn't at the park. Apparently Emiko left her entire bag of clothes at Jobecka's, so Hillary had to improvise with her own daughters clothes.
The next morning they had church and even found some friends from our ward over here that had moved to Hillary's ward. How crazy is that? So they said they had a good time there.
Then Emiko was riding her bike and crashed into a fence and bent her front tooth back. So Hillary rang me, we were packing up to come home, and told me she was going to take Emiko to our dentist, who is also our friend, who is also her brother in law, who she originally recommended us to use when he first moved into town 2 years ago!!
Quinn swooped in, saved the day and bent her tooth back into place. But Hillary, who's a dental hygienist, had to give her a shot, which pushed Emiko over the edge and was screaming bloody murder.
Sounds like it was quite the ordeal and it was probably better that Dru and I weren't around. I feel really bad for Hillary man, who felt bad, but what do you do? Accidents happen and kids lose teeth (right Nat?) and that's the way of the world. I'm glad it wasn't worse and that Emiko was well taken care of. I guess she's got a month. If the tooth is still looking good after a month, then she'll keep it. If a spot occurs over the tooth and it starts turning black or looking infected, then it'll be a lost cause, but at least we tried right?
We're so grateful to Hillary and Andy for taking the kids for us.
So that was the kids weekend in a nutshell.
Let's head into talking about the 'Adult' weekend shall we?
Dru and I headed out and got up to Stanley around 8ish that night. We hung out with our mates, Dave and Heather, talked, caught up and made plans. Dave pulled out his map and suggested we ride in the 'White Clouds' since they were going to be closed to mtb'ers soon.
So we decided to ride that the next day. Some of their friends were going to ride it as well, so Dru and I felt confident and excited about that ride. It was going to take around 6 hours and be roughly 25-30 miler with some promised 'epic' scenery in place. I went to bed that night so pumped to ride the next day.
We woke up to rain. I still thought that maybe it was possible to ride the White Clouds, but as time ticked on it wasn't looking good. The 'friends' that were going to ride with us said that it wouldn't be good up there and said they were out. It was going to be a muddy mess and there was a mist up there as well, so who knows if you would've seen anything.
I was really disappointed. I was so excited to ride up there and felt sorry for myself. But I had to 'pick myself up' and figure out a new plan.
They suggested 'Fisher Creek' which we had already done before. We were planning on riding that, originally, but the promise of the White Clouds, had shaded the Fisher Creek ride, for me, and I didn't care if we missed that ride altogether.
So with Fisher Creek being the 'right kinda soil', for a bit of rain, we headed out to do that ride together.
At least I knew that ride and knew it was fun and pretty and riding with Dru is always great. So off we went with high hopes of an epic down hill and reality of a tough up hill, due to the wet conditions as well as all the gear we had to hitch up with us, also due to the weather conditions.
We got to the trail head and met, randomly, the bike shop owner from Boise, who we take our bikes to sometimes, and had a chat to him. He had also come up with high hopes and was taking the 'plan b' route and wondering what our plans were. We shot the breeze for a bit, then Dru and I headed out, after inviting them to come with us. His wife is pregnant and she wanted a nap and to 'wait it out' a little and see if the rain would stop. We wished them luck.
The uphill was tougher than what I remembered, but Dru and I kept a steady pace and talked while riding up, carrying what felt like Emiko, on our backs!!
It was so nice to reach the top.
Here we are at the end of the climb and the beginning of the 'more fun' part of the trail.
Dru signed us in on this book they have up there, which I think is kinda neat, then we headed down.
I did a lot better on the down hill this time. I was a lot more confident and it felt really good. An obstacle I remember getting off of my bike and walking over, was an easy ride for me this time, I was impressed with myself and felt really good, even with the heavy load on my back. It was a lot of fun.
I got down to the bottom of the first part, and waited for Dru. He was getting all his down hill gears on at this sign in the picture {above}, so I just took off and told him to yell when he'd caught up with me. He never did catch up, so while I waited at the bottom I took a couple of pictures of him coming down.
Dru came screaming down and I tried to get a couple of shots of him coming down. I should've taken a video but was all 'panicked' and got these two shots instead.
It's kinda like a game of 'where Dru' in the shots, but 'oh well' it is what it is.
I'm always so impressed with how fast Dru is. He comes down those hills like a 'bat outta hell' man. I wanna be that fast!!
We then kept going, taking in the smells and the great view of wildflowers and creeks.
There were a couple more sweet down hill sections that were so much fun. The conditions were pretty good, considering the rain, and it didn't pour on us. It was a light rain and then no rain, for most of our ride, so we couldn't complain.
I shaved off minutes from the last time I did the downhill and am close to getting a trophy on strava on it. That makes me excited to go for it again next time and motivates me to push myself harder. I love it. Following Dru helps me as well. If I can keep him in my sights, then I know I'm doing ok. That hardly ever happens, so I've got a long way to go. I love it.
We climbed out of the trail to a nice decent to the car park. We had climbed roughly 2000 vertical feet. Most of it was at the beginning but there's a bit of a climb in the middle and the end.
We were happy we'd made it and headed to the local bakery to check out the goods.
I was cold but not hungry. We got a hot chocolate, cin roll and a sandwich and shared it. I'd had better hot chocolate and my own home made cin. rolls are just as good if not better, and the sandwich was ok. Maybe it was the fact that I wasn't hungry? Or maybe I ordered the wrong thing? Dru ate it all up though and said he liked it, so that was good. I'd go there again, maybe when I was hungry, and try something else and give it a second shot.
We headed back to our mates place to have a nice hot shower and sit for a little while before heading out to our second ride.
Man a hot shower never felt so good. I was so grateful for it. It was also nice to just sit and chill for a while on Heather's couch and talk with her and Dru about nothing in particular and relax.
The weather was looking alright and so we planned on going to another ride called 'Potato Mountain'
Dave said this ride was his favourite 'go to' ride at his lunch times, when he had a spare couple of hours.
We were excited to try it. We knew this ride would be a little more wet, considering it had a few river crossings. Dave said most of them wouldn't be too bad though, and it would be worth checking out.
So we got changed into some new mtb gears and headed out with high hopes, warm hands and feet, and a good attitude.
When we got to the trail head it POURED like that fat rain you know. Like one drop is about a 2-3 inches in diameter on your windshield!! So Dru and I looked at each other and said we'd 'wait it out' for half an hour and then make our decision after that.
We waited for 20 mins and the rain had stopped. So we put all our gears on and headed out.
We biked around 1 1/2 miles and realized something wasn't right, checked our map, and headed back to the car. We had stopped too early. The trail head was further up the road. So we packed our bikes up and drove another few miles up the road to the REAL trail head, again with high hopes and a good attitude. Considering we had just ridden a little under 18 miles we were laughing at the fact that we'd 'warmed ourselves up' by riding another 3 miles 'just for fun'. Oh well, live and learn right?
Here we are heading out.
This time it was the right way and we started up the trail.
It was ok until you hit the 'hike a bike' section. Talk about crazy up man. Dave said that if you could bike up that section you could get free lunch at the bakery for life!! I can't see how anyone could bike up this particular section. It was technical and super steep, plus add in wet and it was '3 strikes you're out'.
So Dru and I talked as we took our bikes for a walk up the hill for while. It was so pretty.
Once it flattened out, that's where the real beauty began. The smells and wild flowers, partnered with the sound of the river beside us with the trees and river rocks. It was the prettiest trail I'd been on. It was simply breathtaking.
It was SUPER wet though. There was puddle after puddle after puddle. I knew our backsides were gonna be muddy and soaked. We stopped to take off our jackets and I took a picture of our clothes, thus far. We were only halfway through at this point, so picture us completely soaked and fully muddy by the end hahaha.
Hahahaha look at that mud.
With how wet we were I was worried I was going to be cold, but I never was. I usually get cold hands and feet and didn't, ever! It meant that I could enjoy the ride so much, even though we were wet. It was actually pretty funny really, cause I don't think we could've gotten any more wet had we jumped into the river itself!!
Totally worth it.
So this section we didn't wanna ride through because it was so fast. I handed my bike over to Dru and jumped to the other side. Luckily there was that big rock there or I would've been taking a longer run up and hoping for the best on the other side.
So far our feet had remained, mostly, dry. But then we came to this river crossing.
So far I had watched Dru cross all the river crossings and had gained confidence in him 'making it' and went for it myself and had made it.
But I watched him go across this river and fall off, due to biking into rocks underneath he couldn't see, and knew I had to walk my bike across. I had to face facts that I needed to get my feet wet.
So Dru got a video of it.
It's always rough to, willingly, walk into a river and get your feet wet, knowing it was still going to be a while before your feet were going to be dry. But there's nothing else to do but face facts and get your feet wet. All part of the fun and adventure right?
There was also this dam built by beaver's that was amazing. I wish we'd gotten a picture of it. It was very impressive.
I feel bad that the pictures don't do it justice. I also feel bad that you can't smell and hear these pictures. I think this is one of my happy places I'll go to, in my head, when I'm stressed.
Dru and I continued on our way through some technical stuff, which I totally got through. Dru commented on how impressed his was at my bravery and skill at 'going for it' with this trail. I figured I needed to try and face crashing if that was what it took. I'll never get better if I don't go for it right? I faced a few things in this trail and totally went for it. It was awesome.
There was one thing we didn't try to do, however, and that was this log with total mud pond on one side and the river on the other. We got off our bikes and decided not the slip off to our doom on that log.
It was beautiful and I was grateful to be doing it with Dru. I think the line I said the most was "This is so beautiful babe" and he'd be like "It sure is"
I felt like stopping and picking some of the wildflowers to take home to my house. But that wasn't possible and probably not right either. I wish I could have a yard that looked like this and just wander around in my pretty meadow hahaha
13 miles later we got back to the car, completely soaked and happy.
It was a 1500 vertical feet climb. Most of it was at the beginning with a little at the end.
We had another hot shower and some hot food made by Heather. We were grateful and really tired. That hot shower felt so good on my muscles.
Dru and I considered doing the White Clouds the next morning but thought we'd better not push our luck. If it was 5-6 hours without trouble, and we had to be on the road by 2, we figured we had better play it safe.
We decided to do an 11 mile ride called Elk Mountain. It'd mean we could sleep in, pack and not be rushed as it would only take maybe an hour and a half to two hours.
I fell asleep quick that night, really grateful for the day I'd just had with Dru and witnessing and being a part of something so special.
The next day we slowly made our way up had breakfast, tidied, packed and chatted with our mates for a while.
We headed out to Elk Mountain excited to try this trail. There was no rain, just sunshine and so we knew it was gonna be a little dryer, which was nice.
The beginning of the trail had most of the up hill in it. The vertical climb wasn't much at a little under 1000 feet, but that all depends on when you're doing that 1000 feet and the distance that 1000 feet happens!! 1000 feet over 10 miles isn't too bad, but 1000 feet within 2 miles is a little more rough.
Most of it was at the beginning with a little right at the end, just to humble you.
Here we are almost at the end of the climb in the beginning, trying to get a shot of those beautiful mountains.
This trail was so much fun. It had rocks in the beginning that you biked over, so was a little technical and I loved it. It had roots to jump over and logs to climb over. Dru and I couldn't stop talking about how much fun we were having. This is a video of me biking under a fallen log. You can't really see, but I had to bend way down, in order not to be taken out by it. It was pretty awesome. I feel bad I didn't take any shots of Dru. Next time.
Then we hit another beautiful meadow that we had to get a shot of.
There were a few wet, muddy patches, but nothing to get our feet wet over or our shorts too muddy.
My shoes were still wet from the day before anyway, so it wouldn't have mattered hahahaha
See the excitement in my face? Hahahaha
Despite my face, I was having fun.
There was a beautiful section where you were beside a hill going up and a hill going down on either sides of you. It was really beautiful riding through there.
Then we hit some water bar sections that were SO MUCH FUN. We hit those with speed and managed to get some air which felt so good. I love hitting a jump just right that your whole bike is off the ground for a bit. Exhilarating to say the least.
We'd hit some more uphill then headed down on this fun section of down hill.
I had no idea Dru took this video of me going down this hill. I would've, maybe, done something more exciting for you to witness!! Nothing like a straight down hill to get the heart pumping though.
It was a really fun ride and quick to do as well which is always great to have.
We headed back, showered, said our goodbyes, gave out hugs and thankyou's and headed home. We're so grateful to Heather and Dave for letting us stay with them. What great, great people. If you every wanna raft the river up there, they're the ones to see.
It was a beautiful, peaceful, ride home.
I was thinking in the car about how grateful I was for this weekend with Dru. I was thinking about how, after 14 years together, things just seem to get better and better with him and how happy that makes me feel.
I loved this time spent with him, even the silent moments where no words were shared, just moments that we had together, witnessing beauty and having a shared love of the outdoors and our mtb's.
I realized how special that was, being able to have moments together that keep our friendship strong and our relationship healthy and passionate. I'm glad our loves are so similar yet our personalities so different, it makes for a wonderful partnership. My love for Dru deepens in these moments. I'll always be grateful for that.
I was ready to see the kids and worried about Emiko though.
It was nice to come home and have a chat to Hillary and see how Emiko was doing and talk to the kids for a little bit.
Unfortunately we couldn't come home and relax though, there was a bday party to go to and I had a church lesson to teach that night. So we quickly unpacked the car and got ready for that.
I feel bad that I didn't get the chance to just sit with the kids and listen to their weekend, but there's not much I can do about that I guess.
I'm glad our kids had been looked after and were happy. I love them.
So there we are, a SUPER long post about our weekend away.
If you read this WHOLE thing, then you are a true friend, and I'm grateful to YOU as well.
Kisses and hugs.
Milz xx
