Merry Christmas

Ok. So maybe my new year's resolution should be to post more reliably on the blog.

Hope you have a wonderful Christmas and a great break.

Are there any boys this cute?

I mean, she's adorable. Rachel is at that perfect stage where she make cute comments, is genuinely trying to help and usually is just pretty pleasant all around. She is so proud that she learned how to ride a bike without training wheels. Now that the weather is bearable here, she's outside a couple hours every day "practicing".

Cooling at last!

I just looked at the week weather forecast for Tucson.

Tucson, AZ
89°F ClearWind: N at 7 mph Humidity: 33%
Today 98° 73°
Tue 98° 74°
Wed 98° 70°
Thu 98° 69°

That's right! Thursday morning when I go to the squadron's exercise, it could be less than 70 degrees for the first time since we've been here! Just wait till we go camping on Friday up at some altitude--I could actually be outside and not be sweating! Oh, I think I'm going to like the winter.

Cross Country

Lindsey's cross country career began today. She seems about 1/2 the size of the fastest runners, but did a great job. She was the 4th runner from her school and is the only 6th grade girl on the team.

Of course, we've improved on the teaching my parents gave me of "don't drink too much water". With the temperature at 105 when the race started, we actually encouraged her to drink some water. I guess she has been trained a little too well not to litter because she ran with the water bottle for the first mile, until she came past us and I begged it from her.

The Goatpacking Trip

Well, we're still in the process of getting settled in Tucson. We closed on the house on June 19th and have been working the last week to make some changes and unpack boxes. This has involved scraping off 1500 square feet of popcorn ceiling texture from the vaulted ceilings in the great rooms of the house. Priming and painting took another day or two. Fortunately my brother Doug and his wife Alisha came to help us. Now we're working on getting things out of boxes and organized in our smaller home.

Goat Packing

The long rumored goat packing trip was a riot. I can't imagine a better distraction for hiking with children than a few goats. Rachel, our 4 year old, walked the entire 6 miles to Amethyst Basin. It was amazing. And having the goats help to carry all of that stuff was a great bonus.

Here are a few highlights of the trip:

The Sabeys

We love doing things with the Sabeys. Mark and the boys are constantly thinking of ways to make everything more exciting. For instance, on our hike down the mountain, they decided we should each pick a goat who we thought would be leading the goat pack most of the way to the trailhead. They awarded points to a goat and his pickers each time he crossed a stream as the lead goat. Of course along the way there were whimsically heated discussions about the minimum requirements for a "stream", bantering when a goat would pass, and cheering for their favorite goat. Lisa tries to fulfull her divine role as family safety monitor, but has had some setbacks recently as Cubby broke both his wrist and his opposite elbow. Rachel Sabey is so sweet with the girls. They love being dressed up and made up when they see her. And now the princess book she gave them is a highlight.

The Goodnatured Goats

Grace liked the goats and they provided hours of free entertainment.

to be continued. . . . .

Wasatch Back Relay Legs 33 & 34

I went on another hill climb training run this morning. Jason Haddock met me at Wasatch Mountain State Park and we "ran" 5 miles up the "You've got to be kidding me" (leg 33) and part of the "Ragnar" (leg 34) legs of the Wasatch Back Relay. I'm glad Jason was with me because I would have been seriously tempted to turn back. This is grueling enough in the early morning with fresh legs. Running it after running 4 and 6 mile legs beforehand (and in the middle of the noonday sun) is going to be a challenge. The road is really dusty too.


I just realized you can't read the image too well. Basically the run was a 2200 ft climb for 5 miles from 5800 feet to 8000 feet. I now have a new documented maximal heart rate of 201 (which Carol pointed out I achieved before I even reached the first hill.)

Training Run

It's easy to delay training for a race when it is still months away, but I can no longer delay. I'm posting a picture of my training run today up Millcreek Canyon. This is courtesy of my new Garmin 305, which I love. With any luck I'll be able to make it up the "You've got to be kidding" or "Ragnar" legs of the Wasatch Back Relay in a month. The real race is 4 miles up a slightly steeper "road" gaining 2000 ft of elevation, instead of 1600 like this training run.

A Gorgeous Garage

I took these pictures of Mom and Dad's garage while we were down there last weekend. Doug finished the garage floor about 2 weeks ago, and it looks great. We went to the home show at the Expo center last night and saw Doug's cool jigsaw show samples. I think they are going to do well in their new venture.

Bryce and Karen, that is a car parked in the garage. Cars are four wheeled vehicles that the rest of America uses for transportation. Perhaps we can discuss the more complicated idea of a garage if you call sometime.

Moab - Family Bike Ride

On President's Day, we did the Bar-M Loop trail with the Sabeys and the whole family. Soft sand is the enemy of bike trailers, but we all made it through the loop. And once again, we proved that anything you do with the Sabeys is guaranteed to be fun.

 

 

 

Moab - Slickrock Trail

We've been so busy playing for the past couple of weeks that I haven't posted any of our great pictures. So here are a few from our Slickrock trail trip on Saturday.

(Pictures coming soon)

After I wiped out going over this little ledge into the deceptively soft sand below, I decided to pull out my camera and watch the rest of the group come over this spot. You might call it entrapment, but I think of it as opportunity. . . .

Mesa Falls

We went to Mesa Falls with the Sabeys on our New Year's snowmobile trip in Island Park, Idaho. It is about 60 miles from West Yellowstone, MT which made it an all day trail ride.

 

Here is my best attempt to create a map of what it would require to make a round trip from West Yellowstone to Mesa Falls.

Mark's Video

Here is Mark's video from the family reunion. It's 15 minutes long, so had to be cut into two clips. Apparently Mark likes hearing himself narrate.

Madsen Movie

At our recent Madsen family get together over Christmas, we had a fun video making activity. The family was divided into four teams and given a bag of props that had to be used in the skit. This is one of the four videos that were made. Hopefully some day I'll get ahold of the other videos and be able to post them as well.