A Week in Yosemite

Still recovering from running the Wasatch Back Ragnar on Friday and Saturday (and then driving back from Utah on Sunday), Parker and I got up early Monday morning to head to our High Adventure trip with the Priests and Teachers.  Day 1 was rafting down the Middle Fork of the American River.  As luck would have it, this ended up being one of the coldest days in several months.  It rained pretty much the whole day.  Fortunately, our guides brought each of us wet suits so that helped considerably but it was still very cold.

We had a blast despite the rain and even dove into the river a couple times.  Everyone came through the rapids and falls unharmed and, after changing into our regular clothes, we started the drive down to Yosemite.

We struggled to find the turn off for our campground for a while but eventually found the spot and then put up a couple tents in the dark. I decided to just sleep in the van that night.  It wasn't comfortable but at least it wasn't wet.  We spent the next day at the campground and played some volleyball and miniature golf (on the oldest and most worn out miniature golf course of all time).  We then went to Rainbow Falls and spent a couple hours hiking up the river.  Eventually, we came back to the falls themselves, hiked a rock and started jumping off from about 25-30 feet into the water.  It was a long time in the air but pretty fun.  Brother Martin lost both his glasses and his watch since he forgot to take them off before jumping in.

The next morning we cleaned up camp and headed to the trail head (a beautiful river was right at the trail head).  We got our backpacks on and hiked several miles uphill.  One of the boys was really struggling so we had to do quite a bit of waiting, even after we took most of his weight from his pack.  Eventually, he wasn't carrying anything and we finally got him to the lake where we were going to camp.  The last couple miles were full of mosquitoes.  And I do mean full.  We spent the whole time rubbing our arms to try to get the mosquitoes off of us.  We started a fire and prayed that night for relief from the mosquitoes.  Most of us slept with our sleeping bags completely mummified.  Amazingly, the next morning the mosquitoes had diminished considerably and while we still had some the rest of the trip, we were tremendously blessed to not have to endure the swarms from the previous day.

Here we are getting ready to take off the first day of the hike.

Parker seems pretty happy but he hasn't started hiking yet!

My backpack -- ready to go.

A quick stop along the trail.

Looking back at what we had just hiked.

The beautiful mountains ahead.

These guys were everywhere.

The view from our campground the first night.

Amazing scenery!

Half dome in the distance (more on that later)

The crew

The other leaders (Mike and Mike)

The boys stopped here to throw a few rocks.  You can't really tell from the picture but after about 50 yards, it goes straight down.

Some exhausted boys on our last night before half dome.

A few of us decided to make a hike up to Cloud's Rest the afternoon before Half Dome.  This is Parker and I with Half Dome actually below us.  Parker, Isaac, and I were hiking ahead of the others and some people coming down the mountain said they saw a huge snake up above so be careful.  It gave Parker and I a huge burst of energy since we were frightened a snake was going to jump out at any time.  We made it the next couple miles up the hill in record time.

Poor Isaac was with us and kept telling us to slow down but we couldn't.

Here are some views from the top of Cloud's Rest.  It's actually quite a bit higher than Half Dome and was worth the hike.

The next morning we got up about 5 am to head to Half Dome (to beat the crowds and the heat).  Everyone made it this far (to the cables) and all but one made it to the top.  You can see the cables in the picture below.  You basically have to pull yourself up by using the cables which are bolted into the rock.  A pretty frightening experience but not as bad as I was expecting.

Some views from the top -- amazing.

One final look at the cables before taking off.  It's a crazy experience but I would recommend giving it a shot (and I'm afraid of heights!)

We then hiked the rest of the way out of Yosemite and drove home.  One of the leaders had to stop and hurl a ways into our drive but was ok after that.  We ordered a ton of pizzas (and ate about half of them) and then finally made it home and had a much needed shower.

Truly, this was High Adventure.  Great times with great people.  Great memories.

Ragnar Wasatch Back

My sister Azure and her husband (who have run with us in other Ragnars) asked us if we'd be interested in running the Wasatch Back Ragnar this year.  Wasatch Back is the original Ragnar and this was the 10-year anniversary of that race.  We found out later that there were only a few teams in that original race and my how it has grown!  This year there were over 1,000 teams participating!

Since Parker was in Tahoe with his friend Trever the week before Ragnar, Ryan Sheehy and I drove to Tahoe and picked him up and then headed off to Utah.  We went the back way over Tahoe and as we were coming to a stop sign, we heard a loud dragging noise.  I thought it was the diesel behind us but realized we had a flat tire!  We pulled over into a parking lot to check it out and the tire was shredded.  Ryan and I were able to get the spare tire on and then we had to drive about 30 minutes to the next town (Fernley, Nevada).  We were looking for a Walmart but as we pulled into Fernley, right in front of us was a used tire store.  We pulled in and asked them what they had that would fit our van.  They went to the back and then came out with the right sized tire with lots of tread, so I asked "how much?"  He said $40.  I said, $40 installed?  He said yes so I said you have a deal.  They changed the tire and we were once again on our way.  Ultimately, we ended up getting the tire replaced by Big-O with the same tires as our other three (and they paid us back for the $40 used tire as well).  We were grateful we were safe and it didn't take too much time out of our trip.  Here is the casino where we changed the tire (had to walk through the casino to wash our hands afterwards).

Parker and I stayed at my parents' house in Utah that night and since our van didn't need to be at the start line until about 3:00, we were able to sleep in and have a nice breakfast.  The weather was great and the scenery was breathtaking.  Tina's brother Mike kept talking about how he wants to move to Utah to retire since it's so pretty and the people were so nice.  The volunteers were super cheerful and even the policeman that were working were amazingly friendly.  At one point, we went down a road that was supposed to be closed; rather than chew us out, the policeman just asked us to go slowly so we wouldn't have to turn around and backtrack.  Below are a number of pictures Parker took along the course.

 We were team 890 (Killing in the Name -- Rob chose our team name, don't ask.

Looks like our Ragnar sign below is bleeding blue.

A small part of Ragnar hill.

There were so many vans at the major exchanges!  It took us 45 minutes just to pull into one of the exchanges and it got pretty cold that night.  I ended up getting about 15 minutes of sleep but Ragnars aren't about sleeping anyway.

My last leg was Ragnar hill.  Andrew had the first part of the hill and then I had the rest of it.  It was about 4 miles but had an elevation gain of 1,700 feet!  It was impossible to run it the whole time so I would run as far as I could, then walk fast while I got my breath and start running again.  I can't believe I made it to the top -- even was about a minute per mile faster than I had expected.

Parker was super fast as always and passed tons of runners.  Below are two pictures below of our van after we made it home.  As you can see, we had tons of kills.  We ended up 15th in our division and 46th overall!  We felt pretty good about that since there were more than 1,000 teams competing.

Not sure if we will ever do this one again but it was nice to say we completed the Wasatch Back Ragnar.

We celebrated by going to Kobe Saturday night and then headed off back to California in the morning to get ready for our High Adventure trip on Monday.  Good times.

Picnic Table Rehab

We had this great picnic table in our backyard when we moved into our house, 13 years ago.  It's seen better days, but has a nice sturdy metal frame and so we figured we could replace the boards, sand it, paint it and it would be good as new.

Conner took all the boards off.  We did find some rusted out parts on the bottom, but it'll do for a while longer.  I used the Saws-All (while Conner held them) to cut the boards in half so they would fit in their garbage can.

Then, we bought new boards, screws, and started putting it back together again.  Travis and Parker were out of town, so Conner and I did this on our own.

Conner did the majority of the work, but I did help every once in a while.  He had to wear my sunglasses so the bits of wood wouldn't fall into his eyes while he was screwing it in.

Here it is once we had all the boards on.  Hooray!! We did it! 

Here it is once it was sanded and stained. 

Not bad, huh?

Calissa's Dance Recital

Calissa's dance recital was last Saturday night.  She had pictures the Saturday before and then a dress rehearsal the Friday night before out in Antioch.

 Here she is before her pictures.  I was not a fan of her costume and voiced my disapproval, but what to do when it's a week before the performance?  When she put it on for the first time it was sooooo bad, but after an hour of alterations (thanks mom) it was definitely much better and at least a little more modest! 

 The theme this year was "Everything Old is New Again."  Most acts danced to older music that has been remade recently.  As always it was a really nice show.

 Travis and Parker were off in Utah running Ragnar, so it was just Conner and I, 

 and Grandma and Grandpa to support Calissa.

 She performed in the 1st half of the show,  but sat out in the audience with us for the 2nd half.  They danced  a tap number to "The Time (Dirty-Bit)" by the Black Eyed Peas.  She did amazing and I think she was the best one up there!  She was definitely the smallest, but she held her own.

 Here is the curtain call at the very end of the show.

 Congratulations Calissa!  We're very proud of you!

Here she is with her favorite teacher, Michelle!

(Now we can throw that costume away!)

Overhang gone

In preparation for our new backyard, we decided to take out the overhang ourselves to save a little money.  Last Saturday Trav, Parker, and I got busy and started cutting it down. Calissa did help when we started hauling it all away! Conner was on a camp-out for Scouts so he missed all the fun!

 We talked strategy for a while and then just went at it.

 It worked pretty well until a section fell on Trav, but at least he didn't get hurt!

 Travis had Parker do a little of the cutting at the end.  He thought his brains were going to vibrate out of his head, but he did pretty good!  I did my job well of holding the support post up (and taking pictures, of course)!

 

It took two trips to the dump, but we got it all out by ourselves and our patio and backyard look so much bigger!

Father's Day Surprise for the Bishop

Trav came home from the Tuesday night youth activity with a fun surprise from the Young Women in the ward.  They made him these darling shirt and ties and wrote personal notes to Trav, wishing him a happy Father's Day and thanking him for his service as Bishop.  It also had some candy that we all enjoyed.  Trav was really touched by the time that the girls and leaders spent to wish him a happy Father's Day!

We celebrated that morning by having roll-up pancakes and having him open presents.  He received a cute picture bookmark of Calissa, a new charcoal grill (that he hasn't been able to use yet, but I've used a couple of times), a new pair of exercise pants, and a stick roller to use on his muscles after he runs. After a day of church, a dinner of lasagna, and a banana dessert, it was a great day!

We love Travis and appreciate all he does to make our family complete!