Stepping out of my comfort zone

Last night I decided to embrace my inner Latina. My friend Myra teaches Zumba at the Y, and I tried it out. I loved it! I felt totally stiff and ridiculous, but I had fun laughing at myself. I looked a little like Elaine Benes on Seinfeld.

After being a cheerleader and teaching step aerobics, I'm used to sharp, precise movements. Zumba is totally different. It's free and loosey-goosey. I realize that I need to loosen up and "dance like no one is watching". It's hard for me to do!!! I've gotta go practice my shimmy...

Part 2 - The Ride

I was grateful to get a good night's sleep before the ride. We were up by 5:30 so that we could squeeze in a small breakfast before we started.
Unfortunately, the hotel's continental breakfast isn't served until 6:30 on weekends. Oops! At least we got some photos in.

Aren't we a lovely harem on this crazy adventure with Terry?

Since we didn't get breakfast before we started the ride, we were very happy to reach the first rest area. We enjoyed some fruit and muffins before continuing on.

Only 25 miles in, and we're still looking fresh.

Notice the funny signs they had by the water truck...

Each stop had a bike mechanic for making adjustments, tire changes, etc. Here's the sign next to their canopy...

Time to go!

The next leg brought us closer to the coastline...and the traffic. You can see in this picture that we had to ride along the freeway for awhile. Yikes! It made me nervous when I had to ride past a cyclist who'd had an accident along the side of the freeway. The emergency response people put a neck brace on her and everything. Scary!

We breaked for lunch at about the 60 mile point. I still felt so great. I found that when I rode with others, I was much faster and much stronger. Drafting made all the difference. When it was time to haul myself up Torrey Pines hill, I still had plenty of juice. In fact, I passed a bunch of people on the way up. Oh ya!

After more freeways and busy intersections we finally made it to the finish. What a ride!

Family Fly-by, Part 1

I'm back from my journey into the west. It was such a crazy-fast trip, I can barely keep all the details in my brain. I'll try to recall the highlights before I drop from total exhaustion...

Thursday

I packed my little backpack of essentials and slowly made my way towards Detroit. On the way, I stopped to shop at the mall, gas up at Costco, and treat myself to a Chipotle salad. In fact, I dawdled so much that I arrived at the airport with just 45 minutes to spare. I guess all that free time to myself got me carried away.

The flight was fairly painless. I snagged a front row seat so I could actually stretch my legs and get up once in a while. I entertained myself by watching The Bucket List and listening to some tunes on my I-Pod. It was weird to leave at 6:15 eastern time and arrive at 7:30 in Phoenix though.

After my folks picked me up, we immediately drove to my brother's house for a family shin-dig.

My Dad's birthday is on 9/11, so we decided to celebrate while we were all together.

It was fun to see how much everyone had changed since I last saw them, especially my cute and preggo sister, Sheila.

My neice Rachel didn't remember me, so I tried to bribe her with a Disney princess lunch box full of snacks. (I got a lot of comments while carrying it around the airport).

My older neices, Jaiden and Ava, were sweet about giving me hugs and smiles.

They've grown taller and more beautiful since I saw them in January.

Jaiden has totally mastered the hula hoop and gave me quite a show.

Mom made a delicious, homemade german chocolate cake to commemorate Dad's special day.

Dusty and Sheila are due just a few weeks apart, so I couldn't resist taking this adorable picture...

Friday

My parents and I got up early to drive to Irvine in Friday morning. On the way out of the valley, I made them stop by our old house in Sun City.

I couldn't believe how much our little plants had grown!



We arrived early in the afternoon, leaving us time to do some shopping. It had been years since I'd gone to Old Navy.

I scored some good deals.



After eating a hearty dinner of burgers and fries, we called it a day. I went to bed early (9:00) so that I'd have some energy before the big ride. I had a room all to myself and I slept surprisingly well.

Stay tuned for pictures and stories of our ride...

My Personal Best

Some of my readers may know that I'm riding in the Amtrak Century next weekend with my Dad. He's ridden it several times, and this will be my second experience. We'll be joined by my mom's cousins Marina and Ixka. While I'm excited to see my family and the Pacific Ocean, I'm worried about this ride. The last time I did it I was in better cycling shape. My Dad and I trained quite a bit together over the summer so I was much more prepared.

Sure, it was a long day on that skinny, little seat. But, it was so fun! The weather was perfect and the scenery was amazing.

At the end of the ride, I felt like I could conquer anything!
As and added treat, we got ice cream and massages later that evening. Nice!

I've been training sporadically over the summer by myself. It's totally not the same. It's hard to go riding alone, with no one there to motivate you. I have sure missed my Dad! The riding seems so much harder, which is nuts because the weather is better, the roads are flatter, and the scenery is supremely more beautiful! I still managed to pull off my personal best solo ride yesterday. This was after I taught early morning seminary mind you. Check out my distance:

That's right! 70 miles, thank you very much. All by myself. I don't want to brag or anything. But, I basically rock!

Just a day in the life...

We are most definitely in the right place! I love our neighborhood. It is such a blessing to have our friends from church just houses away. Here is Emma afterschool on Monday...
There are 5 trampolines within short walking distance from our backyard. It's so great that the neighbors are willing to share. Now we don't need to get a trampoline!

On last shot...Poor Rick has been working on the sprinklers for weeks, all by himself. The rain has not cooperated well and Rick has had to work so much. He's had to battle a lot of water and mud (see picture below). He even took our shop vac out back to suck up some of the water from the trenches. The clay doesn't allow the water to soak into the ground so it just sits there.

We're just a few short weeks away from planting grass. Hip, hip, hooray!