AntiCycle: Cycling against the cycle

Don: A couple of weeks ago my friend Nick rode his touring bike into Boulder after riding for a month and nearly 2,000 miles. He recently graduated from CU and decided to spend two months biking across the country to raise money for SafeHouse Denver, a women's and children's domestic violence shelter. While volunteering for the shelter, he and his wife, Maria, were blown away by the immensity of the problem of domestic violence.  Nick named his cycling project "AntiCycle: Cycling Against the Cycle," in reference to bicycling against the cycle of domestic violence. I was impressed with his desire to help the shelter and make difference, so I decided to bike with him and find out how his ride was going. Friday morning (July 7, 2011), I rode with Nick through the back roads of Boulder and up the Morgul-Bismarck route to 120th in Superior. Then I had to turn around to give a presentation at my group meeting while Nick rode on through Denver. After the meeting Emily, Sam, and I were headed to Colorado Springs for a family reunion. Emily dropped me off in Parker, where I met up with Nick and we biked over the Palmer Divide towards Colorado Springs. It was a wet, cold ride. My dad eventually met up with us and took some pictures.

Nick is currently in Kentucky and has been keeping an interesting blog about his journey. On his blog there is a link to support the cause: AntiCycle.

Bolder Boulder Weekend 2011!

Our Bolder Boulder weekend was one filled with fun, friends, family, and fast running! 

A quick side note before I get into the details of the weekend. Since Sam is such an excellent organizer, Don decided to put his skills to use. He now frequently helps us unload the silverware from the dishwasher and meticulously organizes the spoons, knives, and forks with the look of deep concentration below. He is such a smart kid.

Ok - back to Memorial Day weekend. Our wonderful friends, the Ramptons, moved away to Flagstaff, AZ. The Ramptons were our up for anything camping buddies last summer and Em and I became great friends. We even left our babies one weekend and went on a girl's trip to Utah for General Conference. Sam misses Adelaide and I miss Em and Don misses Rick. Don and Rick were mountain biking friends and Em and I got together really often. 

Anyway, on Saturday, we helped them pack up the truck, clean out their apartment and get all set to leave. 

Don and Zach playing with Adelaide and Sammy while the ladies cleaned.

I miss my little Adelaide friend. 

Taking a break for some delicious Indian food.

After we cleaned as much as we could, we went to the Boulder Creek festival with Cam and Zach. We got tons of free samples of various soy milks and other non-dairy products as well as many energy bars and organic granolas. Perfect Boulder food...

Walking back on the creek path

Sam loves Cam and Zach. He is always so sad when they go home.

On Sunday afternoon, Don's sister April, her husband Brian, and their two boys came up to stay with us along with Don's parents. Our family loves the Bolder Boulder. So much so that April and Brian drove over 14 hours with two little kids just to run the race. That's commitment. 

We had such a great time with April, Brian, Isaac, Grant, and Grammy and Grandpy. 

We played at our playground where Isaac fell in love with the backhoe.

Swung on the swings (with a basketball - everything is about basketball for Sammy).

I thought this picture showed how much April and Don look alike. Sammy also has Don's same expression...

Isaac pushed Sammy on his trike

and got tickled by mama

and Grant was his sunny, smiley self. He is so cute!

Don made homemade spaghetti sauce and I made breadsticks for a fabulous pre-race meal.

Then the boys played in the box and were crazy and rough and happy. By the end of the night, the box was no more but that thing was well loved to the end.

Cousin hug! The boys were shirtless to avoid spaghetti sauce stains.

We took the boys outside to take a picture which led to probably the most memorable moment of the weekend. Sam didn't love having Isaac's arm around him so after a few minutes, he pulled down on Isaac's arm. That resulted in Sam falling off the bench with Isaac on top of him...

...as you can see here (taken mid-fall). I tried to rush over to pick the screaming Sammy up and tripped over April and ended up falling over her and making her fall down. So, we all just ended up on the ground crying and laughing. It was so awkward and funny. I'm such a klutz sometimes.

Luckily no one was really hurt so we got a picture of all the men and boys.

We watched a preview of the race course to prep ourselves mentally and then went to bed. Don's parents slept on an air mattress in the kitchen, Don and I slept in the living room on the daybed and couch, and April, Brian, Isaac, and Grant slept in our room. Sam, the sleep diva, got his own room. 

Don had trained long and hard for this race. He had worked and worked for months, running near to 300 miles in preparation. He was set on doing 6 min. miles but two weeks before the race hurt his calf muscle and had to take a break. He got 11 place in his age group last year and wanted to be in the top 10 this year.

And he did it! He got 7th place in his age group and ran a 6:06 min./mile pace with a final time of 37 minutes and 58 seconds.  He is such a speed demon! 

I had a good race too. I improved my time from last year by almost 2 minutes. I ran an 8:29 min./mile pace with a final time of 52 minutes and 46 seconds.

After Don finished, he rode the bike home and got Sammy so he could watch people finish. 

Don's dad was a champ and got up early to ride over on the bike (even with a cast on his food) to take pictures of us and see us finish.

We missed taking pictures of April and Brian but they finished within a few seconds of each other (there were so many people, they didn't even see each other) at around 55 minutes. Here are a couple post race pictures and pictures at the expo.

Bagpipers with the Frank Shorter statue. They are here every year - just before you turn to run into the stadium.

We finally found April and Brian. It seems like we miscommunicate every year about where to meet. This year was no different but eventually we found each other.

A post race popsicle. Yum!

Once we got home, Sam, Isaac, and I did some bouncing and singing on the exercise ball. "This is the way the ladies ride"...

Sam loved the flag I brought him. Grandpa Conkey would be proud.

Story time, rest time...

Grant with Grammy. He is such a happy kid all the time!

After we took a break, we went to Pearl Street for the traditional post race Illegal Pete's burritos. 

We saw super heroes and artists...

And played in the sand pit with beavers and frogs...

Then we ate our burritos out on the steps. Yum! Best burritos ever.

After lunch, Don's fam headed back to Colorado Springs. We felt weird having such an empty house (after it had been so full) and having nothing to do on Memorial Day evening. So, we decided to take a picnic up to Eldorado Canyon. We got stuff to make our favorite sandwiches lately (sourdough bread, salami, cheddar cheese, avocado, and cream cheese) and some sushi rolls and had a feast in the wicked cold wind. The river was running wickedly high so we had to keep a close eye on Sammy since he loves the water so much. It was a fun way to end the day. We had Cam and Zach over that night and played games 'til late. What a great weekend!

Sushi in the freezing wind!

Leah's 2nd Birthday Party

The same day as Sammy's party, his cute little friend Leah who is just a couple days younger, had her birthday party at The Little Gym. Sam was shy (like he always is in new settings) but he loved all the equipment and activities. He just had to warm up for awhile. Here are a couple pictures of the fun.

Sam's "I'm not so sure about this" face. This is his initial reaction to most new environments. 

Doing the crab walk with daddy.

Sam loves hanging on the bar.

This inflatable jump track was really fun. We all sat on it while it got blown up and when it was deflated. Sam didn't like jumping on it at first but by the end, he loved it.

Bubble time and the balance beam...

A couple cute pictures of Leah and Sammy. 

Sam makes this funny shy face which Don and I love. He also has an awesome ding between his eyes where he bashed himself with a swing at his own birthday party. Poor guy - he's always getting hurt.