OMFG it's about time!

Well, my good friends I found myself adequately motivated to give you a long ass update. So grab a coffee (or tea) and a comfortable spot to sit. Here it goes...

Let's start way back in Feb when I flew out to see Taylor in Boise. First can I say that after six weeks without seeing him he looked DAMN good! We had a great time going up to McCall, ID and got in a short day of snowboarding. McCall had also recently had a snow sculpture contest. Pretty amazing stuff. Crap! i just realized that the pic's I wanted to post are on Taylor's computer. ah well! Maybe you'll see those later. Taylor and I had a great time and were super happy to be able to get some powder turns together.

Now fast forward to March 1st when my good friends Shana and Colleen joined me in running the Napa Valley Marathon. Here Shana and Colleen are modeling their wonderful attire that will promptly be thrown away at the beginning of the race. I know that may sound weird to some. But it was a pretty cold morning, but running in cotton just won't do.
We arrived a day before the race and enjoyed
the beauty of Napa .We went to a fun winery that had an amazing cheese and wine selection and had a little picnic.

Our race went as well as a marathon can go. "Why", I thought at mile 15 "am I running this?" The 1/2 marathon is such a more pleasant distance. Well, I finished anyway. It poured down rain but the mustard blooming in between the vines was quite beautiful. We all had personal bests and proceeded to enjoy some PBR and of course an in and out burger. Delicious! We shopped, did some wine tasting the day after and learned to walk without initiating our quad muscles. It was really funny to see people all over town hobbling around. The finale for my legs and my stomach was a great dinner at the Culinary institute. Why do you ask were my quads a factor? Well in order to get to the restaurant you had to walk up three flights of stairs. Let's just say I looked 80 especially coming down.

The next adventure was back to Boise to see Taylor's graduation. It was a really good time. All of of Taylor's family came, along with my Dad. Lots of good conversation and fun to see how Taylor had just spent the last 4 months. Part of graduation was a lineman rodeo. Per Eric's request here are some photos of Taylor's cute bum from below. (Eric didn't actually request cute bum pic's I added that part) In this shot Taylor is attempting to carry an egg (raw) up to the top of the pole in a little basket and then put the same raw egg in his mouth and not break it. This is timed and the egg can't break. Well, it could have gone better. Taylor had a good showing but lost points for breaking the egg and hot dogging.
In the other photo Tay is in a relay race that involves pulling up an 80 lb weight. His team came close to winning, but no cigar.

At the actual graduation Taylor was awarded the academic achievement award and was nominated for the most prestigious award "the eagle award". The fam and I were super proud of him. The festivities that night were pretty mellow. But the following night is story worthy. After a afternoon of bar hopping with my dad and Taylor's sisters. We were outside enjoying a decent Boise evening and noticed a country bar across the way. It was brought up that there was a mechanical bull. Lauren then challenged Taylor to the task in a joking manner, but he took the challenge much to all of our surprise. Not sure if this video will be light
enough but I'll put it in anyway.




I then decided to partake in this option also and had a nice gal in front of me giving me a coaching lesson. After the initial sex ride they like to see the girls do. I held on for dear life and felt I represented pretty well. Staying on for a record of 1 mintute 50 seconds. Boy, does that make your legs tired! Pretty memorable night. Good fun!

The next morning, much to my delight, we packed all of Taylor's things and he moved back to good ol' Bend.


So the last blog worthy info would be my last race. Again, my friend Shana (who always gets me to sign up for these things) and I headed to the beautiful North Umpqua where we ran a 15 mile trail run. It was so beautiful! And hilly as a mo fo! I knew it would be challenging but come on? Really? Did they really need to add in the extra two miles and make us climb 1000 feet in a mile and then at the end make us do it again. Well, Shana and I persevered and finished. Much to our surprise and delight we both placed first in our age divisions.

So that's that. Love to ya all for your patience and enjoy the holiday weekend.