PE Conference

This week I have the annual PE conference for our school district at BYU. You would just need to stop on by and you would quickly realize why I don't mind going to the summer conferences. This years is even better because I was on the planning committee. Last year they spent a lot of money on this lady coming in and teaching us in a classroom for four hours about assessment practices, this translates into things we already know. It was HORRIBLE and BORING. This year when they asked for suggestions I said no boring crazy lady. No one else wanted to say it but as soon as I did everyone agreed.

So today we had a lecture on motivation and nutrition, learned drills for tennis and lacrosse, and learned four rainy day games. We played most of the day. It was a lot of fun. The best part is I get paid to do it.

Tommorrow we are golfing, biking, and having someone talk to use about weight management. Then on Thursday we are having a bowling tournament complete with prizes. SO FUN!!! I mean if I have to work in the summer it might as well be fun.

tragedy

Tragedy #1 happenned last week as I was headed out of town for California. It was super windy and my front kayak rack broke, while on the freeway going 70. All of a sudden there was a kayak coming off my car. VERY SCARY. I got to my Aunt Nancy's and thought everything was ok until Sam gets home and Says LaNell how did you get a dent on your car? I am sorry what (I hadn't even noticed the dent and probably wouldn't have for a couple of days). I didn't have an emotional meltdown but I was borderline. I will be getting the dent fixed and in the mean time looking for a new kayak rack.

Tragedy #2 happenned while biking today. I noticed a few weeks ago my tires were looking awfully old. But I kept riding because why buy new tires until you have to. As my luck would have it I got a flat 26 miles into my ride. Normally I would just fix it on the side of the road but in this case I looked at the tire and realized that wouldn't do any good. There were about 7 different spots on my tire that you could see the tube. Below is the longest puncture wound. I feel ok about buying new tires now. These ones have lasted at least 4000 miles. Not so bad for the life of a bike tire. Luckily it happenned in Oroville so my Mom just came and picked me up.

60

My POPS turned 60 on July 10th. We had a surprise bday party for him in Tahoe. It was really fun and the suprise never got out so that was even better. Unfortunately when you have heart failure you can't do high elevatons so my Dad only stayed one night because he was miserable. We all stayed one more night and swam, hiked, and played games. It was great. Next time we know lower elevation.

Silver Lake & Timp Caves

This week Caleb and I have been having a few "adventures." We hiked Silver lake. This is one of my favorite hikes up the American Fork Canyon. It starts at Silver Lake and you hike to another lake. It is a 5 mile round trip.

We made it!

There has been a lot of rain this summer so the lake was really full. We hiked in the evening otherwise we would have swam.

I love hiking!!

On Tuesday we went on a bike ride. I don't have any pictures of that one but that was Calebs least favorite adventure.

Today we went to the Timpanogos Caves. I have never been. It was really interesting and cool. All in all we have had a fun week.

The last picture is the "heart" of the cave.

If anyone is planning on going bring sweatshirts. The cave is only 45 degrees inside and you are in there for about an hour. It was a little chilly.

IT'S OFFICIAL

I am am completely done with grad school. The only thing left to do is to attend graduation. I finished completely yesterday. It was such a relief. I triple checked with the graduate coordinator to make sure I was done. I am sure she thought I was crazy but at this point I want no false hope. So after the third time she convinced me, IT IS OVER!!

4th of July weekend

For the 4th of July Caleb, Katie, Katie's nieces, Cyndee, and myself went to Island Park to stay in Cyndee's cabin. We had a great time and it was really nice to get out of the Provo area for a few days.

We visited Nevada City, Montana, a ghost town. That was the first time I had been to a ghost town so it was really interesting to see.

Here is Caleb and Cierra taking a break on a bench. Caleb is sporting my new hiking hat.

We had fun walking through the ghost town, riding the shuttle train the traveled 10 mph, and eating ice cream when we were all tuckered out.

Proof that I was on the trip.

We also spent a day in Yellowstone searching for my Grizzly Bear, but again no such luck.

We saw lots of other animals: bald eagles, elk, both male and female, and of course buffalo! It was a good day to go to Yellowstone because it rained most of the day and there is lots of driving in that national park. We did do a few small hikes but nothing major.

On the 4th we had a river day. Caleb and I started at the bottom of the river and kayaked up until we met up with everyone that had started at the top and were floating down. We kayaked upstream for two hours and we were both pretty sore the next day. My kayaking muscles are not used enough.

Overall it was a nice relaxing weekend. I was also able to squeeze in some biking, running, and reading as well.

On the way back to Provo we stopped at Mesa Falls and checked out the waterfall.

We had dinner with Dan, Sam and my Aunt Nancy on the way home. That was really fun as well. My brothers are crazy!! And that is all I will say about that.

life

Well last week went flying by and I didn't even post. My family was here and we had fun playing games, shopping, and visiting. My Aunt Virginia came as well. That was a real treat! It was tons of fun, but I didn't take one single picture.


Yesterday I defended my thesis. It went suprisingly well. I have some changes to make and hope to have this thing behind me by the end of the week. In all honestly it will probably not be completely done until next week.


Meanwhile Caleb stayed in Utah while my parents headed home. Poor boy had to go to my defense yesterday. It took three hours. I think he was a little BORED.

I wanted to make it up to him today and so we hiked the Y.

He made it to the top. He only said "what the freak" and "holy crap" a few times. The Y is straight uphill. It is a short but vigorous hike. Caleb did great!!

We set a record pace for getting back to the car. I had to run down the entire way to keep up with the kid. We had a good time. He sweat so much I almost didn't let him back in my car, but I am getting over the new car thing so I didn't make him walk home.

200

200 . . . . that is how many miles I biked this week. And yes that is way more miles than I drove.

Tour de Temples . . . . . almost

I had no plans today and so I thought it would be SUPER FUN (touch of sarcasm) to see how many temples I could bike to in one day.

Provo Temple 3.3 Miles

Mt. Timpanogos Temple 18.4 miles

Draper Temple 27 miles

So the almost is up there in the title because my goal was to get a picture at the gate of each temple. Well I didn't actually get to the gate of the Draper temple. Made a couple of wrong turns and headed down the 10% grade and didn't want to bike back up. Lame I know but I went over traverse mountain. My first time ever. I wasn't mentally or physically prepared for it's steepness. It took me an hour to bike 4 miles, it was all 8% and 10 % grades. Here's the sign for remebrance purposes.

Jordan River Temple 43.5 miles

Oquirrh Mountain Temple 47.3 miles

I ended at my Aunt Lorlie's house at 51.2 miles. Now is where I must confess that I didn't bike home. I was tired. There was the threat of rain. I have all kinds of excuses but my cousin Melissa offered to drive me home and I couldn't resist. I feel kind of pathetic but what do you do. My legs will feel much better tomorrow because of that decision.

If there is a next time I will not bike over traverse mountain. Too steep.

Here are my stats, more for me than anyone else I realize:

Miles: 51.2

Time: 4:01.22 that is really slow but someone decided to put all the temples on a hill

Average Heart Rate 145

Time in heart rate zone: 2:17 was out of the zone the rest of the time because of the hills

rain, rain, GO AWAY!

This picture explains all of last week!!

I biked 70 miles on Monday. I stopped at a gas station to buy some food and the lady said, "I just heard thunder are you gonna make it home before the storm." I replied that I hoped I would. Reality: NOPE!! Got poured on for 30 minutes. At one point before the rain I wondered how safe it is to be biking when you could see lightning.

That sums up the week. Lots of unpredicatable weather that really didn't allow me to do much. On a happier note I slept a ton and finally today I woke up and didn't feel sick. First time in like 10 days. I haven't felt horrible just lethargic accompanied with a sore throat.

And I must publicly thank Erica for rescuing me from biking in the rain, she deserves the thanks because it meant she was 20 minutes later to stand in line for KELLY then she would have otherwise been.

This week the weather guy predicts more sunshine. YIPEE!

Summer Break

This week was packed with lots of various activities. I did the following:

• Went to BYU mutiple times to work on some final details of my thesis
• Went to the temple.
• Had a hitch put on my car.
• Biked 100 miles in three days.
• Hiked the Y.
• Cleaned the house.
• Learned to make a new craft and then went wild because they are cute. I will post pictures once I decide where to put them.
• Went to institute (don't die of shock).
• Last but not least spent Friday and Saturday at Arches National Park.

Amber had Friday off and thought it would be fun to go to Arches. I agreed. We left Provo at 6:30am Friday and headed to Moab. We hiked aroun seven and a half miles each day. We hiked every hike in the park except three. We went wild. I am now worn-out. This is why I love summer. You can accomplish so much in one short week. Here is a little but of what we saw at Arches.

Amber taking a picture of Delicate arch through a no name arch

Me overlooking the valley

And some of the beautiful sites.

Fun week. Thankgoodness that tomorrow is the sabbath and I can rest. I hope next week is just as much fun!