Celebrating 5 years

We spent our anniversary in St George doing what we love-biking.  We have always teased that our new bikes were our anniversary (as well as Christmas, birthdays, and every other holiday) presents, so what better way to spend our special day together than with our "gifts".  Bridgette and Brent came down with us, and we had a lot of fun together!  They have become just as enthusiastic about biking as we are, so it's nice to always have biking buddies to go with.  We got to St George Friday night, checked into our hotel and hit up Bear Claw Poppy for a quick run; then we took to the hotel pool and hot tub for a relaxing end to a long day of driving.  

By the end of the night, we were so ready to hit the pillows and fall into a relaxing sleep, but our A/C had other plans...it decided to keep us up all night by sounding like a jackhammer on steroids!  Dan tried fixing it about ten times throughout the night, he got pretty creative, even using styrofoam cups and anything else he could find to try and shut the thing up!  Of course, he would get it to be quiet just until he had turned off the light and crawled into bed when the stupid A/C started going crazy again!  I think we finally fell asleep around 2:30 am, only to be woken up by our alarms at 6:30 that morning (Luckily, the hotel had other rooms available with A/C's that worked, so we slept like babies Saturday night!)

Despite our lack of sleep, we knew St George gets so hot during the day we had to get biking early if we were going to survive!  We spent about 4-5 hours Saturday at Gooseberry Mesa.  Gooseberry Mesa is amazing.  There are very few places you can ride the kind of terrain it offers, and it is so different than the kind of biking we do up here. There are many times you are riding inches away from a thousand foot drop!  It was a killer workout, and thrilling ride all in one! 

After biking the trails at Gooseberry, we made our way back to the hotel where we played in the pool for a bit, waited for it to cool down, then went down Bear Claw Poppy a second time.  We spent about 6 hours total biking that day, and were ready for some grub! We went back to the hotel, got cleaned up, and went to dinner at Texas Roadhouse to celebrate our anniversary.  I had the best intentions of staying strong and ordering the healthiest options possible, that is until the waitress set a basket of rolls and cinnamon butter down in front of me!   My self control flew out the window, and I felt like the biggest sinner.  Then I realized I had burned about 1100 calories biking and could treat myself one meal!   

It was a quick get-a-way, but we had some awesome adventures, and made some pretty sweet memories!  

All packed, bikes loaded, and ready to head out of town!

 Gooseberry Mesa Pics:

Dan got some great footage with his Go-Pro and is working on making a movie, so I'll post that when he gets done!

5 years! Yes, we're cheesy!

Still smiling despite the heat!

Breathtaking views along the top of the mesa!

Such cuties

We are not sure what Brent is doing back there lol!

I decided to explore this rock on my own, when Dan started freaking out.  He was yelling at me to "get down right this minute", but I was determined to get a picture before I did!  I guess he had had a nightmare the night before about me falling off a cliff to my death!  Luckily, that did not happen.

Biker buddies

Another great view ;)

We worked up a sweat!

So funny with his helmet and camera on, he looks like an alien!

Enjoying our dinner

Great company ;)

 And I just love this picture.  It's my favorite of the bunch.

After five years, we're still on top of the world!

Random Weekend Fun and Weight Loss Progress

We finally got our pass of all passes, and I was super lucky to get two of them for $15!  I met my friend Kristi and her little boy Van at 7 Peaks Saturday afternoon for a couple hours of fun.  It was hot and crowded, but I just loved getting some sun and visiting with Kristi.  We hung out in the kiddi pool, which was the perfect area to sit and tan because the water is shallow.  We also went down the lazy river, and one of the slides.  Van was so much fun!  He loved playing in the water, and was the happiest little kid ever.  He didn't cry or whine once!  We got booted out due to a private party, so didn't get to go on the other slides, but, hey, I can go as much as I want now, so if anyone you wanna go let me know!

It's tradition to go to the Fiesta Days rodeo every year, so last night we met up with most of the family except for Sue and Jake who were working cherries and couldn't be there :(  Spanish Fork re-did the entire arena, and it is really nice now! There is so much more leg and seat room, and they have backs on the bleachers so you don't have to worry about things falling down to the ground!  The rodeo was fun--maybe it was just that particular night, but a lot of the cowboys seemed a little off and were struggling to even get qualifying times.  It seemed like there were only 4 or 5 competitors in each event as well.  We spent a lot of time listening to who the sponsors were and not enough time watching some cool riding.  The mutton busting was pretty entertaining as usual. One little kid ended up riding his sheep clear down the other side of the arena backwards.  I also have to give props to the rodeo clown, he had some really funny skits, particularly one where he put on a women's fat suit and was dancing and riding a horse. Despite the lack of thrills, it was sure fun to visit with the family and see Grandpa and Grandma Jensen who were able to come down as well!

The gang watching the show

 Also, I have to brag a little bit more about my husband! He amazes me and I am so proud of him!  He started out 2 months ago at our official starting weigh in at 215 lbs (just a few months before that he was 225 at his heaviest...) and today he weighs 183!!!  That's 32 lbs since we started our lifestyle changes and 42 lbs total within the last 5 months!  I started out at *gulp* 137 lbs, the heaviest I have weighed, and now weigh 125.  I have weighed 125 a lot in my life, but the difference is how I look now.  I can tell my body is getting more toned and muscular instead of just flabby.  It's crazy how much better I feel about myself;  I have struggled throughout my entire life with my weight and body image and this process has made me realize that I am capable of more than I thought, and also that to get the changes you want you have to work for them--there is no quick solution or fix.  Healthy eating and exercise are the only ways!!!

We still have a long ways to go before we meet our end goals, but the results are so rewarding and encouraging to keep up the hard work.  Dan doesn't want me to post pics of his muscles quite yet (even though they are looking pretty buff and amazing already lol).  I don't blame him, I am still not quite ready to post mine yet either.  We are really excited for the future and continuing to progress and reach our goals!
 

Getting ready to head out of the house to the rodeo

My stud muffin!  It's crazy how much younger he looks now!

4th of July Fun

I loved the 4th being on a Wednesday this year because we got the day off in the middle of the work week, which made the work week a little more bearable! 

The fun started out with a biking trip down Payson Canyon--we called it the "Tour de Payson Canyon" lol.  We had a big group with us this time--we took most of the Jensen biking gang (minus Whit who had to work :(  plus Chris (Whitney's fiance) and his dad and brother.  Chris' dad knows every inch of Payson Canyon and is fun to bike with because he shows us so many new trails.  We started out at the very top of the canyon and went down Stump Jumper trail.  It's my new favorite for the time being!  Then we shuttled back up a few miles to Benny Creek and hit the upper portion.  It was my first time doing the upper portion of Benny--basically it's a lot more uphill at the beginning, but a way fun downhill to make up for the climbing!  Chris' dad scared the crap out of us by wrecking pretty hard!  There is about a 10 ft jump on Benny Creek that looks pretty sketchy...  Apparently, he does it all the time, but this time he jumped it then landed wrong and flew over his handlebars and rolled a few times down the trail.  He popped right up without any major injuries, and, of course, went right back up to hit the jump again!  He landed it right the second time, thank goodness!

Check out this sick jump by Jim--Chris' dad.

It was a long ride, and by then end of it we were all covered in dust and sweat!  Surprisingly, it was my first ride in a long time where I didn't wreck!  I've had some pretty intense wrecks the last few times I've biked.  I sprained my ankle pretty bad about a month ago, and it's still sore every now and then.  I guess I haven't really been the best about staying off it to fully let it heal (who wants to sit on the couch all day when there is so much to do outside?!)  I also wrecked and scraped my arms and legs up pretty bad about a week ago! People probably just assume my husband beats me ;)  

 After biking, we met up in West Mountain for a BBQ.  We had veggie and steak shish-kabobs with lots of yummy sides!  After dinner we decided we wanted to practice willys out on the grass.  That turned into jumping over 2x4's, which turned into creating our own red-neck jumps in the back yard! 

Ha ha... Lorin taking a willy to far!

Dan almost doing the same thing!

Sychronized jumping lol

More jumping.  Too bad it got dark before we got footage of the big home-made jumps!

Chey Pie watching the action.  She's such a cutie!

Chris and Whitney chilling

Sporting our white and blue!  We don't own much red!