Bouldering in Joe's Valley

For part of our Memorial Day weekend we headed down to an area called Joe's Valley.  It is about 30-45 minutes just outside of Price.  We had only heard about this place, and heard there was some great bouldering.  Plus, we had a new tent and sleeping bags to try out.  So, we rounded up a few friends, our gear, and headed south.

We didn't know exactly where to go, but luckily a local knew a general idea.  "Look for the parked cars on the side of the road down the canyon," he said.  That's exactly what we did.  There were cars everywhere and people grabbing their gear and heading to the rocks.  We just had to pick a place and stop.  Turned out to be a great half day of bouldering, a great camping trip and a place we will definitely return to.

 Adrienne is starting to get more confident with my camera and her artistic eye is starting to come out as well.  This little tree was at the top of the first boulder we were climbing on.  Unfortunately Adri also basically became the photographer, so you won't see many photos of her climbing.  I think she is ok with that as she feels that she is still coming into her own as a climber.

 After a bit of climbing we had to hike around with our non-climbing friends, and then become one with nature.

Again, this is a place we will definitely return to, and one we are happy to take people with us.  So, if you're ever in Utah and want to enjoy some beautiful Utah scenery and climbing... we know at least one place to go.

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A Weekend Full of Cakes!

Hello Everyone. This is Adrienne. I thought it was my turn to blog. I wanted to share with you my projects for this week. I was fortunate enough to make a Wedding cake for my friend Ilene and a Retirement cake for someone with the Morman Tabernacle Choir, this weekend. The process started Monday when I baked all the cakes (8 batches total to be exact) and made all the fondant and frosting in advance. Frosting the cakes was one nights project, then covering each one with fondant was another night.

Luckily Mark was out of town for 2 of the nights. The rest of the time he was super helpful and attentive while I stressed and destroyed the kitchen and dinning room. He was so great and found lots to do while I was in my own little world (example: lots of games on the Xbox)

So here is Ilene and Brionne's wedding cake. It made it to the place in almost a crumpled mess. The humid weather and my not-so-stiff frosting under the fondant was perfect for a collapsing cake. I think the flowers were a life saver and distracted most from any big flaws. 

We were lucky enough to actually eat this cake. I don't mean to brag... but it was fantastic! It was Red Velvet with cream cheese frosting. I wanted seconds!

And now for the retirement cake. I think this one is another one of my favorites. I was sent a picture of the cake with the same idea but my client wanted it square. The cream and black looked super classy. I really love the look of piping on Fondant. I think it is so sleek. I thought of my sister in-law, Marie, a lot. She was kind of my inspiration. I think this would be very fitting for her too.

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Ironman = Motivation + Inspiration

Adri and I had the amazing opportunity to volunteer at the Ironman St. George during its 2nd time running.  I have never personally witnessed such an amazing event.  From the pro athletes who are there to win it and just blow your mind in their speed, to those that are there for the first time just overwhelmed to finish, and then on to those that are completing their 15+ Ironman.  It was such a motivating and inspiring event.  So much so that we are talking about completing one ourselves one of these days.  We looked at bikes, we talked about logistics of doing it and how we would train for it.  We would love to one day say that we are an Ironman and Ironwoman.  For those of you who aren't familiar with the Ironman triathlon, it consists of a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bike ride, and a 26.2-mile run (marathon)... totaling 140.6 miles of pure determination.  All of which must be completed within 17 hours (2:20 for the swim, 8 for the bike and 6:40 for the run).

As volunteers we got to be at the start and finish without being questioned as to why we were so close to everything.  That just added an extra measure of amazing!

We watched as the pros entered the water and took off... all about 40 of them.  Their physical condition and mental toughness just astounds me.

Here we have the other almost 1900 people entering the water after to pros to being their quest to become an Ironman.

 As you can see, some people were overjoyed and just so excited to be there that they just couldn't contain their enthusiasm.  Others took time to collect themselves and seek an inner peace to get them through the event.

 As the racers swam we took a few pictures of us at the swim finish and then what we would be doing as wetsuit peelers (a.k.a. strippers).

 Here Adri and Margie a being cute while I actually try to do my job.  Basically we helped remove the wetsuits of the competitors as they came out of the water.  Some of them were delirious and overwhelmed that they didn't realize while we were there until it was almost too late.  Often we had to tell someone to just sit down and let us help them get out of the wetsuit.  We had one girl come through just screaming and crying for joy at what she was doing and how hapy she was to be competing.  It was quite an emotional experience.

 Here Adri is helping to remove the wetsuit booties that keep their feet warm, while Wendi and I just rip the whole wetsuit off.  Those things came off in about 5 seconds or less if you grabbed and pulled just right.

 This area is the swim to bike transition area.  There were so many bikes to look at and just wish I had... haha!

 After we finished our task for the day we headed home to take a quick nap before we had to be at the finish.

 At the finish we got to see the pros as they crossed the line at about 8 hours and 32 minutes for the men... which is averaging about 16.5 mph through the entire race.  He broke the course record by 8 minutes as well.

 Then we watched the female winner come across at 9 hours and 30 minutes.  She beat the next closest female by 36 minutes... incredible.

We went back at about 10:00 pm at night to watch more people come in.  Unfortunately I didn't have my camera at that point, but the emotion was incredible.  You could see the joy, the pain, the satisfaction and determination on every person's face as they crossed the finish line.  It just brings a tear to your eye of the pure happiness those people have as they accomplish such a feat.

All in all the event was awe-inspiring and just worth every moment.  We hope to volunteer again next year and continue to be a part of such a cool experience.  And, on top of that, we hope to compete in one ourselves here someday soon.  I guess that means we better start training...

We hope that anyone that can will be there to support us when we accomplish this goal of ours!

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Beautiful, and abandonment

A friend at Adri's work asked her to make cupcakes for a baby's blessing this past Sunday.  She gave her an idea with a picture of what she was looking for and this is what Adri put together.  She is so good, so talented, and I think she sees it before she makes it.  Oh, and they were quite good too!

It's also been a while since Adri and I went out on a photo-adventure.  With an opportunity to do so on our way to see a friend's new place, we couldn't pass it up.  We heard about this abandoned house from Maria Wood (the person who took our wedding photos) and just had to go check it out.  It was a small little home with nothing inside, but some of the ways that things were peeling and falling apart were just so fascinating.

It's fun to think of the contrast between Adri's cupcakes and my fascination with the decaying.  It just goes to show that you can find beauty in all things.

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Running and climbing... recent accomplishments!

So, we haven't posted in a while, and there are many things we would like to post about.  But, we just haven't taken the time.  Regardless, we wanted to take a quick moment to talk about some recent accomplishments on both our parts.

Adri recently completed another half marathon, then Moab Half.  That brings her running totals to 6 full marathons and 8 half marathons, not counting the countless miles run while training.  Needless to say, I am quite proud of my Adri.

Lastly, just this past Friday, Adri and I entered a climbing competition at our local climbing gym.  We talked to a few of the employees there before signing up and were told it was nothing serious.  I told them what I am climbing consistently to know which group I should sign up for.  They told me that there will probably be a lot of advanced people in the intermediate division and so on down, so I signed up for the beginner division.  Adri signed up for the same division in women's as well.  So, we had a great time and both did super well.  Adri didn't place, but she climbed a route that is hard than anything she has ever tried... and she climbed it well.  I also did well, and in fact placed first in my division.  If I remember hearing the scores properly, I would have placed first in the intermediate division as well.

Life is just grand, and we are having a great time running and climbing, and traveling in between.

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Visiting the city that never sleeps...

Adri and I decided that we need a vacation to somewhere on the east coast that she has never been.  And, if you consider that (outside of meeting my parents in Michigan before we were married) she has never been east of Colorado, it was more a matter of which of the many places to go as opposed to when we should go.  So, as we talked and brainstormed, we debated Washington D.C., Chicago, and New York City.  Well, after much talk, and finding the prices of flights were the cheapest, we decided on the great city that never sleeps... New York City.  We hopped on a red-eye flight out on Thursday to be in the great city through Sunday night.  And what a trip it was.

We checked into our hotel Friday morning about 8am.  Thanks to all the traveling with my job we had enough points to stay in the Hilton Times Square, right in the thick of things, for free.  Can't argue with free-ninety-free.  We got to our room and saw a beautiful scene right from our window.  The Statue of Liberty and the Empire State Building were in direct line with our window.

After we had unpacked our stuff and slept for about 2 hours, we decided to venture into Times Square.  We walked around enjoying the scenery, the people, and the random stuff.  We'll just call this lady Pastey.  We still aren't sure what she is supposed to be representing, and where the inspiration came from.  But, I think we can be pretty certain this doesn't represent the New York Marathon because I don't think the rules and regulations of such a race would allow for this kind of running... sorry Adri. 

Next on the list of Times Square randomness were the herd of sheep that Adri just had to kiss.  They looked almost like the Serta Mattress Sheep, or claymation like Wallace and Gromit.  Regardless, it was another interesting things to see.

As we continued to walk around we started shopping in some of our favorite stores that you can't find in Salt Lake; namely H&M and Zara.  In our search for the perfect clothes to take back to Salt Lake that we felt no one else would have we ran into Mega Mind cleaning the streets.  Not sure why he changed to a white outfit, but hey, I guess it helps him to blend into the rest of the crowd there.

At lunch time we just had to go to a local favorite... The Shake Shack.  Fantastic burgers, crinkle-cut fries and the best shakes ever (which they call concretes, probably because they are so heavy that they sit in your stomach like concrete).

As we continued to enjoy ourselves we ran into a guy selling comedy club tickets to a show tonight.  His phrase to get our attention was, "Do you like black people?"  How do you ignore something like that without being called racist?  He tried to offer us a great deal, but we had to pass it up.  We can't pass up the opportunity to take Adri to her first ever Broadway play.  And what better place to start than with Phantom of the Opera.  We walked over to TKTS and waited in line for half price tickets and got in that night.  She was so excited that she even got a little emotional and almost cried.  I'll forgive that because I guess when you've been growing up dreaming about it all your life, that would be an appropriate reaction.

After the show we had to call it quits for the night.  No more time walking around, and we didn't want to overload Adri... at least not yet.  So, we called it a night, excited and giddy about what was to follow the next day.

We got up in the morning and decided to head out towards the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  Along the way we stopped by Radio City Music Hall, Rockefeller Plaza (that picture is for Danny and Denise) and some really cool old church.

After exploring everything in that vicinity we decided to hail Adri's first taxi and head up to the Met.  The guy who picked us up was quite nice, and quite aggressive in his driving.  In fact, I think he was about 100 times more aggressive than Adri.  I didn't know that was possible.

Once we arrived at the Met we were ready to take off our jackets, and just enjoy some good art and history.  We walked up to the counter to get our tickets, I had the lady my credit card and asked for two tickets.  She then asked if my wife had the same credit card.  We told her yes, and she asked if she could see it and our licenses.  Odd... why do we need to pay with two different cards that go to the same account.  Come to find out, the first weekend of every month a Bank of America card gets you into the museum for free.  Again, you can't argue with free-ninety-free.  In our ever free nature we enjoyed some great artwork.  Asian pieces, which were some of Adri's favorites.

Then we saw a Van Gogh self portrait, Andy Warhol, Mark Rothko and Jackson Pollack.  We just really enjoyed ourselves.  There were so many cool pieces, sculptures, weapons, and so on.  We spent a few hours there and didn't see even close to everything.

This painting was very interesting.  It was titled "Mark."  Maybe this is what I am going to look like in my mid to late 40s, who knows.  Although, personally, I think it looks more like my dad when he was younger.  Well, having said that, maybe it is what I am going to look like when I'm older.  Creepy... who do they do that?

Once we left the Met we walked through Central Park on a beautiful day.  No wind, no rain, and in the 50s.  Not bad weather to be in New York.  Sorry, no pictures... Adri had to pee so bad that she wouldn't let us stop to do anything in the park.  We go through the park and stopped so she could use the restroom and then headed to Patsy's for some New York style pizza and pasta.... mmmmm!  We then walked by the temple, wishing we had thought to bring clothing to go in.  It is officially on our list for next time.

After seeing the temple and the Julliard School for the Performing Arts we went back to the hotel for a break.  Got dinner and called it a night, and an interesting night it was soon to become.  At about 4:30am our neighbors came home.  A group of probably middle-aged women on a girls night on the town came home singing and screaming, and just being more loud and obnoxious than anyone would want to hear at 4:30 in the morning.  We woke up to their noise and Adri rolls over and asks me to call the front desk. "I don't want to call the front desk.  Give it a couple minutes and maybe they'll pass out."  10 minutes later they were still as loud as ever, if not louder.  I got up, used the little boys room and then an idea hit my like a bolt of lightening.  I walked over to the phone and dialed a number... boop, boop, beep, boop.  Suddenly you hear the women next store quiet down a bit and their phone is ringing.  "Hello?"  "Hi!  This is John at the front desk.  We are getting complaints about your room."  "Oh, I'm so sorry."  Click... silence the rest of the night, not even a peep!  Yeah, I called their room and pretended to be the front desk... mission accomplished!

We got up the next morning to rain and decided that we would venture out for as long as we could, but this time we would hop on the subway.  Again, a first for Adri.  On the subway we ran into Spider-Sax. He wasn't the real Spider-Man because he tried to spray me with web when I went to take the picture and nothing came out... so I shall call him Spider-Sax.

We road the subway south the the Brooklyn Bridge.  It was awesome to be on the bridge practically alone, but it rained so we didn't get a whole lot of pictures.  No worries, we still had a great time.  We also went to China Town and Canal Street and walked around looking at all the counterfeit stuff there.  Unfortunately we didn't hit the Statue of Liberty, Wall Street or Ground Zero.  It was just too rainy and windy to do that.

The trip really was awesome.  It went by in a blurry three days, but was worth every moment.  It is on our list to visit again one day.  We'll probably just hit everything that we didn't get to hit this time.  We would recommend it to anyone and everyone, and we hope that everyone gets the chance to one day see the city that never sleeps.

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