Boys

More Roses

 and a peony...

Camping and Racing

 This last weekend was the "Return on the Jedi" mountain bike event put on by Pistis. On Saturday we had a short track race and a super d. Sunday was the big event, cross country. 

We went up Friday to set up camp, see if there was any trail work we could do and have some family time. 

While Nate went to ride on of the trails to see if it was race-worthy the boys and I headed to the creek to cool off:

 That evening when some friends showed up the boys were quick to run over and help them clear their tent sites and gather firewood :)

Saturday morning Nate was gone early to help clear trail (I knew I would have to take it easy, I am on dr's orders to not fatigue myself while in early healing stages, but I took it a little harder than I thought I would. I can't believe how worried I am still about people thinking I am lazy. It's the whole "invisible" illness deal. I know folks mean well when they say "Well, you Look great!" when I tell them how bad I feel)

Anyway...

I have an adorable pic of Joshua crashed out in the truck but since he was hollering at me for taking pics of him while he's asleep and saying I should delete it, I don't think I should put it on the blog ;)

Brannon got our fire going so we could heat up some chocolate almond milk

 Joshua raced in the short track race. His first official race :) He was so excited and feeling so big!

Everyone was very kind and made way for him at the start line (have I said before how much I love the atmosphere at the mountain biking events?)

 And they're off:

 Cliff road behind Joshua during the race and apparently J chatted with him the whole time :D

 Nate got back in time to cheer J on

 Happy boy!

He did three miles and never had to stop on the rough parts or the hills. He said "I was so hot I felt like I was going to barf!" Haha! Yep, that's how it feels. Sounds fun huh? :D

He also raced in the kid's race Sunday...where he moseyed cheerfully along at the very back. Nate's competitive spirit was having a little difficulty with that, but he cheered him on all the same and told him great job, looked like you had fun. 

 Proud of his medal:

Mom came up Sunday to man (woman?) an aid station with me. We drove to the bottom of the hill and handed water to exhausted Pro/Cat 1 racers as they went by. We went down an hour after the race started and were there two hours,  it went by super fast with someone to talk to :)

As soon as the kiddie race was over we packed up our stuff and high-tailed it down the mountain 'cause Nate had six hours of homework to get done before midnight. Unfortunately the aching and exhaustion he'd been experiencing all weekend (which he chalked up to his back being out and lack of sleep-- even though he spent a whole night alternately shivering and sweating. Um. Honey? Are you sick? His response: I hope not! as he goes off to work more...) ended up being a 101 degree fever and he spent the rest of the afternoon and evening sleeping. He woke up fine this morning (Yay!) so hopefully he can catch up this week.

So, that was our weekend adventure :) We have been alternately resting and unpacking today. And taking pictures of roses. Well, I have anyway ;-) You know what the next post is going to be right?