Alta Canyon Triathlon

Jake, dad, me, and Sabrina flexing after finishing the Alta Canyon Triathlon

Last Saturday Sabrina, Jake, my Dad, and I all participated in the Alta Canyon Triathlon in Sandy. We all had a lot of fun and I was impressed with how well everyone did.

We got everything loaded up and made it to the Alta Canyon Rec Center at about 7:00am. We stood in like to get checked in and get our numbers written on our arms and legs and then we got our transition areas set up.

Swim - 400 M
This is an interesting triathlon because the swim in done in a pool instead of a reservoir, lake, or river. Since it would be really crowded and probably really dangerous to start everyone at once in a pool, they have you line up according to how fast you think you are going to swim and start you one at a time. Because the pool was so crowded and people were only started 5 seconds apart, we all passed people who thought they were faster than they really were.

Bike - 9 Miles
A few weeks before the race we rode the course to get familiar with it. It is a two loop course with a big hill going up one side of the loop and a long downhill on the other side. It's a really fun bike course with very little traffic. Sabrina got a new (used) road bike just before the race that she used. She was really able to notice a difference between the mountain bike she had been riding on the training rides.

Run - 5K
The run was also a two loop course and also had a steep hill and long downhill. On both of my loops I saw my dad riding up the hill on his bike. I also saw Jake, who was also running, on my second loop. It was fun to have so many people racing and to see them on the course.

I finished in a time of 1:07:03 which was 4 and a half minutes faster than my time last year. I ended up with second place in my age group and only missed first place by about 18 seconds. My dad, who did awesome on his first triathlon, also got second place in his age group. The swim has always been our strength in my family. Jake was the 6th fastest swimmer overall and I was the 4th fastest. Sabrina, who also did her first full triathlon, also did really well and only came in a few minutes after Jake.

Me, my dad, and our medals

Harrison had a lot of fun with Jod, B, and my mom

Bear Lake

Josh had to go to Bear Lake yesterday for work and invited Harrison and I along. Boy was it a long day of driving but we had fun once we had a little time to hang out.

Josh has been there a few times and i've only been there once. This was Har's first time experiencing a few things.

The Mediterranean ocean like water and beaches. Bear Lake Raspberry Shakes

I have the 2 the cutest boys in the whole world!

Har and Josh love the water.

He loved feeling the sand on his feet

We spent quite a few hours in the car but we had a whole lot of fun being together!

Spudman 2008

This year I was finally able to get into the Burley Lion's Spudman triathlon after three years of trying to get in. After having done the race I can see why it sells out so fast every year, it's a really fun course! The best part for me was swimming down the Snake River.

Here's the a recap of my race:

Swim: 1.5K
This was my best leg of the race, and I felt really good. I rented a tri wetsuit just for fun, even though the water wasn't that cold. I had a good swim time of 15:25 and felt like I wasn't trying very hard. I wished that I would have put a little more effort into it. I was one of the first few out of the water in my wave. I even caught up to and passed a few people from the previous wave. It was a lot of fun to swim down stream.


Bike: 40K
I had a pretty good bike ride. The bike is not my strong sport (neither is the run), but I was happy with my time of 1:08:55 and averaged just under 22 mph. The course was relatively flat (it's in Burley after all).


Run: 10K
I was really surprised by my run. I was expecting to have a pretty slow time since I hadn't done a lot of running before the race. I averaged just under 10 minute miles, which for me is great. The local residents turned on their sprinklers and pointed them into the street for us to run through, it felt really nice after a few miles of running.


Overall I had a lot of fun and am already planning on entering the race again next year (it will be on my 30th birthday!). I had my GPS watch with the for the whole race and have uploaded the data to MotionBased so you can click here to see the satellite map of my race.

Happy Birthday to my Sweetie

Happy Birthday Josh!
Harrison and I took Josh out to Eggs in the City for breakfast for his birthday. Josh and to go to Idaho for the Burley Spud Man Triathlon on Saturday. We were not able to go because my niece got married this weekend so since i wouldnt see him much on his birthday we went to breakfast.
Josh just turned 29! Harrison and I love him very much.
While we were out to breakfast we sat Harrison in the booth with us and i noticed that the seats were covered in black leather. I had my camera with us and though it looked like a tincy wincy photo studio.
Here's some pictures of Josh's birthday with our little family.

Josh Graduated!

Congratulations Graduate!
Josh finally Graduated. He's been at it for just under 10 years. He has been putting himself through school and took a 2 year break to live the enchanted life in San Diego... (serving a mission) and he now has a Bachelors of Science from the David Eccles School of Business!















We are so proud of him! The best part was that he was able to have his baby boy participate in the festivities!
I am so grateful that he deemed getting a bachelors degree important in his life. Harrison will always know that education is an important aspect of our family.























































































































After his graduation ceremony we went to dinner at Josh's favorite restaurant, the Red Iguana. We had some delicious food and after dinner my brother Paul commented to me that our parents both have bachelors degrees and now all of their kids and spouses have degrees as well! I though that was very impressive. Having a college education will be something that Josh will always be proud and grateful that he has.

He will even be glad that we made him attend the graduation ceremonies.
Here are a few pictures of graduation.

WAY TO GO JOSH!!! We are all so Proud of you!




















Looks like Harrison could be a cute ute after all! He's so proud of his papa! but i wont say what he really wants to be...

Salt Lake Marathon Bike Tour

On Saturday I rode in the Salt Lake Marathon Bike Tour with my friend Jonathan. It wasn't really a race, just a ride, but it was a lot of fun. They announced that there were about 1,500 people who had registered as of the night before and that there were probably many more by the time the ride started.

We were towards the back of the crowd and it took about a minute after they announced the start before we could even start moving. There were all types of people doing the ride. Everyone from professionals to novices. There were all kinds of bikes too: road bike, mountain bikes, recumbent and tandem bikes. It was pretty well organized and the police had all of the roads closed off so we never had to stop. Everyone seemed to be having a great time and we only saw a couple wrecks.

At the end of the ride we checked our bikes in with the "valet" so we could get some post ride food. I was surprised to see 7-Eleven there handing out hot dogs and taquitos...pretty weird. I was hoping that they would have Coke Slurpees too, but I was disappointed to find out that they didn't.

After we had had our fill of free food, we picked up our bikes and rode Trax back up the the U where we started. It was a really fun ride and I am hoping to do it again next year...maybe with Harrison being pulled in a trailer.

Also...

I woke up at 5:00 am on Saturday morning and threw my bike in the truck. When I started it up it sounded as if the muffler had fallen off, it was LOUD! I had heard on the radio that people were stealing catalytic converters and recycling the metal in them. Sure enough, some idiot crawled under my truck and sawed off my catalytic converter. The guy I talked to at the shop said that it happens all the time and that they get about 3 cases of the same thing a week. I'm not really sure what you can do to protect yourself...take the bus I guess.

Twins

Josh is just crazy about our son! That is the understatement of the world. He loves to be a dad so much he wants them to be just alike. To prove my point take a look at these two photos.



I have to say that as his wife and Har's mom, really I think it's just adorable...
My only concern is that he has to scar our son's head with a big red U.

Getting around to Easter...

My friend Brooke got Harrison the cutest easter outfit. it was a little white bunny outfit. We put him in it on easter sunday and didnt get around to taking pictures of him in it. So finally this week on Wednesday we put him back in it and took some pictures of him in it. He is just so dang cute!
Thanks Brooke!

Spending time with Family

Harrison, Josh and I were able to spend time with my mom yesterday morning. She has been home alone alot more lately and not able to get around so well. I loved being able to go down and spend the morning with her. We had some delicious breakfast and just sat around and chatted for a while. I wasnt so sure when i was going to get down to Provo again after that horrible storm but with Josh driving and me able to watch out for Harrison it was a much different and better experience. My mom cant get up to SLC so well and she wants to get to see her littlest grandson, so we love to get down and let her have a chance to "Grandma" Harrison.
After we left my mom's house we stopped by the Fishes house. Brynlee, Kristin's daughter was so anxious to see her little cousin. She has so many baby dolls and just loves them she acts like Harrison is just the best real live like baby doll. In the hospital she brought her american girl doll and i joked that if she want to trade her doll for harrison and she was really ready to take me up on that offer. I think i made her sad that i didnt come through on the offer.
It was really fun to see Tina and her family and my mom.
Family day was not over yet. We went over to the VanSkivers for a b.b.q. "Pie" and Wii! Harrison is just adored and loved by Josh's family! Being the 1st grandson on Josh's side is super fun for Harrison.

Yeah for Family!!!

Done with school!

This week I finally finished all my coursework to get my B.S. degree in Entrepreneurship from the Eccles School of Business at the University of Utah. It's been a long road that has lasted 10 years and has been through four different majors and two different universities. Following is a brief history of my collegiate career:

I started out at the U right after I graduated from high school. I began work on a Computer Science degree, but decided to change majors after the first couple of semesters. I transfered to Weber State University and started work on an Information Systems degree. After my mission to San Diego I went back to Weber State and decided that Business Administration was more my thing (this was partially influenced by something my mission president said to me). The U seemed to be calling to me and I transfered back and eventually settled on their Entrepreneurship degree. I have always had dreams of starting a business and I figured I may as well study something that I thought was interesting.

And now it's over! I don't really know what to think... It was kind of an anti-climatic finish when I emailed my final project to my professor. I expected trumpets to sound and angels to sing "hallelujah" or something but all I got was an email back from my professor saying "thanks".

I have been working full time and taking night classes, so it will be nice to just come home after work and not worry about going to class, working on homework, and presentations. Now I can focus on some of the things that I have been lacking: Spending quality time with Sabrina (and Harrison in a few weeks!), getting back into shape, reading, and the list goes on...

I think I am going to participate in the graduation ceremonies at the end of next semester (they don't have any ceremonies at the end of this current semester). I figure I might as well get a picture shaking some guy's hand after 10 years of work.

The 3 Baby Greens

We were trying to decide who the little guy looks like.... We pulled out some baby pictures. They are alot older than he is right now... obviously... but we thought that he has some features from both of us. He is just sooooo cute!
p.s. from the ultrasound he weights 2 lbs. 7 oz. He is getting bigger!

LoveRunner at Velour

Last night we played a show at Velour in Provo. It was a fun night. We had a "fill-in" drummer with us, who did an excellent job with only one practice with the band. Velour is one of my favorite places to play because it is such a nice venue. They have great sound and a really cool atmosphere. We played with the Darling Broads, Knotty Pine, and the Goodlife Experience. Photos courtesy of rock photographer Sabrina Green.

Here's me and Jonathan. (The smoke is from our wailing guitars)

Here is the whole band.

Ogden Valley Tri

Saturday the 15th was the Ogden Valley Tri. It was the first time that I have participated in this race, and it was great. It took us about an hour to drive from Salt Lake to Pineview Reservoir in the morning. It was pretty chilly when we got there, but warmed up a lot by the time I was done. It is a really pretty area and a great place for a tri. I ended up doing a lot better than I thought I would. The sad thing is that I got a faster overall time here than at Echo and the bike course was a few miles longer here.

Here I am getting out of the water...I felt pretty good even though I hadn't really trained. The wetsuit I was using made it hard to move my shoulders. Next time I will rent a tri wetsuit.


Somehow I actually pulled off my fastest bike time at this race...faster than any other tri I have done. I lost my water bottle with about 1.5 miles to go and I almost hit a spectator who was crossing the road, oblivious to the fact that there were bikers coming down the street at 20+ mph.

The run was bad news! I had a pretty slow time (about 30 minutes). The first half of the course was a gradual hill and then turned into a single track trail run. By the time I got to the run it was getting pretty warm. I had been leap frogging this one guy the whole way. We ended up chatting with about 200m to go, it was his first race. I couldn't let him beat me on his first race so I took off right at the end.

It was a fun race that I think I will be doing again next year.

Alta Canyon Triathlon

Today I did the Alta Canyon Triathlon. It was a "mini sprint" which means that it was shorter that a standard sprint distance race. The swim was in a pool and was 400 meters, the bike was 9 miles, and the run was a 5K.


There were a few new things for me on this race:


First, I have never done a tri in a pool. It actually worked out pretty nice. We had to all line up according to how fast we thought we were going to swim. I got in the line at the end of the 6 minute group. Racers were started one at a time and were not allowed to dive. You had to first start your chip by putting your foot on the timing box and then jump in and go. Once you got to an orange flag, the next swimmer would start. There were four lanes and you would swim down and back in one lane and then move on to the second, third, and fourth and do the same thing. I passed the kid ahead of me after about 100 meters.


The second new thing was using my cycling shoes and pedals. I have used them on quite a few training rides, but this was the first race. They worked out really nice, but were a little weird to run in when leaving the T1 and coming into T2.


The last new thing for me on this race was that I actually won something! I came in 3rd in my age division and got a medal for it! I was 42nd overall out of the 172 racers who finished. I finished 26th out of the 65 male racers who finished.


Overall, it was a great even. I seemed to be pretty nice for spectators too since they got to see the racers at several points in the race. There was also a kids race that was a swim and run. We are looking forward to when we can do a father and son race day in a few years...


Thanks to Bina, Jod, and B for coming out to support me!

Dual Immersion Academy Grand Opening

Tonight was the ribbon cutting for the new Dual Immersion Academy (DIA), a brand new charter school in Utah. Spanglish Books had a booth there and we got to talk to a lot of the parents of the new students as well as the teachers. Governor Huntsman was there to give a little speech and cut the ribbon. It has been pretty amazing to see the evolution of this school and to see how far it has come. We are excited to see how it works out over the next few years and would like to put our future children in the school. Channel 2 was on the scene as well as other media, so keep an eye out...you might see us!

Se venden libros

Today Josh's company, Spanglish Books, had a book fair at Sabrina's Spanish immersion preschool. It has been so much fun to be able to meet people who are trying to teach their children Spanish and to be able to recommend books to them. It's pretty hard to find used Spanish books, so that's one thing that we really try to keep in stock. We also have a lot of new Bilingual and Spanish-only books. The business is still pretty small, but there is huge potential here in Utah. Check out the website at www.spanglish-books.com.

Josh just dropped of his bike and now he's gonna run a 5k.

Josh is riding the bike!

Echo Resivor Triathalon

Josh did awesome on his first sprint solo triathalon in 2 years.
We had so much fun watching him. We cant wait to see him do a couple more this year.
He has been training really good ever since he finished this race and decided he wants to beat his own record for the next race.

The St. George Team Triathalon

Well this post a bit late but i thought... "Better late than never!"
So Josh and I and the "peanut" did a triathalon in St. George in June.
We had a blast and it was blasting hot!
Josh has done another one by himself since and is planning on doing at least 2 more this year.
Maybe next summer I can do another one while grandma can babysit for us!