Kate's NICA farewell tour Stop 1: Soldier Hollow

Kate has been working so hard this summer for her senior season.  Her biggest goal last year was to qualify on her own for varsity.  She knew if the league didn't place her in varsity that she could petition up, but she wanted to get there on her own.  She when she got the notice from the league that she had made varsity she was SO excited!  She's been working with a former Bingham coach who has been giving her workouts to do and has been working really hard to follow them.  We were so excited to see how she would do and were excited to see all of her hard work pay off in the fun that races can be.

We started watching the weather a few days before her race and saw that there was a chance of rain.  It would go up or down every time we looked so we just talked about controlling what you can control if it gets rained out then there will be other races.

The race being called off would have been a gift.  I asked Kate after her race, knowing what she went through, if she would have preferred the race to have been canceled.  She said no because when you suffer through something, at least you get the experience of it.

I have been a part of many many races and some of them have been through terrible weather.  I have never seen or been a part of how horrible it was yesterday.  I think the fact that they had bikes made it worse than anything I've ever experienced or seen.  It started raining about an hour before her race.  They delayed it 5 minutes due to lightning but then at the start they delayed it longer because the kids in the race in front of her were having a really hard time getting through what had become a field of mud, clay like mud.  Someone gave her competitor a blanket and Kate stood in it with her to stay sort of warm.

She didn't have a great start, she said later she couldn't get her shoe clipped in, but there was a lot of race ahead of her.  From where we were standing we could see the varsity boys first and pretty soon we could see that they were hiking up a hill carrying their bikes.  It was taking them a long time.  After a while they came past us and it was carnage.  We were only about 2 miles into the race but it was taking them a good 30-45 minutes and most of them were carrying their bikes or riding for a bit and then stopping to clean them off again.  It wasn't a race anymore, it was literally a survival to the finish.  We finally started seeing some girls coming and then we finally saw Kate.  She was muddy, her bike was a disaster but she had a smile on her face.

At this point she yelled to us, "This is so much fun!"  I was so proud of her for working so dang hard to stay positive and just work and suffer.

Ten minutes later, after a few more muddy switchbacks, the exhaustion was starting to crush her.

But she kept pushing, not wanting to quit.

Dragging her bike when she couldn't carry it anymore.

Usually in NICA races parents or spectators aren't allowed to touch the riders bikes without a penalty.  It was so bad yesterday that that rule was completely ignored and everyone was helping everyone.  Teams didn't matter it was a only efforts to get everyone to the finish line.  At this point as Jerry and her are trying to get the mud off so that she can at least roll her wheels someone called over the coaches radio and asked if anyone had seen Kate.  Jerry handed me the radio and I said, "Yes.  We're with her now."  They said, "Is she still racing?" I said, "You could call it that."  And she answered back "Hell yeah I'm still racing!"  I love that spirit in her!!  It was super frustrating, but she is a fighter.

Finally the second half of the course was more rideable and imagine that, she got to ride her bike in a bike race!

While she was out there struggling, they started the JV-A boys and so then she had to race with them around her.  They rode a shorter course than the varsity and it had stopped raining for a bit so their conditions weren't as bad.  So it was a little annoying to have them all fired up around her while she was so tired.

But she finished!! And she came across the line with her hand up in the air!  She was so happy to be done and so proud of herself for handling everything and fighting through the exhaustion.  The adrenaline was pumping almost the whole time and she was shivering after her race from that and the cold.  I was so proud of her and all the riders.  There was so much sportsmanship going on that only when happens when you suffer together.  I really hope that the rest of the races are all blue skies!  In then end, it took her 2 hours to ride 5.5 miles.  For reference, we rode an easy 5 miles on Friday together.  Kate talked the whole time and kept it in her easy gear and we finished it in 45 minutes.

 

First day of school

First day of school.  Sad day for all of us.  I have really loved having my kids home this summer.  It has been so fun riding bikes with Kate so much and playing lacrosse with Sara and Abby.  It has been a good summer and it always goes so fast.

First day 12th grade.  Last first day. 😩

First day 9th grade.  This was the only picture I got that wasn't mid eye roll.

Carpool...the necessary evil😂

Abby in 4th grade!  Abby has two teachers this year and she'll switch halfway through the year.  She got the two teachers she wanted and we are hoping for a MUCH better year than last year.  We rode our bikes and when we got on the school grounds she said, "Oh I have a bad feeling in my stomach."  I asked her why and she said, "from Mrs. Gibbs last year."  Poor girl.  But she did say after school that it was a fun day so I think she'll recover.

I don't start teaching PE for 2 more weeks so I went for a solo bike ride when they were all dropped off.  That was kind of nice.

 

Rocky Mouth in August

Abby and I are still having so much fun going to Rocky Mouth Falls.  With August now done we are 2/3 of the way done for the year!

 

Ice Cream trucks are real?

This summer we were at one of Sara's lacrosse games and I heard the music of an ice cream truck but it didn't even really register what it was and I didn't think much of it.  Then Abby said, "What's that music?" I said, "It's an ice cream truck."  Abby said, "Oh.  Those are real? I thought they were a myth."  I was like what are you talking about have I never bought you something from an ice cream truck??!!  I felt like a horrible mom.  We started sprinting across the field but by the time we got there it had already left.  I was super bummed for her.  But then an hour or so later we heard it again and instantly started running.  This time we made it in time and Abby got to choose something from the truck.  She chose this premade snowcone that looked super disgusting but hey at least now she knows ice cream trucks are real and I feel less like a bad mom!

Premier Lacrosse League

The men's professional lacrosse league does a summer tour playing games in a bunch of cities.  They came to Salt Lake last year but we didn't really know much about it until after it happened.   So this year we got our tickets early and now that we know more about Lacrosse and the players we were super excited to go watch some games.  We for sure planned to go for the Whipsnakes vs Atlas game.  The top two teams in the league.  The Whipsnakes crushed them and it was so fun to watch.  They throw the ball so fast and their shots are so awesome.  Everyone needs to watch a PLL game.  They are way fun.

Sara was super excited to watch her favorite team.

She got so close to her favorite player, Matt Rambo, and almost got a selfie with him.  Next year...

 

Summer ending

I hate the last couple of weeks of summer when you have to fit in all the last things you haven't gotten to do yet.  Abby wanted to put some pink streaks in her hair so we did that one evening.

Before

During.  I was really afraid it was going to end up a really bright pink.

After.  But it washed out a lot.  Next time we'll probably try to put more color in.

We also fit in a day at Lagoon.  It was perfectly not very crowded which made us all happy.  We got to ride the rides many times until we all had our fill.

 

Ketchum, Idaho

We decided to get one last trip in before the girls start school and I start working at the school.  We had a hard time deciding where to go and the weather was making it hard for us.  We looked at going south to Kanab and the Grand Canyon but they had been having a lot of monsoon rains with slot canyon flooding so we decided to stay away from there.  So instead we went north up to the Ketchum ID.  It was really pretty and kind of the perfect little getaway.  We found an Airbnb right on the edge of a little creek and it was the perfect getaway.

We could ride our bikes to one trailhead so we did that for a long ride one morning.

And we had a ton of fun playing in the creek.  I only saw one snake so, yay.

We really miss Matt.  It's just not the same without him and it's only going to get more weird when Kate leaves.

My daily reading spot...

On Kate's birthday Jerry took Kate and Sara to Sun Valley and they rode the lifts and rode bike trails down hill.  They had a great time.  Abby and I rode on the bike path.  We had a great time chatting and riding and seeing all the pretty things.

It was a bit dusty...

One morning Jerry and I got up early and got a ride in together.  We found a really great loop and had an awesome time.

After that ride, we took a break from bikes and went up to Redfish Lake.  It was so pretty.  The Sawtooth range is really cool looking and I'd really like to spend some more time in those mountain.  We rented a paddle boat and went all around the water.  The water is so clear and it was just an awesome afternoon!

 

Returning to the scene of the crime

My family wanted to see exactly where this mud puddle incident happened so we went back up to Cecret Lake.  I showed them the spot and we all stood there for a minute scratching our heads and trying to figure out how I could fall there!  

We saw another couple of moose which was fun for Abby.

Cecret lake is one of my favorite spots in the Wasatch but I think I say that about every spot I go to. 

Again, Superior with that sunset glow.

 

Alta/Brighton plus some mud puddle diving

Amy and I were able to get together again so we headed up for a Brighton/Alta loop.  It was such a beautiful morning!  The mountain lakes have all stayed quite full this summer so they have been so pretty.

Twin Lakes always looks like the best one to paddle board on.  I wish we could but this is all in watershed area so sadly we can't.

I love the red of Mt. Superior.  It looked really pretty in the early morning.

We stopped at Lake Mary to see if there were any moose in or near the water.  And then we turned back to the trail and hello there was a mama and baby moose walking right towards us.  We got off the trail quick and were standing right on the waters edge.  Luckily, they weren't too bothered by us and just walked on past otherwise we didn't really have anywhere to go except jump in the water!

There was a big bull moose in the meadow just after Lake Catherine.  

And we added in Cecret Lake just for fun and to hit them all.  Devil's Castle was also looking so pretty this morning.  

It was a great day out and then we were running down the trail.  Cecret Lake is a super easy hike.  The last 1/2 mile is steep and techy but the rest is wide and smooth.  There are 3 creek crossings but they are so wide and shallow that it's really just like puddles in the trail.  I was crossing one and stepped on a rock in the middle and the next second I was laying in the puddle on my left side with mud everywhere 😂😂🤦‍♀️. I was immediately embarrassed because there were so many people hiking up and everyone saw it.  Amy spun around and was like "what happened?" And I was just sitting there in this glorified mud puddle looking at my muddy hands and I could see all the mud on the brim of my hat and I knew it was all over my face and left side of my body.  And I was so in shock because it happened so fast I couldn't even react and it was the easiest, most shallow crossing of them all.  😂😂🤦‍♀️.  I tried to wipe off the mud but my hands were so muddy that I couldn't do a good job so the rest of the way down the trail everyone coming up was looking at me really weirdly.  We finally made it to the car and I had some wipes that I cleaned up what I could and luckily had a long sleeve shirt so I could change my shirt.  But we still didn't really laugh because it was so weird.  But then I got home and started to tell my girls the story and we laughed so so hard about everything.  It was great.  I had to wash my hydration vest and my hat and my shin was all scratched up from hitting the rock.  Oh my.  It was a bad one on the easiest section of the trail in front of the most people.  Haha.  It was a good morning even with my awesome mud puddle dive!