Christmas Ride 2013

The weekend after Christmas, Jansen and I picked up Jafer and headed to Mulberry Gap.  Wes was there too and the three guys took off together.

We were trying to beat the rain, but it started sleeting about 10 minutes into our ride.  Then a light rain followed.

The creeks were running strong and the woods were so pretty.

I actually came across three other groups of riders and several hikers, out to play in the cold and drizzle.

After my ride, I went for a run that was a walk, until I could feel my toes again, then it was a run.  While I was running Ginni made the guys BBQ sandwiches and they were smiling and very happy when I arrived at the barn.

Wes, Jansen and Jafer found a game to play while we waited on dinner.  Hilarious!

Dinner was amazing as always and dessert was very cool.  Matt Smith donated an indoor s'more maker to Mulberry Gap and the roasting of marshmallow commenced.

There was fantastic music playing all afternoon and into the evening.  It has been really neat to see the changes Mulberry Gap has made to their property over the years and Andrew did a fantastic job enclosing the barn.  It was cozy and warm and perfect.

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Christmas 2013

Christmas was filled with cookies, cookies and more cookies.  Good food, a fun family and lots of time to hang out together.  

My Aunt Alyce gave me a Christmas ornament each year when I was growing up and our family has kept up that tradition with the boys.  So our tree started off with only my ornaments, then filled with ones given to each of the boys and Shey.  Now there are enough to load it to full capacity.    I'm not much for decorating and can barely match my clothes when I go to the store, but decorating the tree is always full of great stories and memories of each year we received these small gifts.

This is one of the oldest ones...early '70's.

We decorated ninjabread cookies.  There is disco guy with a 'fro, belly dancer, rock-n-roller with guitar, cyclops, jazz hands, confused guy with weird nunchucks......

We went for our Christmas drive and walk to look at lights.

Fairyland was decorated like the North Pole.

So thankful to have such a cool family, including the ones with four legs.

Serena....not so photogenic......Indy....confused......

Back at home we made out pretty well with a new slackline for the family, an antique typewriter, rollerblades (given and ridden early), cast iron tea pot, several new albums for the record player, elbow pads for riding rocks and this super cool luchador bottle opener.

Indy and Serena love to open presents.

I bought a puzzle for the family to do, but once we opened the box, I kept coming back to it and was at one point using a headlight to work on it so it wouldn't disturb the guys watching a movie.  I thought we would take a week or so to take our time and work on it, but instead..........I finished it at 1:30am and am banned from ever buying one again, per all the men I live with.  Note:  don't get a puzzle with 500+ pieces and lots of brown and grey rock.

Cyclocross and Friends

We helped Jim at Elks Aidmore for his double weekend cyclocross race.  

Shey in the Masters race on Saturday

Everett spent most of Friday taping the course and it took us 5 hours on Monday for two of us to break it down in the rain.  I think Jim used every stake available.  : )

John came over to pick up a bike for his son and showed us the many uses of carbon fiber.....he always has something cool to show us that he has made or is designing.

I want him to duplicate my old mountain bike shoes that are falling apart.  Challenge!!!

Serena got a stuffed squirrel that is her best friend.  Indy has since ripped it's face off and tore out the stuffing, but Serena still carries it around with her everywhere.

Jansen found out he has rats at his place.  He has disposed of a couple who had moved on from this life and is now designing a bigger better rat trap.....or maybe he will just go to Home Depot.....

Todd came to Atl for work and we got to visit with him over breakfast.  He and Krista are really into the Enduro series.   We will be heading out to Tuscon this winter and hope to catch up with him for some sweet riding!  (I already have my elbow pads...)

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The Path

Everett has mentioned roller blades over the past few years, so I found some on Craigslist for him to try.

We parked at the Monastery and  Everett rolled around a new short section of the path while I ran

onto the cool new bridge

Then we got in a sweet ride at the next section of the path

Followed by more blading by Everett

I wasn't sure if he was going to use them, but the first time he put them on, he was jumping over stuff  and having a blast!

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