Water bottles and swim lessons

We left our house this morning at 6:15am, with our kids, heading to Lehi to help hand out water bottles at the end of a 5k race. We were asked to come help a friend with a child that has an Immune deficiency (similar to what Ryan was born with.) Our friend had contacted the drug makers of a medicine kids with Immune Deficiencies take and got water bottles to hand out in an effort to raise awareness of Immune Deficiencies.

Here are Ryan and Sydney ready for the racers to come across the finish line, so they can hand out the purple water bottles. There were over 400 people in the race. We didn't quite have 400 bottles to hand out, but as you can see, there were alot. Along with the water bottle, we handed them a pamphlet that explained Immune Deficiencies.



After the race, we drove to Provo where Ryan and Sydney had swim lessons. Each received a 30 minute private swim lesson. We are mainly concerned with Ryan's swimming, which is why we decided to get private lessons.

Because we woke the kids up so early, Sydney had a hard time as she was tired. Ryan went first.

Here's a little clip of Ryan swimming.



Here is Sydney in her cute swimsuit, waiting for Ryan's lesson to finish.

The gardening gene

Out of all the things that are passed down from father to son, I some how got the gardening gene from my dad. (I'm not complaining, I'm actually glad that I got that gene). With that said, I'm pretty sure I'm the only one of my siblings that enjoys gardening.

I could be off on this slightly, but my brother would rather hire someone to garden for him and both my sisters appear to tolerate gardening (aka - they like the idea or theory of gardens and will actually plant a garden but they don't like the watering, weeding and other tasks that come along). So I'm pretty sure I'm the only one of my siblings that actually enjoys gardening.

I'm not a world class gardener but I do take pride in my garden. While I was outside tonight, I thought I'd take a few pictures and maybe document what my garden looks like now.

This is a picture of my Rose garden. I can't take much credit for these, as they were planted before we bought the house 3 years go, however there is more to gardening than planting.



Here is my garden. (don't look at the weeds around the boxes. I planned on putting bark around them but I spent all (and more) of my gardening budget already. Maybe next year.) It's actually a square foot garden, I read about Square Foot Gardening a few years ago and have been successfully Square foot gardening for 2 years now. I have 100 sq feet of garden space. Not alot of space, however it is used quite efficiently. Our garden has really mutated into a Salsa garden. We grow tomatoes, peppers, onions and we are almost able to make Salsa completely from our garden. (last year we had to buy onions as we didn't have enough.)



My new addition this year are my tomato cages. The ones you buy at the store work for the first month or so, then they are not able to hold up the tomato plants, so you end up having a big tomato bush all over the ground. Last summer we went to my Uncle Kims and he had built 5 foot tall tomato cages from remesh used in concrete. After a few emails back and forth, I went and bought a 150 x 5 foot roll of remesh to make similar cages. Each cage took between 5 to 6 feet of remesh. As I visited my Uncle last year, his tomatoes were actually growing out the top of these 5 foot cages. My tomatoes are doing well so far this year and are on track for to grow out the top and give us a great salsa harvest.



I also cut a 5 foot cage in half and put it around my Squash and Zucchini, seen below. I'm going to try and grow squash and zucchini vertically. This year I also planted new or Red Potatoes. I've never grown potatoes before, so it is an experiment for me, however since both my parents were born in Idaho, I'm assuming it's in the bloodline somewhere. If I fail miserably, then there might be some substance to my brothers claim that I'm adopted. I didn't know this until this year, but when you plant a potato, the roots grow down and the potatoes actually grow above where you planted. Since I planted about 8 inches deep, I'll only get potatoes from where I planted to the top of the soil. So as potato sprouts come out of the ground, you are suppose to mound the dirt up so that they have more places to actually grow potatoes. I built another box that I set on top of my box and am planning on filling it with dirt, so that instead of having only 8 inches of potential potatoes, I'll have 18 inches of potential potatoes. I'm hoping to get some more dirt tomorrow.

30 minutes for 30 seconds

I went to the Dr for a physical a few weeks back and we discussed my family history of Cholesterol problems.

The previous time had gotten a physical I got my cholesterol checked. My LDL (bad) cholesterol and HDL (good) cholesterol were within normal ranges, however my triglycerides were high. The Nurse and Dr asked if I came for my test fasting, which I assure them I have.

Next they looked at me, as if to see if I'm overweight or not exercising and they quickly rule that out. Finally the Dr asked me if I have a family history of high Triglycerides. I told him I didn't know. So I went home, talked to my mom and found out that I do. My brother, mother, uncles, etc all have problems with high triglycerides.

The Doctor said that the first thing he suggests is to moderate the consumption of fats, alcohol and carbohydrates and begin an aerobic exercise program, however since I'm already doing that, he thought he'd take my blood once more to see if anything has changed in the last year, if not, he'll put me on some meds to control it.

So I go into the Dr this morning at 9am. Right as they open. I wait for 30 minutes until I'm called back. From the time I sat down to the time she had taped a cotton ball to my arm was seriously 30 seconds. I'm not quite sure why I waited 30 minutes for a 30 second procedure. However, I should have the results on Monday.

Last Man Standing

Both Deni and I have been in Young Men and Young Womens at church for sometime. From Wednesday night activities to campouts, firesides, meetings, etc, it's kept both of us very busy. If we both had to be at the same meeting or activity, we would drag our kids along. Even though we've been in YM/YW together we haven't been ever been on a campout or Youth Conference together. When we started planning Youth Conference in January, we decided that we would get a baby sitter we would go together this year. However Deni was released from the Young Women's about 3 weeks ago. (and made the Primary President) Even though Deni as just released, she was still needed as a chaperon so we were able to go.

This years Youth Conference was set in Goblin Valley and focused on the Book of Mormon.

We had a great time in Goblin Valley. We left Thursday morning at 6:30am and returned on Saturday around 4:30am. While we were there we hiked Little Wild Horse Slot Canyon and played among the Goblins in Goblin Valley State Park.

After we got back we showered and headed to pick up our kids at Grandma and Grandpa Berger's. As always, my Mom and Dad were very gracious to take my kids for 3 days.

Before we left for Youth Conference I had promised the kids that we would be back in time to take them to see Ryan Shupe & the Rubberband. Because of our triathlon two weeks ago, we missed the CD release concert for Ryan Shupe, however I told the kids we would go today to see them. Deni and I played hard at Youth Conference and we were both tired and sore, however we both agreed it would be fun to go see Ryan Shupe with the kids. We grabbed a bite to eat and then headed out to the concert in Saratoga Springs.

Sydney, Deni and Ryan waiting for the concert to start.



The concert started about 8:45pm and went until 10pm. As is customary, the band came down and signed autographs. We had already purchased the new CD "Last Man Standing" and had the whole band sign it for us. Then Ryan got a picture taken with the part of the band.

From the left, Craig Miner, Ryan Shupe, Ryan, and Roger Archibald.


Right after the concert, Saratoga Springs had a fireworks display. It was a great end to a fun evening.

Berger King Crowns

On the way home from Arizona, we stopped at Burger King for lunch. Along with the kids useless Happy Meal toys, they also got the Burger King Crowns. We finished our lunch got back in the car and continued on our drive home. A few miles down the road, I looked back to see this.

Sydney with her crown on.


Ryan wearing his crown.




In all the years of going to Burger King and getting crowns, I'm not sure if I've ever seen anyone wearing the crown like my two kids.

Brother and Sister

I took pictures at my sister-in-laws wedding this last Saturday. They had a "professional" photographer for the wedding, however since I have such a nice Digital SLR (Canon 20d) and I "borrowed" my brothers fancy lens, I thought I'd take a few pictures. It's fun to try and capture good pictures. Every once in a while I get a picture of my kids that I just really love.

I caught this picture standing outside of the Snowflake, AZ temple.



As you can tell, Sydney loves her older brother. Unfortunately, Ryan's getting to that age where having your little sister put her head on his shoulder isn't quite as cool as it used to be. I'm hoping he realizes it is cool to have your sister put her head on his shoulder before he turns 18.

Tour de Payson

As Deni and I were talking last night, we decided that today would be the only day that we would have time to ride from Heber, AZ to Payson, AZ. (about a 52 mile ride). Neither of us had ever ridden 52 miles in one day, Heber, AZ, Deni's home town, is in the White Mountains in Northeastern Arizona and sits about 6,400 ft above sea level. We couldn't leave from Deni's parents house (as the road to their house isn't paved) however we started out from our Brother-in-Law's house. We began the climb from Heber to Forest Lakes just after 9:30am. The first 18 miles were a constant uphill with a constant wind blowing at us. We took turns at the front, allowing the person in the back to draft and save energy. For the next 18 miles, we climbed from 6,400 ft to 7,700 ft. The ride was slow but steady and we made felt good about the ride. Most of this ride was a 2 lane highway (1 lane each way) with no shoulder (there was about 12 inches to the right of the white line). For the most part, people were kind and went around us like they were passing another car (which they should have been), however we had a few close calls that scared both of us. We had a truck with about a 20 ft trailer decide that he didn't need to go around us and probably came within a foot or 2 of hitting both of us. That probably doesn't sound like it was a close call, however when you have no where to go on the road and a truck is buzzing by you at 60+mph, it feels much different. We stopped in Forest Lakes to refill our water bottles for the remaining 34 mile ride. A few miles past Forest Lakes we hit the top of our climb at 7,700 feet, Shortly after we came to "the Rim".

I wish I would have carried my camera with me and taken pictures throughout our ride, however, since I didn't I found this picture of the view from the top of the Rim.



From the Rim, the road widened to 4 lanes (2 each way) and for the next 2 miles we rode in the middle of the right hand lane in speeds in excess of 30 mph downhill. With a 6% decline, we should have been going much faster, however the wind was constantly blowing in our faces the whole day. Over those 2 miles we dropped about 500 ft in elevation. Over the next 11 miles we had a combination of uphill and downhill and dropped about 2,000 ft. From looking at a map, you'd think that it was an easy downhill coasting all the way, however it was anything from that. We had long climbs and quick descents. It was fun but tiring.

Our plan was to have Deni's sister, Lori, drive our van to Payson to pick us up. We told Lori to leave about 12:30pm from Heber, as we should be close to Payson by the time she drove to Payson. We made it just past Sun Valley before Lori caught up to us. Matter of fact, Lori caught us about 2 or 3 miles before we reached our final destination in Payson. I had asked Lori to pull over to give us a drink when she saw us, so she pulled over. Deni flew past her and I stopped to get some Gatoraide. Deni didn't know that I stopped and kept pounding up the hill. I finally caught up to her and we rode into Payson, AZ together.

Total mileage for the day was 51.6 miles in just over 4 hours. It was my longest ride to date and I was glad that Deni had ridden with me the whole way.

Wind at my back

Deni and I brought our bikes with us to her parents house. Deni's parents live in the middle of nowhere. Middle of nowhere is probably an understatement. At a minimum it is 30 miles to the closest town that has a decent grocery store or any other store with some regional or national name recognition.

I decided that I was going to take advantage of the open roads and get some biking in while in Heber, AZ. I headed off towards Showlow, AZ. I had planned on taking it easy and for the first 15 miles I had the wind at my back, so it was easy. Heber is in the mountains and there isn't a flat road, however with my music blaring in my ears and the wind at my back, I was having a good ride. At 15 miles, I stopped and called Deni to check in. I was 15 miles from Heber and about 20 miles from Showlow (with absolutely nothing in between). I decided I'd turn around and head back to Heber. That is when I really realized the wind had been helping me quite a bit for the first 15 miles. Riding into the wind for 15 miles isn't quite my idea of taking it easy. I almost turned around and rode into Showlow, however that would made Deni drive 35 miles (one way) to pick me up.

I ended up riding 30.1 miles just under 2 hours. Not a great time, however I did get a good workout. I ran out of water around mile 25.

The ride took alot out of me. I hadn't ridden my bike in about 2 weeks.

Tri-ing my patience

Today was the big day I've been training for the last few months for. We spent the night at my parents house in Springville, so we could wake up early and leave without waking up the kids. I didn't sleep well. I woke up at 4:48am and couldn't go back to sleep. I rolled out of bed at 5:30am. Deni had gotten up a few minutes before me and had gone out to the van and came in with the bad news. It was cold and raining. It appeared to have been raining for most of the night. I almost parked in my parents garage to keep our bikes safe, however I didn't think it would rain.

I got up, showered, ate, and finished my last minute preparations and we were on our way to Salem by 6:30am. As we were driving out to Salem, the van outside temperature stated 42 degrees and it was still raining. We arrived in Salem around 7am found a parking spot and began to get our bikes and gear ready to go. We racked out bikes, got our numbers and age marked on our arms and legs and picked up our timing chip. Because of the cold and rain the rumor was the bike portion was going to be canceled. Because it was 40 degrees outside and raining and we had over an hour until the race started, I decided to go sit in the van and stay warm. Deni opted to stay out to see if she could find out what was going on.

Around 9am they decided to officially cancel the bike portion of the race and postpone the swim for 30 minutes. I was upset that they canceled the bike, as I enjoy the bike more than the other 2 disciplines.

The first heat was Elite and all men 29 and under. I started four minutes later in the second heat (ages 30-39). I always have a hard time swimming in cold water for the first little while so I decided that I'd get into the water 5 to 10 minutes early in an attempt to adjust to the water temperature.

Even with the wetsuit it was cold. Water slowly seeps through the back zipper into the suit, however it did do a pretty good job at keeping the rest of my body warm. The wetsuit doesn't keep your hands, feet and head warm.

Here is my attempt to get acclimated to the water.







By the time the swim started the rain had stopped, however it was still 45 degrees outside. They shortened the swim from 800 meters (1/2 mile) to 500 meters because of the weather. I had a great start in my heat and was able to stay at the front of the pack until the first buoy. Then the cold water and weather hit me and I felt like I has having a hard time moving my arms as I swam. I was able to round the second buoy and finish the swim in a respectable 9 minutes 19 seconds.








The transition from swim to run was a little different this year. I had a hard time getting my wetsuit off, however I think it was because the temperature.













Off on my run. The run was unmodified, so it was a 5k. As I said earlier we had our race number and our age on the back of our legs in permanent marker. As I ran I looked at the back of peoples legs. To my surprise I saw alot of 29 and under racers (which had started 4 minutes ahead of me) so I had caught up and it felt good to pass those younger than me. I ended up running the 5k in 25 minutes an 28 seconds. That was an 8 minute 13 second mile.









My total time for the "aquathon" or "Aquathlon" was 38:22.

Deni and I after the race.



Deni and I, as well as friend Emily relaxing after the race.

I can't get sick now

I woke up this morning with a sore throat and feeling like I had a fever. Great timing. A week before the Salem Triathlon and I get sick. Typical for me, I guess.

I stayed home from church and didn't do to much. Since it is fast Sunday, I decided to actually continue to fast today until Deni and the kids came home. Fasting is hard enough, especially when you are sick and in a house full of food.

After dinner, I had my home teacher come over and give me a blessing. I should be good by race day.