Moab Skinny Tire Festival

We have a chock-full cycling season ahead of us so this year we decided to kick the season off a little early with the Moab Skinny Tire Festival. 50 to 60 miles a day, riding roads I think look fun every time we go to Moab, basking in the 70-degree afternoons - it was a heck of a jump start to our cycling calendar! And the best part is that this year Steve is joining us on Team C4C, which means I get to log even more miles with my very favorite biking buddy!

Day 1: Riding to Dead Horse Point

Having a 14-year-old brings myriad benefits... wait... strike that. Having a 14-year-old brings one huge benefit - babysitting. Although we couldn't leave the kids all day, having an awesome babysitter in Sam meant we could do some miles every day together. It was great!.

Pete and I tackle the 2,700-foot climb up to Dead Horse Point. It turns out that 2,700 feet of climbing over 36 miles when one's body is still in winter-fat mode is... a lot.

Our mornings started cool, but once the sun came out and the climbing miles started we warmed up quickly enough.

Here's Steve riding down from Dead Horse Point. Steve may not enjoy the uphill portions of our rides much but man does he love a good descent!

Day 2: Riding North from Moab

I was particularly looking forward to this ride because we got to try out the new bike path heading north from Moab. The path was great, the views were fab, and the company was sublime.

The only downside of the day was that Steve had some mechanical trouble. He had to nurse his bike home for the last 15 or 20 miles but he was a trooper and we made it back to the campsite in time to take WanYing and the rest out for Pi and Gotcha Day Pie so all's well that ends with pie.

Day 3: Arches National Park

We had to get the kids home for school on Monday but I really, really wanted to do the Arches National Park leg of the Skinny Tire Fest so Steve pulled a superman and took the kids home and let me stay one more day. Did I mention lately that I married well?

How cool is this? One of the other couples on the ride had a Kaz connection - he was born in Russia and she in Kazakhstan so we knew we had to take a Team Astana group shot. Small world!

Riding the Arches road really was a dream come true. I want to ride it every time we come to Arches, but the narrow roads and insane amounts of traffic always lead me to the better choice of enjoying the park from a car.

But when I saw the Arches road on the Skinny Tire Fest agenda I knew this was my time to cycle it with the comparative safety of a low-traffic day, signed route, and large group of cyclists - and it was a blast!

The Moab Skinny Tire Fest was such a fun start to our cycling season. Only 2 1/2 months until the Huntsman 140!

Festival of Colors

Every year when the Festival of Colors rolls around, I think, "we should do that." Music, food, a colossal mess - it sure seems like a Morningstar kind of event. And this year, we finally attended the Holi festival in Spanish Fork. Warm sun, good food, 55,000 of our closest friends, and breathing in scented, colored chalk poured upon us by total strangers has never felt so good.

Before: Ben is completely prepared for any chalk-bearing invader: bandana on, sunglasses in place, earbuds blocking chalk from entering his ear holes.

After: Only the protection of the earbuds remains. But he's still smiling!

When you have dark, straight hair like Ying those first speckles of color sure look cool

Grammy gets in on the fun - you know it's a good party when you can't even see your tie dye anymore!

Even with a purple face, Sasha manages to look fabulous. Minnie Mouse sunglasses do help.

3-2-1 - time for a chalk throw!

It turns out the kids can totally eat vegetarian as long as corn, french fries, and snow cones are on the menu

WanYing and Mom pause for a selfie - WanYing wanted to show you her fistfull of purple chalk

We had a super great time getting totally messy and celebrating the crazy fun that is our family

And don't worry, our hair all returned to its normal color after a shampoo... or three...

The Tooth Fairy Works Overtime

We interrupt this beautiful spring day to announce that the Tooth Fairy is officially on overtime with four kids to keep up with - WanYing lost her first tooth yesterday!

It all started Sunday morning when we sent the girls upstairs tidy up their room before church. Ten minutes later, both were wailing (the normal outcome of room cleaning, let's be honest). When we finally got to the bottom of the story we learned that Sasha was crying because WanYing insisted on stuffing her PJs under their table. And WanYing was crying because, in retaliation for said PJ-stuffing, Sasha had bopped her in the face.

Ah, never a dull moment.

WanYing's displeasure intensified (read: wailing escalates to full-on panic) when she realized that her bottom front tooth was now loose. But after some very fast thinking and heart-felt consolation by Daddy, WanYing came to understand that her baby teeth were probably ready to start getting loose anyway. Sure enough, by the end of the day WanYing was the very proud owner of a dislodged tooth, pulled out all by herself!

This girl is growing up way too fast. Good thing she looks so darn cute doing it!