The Big Move - Day 2

Day two was driving from Rawlins to Omaha. We started at a nice 6 am:



It was a hazy day, but check out the sun through the windmills (I love wind farms):



Super hazy. Check out Vedauwoo (I'll climb here one day):



And the dull landscape begins:




The monotony of the drive was broken up by the massive stands of sunflowers that lined the freeway the entire way through the state:




But we listened to a great book (I had no idea that Moby Dick was based on a true story, it was fantastic!):



The big eagle arch (I hear it's awesome on the inside):



Drive took about 10.5 hours. On paper it should have taken between 8 and 9 hours. Not too bad for driving a box truck pulling a car.

The Big Move - Day 1 Pictures

How did I occupy myself? Well...

First off here's the truck:


Me driving the truck:


Driving past the exit we always take to go to Lander:


Holding my breath through the WY tunnel:


That was it for day 1.

The Big Move - Day 1

The first part of the big move to Cincinnati went well! The day started at 6 am with a run to the store to get more boxes. We quickly finished packing the kitchen and disassembling furniture.

We picked up the truck at 9 and were back home at 9:30. James, Chelsea, and Tobin were waiting for us at the house. Immediately James started packing boxes into the truck. A few people from Elder's Quorum and my dad showed up starting just before 10 (huge thanks to them). Everybody rocked it out! We stopped when the truck was 98% full and looked at the time. The Timex said "10:51". The truck was fully loaded in just over an hour!

Of course the last minute/small things took forever to take care of, as they always do. Jessi did an ah-maze-ing job with all the packing and cleaning. She had help with girls from mi mum (thanks mom).

I had a few errands to run (and rerun since the lock I bought for the moving truck door didn't fit). I got out of the house at 3:20. Five hours later I arrived in Rawlins. Made pretty good time says I. I had 5 stops to check the straps on the car trailer and one stop for gas and dinner. In the car I could have done it in four hours.

I took some good pics of the truck and some fun stuff I did while driving to occupy my time. Buuuuuuuuuut, I left the camera in the truck and I'm not going out to get it right now. Pics to come tomorrow or later.

Thanks Deer Valley

Today I spent an afternoon off riding downhill at Deer Valley with my co-worker and friend Craig. Tim hooked us up with a couple of free passes (thanks Tim!) so we took the afternoon off (you can do that when it's your second to last day at work) to go ride.

I didn't want to rent or borrow a DH bike so I decided to ride my cross-country hardtail.

It was all well and good but then at the end of the second run this happened:



and this:



and this:



that one again (that's not a muffin top, that's swelling):



and the ribs (hard to see, but there are some bruises and I think I bruised or cracked some ribs because they hurt):



and the shoulder:



It hurts a lot. Riding was super fun. Unfortunately I bent my handlebar, but that isn't anything a little barter of some old ski bindings for a handlebar won't fix.

The Garden Update

So far I have failed to provide a garden update. Now that we are leaving in a week I thought it time to do so since we'll be leaving almost all of it behind. What started out as this now looks like this:



The tomato plants have done extremely well. We've probably had two dozen cherry tomatoes. The Purple Russian has given us 6-7 tomatoes already with more on the way. They haven't been purple but they have been delicious. The Amish Paste has given 2 tomatoes so far, but there are many big green ones just turning right now.

The red bell pepper plant has been interesting. The plant itself didn't get very big. It gave one small red pepper early on. It sprouted four peppers all at once recently but three have been lost to rot.

The jalapeno plant was slow to start. The three weeks of rain early in the summer delayed it. Once this got hot it start growing. Right now there are probably 20-25 jalapenos growing. They aren't very big, maybe one to two inches long. I don't think they are going to get any longer as some are already starting to turn red. I plan to make jalapeno jelly with them in the next couple of days.

The radishes have come and gone. We got a few good bulbs, but they mostly just sent down an long root and then flowered. The green onions were delicious but are now gone. We went through two zucchini starts that both died before I randomly saw a seed sitting on top of the dirt. I planted it and hoped. Nothing happened for weeks. Then a little sprout came up. We went on vacation for a week and came back to this:



So far we've had eight huge zucchinis off it. There are two more currently growing on it. It's amazing that something that large came from a seed the size of a dime.



The Swiss Chard has grown fantastically. Too bad it's not one of our favorites, but it's been fun to share. We wait until the leaves get nice and big then pick them back until there are only two little leaves remaining in the middle. We've done that four times now and they keep growing back.



The green beans and pickling cucumber plants have done surprisingly well. Especially considering we planted them in a spot where nothing else would grow. The bean plants have gotten tall, but no green beans.

The pickling cucumbers have taken a while to get going and are just now fruiting. Just a tad too late for us to take advantage before we move.



The strawberry plants gave us maybe five tiny, delicious strawberries. Next year they will do better for someone else. They are sending off many shoots to propagate for next year.

The cherry tree in the yard doesn't give very good cherries. We picked them anyway and made some cherry jelly. It's surprisingly delicious!



We just picked a bunch of pears off the pear tree (once again not very good product, but we are hoping it turns out as good as the cherry jelly).

Things I have learned this year:

• Self-watering containers are amazing


• Tomato cages don't work too well in self-watering containers (at least not how I put them in)


• Ski poles make excellent posts for running plants...just make sure you don't have to unwind the plants because you need the poles because you are moving


• Don't put fertilizer that should be concentrated directly on the plants, undiluted - I made two of our indoor plants limp and destroyed the red pepper plant with it...oops


• Only ever plant one zucchini plant


• Take all the free fruit you can get and make jam, jelly, sauce, or rollups with it


• Don't miss harvest dates - we missed apricot picking season and now won't have homemade jam for the next year


• Berry plants typically produce on wood that is at least one year old

I am bummed to be leaving everything behind, but at least it'll be in good hands.

I am already looking forward to next year and already have some plans in the works.

The New Commuter Bike

With the move to Cincinnati, a longer commute, and wetter weather I thought it prudent to get a new bike for commuting. The cyclocross bike is awesome, but I want to keep it nice. The daily commute, wet weather, and especially winter are hard on bikes and I want to keep my investment running top notch.

Enter the new commuter bike:



Isn't it sexy (yes it is). This thing is a machine! Old steel frame (no idea who made it, all markings were gone). I stripped it down to be a single-speed but left the rear derailleur on to act as a chain-tensioner. Removed the drop bars for a flat bar and regular brake levers. Still rocking 27" wheels. Added the fenders and rear rack.



Best part is I paid $40 for the bike and have put another $35 in parts into it (grips, cables, tubes, bar). It's ready to roll. I have two weeks on it already and it is awesome. All I need is cross tires for the winter commute.

My favorite part is the headbadge. The original one is missing so I made my own:



Yup, that's a spoon. I made it out of a soda can using a razor knife. Pretty sweet in my opinion!

I am super excited to be commuting on a single-speed again.

The Cincinnati

So it's pretty much common knowledge that we are moving to Cincinnati. I got into a nine month master's of marketing program at the University of Cincinnati. We're leaving on 8/31. Woo! It took a little longer than we had planned, but it's nice to finally be moving on to the next life goal.

We haven't ever been to Cincinnati so we're excited to get there and see what it's like. From people we know here's what we've been told:

• Cincinnati is a hole


• Cincinnati isn't that bad


• Cincinnati is nice


• All of Ohio is a hole


• UC is a good school


• It's the spaghetti capitol of the US


• It has the best gelato outside of Italy


• The southern woods of OH have great mountain biking


• The cyclocross scene is pretty rad (too bad I won't really be able to participate in it this year

So that being said we're taking all of it with a massive grain of salt. If Cincinnati sucks, oh well, it's only nine months! You can expect plenty of updates on the move and what life is like there for us.

Blanding & New Mexico

To help cut costs at work everyone has to take an unpaid week off. I took mine last week (it happened to coincide with having the 3rd off in celebration of the 4th) so we had 10 days. We went down to Blanding to visit Jessica's sister Amy and her family for a week and then to Farmington, NM to visit Adam and Lisa.

We did a lot and it could be a ridiculously long post but instead you get a nice bullet list with a slideshow at the end:

• Had our first head-splitting-open experience ever with our kids (It was Maya and luckily she didn't need stiches)


• 4th of July Parade


• Fireworks Show


• Jessica ran the Blanding 5k


• Mountain biking


• Homemade ice cream


• Swimming pool + high dive


• Snow cones


• Sprinklers, slip-n-slide, and water fight


• Reading


• Practicing spinning Poi balls


• Wii


• Lake Powell + ferry + 100 degree temps + small cliffs for jumping


• A couple hikes to Native American Ruins


• Board games


• Lots of food


• Evenings hanging in the backyard


• Flying kites at the park


• Four wheeling


• Clay pigeons


• Shooting handguns (my first time ever)


• Flea markets + fry bread


• Jacuzzi


• More playing in the pool outside and waterfights


• Movies


• Playing at the lake


• Kayaking at the lake


• Remembering how to roll kayaks at the lake


• Bocceball


• Jacuzzi


• Driving

Whew! It was an awesome trip. Enjoy the pics.

Blog Backlog

Yeah...I know...almost a month...

So much to post about. I'll get to it soon, I promise. Some hints at what's to come:

-Mountain bike
-Garden update
-Wasatch Back Relay - Ultra style
-Other goodness

I know your gripped with anticipation...

Timpanogos Cave

Yesterday the fam and I ventured up to Timpanogos Cave. I haven't been since I was a kid and Jessica didn't think she had ever been so we decided to go and take the girls. We didn't have high expectations going into it with the girls with us but we thought we'd give it a try.

First obstacle, receiving misinformation over the phone, showing up to buy tickets and being told the first tour they could fit us on was in 3 hours. Thankfully a nice young couple approached with some extra tickets they had for their group in and hour and half.

Early tickets in hand we set off. They say it's about a mile-and-a-half hike up with 1600 vertical feet gain. With Jessica just coming off the pregnancy and me carrying Penelope we figured it'd take about an hour. The hike was fantastic. For one, Penelope loves riding in the backpack and Maya loves the front carrier.



We made it to the top in 52 minutes, not bad I'd say. The next challenge was upon us. We thought for sure once inside the cave both girls would start crying and we wouldn't be able to do anything about it.





Right before we went in Maya fell asleep in the front carrier and stayed asleep for about 3/4 of the tour. Penelope was a little scared and had Jess carry her for awhile, but then was willing to get down and walk around. Penelope was enamored by many of the formations and the different colors that we saw.

Waiting to go in
Two of my girls
Me trying to not close my eyes during the flash
Love the colors in the background
The hike down went smoothly as well. We made it in about 30 minutes. Penelope was entertained by watching the people hiking up past us and asking me "where are there houses?". She also kept looking for the little brown signs with the number 5 on them. By the time we got down she was zonked sleeping with her head against my back in classic style.

The Garden

I've wanted a garden for awhile now. I should have started last year, the desire was there, I just never followed through. The combination of not being entirely sure what to do/how I wanted to do it, what to grow, and timing all helped me procrastinate long enough that I missed the season.

Radishes in back, peas on the right, zucchini up front, before the green onions went in.

This year I vowed it'd be different! This year started with some seeds we picked up from a Provident Living class early in the spring. They had packets of zucchini, peas, and radish seeds. We picked up one of each. When it finally stopped snowing I went out to the bare patch of dirt outside our kitchen window and sowed some of each to see if they'd grow. Within a couple of weeks small plants started sprouting.

After the green onions went in.

Next I found out about an heirloom plant sale being put on by the Wasatch Community Gardens so I picked up some tomato and pepper plants. Then while at the neighborhood nursery I got some strawberry starts and a packet of lettuce seed.

Pole beans with ski poles for the upward growth and cucumbers on the right.

Saturday I ran over to the small nursery across the street to get a couple some pole beans and I ended up coming home with poles beans, basil, another tomato plant, pickling cucumbers, swiss chard, and green onions.

Swiss chard in red.

I'm growing the 'big' foods in pots and self-watering containers (homemade, I have step-by-step instructions I'll post in a few days) and then the other foods is spread out in a couple of small patches in the backyard.

Strawberries, Brandywine tomato (looking sad), Basil

Lettuce planter box

Amish Paste and Purple Russian Heirloom Tomatoes in self-watering containers

King of the North Red Pepper, Jalepeno, Isis Candy Cherry Tomato (heirloom)

Hopefully it all grows!

Bread or Turkey?

Which is it?



If you said turkey, you are wrong, but it does look like a turkey, not bread. Funny stuff...

So I've been trying to make my own sourdough starter and it was finally time to make some bread. The place where I got the instructions for the starter had a recipe for some bread that is supposed to be very similar to the old style French sourdough. Not having all the stuff they said to have I improvised.

Instead of a proofing basket I used a fruit bowl. Instead of a proofing cloth (linen or canvas) I used a kitchen towel that had a waffle pattern. Things went awry when trying to remove the cloth from the dough and it ended up in the shape in the photo.

It's currently cooling so I can't say how it turned out. I'll let you know.

Bedtime Denial

I think for as long as I can remember I have suffered from what I like to call 'bedtime denial' (BD for short). BD is usually most prevalent in young children and school-age kids. Kids usually scream and cry when they don't want to go to bed or they get really sweet to you.

But can it still manifest in adults? Yes! You know what I am talking about. You look at the clock and you say to yourself "Man it's late, I have to get up and go to work in the morning, I really should go to bed, I know I'll be dead when the alarm starts going off". Then you proceed to find many other things to do because you don't want to go to bed.

I thought to perhaps one day I'd grow out of it. Nope, still have it, hence the blogpost about it at 11:50 pm. :)

Anyone else suffer from bedtime denial?

Domestic Weekend

I've always liked to cook. Working full-time has definitely cut into the amount that I'm able to cook. With Jessica home with the two kids she has been doing most of the cooking.

The weekends are really my time to cook. Here's what I made this weekend:

• Bread (two loaves)


• Granola Bars


• Chicken Biscuit Stew (Saturday's dinner)


• Spicy Veggie Stir Fry (tonight's dinner)


• Coffee Cake


• Breakfast Burritos for tomorrow's breakfast (Edit - I forgot to put this in before)

I've made the coffee cake before, but it hasn't ever turned out quite right. Usually the topping is too heavy so it causes the cake to cave. I've tried putting it on afterwards but that isn't right.

This time I put it in a bigger pan and almost had the desired result:



Still caved a little near the middle, but it looks better than it ever has. Now it just needs to cool so we can eat it!

Oh yeah, Jessica likes 'domestic weekends' because she doesn't have to cook!

I Like the Way Kids Think

Setting: We're getting into the car tonight after going to dinner at Citrus Grill. As I'm backing out of the parking space Jessica says "I'd like to get an I-C-E C-R-E-A-M C-O-N-E" (gotta spell this stuff out around the kids).

I replied with "hey, there's a M-C-D just up the road, we could go get on there".

Penelope, hearing us spelling stuff out says "I want one of those".

We asked her "one of what?"

She gets a confused look on her face. We ask her "you want one of things mommy and daddy were talking about?"

She says "yeah, I want one of those."

She had no clue what we were talking about, but she must have know that since we were spelling something out it must be good. Blows my mind how she figures things out!

Crab 'n Climb 2009

Two weekends ago was our annual "Crab 'n Climb" trip that we take with some friends every year to St. George. This year was a little later than usual, but that was perfectly fine since it was warmer and gave us a few more weeks with Maya before the trip.

We drove down Friday morning. We left just before 6:00 am to get in a few hours before the girls woke us. I figured we'd probably get in 90 minutes. I was pleasantly surprised when we got in about three hours! We stopped, had breakfast, then Maya went back to sleep and we drove the remaining 90 minutes without any interruptions! It was the smoothest trip in the car we've ever had!

Friday consisted of checking into the condo, saying hello to everyone, and climbing. The wives were gracious enough to watch the kids this extra time so we could get out and climb. We went to an area named "Utah Hills". This was my first time out since the fall in Colorado that shook me up. I spent my time top roping and getting comfortable on the rock again. It was nice, I got in about 5 routes.

Saturday we went to this awesome park that had "perpetual motion" toys. The ones where you start spinning and they just keep going. Penelope had an awesome time running around, climbing up and sliding down.



They also had a little 'bouldering' wall for the kids to play on. Penelope got her first feel for climbing on it:



We also got a good family picture (don't mind the random lady in the background):



We also had a few 'battles' on the round, sliding toy:



After lunch and naps we spent awhile playing in the swimming pool. I love swimming and it's even better that Penelope is a fish.

Saturday night was crab dinner night. We used to go to Mesquite to the seafood buffet for crab but since we now have kids, we just buy some at the store and cook it up. It's the one time a year that we eat crab and it was gooo-oood!

Sunday was more playing, swimming, and climbing. We went to Chuckwalla to climb. I got in my first lead since Colorado and it felt good to get it out of the way. Jessica also got in her first climb since Colorado and since having Maya. She did really well and is super stoked for the coming season.

Me:



Jessica:



The drive home was almost as smooth as the drive down. It was a killer weekend, good to get out with friends, climbing, enjoy nice weather, and be with the family.

Here's a short album of the trip:

My New Obsession...

Bikes...Jessica just shakes her head at me. It's an expensive obsession but so far I haven't spent much money. We actually have fewer bikes now than we did six months ago.

Jessica will say "how many bikes do you really need?" To this I reply "five". She shakes her head some more. Currently I have one. My next goal is a mountain bike. If anyone would like to contribute to the "help Eric buy a mountain bike fund" please let me know. All monetary donations are welcomed and appreciated! ;)

Curls

Penelope's is finally getting hair and it has some curl to it (especially when it's wet):



I love it! Oh yeah, she doesn't look like me at all! ;)

Baked Apple Dessert

I tried making a new recipe tonight that I got from a Whole Foods magazine that I picked up for free at the Whole Foods the other day. The recipe title is "Baked Apples with Pecans and Raisins". It turned out to be "Baked Apples with Walnuts and Raisins" because we didn't have pecans.

The first time I (we) had ever had baked apples was with our friends Matt & Bri. It was ridiculously simple. Take four apples, core them (but don't pierce the bottom), pour in sweet and condensed milk, bake until tender. Voila, delicious dessert!

This recipe takes it to the next level. That sounds fancy, but in reality I had the apples cored and the filling made in probably 7 minutes. Here's what they looked like before they baked:



And the finished product (picture is a little fuzzy and I should have left them in the pan for the picture):



They were absolutely delicious! I don't really like walnuts but we didn't have pecans. The recipe seemed a little different than what we usually make and have for dessert. I'm glad we tried it because it was good. Here's how we made them (this is altered from the Whole Foods Recipe based on what we had on hand):

*2 Granny Smith apples
*Couple finger-fulls of raisins
*Couple finger-fulls of brown sugar
*Small finger-full of walnuts broken into small pieces
*A few shakes of cinnamon
*A few shakes of nutmeg
*1 pat of butter cut in half
*Some apple cider

Core the apples but don't break through the bottom. Mix everything else, except cider and butter, together (this is the filling). Place filling into apples. Place butter on top of filling. Place apples into small baking dish. Pour in cider (maybe half an inch up the apples).

Place baking dish into 350 degree oven 30-40 minutes, until apples are tender. You'll want to baste the apples every 10 minutes or so.

The original recipe calls for dried apricots in the filling. We didn't have any but they would be delicious.

Try it out, let me know what you think. If you've had good baked apples before, tell me how they were made.

Beh-Beh

We had a baby, a week ago today. She's adorable and beautiful. We named her Maya Reese.



I'm a slacker at blogging about it. Good thing my wife rules. You can see more pictures and get the details here. Why write it twice if Jessica did a fantastic job writing about it and I'd say the exact same things?