Exhausting

So yesterday Brandon decided it would be fun to go for a bike ride. I was on my bike and Brandon was on his bike with the kids in the cart behind him. We drove to a trail then took our bikes off the car to ride. We started at the top of this huge hill but it didn't look too big. As we got going, we had a great time flying down one big hill, and then another, and then another. I got thinking, "This is going to be excruciating to go back up." We were having so much fun though, and of course I wasn't that tired so we kept going. Once we got to Lake Las Vegas Brandon admitted he was very tired. Again I thought, "I'm not very tired. I'll just ride back real quick and get the car." So, we agreed to meet at the bottom of all those hills where I could pull the car in. I was tired before I got to the bottom of those hills and I was puffing like the out of shape person that I am (we haven't exerted any energy since the summer started 3 months ago). I had to walk my bike up all those hills and I would ride on the tiny little dips in between. I think I took well over the 15 minutes I thought it would take to get back to Brandon. He was glad to see me when I finally made it back with the car. Next time we are going to leave one of our cars at the end of the trail.

We went sight-seeing and found this really neat look out spot just past Nelson, Nevada

A Dream Vacation

Sometimes I love to just look up cool vacation places on the internet and just dream. I have a couple of dream vacations.

For just me and my hubby, I would want to go to Fiji. http://www.likulikulagoon.com/home.cfm It just seems so cool to be half way around the world in a completely different culture. The fact that the ocean is beatiful is important too. I found this resort that looks way cool because you can stay in these little huts out over the water. Then if you want to snorkle, you just jump in, off your back deck.

Because I'm a huge fan of the olympics, I would love to go to the 2012 summer games in London. I've been to London before but I would love to go again and just be there for a week. There's so much more to see and do then I got to do the 2 days I was there last time. Especially if I did go during the olympics, I would want to go to as many events as I could.

For a family trip, I would love to go to Atlantis, in the Bahamas. http://www.atlantis.com/ It would be so fun to stay in a huge coastal resort like that. They have everything from waterslides to swimming with dolphins. If you look at the website, notice the water slide that darts you through a tube surrounded by sharks. COOL!

Please leave a comment about all the cool places you dream of visiting!

Who RA!

We just got Brandon's board scores back and he passed!!! That means we can have a fun September with NO studying!

OLYMPIC GLORY

The Olympic creed, "It is not to win, but to take part."

I have been totally enveloped in the olympic games these last two weeks. I love to watch the comptition, but just as much, I love the stories of the individual athletes. They put so much dedication into training for years so they can go to the olympics and compete with the best in the world. Some come from backgrounds of extensive training from the time they are small, and some come from the streets, but they all have one thing in common... drive. Not only is it about the competition, it is about the pride of wearing your countries letters on your shirt knowing everyone back home is cheering you on. I was caught off guard many times to find myself getting choked up as I watched athletes from our country lose, or win. My favorite moments of the games...

Kobe Bryant was asked if patriotism being cool was a thing of the past and he said, "It's still cool to me. I'm proud to represent the United States."

Of course Michael Phelps in every race.

Nastia Liukin taking gold and Shawn Johnson taking silver in the all-around.

Shawn Johnson finally getting her gold on the balance beam, the very last event. They showed her mom in the stands crying and the commentator told how Shawn's parents has mortgaged their house so that she could continue to train for the olympics.

Misty May and Kerri Walsh winning the gold, the first ever sand volleyball team to do it two olympics in a row. It brought a ton of emotion when Misty May scattered some of her mother's ashes on the court after the inital celebrating of the gold was over.

My heart broke for LoLo Jones. In her race she pulled out in the lead and it looked like she would win the gold metal. After nicking the 2nd to last hurdle, she was unable to place at all. They later showed her standing under the stadium alone and just crying.

Dara Torres, 41 year old, mother of two showed extreme sportsmanship by holding up a race while a fellow competitor went and changed out of a ripped swimsuit. Dara, the oldest woman to compete in olympic swimming, won the silver.

Jason Lezak anchored the 4 x 100 meter freestyle for the US. It looked like he would come in 2nd until the last 25 meters when he hit the turbo boosters and touched the wall first creating a new world record. He also beat his personal best by over a second. When asked in an interview after the race he was asked how he felt about helping Michael Phelps create history he replied, "I didn't do it for Michael Phelps. I did it for me."

The drummers in the opening ceremony blew me away. I couldn't believe how exact they were. It was amazing.

I hate to see it end.

Playing in the Sand

I took Denton and Julia to the park because Denton wanted to play with his sand bucket and shovel.
Julia's not having a good time.
Notice how she's holding her feet up because she doesn't want to touch the sand in any way, shape, or form. I think she was mad at me for sitting her down in the sand.
Denton sure had a good time.
"Where are my legs mom?"
Now that she's in the grass, she can finally have something to be happy about.

Brandon's Life

So here is an update on what Brandon is up to. He made it through the first two years of medical school and now he's doing rotations. Rotations last 1 month and he just started his second rotation yesterday. He's doing internal medicine right now, which is one of his 2 top career picks, the other being ER. He just found out his schedule for the next couple of weeks. The sad part is, his next day off is August 16th :-(. After 19 days straight, he will appriciate a weekend off. The good part is, he will have the whole month of September off and we can Party!