Girls Like Boys on Bikes

Check out my shirt (but not Sam's package)

A couple weeks ago I posted about a bike ride Sam and I did on a tandem bike and how much fun we had. Last week, just 2 days after Leadville, my sister called and told Sam that Snowbasin was having a 60k mtn. bike race Saturday and that they were giving away a tandem bike. At first he couldn't stand the thought of racing just 1 week after his big race in Colorado, but with an incentive like a tandem bike along with our favorite resort, he couldn't resist.
Of course I was happy to support him in that because I love being at Snowbasin, and its minutes away from my family and previous neighborhood. We all slept over at Grandma Cindy's. She and Aunt Heidi and cousins were so nice to come up and support Sam as well. It was fun seeing lots of friends up there too!
Well, Sam surprised himself. He raced like a maniac and finished 4th overall out of 225 (25 of which were Pros) and 1st in the single speed. He came in 16 minutes before the 2nd place single speed guy. I am way proud of him but not one bit surprised. He is amazing.
The rest of us had a great time in the beautiful mountains on a beautiful day. Sambo and Will rode their bikes in their first "bike race" for kids. Millie wanted to as well, but her bike got left at her friend's house. There was live music and a great atmosphere. This may be weird to some people but the kids and I really enjoy going to Sam's races and cheering him on. Doing it means we are outside, usually with some friends, usually some food and treats involved, and celebrating after. Good Job dad!

Kindergarten

Another big day for the Clarks. Will's first day of kindergarten was today! He has been super excited for school to start, and even more excited to ride the bus. He has been waiting for this day forever, he was so tired of watching Millie and Sambo get on and off the bus together and leaving him at home to go to school all day. I can tell he really is feeling like a big boy.
Just look how cute he is:



I'm so glad that he has so much confidence and ambition...he was not one bit nervous or sad. It helps that he has older siblings to look out for him, and so many great friends to hang with. I had a moment of brief sadness - such mixed emotions of joy and reality of my baby boy growing up. I sure hope he's a good boy at school because he has the potential to be a teacher's nightmare! Between being such a goof-ball and such a chatter box he may find himself in the corner! But I know he will melt Mrs. Scott's heart at the same time.
Love you Wilbur. We're proud of you.

It was so great having Sam with me today to support Will.



















Look what else we have been working on today...Like I said, big day for the Clarks.

Back To School

School started last Thursday. The only good thing about the first day of school was how excited Millie and Sam were.
Each year when summer ends I wait to feel happy about my kids going back to school...but it hasn't/didn't happen. I just like my kids home with me and on our own schedule. School seemed to start WAY TOO EARLY. So early that I didn't feel prepared. Traditionally I like to cook a nice dinner and then have a big family pep talk about our new schedule of activities, our expectations, their safety. But Wednesday evening brought a birthday party for the boys (invitee doesn't start school until tomorrow), a YM meeting for Sam, and an Activity Day dinner for Millie and I. It definitely did not feel like the night before the 1st day.
Oh well. Luckily we had done our school shopping for clothes and supplies so at least I was prepared that way. When I went to wake-up Sambo, I noticed Shortleg in his tank lying on his back and not looking good. I will come back to this.
It was strange having just my 2 little ones home, but I know I will cherish the alone time I get with them. Will starts Kindergarten this Thursday.
The kids came home super happy about their new class, teachers, and being with friends. I feel lucky that they love school so much.
After school Millie had dance and tumbling, then we resorted to a back-to-school bash at Rock Creek Pizza. Good enough.
We came home, got ready for bed, then it was time to break the news.....I was dreading it all day.

Read the next post.

Short-lived Shortleg

Sam with Shortleg the day he got him Feb/2008

In the above post I mention how I would be giving the kids some bad news. I also mentioned how in the morning of the first day of school, I noticed Shortleg in a bad way. I didn't bring attention to him so Sambo wouldn't worry about him on his big day. I slyly told dad to go look at the frog. He came back downstairs and gave me a look that confirmed my fear: Shortleg was dead.
From the way he looked all sprawled-out on his back, there was no question he was dead. Sam had to rush off to work, and I was rushing out the door to follow the bus and take pictures of the kids at school, so we decided to deal with him later that afternoon.
About 4:00 that day, we looked in the tank and Shortleg had moved to his water bowl! He wasn't dead! He looked really pale, but he had moved! We were so relieved, but then Sam picked him up and he wasn't moving at all, not responding. Our hopes died as we realized he was dying, on his way home. We looked at each other and we were both surprised how sad we felt. Not only because he was an awesome pet but because we knew it would break Sam's heart.
I immediately got on the phone and started making phone calls to any pet store who might know if there is something I could do to save him.
We were racking our brains trying to figure out what could be killing him because he was his normal chipper self just 2 days prior when we fed him 8 grasshoppers.
I mentioned this to the guy and he said, "You have to be careful with grasshoppers, did you pull off his hind legs?"
"No, why?"
"Some bigger hoppers have spiny hind legs. The sharp spines can damage their G.I tract and cause death."
Nice to know.
By that night he was gone for sure. Sam put him in a box and into the freezer. We told the kids and I'm not kidding you, I cried. I cried because I could feel Sambo's pain as his deep heartfelt cry came hollering out when he heard the news. As cruel as it sounds, I wish we had a video camera to record all 4 kids reactions. Millie sobbing, Sambo crying HARD, Will crying on and off, and Quincy fake crying. As we tucked Sam into bed and comforted him he sadly said things like:
"I thought I would have Shortleg when I got married"
"Will I see him in heaven?"
"Is it okay if I still feel sad when I wake up?"
"He was such a good friend"

Our pets sure have come in handy in teaching our kids some of life's lessons :)
We have used a past cat named "Carter" to teach Millie about change and moving. She was feeling sad about moving from our old neighborhood in Mtn. Green to Draper. The day before we moved here, we could not find Carter anywhere. We told Millie that "see, even cats have to get new homes." She was content with that. No one saw Carter again.
We are using our experience of trying to breed Daisy about the birds and bees; just little bits of info. The kids have been wondering about when it will be time for puppies and about Daisy going to visit a boy dog in Provo for a week. We are telling just enough to keep them satisfied. Last week, Will saw some dogs trying to mate and said, "I think that dog wants a piggy back ride!"
(We are still waiting to see if Daisy is pregnant. Who knew it's such a process? Post on that coming)
Today we used Shorgleg to teach and emphasize about what happens after death. They have heard about this before but I can tell that having experienced it in real life with Shortleg, they seem to understand more and feel better about our Savior's plan.
When Millie and I returned home from the Oquirrh Mountain Temple dedication, we held a Clark family funeral. Everyone took a turn saying something about Shortleg, Sam dug a hole, then we covered him and made a gravesite.
Shortleg was the size of a quarter when we got him, when he died at 1.5 years, he was the size of a softball. R.I.P.

At The Wedding

Leadville 09

At first I just wrote "Leadville" for the title of this post, but I'm beginning to think that this race is something that will occur more than once or twice, so I am going to have to specifiy the year.

Sam and I left last Thursday, headed for the bizarre town of Leadville, Colorado for a 100 mile mountain bike race. It is like 10,800 feet altitude. Old mining town that seems to be lost in time. Again we stayed at "The Delaware" hotel which is an experience itself! I'm sure dad will sum up the race pretty detailed on his blog, so I will just say how proud I am of him and the 13 or so others who were there with us! It was a total blast cheering and crewing for them! Good times with great people.We all mostly wore "Fat Cyclist" jerseys in support of Eldon.
Again Sam amazed me with his athletic talent...this year he raced on his single speed bike which is even more challenging. He faced and endured his biggest weakness - the cold. At the top of the huge climb (Columbine) it was hailing and freezing strong winds. When I heard this from some of the leaders, I began to worry because I know Sam does not do well in the cold. When I saw him approaching me for the second stop, I was so relieved that he hadn't quit. Sure enough, the first thing he said was "I had to stop for some hot soup" in a little boy voice. Poor guy. But he finished in great time with 3 of his buddies and he got his sweet belt buckle! Big props to Rick.

In the end, every guy (and Whitney) said it was the most brutal race they've ever done. Most said they would never ever do it again. But it didn't take long because the next day I heard many conversations about next year's attack. Whitney you are absolutely fantastic!
Way to go everyone! Oh yeah, and way to go Lance! While most racers are pushing to finish in 9 and 12 hours, he won the race in record time of 6:28! It's always fun to see Lance. See Dug here for a story that will melt your heart. I still can't write about it.

And this is what we came home to. Thanks Megan and Josh for staying with our kids and taking such good care of them! They had a great time!

Lagoon

All of the Clarks were in town for Candice's wedding, so last week from Thursday-Tuesday was pretty much a Clark fest. A lovely Clark fest.

Thursday - Wedding shower in Provo as well as pick-up Daisy from her "stud's" house. More on that later.

Friday - Pedicures and lunch with the ladies! Then to the Provo temple with everyone for Bee's big day. And of course dinner at Brick Oven.

Saturday - Our tandem bike ride for the Ulcer (previous post), followed by a naughty trip to Spanish Fork to shop for some necessities at Dirty Joe Punsters. Grandma Judy, Casey, Sarah, Jenny, Jess, and I packed-in the car and made the quick trip...we were laughing our heads off as we shopped for something funny for Candice's shower that night. We found some lovely things for Candice and Doug to wear :) That night was a fun wedding shower for just the grown-up girls. Sorry Millie.

Sunday - Church and Dinner at Grandma Judy's (yum)

Monday - LAGOON! Good times with good people. Brady and Sarah may even come back here from Arizona to go to Frightmares at Lagoon. We all had a great time. Millie and Sambo were extra brave going on EVERY RIDE (except the Rocket)! I'm sure it had something to do with the fact that their cool aunts and uncles/boyfriend were there and the kids wanted to impress! Here are a few pictures of our day:


Tuesday - The big wedding day - It was beautful. Congratulations Doug and Candice Later!

Side note: I am writing this from the weirdest hotel ever in Leadville, Colorado. Sam's big
TRAIL 100 mountain bike race is tomorrow. I better get him to bed. Good Luck baby.

Bicycle Built For 2

Last month we had the best idea...
When a postcard came in the mail advertising a bike ride called the "ULCER" we decided it would be fun to do it together - on a tandem bike! ULCER stands for Utah Lake Century Epic Ride which means it starts at Thanksgiving Point, travels along Utah Lake down to Springville, then back. We borrowed our friend's tandem bike (thanks Joe and Nik) and decided that we would just ride as long or as short as we wanted to. We had no expectations. Turns out, we had a great time...like really great.
Initially it was really weird trying to start-up and clip in and out at the same time, as well as get used to having no control on the turns. We laughed a lot a first, and soon we were enjoying riding together. We could chat, I could feed him, I could sit up and stretch my back whenever I wanted, I could rub his back, etc. I'm telling you everyone needs to try this.
We also had some great company! Adam and Jess & Jon and Gina joined us and we had perfect weather and a pretty relaxing ride. Sam's average heart rate was 85 if that tells you anything. I don't know if riding a tandem is supposed to be easier but it definitely was (however there were no climbs). We will definitely be doing this again! Maybe the Heber Century?

In the end we rode 60 miles, more than we thought we would do. Good times.

COWABUNGA Dude!

The kids were great helpers last week. I have been in the process of de-cluttering my house and it is still a work in progress. I spent hours in the boys room last week and filled-up 2 garbage bags full of crap. The kids are such pack rats...EVERYTHING is "special" so they hold on to things and keep them in little nooks and corners of their rooms. Things like rocks, sticks, McDonalds toys, bags of sand from Lake Powell, empty shoe boxes, etc. They have a really hard time throwing stuff away.
We also packed away the baby crib for the LAST TIME and brought out Quin's big girl bed (more on that in another post). So I got her room all done too. Millie's room is another story...
Anyway, we have had the pleasure of having 3 of my nieces spend some time at our house since we've been home from vacation. Last week our basement was a total wreck! Soooo many kids have been here playing the past couple weeks and I let it go way too long. As I was trying to get the gusto to go downstairs and face it, I had a brilliant idea....hire the kids to clean and organize it!
I told Millie, Sambo, Caitlyn, and Ellie that if they would totally clean it and do a good job then I would take them to Cowabunga Bay (Draper's new water park). They did't know that we were already planning on taking them this summer anyway.
My plan worked like a charm. They did a fantastic job and I was super proud of their efforts. There is nothing like the feeling of having a tidy home.
Cowabunga Bay did not dissapoint...it is such a fun, cute park with activities for all ages and I love that it's not so huge that you can't keep your eyes on all your kids. Grandma Cindy, Aunt Heidi, and her 3 kiddos joined us too and we saw 3 of our good friends there so there were lots of kids playing together...what a blast!