Thursday, November 15, 2007

Motorcycling and other weekend adventures

We had a good time in Utah. Its fun to go back. I hate leaving Adam alone that long though. It will be better when we go back for Christmas together. I think the most fun thing I did was leave my baby with Heather and go for a wild ride with my dad and Chelsea; I sure appreciated Heather watching him, however my darling little drama queen niece, Lucy, did NOT appreciate his presence. Hopefully she will learn to like him better when she does not have to share her mother with him. Thanks so much Heather.

The best part of the ride was my dad reassuring Chel the whole way up that this would be a real easygoing ride. She was on a bike that weighs at least twice as much as she does, so naturally wasn't too eager to scale the back of Timp.
Anyway, after we had both dumped our bikes several times, narrowly escaped a couple trees and slipped on a sheet of ice, he finally quit saying "I think this is the hardest part; it opens up right up here." I guess whatever doesn't kill you makes you a better motorcycle rider right Chel? I loved it. I love Utah mountains. I love doing exciting things with my family that require us to, sometimes, work together to solve a problem...like pick up a 250 pound bike off the ice and get it started again. I love the crisp fall air-its still a summery eighty degrees here, which don't get me wrong, is great. But I just love outdoor Utah. It was an intense workout. Riding up a single track, windy trail with roots and rocks popping up every couple seconds requires more mental and physical focus than I had remembered. It was so fun. We will definitely be a motorcycle riding family someday.

Eli got to spend a considerable amount of bonding time with his adoring Grandma and Nana and we came back with no short supply of wardrobe supplies as a result. Thank you. You guys rock. After the motoride, E and I headed down to St. George with Natalie and the twins. We met Adam at the air show in Las Vegas the next day-pretty WT, but so cool! After spending the whole day going deaf watching F22s and A10s fly, we ended the night with Cam and Tiara and her family at the Cheesecake Factory. So, needless to say, that was a good day. The trip ended with a pleasant, despite two sleep deprived teething babies, ride home. I can honestly say that it was fun driving to and back from Utah with Michelle and our crying kids. Good times. Good times.

In other news, Adam is his class's president. Does that mean I get to be the first lady of the Loma Linda D1 dental class of 2011? I guess. Here is the direct quote from Ashley Spencer, whose husband is also the pres of his class: "Congrats to Adam on the class president thing, by the way. You have now lost your husband to an endless number of lunch meetings :-)" Excellent. But I guess I knew I'd miss out on a lot of his time when we started this whole process. So wahoo for Adam and all of his lunch meetings. How weird, he only has 3 weeks of school left. One quarter down (almost) and lots more to go...

I am so excited for my family to come for Thanksgiving next week. Thanksgiving is another holiday for which I have very few criticisms. I love the time of year, there is food involved, there is NOT an enormous over-commercialized pressure to buy things that you don't need, and everyone celebrates the joy that is family and friends. I wish there was Thanksgiving music that the radio stations could start playing right now; actually every single radio station where I am sucks so bad, I would go for Christmas music year round over all the Spanish rap crap that is played. I love Christmas music. That's it. Have a good day you.

8 comments:

Susan said...

The other day I was thinking about you and how you played Christmas music on November 1st last year and by the time Christmas rolled around we were all so tired of Christmas music!

I really miss the outdoors. It's nice and tropical here, but there's something to be said about "the middle of nowhere." I miss the parks in the mountains and just the trees. Your post made me miss Utah even more. I guess you can't have your cake and eat it too.

It's cool that your family is coming up for turkey day. We're going to Texas for 5 days in december, which is a super short trip. I really need a vacation!

CHUNTZ said...

WHAT WOULD THE ALLREDS BE LIKE WITHOUT THEIR MOTORCYCLE CLAN!?

snlbarney said...

I am so glad that you are back! That felt like FOREVER! I love the biker-babe pic, classic:) Can't wait to see E tomorrow, he'lll love all the activity as I am taking Ali's kids too! AHHH!!

Britten & Chelsea Maughan said...

True that. I'm so professional now...as long as I don't have to do that ride again for a long time-or ever. I can't wait to come next week!

Jen and Lance said...

Look at you two! You look tough on that bike ash!

Susan said...

Hey!!! i need your address...

Andy & Jen said...

Hey Ashley, I found you on Megan's blog...hope you don't mind! You are one tough biker chick/marathoner, I love it! Can you teach me to be hard core like you?
-Jen Martin

AshleyS said...

Your new family photo at the top of your blog is darling. Eli is always dressed so cute. And, you can totally consider yourself the First Lady of the class. haha, I guess there's 4 of us in our ward!