Eric's Blog: March 6, 2006

Today was a wonderfully sunny Sunday. The temperature reached the high 60’s and the sky was deep blue without a cloud in the sky. The whole week has been this way. Saturday I took the opportunity to go for a bike ride. Usually Hannah and I try to go on bike rides together, but she had been gone for several hours running errands, one of which was going to the gym. I decided that if I didn’t go by my self I wouldn’t go at all. So I packed up the car and took off. As I was leaving the neighborhood, I saw Hannah’s car coming my way. No one was behind me so I stopped. I was planning to ask her if she wanted to go with me, but when she rolled down her window all she said was “I’ve been betrayed,” and took off (the funny thing is just a few days earlier she was telling me that she wasn’t into drama. If that’s not drama I don’t know what is. : ) I called her on her cell, and asked her if she wanted to go. She said that she had to get ready for a party we were going to that night, and told me to have a good time.

I chose to ride Deer Creek, because it was close. I hadn’t ridden for a while, so I knew it was going to be hard, but its close, so it was the obviously choice. The first half of the trail is the most technical, and luckily was dry; the second half still had snow and ice, which made it more difficult. I got tired of pushing my bike so I only made it 2/3rds of the way up. It was fun anyway. After the trail I decided to ride on the road for a while and snapped a few shots of some decent size elk.

I was able to get pretty close to them before the started getting nervous. One of them took a rather aggressive stance, which surprised me. For a second I though I was going to be on of those “When Animals Attack” videos, but the elk decided to turn away instead.

(Hannah here) When I married Eric my long time biking buddy (Stoney, my Dad) started riding with the Bishop. I still ride with my Dad but not as often. I thought that Eric agreed to be a biking buddy, especially since we moved to Colorado. I don’t have anyone else to ride with and every time I ride by myself I feel like cougars are stalking me. Anyway, I was a little sad to see Eric’s Subaru driving down the rode with a bike on top.

Over the past few months I have been our ward’s Young Women’s basketball coach. It was tough at first. Most of the girls had never played basketball before and struggled with the basics….dribbling, hitting the backboard when shooting, not walking with the ball in your hand etc…. But the girls were so happy and dedicated. They came to all of our practices and loved it. We only have one elementary school gym in Roxborough and having access to it is rare. I started sneaking into an empty slot on Tuesday’s at 7:30 p.m. and claimed it as our time. One of the 11 year old boys in our primary is one a YMCA basketball team and asked if their boys team could practice with our. It turned out to be great. Every Tuesday night a bunch of LDS Young Women with several of their friends scrimmaged against a boys 11-12 year old team. They boys beat us every time, but we started mixing the team and the boys helped the girls learn how to pass and how to defend tough players. Because of their help our girls improved Soooooooooo much. It was amazing how good they are now. The Stake sport leaders came and hugged me after our last game. They have secretly been rooting for our little team, and commented on how good they are now.

Yesterday we had a end of season Basketball party at Cori Holloway’s house (the Young Women’s president). All of the girls and boys came. It was out of control. I forgot how different boys and girls are at that age. The girls were so nice but a little “goosey”. (My mother said I was goosey when I flirted too much) and the boys kept talking about poop.

Oh well, it was an excellent missionary experience and I enjoyed it. (Eric) I had a good time as well, but it made me feel old. I remember going to parties at that age, but this was the first time I was the “adult.”

3-06-06

Today was another beautiful day. IBM is located at the north end of Boulder. The west end of the campus is butted against the mountains, and everything to the east is farm land. I took advantage of the location and the great weather to go for a walk.

I passed horses that were fuzzy with their winter coats and enjoyed views of the mountains. When I returned to work I felt refreshed, and decided that I’m going to bring my bike tomorrow and go for a ride.

Last night we went over to Joe and Wendy’s for an evening of fun and excitement. I creamed Joe at both ping pong and darts (the previous sentence is an example of rewriting history. The power is with the writer. The truth is that Joe creamed me at both, but future generations will only see my writing and laud me as an exceptional sports man while feeling pity for Joe’s pitiful performance : ) After ping pong Joe burned some movies for us and Ely and I played retro video games. This was followed by lemon squares and a card game called Nerts, which I dominated yet again (see previous comment in parentheses). After Nerts the kids went to bed and we talked a little while longer. I found out that Wendy had been doing some genealogy recently. The past couple of weeks I have felt a strong desire to learn about our ancestors, and it was good to hear that someone else was feeling the same way. She’s going to show me how to use the church history web site, and both of us are going to ask our parents for any kind of stories / information they have. I was actually so excited that it was hard going to sleep. I never thought I would get riled up about genealogy.

Last week I talked to my nephew Kyle. He is attending Snow Collage in Ephraim Utah. He recently purchased some climbing gear ( I’m so proud of him ), and we discussed plans to rendezvous in Southern Utah for some outdoor adventures. I hope we can make it happen.

The summer after my mission Kyle and I did some backpacking on Heintzleman ridge in Juneau, and I realized that even though he was only 14 (I think) at the time, I enjoyed his company immensely, and I look forward to playing with him before he goes on his mission. He mentioned that he was going to try and go to Zion’s National Park during spring break, so I’m adding some pictures of a previous trip. These were taken on the “Angles Landing” trail. It’s very popular with lost of people, but still one of the best hikes I’ve ever been on. The second picture is of the actual trail. It goes on top of the fin. I thought I had a better one, but I can't find it.