Wonderful Birthday Weekend

I was given a great birthday present this year by my in-laws. Jesse and I got a nights stay at the Cliff Lodge & Spa up a Snowbird with a 50 min massage, breakfast and the apline slide. Jesse and I's parents also came along so we had a great time. The bed was fabulous, the dinner was delicious and the massage was a dream!!! Luckily we were able to extend our massage from 50 min. to 80 min massages. It was also the first weekend of Oktoberfest up at Snowbird so we spent the day playing and eating yummy German food. I love Bratwurst and sauerkraut so I was in heaven. I think I want a nights stay at a nice hotel and massage every year!!

Triathlon ....Check!!!

The Triathlon has come and gone and boy was it an adventure!!! I was fairly relaxed about the whole thing when it came down to it which was nice. I found while chatting with others that it was a lot of people's first time doing a triathlon as well, 235 people out of the 800 to be exact. As for training I really didn't do too much just some work on my swimming, a few biking (once on a stationary bike, once on a mountain bike around a golf course and then finally yes on the back of a tandem)go rounds and a lot of running!! You would think with my fear of biking and lack of swimming endurance I would've been training more but hey why be soo stringent and have no life, been there done that!!!

First fun incident was going and trying on the wetsuit that I was renting. The helpful guy told me in detail how to properly pull it on and how to lick the pads of my fingers so as not to tear the material, etc, etc, but he failed to mention that the zipper goes in the back. so I sucked myself into the wet suit and came out with it on backwards and provided everyone in the store a little chuckle!! Then I had to unsuck myself and turn it around and reface the waiting audience!! Luckily it fit and I was done with that cool event!!

A few days before the race my friend Biz graciously lent me her road bike and shoes w/ clips which I had visions of tipping over stuck onto the bikes pedals and being run over!! Breckan luckily is a pro and gave me a quick lesson on clipping in and out and how to shift and such on the bike the day before and after a few rounds I felt as good as I was going to be.

Race day I had my bag packed, car loaded and was off up the canyon to Jordanelle. The same day there were two big bike races biking in the same area as we were Tour of Utah and 1,000 Warriors bike ride so as we passed the groups of "real" cyclists I took in their form and technique to memory to try out on my bike portion. Luckily we had to bike into the park so I could practice my new skills and figure out the shifting before I was in the middle of it all.

I was body marked up, my station was all set and my wetsuit was on and zipped up, swim cap on, googles on and timing chip was in place and I was ready to hit that water!!! Swimming was a whole different event once I started the race, I found that I don't like putting my face in the water (breathing issues), I love the back stroke (spent 85% in this stroke the other a mixture of freestyle with my head out of the water and doggy paddling to maneuver around those pesky slow swimmers!!!), Googles and a wet suit are a bit inhibiting and would like to have neither next go around and third I wish I had a nose plug for those moments when I was behind some kicking feet!!
What I Faced Going In

Can't Wait to Get The Wetsuit Off!!


The bike portion was fun becuase everyone is soo friendly and cheery for the most part. I only jumped once when someone passed due to their eager greeting & well wishes and I only thought about careening off the road into a ditch once, I watched people wash the front of their houses, mooed at some cows, talked to some ponies in a trailer, cheered on fellow bikers as I passed or was being passed, had a few conversations with myself and successfully unclipped at the appropriate spot without falling!! Success!!!
Getting Ready to Leave

Glad to be Back


Running was surprisingly weird in that you felt like lead for about 1 mile. I seriously thought I was running an 11 1/2 minute mile, luckily I was going at an 8 1/2 min/mile which encouraged me to keep on moving. My family was on the side lines early on and cheering me on, they even gave me a drink of gatorade, which I discovered was given to them by some random runner who asked them to throw it out for him and they thought ah this would be perfect for Dareth, well they were right!!! Luckily, I had a lovely gentleman to get through the first two miles with that was in is late 60's and was doing the Olympic distance ta-boot who kept me moving until it got easier!!
Just Starting Out

Almost There

All Done with my Fans



When it was all over, I was really glad I went ahead and did it even if I was solo. It was great getting to meet all the cool people, change up the activities and be done before noon!!!

I finished 25th in my division and 238th overall. I completed all three in 1 hour and 49 minutes. Swimming took less time, biking took a bit longer than thought and running was right on!! So all those people that are wavering if they should attempt a triathlon, just do it and you won't regret it!!

The 4-Runner is Gone

Last week we officially sold the 4-runner. It may have taken a few hours for the family to decide to purchase it but they ended up going through with the deal!!! I am soo excited to have one less vehicle to think about and hear all the great "plans" Jesse has for it~!! Now for the scooter and then we will be back to our cars and Jesse's scooter!!!! Oh I can't wait!!!


If you know of anyone that wants to take a look let me know!!

Table Project

I decided to tackle the kitchen table and chairs refinishing project a few weeks back with some guidance from my very generous neighbor. I got my supplies, laid everything out and then tentatively began the large project of sanding the chairs and prepping them for painting.

Luckily I was informed that I didn't need to sand as much as I thought, since I was painting, and using spray paint would be a lot faster!!

So I dived into painting after my sanding ventures and low and behold they came out quite nicely. Actually a little better than I thought.


Although my right hand and arm were very, very sore from spray painting soo long which I didn't think was possible but for two days I was fairly useless with my right appendage. Luckily I had some very helpful neighbors to assist and play around in my garage with me!!





The table top I wanted to restain it a warm cherry color which would prove to be the bain of my existence!!

After stripping the old varnish, sanding away for a few hours Jesse went out and got me rougher sand paper and sanded down that table in less than an hour, making it look brand new!! In my haste to get the project over and done with I opted out of sanding the table with the finer sand paper and convinced Jesse that we could just put the stain on.



That is when all my good luck came to a screeching halt and my table has been stuck in this state of disarray. We applied the stain and it was looking fairly dark which Jesse assured me would lighten up. Yeah...not so much!!! My dreams of an easy and fast refinishing job were squashed when the next day my table looked like it was painted a blah red/brown color instead of a beautiful brown with a hint of red stain. After dragging my leaf into Four Chairs to see if they could help me figure out what to do next it was advised to try paint thinner to pull up some of the stain and then to take varnish remover to try to get it off as well.

After leaving the state and then having family in town the project has remained in its unfinished state in the garage!! Last night I began my feeble attempt to respark my interest in the project but it is not very fast moving thus my interest is lacking to say the least. My mom suggested to just paint it so I would move onto reupholstering the seat cushions so that one day in the near future I would have a kitchen table again. Oh no, that makes me just want to try all my options before throwing in the towel by painting that darn thing!! So hopefully I will be successful tonight and will be restaining and it turning out and me finishing it!! Aaahhhh now that would be nice!

Hicks Reunion

We went from the California Olive Reunion to a Hicks Reunion in Utah. My sister-in-law Jessica and my nephews came over from California to spend the week with us. So in honor of all making my nephews visit the best they have ever had we filled thier week with festivities galore. My dad took them to the Dinosaur museum, we took them to the Scera pool, had a few picnics, went to Lagoon, ate lots of junk food, watched Hook at the Scera outdoor theater and had a joint party for the boys. We were exhausted every night but the boys still had energy every night to wrestle and chase Charlie around the house and on their bed. It was a lot of fun and I miss them and wish they were still here!! Charlie misses them as well!

Olive Reunion 09'

This year we got to go to Folsom, California, for the Olive Reunion. This is one of my favorite locations since it is close to where I grew up and I get to see my friends and family, along with the Olive family!! We got to go white water rafting with water gun wars, sadly I think our boat lost that war. We of course got to eat at lots of fun and yummy restuarants, hit up a Giant's game, biked across the Golden Gate Bridge on a Tandem Bike, visited the Exploratorium, played tons and tons of card games, roasted smoares, played volleyball (yes I am terrible at Volleyball and everyone was nice enough to let me play on their teams without too many complaints), played with Katie & Nicole, assisted in a garage sale and even got to sleep in some!! I would have to say that was a pretty darn good reunion!!! So until next year I will just have to remember all the fun memories we had.