Tour de Wyoming

Friday morning I took my first road trip alone with the boys. We headed up to Star Valley, Wyoming. My mom recently had double knee replacement surgery and she needed a little help while she recovered. So we left Joe at home, and the boys and I hit the road.

The drive took about 4 hours, and the boys did surprisingly well. Especially since I couldn't pay that much attention to them. One of my friends loaned me a DVD player, which Jacob absolutely loved. I loved it too because at least it kept one of my boys occupied (ie. not whining). Ephraim was a bit more bored and impatient with the whole trip, but what can you expect from a one year old?

We made it there and Jeanette helped me get everything unpacked. Then the Kirkham's left and I took over. Mom had various pills to take, a couple of shots each day, and tons of time to spend in this machine that stretched out her knees. None of it was very fun for her, but Mom got a little better each day we were there.

The boys loved hanging out with Grandpa and Grandma. Here is a photo of Ephraim playing around.


I kept pretty busy. I cooked meals, vacuumed, cleaned, did laundry, and tried to keep my boys out of trouble. Mom was doing amazingly well, and I am really proud of her. I also hope I never need to have my knees replaced because it is no fun at all!

I left Joe at home, but I brought my bike to Wyoming with me. After the boys went to bed in the evenings and Dad was home, I got to go on some bike rides.

One of my goals was to ride from my parents house up to the top of what the locals call "South End". It is the mountain pass you have to go over to get out of Star Valley traveling south.

I wasn't sure if I could do it because it is pretty steep.

Yep... you read that sign right. I went up about a 7 percent grade for three miles! No idea how steep 7 percent grade really is? It looks something like this:

My neat-o GPS said that I did about 929 feet of climbing in the 9 miles or so from my parents house. It took me a little over 50 minutes to get to the top... but the view up there was lovely.

It was actually getting pretty dark by the time I got to the top. I took the boys for a short ride the next day to take these photos. Jacob thought it was fun to get out of the car and look around. We also got to take a little outdoor potty break because as you can see from this picture, Jacob needed to go.


Luckily it only took me about 22 minutes to get back to my parents house the evening I rode up south end because it was all downhill and I was going fast! Like over 35 miles per hour fast!

Some people don't think cycling is a very exciting sport, but as Joe would say "Let's throw you out of your car at over 25 miles per hour in your underwear and see how boring you think that is!