Tour de St. George (Mar 26-28)

My parents, Joe and I had been debating whether or not we wanted to do the Tour de St. George for a couple of months. As it got closer it looked like the weather was going to be good, so we decided to go for it!

Friday afternoon we packed up the van and headed south. The boys loved traveling in our new van! Plus there was plenty of room for all of our stuff.

They were good boys on the way to St. George. We even got Ephraim to take a little nap.

While we were driving around in the van, Buzz Lightyear decided to get out and take a look around. I had a fun time taking funny pictures of Buzz around the van. Jacob thought it was pretty funny too.

Jacob thought it was pretty funny. I even took a little family picture as we drove along the freeway. As you can see, Ephraim is still asleep and Jacob is leaning over so he can be in the picture too.

You can even barely see our bikes hanging out there on the bike rack in the back.

Well, we made it to St. George safely. My parents flew to St. George and we met them at the condo we were renting from Andrea's parents. It was a really beautiful condo and we were excited to get to stay there. After we got settled in we had some dinner and then went and played around in the swimming pool and hot tub. It was tons of fun and the boys loved it!

The next morning we got all ready to go. We dropped the boys off at the babysitters and headed for the starting line. Of course I did not have my camera with me, but my mom snapped this picture with her camera phone.

It was crazy how many people there were at the start. It was quite the experience to ride through St. George with that many cyclists before heading out of town. It was nice and sunny the day of our ride, and the first part of the ride was pretty nice. But after the first rest stop we were facing winds of over 20 mph, which that makes it awfully hard to ride. There were portions of the ride where I was going downhill and should have been going around 25 mph or more. Instead I was going 15 mph and I was pedaling to maintain that!

There were wind gusts so bad that I actually saw a Mike Brown get blown over right in front of me. There was one point in the ride where the wind had blown sand onto the road and it was 1 to 2 inches deep at the shallow parts. It was crazy! There was red sand blowing everywhere.

Can you believe that despite the wind, I still had a pretty good ride? The scenery was absolutely gorgeous, the cyclists were friendly and I managed to complete 70 miles. I was pretty proud of myself because I saw several cyclists giving up and heading back to town. My parents even managed to finish 18 miles! Way to go Mom and Dad!

After I finished my ride I waited for Joe to finish. Jacob and I were checking out the fun guitar sculpture they had by the tabernacle.

Ephraim and Jacob had a really great time at the babysitters house and didn't really even seem like they wanted to leave when Grandpa and Grandma went to get them. I was pretty relieved because that was the part that stressed me out the most. So if you ever need a babysitter in St. George, I can recommend one to you.

So my parents and I did pretty well, but Joe is the one that is completely awesome. He did 107 miles on a pretty hilly course. Not to mention all that wind! Isn't he awesome?

We were all pretty tired by the time we finished. Here is a picture that my parents took of our little family after Joe got back.

Here is Joe getting a bite to eat and resting a bit after his ride. Don't you just love his helmet hair?

That evening we mostly just relaxed and spent a little time in the hot tub before going to bed. The next morning we had to say goodbye to Grandpa and Grandma. We took them to the airport, where Jacob and Ephraim got to sit in Grandpa's airplane. They thought that was pretty cool.

They loved pretending that they were flying the plane. They both grabbed the yoke without hesitation and had a great time.

I think Ephraim was ready to push all the right buttons and get this plane moving!

Jacob cried as Grandpa and Grandma flew away. We were sad to say goodbye, but assured him that we will see them again soon! Maybe next time they will even get to take a ride in Grandpa's airplane.

Our ride home was pretty uneventful, which is a good thing. It was pretty pleasant at home, but not as warm as it was in St. George... the home of all those pretty red rocks.

We had a nice time and were glad we went. I think we would like to do it again sometime, and hopefully the next time it won't be quite as windy!

p.s. So here is a little photoshop work I did on that picture of Joe from above. Pretty cool, huh?