At the Cape

Our house on the cape. It was actually two houses put together to make one big house that could fit the whole family. The owner told us that there are cannon ball holes in the attic from the Revolutionary war.


The kids can't get enough of the Nintendo DS



One sunny day was spent at Mayflower Beach, one of the outside beaches. An outside beach means that the water is a lot colder, but the sand is better. Hmmmm...take your pick. Wherever you go the water is plenty salty.


Ruby was the best lookin' babe on the beach with her cute sunhats and tweeny-weeny-polka-dot-bikini (not seen here).

So here is what the beach looked like when we got there in the morning...

...and then a really fat guy did a cannonball and emptied all of the water out of the bay so it looked like this. Actually this is what it looks like when the tide goes out. It doesn't even look like the same beach.

I tried to get a before and after picture of Chris' tan line but the reflection from the white part was so bright that you can't see the biker-tan very well. The after picture was never taken, but lets just say Chris went from tan and white to tan and pink.



We took a rainy day retreat to Martha's Vineyard since we couldn't go to the beach and the Bell family spent all of their years on Nantucket and most hadn't ventured to the Vineyard. Everyone voted hands down that Nantucket has more to offer. Despite the vote, we had fun seeing part of the island (mostly from the bus - as seen below).




We ate at a popular restaurant called The Black Dog and visited all of the four souvenier shops found in that area of Martha's. Although it is called The Black Dog, Paulie and Stoughton bought brown dogs. The girls were true to the name and got black puppies that they carried around tucked in their coats to keep them from getting wet.




We were able to catch a beautiful beach sunset one of the first nights there.


Still active, Lala (Grandma Bell) is tearing it up on Isabelle's bike.

NH (the motherland)

A couple of days ago we returned from a tour of sorts through my old stomping grounds. We arrived in Manchester (pronounced "Manchestah"), NH, and visited my brother Jim and his family the first day. We then traveled out to Greenland, NH, near Portsmouth on the coast, to visit my little sister and her husband Ryan and their new daughter Ruby. Here's Molly and Ryan on the beach:


Here's Ryan and cute little Ruby:


While in NH I dragged Paige to what I consider is my hometown, Hancock, NH. We moved there from Massachusetts when I was about 4, and lived there for 7 or 8 years. It's a great old farmhouse, built originally in the 1700's. It's a tiny town, and my dad likes to boast that when we moved there, we increased the enrollment in the town's elementary school by 10% (there are 6 kids in my family).

Here's a picture of where I went to elementary school:

And yes, it's now the town hall.

Here's a pic of the local pond where we would take swimming lessons:


And here's the house:


Here's a picture of the barn where my mom would send us to play on rainy days:


And for those who are aware, EMS (Eastern Mountain Sports--yes, there are mountains out east) is an outdoor recreation store much like REI that is now nationwide. Well, fewer may know that it was started in NH in a town next to Hancock. We started going there when I was little and as it grew and expanded I have been amazed to see it in cities such as Boston, Philadelphia, and even Fort Collins, Colorado. Here's a pic of the original store:

Check it out at www.ems.com

We were only able to spend 2 days in NH before we moved on to Cape Cod where my family gathered for a reunion. But this has already been a long post so we'll save that for later. We had a great time, it was neat for me to go back and see the town and the house and relive those years, and I think Paige enjoyed seeing where I spent my formative years.

Death Ride 2009

yesterday we managed to survive another Death Ride, one of the more masochistic rides out there. it's out in california, south of lake tahoe. the scenery is stunning, especially when you're hallucinating from the exertion....

it was paige and i, mike scheuller (2nd from the right in the picture below), and mike's brother-in-law josh (far right). this was paige's 3rd, mike's and my second, and josh's first. this is the gang before we started:


it was an early morning start, and mike was trying to catch some last-minute z's:


...still sleeping....


below is the course map and elevation profile:




paige was very proud of her (mostly) white get-up, including white bike, white handle bar tape, white seat, and white shoes. here she is in all her celestial glory arriving at the top of carson pass:


here we are posing in front of the poster that all the "5 pass finishers" get to sign at the top of carson pass:


we survived!


here's the whole gang at the bottom of carson pass:


scheuller of course was the strongest of the day, no one was able to hang with him all the way to the top of any of the passes. paige was incredible, not far behind us the whole way and we were able to eat lunch together and start the last climb together as well. it was a lot of fun (despite the suffering--which i think you selectively forget because of the lack of oxygen), and we were glad to have friends there to share it with us.

Independence Day at 'The Lake'

It just wouldn't be a summer holiday if it wasn't spent with the Sonntag clan up at beautiful Bear Lake. We were surrounded by great people, mounds of yummy food, and enough cotton floating through the air that you would think it was snowing. At least neither of us have cotton allergies. Typical for Bear Lake, the water was a little chilly and it made sure to rain at least a little bit. We did some tie-dying with the entire family that made our hands turn out as colorful as our shirts. On Sunday we went to Bloomington Lake and played on the glacier. It was strange walking on snow in July. The guys were super crazy sliding from a high point on the glacier into the water. I think my brother Richard got the speed record. It was great to see the younger kids be a little daring and take their turn.

Boise Half Iron(wo)man

(so this is chris. as the dutiful husband proud of his amazing wife, i feel i need to clarify some things because paige is too modest at times. first of all, she signed up for this 2 months before the race. 2 months people. and the last week was all taper, so really only 7 weeks. sure she had been running a little on the treadmill and riding on the trainer, but 2 months is not very long. second of all, before she signed up, she had run a half-marathon only once, 12 months before (and got 1:48). she managed to squeeze one more in at the ogden half-marathon (1:47) a month before the race. then in the race she ran it in 1:49, and this is after swimming 1.2 miles in near-whitecap conditions and biking 56 hilly miles in some pretty nasty rain and wind. also, since the majority of the racers had tri-bikes/aerobars and tri-helmets, the fact that paige had a bike time near the top in her age category on a road bike without aero bars is incredible as well. anyway, after all this, paige got 7th in her age group out of 47. not bad for your first half-ironman and only 2 months to prepare.)


Well, here we go with another race. This one is the biggest triathlons I have done yet and after all of my suffering, I believe, it deserves some posting. Chris and I travelled to lovely Boise, Idaho, for the Boise Half Ironman. I had been training for the half for a while and was glad to finally get the event over with. I was filled with that nervous anticipation where you're not sure if you're excited or if you just need to puke. We went out a couple of days early to check in and survey the course - which gave me just that much more time to stew about the upcoming race.

But finally, the day came...





I was in the purple group, as denoted by my purple swim cap. It included all of the women ages 18 to 34.



The water temperature, they claimed, was 64 degrees, but felt more like I was swimming in glacier run off. Chris was just taking random pictures, but we actually found me in the picture. I'm in the right lower corner with my head and left arm out of the water. I wanted to make sure that I didn't get kicked in the face right when the swim started.



After swallowing a portion of the reservoir while making it through the swim and taking my time in the transition area I took off on the bike. There was a little bit of a tail wind to start out with, which turned into a side wind, which turned into a torrrential downpour. I didn't know Boise had a monsoon season. The last part of the bike was tough as it was a strong headwind with lots of rain. Notice I don't even have aerobars on my bike - a tri bike is next on my list of wants.



Coming into the second transition area I couldn't believe I actually had to run a half marathon. I made sure to change my socks and then tried to get my legs to go from biking mode to running mode. My legs felt like I was trying to run with my feet on backwards. Chris gave me some good advice for the race that came in especially handy on the run. He told me to treat everyone in front of me like carrots (like when you hang a carrot in front of a horse to get it to walk) and to just catch the person in front of me. This gave me the motivation to make it through the two laps of the run and feel better than I expected.



The last mile was painful, though. I was about ready to regurgitate all of the packets of GU I had swallowed, especially if I had to force another one down, and there were no carrots close enough to catch. I think my body started to give up before I was through. I came to the finish thrilled to be done and to have completed my first half ironman. They wrapped all the finishers in those silver space blankets you have in your emergency kits (they really do keep you warm) give you a bottle of water, a finishers medal and a half ironman hat, take your picture and then send you on your way to a recovery area filled with pizza, bagels, gatorade (barf if I had to drink another ounce) and water. A little disoriented it took me a while to realize I was cold, wet and tired and I couldn't wait to take a hot shower back at the hotel room.



What is an event without recognizing the immense support behind my accomplishments. Chris is the BEST race manager and husband. When it comes to telling me I've had enough peanut M&M's, he's the guy. In all of my anxieties he was there rubbing my legs and back telling me how great I was going to do and he made sure he was right there when I needed him. I think he got just as worn out standing in the rain and making sure he was at the transitions cheering me on. The picture is a little fuzzy and my lips are purple, but I could't leave it out.

Riding as a Rooster

Our first mountain bike race, the Cholla Challenge in Hurricane, was also our first race as part of the Roosters team. We were able to sport our Roosters gear and do our best to make the team look good. I'm not much of a mountain biker so I was pretty nervous just thinking about the race. We watched the kids race and some of the other groups go before I started. I was in the Beginner Women's group. Those beginner chicks were tough. I got my butt kicked by a 45 year old woman and rolled in second. I realized that women who have given birth have some extra power that childless women don't have.



I was especially excited to see Chris let loose and tear up the competition. He raced the Men's Sport 35-39 category. Sport is the next step up from beginner so Chris had to do two laps where I did only one. Half way through the first lap Chris got a flat which took some time to fix and as all of the other racers rolled through the start/finish to start their second lap Chris had to pump up his tire. He made up some ground on the second lap but only enough to finish at the end of the pack.






A post race picture of Chris and Parker. It was also Parker's first mountain bike race and he did great. In the end Roosters was well represented and we all had a lot of fun. Even though at some points I felt like my heart as going to jump out of my chest which made me realize that I'm not in as good as I should have been. I guess that going mountain biking once prior to the race doesn't amount to much.



We ran into Josh, Stacey and Sadie Carter. It was fun to hang with Stacey while the guys raced. Josh held strong and finished 3rd in the the Expert 25-29 group. That is some tough competition.




The next day we took a leisurely ride through St. George before heading home. Snow Canyon is always beautiful.

Kiss it goodbye

Chris and I want to officially say adios to the skiing season. Apparently the snow wants to stick around a little bit longer, but we are more than ready to get the bikes out for good and hang up the two-planks. We took some photos of our last day of skiing together at Snowbasin.