Wow...It's been quite awhile.

Well, it's been a long time since we've posted, and a lot has happened. Emily has left Kimberly-Clark in May and passed her massage therapy national test on Wednesday and will be getting her license in the next couple of weeks. I started a new job at Fresenius Medical Care in May. We've taken trips to Moab, Zion, Michigan, the High Uintas, and the Wind River mountain range. We've raced in a marathon relay, Winter XTERRA, bike races, and the XTERRA off road triathlon. We even sold the Evo and bought a Miata. It's been fun and we'll try to cover it all.

The week after our previous post I raced in the first ever Winter XTERRA World Championships at Snowbasin resort. XTERRA always seems to put on a great event and this was no exception. The race started with a 10K mountain bike on cross country ski trails, then went on to a 5K run, a 5K snowshoe, and a 10 K ski mountaineering leg. I ended up 3rd out of 4 in my age group. I had a lot of fun and the race was very rewarding. Here we are after the finish.

We had been looking for a low milage, cheap, and reliable car for awhile to save some money on Emily's commute. If it's fun it would be an added bonus. Yeah right what are the chances of that! Well we lucked out when Dad Pontius located a mint 1990 Mazda Miata just 3 miles from their house in Pheonix. We had already been planning a trip down in early April, so we bought the car and picked it up while we were down there. No good pictures of the car yet...sorry.

While we were down there, I raced in a NMBS marathon bike race (43 miles) and finished 3rd of 4 in my age group. The course was a very fun desert course with lots of sweeping turns and dips. It was a really, really hard race though and I was cooked by the end.

In late April, we took a trip down to Zion with our friend Jen from K-C. We camped just north of St. George as all of the campgrounds in Zion were full. It worked out very well and there was some great exploring just outside of the campground.

The next day we wetn into Zion and hiked Angels landing and also headed up toward the narrows, here's a pic of Angel's Landing.

The next day we were lucky enought to hook up with Jason Dionnes brother, Ryan, who just happened to have 3 extra backcounrty permits. We hiked back in to Keyhole falls, it was simply amazing.

Soon after I got my job offer at Fresenius. I decided to take a week off between jobs, Chad had just finished his Spring term of school, and Jim had some vacation days built up. So off the three of us went to Moab, UT and Fruita, CO. It was an awesome trip with lots of riding we rode Procupine Rim, Slickrock, the Fruita loops, and some trails just outside of Grand Junction.

After arriving home, I earned my first Podium finish in an expert class mountain bike race...yeah!

After this the Carlson's came out to visit. Dad was here for just over a week and Mom was out for 4 days at the start of the week. It was awesome to see them again and we got a ton of help around the house. Dad taught us some basics about painting and even helped paint Emily's new commuter bike! It's beautiful.

Em's since built it up with moslty new parts and she even put cork bar tape on the moustache handlebars and finished it with hemp string wrap on the ends. We don't have any pictures of it assembled yet, but we'll put some up soon.

The bike race in St. George, UT

First thing you will notice here is that it says bike race, but I did a bad job of getting good pics. Hopefully we will get some from friends who were down there to watch, and one of them happens to be a professional photographer.

With Brent's bike race in St. George we decided to make a small camping trip of it, and even ended up staying an extra day to enjoy the campground and surrounding area. Brent did some research at the beginning of the week, and we ended up at Snow Canyon State Park, just outside of St. George, it was amazing down there...so was the weather, in the 70s.

As for Brent's race, it went well. He was in great form, especially on the first lap. He ended up getting 2 flat tires though during the race. The first was pretty much at the start/finish line, which he was able to fix, and then headed back out. Next lap he crashed, I didn't see it, but there are cuts and scrapes. He said he didn't loose much time there though, back on his bike pretty quick, with the guy behind him (whom he had just passed before the crash, then quickly passed again after the crash) told him that "He was spectacular!" Then on his 3rd lap, on the final downhill, he got his final flat, but with a 1/2 mile to the finish, like a sport, he ran his bike to the end! Next time he is going to make better tire choices, and hopefully this problem will be gone.

Once the race was over, we headed back to camp. Our site on Saturday was great, tucked away in the back corner of the campground we were able to break some rules...leave the dogs off leash, and go play on some of the rocks, which we didn't understand why we shouldn't climb them, but decided to anyway. We also found some dried cedar and other twigs to burn. The skies were filled with lots of stars, the dogs were mellow, and the fire burned until bedtime. A relaxing evening. The dogs sleep well in the tent, only thing is since they are spoiled in our house, they get pretty cold in the evenings, so we need to try to keep them covered or cuddled up next to us at night, can make for some interesting evenings.

This morning we actually woke up and the temp had dropped considerably, and it was very windy. We made our oatmeal, peanut butter, honey, and banana breakfast, and then were off to extremely breaking the rules of the campground. We had this beautiful site, and some very clear ways to get to the top of the rocks behind us, that we begging us to climb up them and see what was on the other side. It was a great view, totally worth it, and the dogs were plenty tired from rock climbing.

Now that we are home, the dogs have been out for the past 3 hours, and that doesn't include the 4 hours that they slept in the car. We will have to get back there to visit soon!

Here are some pics from the trip!

Friday night we were to lazy to set up the tent, so stayed in the truck.

Mindy didn't want to give up Brent's pillow.

Kona is ready to go to sleep.

Tied up at our first camp site Sat. morning Before the race, Mindy and Kona ready to watch!

The campsite and behind the campsite

The way up, kinda hidden from sight, in most places, especially when you don't wear colors that blend into red rock, such as blue.

The view from the top, totally worth it.

The dogs at the top Pretty picture.

Could be a Rolling Stones album cover...

Tired dogs tonight! Notice Mindy's tongue is sticking out. She's been like that all night!

This one's been a long time coming

Okay I am going to do 2 posts in one day...

First off, because I have a chance to sit down and spend some time at the computer.
Second off, because they are 2 different topics, and look goofy posted together.

We have some good ones from when we had all of our snow, some monster icicles that Kona had taken a liking too, and a pic of us in a down pour of snow skiing at Alta last weekend with friends.

Enjoy the pics.

The start of the big melt.

Kona on her icicle throne.

Funny thing here is that the lift behind us was shut down

because of lightning and thunder, but we were waiting for our

3 other friends who were on the lift...who needs shelter, when

there are plenty of pine trees and ski poles around.

Mindy enjoying the weather.

Okay, so I do realize it has been over a month since I have posted something, and hopefully by doing this update it will keep Katie happy for at least a week or so. We have been quite busy.

Let's see, for me it has been school and work, and a little bit training and knitting in between. For Brent, well it has been training for his upcoming mountain bike season and keeping the dogs entertained. Brent signed up for a 6 week training program at Weber State University. Right before he started going he went in and had his VO2 max testing, which he was quite excited about, and his results were awesome. I think the guy in the lab said "He's a monster." Apparently, Brent had the highest VO2 max that this lab has done, and came in at 72.8 (Lance Armstrong is way off the charts at 81.) So he was quite happy. Myself on the other hand, have just been squeezing any training in that I can and when I feel up to it. I am taking 11 credits this term, and that's one short of being full time. I decided to take clinic this term, so that means every Thursday afternoon I work at the clinic in school for 3 hours. It is fun that there are all different people that come in. I have also been working on Saturdays with our friend Nate, who is our massage therapist, up at Weber State Univ. He has been putting on a clinic for the student athletes up there, and it gives me a good chance to learn more sports specific protocols, the stuff that I'm really interested. All in all an awesome time and oppurtunity for me.

So on top of all of the busy-ness, Utah has been getting pounded with snow. I have attached some pics of the fun we have been having. The first group is snowshoeing with the dogs the night before we went back to IL for Christmas. There was so much snow that the dogs are pretty much swimming through it. The next pics are of our New Year's Eve. We went snowshoeing up above North Ogden with friends, and watched the fireworks from above. It was so great! The final group of pics are from our latest dumping, 2 feet of snow in our yard in one day! So great. We are lucky to have very nice neighbors who have a snow blower, and make their way over to our driveway. Well I think that's all I have for now. I try to keep updating this more often.

The Drive up to Snowbasin


They decided to try to make it up this little hill,
and around the tree. It only took like 5 minutes,
but Mindy was not about to give up, and Kona followed.


Kona going off piste!



New Year's Eve above North Ogden


North Ogden to Salt Lake on the Eve


The whole group and of course some champagne!



Backyard after the storm!

Backyard after the storm!

Can you imagine if we would have needed to shovel?
Look at the height of the snow compared to the
4runner!



First Tracks! And 1st Dump!