New Job
This is probably the main reason I have not been writing. As most of you know I am a loan officer, and without much explanation all of you know how the year and the market has been. Last weekend my husband and I decided it is probably time to look for employment that is more stable. This was a hard thing to do as I love my job and the company I work for. On Monday I applied for a job. On Tuesday I had an interview--little concerned because I did not get the chance to research the company for the job interview. On Wednesday morning I dropped off a thank you note for the interview. Wednesday afternoon I received a call asking me to come in for a second interview on Friday. Thursday evening was spent researching company and any thing else that may help me to do well at the interview. Friday interview in the morning. Friday night at 7:45 pm I GOT THE JOB!!! I only have to take a written test and past the drug test and should start in the next week or so. Good news for the more stable employment.
AF Canyon
Went and did the loop Thursday night. No need to talk about the trail you have read about it before. The funny thing or kind of funny thing that happened was Steve broke his chain. While he was fixing it the link flipped off in to the grass and leaves. Kerry and I were looking for it and Kerry found a link. Guess what it was not the link that had dropped it was one someone else had lost taken off their chain when it was broke. What are the chances of stopping in the exact same spot someone lost their chain, losing our link and finding theirs. We did eventually find our link. How weird is that losing a link, finding someone elses link and then finding ours.
Lambert Park - Girls Ride
Friday I went with Jen and Jolene for a ride at Lamberts Park. Jen has only ridden rodeo down and rodeo up, so it was fun to take her on a few of the other trails. We rode river, poppy, ziggy, high bench, lamberts luge, ruin, rodeo up (2x's), rodeo down (2x's) and middle spring. During our ride we saw a totally cool, awful crash. We had arrived at the top of ruin and was deciding where we wanted to stop to get pictures of us jumping. As we were talking a guy rode by and took the first jump, landed and did a full front flip bike and all. We were a bit stunned, but he jumped up almost immediately which was surprising considering the crash, dropped one swear word (pretty impressive considering the severity of the crash), and then looked around for his bike. We went down to help and found out when he had landed on his front tire it exploded. He was really lucky it could have been a lot worse. We helped with supplies so he could fix his tire and then he was on his way. I know it is awful to say, but that was a really cool crash.
Deer near the brush by Rodeo Down.
Jen, Kendra and Jolene on the Ruin trail.
Taking the jumps going down Ruin.
BlackHawk - Bikepeddler group rideSaturday I went for group ride with a bunch of guys--bike peddler sponsored the ride. It was a fun ride. We started at the blackhawk trail and went all the way down to bennie's creek. On the ride I had 2 small crashes. The first one was the dumb crash. I was riding a long a flat trail when my tire hit the side of the trail and I kind of fell right off my bike into the meadow. I had to laugh, because there was no reason to fall off my bike that way. The second I couldn't figure out why I crashed. I went down up small slope, and then a quick up that banked left at the same time. I started to endo but twisted to the side instead and went off the bike. No damage done, but once again I could not figure out what caused the tumble.
Now for the trail, it was okay, but the first part of the trail did not flow very well. We would get riding and then all of the sudden you would go up hill, or you would have a sharp turn that interrupted the speed and flow of the downhill. Eventually though (about 5.5 miles into the trail) the trail started to flow and it became an absolute blast. There was twisting, turning, ups and downs, plenty of little jumps and just a lot of fun. By the end I couldn't stop smiling. It's definitely a ride I hope to do again.
Gareth pounding out the pedals.
Jake putting it in gear. He's thinking about joing UMB race team. I told him how great everyone is, but I guess he will need to come out and find out for himself.
Steve riding with his trusty bear bell...it works.
Josh putting the flex on his bike. 
Sam and James working their way on the trail.
