Lunch Ride

I feel lucky to live where I live.  I love riding bikes.  My work allows me to do lunch rides and I take full advantage of this exercise time.  Living in the Sevier Valley, I never have to worry about traffic.  Here are a couple of pictures I took while riding today.  I rode 22.43 miles today (that is 36.1 km for those Fosters that live in a different country like England and Texas :) )

 

Grandparents Visit

Want to thank my Mom and Dad for coming out this weekend to visit with us.  We had a great time, eating good food (by an outstanding cook), good conversation, and excellent game of Settler's of Catan!  That is because I won.  My kids really enjoyed their Grandparents.  

Where's the Gold?

 

We were given this beautiful rainbow last night after a rain shower. 

South Carlsbad State Beach 2012

My family ventured down to Carlsbad, CA for a week at the beach.  This is the third year in a row for us.  This year my bro-in-law Jeff and I secured 3 camping sites, which is extremely difficult.  With three sites we were able to invite a ton of people as noted in the previous post.   We had a ball.  The weather was absolutely perfect.  It was the best weather we have had in 3 years.  The sky was blue and not overcast and the usually chilly water felt magnificent.  We had a blast body boarding, sun tanning and running around in our speedos.  Ok, just Jeff, Albert and myself ran around in our speedos, apologies to anyone that saw.  Sorry I have no pics of that.  Well I plan to add photos as I get more photos.  These first pictures are from my iphone.  Hope you enjoy.  We sure did.

Thornock kids all ready for the 600 mile trip to the beach!

Our little Bell Hop!

Julie teaching Chloe how to body board.

My nephew Tyler.

Julie enjoying the water.

Chris' first trip to the beach.  Not sure he liked it or not, since the kid knows how to sleep.  He must have Foster genes.

Dinner at B.J.s Brewery.  Best pizza crust I have tasted.

Cannon and Brace (our neighbor) catching a wave.

Beautiful sunset at the beach.

A look down from our campsite.

Cousin Beach Sleeping Party!! Nova, Cooper and Chris enjoying the shade of the canopy.  What cuties!!!!

Sand turtle.

Chloe and her cousin Alexa as the two headed mermaid.

 

Jenna and Nova drying out after a wade in the ocean.

More Beach photos to come....I hope.

Excited!

Packing up for our week trip to South Carlsbad State Beach tomorrow with Jeff, Jenna, Nova, Albert, Alisha, Cooper, Jen, Micah, Chris, Joe, Jayson, Gayle, John, Ken, Steff, Tyler, Cody, Mason, Alexa, and my neighbors the Brindleys (Stir, Tiff, Gaige, Brookell, and Brace). Gonna be so much fun!

A Beautiful Sight

Last night, my family was invited to eat at our neighbors house, the Brindleys.  It was delicious food and great company.  As we sat out on their porch talking and laughing, we were given a beautiful sunset.  I don't think my iphone did it justice.  It was so striking, breath-taking.

Monroe's 24th Celebration

I absolutely love living in Monroe, Utah.  The city does a great job with its celebration of Pioneer Day.  The celebration kicked off on Saturday, July 21st with a 3 on 3 basketball tourney.  Brooke and Brin participated this year.  They did a great job and had a lot of fun.

Brooke going up for the rebound.

 

Brin playing some defense.

The next event was the Children's Parade held on July 23rd.  Chloe was the only one that wanted to be in the parade.  She dressed like an Indian girl and rode her scooter or as she calls it "her 'tooter".

The Thornock girls with our neighbor's girls waiting for the parade.

The funny thing about this picture is that Chloe was suppose to be back in the back with all the bikes and scooters, but somehow she wiggled herself to the front of the parade.  That's my girl.

After the parade, there was a community BBQ.  But I was so hungry that I didn't even take a photo of that event. My mind was solely on the food.  It was so good. 

The next morning, there is always a 5 mile run, 5k, or 1 mile run.  I have never participated, but I woke up at 5 am that morning to go place our chairs on main street for the parade and I couldn't go back to sleep.  So as I laid in bed not being able to sleep, I made up my mind to go run the 5k. I am in great biking shape, but haven't ran since January.  

What do you know? I came in 19th overall and 3rd in my age group.  Not too bad for not running.  I biked 107 miles on Saturday and didn't feel sore at all.  I ran this 5k, and I can still barely walk as of today.  I won a prize for coming in 3rd in my age bracket.....$2.   Love it.

My bro-in-law Jeff was pulled by his daughter Nova in the 1 mile stroller division.  She came in 1st!!!

Nova was all tuckered out after the big race and huge victory.

Wait what is behind that blanket?  Nova fell asleep grasping her Gold Medal.  How freaking cute is that?

Jenna ran the 5 mile race.  Again this is after she rode 107 miles with me on Sat.  She ended up winning her age group and coming in 2nd Overall of all the women.  Pretty amazing!

They had a raffle and I won this M&M hat.

Then we were off to the 24th Parade.

My girls with the neighbors.  They all wearing these cute cute headbands made by my talented wife!

Before the parade started, Chloe was dancing away to the music.

Our seats for the parade.

Carson got to ride in the parade with the rest of the South Sevier Baseball All-Stars.  He had a ball....(Get it?)

That afternoon, Chloe and I went swimming in our swimming pool.  Here we are laying out getting dry.

 That night we headed up to the Middle School Football Field for Fireworks.  We went up around 8 pm to socialize and listen to the live band.  They have a big raffle.  Julie ended up winning two tickets to the movie theater.  Her brother Jeff won a Mary Kay beauty kit. Haha.  The fireworks were great.  It was a great celebration.

Desperado Dual 107 Mile Bike Ride

Jenna and I after the race.

On Saturday, July 21, Jenna and I road the 107 mile bike race starting in Panguitch, Utah.  Jeff, Jenna and Nova will be moving to San Antonio, TX in 3 weeks, so Jenna and I decided to ride one last century together before that happened.   It was a perfect day for a ride.  It was cooler than normal and overcast. In fact during the last 8 miles it rained on us hard, but boy did it feel good.  Jenna had rode this ride before.  She set a goal to do the race in 6 hours.  That is 37 minutes faster than she did two years ago.  Jenna went out like lightening.  She was in great riding shape.  We worked together so well, drafting off of each other when one would get tired and needed a break.  Jenna and I ended up finishing in a total time of 5 hrs and 46 mins.  She ended up knocking almost an hour off her time.  I have rode this ride now 7 times, and my best time has been 5 hrs and 38 mins.   Congratulations Jenna for crushing your goal.