Sesame Seed pasta with a touch of honey, garden salad, salmon and pork chops/w honey jalapeño glaze, peaches topped with feta cheese and drizzled with fresh honey, fresh feta bread with feta crumbles on top! 
Our Journey
Thursday, August 29, 2013
Posted with Blogsy
Groundbreaking!
Groundbreaking ceremony for phase III of the Effingham County Trail system.
Current and future trail segments
Going straight through this field...
Garage ceiling project
Shortly after we moved in, I put my foot/leg through the drywall ceiling in the garage. I just fixed it yesterday. Looks pretty nice if I may say so myself... It took much longer than I thought it would...
Pics from my ride
The other day I got out for a bit with he kids. We have a great beginning of a trail system that is super nice!
Wednesday, August 28, 2013
Tuesday, August 27, 2013
Visiting Bloomington/Normal
After Nick's race on Saturday, we hit up a few places in the Bloomington/Normal area. First stop was Avanti's for dinner. A college favorite of mine and always spot on. On our way there, we noticed a brand new "Cherry Berry." It did not disappoint. Mom really enjoyed all of the yogurt and topping options - she'd never been to a place like that and it's safe to say she'll go back if given the option ever again :)
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| Cayle and Lindy sitting in the cherry seats! |
After all the eating, we went to a grocery store to get food for my birthday dinner. The grocery store was called "The Fresh Market." It was unbelievable. Had fresh everything. Tons of choices. As you can see in this picture, they had buckets upon buckets of all kinds of nuts/seeds/trail mixes, and then tons of jars of candies of all kinds. Nick was seriously overwhelmed by the store. He definitely had difficulty selecting just one six-pack of beer :)
Birthday
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| Birthday dinner toast for my birthday party dinner :) We spent the afternoon out at the lake and took the kids on a canoe ride. Dinner was some salmon , potatoes, green beans, corn on the cob, and bread. Oh, and wine :) |
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| The kids back by the catfish they fed while we were out for brunch. |
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| The catfish the kids fed. Cayle and Lindy loved seeing the fish eat the food! |
Saturday, August 24, 2013
Back on the crit circuit!
1st criterium in about 5 years. This afternoon in Bloomington, IL. Natalie's mom and dad and cousin Delaney were able to come out and watch. I finished 11th of 33. Waited too long toward the end to make a move. It's going to take some time to learn to read races again, but the fitness was great! 2 more next weekend in STL!
After dinner and then yogurt at Cherry Berry we headed to The Fresh Market. Mostly organic, natural meats, grains, and produce. It was awesome! Definitely could have spent hours there, but we only needed fresh fish for Natalie's birthday cookout.
Friday, August 23, 2013
Some random pics
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| Cayle's latest fascination... coloring! |
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| A finished product for mommy's classroom! |
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| Grandma stops by daily to read a book. The kids love it! |
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| Ice Cream from Homewood! |
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| Michael and his squeeze in the Yampa. These 2 rocks were the perfect backrests! |
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| Love this greenhouse idea! |
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| The sleeping giant! I remember this from when I was a kid and saw it again on my pre ride the other day. |
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| Celebrating Anne Marie's birthday at the lake |
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| Dad... being dad.... showing his slackline skills |
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| Cayle practicing with the birthday girl |
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| Boating with Michael |
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| Aunt Annie reading to the kids |
Thursday, August 22, 2013
Colorado Trip
The Steamboat Stinger. I had signed up for this race (it sells out... QUICKLY) in March when they opened registration. At that time we were still living in Gypsum and had not even hardly discussed moving... When we then decided to move back to IL to be closer to our families, I thought I was going to have to skip this race. Then Natalie suggested I take a week and go back to Colorado. While there I could do the 2nd last race in the Vail town series at Camp Hale and do the Stinger that weekend. Timing wasn't the best, as it was Natalie's last week off before returning to work, at a new school... So I was for sure hesitant, but she insisted I go. So I contacted my cycling buddies Andy and Trevor to see if they would like to join me on this trip. They said of course (who passes up a cheap trip to Colorado???) So we loaded up the car with 4 bikes, our gear, me, Andy, Trevor, and Mary. Mary was catching a ride with us back to Gypsum where she lives. I was super thankful as well for her company because she drives a manual transmission and could give me a break in the middle of Kansas!
We stayed at a friends house in Eagle for the first few days. It was so nice! They had a full basement with beds for us to sleep in. We arrived Monday afternoon and had wanted to ride Hoosier Pass from Breck, but it was raining, so we just continued on to Eagle. Of course it was not raining in Eagle! But at that point I was super tired after having driven all night. So I passed out for a few hours. But then after resting we kitted up and rode Cottonwood pass past Gypsum for a solid 30 miles. The altitude and lack of sleep hurt me bad! Alana had made Enchiladas for us that night. They were so delicious!
Tuesday was our big ride. It was difficult to balance, since I wanted to ride as much as possible while there, yet I still had a couple of races to try to be fresh for. Tuesday we did 90 miles on the Leadville loop. Parked at Beaver Creek and headed up Vail Pass, then over Fremont Pass, then Tennessee Pass from the South, and finally Battle Mountain Pass down in Minturn and back to the car. We had planned on riding Beaver Creek and Bachelor Gulch to trace the Pro Challenge course, but it was too difficult to pass the car after already burning 4,000 calories and climbing 7k feet... After the ride I sat in the Eagle River for a while to help the legs try to recover more quickly. We hit up the Dusty Boot for lunch/dinner after the ride. It hit the spot! Then headed to the brewery with local friends that evening. Yellow Chair Peach was back on tap! Delicious!
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| Heading toward Vail Pass |
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| Raptor Night at the Dusty Boot |
Wednesday I rode early to spin the legs a bit, then spent some time back in the river... Feels so nice, and I really think it works. Wednesday night was Camp Hale. I had never done this race before, but had heard it didn't have a bunch of climbing, and it was like a road race... Well, the first part was false, there was a bunch of climbing, just not super steep, and the 2nd part was true, there was a lot of drafting and rock roads. It was a great race for me, other than the majorly difficult singletrack downhill section that cost me loads of time each lap! I finished 6th. My best result of the year in the town series. Every other race I had finished 8th... I was super pleased with this result especially considering I had just done a big day the day before! After the race we got some food at Larkburger! My first time having a Larkburger, and it was delicious!!! Then we headed to Steamboat... Well, I thought we were heading to Steamboat, but after a few miles on 131 I realized we were out of gas, and since there are no gas stations on the way we had to turn around... That cost us an extra half hour... (seemed to be the theme of the trip, since about 30 miles from Effingham Natalie called to say here wallet was in the car, so we had to return home to give that to her. That cost us about an hour, but must have happened for a reason as about midway through Kansas the interstate was closed for a head to head semi/car collision. That happened about an hour before we got there...)
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| Lark Burger!!! |
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| Sunset on our way to Steamboat Springs |
Thursday we spent the day hanging out in Steamboat. It's a wonderful place! Definitely a must visit if you ever get out to Colorado and haven't been there. One of my favorite towns in the summer! That night we went out for Sushi at Spostas (As in Sposta be good...) It was delish! First time I've ever had or even heard of chicken and steak in a Sushi roll...
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| Sposta be good... |
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| Amazing tree on the deck at Sweet Pea |
Friday I pre rode part of the race course and spent more time in the river (lots of time in the river with Michael and his gf Ann) having drinks and throwing rocks... Sometimes you just have to get a little creative... Lunch on Friday was at Sweet Pea. Fantastic! Right on the river, and great food!
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| Drinks in the river |
Saturday was race day, and then we packed up and drove back to IL...
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