Last Day of Kindergarten May 2014

 

Last Day of School!!!!! I can't believe that I officially have a first grader today.  Its amazing how fast the year has gone and how much Jadeyn has grown in this year.  Mrs Licardi was an amazing teacher especially for him.  She kept order very well, but she never raised her voice or hurt his self confidence.  She was great!.  He really liked Mrs Ryan as well. I dropped him off at school and then I returned at 10:30 for the kid's program.  So cute.  They all lined up outside the door and marched in together beaming to see all the parents there. They sang "The More We Get Together The More We Have Fun" and wiggled  the whole time.
 
Then Mrs L played a slide show of each of the kids holding a chalk board sign of what they want to be when they grow up.  When each kid's picture came up, they came to the front of the room, stood on a chair and said what they wanted to be.  So cute, the took the pictures two weeks ago and in that amount of time, quite a few of them had changed their minds!  There were a lot of fire fighters, cops, moms, dad, pet shop owners, rock stars.  When Jadeyn stood up and said he wanted to be an oceanographer, all the parents were quite impressed!  I was proud of him!  They gave each kid their diploma and a little gift bag of treats.  We watched another cute slideshow of class pictures throughout the year and then ate a delicious cake that Jen had made. 

 All the kids piled out to the park and played  before joining the rest of the school in the big playground and field for the school picnic.  Wow, that was a lot of kids.  They had fun.  It was supposed to be stormy, but it held off until later in the afternoon thank goodness.  After the school play, we went to the Castle Park for more play!

 

 

Rally On The Rocks 2014

Rally On The Rocks - Moab, Utah May 13-17, 2014 

Day one: Steel Bender! A little nervous for this trail simply due to the name . Who wouldn't be? It was great to be back at the rally and see a few of our old friends. I know we are extra recognizable with our little blonde haired boy with us, but so many people recognized us, even some of the reps. Chilly morning! It was 39 when we woke up: not your typical Moab morning that's for sure! We had hot chocolate and oatmeal for breakfast, made our sandwiches, loaded everything up and then headed out for our first driver meeting. Our trail had about 20 vehicles. We were doing Steel Bender but starting at the lake side. We didn't know exactly what this would mean, but we found out later that it made most of the obstacles (in particular, the "wall") dang hard.  Crazy!

Anyway, we found out how this trail got its name. The whole thing is full of ledges and shelves that twist your tires and ready work your suspension.  All in all, I think the guide got out to direct all the vehicles through obstacles about eight times (he did however admit that he took us the tough ways to make it more interesting).

The biggest obstacle was The Wall. Normally you would be coming from the other side and dropping down it allowing your tires to grip the rock while you hang until you finally drop to the bottom: we were going up!  We saw our guide's vehicle attempt it and was spinning out all over and had to go at it a few times before succeeding. Wait, aren't they the experts!? Funny.  The next one went. We strapped them down to help the roll over factor and it took about ten minutes for them to be successful. Crazy. We looked back at our long line of vehicles, and thought that we're going to be here awhile! I was quite nervous for everyone, I'll admit it. Kevin was most nervous about the first ledge because it came with a pretty steep cliff on the potentially roll over side.  He wasn't too nervous about the actual wall. There were some close calls both with vehicles, as well as the men's toes holding onto the tow straps leaping out of the way when the vehicle finally gained purchase on the rock.  When it was Kevin's turn, Jadeyn wished him good luck very loudly which made everyone laugh. Kevin went up it like a pro! He listened perfectly to the guide and did exactly as he was told. It wasn't easy as could be, but he did awesome. I was quite proud of him. And I think he was very relieved.

 The rest of the trail was fun and eventful with more ledges and difficult spots and was beautiful. We hung out with an older couple who really took to Jadeyn. They had a black Pomeranian who even wore tiny doggles! Whew! Nice run. We got back about 5pm, had enough time to cook dinner, relax and then head out to the ice cream social and raffle. Bummer, we didn't win anything tonight, but we'll try again. Back to our tiny cabin (10 x 20 feet big) read a few chapters of Harry Potter to Jadeyn and hit the hay! Tomorrow we have Hell's Revenge and Kevin is certain that I want to drive it. Uh, we.'ll see how that conversation goes in the morning!


Day Two: Ready for Hell's Revenge today? We started out the morning by sleeping in a bit. Rough night last night with Jadeyn sleeping. He 'woke up' doing this almost barking forced cry, but wasn't really awake at all. I tried to get him to talk to me to see what he was upset about but he wouldn't wake up. Finally Kevin had to go to the bathroom anyway and took him too. He really had to go. Funny thing is that Jadeyn had no recollection of it in the morning at all! We had pancakes for breakfast and then headed over to the driver's meeting. We wandered all over through the vendors and then right before the meeting discovered that Jadeyn didn't have his little blue racing glasses any longer. Oh man. We retraced our steps all over and couldn't find them. He felt so bad as silent tears streamed down his face. They had already started the meeting so I found a guide and asked if it was possible to make an announcement. A few minutes later they did and someone brought the glasses to the front! We were so happy and Jadeyn learned a good lesson.

So....Kevin was determined that I was going to drive Hell's Revenge, right. I protested but knew he was not going to let me wiggle out of it. I was nervous because of course I mostly remember all the tough parts. Well, here goes nothing. We start up the first fin. Intimidating, but do-able. Made it through. Then we come to a shelf. Seriously, it was only about 16 vertical inches. I got my front tires up it no problem, but just spun out on the rear. Dang it. Backed up and tried again. Spun out again. We were only fifth in line so all 15 vehicles behind us were watching. No pressure at all. I tried two more times, backed up and went around. I was shaking, embarrassed, and ready to give up! Kevin made me stay at it. Several of the guys encouraged me saying that their wives would never drive or some wouldn't even come! Well, let's just say it went much better once I got that first spot out of the way! Up and down the slick rock we went, over some pretty steep stuff and I did great! Okay, thanks Kevin for 'forcing me' because I was glad I did it!

Kevin took over at the halfway point (whew). The landscape here is truly breathtaking. The Le Sal mountains are all perfectly snow-capped behind the amazing red rocks. We actually got to stop at both Hell's Gate and the Escalator and have a few of our group do them! You had to have a 5 point harness and helmet, or Kevin would totally have done the Gate! The Escalator was so tricky. The guide was right there directing every tire move and with each vehicle, there were sharp intakes of breath as a random tire it seemed would pop right up in the air as the vehicle went off balance! There was only one true incident when the guy didn't make it over one part and backed up to try again. He hit the sidewall of his tire and pfsssshh...out went all the air! The guide, Kevin and another dude scampered up with an air tank to fill him up, and this just showed how steep and tall these walls are. All three guys had a heck of a time making it up! They ran, made it up about five feet and just slid right back down a few times before finally making it up the 15 foot wall into the hole to help the guy! We also stopped at the hot tubs. Only one guy did these since there was about a foot of water at least in each of them.

 Kevin finally got to do Tip Over Challenge! It's the one he wanted to do last time, but when he finally got up the courage, the group had started loading up to leave.  Jadeyn and I got out to 'take pictures.' Two vehicles before him got into a spot of trouble. Thankfully, the guide was there to tell them not to move and he dashed over there and stood on one fender until a couple other guys held them down and they drove through. On this obstacle, you really never have all four wheels on the ground at once, and it switches off which wheels are up. It's cool looking, but not a relaxing one to watch! Kevin did great even leaving one wheel spinning in the air for a bit!  By far, this is one of our top favorite trails here!

 
After the trail we went over to where the Polaris guys were doing their demo runs so Kevin could finally test out a RZR 1000.  Hmmmm. Maybe I shouldn't have let him. It was amazing! Pure power and smooth suspension. Wow. We were going 75 on rocky dirt paths and it felt smooth as could be. Wow. We were impressed. And we got covered in dust following the lead guide so close, but Kevin wanted to keep up with the pro and see just what the machine could do! Wow!

Back to camp for steak dinner and a shower! We found out that they weren't going to do the drive in movie tonight (bummer) so instead we headed into Moab and walked the street. We bought Jadeyn a red dirt shirt and got some ice cream too!  A few pages of Harry Potter and we are ready for some sleep!

Day Three: Gold Bar / Golden Rim  Wow, what an eventful day. It began pretty uneventful: bacon and hot chocolate for breakfast and Jadeyn played in the trees behind our tiny cabin. There are two apricot trees that he has been 'harvesting' seeds from and slicing the hard green apricots with a plastic knife. Always entertaining. We are doing Gold Bar / Golden Rim today and are pretty excited about it. When we did Poison Spider last time, we got to see just a very small part of it and hoped it would be just as cool. It didn't disappoint.  The group we were with was awesome. Quite a few people that we had been on trails with in the past and even two of our favorite guides. Very cool. The trail began on the same route to Gemini Bridges, so the first three miles was a lot of dust. Lucky we got three new dust buffs while test riding the RZR 1000 yesterday; they came in handy!
Once the main trail started, we quickly realized that it was going to be a fun one. Tons of variety in the obstacles and breathtaking scenery. Wow! There were so many big obstacles that I wanted to hop out and video but we were all going at such a great pace that I didn't want to hold us up. The overlook allowed for a complete 360 view of amazing country. Arches in the distance on one side, La Sal mountains all white capped, then red rock everywhere split by the green Colorado River. Wow! There were several places along the trail that were very challenging and I was grateful we were going down them, not up (at this point I didn't know that we would be going back the way we came and would have to go back up these walls!)

We reached the Golden Crack! It's a famous obstacle where when the vehicle straddles the crack, someone can walk underneath the RZR completely upright with room to spare! We all parked and gathered round to watch the guide's brother go over first. You can't hit the crack straight on or you just slide right in bumper first and get wedged where your tires don't touch. Well, the guide thought he would show off a bit on the first one and guided his brother through at a pretty big angle. The result was wheels up at crazy angles! As each tire reaches and gains or loses purchase, the body of the vehicle twists and pops some other part up. It's crazy!  When the others went over, he guided us through at a less extreme angle, but it still made for some crazy pictures! I was going to of course be the designated photographer while Kevin went over, but too many people were offering to take my cameras, so I had to go. Thanks peer pressure! It was amazing and scary. Kevin did perfect and followed the guide perfectly, but wow!

Jadeyn found another 6 yr old boy to romp with and they had a ton fun exploring deep down in the crack. When everyone who wanted to go over the crack had had their chance, we loaded up and headed back. Just the very first wall to get back over was challenging enough and it reminded us of all the obstacles ahead that would be pretty difficult going the other way. We had already had one machine with a hole in their sidewall that had to be patched and hoped that it would be the only mechanical challenge of the trip. Uh, no such luck at all on that one.  Were we in for a challenge.

There was a "waterfall" rock ledge coming up. It is about 15 feet from the bottom to the top divided in to varying heights of shelves.  When you get your tires over the first shelf you have to gun it a bit to pop your back end up, but not too much because there is another shelf immediately there.  Well, when we came around the corner and saw the waterfall, we knew immediately something had gone wrong as a ton of people were out of their rigs and crowded around a Can-Am on its safe at the bottom of the fall. Apparently he had made it most of the way up and gunned it, spun out his tires side turned sideways, parallel with the shelves. He had apprently not waited for the guide to direct him and really gunned it on the last shelf.  While his tires were spinning, he didn't have any traction on the rock and his front end turned sideways. Once parallel with the shelves he he tumbled down rolling three times. Wow.  Even crazier was when we saw who it was. It was the guy who only has one arm and one leg. He is a very good driver and its incredible to think of how much he can do anyway. He was banged up a bit, some scrapes on his shoulder and his wife hit her shin on the dash giving her a huge lump, but other than that, they were fine.

The men started working on the Can-Am. The front bumper/fender was totally folded into itself, both side mirrors were gone, roll cage fine but scraped up, but he had bent up a tie rod. The guys figured out how to use another machine's winch to straighten the rod out and we set off again. Several tough obstacles and 15 minutes later, stopped again. A flat on a different vehicle! Patch again, off again. 10 minutes later the tie rod bent again and they had to straighten it out before continuing. Oh, the Can-Am couple were riding in other vehicles and so someone else was driving their machine.  We made it a few more minutes and we caught up to the first part of the group surrounding the same Can-Am . It had tipped again! On an obstacle, the tie rod had finally snapped sending the wheel at a crazy angle and boom, over he went! It's amazing what zip ties, duct tape and extra parts can do. They made a temporary fix and we were off again only having to stop a few more times to winch him up. Funny thing, a different Can-Am was the only rig to attempt and not make it over the crack. Several other tip overs or breakdowns this week were all Can Am.  I think we won't ever be buying one in the future!  So the trail was a good 2+ hours longer than it was supposed to be but I was so impressed with the guides and how everyone pitched in to help an not a single person complained even as it got later and later. So nice to see that when someone breaks down, they don't just sent half ahead, they all stick together and help. It was our first experience with major trouble and it was impressive.

We made it to the cabin, had time to wash our faces and change our shirts and had to race over to the arena in time for the catered dinner! We got a seat and sat with some great people to chat with, swap stories with and all be completely entertained by Jadeyn. Dinner was delicious. We had the final raffle, and dang it, we didn't win anything! Bummer. They gave away at least 15 sets of tires and about 10 sets of wheels! Oh, they gave us the final numbers too. We were at over 1000 people and over 600 machines! What a day! Home to the cabin, a little Harry Potter and to bed!

Day Four:  Last trail of the day! Metal Masher.  We were exhausted after the long day yesterday so it was nice to sleep in just a tiny bit (6:30am).  We packed up the entire cabin all into the Jeep and had a little breakfast.  Our cabin is located right on the way to the office and bathroom for half of the campground, so we got to know a lot of people.  While we were packing, so many of them came over to tell us how fun it was to be on the trails with us and ask if we would be coming again next year.  So many nice people.  We reserved the same cabin again for next year.

  We had heard that Metal Masher was a challenging one but that most of the major obstacles are by-pass-able (unlike Gold Bar), but we were excited to get to see some people attempt the famous ones like Rock Chucker and Widow Maker.   Our group seemed to be divided into two distinct sections: hot rodders who were posturing about how they thought this trail was easy and hoped everyone could keep up.  They were saying this trail would take anywhere from 2 to 5 hours depending on everyone's skill level. etc.  Then the other group was like us, ready to try a trail and enjoy the scenery and challenge.  We could tell that when we stopped, we should move back further in the group away from the hot rodders just so we can see how normal people go over the obstacles.  Well, we didn't really get the chance.  Everyone supposedly followed the rule of waiting at every crossroads so the person behind you knows which way to turn, but apparently it wasn't all that successful.  The front seven vehicles stopped and waited for the rest to catch up.  Umm, how long do we wait?  Jadeyn had a blast exploring, trying to catch lizards with us, pointing out all the cool flowers for me to take a picture of etc.  And 45 minutes later, the remaining 15 cars finally found their way back to us!  Wow!  We all got the lecture of 20 seconds could save us 20 minutes!

We were on the trail again with Al and Rojean and their sweet Pomeranian. Such nice people.

Well, back on the trail again.  I remember seeing part of this trail when we were first new to the RZR and were on a different trail.  We saw a narrow gully between rocks that were so scarred from under carriages and tires scraping and we thought there was NO WAY that anything could get over these rocks!  Well, that same section, we went over successfully! It seems that you have to have at least one trail where your guide isn't the best, and this was the one.  Unfortunately, our dude was more interesting in hanging with his buddies or hob nobbing with the SPS reps who were with us.  Anyway, they seemed to blaze through the trail and didn't even stop at the super hard obstacles to see if anyone would like to try them.  We couldn't believe that the trail was over so fast!  Beautiful scenery, but, wow, it was short.  The tail end of it though was on a sandy straight path that we gunned the engine and hit the whoo-hoos and caught some air hooting an hollering the whole way. 

We all lined up and talked it over and finally divided into three groups: those who want to do Gold Rim, those who want to go back and those who want to do Gemini Bridges.  We chose Gemini Bridges with our friends and hiked out to the twin arches and enjoyed the beauty.  Wow. Amazing country.  Back to the Jeep, trailer-ed up, said our good byes and hit the road!  Wow, Moab is spectacular every time and it was perfect!  We headed out to Jennifer's house in Grand Junction.

Favorite Jadeyn quote: mom, have you ever had that feeling that you haven't seen your cousins for years and years and you are about to see them?  I have that feeling right now.  Its a good feeling.  Jennifer has been in their new house for about 8 months now.  Its beautiful and so much more space than the one they were renting.  So cute though, she still has all five boys split into 2 bedrooms so she can have her craft room and the new baby can have her own room!  The baby is so tiny.  Her name is Adison Ann and she is now 5 weeks old.  I forget just how small newborns are!  Jadeyn blended right in with the five boys and quickly disappeared with them to adventure throughout the house and backyard for nerf wars, tag, swings, and who know what else.  It was nice to get clean and Jen and Ryan cooked us an awesome dinner. So happy to have them so close and especially on the way to Moab!