We thought we’d try mountain biking. I mean, we’re surrounded by mountains. We want to get ourselves a pair of bikes sometime soon, so why not try biking in the mountains?

BYU advertised a guided mountain biking excursion for full-time employees, so we did it. Boy, did we do it.

It was awesome in parts, exhausting in others, and a little scary now and again. But overall really fun. There were eight bikers in our group plus three expert guides. They drove us in a van 1/2 hour south, way up into the mountains near Payson, just north of Payson Lakes. Gorgeous country up there. I wish I had a camera in parts, because the mountains and meadows and birch trees and valley views were so amazing!

We saw a whole lot of trail riders (and none of them wearing helmets! I mentioned this to John in a worried voice, especially because there were a lot of kids riding, and he said, “Well, it’s not required by law to wear a helmet riding a horse.” Obviously he and all those trail riders didn’t learn how to ride from my mom. At our house wearing a helmet when riding was like brushing your teeth before bed. When they get bucked off and end up in the hospital with a concussion they’ll wish they had been wearing a helmet, and I’ll silently thank my mom for teaching me better).

We did about three hours of biking overall, which was a sufficient taste of it. We were tired by the end! Like I said, parts of it were scenic and lovely. But most of it was downhill on a foot-wide dirt path, over rocks and logs and around 90- or 180-degree turns. Three people biffed it pretty good; one girl flipped over the front of her bike and chose to quit. All in all, John and I came out relatively unscathed. Just cuts and bruises and general soreness.

Our conclusion is that mountain biking is fun, but we might be more of the trail-riding variety of bikers. More gentle inclines and declines and not so many hairpin turns and steep dirt trails.

When we got back we were tired and dirty! Here’re my legs right after I took off my shoes. It looks like I’m wearing brown leggings, but that’s just dirt. You can sort of see some of the painful bruises on my shins.

Happy trails!

So we went to Moab last weekend to celebrate our wedding anniversary. This was #4. We went on an overnight rafting trip down the Colorado River. It was a good time, overall.

Here’s a picture of us at our campsite.

John and I both have fair skin that burns easily, so we were extra careful to slather ourselves completely in SPF 45 the morning of our first day of rafting. Even so, by nightfall we discovered that we were noticeably red and in pain in the arm, leg, and shoulder areas.

Dang SPF 45 Sun block.

Friday night we slept on cots on a beach under the stars. A storm was passing nearby, though, so it was super windy for a few hours that night–which meant no sleep for me. Somehow John (a.k.a. Mr. Insomniac) seemed to sleep fine.

But the stars were gorgeous. Or so I heard (since my contacts were out).

Here’s a photo of the red mesas surrounding our campsite.

The night before our rafting trip started we ate dinner at the fanciest restaurant in Moab called the Center Cafe, which was neither on Center Street nor a Cafe. Go figure.

But the food was fabulous. We weren’t super hungry, so we split a beef tenderloin, which I guess is like filet mignon, and was so tasty. We told the waitress we were celebrating an anniversary and she said, “Well, you better keep an appetite for dessert, because it’s on us tonight.” When we got the dessert menu we picked the $10 lemon trio dessert. It had a lemon tart with raspberries, homemade lemon ice cream, and some sort of lemon custard with a French name I can’t remember. Yumm, it was good.

We stayed the night prior to our rafting trip in the La Quinta Inn. Not a bad place to stay, but pricey for a basic motel. I guess that’s what you get for going during tourist season. We thought our room was . . . interesting. It was large, which we liked. But it was sort of odd in that it was more decorated than any other basic motel room I’ve ever been in. I mean–look at all the Indian stuff! (And this is just one tiny corner of the room.) There’s even fake leather fringe hung around the top of the lamp and our very own artificial cactus arrangement in the lower right corner. They thought of everything.

They must’ve used a different decorator for the bathroom, though, because it lost all its southwestern flavor and went for a more oceanic feel. Check out these fish.

They were above the towel rack (brown towels, by the way; a little scary to use since all dirt is hidden). Some of them are painted on and others are those plastic 3-D ones you can hang in your bathtub. Fun stuff. Borderline tacky. But at least they tried.

Saw this wedding invitation on a bulletin board at the office and had to get a closer look.

Were you surprised as I was to discover that this is for a marriage in the Provo LDS Temple?