Our friendly neighbours!

Just outside our window is a tree with a perfect spot for squirrels! Lucky for us it's only 3 feet from the house and we can watch them without scaring them away :)

Learning to Fly!

As I'm off racing, Jeff's been taking hangliding lessons! Yesterday I got up at 5am to go watch him :)

This is the barn where they store the gliders.

This is the field where they launch. They're attached to a winch which pulls them up and then releases them (kind of like flying a kite)

This is Jeff (on the left) getting ready...they also get to ride an ATV :)

And off he goes!!!

Summer at last!!

The weather is much nicer than when I was last home...we're all enjoying the backyard now. BBQ dinners, swimming (thanks to our generous neighbour Deb), hot tubbing and just hanging out...it's GREAT to be home!

Tri Peaks Wrap Up

The view from our beautiful host home.

Morning stretches :)

Stage One finish at the top of Mount Magazine...Chrissy placed 2nd!

A little R&R between stages.

A fantastic finish...Betina won the stage and moved into 2nd overall with Chrissy just behind in 3rd overall. :)

Recovery Day!

One of my favourite parts of racing is the recovery day. Chrissy, Beth, Brooke and I took a relaxing ride along the bike path in Fayetteville.

We saw turtles everywhere soaking in the sun....

...and frogs catching some rays...

...even the leaves on the edge of the trail were taking in the sun. Unfortunately we realized a bit too late that this was poison ivy and our bikes had been leaning against it!

Fortunately Chrissy and Brooke had the solution! :)

Joe Martin Podium

Well it was a battle today! We went into the crit with 5 of us in the top 10, (just off the podium thanks to Brooke's stellar time trail yesterday!) I've got to say that this crit is the hardest one of the entire year, with its grueling hill top finish. We launched attack after attack from the start of the race. Chrissy made it off the group solo and was so close to winning if not for Aaron's surge in the last lap to pull her back - it was a valiant effort! We ended up with 4th (Brooke) and 5th (myself) GC and 2nd overall team (only 10 seconds from Webcor). Looking forward to Tri Peaks - the stage race with a total of 18 000 feet of climbing :)

Joe Martin Stage Race

The stage race team has been reunited with the crit team! We're here in Fayetteville, Arkansas awaiting the start of the Joe Martin stage race. Friday is a 100km road race, Saturday is 110 km road race AND a 3 mile uphill time trial, and Sunday is a crit with a kicker of a hill. Looking forward to racing all together again!

Images from the Gila

Post-crit...we made it through some gale force winds!

Our view while eating breakfast

The Gila National Forest

One of the best places to eat in New Mexico!

The drive down the mountain on our way to Joe Martin in Arkansas

Good bye

So I haven't had internet all week, but I've taken lots of pictures which I'll post over the next couple of days. I did want to send out a HUGE thank you to our hosts Gloria and Joe Beltran, our newly adopted Apache parents :).

The Tour of the Gila went well, with Brooke finishing in 5th, myself in 7th and Betina in 15th overall. We're off now to Arkansas for the Joe Martin Stage race this weekend.