Moments...

In October, there have been some exciting moments had by all. First off, and foremost, my new niece was born to my brother and sister-in-law! I got to meet my baby niece just a couple days after she was born. They had been thinking and thinking about names. Even after this sweet girl was born, they couldn't decide. They had quite a few names they liked and were thinking about. One was Stella. I happened to be pretty attached to this name. Grandma Zaleski's first name is Stella and I had been thinking about that name for awhile (not that we are or will be expecting anytime soon..I just love thinking about names) and how great that we could use a family name someday! As it got closer to my niece getting born, they said that Stella wasn't on the top of their list anymore. So I started talking about it again, and thought if we named a daughter after one of Joe's grandmas, then we should do a middle name of one of mine! My Grandma Clark's middle name was Louise and I thought Stella Louise! How cute is that?! Well, lo and behold, when they finally decided on a name for my niece, it was Stella Louise. I admit, I was a little disappointed. I realize that I am in no place to claim names (I'm not popping out any babies!) and I shouldn't get so attached, but I do. I also loved the name Sadie for a long time (thanks to the OC) and then my sister named her daughter Sadie. I came to know with Sadie, and again with Stella, that they couldn't be anyone else. Sadie is such a Sadie and couldn't be anything else, and I realized that once again as I held my little Stella. She was meant to be little Stella Louise and I knew it as I looked into her sweet little face. I do believe that names are very special and mean more than just that which we are called by others. The moral of the story, I love all my nieces and nephews more than almost anything!! Or something like that. 

I admit, as I held her, I got a little baby hungry. 

How sweet is she?!!

The other exciting thing that we did that weekend was the Utah Marathon with my parents! Ok, we didn't run the marathon, per se. Joe and my Dad rode the bike tour, which is just the marathon course but on bikes, and my Mom and I ran the 5k! This was Joe's first official "race" on a bike. He was so nervous about it! He kept talking about how he was going to have to make my Dad wait and how scared he was about crashing, etc. Well, the day of the race came and guess what? He didn't crash, he didn't make my Dad wait, he even left my Dad (how rude!) and he loved it. This was great news for me! I had always hoped to marry a man who would be or become a cyclist. Growing up, cycling has always been a big part of my life (see Lotoja post) and I had hoped to continue that in my own family. Joe dislikes running and has been wanting a way to keep in shape and I think he is slowly becoming convinced that he needs to take up cycling. Now to afford a road bike...yikes.

My Mom was the same as Joe. She kept telling me that she hadn't trained and to go at my own pace and then find her when I was done. She joked about coming to get her in 3 hours from the start, etc. When the race started, she and I started out running and man, she kept up a quick pace! We did stop and walk a few times but I was struggling to keep up with her when we were running...or even walking for that matter! Man, for such short legs, that woman can stride! We finished the 5k in 40 minutes. Not world record time, but for two women, one who is totally out of shape, and one who is in her 50's, didn't train at all and has asthma...I consider that to be a feat! Moral of this story? When one is confident, it's nice to be humbled by those who pretend that they are scared/out of shape. Or something like that.

There we are, in all the fall leaves splendor.

The other fun thing we did was go to the Pumpkin Walk with some friends. This is where citizens of Logan make scenes using pumpkins! It's quite amazing. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures of the scenes but we did get pictures of the stand-up characters they had. You know, the ones you stick your face in and have their body. Oh, you know. Enjoy.

Jose, Johnny, and Joe

 Jaci, Brie, and me

 All of us...riding in the bus. You knew that was coming.

 Finally, my dreams are coming true!!

Joe wishes he looked like this...love you sweetie!

 A Mexican genie...how jovial. :)

 Aw...Brie

And last, but not least, Joe as Yoda. How fitting.

The Tradition of the Lotoja

If you don't know what the Lotoja bike race is, then you are missing out. This is a race that goes from Logan, UT to Jackson Hole, WY. Hence...Lotoja. Get it? So this race is 206 miles and is done in one day. It was started because a couple of guys living in small town Logan decided that there wasn't a good stage race anywhere on the west coast and that there needed to be one. I know this because I happen to know 2 of the guys who started it. So anyway, it started out as a couple of guys riding from Logan to Jackson because they think it's fun. (I'm still trying to see the logic.) It has now grown to the biggest one day stage race in the western United States, possibly all of the United States. The race caps at 1500 now, I believe. And it fills up in less than 24 hours from the time registration opens. Needless to say, this race has become very popular. And it has been something my Dad has participated in from the wee beginnings. This year, he participated in his 24th Lotoja. 24 years of riding 206 miles in one day! And he's over 60. What a Dad he is.

 I have been going with my Mom to drive support since I was in high school. Needless to say, this has become very popular in my life as well. Since I'm not about to go hop on my bike and ride 206 miles in one day, supporting my Dad in it is the next best thing. There are 4 feed zones throughout the race - these are the only spots that the support can hand off stuff to their riders. We fill a bag with things that will give my Dad nutrition and energy and pass it off to him as he rides through the feed zone. It's exciting. But really, you think I'm kidding. I'm not! Ever since my first year, I was addicted. Last year when I couldn't go because of work, I cried. Yes, cried. I have fallen in love with the atmosphere. The hard work and dedication that all these people put in and the effort and struggle they go through to complete this amazing thing. I can't get over it! Cheering for my Dad as we drive past him on the course is one of my favorite parts. Then staying in Jackson for a day doesn't hurt the cause either!

Here's the man himself at the start line.

The beauty of being up at sunrise...

The gorgeous fall colors of Jackson Hole. Pictures just don't do it justice.

 Hey, Afton!

 One of the famous feed zones! In this case, my dad stopped and we switched
out his drinks and food instead of just passing off bags as he rode by.

This was someone else's car, but I think I'm going to 

put this on our car next year. My mom would support it.

What a champ!!

   

This was a fire we passed that they were trying to contain in Jackson.

 This was the fire that was not contained 

the next day as we ate lunch.

Cute little motel signs...

The Tetons in all their glory.

At the finish line! You rock, Dad!!

My adorable Mom and Dad.

 Our lovely hotel room.

 There were bears hiding all over the hotel. So cute.

 My mom and I. I just love her so much.

New chacos all around! For my mom and Joe, anyway.

 The famous Jackson Hole antler arch!

Aw. :)

Backpacking with the Cows

The last time we were at my parent's house, we were going through their storage room, looking for...something. I don't remember what we were doing. But I noticed my parents old backpacking backpacks sitting near the door. Joe and I had been talking about backpacking for awhile but don't have any backpacks. So when I saw those, I asked my Mom if we could borrow them for a little bit so we could finally fulfill our dream. That was when my Mom told me that they were actually planning on getting rid of them, so we could just have them! I was so excited! And thus begins our journey to planning our backpacking trip! 

We took our engagement pictures up Logan Canyon at a place called Tony's Grove. It was beautiful and I found out there was another lake you could backpack to from that area. I was so stoked because I knew it would be gorgeous! Here is a little reminder of what our engagements looked like from Tony's Grove.

Gorgeous right? And this was in October, after most of the leaves had changed and fallen. 

We decided to plan our weekend for September 21-23. This was because that Sunday was the Brigham City Temple Dedication which we could go to at 3pm. Normally, we have church at 9am on Sundays so we couldn't take our camping trip through Sunday. I went grocery shopping and got everything that I thought we would need...and more. Friday came and we set off for our destination around 5:30. It takes about 40 minutes to drive up to Tony's Grove so we didn't start hiking until about 6:30. It was beautiful! There were so many colors and just being out in nature by ourselves reminded me how loving our Heavenly Father is in creating this beautiful earth for us. The other thing I noticed was the wildlife. And by wildlife, I mean cows. There were cows everywhere! I kept freaking out thinking they were going to attack us but all they ever did was stare and then walk away, sometimes run away. The hike was about 4 miles. The first 3.5 miles were a gradual uphill and the last half mile was a steep downhill. By the time we got to the downhill, it was starting to get dark. And by the time we got to the campgrounds, it was pitch black. Thankfully, we have an LED lantern that came in handy! We set up camp and made ourselves some dinner. Cup of Noodles is an excellent backpacking dinner, by the way. All you need to do is heat up water and add it in and you have a warm cup of soup. Delish.

The next day was spent walking around the lake, venturing around the area, eating, feeding chipmunks, and cleaning off shoes from cowpies that were stepped in. (That only happened to Joe...poor guy.) All in all, the only mishap we had was bringing our air mattress. First off, it weighs quite a bit...too much for a backpacking venture. Second off, we have an electric pump for it which means it needs to be charged in order to work. So naturally, we forgot to charge it. It filled up our mattress about 1/3 of the way. Thankfully, that was really the only thing that went wrong on the trip!

Sunday morning we got up, ate breakfast, packed up and headed out. Thank goodness for the overcast morning because that half mile of steep uphill was killer. And if it wouldn't have been overcast, it would've been much worse. But once we made it up, the gradual downhill was excellent. The weather was perfect, the scenery was gorgeous (have I used that word enough yet?) and it was overall an amazing trip. Without further ado, here is the picture version of the story. (The much more exciting version, probably.)

 The drive up!

Preparing for the hike in 

Our destination: White Pine Lake

 Yes, we actually carried those things all the way! Proof.

Our new little camp stove and camping pots and pans! 

 That chipmunk is eating part of my
granola bar that I just fed to him!

 White Pine Lake

 A random seashell found by the lake!

 The cowpie Joe stepped in...poor guy.

Cleaning up the mess 

A random stream we found when we 

decided to go off the trail...sshh!! 

 We followed the stream for awhile until...

 it became this mini waterfall!

 Cool, right?

 Getting our water all filtered out

 The trail to our campsite

 The cows that we shared our whole weekend with...

 Packing up!

 Garden of Eden anyone?

 We came across this little fellow along the way

 These pictures don't even do it justice! 

And we're back! Our last view as we hiked in and left.