St George & Hoover Dam

Back to St George for another race, this time the St. George Half Marathon & 5K Presented by Painter's RV and Boat (Jan 23). Drove down Thursday to avoid the 3 feet of snow forecast for the I-15, the snow was so bad Friday they required chains through Cedar City. Race day was great, 42F and cloudy, felt great, new PB (1:49:07 - link), top half this time! Also dropped by the Hoover Dam and Las Vegas for a day (hiking isn't much fun the desert in the rain).

Vegas:
Big hole:
Hoover Dam:
Michelle and a foot:
Hoover Dam:
The new bridge under construction:
James running the race:

Matt & Kath's Wedding Dec 12th 2010

Matt & Kath's wedding, ready in Cherrybrook, limo to Manly, then to Whale Beach for the reception.

Michelle, James, Craig and Dad in the limo.
Craig, Dad, Michelle, James, Matt and Mum before leaving.
Family at the reception.
Wedding party.
Meeting the inlaws.
Kath and her kids.

Christchurch, NZ

Couple of days visiting Appley, Darryl and Skye in Christchurch, NZ.

Cancer warnings are a little more extreme here than in the US.
View from plane over South Island mountains.
Kiwirail, from CHC to Greymouth on the west coast.

End of CHC pier @ Brighton beach.

Cathedral in town.
Tram through the mall.
Big arse tree.

Hybrid duck-goose. Doose.

Snow Canyon Half Marathon & Mountain Meadows

Finished first ever half marathon! Snow Canyon, just outside St George, Utah. Beautiful scenery down the canyon, then across a lava field. ~1200 people, training went perfectly, fun run, felt fantastic. Hopefully a lot more to come in 2010, assuming this winter running thing works out (neg 20F is pretty cold).

Mountain meadows:

Lower part of the canyon, you can see the track down the middle.
I was pretty tired when this was taken at around mile 12. Finished in 1:54:26.9. See.

Cancun, Mexico

• Cancun with Dane & Jaci.
• First time ever in Georgia, even if being in transit doesn't count towards the number of states i've been to.
• First time ever in Atlanta, huge airport, need to take a train to get to the next terminal. So excited, i saw planes flying to Madrid, Lima and Cleveland, mmmm Cleveland.
• Sit down for lunch at the airport, order a beer, server asks 'would you like a shot with that?'. Shocked looks ensue, we have been in Utah too long.
• Arrive in Cancun, feels like 38 degrees and 120% humidity, order what would be the first of many margaritas. Stay at the Hilton.

• Breakfast at the golf course, sign says something like 'look out for crocodiles on the course, especially now since they're currently giving birth'

• Mojitos, Margaritas, beers and a coco loco at the pool bar (in a coconut!)

• Beer is better when served in a bucket of ice

• Dinner in downtown Cancun, unsurprisingly chose the place that didn't hound us for their business as we walked down the street. The staff put big hats on us, were probably laughing at us, stupid tourists.

• Bus drivers in Cancun are scarily similar to drivers in Richmond, BC, Canada.
• Lost sunglasses in the Caribbean Ocean. Twice.
• Mexican highways have speed bumps! Sure way to slow you down.
• Iguanas are cool. Always. Even the 700th one we saw was awesome.

• Tulum = lots of interesting ruins, and another 10% humidity above Cancun


• Xel-Ha is awesome, go there.

• Free alcohol does not mean drunken debauchery, Utah take note. Xel-Ha had free everything all day for the 1000 people there, free alcohol + hot sun + water = not one person was even close to drunk, or drowning.
• Dinner at the fancy restaurant was highlighted by the couple next to us that spent 30 minutes with the guy taking photos of the girl. Then moved to the pool for more photos. Weird.
• I saw both boobs and butt, but on different people. Maybe spring break time would be different.
• Mmmm, Tequila.

• Americans take note - siestas are good, the metric system is logical, Celsius is a perfectly acceptable temperature measure and the United States of Mexico is a generally happier place than Estados Unidos.
• Ohio people suck. Flew back via Cincinnati (new state, new city), security there are just painful smart arses that knew we were in a hurry, yet wasted 10 minutes of our time telling us we were security risks with a smirk on their faces. Who cares in our bag was checked under Dane's name, if we were security risks we wouldn't be telling you the story in the first place, i'd be far more discreet and normal looking.
• Mojitos on the plane are good.

Birthday 2009

July 18 @ Fiddler's Elbow in Sugar House, Salt Lake City.

James & Michelle
Erin & Tina
Eric & Casey
Toni & Jeff
Kim & David
Michelle, Chris & Jeremy
Chris & Heidi
James, Tina, Mapu & Eric
The table