Has it really been 10 years?!

Appearantly it is that time of life to recognize I have been out of high school for ten years...I just received my 10 Year Reunion invitation in the mail. I promised Beth I would go, so assuming our schedules work out, I will be celebrating 10 years with the Dexter High School class of '98 in July. Yee-haw!

Easter 2008
Easter was cold and snowy again...seems to be a continuing trend here in the Springs. The weather definitely did not affect our Easter celebration though. To celebrate the resurrection, I started with First Pres's service at the Pikes Peak Center which included a 160 person choir and brass ensamble.

Than eveybody came over for an Easter dinner. Included in our dinner party was little Amber, who was celebrating her 10 month birthday. Look at those big, blue eyes!

And, of course, with March Madness in full steam, there was definitely quality couch time wathcing the games after eating Easter dinner.

Happy Birthday Beth!
Saturday was Beth's (friend from college) so I headed up to Denver to hang out with her for the evening. Beth definitely rivels me in planning so she had quite the evening in store for all of us.

We started out with dinner at Pasquini's, a cool little pizza shop in "Uptown" I believe...but I don't really understand downtown Denver at all.

Than we started the "rock, paper, scissors" portion of the night. Basically, Beth planned a pub crawl through Uptown with a new twist. The winner of the rock, paper, scissors tournament got to choose the next place we went.

Despite the embarrassing lost to Arkansas this week, hoosier pride still runs deep. Here are all the Indiana alum doing the "I-U" thing that we do during the fight song. Front row is "I" and back row is "U".

After hopping around from place to place with the rock, paper, scissors squad, I had to drive back to the Springs with Easter on the mind...had I known it would take me TWO hours to drive home (because of weather), I definitely would have spent the night in Denver. But check out this tree, this is what it looked like when I got back into my neighborhood last night.

Good Friday Fun
Chris came down to the Springs last night to celebrate Good Friday/Easter with me...really, I think he was just looking for a good, free meal but we definitely had fun! After a tasty fish dinner at Sonterra Grill (Chris tried shark for the first time and it wasn't bad!), we went over to the YMCA where Mary was working...

Or pretending to work...every time I visit she seems to have plenty of time to fool around with me! :) I was trying to get a picture of us doing the "Y-M-C-A" but Chris was too cool for that and we were short one letter. Hence, the "Y-M" but nothing else.

Happy Easter Weekend!

HAPPY SPRING!!!
Hooray, today is the first day of spring and it 60F!!! Not to bad for the Front Range in March!

Back to the Cruel Reality of Winter
This photo was taken in Old Rancho Santa Fe yesterday during my last ride in Cali...AFTER a "winter" storm blew through the night before.

This is my back yard this morning...after I drove home at 1am in nasty conditions...but not bad enough to be considered a winter storm...I prefer the winter storms in SoCal!!!

Happy Birthday Mom!

Spring Blume in the Burn Zone

I rode down Del Dios Highway today and was completely amazed by the incredible color in the burn zones. Wild flowers, orange and purple, are taking over the black char that was there only a few months ago. It is awesome to see the natural beauty being restored so quickly.

Livin' the Good Life
In case you are wondering what I have been doing over my spring break, here is a typical rundown of my day: After checking emails and coaching, I ride my bike in the hills...lots and lots of climbing in incredible 70F+ weather!

Than I recover poolside and work on my tan lines...no matter how hard I work at 'em, I can't get ride of my shorts and jersey lines though!

Before dinner I take the dogs for a walk and then after I dinner I might hop in the hot tub for awhile.

Oh, and our yard has become snail infested so I spend some time throwing them over the fence. They are everywhere: On the house, along the pool, and in the palm trees!

Dad's Sweet New Ride
Dad finally got to trade the Explorer in and get a car he actually liked...and I must say, it is pretty darn sweet! Not only is it super fast and has a navigation system...

But it also has these really cool little arms that push your seatbelt up to you so that you don't have to reach back for the seatbelt. My second favorite feature is the internal iPod docking station...oh, and you don't even need a key to start it!

Dad's favorite feature is the engine and he hasn't even gotten a chance to truly test it out yet. Although, we crossed the 1200mi marker in the desert so he is going to open it up next weekend and I am definitely going along for the ride!

Anza Borrego Spring Blume
We took a roadtrip to the desert today to check out the spring flowers. Spring flowers and desert do not sound like they go together, but I was definitely impressed by the desert's spring color!

As we got out to check out the flowers, dad pointed out this little station in the middle of nowhere...it's an earthquake observatory lab.

But this is really what we saw: Patches and patches of wildflowers. The first stop we made was covered with purple flowers and smelled incredible.

A few miles down the road: All yellow! We were looking forward to reds but they were nowhere to be found unfortunately.

The flowers up close.

Me and dad playing around in the yellow flowers.

After checking out the flowers, we drove up to Julian and across Sunrise Highway. Up there you could see the desert to the east (complete with the Salten Sea...if you look closely, you can see it) and the ocean to the west. Oh, and it totally looked like Colorado or Northern Michigan along Sunrise Highway with evergreen and deciduous trees everywhere.

You Should DEFINITELY Be Jealous...
Because dad made pizza tonight; although, I did help out a bit. Check out my newest domestic skill: Rolling out the pizza dough!

Dad adding the toppings to one of the pizzas...he has perfected his topping combinations and secret dough recipe over the years. We always joke about him opening a pizza restaurant once he retires; although, selfishly, I'm not sure if I can share the Gracheck secret with the world.

The finished product...absolutly delicious!!! For those of you who have had dad's pizza before, go ahead and wipe the drool off your face! :)

Gopher Canyon

To accomplish my ride goal for the day, I choose to ride inland and check out a few roads. One turned out to be crazy steep (I average 44 rpm with a 27 tooth chainring!) and this is the other (a nice long climb similar to Colorado). Check out the orange patch on the hillside, those are all wildflowers! They are everywhere as spring has definitely set in...actually, the 75-80F temps felt more like summer to me and I love it! :)

SPRING BREAK!!!
As I was getting dressed for my ride today, I noticed that my team is now sponsored by Vera Bradely...I know all you Midwesterners know about her bags. Obviously we didn't get any cool merchandise as I didn't know about the sponsor until today.

Day One of spring break was perfect..70F at 9am so I definitely enjoyed my 3 hour ride although is was one of the hardest I have ever done and I just finished six weeks of VO2 efforts! After my ride, what better place to recover than poolside?! :)

After laying out, I took the boys for a walk. Cosby is on the left for those of you wondering, doesn't he look great for 10 1/2 year old Lab?!

Time for SPRING BREAK!!!

Guess who is headed to Cali this afternoon?!?! I am definitely done with winter and super excited for warm weather and no homework!

Kenda's Gone Green!

So much for the "Red Dragon" as I will now be sporting green leaves on my kit. I can of feel like I am trying to hide in a euclyptus tree but it's a nice change of pace. If you look closely you can see there is a little red frog on the shorts. (And the red flowers are not completely extinct as I have way more jerseys and shorts in red than green. I will just be racing in green from here on out).

Gotta Love Colorado Weather
Yesterday I had class from 8:30 am until 9:30 pm with a slight break in the morning during which I got to ride my bike while it was 71F outside!!! These are some of my classmates enjoying the sun before heading into our next class...and yes, I was definitely bitter about being inside all day since it was so nice outside!

Sunday morning, 8:15am: Below freezing and snowing! I am not sure whether I was more unhappy about the snow or the idea that I had another 4 1/2 hours of class...either way, I wasn't happy. Driving home from class last night, it was 62 F. By contrast, driving home this afternoon, it was only 26F. Only in Colorado!