Quick Desert Vacation

We love mountain biking. There, I said it. Although if you follow our blog you already know full well that we mountain bike as often as we can. Since I went to Gooseberry Mesa a couple of weeks ago for my mountain biking class, Chad has been wanting to go and see for himself how incredibly aweome it is. Since Chad's day off is on Thursday, we packed up the car on Wednesday night right after work and drove the 4 hours down to St. George so that we would have all of Thursday as a stress-free mountain biking day. Luckily, the Cummings family opened their house to us on Wednesday night and we were able to sleep the night there instead of trying to find the campground on the mesa in the middle of the night.

Thursday morning we woke up early and were on the mesa around 8:45 a.m. I love the way our car looks with the rack and the bikes on the top. Here's a pic:

When we finally made it up the bumpy dirt road to the mesa, we drove into the parking lot and officially became the only people on the mesa. Seriously, the entire parking lot was empty, we didn't see anyone on the trail ALL DAY. It was awesome.

Before embarking on our mountain biking excursion, we had to take a quick picture. We were so happy to be out of Provo for a little bit and in such a beatiful place to mountain bike all day!

Chad climbing up the rock face: isn't he sexy?

Gooseberry Mesa is the most interesting place either of us have ever mountain biked before. The majority of the trail is sheer rock face that you ride your bike on. Some of it just completely defys everything I've ever known to be true. It just doesn't make sense in my brain that you can ride straight at a large rock/boulder and somehow your bike will roll up it if you're pedalling correctly. It's amazing.

Living on the edge:

After stopping at the point of the mesa for a quick snack and a breather, we started riding again and found out I had a flat tire. Good thing we were all prepared to fix it.

I love the desert environment...

Climbing.

Look how blue the sky was...

Sweet jump!

More climbing.

It was an awesome trip and a great Thursday that we got to spend together. We plan on going back down to Gooseberry sometime soon!

Yummy food as of Late...

"Flower Bread"... it blooms when cooking.
It was incredibly tasty... Chad called it "restaurant bread".
With the bread we had homemade Chicken, Basil, Orzo Soup. It was the perfect combination. (Recipe from "For the Love of Cooking")
A couple of nights ago, Chad also cooked up some delicious lemon Halibut. I'm not usually a fan of any kind of fish/seafood, but it was absolutely delicious. The fish was accompanied by some steamed broccoli and lemon pasta. I love having a husband who doesn't mind cooking dinner and when he does cook, it's delicious!

Rain

It is June, it is springtime, and I have worn jeans with a sweatshirt for the last week. Strange, I know. Despite my dissapointment in the lack of sun and therefore lack of tanning my Utah-white skin, I do love the rain. It is beautiful. I love that it is overcast all day and then sporadically the sky will open up and pour down tremendous amounts of water for approximately one hour until the sky decides it's done. Apparently the sky just wants to put us lowly humans in our place so that we know who's really in charge; no matter what we do, we can't stop the rain from coming. After the "isolated thunderstorms" (as coined by weather.com), a rainbow usually sneaks accross the sky. Here's a picture to prove it:

(if you look close enough, you can even see the second rainbow above the first one)

Utah weather can be kind of strange sometimes.

Mountain Biking: Our Favorite Pastime

Summertime in the Bennett household has translated into mountain bike season. Chad's not in school, and so he goes mountain biking probably 3 or 4 times a week; plus, even though I'm in school, I happen to be taking a mountain biking class (awesome) and go with Chad as much as I can. Therefore, hours and hours of mountain biking for both of us! Yesterday the rain had held off until Chad got done with work so Chad and I loaded our bikes on the car and headed to the mouth of Provo Canyon for exploration of the Race Course track. It's a beautiful little place, and I just had to take a couple of pictures.

That's the mouth of the canyon off in the distance.

Jacie's Bridal Shower

One of my most favorite people in the world is getting married in less than 3 weeks! Crazy how fast times flies. In preparation, we had a small bridal shower at my house on Sunday night. I was kind of nervous to have people over for a bridal shower, I've never been semi-in charge of one before, but everything turned out great. Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of the awesome lemon cake (I love that lemon cake), but I got a picture of all the fun people who came.

This is Rachel, she lived accross the hall from Jacie and I when we were living in the dorms. She's engaged too and is getting married in July!

Jacie didn't want to get up to bring her presents over... so we brought them to her.

Friends.

Jacie's future sister-in-law Cheryl and her cute little girl Dana.

She got a little excited about the Balsamic Vinegar...

... and the Granny Panties.

Jacie with her Saltzman sisters.

Jacie and Lacey (one of her roommates from last year).

Suzie, Jacie, and Bethany... all friends from California.

Jacie and Amanda, her sister (don't they look alike?)

I love that hippie girl Jacie.