Category ‘2008’

• Location: Coeur d’Alene Lake in Idaho
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Last weekend we went to Minnesota for the commitment ceremony of my friends Becky and Jenna.  Here’s a few photos leading up to the wedding:

We all met at the Stone Arch Bridge in Minneapolis for some photos.  It’s a really beautiful location – I can’t wait to see the professional photographer’s photos.

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• New kite: the Sutton FlowForm 8.  The 8 is for 8 sq ft of material.  Serious Aerial photographers use the FlowForm 30, an 8′ Rokkaku, a Powersled 81, or some other enormous kite.
  
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Ben and I met 7 years ago in Colorado.  At one point during our giddy ‘get to know each other’ phase, we had an e-mail conversation about things that made us happy.  Here’s our lists, feel free to join in.

Things that make Alonna happy (Summer 2001)

• pickles
• spotting wild life
• babies
• someone tickling my feet
• wildflowers
• being right
• helping people
• diet coke
• holding hands
• Ben writing me poems
• digital cameras
• watching Friends and That 70’s Show
• piano in rock music
• showing off a big bruise
• Colorado clouds
• playing cards with my grandparents
• fishing with my dad
• shopping with my mom
• seeing my family on holidays
• the Canadian Rockies
• the smell of mountain air

Things that make Ben happy (Summer 2001)

• mountain biking
• pizza
• driving fast on winding roads in the mountains
• Cherry Coke
• snowboarding
• the Winter Park condo
• standing on top of a mountain
• sunsets
• hanging out with my brother
• hanging out with my sisters
• hanging out with my mom
• making people laugh
• roasting marshmallows
• carrot cake
• fire flies (lightening bugs)
• getting e-mail from Alonna
• listening to covers by my favorite bands
• making analogies
• when people remember analogies that I make (”it’s kind of like what you said…”)
• giving poems to Alonna
• trying new things
• Saying howdy to friendly strangers
• hearing good classical music live (Mussorgsky, Prokofiev, Beethoven, not the sissy stuff)
• Goofy t-shirts
• This game.

Happy Anniversary Ben, I love you!

• The basic setup – an eye-hook bolt tied to a $20 kite. I set the camera to take a picture every 2 seconds
  
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My best friend Becky and partner Jenna are tying the knot!  To help them celebrate, we had a BBQ bash with the girls on Saturday night and a shower with friends and family on Sunday.  Here’s a few photos from the shower.

Becky & Jenna's Shower in Apple Valley

Becky and friends

Friends

Family

Alonna and Mom

Alonna and Mom

Becky and Jenna opening gifts (with Taylor's help)

The Girls

 

• Red Badge(s) of Courage:
  
• This happened in one of the easiest sections of the Rock Garden at Table Rock.
• The biggest danger in mountain biking is going too slow.  Or too fast.
• (I prefer Red Raspberry of Courage, but calling it that assumes everyone has heard of the book the Red Badge of Courage – or at least the term itself – and no one has.  Plot summary – Civil War boy soldier is wounded in a cowardly fashion, everyone thinks he must be very brave because of his injury and this shames him into actually becoming very courageous)

• Day 1: Fisher Creek and Ladd’s Fajitas and horseshoes
• Day 2: Elk Meadows and aluminum foil sculpture-food and more horseshoes
• Day 3: Scones and packing up
• Pictures…

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• Sunday July 6th
• Elk Meadows / Deer Point Trail at Bogus Basin Ski Resort near Boise ID
• Approx 7 miles, probably 1K elevation gain.  Well maintained (new) trails, except 92/Shindig, which was a bit more of an adventure.
• Several Trail markers were missing or mislabeled.  This is common on mountain biking trails and is “part of the fun”.  A wrong turn here means hours of suffering and the possibility of never finding your way back to civilization:
  
• Alonna hikes back from taking the wrong turn:
  
• Varied and interesting wildflowers everywhere:
  
• Also lots of butterflies and bumble bees (not pictured).
• Never really saw any people, except for two bikers headed the wrong way at the aforementioned fork in the trail.
• Not much shade, probably because we were criss-crossing ski runs.

Today Ben and I went on a bike ride.  We attempted to go “early” (10:30am) to avoid the heat, but it still felt like we were biking in a sauna.  The high today was 96 degrees – it seems a little early for it to be this hot in Boise (the high tomorrow is 102!).  But still, you can’t beat the clear blue sky which we see most of the year.  And the biking was still fun – we just took more breaks to enjoy the view…