Lotoja Weekend

My dad loves to ride his bike. He loves it so much in fact, that every September he decides to do something absolutely crazy...he competes in Lotoja (said LOW-ta-ja). It's a bike race from Logan to Jackson Hole--a total of 206 miles--in one day! It is completely INSANE! He starts at about 7:30 in the morning...rides all day with only a few quick breaks...and crosses the finish line about 12 hours later. And, this isn't an easy 206 miles either, they go up and down mountain passes all day. At one point, they go up a 7% grade! It's ridiculous! Anyway, we love to go along for the ride (well, except we're not riding...we're driving--in the nice air conditioned car)! The race ends in one of the most beautiful places on earth, so who in their right mind would want turn around and head straight home? Not us...so we always turn the race into a long weekend in Jackson Hole!

We started the weekend out early on Friday (Aiden's Birthday). We headed up to Logan right after lunch & went swimming. We thought that would be a good birthday activity for a two-year-old, but Aiden thought it was a little too cool for his liking and HATED it (as can be seen by the above picture). He did enjoy sticking his feet in the hot tub though (as can be seen by the picture at the end of this post). Later that night, the whole family went out to dinner at one of our favorite restaurants in Logan, Iron Gate Grill. It was delicious as always, and Aiden even got his own birthday ice cream which he ate all gone and still wanted more (hence the above picture when his decadent delight was exhausted)! Afterwards, we went and saw both Kristin & Dan's apartments and then headed back to the hotel for a little sleep before the big day.

The next day was the big race. Poppy did so good. Almost every time he would stop at a feed zone, he was smiling and saying he felt great. Which is pretty amazing when you see this course. At one point it becomes so steep that you can feel your car shift into a lower gear to compensate...and they are RIDING their bikes up this thing! It's out of control! He finished in 11 hours & 47 minutes (or something like that). Pretty impressive, I'd say... especially considering the fact that my dad is going to be 54 next month! Sorry to spill your age dad! That night, we found a little hole-in-the-wall authentic Mexican Restaurant for dinner. It was really yummy!

The next day, we went to one of our favorite places--Jenny Lake at Grand Teton National Park. We brought Connor here several years ago and he had a blast throwing rocks in the water & walking on all the hiking trails around the lake. Both the boys had a great time, and they sat still long enough for us to take a new family picture (thanks to Dan for falling on his butt to get the boys to both smile at the same time...and thank you to my dad for being patient while we took about 50 pictures). It was so much fun! After the boys had had their fill of nature, we went back into Jackson, ate some lunch at another one of our favorite places--The Bunnery, and then walked around all the cute little downtown shops for awhile. At that point, it was after 4:00 so we decided to head home, so we weren't going through Logan Canyon in the dark...it's scary enough in the light. Case in point, as we were driving through the canyon, there was a herd of cows on the side of the highway. COWS! Now, I've seen deer in that canyon before, and I've even seen a moose in that canyon before, but never have I seen a bunch of COWS there before! What in the world are a bunch of cows doing on the side of the road? Anyway, it was an AWESOME weekend! I've included some other pictures of the trip below.

Three Boys in a Hot Tub

This takes real talent! (In Montpelier--at one of the feed zones)

My dad riding up the steepest mountain on the course

Me & my crazy sister Kristin...no really, she's crazy...at Jenny Lake!

CHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESY!

I've put some more pictures of the trip on Facebook for those of you that have a profile. --Lindsay