Who needs dinner and a movie?

A few weeks ago, my friend Jen and I started swapping babysitting as a weekly thing. Our kids are the same age and get along wonderfully. Jen and I have very similar parenting styles which makes watching each other's kids that much easier (what I do for my kids, I know is ok to do for hers). Well it was our turn this week. My hubby and I decided that we would both have more fun doing something active than we would going out to dinner and/or a movie.

We decided to go mountain biking! He bikes all the time, either by himself or with friends/colleagues, but I haven't gone since our trip to Moab in November. I am new enough at it that I would never feel comfortable going out by myself. Going with just him was perfect! I was able to try out actually clipping into the pedals without feeling self-conscious. I wore flats in Moab because everyone told me that was not the place to learn. It is really awkward to get used to clipping in and, more importantly, clipping out. I fell over a couple of times because I didn't get my feet out of the clips.

We went riding right from our house. We had talked about going to a couple different places to ride in the area, but Kenny pointed out that the canyon and trails behind our house are often mentioned on mountain biking websites as one of the better all-around rides. It didn't disappoint. It had hills, fire road, single track, woods, fields and even a small lake crossing.

Here is a picture taken as we are climbing up the opposite side of the canyon behind our house. You can't see it well, but our house is actually under the word "here." LOL. I thought it was really cool that we had ridden six or seven miles when this picture was taken. We rode parallel to the river (it is in the trees) to a bridge east of here and then back along a set of trails to this point.

It was beautiful and we were able to enjoy our lunch at a picnic table with a view of the ocean. Unfortunately, you can't see the ocean very well in the background of this picture because of the glare (it is on the horizon on the left-hand side of the picture). It is there, I promise. The lake is right below our neighborhood.

Here is the bridge over the river. For some reason Kenny loves to get pictures of my butt!

Here is another one!

Some of the climbs kicked my behind (ok... they kicked my butt, but I thought I was using the word "butt" too much). As much as I thought I was in great shape, I had to walk to bike a few times. If I stopped on a hill, I was a goner. Getting clipped into those pedals on a hill is tough.



It was a great day. We both had a fun time and laughed for the first time in a few days. This was exactly the kind of date we needed. Spending a ton of money on a fancy dinner wouldn't have been relaxing for either of us. Talking over any dinner would have ended up too serious and neither of us wanted that right now. I think Kenny enjoyed making a little fun of his wife today. I let him-- this time. LOL. The only time he came close to crossing the line was when I was trying to get back on the bike during a technical part of the trail. I was off the trail in the brush finding a way back to the trail. He says to me, "watch out for snakes..." O. M. G. !!!! My heart sunk. I hadn't thought about snakes all day and that comment almost ruined it for me. I hate snakes. I seriously hate them. I don't know what I would have done had I seen one. As I was beginning to panic I looked over and saw Kenny doubled over in laughter. Ha ha... very funny. He's lucky I was having fun. I might just have to put a spider on him tonight! *evil grin*

We are both looking forward to our next "date."

I leave you tonight with a video of my daring lake crossing. I was nervous because Kenny told me how much you lose momentum in the water and how likely it was going to be that I was going to fall before getting my feet unclipped (he even walked across it with my iPod and my phone so I wouldn't ruin them). I think he was hoping to get something on video worthy of America's Funniest Home Videos (had we been videotaping the entire day, we might have...it looks really funny when someone falls because they don't unclip their feet in time. All the funny falls were not mine, by the way). He almost had it at the end. I lost momentum and had to quickly twist my foot. That is why I am laughing here. Also, because I am tired and punchy from a long, sweaty ride. I must warn you: if you have your volume turned up, you might hear some non-PG-13 language come out of my mouth (really... I don't normally swear, but I really didn't want to go down in that muddy little lake). If you have kids around or get offended by the 's' word, turn down your volume ;-)

Tomorrow I am back to running. We'll see how my long run goes after the workout I had today. My legs are like jello.