Ho Ho Ho!!! Merry Christmas!!! Noahs big breakfast with Santa. So Saturday we went to the Five Mile Grange which is about 1/2 mile from us and had breakfast with Santa. We felt like it was the back when days. What I mean by that is breakfast was $3 per adult, kids free. I didn't think you could get served food anywhere for $3 anymore. They also had a white Christmas tree, I think those went out in the 70's. It was a blast thought, oh ya, and check out Noah's awesome Moon Boots, they were out of the 80's. Actually they were Uncle David's when he was kid. The crazy things people keep. Oh well Noah thinks they walked on the Moons so he loves them. He He He. After breakfast with Santa we headed up the mountain for some snowshoeing. I love the fact that we have a totally wild child that puts up with all the silly things Kris and I do. The funny thing is he loves doing it all with us. We had a blast at the Mountain. We took his sled and pulled him for a while, he hopped on my back for a spell, and even made some of his own tracks. He is such a little crazy man. He is going to be just like his dad, I know it. We had lots of fun. I think the next adventure is skiing. It should be interesting.

So the winter fun and chill begins. Kris and I were lucky enough to get a sitter so we could go out on this 2 1/2 hour adventure in the snow. It really wasn't bad we had previously had about 4 inches of snow that had melted a little and compacted down. Unfortunately left the road ways really icy. It then proceeded to snow over night. When we woke up that morning it was about 24 deg out. It was about 28 deg when we left at 8am. It was crazy though because it was so slick on the roads that we could hardly stay tire side down and well it took us forever to get off the hill.

We had a blast laughing at each other looking like dorks. We had so much fun we went out 3 days and 4 more inches of snow later to try to more fun. Sundays ride was a bit different. From my house you can ride trails down to the Riverside State Park which is a huge park that runs along the river shown above. Anyways we had to pedal all the way down the switch backs to get down there. It was crazy usually we are just coasting bombing down. Well not Sunday. It was a blast though. We ended up riding more road than usually on Sunday. I would have to say the conditions were more liked groomed powder rather that deep powder found on the trails. Hmm time to get the skis out.......

I totally forgot about these pictures.....A little indoor football on Thanksgiving. Can't beat that. I don't think Nana was too impressed.

Rain, Rain, and then there was Mud. Kris, Noah, and I were in Portland this past weekend. It rained the entire time were were there. Friday we went into town with my sister and Maggie, we went to lunch at the coolest restaurant. It is called Grandma Leeths. They have basically a day care in the restaurant where you can see your kids play and watch while you eat peacefully. The food was wonderful also which can be hard to find in such a place. We pre-rode Friday afternoon for the cyclocross race and the course was pretty uneventful except a little mud which turned into more Saturday and a lot Sunday. Friday night we met up with his brother and family and had dinner Friday night. It is always fun to let the cousins play. Saturday came and I met up with the Bellas, we had a pretty good showing 10 stong. Saturday we both raced which neither one of us had our best races but we had fun playing in the mud. Crashed a few times, ran over and mounted one of the posts (that was a little embarrasing). It was fun to take the KONA out for a stoll in the mud even if it wasn't a great race for me. Even in the rain Noah had a great time cheering us on, he just loves to ring that cowbell and yell at every cyclist. He is the best fan in the world. We later treated him to some swimming at this community center where they have a really cool water park and slide inside. He was pretty excited. It rained all night long and Sunday the course was a mess. My knee was hurting from the race and well the roads were suppose to be something terrible so Kris made and executive decision to skip his race. We ended up heading to IKEA. I have never been to IKEA and it was an experience. The place is huge!!!! I think we ran through about 1/4 of it and got tired and left. Noah wasn't really appreciating the shopping either. We went and picked up Kris's Mom and headed home. Lucky for us the weather held off and we had rain the entire way.

So off to P-town tomorrow. Kris, Noah, and I are heading down to Portland for the US Grandprix of Cyclocross tomorrow. We are racing Saturday and Sunday, should be fun. It has been an interesting season for me. I tore my MCL (Grade II tear) 8 weeks ago pre-riding for a local race. I was actually starting to come around after my last injury and feel fast again. So that really put a damper in the fast thing. I decided to hop in a local race about 2 weeks ago and see if racing at the GP was even possible. I can ride my bike pain free it is the running and barriers that doesn't agree with the knee. It was a rather humbling experience to work that hard and get 3rd place when I know was riding way faster 8 weeks ago. It took me about 40 minutes to figure out how to ride the skinny tires again. They let me down the last time so we had to have a little time to get to know each other again. Once I figured it out I was much smoother and made up about 30 plus seconds on 2nd place in a matter of a lap. I guess it also didn't help that I had to walk the run up and well the training thing would probably help. So guess the question is why would I really want to race in an elite race when I don't have the training to do so. I would never run the New York Marathon untrained so why I have decided to do this is beyond me, but I have. I am going for the adverse condition theory. I love love love riding in mud, so hopefully it is muddy. It is just fun and maybe that will propel me along to do well. In fact tonight I went night riding in about 5 inches of snow just so I could get that totally out of control feeling you get like when you ride in Mud. It is very similar to riding in Snow although the icy sections under the snow will catch you off guard. Luckily there usually isn't ice under the Mud. So off to P-town we go. Should be a fun weekend of racing. After all that is what it is really about having a blast and pushing our bodies to do things they probably weren't meant to do. So 'till next time.

Noah The Dragon

So here is my little Dragon, although he calls himself a sharp tooth. He was awsome on Halloween, totally in full character. I think he growled at every person he trick or treated. Even Papa and Nana. He was pretty impressed that every house he went to they put candy in his pumpkin. Oh the simplicity of being a child and the littlest things that make their day. We had fun, Kris got off work way before me so they took off trick or treating before I got home. I caught up to them and was able to enjoy going to the grandparents. It was fun. Thursday we went climbing down at Wild Walls, turns out Noah is quite the climber. He got harnessed up and made it 3/4 of the way up before he realized how far up he was and wanted to come down. Didn't scare him much because he went right back up with Papa.
Kris returned the Sunday prior from a trip to Kentucky to race in the US Grand Prix of cyclocross. He had fun. He had crummy call ups for the start so it is hard to get out fast. He did good and was excited to come back to Spokane. Turns out Louisville makes Spokane look fashionable, which I thought we were pretty behind times. This past weekend he raced in a local race and he looked awsome. He is really stepping it up and getting his game on. He got 2nd but not before long he will be doing some damage on the cross courses. As far as me I am still out. I rode this weekend but not sure when I will be up and racing again. The knee just isn't ready. The frustration is setting in. Well till next time. Happy riding.....

Is this not the cutest little face you have ever seen? I think he might have gotten into trouble right after the picture. Halloween is tomorrow I think he is going to be a Dragon, he has a pretty good ROAR so be very scared and run if you see him... He He He..




I have decided that I should be riding a tricycle with Noah, maybe I would stay healty. I crashed pre-riding a course about 2 weeks ago. I actually wasn't going to race because we didn't have anyone to watch the little man. My husband found a friend who's wife would be there 10 min before my race. So we got to the race site early so that I could at least have 1 pre-ride lap. Well that was all it took. There was an off camber corner on wet grass and me pretending to be Katie Compton...someone I am not. I took it to fast and crashed. The top tube managed to scrape its way down my shin which was actually the only thing that I thought hurt at first. Then I stopped riding for a second and I realized I couldn't walk, my knee was messed up. Well after about 15min I got back to the car and was really upset. Kris took off for his warm up and I hopped on the trainer to see how bad I was. I really didn't feel bad riding it was just walking that killed me. So for some crazy, stupid, idiotic reason I decided to start the race. Other that my knee I felt awsome I had a really good lead after 3 laps but decided something was really wrong. So I pulled out. We originally just thought I strained my MCL, only to find out after 2 nights of not being able to sleep that I tore my MCL. It really isn't my year, unlike this spring I am taking some time off to heal. It is possible I will be racing at the last GP in Portland.

Well things have been changing around the Holden household. I recently got a new job and work Mon, Tues, Wed and every other Saturday. I work at Yoke's Pharmacy, the store is pretty slow now but I hope to get the numbers up and get busier in the next year or so. It is absolutely wonderful. I get to see Noah much more. This is a picture of Noah last Friday at the park. We have lots of fun on my days off. It is really nice because Kris has Thurs off also so we get an extra day to spend as a family. Well it is fall and that means cyclocross season. I just love cyclocross it is so painful and yet fun at the same time. There is just something about being in the purple zone for 50 minutes. Unfortunately I managed to crash pre riding last week and will be sitting out a few weeks to let a MCL heal. Kris on the other hand had an awesome race last week and he is heading to Kentucky next Friday to race in the Grand Prix cyclocross races. So wish him luck.

More next time.

Can you believe Noah is 2 years old. It has gone by so fast. This past year has been so wonderful and Kris and I are so blessed with this amazing child. Naoh (aka Nanu, Noodle) He goes by a lot. Kris and I fixed up this old tricycle so he could ride it. He absolutely loves it.