Wakeboarding

I can't tell you how many times I have been boating, but have never tried wakeboarding. This is mostly because my rational told me I would be absolutely terrible at wakeboarding. So why waste the time of these nice people who are actually good at the sport (is it a sport?). Well, on Friday Shannon and I went camping with some friends who have a boat and multiple wakeboards. They were insistent that I give in and give it a try, promising that they would be patient as I learned. Turns out, I am not as terrible as I thought I would be. It took me about 4 tries to get up and I took some pretty crappy falls before I learned the art of standing on the water, but I did it! It was fun too! I couldn't quite figure out the getting all the way across the wake stuff, but one thing at a time. I was just ecstatic that I actually got up, yeah - me - Amber - the klutz of all klutz's who fell mountain biking, who runs because it takes no coordination, held onto a rope behind a boat and stood up. I rock. I even have pictures to prove it.

This face means - "Holy Crap I got up!"


This face means - "Dude, I totally got this!"


This is Shelby in the air - she actually does rock.


And my favorite part of the whole trip - Shannon forgot to put on sunscreen so by the end of the day she had to shield herself from the sun under a towel. Poor red Shannon!


Thank you to Shelby, John, Christen and Jason for taking us out on your boat! It was such a fun time!

***I would also like to note that people in Oregon go boating on rivers. This is really weird to me because my association of a river is one like Provo River. You can try and try, but you are NOT boating down Provo river. I am so used to boating in lakes and reservoirs that I couldn't even wrap my head around boating in a river?! Chalk that up to another weird Oregonism.

My house for all to see

Ok, get ready for a post full of pictures (like all of my posts really). Here is my living room and kitchen, it is just about as decorated as its going to get for now. I love my new couch and chaise lounge... finally somewhere to relax!

Here is the living room as you walk into the door


This is from behind the couch facing the fireplace and TV



I had to include this picture because it shows my area rug that I love. I think I want to find a round coffee table for this room to even out all the dark rectangles, but no luck with that yet. So for now this storage ottoman is doing a great job!


Here is the the kitchen. This is with your back to the fireplace.





Now don't you feel like you are right here with me. This is home and I love it. I have so much space just for me!

Tagged

My friend Erica tagged me and I have been such a slacker to post this. Sorry Er!

3 of My Joys: my family, my friends, church

3 of My Fears: being paralyzed, someone close to me passing away, not living up to my abilities.

3 Current Obsessions: The Olympics, working out, finding someone to cut my hair in Portland

3 Random Surprising Facts: I am a clean freak, I stress about EVERYTHING, I secretly think I am really funny.

My turn to pick on you! Consider yourself tagged: Ashley, Ashley, Pam

Mom came, we explored

It was so nice to have my mom here with me for about a week. She was able to help me find some good things for my house, she made me some yummy food, about burned down my house, and I tried to show her all the fun Oregon has to offer! We had a good time together and it was really nice to spend some time with her in my new house. Here are some highlights from the trip. Thanks for coming mom, you really are the best ever!!

We went to a couple wineries and took a tour of one. The tour was really cool and we learned some interesting things. Like, did you know that the barrels that are used to store and age the wine are $1000 a piece, and you can only use them up to 3 times?! Expensive! And a wine bottle is filled with nitrogen, then wine, then corked so oxygen won't ruin it? I didn't know that, nor did I know that there were so many vineyards in the valley, but there are a ton and they are beautiful!


We went out to the Tillamook Cheese Factory. It was a cool, but they weren't making cheese while we were there, bummer! We did get lots of samples and bought about 5 bags of cheese though. Jelly Belly was also there giving out samples of new flavors. Here is mom with all her cheese.


While we were in Tillamook we went to a french cheese factory also that specialized in Brie. The cheese was good, but they had a petting zoo which was even better! The goats were crazy... they would climb right onto the fence for food and lick the food right out of our hands. It was such a funny feeling, I couldn't stop laughing!


Then it was off to the beach. There was this really cool cliff that had a hole cut through it so we could walk from one side of the beach to the other. We were able to climb up onto the rocks and see further along the coast. Everytime I go to the coast I am always amazed that the water goes on and on.





We saw the smallest lighthouse in Oregon - proudly 38 feet tall.


The of course we went downtown and to the rose gardens.



Lastly, Lake Oswego. My whole life I never really thought my mom and I looked alike. But if you look at this picture, we look very similar I am just shorter with darker features... who knew!

Thanks again Mom, I had a blast!!

Mountain biking is not for everyone...

...especially me! Oh my goodness, I learned a very valuable lesson today that I would like to share.
It all started yesterday, Dan and Shannon said, "we would like to go biking tomorrow, would you like to come?" "Yes, that would be fun" I replied. And so it went... Dan borrowed a bike from his brother and today we set off. Shannon and I met Dan at his work and we all drove to a trail. As we were driving I say, "so what kind of trail is this?" (Thinking this would be a paved bike trail, I should have asked this about 48 hours prior). "It's a dirt trail, but it's not too bad,"they assure me.. Before I know it we were there and setting up the bikes. I hop on and realize, I don't think I have ridden a bike on a dirt trail, um ever!
I was able to get this picture before the ride started (and I was still sane)

As we started down the trail I immediately voiced my concerns, "um guys, this is scary." "You'll be fine, " Shannon said, "just use your back break, remember Nicki?" (Nicki is my cousin who Shannon and I watched go over the handle bars of her bike when we were about 8 on this monster of a hill by our houses when she tried to stop). GREAT, I thought. Well slow, slow, slow I went down the hill skidding my back tire every time I tried to slow more on the loose gravel. Those who know me well, know that I am always super paranoid something bad is about to happen. Maybe it's because I am a huge klutz. But as I rode (or walked down hills) I stressed about how I was about to fall down the side of the cliff, flip over my handle bars or get out of control. I was so nervous and the trail was so technical that I wanted to cry every time I saw yet another downhill. I was just waiting for the right moment to dump the bike and just start running. And then the inevitable happened, as I turned a corner going about .00001 mph I moved my weight wrong and tipped right over! Shannon heard my, "ahhhh" and then the rustling of the leaves. When I finally poked my head up we laughed and laughed since I wasn't hurt, just covered in leaves and dirt. Luckily they took pity on my sorry bike riding skills and took a faster way down the mountain. I only fell one more time on the way down. When we finally got to the bottom, we had to go back up. However, UP was better - we went a NON-technical way and instead of rocks, roots and cliffs to worry about it was just straight up mountain road! Fine with me! 6 miles uphill we were back at the car - I have never been so relived to see a car in my life.
The valuable lesson to take out of this experience... next time someone asks you to go biking, maybe you should ask - what kind of trail are we talking about here?

As for mountain biking, I think I will stick to spinning at the gym, keeping my tires on the pavement and using the trails for running. Thanks for the experience guys, the views really were beautiful!

DU- Athletes

Me, Shannon, Dan and Connor signed up for a duathalon a few weeks ago. We signed up as 2 relay teams. Me and Shannon - Dan and Connor. This weekend was the big show! I ran and Shannon biked. Connor ran for Dan's team while Dan biked. This was a sprint duathalon, so the way it works is 5k - 12mile bike - 5k... so I run, Shannon bikes, I run. It was so fun and we totally rocked the house! Both teams took home first place in their age division/gender for the relay teams**. Yeah - that's right we got the gold! Boonan-izzy! We originally were going to do one on our own, but we weren't sure we would be able to handle it. Now that we have the gold, we KNOW we can handle it.

Bringing our 'A' game at 6 in the morning



When you are in a race where they want to write on your leg, you know you are big time!


You may notice 2 medals here... yes a finishers medal and a gold medal!


**It should be noted that both teams were the only participants in their age group making their gold medal a shoe-in. (However the participants did not know that at the time of competition and still worked their booties off.)

Red Bull Flugtag

This is the craziest thing I have ever seen! Red Bull sponsors this event, called the flugtag. This is where regular people like you and me, build some sort of flying contraption and launch it off of a ramp into water trying to fly. This comes to Portland waterfront about every 4 years, no one really flies and it is hilarious!

First they dance...


Then they fly... (sort of)