A Touch Of Tyrell

October is magical. Just magic. This sunset ride in corner canyon has earned a top spot in the 10 most amazing experiences.  It was breathtaking.  Experiences like this are spiritual to me.  Of course I can't accurately describe how or why, but I feel a deep sense of spirituality, love and gratitude when I am in nature. And it all but consumes me when I'm in nature at it's prime.  I feel important. I feel known. I feel a sense of belonging.  I feel truly grateful to be able to experience nature this way. 

With Roxy in school all day, I'm able to do cool things like go mountain biking in the middle of the day.  It's an amazing feeling.  We're really lucky to have 3 locations for mountain biking within 20 minutes from our house. 

Once we were back home and getting into "the grove of things" (aka, swimming on Monday), Jake went out early Tuesday morning on a road bike ride and totally got hit by a car.  He (obviously) survived but it messed him up pretty good.  He can remember the car hitting (or almost) hitting him but then the next the he remembers is getting up off the pavement, throwing his bike to the curb, and finding his two water bottle (that flew into the street).  Because he can't remember how it all went down, we can't figure out how he was bruised and scraped on both sides of his face/body/arms AND his back.    Jake was wearing a helmet but still must have suffered from some sort of minor brain injury because HE WALKED HOME (about a mile and a half in clip-in shoes!)! He doesn't even know why he didn't call me or get insurance information from the lady that hit him.  I remember him walking into our bedroom a little before 7 (I was still in bed) and he was sort-of limping ...

Admittedly, beach cruiser bikes are a little more difficult to ride (mostly steer) than what we would consider a traditional kids bike. But nevertheless, they look cool and that's what we like around here (looks awesome, but doesn't function well).  LOL, I'm so kidding! Breckie REALLY wanted a beach cruiser bike but was never completely comfortable on her old bike (which is why she gave it to our neighbor almost two years ago). Soooooooo.... she basically has been learning how to ride a bike all over again.  She has been doing AMAZING and we can all tell she is LOVING the freedom riding a bike provides. You can go fast with minimal effort and it's just thrilling for beginners.  But one day she didn't make a sharp turn very well and it sent her down a gravelly hill filled with large boulders, pokey bougainvillea, and giant agave plants.  Miraculously she stayed on her bike (dodging all obstacles) until the very, very end where she fell over i...

It finally started raining. It has been such a treat!  Yesterday morning Roxy and I went on a hour long bike ride. We went through our neighborhood and into an area where people have cattle & fields with irrigation and it reminds me of country living.  Roxy said (from the bike trailer): "Ew, that's stinky doggy poop!" There is one house in particular that I just love so much. The house is way cute but it's the big trees and space and the yard that make me super envious.  Jake and I SUPER love our house and I LOVE LOVE LOOOOOVE that it's so close to school... call me what you want but I hate dropping off and picking up from school by car. I have SO much freedom in my day because my kids can walk to and from school. I love it.  But maybe someday when the kids are older we'll have a little more land and space... I don't know what for since we don't have pets/animals and don't plan to... but sometimes it's nice to dream a...

Jake has been able to mountain bike a little here and there still. I haven't been in 18 months. I've been going to the gym... one day I accidentally wore one of each shoe 😅

Saturday morning Jake wanted to sleep in but I was like, "hey hey, lets go play... but first, breakfast!" I love breakfast... and I love a lot of breakfast. I ate my whole omelet and all those chocolate pancakes. ALLLLL 2,000 calories of it 😳 Jake had done a little bit or reading on the best places to Mt. bike and so we headed to Schultz Creek (I think.... I can't remember :) But it was beautiful. We basically biked up the mountain... and then came back down.  It was the best. We loved every second of it. At the top there was a camp ground and a huge network of other trails.  There is a 99% chance we'll be coming back for more! Nearly everything was beautiful. We drove around for a bit dreaming of spending more time there.  Later that afternoon we found another cool spot for rock climbing... as if we needed any more reasons to love Flagstaff.  The map on our phones showed a lake, so we drove ...

You could say that I had a breakdown about the length and hotness of Phoenix Summers a few weeks before our Anniversary and whined to Jake that I just needed to be in the mountains and see real trees and wildflowers and feel the cool mountain air.  And because Jake is the very best husband of all time, he planned our anniversary trip to Flagstaff.  He's the best and I love him for it.  *yellowing hair 😩 So Effie and Tillie took care of the kids and house and we left on a Friday morning.  As soon as we got to Flagstaff we went mountain biking and I told Jake 18,620 times that this was just what I needed!!! We saw trees and views and wildflowers and blue skies with white fluffy clouds and we both loved it so much. So much that we immediately decided that someday we would have a cabin in Flagstaff.  Jake swears that he suggested we move to Flagstaff when we first planned on moving to AZ and I said something like "no, I do...