Rita came to visit!
Rita (my older sister) had been wanting to visit us for a while, and now that Anika is here she decided to make it happen. With three kids under her belt, she had lots of good advice for us and helped us with the baby.
Anika had her worst tummy ache to date when Rita was around. I had to work the next day so Carol didn’t wake me up. Anika cried for hours until Carol went to the drug store at about 3am to get some colic drops. Carol’s mom was also with us so I’m not sure if Rita stayed with the baby or went to the drug store with Carol, but either way she helped out and Carol and I are grateful.
Besides doing baby stuff, we took Rita to nearby places in SLC. The day after she arrived, we went downtown and took her to Ensign Peak:
After Ensign Peak we wanted to go to Temple square, but we were hungry so we stopped at Squatters brewery. This was the first restaurant Anika has ever been to. She was really calm and loved the beer… Ok, we didn’t give her any beer; but she did look drunk after finishing 4oz of milk while she was there. She actually looks that way most of the times she drinks a lot of milk.
Here are some pics of Temple Square:
The next day, Carol’s mom and sister came from California. They both live in Guatemala but came to the US to visit Anika and some family in California.
Rita had never seen snow so we drove to the mountains one day to check it out:
And the last cool place we went was Antelope Island. I had forgotten how beautiful and odd that place is. I want to come back for some hiking, running, road biking, and/or mountain biking. I just need to remember to check if it is mosquito season because they were eating us like piranhas while we were there.
Antelope island looks “odd” because besides being an island, it has very few trees and the plant combination is different than what you see throughout Salt Lake City. It also has bison, which ordinary people like me just see them as buffalo and have no idea why they are different.
I had tons of fun with Rita here. I’m very happy she came.
First MTB ride of the year!
This year’s MTB season began yesterday for me with a 1 hour 45 minute ride on the Corner Canyon trails.
Since I’ve been road biking a bit (commuting plus some rides). I felt ready to start where we left off last year. So I downhilled all the fun trails of corner canyon: Jacob’s ladder, ghost falls, and the new coyote hollow one (that’s how it is called right?). It was 11.3 miles of fun:
The trails were in perfect condition. I did the jump at the end of Jacob’s ladder, the one we just barely manned up to do at the end of last year. It felt, again, not as hard core as it looks. It had a deep, big, puddle of water that you have to clear, which is cool. Ghost falls was cool as usual. And Coyote Hollow was better than ever, it felt like an entirely settled trail.
I didn’t plan this ride in advance so I just went alone. I enjoy the occasional solo ride though. I’m looking forward to more MTB action this year!
