LIFE IS AWESOME

Life is awesome. Here are some photos explaining why I think so. Utah is an awesome state and I love living here. I love that we have so many outdoor activities available, and although I have been single for a while now, I love being able to do whatever I want, whenever I want.(sorry all you married couples, at least I have one thing on you)





Happiness is.....getting up at 5:45 to go boating.

Here I am slalom skiing. It's my first time ever trying it.

Happiness is.......... Surfing behind the boat.

My friend Jared slashing through the water.

Happiness is.............. floating the Provo River on inner tubes.

Happiness is..........eating lunch in the park with friends on a beautiful day.

Hapiness is...........Mtn. Biking up the Bonneville Shorline Trail then going down Bobsled.

Happiness is.....................Ending the day at Cafe Rio with a Chicken Salad.

Happiness is.................being able to do this all in one day!

Summer Days and Nights

My good friends Krista and Aaron (A-bag) had their first baby. It's a boy, gavin. I finally caught up with them the other day at their place to see him. Cute kid. Well done you guys!

I went to a really good friends wedding reception. Chris kent and I go way back. All the way to AYSO and Strikers and his dad Joe coaching us. Congrats to Beav and his new Bride. Here is a picture of them cutting the cake. It was also good to see osme old friends I hadn't seen in a ver long time. Seth Huggins. Vicki Hansen, Josh and Brandon Wray, Brad Hepworth, Cory Turkelson, Jackson Van Dyke, Sam Hykelah, and a few more.

We also went boating to Jordanele. It was a lot of fun and the first time I had really been boating this year. Thanks to my roomate Jeff and taking us in his boat. I am not a huge fan of wakeboarding. I have just seen too many people get hurt and am scared to try any flips or tricks so I just jump the wake... Although I did try surfing the wake close to the boat and that was a blast. Here are a few pics. (Click to enlarge)

My one and only trick, a grab.

Here are a few videos of my good buddy Blake Nelson. He is pretty good on a wakeboard. probably the best I have ever been with. It's surprising to see how many people suck at wakeboarding on the lake. I hardly ever see people that are good. Especially when they are rolling in a 100 thousand dollar wakeboard boat. Props to Blake.

Sorry but I am not hip on the wakeboard nomenclature, but I think this is an air railey?

Tantrum?

I have had a great summer so far. Hanging with friends and family!

New Section at Jordan River

WENT RIDING SATURDAY WITH A FEW FRIENDS. NEW SECTION AT JORDAN RIVER. SO MUCH FUN!

(click on photos to enlarge)

Jerad, good view of how far the double is.

Rear view, literally....





























Ben, Front View

Awesome dirt.

Jake, side view

Video of entire new section

Double and Step up

A few friends and I made the road trip to Denver to see the national. It was sweet, those guys haul! James Stewart scrubbin.

Tommy Hahn

A group of us went to the Fireworks on the 4th at Sugar House park. Cool photo of the big crowd on hand and all of the glow sticks.

Wasatch Back "Ragnasty" Ragnar Relay 180 Mile Relay Race

This was the start, I think every 20 mins they had about 15 teams start at the same time. There is Jeff on the right behind the guy in the hat, he has some floppy hair.

"Hey Ben would want to run a relay race with us in a few months"

"Sure Jeff, why not, sounds like fun"

Was my answer to my roommate Jeff about 2 months ago. I did not know what I was getting into....

This past Friday and Saturday I ran a relay race called the Wasatch Back presented by Ragnar. Click here Ragnar is a circuit of relay races they have throughout the US, in total I think they put on about 7 different races. I ran with a team of 11 other people. We ran/jogged/walked from Logan to Park City. A total of 181 Miles. In total there were 579 teams with aprox. 12 people on each team so you do the math. Roughly 6,000-7,000 people running. Pretty cool. We were Team #340. We were running for Jeffs dad (Ford) that is having a hard time right now recovering from a surgery. So that was great having a good cause to run for. It was probably one of the harder things I have done in a while. Each person had 3 different legs to run ranging from 3 miles to about 9 miles. There were a few different classifications for each leg. Easy, Moderate, Hard, Very Hard. We drove up to Logan and started at 12:40 in the afternoon on Friday, ran all day, night and most of the day Saturday. It was a pretty big deal. A lot bigger than I had anticipated. When we arrived in Logan at the start line it was a different kind of atmosphere for me. I am pretty accustomed to "The snowboard" crowd or "The Motocross" crowd. But the "marathon/runner" crowd was one that I never been around. Almost every person was in great shape and 95% of them were pretty amped with their vehicles plastered with everything imaginable to show their enthusiasm for the race. Pretty interesting and funny at the same time.

Ben's legs:

This was my first Leg. Ashley exchanging the wrist band we had to wear while running. Look at the dude next to me, thats how just about everyone looked, and then ther I am with the bright shoes, baggy basketball shorts and sunglasses. But it's all good.

Beautiful vew from my first leg. Scott waiting to give me some water.

Avon pass

Huffin and puffin.

Avon Pass

1- Leg #5 Very Hard 7.4 Miles. Ben's time 1 hr 7 mins 35 secs, Average mile of 9:07. It climbed Avon Pass coming out of Logan's cache Valley. This one was pretty hard, I am not really a runner so 7.4 Miles was a lot and especially all uphill. It was all dirt road, so it was pretty hard for me but the scenery was awesome! I gained a total of 1210 ft. of elevation.

Getting ready for Leg #2 and my night run. Carrie giving me some words of encouragment, or just taking a break from her "front seat routine"

2- Leg #17 Moderate. 5.9 Miles. Ben's time 48 mins and 40 secs. Average mile of 8.14 which I was stoaked with. This one was my fav. It ran along a frontage road in the Morgan Area. It was about 12:45 at night when I started. It was dark, but still pretty warm while running. I ran past a ranch that my Aunt Jan and Uncle Wes used to own so it brought back a lot of memories of being there as a kid with the family. This by far was my fav. leg. At night, nice and cool, under the moon and stars, just running by myself. Pretty sweet.

3- Leg #29 Moderate 4.1 Miles. Ben's time 28:28. Average mile of 6:56 . I ran this one at about Noon on Saturday so it was pretty hot but awesomw views of Deer Creek. It was 1/2 down hill so that was nice but by this time my muscles were pretty sore and my feet especially the outside of my right one were starting to hurt. They are just not used to this type of running. But it was a nice leg to finish up, not too long and part down hill.

Our Team

Our total time was 29 hrs 43 mins and 9 secs.


Click Here for the overall results, we were in the Coed Open Division. 141st out of 210. Not bad!

I had a great time and am really glad I did it. The event was very well organized and everything went off without a hitch. It was probably one of the hardest things I have done in a long time. I really enjoyed myself and I am sure my body will enjoy it too in a few days when my muscles aren't sore and my feet don't kill! Thanks to Jeff for inviting me and for putting all this together there is no way we could have survived without him! Also to all my car buddies. Scott for all the insight and tips about running and the sweet cabin to let us nap, Loni for being so outgoing and being there any time someone needed water, Ashley for running hard and... well just being you and for putting up with my jokes, and Carrie for being so positive and making us all laugh.. We all had a great time!!!

Spring Vacay to Portland and Mt. Hood

View of the Rose festival carnival from the freeway into town.

I went to Portland for a few days last week. Rachy and the boys are here in Utah for a few weeks so I planned it around that so I could go up and keep Andy company and also so we could shred a few days and not feel bad taking him away from the fam..

The annual "Rose Festival" kicked off while i was there so we went downtown Portland to check out the sights, and let me tell you it was a sight to see! Portland is one diverse place and they really came out for this one. I got a new camera, a Nikon D50 with a wide angle Macro lens, so I am going to let the following photos tell the whole story.

Portland has some pretty cool art downtown like this big piece. Cool.

This guy was an Elvis impersonator, he was singing and playing his guitar. Funny thing is he is probably as far from the real Elvis as you can get.

They had a ton of booths to buy trinkets and what have you, there was one in particular that this lady was selling these home made nerf type swords. These guys were going at it in the street. I'm sure they think it was money well spent as the older fellow "The master" teaches his young padawon a thing or two with the light saber (nerf sword).

Andy and I were able to hit up Mt Hood and we really couldn't have picked 2 better days to go. I love going there in the summer, spring/summer riding is always a blast, you get a good tan going and the weather is usually always great. They had a great park with 4 good sized jumps, and a half a dozen boxes and rails to get our jib on. Here are a few photos from my new camera I bought(nikon D50) during the 2 days we rode.




Andy: 50/50 on the down flat down

Ben: 5-0 on the flat bar

Ben: Method

Andy: Nose Press on Flat bar

Ben: Nose Press on Flat bar

Ben: Board slide on banked box

Ben: Bunky front side 3

Andy: Front 3 on one of the jumps

Ben: Method from afar

Drew: Probably my most fav photo I took on my trip, and he was only like 3 ft in the air.

If you ever go up there, head to the small town of Govy (Goverment Camp) which is right below Timberline ski resort where we went. There is the best Taco/Burrito shop you will find. The guy there makes the best Burrito. Unfortunately he was closed the secong day we went but So good!

Andy on the down flat down rail

May Blog

Well once again it has been a while since I have posted a blog, I was really on top of it living in Portland but have slacked since moving back. Maybe because my 3 readers of this blog I see just about every week so they already know what is going on. Well i have had a few great weeks.

A few weeks ago i was able to got to Kylee's (My neice) last Volleyball game. It is great she enjoys playing a sport and she has a wicked serve. All you 10 yr olds better watch out next year!

After that I went to Watch Cole's (nephew) last soccer game. He is an animal and I think spends just as much time tumbling to the grass as he does on his feet.



I also saw Indiana Jones I I must say 2 thumbs down, honestly it was ok, but just not the Indiana I grew up with. Why must Steven Spielberg try and incorporate an Alien in every movie he has a hand in. Lame.... Aliens and Indiana don't mix. What happened to the good ol days of snakes, abarigines, and that trusty whip....

TO BE CONTINUED......

PTTTIHBAF,MOS

Probably the twentieth time I have blogged about family, motocross or snowboarding

I was able to go to and visit Andy, Rachel and the boys. Here is a photo of Benson B (or bendun Buh as he would say it) in his Baseball cap. The next Babe Ruth? What a happy kid.

Drew, 50/50 to F/S

Benny, Nose Press

Benny

Drew, Board slide to bum

Drew at Ski Bowl

My Bro in law Trav on the step-down jump at Jordan river the other day.