Saving Energy with a Passion

In concert with Chris's recent post, Experiment 1-a, stating a propensity to commit before figuring out all the details of how to do something, he bought himself a road bike to commute to work. This is something that he has wanted for a number of years for exercise as well as commuting. After the bike came all the other unplanned accessories: helmet, shoes for clipless pedals, a light, reflective clothing, water bottle, bike pump, tire repair kit, etc. In addition to accessories there were the logistics of extra toiletries to shower and clean clothes to change into once he got to work, plus all the extra food required to replace approximately 600 extra calories burned biking 6.8 miles each way. Next there was the experimentation of route finding with considerations such as what is the most direct route with roads that are the best in terms of least traffic, lowest number of traffic lights and won't have a passing train obstructing the path.

Chris seems to have worked out most of the kinks and claims to be truely enjoying his new mode of transportation, even though he comes home sweaty every day from exerting himself in the mid-ninety degree weather. With gas prices being just over $4/gallon, he figures that biking to work five days a week saves nearly $100/month. That's pretty significant. Now if I can just keep up with the laundry and the nourishment required to support this endeavor....

Forward Progress

Finn has reached a few more milestones. Now that he's a year old, he's decided that it is o.k. to sleep through the night. Of course this progress comes from changes on our end too, such as creating the consistency of a nightly routine including a bath and story time.
We've had one glorious week of solid 8-10 hour nights but..... just because that is becoming the norm doesn't mean it will be every night from here on out. Case in point, A newly emerging tooth (number seven) has hindered sleep the last two nights.

Finn is also learning to stand up without using props. He's still a little wobbly at times but improving rapidly. Here is a video showing off his new standing skills.
It won't be long now before he starts walking...

I love the adorable double-kiss towards the end. That is the first time I've ever seen him kiss anything. Could it be that he sees himself reflected in the stove?

Experiment 1-a

OK, this is generally how we do things: commit ourselves to something and THEN figure out how to do it. For example - our house (enough said). Another example - a couple weekends ago I took the ratty old doors off the shed - now I'm committed to figuring out how to replace them. And finally our upcoming trip to the Pacific Northwest - we have plane tickets, plans for a weekend trip to the Oregon coast with Chip and Audrey, and then we're off to Olympic National Park - to ahh, hike many miles...with Finn. Today, we experimented with our pain thresholds and went for a moderate (short by the standards of our non-kid-bearing friends) hike. We drove up to the High Uinta Wilderness and hiked toward Amethyst Lake.

The hike was amazing and a perfect way to kick off summer: 90+ degree heat in Salt Lake City and we were enjoying 60's, sun, and nothing but the sound of some raging water. We had big ambitions of making it to a lake about 4-5 miles in, but decided we were seriously pushing our luck at about 3.5 miles in and turned around. No big deal though - we got some great views of a crazy "creek," Finn did amazing (only one lunch/diaper stop!), and we returned to the car refreshed and energized for our future trip. On the way back we indulged ourselves with milkshakes, which handily undid four hours of hiking in 20 minutes.

Entering the High Uinta Wilderness

Ostler Fork of the Bear River - runnin' mad

Maiden of the Mist

Hayden Peak in the background...maybe Experiment 1-b?

E and Finn kicking back after 7 miles of bliss