El Tour de Tucson

Brad headed back to our old hometown of Tuscon, Arizona! He went out with his Texas riding buddies, Corey and James, for a guys trip centered around one incredible event: the Tour de Tucson. Sponsored by Corey’s company.  This isn’t just any bike ride, it’s one of the biggest in the country, with over 10,000 riders taking on a 100-mile route around Tucson. The energy, the crowd, the high level of competition, made for an unforgettable experience.

But what made it even more meaningful was the familiarity. Along the ride, Brad passed through Sahuarita and even rode by our old home. There’s something surreal about revisiting those old routes, seeing the same desert landscapes, and feeling like no time has passed while also being surrounded by some of the strongest cyclists in the U.S.

And Brad didn’t just ride, he crushed it! Finishing the 100 miles in under 4.5 hours, he qualified for Platinum status, an incredible accomplishment that speaks to how hard he’s trained and how much he loves the sport.

After the race, the experience only got better. Through Corey's connections through work the guys enjoyed lunch in the VIP section and even had the chance to meet Sir Bradley Wiggins (a tour de France winner) a pretty amazing moment to cap off such a huge ride.

The next day, they drove up Mount Lemmon to scout out the climb for what was coming next. They soaked in the views and made sure to hit some of our old favorite local spots—including grabbing a classic Sonoran dog (a bacon-wrapped hot dog that’s every bit as good as it sounds).

Then came the ride up Mount Lemmon.

If you know Tucson you know this is no easy climb. Riders from all over come to Mt. Lemmon to ride. As a bike rider it is one of the longest climbs in North America, about 26 miles.  And Brad? He powered his way to the top in under two hours. Honestly I don't know how he does it.  I'm in awe.

At the summit, they were greeted with snow and, of course, a stop at the famous cookie cabin. Brad went with a peanut butter cookie that is the size of a plate and well-earned after a climb like that.

now for the fun (for Brad, scary for his wife) part, the downhill.  I don't even want to know how fast he was going...

Needless to say, it was an unforgettable trip and one he’ll be talking about for a long time.

Poor Tanner

I have been blessed with very healthy children.  They really only get sick once or twice a year.  Seriously.  Even then it has never been serious enough that I've taken them to the doctor.  Its usually just a 24 hour something.  So we took Tanner in for a routine check-up (his 30 month (2 1/2 year)) and were so surprised to find out that Tanner had strep throat.  He had zero symptoms whatsoever!  No fever, good appetite, and just his usually playful self. Brad and I were in shock.  It made me question how many times my kids have been sick and I just didn't know it.  So the doctor put him on amoxacillin.  Two days later Tanners strep showed with a slight fever, and a very sleepy, not himself little boy.  The next day he was back to normal.

Exactly one week of being on his medicine I noticed a bright red splotch on Tanner's neck.  I didn't think anything of it, and thought it was maybe a little sunburn from playing at the park.  Then later that day Tanner took a nap and when he woke up the redness spread to his face.  That night while putting his pj's on we saw tiny red dots throughout his body.  The next morning Tanner was covered!  His face was swollen, the redness brighter and the dots covered his entire body.  I felt awful.  We took him to the doctor and just as Brad and I thought he had an allergic reaction to the penicillin.  So now he is on benadryl until he clears up.  The ironic part is Tanner loved the amoxacillin (pink bubble gum stuff) and absolutely hates, spits it up, fights me when I try to give it to him, benadryl.   

Its so sad to see.  The doctor said its going to take probably a couple weeks for the rash/hives to clear up.  It breaks my heart, even though he acts fine he just looks absolutely horrible.  Hope this little guy gets better soon!

weight: 29 pounds (34% percentile)

height: 64%percentile 

Checking things off the Tucson Bucket list

While my family was in town we were able to check a lot off our Tucson bucket list before we move.  I've been wanting to go to a lot of these places for a while, but some were a little pricey.  I finally buckled down and got a Tucson Passport (which is a booklet of buy one get one free to a lot of Tucson's attractions) so we could finally go to these places.

Biosphere

One of the places both my mom and I have been wanting to see for a long time was the Biosphere 2.  The Biosphere is one of the largest greenhouses in the world, and back in the late 1980's 4 people locked themselves in here to see if they could survive on their own for 2 years.  Crazy.  I'd go nuts, but they made it.

We took a tour through many different eco structures and learned how the 4 scientists survived and what they learned during their 2 year experiment.  Carson liked going through the bat cave (some underground tunnels). It was really fascinating.

The Titan Missile Museum

Brad drives past this museum everyday on his way to work and we have never gone until now.  We went while Carson was in preschool, because we heard it was boring for kids.  I thought Tanner would do fine, but he made it really difficult to listen to the tour.  

The gist of it was, that we had this Missile ready to launch at any moment during the cold war.  It was to try to scare the Russians into not bombing us.  This missile is worse then the Atomic bomb.  Its blast radius would obliterate the length of San Diego, California to El Paseo, Texas. 

The Pima Air and Space Museum

Can you tell my family likes museums yet?  Another museum we went to was the air and space museum.  Everyone around us told us that this was a favorite and now I know why.  We have driven past the bone yard (where old/non-working planes go to rest) dozens of times and I always thought it would be cool to see.

The boys loved it.  There were so many planes to see you could really spend days looking at all the stuff.  They even had a moon rock (it was more like a pebble, but apparently worth millions).  They had lots of planes from WWII to Gulf War.  Of course if you know our family you'd know that the WWII ones were favorites.  We love WWII things.  

a replica of the first plane by the Wright Brothers

 the boys on the moon!

The Children's Museum 

For the kids enjoyment (and Tim & Aarons) we went to the Children's museum to mess around and have some fun.

 the closest Aaron will ever get to riding a motorcycle

Other fun

Some other fun things we did while the family was in town was playing mini golf.  Our community has a small course and we hardly use it.  Carson loved it and now asks to go play golf all the time.

Aaron and Tim would play soccer, read bedtime stories, play Candyland and Chutes and Ladders, and go swimming with Carson & Tanner.  It was nice to have them around!

Before they left we had to take them them to El Guero Canello to try some authentic Mexican Sonoran dogs.

As always we love having visitors and having some playmates!  It really was a fun filled week and went by way too fast.  Love ya guys!