Riding with Jaime (and Dennis)

This is Lisa, she works at the hospital with us, is a paraglider and, as I learned this day, a ripping tele skier too!  We ran into her and her boyfriend Scott, I could barely keep up with her, it was cool :)

Skiing with Jamie was super fun! (She is in the pink coat) We stayed on steeps all day and holy moly it was really deep.  I was supposed to only be up there for a half day but it was just dumping so at around 1pm I called work and told them the roads were too bad to come down and I better just stay up there. It wasn't a lie. I also really wanted to stay and play.  Jamie and Dennis are two really fun people and I just love them :)



On another note, Jaime is learning how to paraglide and Dennis has some pics he needs to send to me.  She is doing really well and is learning through Superfly (of course- we wouldn't let her go to anyone else). My new wing should be here in 10 days...

Pics of skiing with the girls

This was my second day skiing since I was fourteen (okay third, I took a couple of runs on Chikadee one day) and it went good. :)  Poor Syd had a really bad cold but she still was able to take a few runs and try her jumps off Chip's Run. Good times. My mom, sis and niece ROCK!!

Syd off the cat track...

Poor Syd had such a bad chest cold this day and she still wanted to try her jumps! I got a couple of clips on my camera with this being the best one.  She only lasted a few runs before the cold got to her but it was fun regardless. Just wish she had felt better!  

chuga chuga choo choo

141lbs, 20.3% body fat. I guess that means I have been eating my spinach :)

I only have two sessions left with Mr. Buff, sad!! I will try to team up with my mom and sister but it seems like schedules are impossible to coordinate. And then in the summer I am off in paragliding la la land so I will have to motivate on my own to fit it in.

On a totally random note- we found plane tickets to Italy for $947 last night and that is the first time we have seen them under a grand. Needa get on the tax returns before we buy any but we are totally going. Going around the other side of the planet with my hubby, oh yeah!!! honeymoon and one year anniversary all at once. :)

Mom and sister- I need pictures of you skiing to put on my page...take some of each other next time you go. :)

On the Fitness Train

For Christmas my mom got me 10 personal trainer sessions with her personal trainer, Jimmy.  Jimmy won Mr Utah in October and he is rather huge.  Needless to say upon walking in there with my noodle limbs and soft tummy I was a little scared.  I want to be stronger and feel good.  so the first thing homeboy did was pull out the calipers and measure my body fat %. He did it two different ways and the first one read 20.5% and the second one read 18.5%.  I guess thats fairly lean according to him but the object was to stay the same weight (139) and decrease the body fat.  So far I have sweated, cried, grunted and spent days not being able to move certain parts of my body.  It's kinda awesome. I see why people pay others for personal training. I would never put myself through this torture that is making me a lot stronger.  I also started jogging around the time that I got the desk job and am up to running around 3-4 miles 3-4x a week.  

My conclusion thus far is i feel sofa king amazing!!!!  The time with Jimmy is brutal, nauseating, painful and rewarding.  My time on the treadmill is getting easier and funner.  I don't really dig the gym but I am able to pace myself and the people watching is never boring.  I only have three sessions with Jimmy left and he is going to help me put together a little workout I can do on my own.  If I only gained one thing from these sessions it is that I now realize what kind of physical pain I need to feel to get stronger if I am going to do it with weights.  I don't really know any other way to get my arms and shoulders stronger.  My legs are fairly strong and hiking with the gear this summer will keep those going.  (I want my arms/shoulders/back stronger for paragliding...okay acro.)  

Now I realize what my mom has been doing the last couple of years with this guy and she looks amazing!  I am really proud of her- she has lost weight, is really tiny and damn she is strong!  Its character building too- well, pain is character building.  :)   

Next week: remeasure the body parts and body fat %.  don't really care because I feel damn good. 

On the hill with Syd

A couple of Sundays ago Justin and i got to spend the day up at Snowbird with Syd and my mom.  We did a few trams and Justin was showing Sydney some little hits and giving her some instruction on how to go a bit bigger and it was really cool!  Little girlfriend doesn't know how to speed check!  She is fun to ski with :)  We threw some parachute men off the tram over the cirque and were lucky enough to be able to retrieve them too!  After a really fun day on the big hill Syd wanted to try snowboarding and she did really well for her first try.  Only kinda fell once getting off the lift and by the end was making it down the bunny hill at a decent pace.  i even tried some skis for a few runs too and that was haha funny.  Cool day, cool family.  

Solitude with Monica!

Sunday Justin and I went up to Solitude with Mo- chica from the point who knows her way around this hill.  It was cool because she showed us some really cool steeps that would have taken Justin and I a while to find, probably while getting fairly cliffed out.  She's a ripper and we stayed in steep trees all day.  Around two Chris (Ize...?) joined us for the last bit of the day.  I had to finished up a little earlier than them because I spent Saturday really ill and was feeling mostly better but not all the way.  Well anyway, it was sick.  Monica rips.  We had a great time and will hopefully get to go again soon after another big white-e.   

Life update:  It rocks.  Jobs are working out perfect.  Health insurance is taken care of.  Ordered a new wing with custom colors.  Looking forward to more snowboarding and then warmer weather to fly in.  Almost done with Syd's video- just busy and haven't gotten to work on it much.

The time...oh where does it go?

Times have been changing and so have priorities.  So this summer didn't turn out to be this crazy summer of acro that I had intended but that doesn't mean it was bad.  I also never successfully put together a girl tow day but that doesn't mean it was bad either.  All this means is there is more on the to-do list.  I was really pumped on a few things this summer:  My favorite girls moved out to join me and my mom, my husband sold several winches, we got married and as fall moved in we both made some job changes that so far are working out.  

Life has never ending challenges and it becomes clearer and clearer that the attitude that you approach change and challenges is going to make it or break it.  My job change has been especially stressful because I am giving up a lot of benefits (including health insurance for both of us.) to try to pursue a potentially great career that will give me the time and resources to do every thing that Justin and I have always wanted to do.  Applying for private health insurance has not been all that fun.  BUT I have to have faith and take a risk.  Justin didn't build a fabulous winch by playing it safe.  He had to take a chance.  A big one.  Following in his footsteps and with his support I am doing the same.  Only I am not building winches, hahaha.  I am nervous about the stupid health insurance thing but the only way to find out is to let it hang out for a bit.  

Anywho, life just goes and the time goes with it.  We will see what happens...  

On a note, here are some pics of our little bro tow day with Dennis...it was fun, i did some SATs on the sigma 7.  couldn't get the wing tip to stop vibrating.  inflated and SATing, yes but the wingtip vibrates.  weird but the first time I have done one on a wing other than my mamboo.  

Sydney gets to fly!

I know I haven't been posting this summer but life happens and I have been waiting for some photos and video of the cool chics I know.  I haven't been doing much but the girls in my life certainly have!  My sister, her two rad girls and husband have moved here; my mom quit her job and is going to work at Snowbird this winter (right on!) and I was getting married!  

Sydney was so excited to come out and go paragliding, she has been talking about it for two years now.  So she finally got to go with Justin and she is still talking about it.  I am still working on her video but have some great pics of her morning on the south side.  

My mom was also pumped to go on a tandem and got a couple of short rides.  She has taken two paragliding lessons and this is her second tandem.  

Sara was having fun too.  She didn't know what to think of the paragliders but she was having fun playing with the dogs.  

The V

Here is a cool clip from Justin and I climbing at the V

Is it summer yet???

With the weather being so crummy and having to work a lot that doesn't really make for good paragliding, let alone towing.  So Justin's winch has been a success and I am lucky enough to have taken a lot of tows behind it and was the test pilot for the first tows.  Justin didn't want to put me on the end of the line because there was a certain amount of unknown with the first tow but I did point out that I had been towing more than most of our friends last summer...  I trusted him and knew for sure that it would work and it did and it kicks ass!!  check out the link on the side.  

So over the desert I worked on getting consistent with my SATs, wingovers and asymmetric spirals.  I didn't have the nerve to try any spins or stalls and probably with good reason.  This spring Chris was so sweet to offer Justin and I some over the water tows as a wedding gift and we got to go down to Yuba for a day.  I got two tows and a nice refresher on spins, stalls and SATs.  I did learn one new trick- "can opener" or yinyang or whirlygig.  I didn't get any video so I guess that means I will have to do it again ;)  It felt really cool and I think I could use that to work into some other tricks (like a heli).  

This summer doesn't look to promising for a bunch of towing but I vow to make the most of my air time when I do get some tows and coaching.  Luckily we will have a new winch that will need testing.  

next move:  "coconut spin" 

other moves on the list:  loops, ass choppers and continue with dynamic full stalls and asymmetric SATs (never really got either of those last year).   

Sorting out a riser twist

This is a clip from some towing at Bear Lake in September that I have been meaning to put up for a while. I had messed up some stalls in the past but this was the worst. Although looking at it now it felt much more intense when it was happening. I was actually trying a dynamic full stall which is on the list of things that I want to work on this coming summer... Other things that have been on my mind this winter are ass-choppers, spinning from SATs, asymm SATs, loops and getting my wing-overs big and solid. I think that is plenty to start with. Luckily Justin built a winch and this winter I am working on SATs, getting my asymm spirals big and the always scary wing-over.

Check this gal out

Today I finally found a link to a girl in Europe that is an amazing acro pilot. She placed 2nd overall in the Vertigo comp last year!! Wow!!! And she does syncro...

www.chickenstyle.ch

I wanna be like Judith when I grow up :)

Winter Flying with Chicas

There was an evening at the south side with 5 pilots, 3 girls and 2 guys. Leslie, Lisa and Kristen were out in burley cold weather but when you gotta fly you gotta fly. Amazing stuff. I also stuck some footage of one day I was out flying this winter too. I missed the girl day because of work but there are many more to come.

Practice Makes Perfect

Me and Brian throwin down.
Yes this is a girl power page but I have been watching Brian throw down ever since I learned to fly. He has sweet style and I have thought many times to myself that when I grow up I want style like him. He has provided great friendship and lots of encourgament on my quest to throw down. I'm still learning and need practice practice practice. Only way I'm going to own it :)
Enjoy!