My last full day in Utah was a treasure of a day. CJ and Lauren had given me a pass for Deer Valley, and Zeb procured a mountain bike for me 🙂 It was Zeb’s day off work so he and Shiloh accompanied me.

Last Friday I woke up to have breakfast with my adorable grandson. After a hearty meal I enjoyed watching him play with Ophelia, the family dog. She is amazing with children. When I play tug with her, she is quite strong, but with Shiloh, she is very gentle.

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In the late morning we packed a ton of baby gear and whatnots then headed over to Deer Valley, where I picked up my pass. A friend of Zeb’s was kind enough to offer me a bike so we didn’t have to rent. As we waited for him to bring the bike over, we had a tailgate picnic with Shiloh.

The friend ran into some complications so the wait was a bit longer than we anticipated. With his blessing, we headed up the hill for a real lunch. I really love riding the lifts.

A few years ago even novice lifts terrified me. I’m not fond of heights so this is a big change for me. I’ve pushed myself to embrace the experience since it’s pretty important for a snowboarder. Now lift riding is one of my favorite things in life.

We had a delightful lunch. Even ordering was fun. It was close to where Hudi was working so he popped out to say “hi.” Shiloh definitely enjoys eating. The amount he packs into his little body is a bit mind-blowing. I think we were there dining for about 90 minutes. lol

Briton (Zeb’s friend) joined us for a bit and then left a bike for Zeb and took me to the shop where we got my equipment.

Zeb and I were going to take turns watching Shiloh. I got to ride the mountain first.

It’s been five or six years since I last mountain biked. I think I had only been on one bike in the meantime, period. And that was riding a demo motor-propelled bike in a parking lot of a shop. Definitely rusty.

I’m so glad I didn’t pretend I knew what I was doing because I managed to put my gear on upside-down. Whoops. We headed out to the lift, and I wobbled like a toddler with one training wheel askew. When we got to the lift, a stranger asked to join us, so I didn’t have a lot of space in which to load the bike, but I did manage to not make a complete fool of myself somehow.

Briton is a very kind person. He is very encouraging and patient. While I most likely looked like a drunk driver for the first set of switchbacks, I didn’t fall at all. After a bit it started coming back to me. I even remembered to turn the bike and not me on the tight curves.

The ride was super fun. It blows my mind how tired one can get actually going down a mountain on a bike. While I really loved it, I was totally okay with it being Zeb’s turn when I got back to the mid-mountain.

This is the run I took (it’s a video I found on YouTube. I didn’t film it myself):

Odd thing was that I had an asthma attack at that point. Zeb thinks the sage might have triggered me. Could be. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Worst one I had in years. I travel with inhaler, but had left it at the house. Ah well. I survived, but there was a lot of coughing involved as I tried to get air. At that point, I wish I had a sign to hold up saying, “Not Covid, just asthma!” People gave Shiloh and me quite a wide berth for a while there.

Our foray occurred during Shiloh’s nap time, but he seemed so into watching the lifts and interacting with people that it didn’t really faze him.

Hudi got out of work, and we drove his car to the base so Mollie could have it for going home since Hudi was going to hitch a ride with Zeb. I rode the lift with him, too. Lucky me! Then I stayed with Shiloh while Hudi and Zeb took a ride down the mountain.

Bri drove over to join us after her work day ended. Shiloh thought it was fantastic having her join his slope time 🙂 (I loved it, too).

After the last chair was called, Bri and I headed down the mountain with Shiloh then we left for dinner.

We met all the siblings at the food trucks in Heber as an early birthday celebration for Hudi (his real birthday is in a few days now, but it was the last day I was with them all so we celebrated then).

Avalon sampled my Asian fusion bowl (super delicious) while the others got pizza. Shiloh was exhausted by then so we headed to their place to finish the party. A wonderful evening filled with family, great food and even some Pokemon topped off a seriously wonderful day.

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