Say hello to a brand new blog

Kristin and I have decided to merge our blogs into one. The address for our new blog is:

www.warburtonblog.blogspot.com

I will be posting just to the new blog from now on, so add it to your list.

Life is Good!

Well, the day finally arrived and Kristin and I were married on Saturday. We had a celebration dinner with family and friends on Friday night and we were married Saturday afternoon in the Salt Lake temple. Kristin looked absolutely gorgeous and the day was perfect. I've never been happier! I am so grateful and lucky to have Kristin in my life. She means everything to me. After going through several years of hard times and not understanding why things happened, I now understand and it all makes sense. I am so blessed to have found someone who loves me as much as I love her. I'm so excited to start my life with Kristin. Life has never been better and there are many more happy days to come.I had to steal these pictures of the big day from my niece Whitney's blog. Kristin and I didn't take any with our own camera and it will be a few weeks before we get the pictures back from the photographer, so this is all we have until then. In the meantime, Kristin and I are going to merge our blogs into one. As soon as we decide on a name, we'll post it.

Less Than 2 Weeks!!!

Kristin and I are down to less than two weeks until we get married. Although we have only been engaged for a few months, it seems like it's been forever. Time is moving so slow. We are having a ton of fun together, but we can't wait to actually be married. Sometimes it seems like we are married already, but then when Kristin has to go home at night, it's a rude awakening that we aren't. It's painful to say goodbye. This week is already moving extremely slow and I'm sure next week will be even worse. I'm getting so anxious and impatient. I can't stand the wait!

24 Hours of Moab

Team Sixty Percnt

It's hard to tell from the picture, but it was so windy and cold.

That's my bike #206 waiting to start the race.
Grabbing my bike after the LeMans-style start. That's Tinker Juarez (pro, solo 24-hour racer) in the green and purple to my right.

Ride, Eat, Sleep, Repeat. Yes, I survived the 24 Hours of Moab race this weekend. It was long, cold, windy and exhausting adventure, but at least I had good company to share in my misery. My brother Greg and I had been wanting to do this race for a long time and this year Greg finally got busy and signed us up. We put together a team of four guys consisting of me, Greg, my cousin Cory Mikkelson and my coworker Mark Bartlett. Our team name was Sixty Percnt (yes, Greg made a typo when he signed us up, but that's ok -- at least 60% of the word is spelled right).

The race started at noon on Saturday and ended at noon on Sunday. I was the lucky one that got to start the race. It was a LeMans style start, meaning that the riders had to sprint on their feet for about 200 yards before they jumped on their bikes and started riding. The wind and everyone's feet stirred up a lot of dust and with me breathing so hard I'm sure at least two pounds of it went directly into my lungs. This made for a rough start to the race. My second lap started at 6:40 pm and felt much better than my first lap. My third lap started at 2:00 am and was pure hell. I was so tired and cold. By the time I finished and got back to the trailer I was shivering like crazy. I couldn't stop it. It wasn't until about 30 or 40 minutes later that I was able to stop shivering and go to sleep. I said there was no way I was going to be able to do another lap.

Then it came down to last hour and a half of the race. Our forth rider came in at 10:30 am and it was my turn to start in the rotation. By this time the sun was up, the air was warmer and this gave me some motivation. I decided to go for it and ride my forth and final lap. I was slow, but at least I finished. It ended up not being as bad as I thought it was going to be.

When I do these things (long bike races, marathons, etc.), they sound like so much fun leading up to them. Then, when I am out on the middle of the trail or road, exhausted and sleep-deprived, I wonder to myself, "What have I gotten myself into? Why did I ever pay money to sign up for something like this and put myself through so much pain." Then, after a few weeks go by after the event I start thinking, "That wasn't so bad. That was actually kind of fun. I think I'd like to do that again next year." Crazy, I know. But that's the way it goes. Even as I'm sitting here writing this, with a sore butt, legs and back, I'm thinking that the trip was fun and I'm actually even contemplating doing it again.

Mozilla Firefox is so much better!

Today, I just switched my web browser from Internet Explorer to Mozilla Firefox. I know several people who have made the switch and I don't know why I waited so long. It is SO much better. With Internet Explorer, when I would to access my hotmail account, it would take me to a blank screen and I would have to refresh the page about five times before it would finally open up. With Firefox, it opens the first time and is so fast. It seems to be much faster all-around. If you haven't made the switch yet, I highly recommend it.

Engagement Photos

I realized that there may be some people who read my blog that don't have access to Kristin's blog. She posted some of our engagement photos on her blog a couple of weeks ago, so I guess I better do the same so the rest of you don't feel left out. Kristin and I are very happy with the way they turned out. Enjoy!

New Favorite Desserts

Over the past few weeks Kristin and I have been trying out all of the new frozen yogurt places that have popped up around town. Here are my ratings:

Hello Yogurt - Heavenly. Lots of flavor varieties and a lot of good frozen yogurt for the money. You get to put on all the toppings you want and pay by weight.

Red Mango - Disgusting. This truly is frozen yogurt - not soft serve icecream, but yogurt that is frozen. Two flavors - plain and red mango. Both have a bitter taste and are not much better even with the expensive fruit mix-ins. (The workers there claim that it is the 3rd most nutritious food on the planet)

Spoon Me - I have to admit that I like the name, but the yogurt tastes a lot like Red Mango's. They have a plain and a green tea flavor. Kristin and I tasted a sample of each, then decided not to order. We went to Hello Yogurt instead.

Aside from frozen yogurt, I discovered my new absolute favorite dessert at Macarroni Grill last weekend. It's the Caramello shake. It has chocolate, caramel and Butterfinger candy bars all mixed up together in a cold, creamy shake. It's delicious. I keep craving another one.