Hep's just along for the ride...

Welp, to continue the saga of the happenings of the Framptons + Hep, once we left Moab, we spent some time in Salem with John's family.  It was really nice to just relax a bit where it was clean, cooler and dry, aka not sleeping in a tent on the sand flats...

Whilst in Salem/Spanish Fork we hit up the famous Spanish Fork Fiesta Days Rodeo!  

Hep tagged along in Liz's pocket.

We had a kickin' good time.  My favorite is always the Mutton Busting (which I didn't get a picture of... sorry).  Those kiddos are amazing!  Or crazy....  or maybe both...

Enjoying the show!

Hepatitis cone anyone?

At the end they were throwing out t-shirts and such and I caught a wad of something.  I unwrapped it to discover it was a lovely Larry H. Miller bandanna!  

Hep-dito

That weekend we also went on a long bike ride with Liz and their cousin Robert.  It was a really fun ride (until my derailer became all sorts of messed up...), and absolutely beautiful!  I didn't take my camera with me on the ride, but here are some pictures from Google of the area we rode around.

See that white area next to where it says "West Mountain?" 
Yeah, that's a mountain.  We rode around a MOUNTAIN!  42.12 miles

That is the mountain we rode around - West Mountain (Source: Michael Burton)

This is a view from West Mountain looking back to Utah County (Source: Cameron Porcaro)

Later we headed up to spend the 24th of July with my family at Lagoon.  Again, I didn't have my camera with my (I know, I'm a slacker), but we had a lot of fun!  We kept Hep in the car.  We didn't feel the need to bring him along because we figured many of the people there had their own hepatitis, and if not, they could pick it up there....

 

It'll getcha...

I guess just hadn't really thought about it, the altitude difference that is, until we were biking in Moab and running in Salem.  Before we left we had been exercising a lot, and I felt like we were in pretty good shape.  And we were... in Oklahoma City.  In Utah we were huffin' and puffin' and I kept feeling like I couldn't breathe deep enough to catch my breath. 

I guess now I know... 

Has anyone else experienced this?  Or am I just ridiculous?

Melting in Moab

Yes, we are still alive and well.  Our blog has been a bit neglected this summer, but we are doing great and still kickin' it with Hep.  I thought that rather than write a HUGE post covering all the goings-on of the Framptons over the past few months, I'll just do mini posts of our adventures.  That way I can give them the credit they deserve.  So check back regularly to see what we've been up to!

I think I'll start with the beginning of our trip to Utah.  We drove from OKC to Moab in the middle of July and spent a few days there before making our way up to see our families.  

We stayed up on the Sand Flats by Slickrock where there was NO SHADE, so we spent a lot of our time down in town at the Rotary Park.  It has a creek (not a "crick!") that runs through it which served as our wading pool to cool us off.  We would cool off in the water and then take naps in the park under the trees.  We were such bums!  A bunch of teenage hotties even tried to subtly make fun of us by loudly asking each other why people take naps in parks.  Whatever.

The park had a bunch of percussion instruments.  We definitely had some fun with that! 

We did the full loop at Slickrock instead of just the practice loop.  It was super intense, and thanks to my poor observational skills we took the harder way, but that just makes us more hard core, right?

While we were in Moab there were rain and thunderstorms every night.  One afternoon while we were at the Rotary Park it started to sprinkle.  We got up and went under the pavilion to wait out the rain.  Only, it POURED for a good 20 minutes or so.  I thought for sure there was going to be flooding. 

 Despite the heat up on the Sand Flats, the three of us had a lot of fun in Moab!

 

Estrogen on Wheels

For those of you who have anxiously awaited our report of the Roller Derby, I am here to offer relief!  It is hard to put into words the experience we had, but it sure was a blast!  The derby was at the OKC Historic Farmer's Market, which is a really cool old building that just happens to be in a bit of a sketchy part of town.  We were unaware that it was a double header and arrived about halfway through the junior team's bout.  

Junior Team

As smart as we are, we didn't look up ahead of time the rules of roller derbies and how they are played so as we were trying to find a seat we were also trying to figure out what was going on!  Lucky for us there was a program that had the basic rules and vocabulary for the sport.  For ease of understanding the rest of the post, here is the graphic that was included to show the basic rules:

Now here's some basic vocabulary:

JAMMER: The "speed" skater who scores points by passing opponents in-bounds. (Wears the star helmet cover.) 

PIVOT: The pacesetter at the front of the pack and the last line of defense.  (Wears the striped helmet cover.) 

BLOCKERS: Play a vital, simultaneous offensive/defensive role.  They help their Jammer get through the pack while working together to keep the opposing team's Jammer from passing through.

PACK:  Has a maximum of 8 skaters (1 Pivot and 3 Blockers from each team).  It is possible for the pack to have fewer skaters due to penalties. 

LEAD JAMMER:  The first Jammer to break throuh the pack on the first pass.  She may strategically call off the jam at any time.  

GRAND SLAM:  When a Jammer laps the 0pposing team's Jammer and passes all the Blockers and Pivot, worth 5 points! 

THE BOUT: The name of the game which is made up of two 30-minute periods and one half-time.  There are unlimited jams per period; each jam lasts no longer than 2 minutes.

So now that you know the basics, I'll proceed. 

We were able to find a place to sit in some bleachers and started figuring out the game.  It was pretty intense, and it was just the junior team!  Their bout finished and the Tornado Alley Rollergirls started warming up to take on the Springfield Rollergirls.  

Warm up

Next thing we know, there's a mascot jumping around getting everyone pumped up for the main event -- that's right, they even had a MASCOT -- Oki Doki Coyote, and to be honest, he was a little creepy.  Hep and I did manage to get a picture with him towards the end of the bout. 

It took us the whole night to kind of figure out how they were scoring points, but really the best part was the intense skating.  There was one roller girl that looked like she was in her 40's and she was legit!  Her name was Twister T; she was a really good Jammer and an amazing skater!  John wanted to get a picture with her, but wasn't able to because of the awards ceremony at the end. 

Our Jammer (with the star helmet) trying to get past their Pivot

I think I was expecting there to be more fighting and bashing (I guess I was thinking more along the lines of a demolition derby - also awesome).  There were a few crash and burns, but unfortunately (or I guess fortunately) no one caught on fire (my favorite part of a demolition derby!).  

It was a pretty close bout, but we ended up losing.  Even though this was our first time even hearing about the Tornado Alley Rollergirls, I was sad that we lost.  We did had a really great time though.  Thanks Groupon!