Day 20: Rest day (Sunday) & Grandma Gina's birthday!

Thank you everyone who donated to JDRF (the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation) since we last posted about it. We really appreciate your thoughtful donations!:

Val Gene Ogles, Andersen Studios, Alishia Sullivan, Curt and Angi Cummings, Katie Liljenquist, Rhett Weller, Margita Clark, Dominic Anderson, The Sheranian Family, and Mette Petersen

Alisha Sullivan wrote to us and said, "My 4-year old son has type 1 [diabetes], and he is an inspiration to me every day." If you would like to make a donation, click here or on the button that says "MAKE A DONATION!" on the right of our blog under the thermometer. All donations go straight to JDRF; Matt and I don't see any of it. (All of our expenses like lodging, food, biking gear, etc. come from our own savings.) Every donation makes a difference!

Today is not only mother's day, but it is Grandma Gina's birthday! Matt snuck out late last night after Grandma went to sleep to get birthday supplies. This morning Matt and I surprised Grandma Gina with balloons, a happy birthday sign, little happy birthday crowns, a "cake" with candles, and a Payday candy bar. We also took her out to one of her favorite Mexican restaurants, Serrano's, for dinner yesterday. We love you Grandma Gina!

Church today was great! We are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and we found a student ward by the University of Texas campus. All of the talks were on mothers and the sanctity of motherhood and they were wonderful. And what a coincidence... We ran into one of Grandma Gina's good family friends, the Bloomfields, at church because they came to hear a soon-to-be daughter-in-law give a talk. They were the nicest people and even invited us to their home for dinner which, sadly, we had to turn down because we needed to prepare for another week of biking (e.g., doing laundry, catching up on emails, talking to family, organizing our bags and the car, and resting up).

After church we drove to the house that Matt and I lived in for a couple years when we were little. I only remembered a little bit about it because I was really young, but Matt recognized a lot of it because he was in kindergarten and first grade during that time. We took pictures by our old house, the playground we used to play on, and the elementary school Matt went to. It was a fun walk down memory lane.

Happy Mother's Day to our amazing mom! She is an amazing mother of five, just earned her Masters of Business Administration degree, and is in the Relief Society presidency in our church back home. She truly is an anchor in our family!