Race Update

So much to say about our race. I'll try to be brief.

Started out with a 1 mile run. I thought "I can do this". Did not figure in my 30 pound pack. Ran the whole way but that's all I can say for myself.

Got to the canoe and had to PORTAGE it! Yikes. This canoe was not meant to be carried on the shoulders. It had cup holders of all things that cut into my neck and bruised my spine. By the time we got to the water I was nearly crying.

Got in the canoe. Paddled 14 miles down stream. Passed one 24 hour team. Yikes for them. We did pretty well and only argued a tad. Realized that arguing in a race is over way quicker than in real life because you can't get away! You forgive and forget and MOVE ON.

Got to the bike. Could hardly get on it because I was shivering so bad from being soaking wet. Dried out quickly however. Being pulled behind Dave's bike on a tow rope at a million miles per hour will do that.

Stopped for an orienteering course. Did farely well, found all the checkpoints and moved on back to the bike. Dave and I hadn't biked as much as we should have but still felt we did well overall for the biking.

Back to the Boy Scout Camp to pump up the packraft. Wish I had a picture of Dave sitting in the back and me lying on my stomach on the front of the boat with my legs on Dave. But I don't have a picture. It was really hard to paddle straight out in front of myself but we did it. Took us 50 min. to go 1 mile upstream and 19 min. to come back. Hard paddle indeed.

Went the second 'O' course. This was tricky. We never did find number thirty four even though we searched for two hours. So we ended up quiting because we were at the 12 hour mark. Never got to do the ropes section which they put at the end. Although, I did get to practice ascending the night before. It was not as difficult as I had worked myself up over.

The best part?

We WON!!!!!

For our 2 person coed division we won!!!!

And all I have to say is Dave Huntley, YOU ROCK!!!

How many families can say DE JA VU?!

Our Weekend

Dave and I are headed to Oregon, IL for the weekend to do a 12 hour adventure race. It will be filled with firsts for me.

Packraft- in addition to canoeing, we have to fit both of us plus our packs into an inflatable boat and paddle to a specific point.

Climbing wall- I haven't even attempted this. This is the prelim. part of our race. They will time us and will determine our starting positions based on how we do. Dave already told me he expects we will be starting dead last.

Rope ascending- I didn't even know this WAS a rope event. You have to climb up a vertical rope with handles for your hands and feet. Not thinking this will go well for me.

All this is in addition to canoeing, biking, a zipline and finding checkpoints in the woods(orienteering).

I'm asking myself "And I want to do this why?"

Would you?

My question this day is would you?

Would you say yes when your sister and brother-in-law invited you to join them on vacation?

Without kids, for five days?

What about if you had four children and some are quite young?

What about if you know you have 4 wonderful grandparents in town that say "yes, we'll keep them" far more than you feel you deserve?

Would you drive 9 1/2 hours to get there?(Ugh)

Would you take a six mile hike around a lake?What if the scenery looked like this?


Would you enjoy 70ish degree weather and hearing loons right outside your windows?
Would you take a 12 mile canoe trek into the boundary waters?Would you portage a canoe 80 rods (1 rod=15.6 feet)?Would you visit a bear museum?
Would you still like your sister and BIL and want to do it all again next year?

Answer: We did! We do! We will!

First Day

It has been a day of goodbyes for me. First Zach, then the others. Alexis was extremely nervous. She has been not sleeping well for about a week and when she finally told me what the problem was I was able to help her a bit. It also helped to visit the teacher for unpack your backpack yesterday. She seemed fine this morning. Just first day jitters.

Leah, on the other hand, was convinced she was going to school too. When I dropped them off, she got out of the car and started walking to the school. After Dave got her back into the car, she cried all the way home. Good thing she wasn't awake when Zach left today.

My Big Little Boy

Today is a big day. Zach's first day of high school! Where has all the time gone? And why don't I feel old enough to have a son in high school?

A better question is, how are we going to wake up at 6:00 every day?

All 4 fun and fun 4 all!

Caroline is my sister Laura's daughter. She's 3 weeks older than Leah. They are best buds.

These are my nieces Joanna and Deborah. Daughters of Kris.
They are best buds with Leah also.Together they are...THE FEARSOME FOURSOME!

Not really, I just wanted to say that.These guys cracked us up.

I have a funny story to tell. When we arrived in NC on Sat. night, we were having a good time watching the three girls together and postulating how it would be with 4 toddlers in the house after the Brittens arrived the next day. We figured it could get pretty bad after we witnessed "The Flip Flop Incident". So Leah shows up and immediately takes over the one pair of flip flops that the twins own. They were clear with green straps and she loved them at first sight. Of course this bothered Deborah, who usually wore the flip flops. (I'll just say floppies because that's what Leah calls them.) So now Leah is happy as a clam and Deborah is fit to be tied. Now Joanna is upset because she thinks she needs them too. So I told Leah to go get hers out of her bag. Amazingly, we had brought two pairs. Perfect right? Wrong. By this time, Leah had reclaimed her own purple pair and given her green pair to Deborah. But this horked Joanna off because now Deborah has a 'new' pair and she gets stuck with her old clear pair. Sound like toddlers to you? It does to me. By this time they are all three crying and we are wondering what it will be like when Caroline arrives. We eventually got it figured out so Leah got the clear pair and the twins had Leah's.
As it turned out Caroline didn't even want to wear floppies so we were safe there. The girls actually played extremely well the whole week and had very few toddler/sharing issues. Thank God!