Park with Friends

On Saturday afternoon the boys found a baby Halloween/cat hat in Miles' closet.  It was a gift to Miles from Mike's parents when he was 6 months old (Halloween time) and I decided to keep it out so that I could take it to VA next week and take some funny pictures of my new niece Adelaide in it.  On the way out the door to the park, Griffin decided that it would look cute on a 3-year-old too (his opinion, not mine...haha) and proceeded to put it on and not take it off for the next 3 hours (park, trader joe's, etc...).  Its a nice combination with the grateful dead t-shirt (Mike found it up at Target) he now insists on wearing e.v.e.r.y s.i.n.g.l.e d.a.y (good grief).  







As soon as we got to the park, we were greeted by the Foster kids (Angus & Maclaren).  Our kids can go an entire year without seeing each other -- and yet upon first glimpse the recognize each other and start palling around.  I love that.  Really love that.






The kids played on the playground.


They rolled down the hill.



They went on an adventure hike.


And sometimes they just chatted.  :)




And one of Mike and Griffin.  Just because.

Soccer

They boys are still loving their soccer clinic.  Mike and I are loving that they are loving it.  :)

Miles usually starts by hanging out with me and Griffin in the 3-year-old group.  If Griffin ever tires out of the little exercises, Miles either cheers him along or he just does the activities with me himself.  It works out perfectly.


Around 1/2-way though, Miles usually tires of the 3-year old group and he wanders over to hang with Mike and Noah.  Last week the 5 year olds had their first little scrimmage.  Just before they started, Mike leaned into Noah and said, "if everyone crowds around the ball, just jump in, kick it out of the group, then run after it."  I have to admit, I was SHOCKED to look over and see Noah doing just that over-and-over again!  Our less-than-aggressive guy was in the mix!  And, even cuter was that Miles was cheering screaming (!) for Noah the entire time.  Mike couldn't have been prouder of either or them.


And, I know I'm all excited -- but I do have to remind myself that this is just a clinic.  Not a full-force league or anything.  But who cares, I'm still loving it.  PS Is anything cuter than a bunch of 3 year olds in a huddle/cheer at the end of practice?!

Peggy

I had so much fun at my awesome friend Peggy's 40th birthday party last weekend.  Isn't she just the cutest?!  Her heart matches that smile.  Pure and true.  Joyful and honest.  Caring and dedicated.  My friendship with Peggy brings me so much happiness, comfort, and laughter.  I love her so.


Our really good friend Ashleigh (in the center...sweet Elaine on the left) came in from DC for the big event.  I met Ashleigh at my first temp job out of college and have loved her every day since then.  Ashleigh started our dinner club, then up and moved to DC, changed her name to Paige, went to law school and now is a big deal lawyer working for a pharma company.  She's amazing. 


Peggy & Leigh.  Leigh was in dinner club for a few years before she moved to Spantanburg.  Really miss her and was so glad she came to the party!


The dj played the tunes and we danced all night.  It was so much fun.  :)

Ramblin Rose

The day after the Mud Run, Trish, Shannon and I did the Ramblin Rose Sprint Triathlon.  It was an amazing event!  The course was a great short length (250 yard swim, 9 mile bike and a 2 mile run) and the volunteers were AMAZING.  These old lady bones came in 110th out of almost 1,000 participants.  I was so excited (and I'm been really slacking at the gym lately, so next year I'll likely come in 999th).   

One of these days I'll put together a little video of the event (Mike was there with the boys taking video snipets).  Until then, here are some of Trish's (Jon's) pictures.

Here we are, doing our prerace stretching, calming our nerves.  We were a bit shaky, as normally you can be in the transition area (where you store your bike, sneakers, etc...) during the entire race.  During this race they closed the transition area 30 minutes before the race started.  We literally had 2 minutes to find our spots and set everything up.  It was all a blur once we left....we were just hoping we'd be able to find our helmets, socks, shoes, etc... once we needed them.  :) 



Here I am in the pool, getting ready to start.  Everyone starts 10 seconds apart from each other -- and the girl in front of me had a 1 minute break before the person before her.  Somehow every time I got to the end of a lane it seemed there were 3-4 people hanging around not swimming (drinking coffee, telling jokes??).  On top of that, the pool that I was swimming in was 17 feet deep (1/2 of the participants were in one 'regular' pool, the other 1/2 of us were in a diving pool)!  I had no idea it would be that deep -- and I seriously felt like I was in a horror movie -- like all those women drinking coffee and telling jokes at the end of each lane were going to shove me down 17 feet and I was going to die.  Good grief.  I was panicking during the entire thing. I ended up with such a slow swim time...and it was the longest 6 minute of my life.  :)


So often during a race you are on the bike course by yourself.  Every now and again you'll see another biker for a few seconds, then one of you passes the other and you're solo again.  During this race Shannon and I were on the bike course together the entire time.  It was crazy/awesome!  She and I started around the same time in different pools - so it was much fun to see each other in the transition area.  Check out how refreshed/smiley Shannon looks....and look how whipped/pained I look.  HA!


Here we all are at the end....so happy to be done!  :)   It was so awesome to do the race with Shannon and Trish.  No pictures of it, but Trish and I passed each other on the run too.  It was such a friend event! :)  It was Trish's first triathlon and when she finished I literally burst into tears.  I was so proud of her.  She did amazing!!  And, it was fun to train together too.  Can't wait for next year to do it again!   (Check out Trish's awesome post about the race on her blog, too.) 

Mud Run

A couple of weeks ago Mike and I and two friends, Carolyn and Scott (both married - but not to each other) participated in the USMC Mud Run.   Our team was called "Mudilicous".   Ha!  Its the largest mud run in North America with over 14,000 participants -- so the traffic was ridiculous to say the least.  We were in a traffic jam for at least 90 minutes (and missed our start time) but once we arrived, we just checked in and started the race.  We came is 967th overall. 

Mike's sister Shannon was originally on our team, but hurt her back.  She tagged along anyway and snug onto the course to take a few pictures.  She said whenever she saw someone she just acted like she was one of the professional photographers out there.  :)

This obstacle was really hard (meaning you could NOT do it by yourself).  You had to move across the bars without your feet touching the ground.  I went first and grabbed it oddly and it took all three of my teammates to get me across while I hung like a monkey.  

The rest of the group "stiff-armed" it across or road on shoulders.  Much better technique!




We had to flip this tire a certain number of times (4?  can't remember).  We all kind of thought this one was random. 


Climbing up and over a super-high wall.  There were a few versions of this.  Not sure how someone afraid of heights would handle it. 




Mud pools were throughout.  This one we just had to run though.  There was one that was 12 feet deep (or something like that).  Mike dove in and swam across.  I jumped as high as I could like a crazy person.  It was CRAZY swimming in a mud pool - but surprisingly it "washed us off" a bit and made us look cleaner, just really tan.  :)

 

There were a few versions of this obstacle.  You go under practically like a snake.  This one was really muddy, but there were some pockets of air in between the mud and the rocks.  We went one where you literally had to go under the mud to get under the log.  The tough part is that when you come out, you have mud in your eyes, but you can't wipe your eyes because you have mud everyone else on your body too.  People wiped their eyes with canvas ropes enclosing the obstacle, random leaves on the ground, whatever they could find.  Mike had a ton of mud in his eyes during one of the obstacles and couldn't get it out.  A volunteer eventually brought him a bottle of water to wash his eyes with.  Very nice and very appeciated!


This obstacle was "over/under".  The logs were about 8 feet high and there were maybe 40 of them (not sure).  You had to move over one and under the next one without your feet ever touching the group.  You had to really latch on to one log (underneath) and then slowly swing one arm, then one leg over, then propel yourself to the top of that log to go over it.  One of your teammates was positioned to give you a boost if you needed one.  I've heard a number of people say that they thought this one was the hardest. 


The last "obstacle" is carrying a team member on a stretcher.  Carolyn and I fought each other on who was the smallest ("no you are!"...."no you are!").  I won....she rode.  Mike shoved me aside and wouldn't let me help carry, so Carolyn and I both got a little break. 


Here were are at the finish line.


Check out how you get clean!


Our shoes went directly into the trash can. 


We all LOVED it!  I think I yelled out at least a dozen times, "I love this!"...."This is so fun!"  If I could pay $10 and do this weekly as a gym class, I would.  It rocked.   Can't wait until next year!


PS Shannon -- thanks for documenting our fun day!!