105: ragnar relay so. cal 2011

 The official starting line of Ragnar So. Cal 2011

Huntington Beach to Coronado

200 miles

{are we crazy or what..and we paid $ for this!}

Van #1
Dan, Me, Julie, Theresa, Tom, and Daphenie  {Eric..not shown, was our fearless driver}

Ran into my younger, but taller sister a few times along the way. She was racing on another team.

The end of Jim's first leg..he had an 8 mile, hilly run in Lake Elsinore and it happened to be 95 degrees out! Miserable..I thought he was going to have heat stroke!! This is only 1 of a couple of times I got to see him along the race.

I just finished my 5.6 mile Temecula Run and feeling pretty good even though it was still about 78 degrees out! Isn't our team "bright"!

104: carb loading

The night before our big race! We hit the Old Spaghetti Factory to carb load and we didn't waste a single carb..their bread is to die for! Afterwards, we crashed at Jim's bosses house in Huntington Beach {4.5 miles from the start}.

103: goodbye uncle jay

My uncle Jay passed away Monday night in Kona, just hours before my Dad could get there! Aloha and may life be sweeter for you on the other side!

102: dmv

I was dreading this day, but was pleasantly surprised! I was in and out in less than 30 minutes!

101: coming down to the wire

We had a t-shirt making party and last minute Ragnar meeting tonight. Afterwards, we decided to soak our tired bones.

100: designing our t-shirt

Theresa and I designed our Ragnar teams' t-shirt tonight! Only 4 1/2 days till our big debut!

99: youth conference

Jim and I were in charge of a couple of games at youth conference. Of course ours had to be the only "water" type games.. {on the coldest day ever} .  With hands frozen, we spent the morning filling up 500 water balloons for the grenade launcher. With extra balloons left, we, the responsible leaders, began launching them into the crowds of people..until I hit, dead straight on the head another adult. Opps..not a very good example was I!

98: 4:30 a.m. denny's run

Today was Jenniffer's birthday and she was going to be in town for approximately 3 hours before leaving for her tropical getaway! So we decided to hit the only place open 24hrs. in Temecula, DENNY'S, and have a little birthday celebration. Of course Jenn looks beautiful at 4:30 a.m., she's always put together..me, not so much! I'm the roll out of bed in the clothes I was wearing and throw a hat over my matted hair kinda girl. 

97: tent of boys

Sleeping beauties! 

Forecasts of rain in the afternoon solidified my decision to pack up a day early and head home! The kids still got to play all day, we just avoided the night time.

96: cousins

The day started off cloudy {in Temecula there was rain}, but by the afternoon, the beach was gorgeous! We drove down to San Clemente beach, where there were less rocks, so the kids could boogie board in the FREEZING water! Grandma & Grandpa joined in on the action.  Hit Pedros tacos on the way home and had a big bonfire and smores to end the night. Good times!

95: natures best

 A seriously noisy, dirty, and smelly breeding ground!

Nature by day..nature by night! Wasn't much of a huge run, but I can now say I've seen one. 

{we waited till 10:45 p.m. for this}

Grunion run: during hide tides, grunion wash up on the shore to bury down in the sand and lay their eggs. Then the men grunion wash up and fertilize..something like that.

94: beach camping @ doheny

We packed up the car and headed to the beach for a week of camping with my sister in law and the cousins! Surprisingly enough, as I was setting up camp, a friend popped by and said, "I thought that was your voice I heard!"(I guess I do have a loud, distinctive voice) It was a mom of one of Ryder's little kindergarten friends who happen to be in the very next campsite. What are the chances? Ryder and Danny had a great day but sadly they were only there for 1 more day. Didn't matter..there were enough cousins for everyone!

93: christie's in town

Our dear friend Christie {to my left}, who moved to Georgia last year, flew out yesterday for her daughter's wedding next weekend. We couldn't miss an opportunity to catch up and visit. She is a lively one..I have so missed being called "Geddie" and listening to the way that only she can tell a story!

92: topsy turvy

It's that time of the year again..time for the topsy turvy! I laughed at Jim when I saw that he had actually purchased this last year and set it up (kinda looked like something you'd see in a mobile home park). He got the last laugh! The topsy turvy yielded more tomatoes than we knew what to do with! It was an incredible investment..tacky, but wonderful!

(this year we added some cilantro and basil w/ the tomatoes)

91: finishing the job

After a couple days of play, it was time to finish the daunting task which was the downstairs tile floor.
Today I sealed it.