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Camping at Enchanted Rock
We paid homage again this year to one of the so-called places to climb in Texas. And by homage, I mean we climbed less this year than last year (i.e. not at all). That’s ok. Jeana is six months pregnant and the pregnant belly may not be conducive to agile climbing.
We learned some funny things about the Wayes on this outing, which I have no problem blogging about since they’re moving away from us soon. I will miss them. First, Becca has issues with some funny things: sand in her nails, fish, and eating meat off bones (although this is dwindling with the advent of Texas BBQ). Second, Scot told us a funny story about him running full speed into a chain parking lot barrier and falling face-first into the pavement. Thanks for the laugh. And, thanks for bringing Bernie to entertain our children. Oh, and thanks again because now they want a pet dog!
Ocean was so thoughtful of Jeana by offering her a piece of licorice. Jeana declined the offer, but Ocean insisted on keeping track of a certain piece of licorice in case Jeana changed her mind. Jeana sat at the campfire watching Ocean caress the licorice in her hands and thread it through her toes. Ocean asked for another piece, to which Adam replied that she already had one. Ocean told Adam that piece belonged to Jeana. When Jeana said she didn’t want it, Ocean caressed and threaded more, and finally took a bite.
While in Utah at my parents’ house this summer, my dad carved some walking sticks for Audrey and Kate. Yesterday we finally took a hike for the girls to use the sticks for their intended purpose (rather than just play with them around the house with some sort of princess theme) up to the top of “Enchanted Rock”. Kate surprised me and made it up a good portion of the hike – she was a good little hiker.
Poor Audrey. Audrey had school pictures on Friday so she dressed up a bit. Jeana packed her camping gear for her so that we could just pick Audrey up from school and drive straight to our destination. I paid our entrance fee after arriving, and when I returned to the car, Jeana told me we had a problem. Jeana had grabbed two right shoes for Audrey. You see, Audrey and Kate have the same shoes, except that Kate’s are smaller. Oh well, what can you do? Scot asked me at the campfire, “So what’s the deal with Audrey’s shoes?” As if she had some “condition” – just kidding. Despite the two right feet, Audrey hiked all the way to the top and most of the way back down before complaining. In fact, she and Jackson were racing to the top of the hike! I found it easy to take pity on her and carry her on my shoulders part of the way down.
Muleshoe Bend Adventure Race
On June 14th, Jamie and I did our second adventure race. This one was co-ed and we really didn’t know what we were getting into. The race website informed us that we would be biking, running and kayaking with some possible mystery events. All adventure races say they might have a mystery event, but they are usually pretty minor. We showed up to the race and there was a sign with the order of events.
The funny part about this is I had a dream the night before that we got to the race and found out that we had to swim too. I told Jamie about the dream on the way to the race and when she saw the sign, she said, “We DO have to swim!” Neither of us have trained in swimming for over a year now, so as we waited in line to sign in and get our packets we just kept laughing nervously thinking, “What have we got ourselves into?”
Luckily someone explained that the swim portion really entailed putting on a life jacket, running through the water (swimming if you wanted, but not necessary), and getting out where the kayaks were waiting for us. So, the race began with the running portion. We were running mainly on biking trails so it was really hard to pass people without running into trees. Jamie did great at passing a bunch of people, but I didn’t have so much luck, so we were separated for a while. We were supposed to stay within 20 seconds of our teammate, which we easily did, but I just couldn’t keep up with her. Then, we got to the swim part and after the hot run, it felt so good to get into the water.
Next, came the kayaking. Jamie and I have taken kayaking lessons, but never in an inflatable kayak. It was impossible to steer at first. Every time we shifted our weight at all, we would turn sideways. They told us to bring beach balls to sit on, which didn’t work for us, so we tried kneeling…. no go. So we ended up sitting on the bottom of the kayak. I had some nice chafing up my arms as my short little torso tried to have enough height so that the paddle could reach the water. Not our strongest event.
Onto the biking. The biking was awesome and hard. It was long. Jamie crashed 4 or 5 times and got some nice bruises and a little road rash. I endoed once and caused a crash behind me. Because of the tight trails, it was hard to pass people on the bike too, but we did alright. We ended coming in 10th in the female category.
This race didn’t have any navigation involved, but they set up some checkpoints you could find for fun after the race, if you wanted to. We decided that this could be some good practice for our girl adventure race at the end of this month. However, once we had finished the race, we had really lost steam. We kept trying to talk ourselves into it, but we just weren’t too excited about it. We started it, but quickly changed our minds and headed back.
Our families got there probably about 10 minutes after we crossed the finish line. Scott had been at scout camp all week. He rushed home, grabbed the girls and then headed up. So, we were quite the stinky family.
Our team name is AOKE – named after our daughters in age order: Audrey, Ocean, Kate, and Eden.
They also had a kids race afterwards that the girls got to do. They got singlets and medals for doing it. They now have more medals from races than Scott and I.
Kiddie Triathlon
Our friends the Rothe’s put on a kiddie triathlon last weekend. It was so much fun at least for Audrey and me. I’ll let Scott share the Kate side of the story.
Before it started, Chris went around and wrote race numbers on all the kids’ arms and legs. Audrey picked #5, since she just turned 5. Kate picked #2 since she’s 2. And Jackson picked #5 because… that’s what he saw on Audrey’s arm.
The Rothe’s set up an awesome course on some trails around their apartment complex. The running portion was supposedly .5 miles. The bike portion was around .5 -.75 miles. And the swim consisted of putting their feet in the water until they were properly attired for real swimming. Audrey started off like she usually does – sprinting and in the lead… for at least the first 15 seconds. Then, the steady Drew and Jackson passed her. Kate and Scott were really thoughtful to let everyone else go in front of them as they brought up the rear.
The bike portion was on a really fun path that wound through trees and went through a park and ended with a killer hill. Audrey was so tough and made it all the way up the hill on her own. I was so proud of her.
She stayed so focused after she got off her bike and ran down to the pool. I think we have a future racer in the makings.
Scott’s perspective:
Yes. We were thoughtful to let everyone else go first. I think Audrey and Kate burned their energy in the pre-race warm up, because Kate only made it a couple hundred yards before she was ready to be carried. She was in good company with her friend, Lauren, who wasn’t too far ahead. At one point on the run, we did see Audrey and Jeana very far ahead, so I decided it would be acceptable to carry Kate on my shoulders (since no one was around watching). I did force Kate to get off my shoulders though once we were in view of the spectators at the beginning of the loop. Becca, Riley, and Chris were so nice to cheer Kate into the transition area and to pull her bike and helmet out for her to mount up and move on.
Given her position in relation to the rest of the participants, we took an alternate route for the bike leg and headed directly to the car. In her defense, Kate did ride her bike all the way to the car.
Kate and I arrived at the the next transition area just in time to see Audrey pushing up the final bike hill. She looked incredible!
The swimming portion was my favorite and I think Kate’s favorite too. Actually, I don’t know if it was Kate’s favorite but I’m going to tell myself that because she did spend a lot of time with me in the pool. We were swimming together and she was holding onto me so much by herself that when she let go, I didn’t realize I was supposed to catch her and she totally went under the water. Luckily, Jeana was close by and yelled at me kindly brought it to my attention that our daughter was drowning. I felt like a horrible parent. We (Kate and I) made up and I took her under later to pick up a swim toy from the bottom of the pool. She definitely didn’t know what she was getting into.
Audrey’s 5!
Audrey’s birthday was so fun. We started out the day with breakfast and opening presents from the family. Kate’s was first and was the biggest hit. If you’ll notice, Kate’s eyes are closed in the picture. They are used to closing their eyes while they wait for surprises. She got Audrey an Ariel umbrella and right after Audrey opened it, Kate grabbed it and said, “Thank you!” in her sweetest voice. Apparently she’s a little confused on the ”from” vs. the ”for.”
Later in the morning, Audrey had some friends come over for her “Garden Party.” I know a garden party for a five year old sounds a little nerdy, but let me explain: For the past six months Audrey has been deciding what kind of cake she was going to have for her birthday and none of them sounded easy. She would usually ask for things like, Sleeping Beauty or other princesses or Tinkerbell. Anyway, one day we were working in the garden and she asked me if I was a gardener and I said, “yes.” Then, she asked if she was a gardener and I said, “You helped plant the seeds so that makes you a gardener.” Then, she said, “I want a garden cake for my birthday.” Thinking about how easy a garden cake would be in comparison to Tinkerbell, I encouraged this idea as much as possible. So, she had a garden themed birthday.
When Danielle was here, she painted a poster for the kids to play, “Pin the shovel on the gardener.” Audrey and Kate rocked at this game. They then played a relay game where they filled up buckets with plastic fruits and veggies. All the kids ran their hearts out in this game. They were troopers in the heat. We also had a strawberry piñata that luckily everyone got to hit before it broke.
And of course… the cake. Last year Audrey was a little candle shy, so Ocean helped her blow the candles out. This year we encouraged them both to have it be a one person effort and they both did great!
Audrey also got a little kiddie pool for the back yard, so later in the afternoon, she and Kate had some fun in the sun!
