The Warrior Dash

Wow - what a Saturday! As some of you may have heard, the warrior dash in Afton, MN was last Saturday and I decided to participate with a group of friends. To fill everyone in, the warrior dash is a 5K obstacle course on a ski-slope. Yes, I did say on a ski slope. To say it and to run in it, are two completely different things. But, I am getting ahead of myself. Saturday came with some nervousness on my part for some unknown reason. Granted, I get nervous for everything, but this was just a 5K thing, fun run of sorts with my friends. John & Megan made it to my house at 8am that morning and we made the short drive to Afton to meet our 9:30 wave time. We were constantly promising the entire time, that we would not ditch each other and would stick together and end together.


By the time we made it to the Warrior site (after a hay ride and bus ride to get there) the clouds were rolling in and all were joking up the thunderstorms that were threatening to start at any time. We cautiously asked some mud soaked people passing by what the run was like and the comments were mostly "Just when you think you can't climb higher, you do" and "it was hard, but worth it".


So, 9:30 rolls around and approximately the 600 people in the wave were in the corrals and ready to start. With a fire start and a enthusiastic Warrior ROAR, we were off. . . to run up the ski slope. It doesn't sound that bad, I realize. I thought so too. John (who has run marathons)said it best with "You know, I have walked in almost every run I have done, but never in the first quarter mile." Yup.. it was like that. Luckily, it was like that for everyone. The run was steep and long and just when you were trying to convince yourself to keep jogging, the realization set in that "I can walk just as fast as I can jog now, so seriously, what is the point?"


The first obstacles came with thunder, lightning and rain above. The obstacle was a tire run/old beat-up car run over thing. Not too bad. Then, came the "gale force rainstorm" which was basically the loaded snow makers in Afton pointed directly at all of us POUNDING us with water. Then, more running up and down. More obstacles came; think cargo nets, barbed wire, roadblocks to jump over, a giant slip-n-slide of sorts, fire, and then the mud pool. Luckily for us, two of the obstacles were closed due to the storms that were threatening in the sky. Especially lucky for me, was that one of the obstacles that was closed was the one I was dreading, the rope climb.


Anyway, we ended the run with a bang aka. the Mud pool. It was the most amazing thing really, as it was the best combination of mud/water I have ever seen. Equally dispersed, equally heavy, gooey, get completely on everything, mud. Of course, the barbed wire was hung above it, so you had to get low. Thankfully not dunk - your - head - in - low (although some people did that) but low.

Here is an awesome pic of our group:

And still an after shot, but a cleaned up after shot with our horns.

The bands and free beer (one) were inviting to all the finishers and we hung out for a little while talking about how fun it was (and hard) and that we will have to do it next year with an even larger group. We even have a sweet team name. That comes from a man we met who was a Sasquatch hunter. Seriously, he was.




Here are some other pics of the events. No one special in the pictures, just pics

The mud crawl:

The fire jump coming down the slopes:

After this, I had a group of ladies up to the cabin for the first ever "Girls Weekend at the Cabin" and while the weather wasn't ideal, it was still relaxing and awesome.

Amazement

We had many balloons around our yard tonight and for Evan, there is nothing that he enjoys more. He is in amazement whenever he sees the balloons and will sit quietly and watch them until they pass our yard. Tonight we followed them from Stillwater after Emma's swimming lessons and hurried home so we could sit down and wait for them. Tim was pretty sure they were heading in the direction of our yard, so patiently we waited. I got out a blanket and we waited in the front yard under our big trees. Emma was dancing, singing, and telling stories while we were watching the balloons. Evan laid on his tummy, head supported by little arms which were propped up by tiny elbows, and little feet nonchalantly kicking back-n-forth. And.. he waited. As they got close, the three of us did our "Land here" dance & song and jumped back and forth so they would see us. One ballon (see the new header!) came right over us. Granted, it was still pretty high in the sky, but it went right over us. It was pretty cool.

Evan waited and waited for them to land. Even after they passed us and were probably over I-94, he waited. I told him that it was time to go in for bedtime, but he was still pretty sure they were going to come back and land in our yard. It was so innocent and sweet. Tim said it best with, "He still has awe and wonder and amazement. He still believes that stuff like that is possible." Emma at her mature age of 5, is over that and did the "Evan, the balloons are NOT coming back. They are way too far away." Then, she bounced in the house. Evan looked up at me, with hope in his eyes. I sadly shook my head no. He looked up at the balloon once more and did his now famous "Ohhh" and walked to the house.

I guess, this little simple episode can be clearly defined as the difference between an almost kindergartner and an almost 3 year old. Emma has the logic and thought process to realize that the balloon, while fun and neat to watch, was not landing at our house. She has seen probably a hundred in the sky around our yard and never land. Evan on the other hand, still believes. He is still hopeful night after night that one will land. He will sit outside and wait patiently for them to dip down and make his dream come true.

We are at the kindergarten count down in our house and as the days tick down, my emotions are ticking up. Now, don't get me wrong, I am incredibly excited for Emma to start this new journey. She will excel, I think and hope, at school. She is a little social butterfly and so far loves learning. It will be so easy for her to get on that bus with Kyra and Kaylee, yet it will be hard for me to watch. I guess for me it symbolizes that my baby is gone in a way. The innocence that she still has will soon be gone. Now come the worries about bullying, self esteem, doing school work, and all the other things that come along with school. It was only a short 5 years ago that she came into this world. Prior to my little Emma, I never experienced the drunk with love, overcome with emotions feeling before. And now... she is getting on a big school bus...

Swimming

To combat the heat this week, we have been either staying in the comfortable air conditioning, or playing in water. Kristen had a great idea on Monday for her and I to go swimming after the kids were in bed. What a wonderful idea! Around 8pm, her and I headed to the Lake Elmo Park Reserve to do some laps. The swimming hole wasn't terribly busy and it was so nice to be there and relax, without having to be on our "A" game and having a constant eye on the kids. I really enjoy swimming and what a great workout. So, Kristen and I were there for roughly an hour swimming back and forth and enjoying the coolness of the water.

Because he had a great time, we decided to bring the kids one night as well when the pool wouldn't be quite so busy. If any of you haven't been to the Lake Elmo Park Reserve before, I highly recommend making a trip. They have great campgrounds, 3 big play area's and a nice man-made lake for swimming. The lake isn't really huge, gets maybe 6 feet deep at the most, and is filtered/non-chlorinated water. They have nice sand around it for those that want to play there instead, and then have picnic tables, grills, etc. Anyway, it is a nice place.

Around 7:30 last night, Kristen and I got the 4 oldest kids ready and were off. Mine were incredibly excited for the "late-night adventure" especially when I told them we would be out past bedtime. Evan, the little trouble-maker, was lost for a few minutes after I got his trunks on as he was so excited. I thought he went outside, Tim thought he was inside and finally we discovered him IN MY CAR (which was off) all buckled and ready to go. Scary! Especially with the heat we have been having lately. Maybe I will have to start locking my car unless we are getting in to go somewhere.

Once we made it to the Park Reserve and got settled, the fun was on! The girls had a lot of fun splashing and being goofy with Kristen, while I stayed on Evan duty as he is much more daring in the water than I would like. The girls were trying to do somersaults, handstands, and swimming relays. Evan was enjoying playing with his shovel and pretending to be a frog.

All-in-all, everyone had a great time. The lake wasn't very busy so we had plenty of space to swim and play. Afterwards, we made an ice cream run to Sonic. Really, what is a swimming trip without ice cream? The kids were so good, had fun, and we are hoping to make it a weekly occurrence.

This weekend will be busy for all with the Warrior Dash and my first annual Girls Weekend at the cabin! YEA! hopefully we have good weather for all the events and everyone has a good time.

Her bags are packed; she is ready to go

After receiving her "Welcome to Kindergarten" letter, Emma has been so excitd about school. I am not even sure the word excited covers her feelings. She has been anxiously telling anyone that will listen about her teacher and all about the school supplies she needs. Plus, her teacher has a Guinea Pig in her room, so that is also a good conversation piece for a 5 year old.

She has her first meeting with her teacher on August 9 and that is when we get to bring in all of her school supplies. So, in preparation, we went school shopping last weekend. Emma had a blast in Target. She was pretty methodical about the notebooks and folders she picked, although didn't quite understand why the teacher had specifically mentioned that some folders had to plain and others could be the child's choice. She ended up with a Froggy Backpack, which she had to bring to daycare to share with her friends and already has it stocked full of her supplies.

The school hosts a few kindergarten playdates for the future kids, so they can get familiar with the school and maybe meet a future classmate. Emma went this past Wednesday with Kristen and Kaylee and met a little girl in her class! Emma said, "Mom! I met a new friend who has the same teacher! Now I will have a friend when I start school!" Emma and Kaylee have different teachers, which all four of the parents were happy about, so they can branch out and meet new kids.

Where has the time gone? Where is my baby? I just cannot believe how fast the time goes. I am so excited for her and the next chapter of her life, but cannot help but feeling sadness about the days gone by. I have already taken the first day of school off from work to celebrate with her, watch the bus go down the road, and then have a nice day to myself. (and with Kristen!)

The end of T-ball

Emma is done with T-ball now and overall, I think she had a great year. We celebrated the end of the season with a pizza party on Monday night. Although the restaurant was steaming due to the heat, children running around, and no air-conditioning, all had a great time. Emma was rewarded with a baseball signed with all the players on her team and a plastic bat and ball.

She had a great time although on the way home from daycare last week she decided:

"Mom, I don't want to play t-ball next year. I think I want to try something else."

Me: "Okay, there are a lot of things you can try. Gymnastics, karate, dance, soccer, whatever. We can talk about it."

Emma: "Well, I actually think I want to take up miniature golf."

well, how does a person really respond to that one?

Water

Many of the things the kids and I do involve water. Swimming at the cabin... playing in the sprinklers, splashing in puddles, umbrella in the rain, whatever... So, here are some pictures of us enjoying the water.


This past Friday was Kaylee's birthday! Happy 5th Birthday Kaylee! To celebrate, what better way than a kiddie car wash :-) The whole Kellogg and Heuer clan helped out with this one (and Papa of course!) to put together this:




Luckily it wasn't horribly difficult to put together. . . just slice some PVC pipes, add the fun doodads and hook up a sprinkler! The kids of course had to help, but then it was mostly Papa who assembled it once the kids were resting. Once rest time was over (and the rain stopped), the fun happened! The kids loved running through it and had a blast.



Close-up of Evan having fun:

And running through the car wash.

Here is Emma!

And Kyra showing her toothless smile!

Then, some of you may know that we had torrential downpours on Saturday morning. This resulted in a big puddle in our backyard. And... when I saw big.... I mean BIG!

So, once again, how could the kids resist? They hadn't even had breakfast yet and they were out there splashing.

Then, the slip-n-slide! Ahh... I have fond memories of the slip-n-slide from my younger years. This was a fun summer activity for my sisters and my cousins! Granted, the one my children has differs a bit than the hot-silage-pile plastic than the ones my cousins and I used at times, but the concept is still the same - ha!

Meet the contenders:

Emma

Versus Evan:

In the end... fun won out!

Then.. one final shot of Evan taking a bath in my laundry sink. His favorite thing to do after the sprinklers, puddles or whatever.

Weekend pictures

While I did not snap any pictures of our vacation, Kristen did. Here are some pics at the lake:

Here is a group shot of the cousins. What a handsome bunch :-)



Kaylee and I getting ready for a tube ride around the lake.


Tim enjoying a bucket water fight with the kids.

Emma and Kaylee going for one of many tube rides.

Emma climbing in the pontoon after deep swimming.

A group shot of all deep swimming.

All chilling.
The kids chilling on the pontoon.

Emma jumping off the dock.

And Evan.. with a snail.

Fun had by all!

Our week long vacation

Is there anything better than a week of vacation? (well, yes, obviously 2 weeks... sheesh) Anyway, the Heuer family just got back from a week of vacation over the holiday. The kids were excited to be at the cabin and Tim and I were incredibly excited to be away from work for a week and to share the time together as a family. As Emma mentions a LOT "Mama, I LOVE the cabin! It is my favorite place to be."

Anyway, we left the house Friday before the holiday weekend to a scorching 100 degrees. The truck was packed solid with bags, toys, kids, clothes, dogs, snacks, etc. You name it, we had it packed in the truck. To avoid some holiday construction and traffic, we took a different way to the cabin. A more scenic way, if you will, driving through the little towns of Wisconsin and stopping at a yummy creamery on the way there. Malts and sundae's were ordered and quickly eaten as we started to notice some gray clouds approaching and the temperature dropping as we drove northeast.

We really didn't think anything of the clouds and made it to the cabin around 7:00 I think. Tim handled the unloading and I quickly got the kids changed and down to the lake to play with their cousins who were also up to celebrate the holiday. It wasn't long after we were in the lake that we could hear thunder in the distance. The thought of storms always freaks Emma out, so we bundled the kids in towels and got them in the house as the lightning started in the sky. It was a quick rinse off for all the kids, which was lucky because a nasty storm was approaching. The power flickered on and off as I quickly washed their hair and rinsed off sand in the shower while the kids continually asked, "What was that? Why is the power flickering?" Before you knew it, we calmly walked the kids downstairs as the wind furiously blew outside and the rain came in sheets outside and the power was off for good. I watched at the window for a bit while putting together a quick supper for the kids and saw a few trees fall over and decided I should probably head back downstairs by the kids and wait out the storm downstairs. (and yes, of course, Tim stayed upstairs to watch what was going on. He is man, hear him roar.)

All-in-all, the storm was pretty bad in our area. Tim counted 15 trees that fell down in our yard, with 2 falling on our garage. Luckily, only a corner of the garage was damaged slightly. Our power was out for roughly 36 hours, which was quite an adventure for the kids and the visitors. (I woke up on Saturday morning to Mom boiling lake water so we could drink it and use it for cooking.) The roads were a complete mess and many of my family members were stuck walking after the storm to find someone to help them cut the trees so they could drive home. My sister Kim was stuck on the road about a half mile from the cabin and walked the rest of the way until Dad & Tim could move the trees so she could drive the rest of the way. My sister-in-law and brother-in-law had roughly 15 people stuck on the roads about 2 miles away as they were at a restaurant when the storm hit. Afterwards, so many trees were down and on the roads, that I really couldn't believe it. I have never seen anything like that before. The smart weather people are now debating if a tornado touched down or if it was just straight-line winds. Either way, we were all very, very lucky that it was just trees and nothing more serious to our houses or our family.

Other than the storm debacle, we had a very nice week. The weather was hot and sunny and lovely for a July week! Finally the weather we are used too! The kids played in the water as much as they could and I was so proud of Emma as she progressed so much swimming in just that week we were at the cabin. She would jump off the end of the dock, jump off the pontoon for deep swimming and was even enjoying tubing on her own! It is so much fun to see her progress from year to year. Evan did awesome swimming too and continuously reminds me why he needs to have a life jacket on at all times! He doesn't seem to have a fear around water and will jump off the dock, walk in where it is too deep to get a car he was playing with, or eagerly catch fish (and casts his line for fishing) at the end of the dock. Thankfully, most of the time he doesn't mind the life jacket so it isn't a struggle to get it on. Now, many times when he jumps off the dock, he will easily start kicking his little legs and swim away. There are times unfortunately, when the power of the life jacket takes over and it shifts him to his back, but now he knows how to maneuver his body back around so he can continue swimming. Even Evan enjoys deep swimming and easily jumps off the pontoon into the water. So much fun for all!

The rest of the week was spent visiting with family, eating a lot of yummy food, and just relaxing. We had the Kellogg's and the Bethke's up for the 4th, Eric and friend up after the fourth, and some Brunner's up the following weekend. We also saw Cars 2, which in my mind was okay not fabulous, but not horrible. (I am sure we will end up buying it though). We bought the kiddie snack tray, which consists of a slushee, popcorn, and candy treat and the kids were in heaven. Both sat and watched the movie well. Evan talked a little bit throughout, but nothing horrible. At the end of the movie, Evan ran out of the theater with his pudgy hands in the air yelling "I love Cars 2! It was awesome!" which got him a few amused looks. Emma enjoyed it as well, but agreed with me that the original Cars was best.

Emma unfortunately was struck with an ear infection in the middle of our vacation, which prompted a quick trip to town to see the doctor and get her medication. It ended up being a fun adventure anyway as I treated the kids to a Cars 2 car of their choice at the local market. Then, Happy Meals from McDonalds for the kids, two big flats of strawberries for me, and donuts from a yummy little bakery in town.

Unfortunately the week of vacation always goes by so fast. Especially when we were lucky to have a lot of family up to celebrate and little peeps around for our kids to play with. Now, we are back to the grind.