Southwick Zoo

We hadn't been to the Southwick zoo since before we had moved to Prague.  The girls didn't remember it since they were so little (Ali spent the entire visit on my back in the baby back pack).  It was on our list of things to do since moving back to the States so when my brother said that he was going to go to the zoo with his sons we decided to join in.  The kids would get to go to the zoo and see their cousins at the same time.  My nephew Johnathon was in town from Ohio so I really wanted the girls to see him one more time before he headed back home.  My mom also joined us for the trip to the zoo.  The kids love being with their cousins, uncles, aunts, and grandparents and they love animals so it was a win all around!  I think the highlight of the day for all of them was watching the rhinos poop but even I have to admit it was interesting.  They all got some good laughs and had a fun time walking around the zoo together.  It is so nice that the kids all get along so well.

Obstacle Races

This year Jason and I added a new challenge to our fitness and started competing in obstacle course races.  We ran the Zombie Race in May and then in July we competed in the Tough Mountain Challenge at Sunday River.  It was a 5k obstacle course that ran from the base at South Ridge up to North Peak and then back down to Barker then over to South Ridge for the finish.  The race was a blast!  We were covered in mud from the obstacles but the challenge was really running up and then down the mountain.  The obstacles like running up muddy sections of trails with snow guns blasting water at you, rolling/crawling in mud under barbed wire, climbing in/out of a ravine were all a lot of fun and broke up the run up the mountain.  The obstacles were not the challenge for us in the race it was keeping our legs from buckling under as we ran down a mountain!  It was keeping yourself in control running down the mountain so that we didn't slip and tumble down instead.  We both put up good times for the race and managed to come in under an hour.  We were tired but had a great time and are looking forward to running it again next year.


  Our most recent obstacle race was in mid August.We ran the Spartan sprint race at the Amesbury adventure park (the same location as the Zombie race).  This race was very challenging because of the obstacles.  The race course was hilly but since I run hills on almost every run the hills weren't the challenge.  The challenge was climbing up over 6ft and 8 ft walls, climbing up ropes to ring a bell, carrying a 40lb sand bag up/down a steep hill, flipping truck tires, pulling cement blocks around a dirt track, jumping over fire, crawling in mud under barbed wire and thinking that was it until you climbed over a hay bale and saw more mud and barbed wire climbing uphill.  The race was a challenge and I knew that I would have to make up time on my running since the obstacles would be a challenge.  The walls were a challenge for my short stature and I utilized the men on the course to give me a quick lift up to reach the tops.  The guys didn't care about helping me out and the camaraderie on the course was really amazing.  I don't know how I would have gotten over an 8ft walls with out a lift since the walls were flat and you were not allowed to use the side supports to climb up.  I returned the favor though and helped people with running tips heading up a particularly tough hill climb.  If you couldn't complete an obstacle you had to do thirty burpees.  There were three obstacles that I failed on and had to do burpees.  One obstacle I missed was throwing a spear into a square of hay.  I have never done this and was really not surprised my spear didn't stick into the hay.  The next obstacle I had assumed I would have to burpees on and that was jumping from stump to stump.  The stumps were lined up in rows.  The distance between the stumps was not
uniform and the tops of the stumps were not flat.  I stepped up onto the stump and realized my legs were no where near long enough to reach the next stump so I jumped off and did my burpees.  The final obstacle that I didn't complete were the monkey bars.  I had assumed I could do these but I had not been prepared for the deep mud and then thigh deep water I had to go through to get to the monkey bars.  I was completely soaked and muddy by the time I reached the monkey bars and on my second bar my hands just slipped off.  There was no time to delay though so I quickly did my burpees and carried on.  I pushed the run to make up for the lost time on burpees.  I jumped over the fire and ran down the hill and over the final wall where I knew I was going to meet the final two "spartan warriors" with their pugil sticks.  I had planned ahead to master my "weak girl" look and ran up pleading with them not to hit me.  It worked (despite Jason yelling from the side lines for them to hit me) and they only gave me a light tap and I crossed the finished.  I had hoped to come in under an hour but ended up at one hour and 4 minutes.  I was still very happy with my time as it put me in the top 2% of females and top 10% overall.  Jason finished in 55 minutes and came in top 5% of males and top 4% overall.  Not too shabby! (If Jason downloads his pic to my computer I will add some of him.  He was just as muddy as me!)

Beach Week 2012

We had all been looking forward to beach week this year.  Even Jason has accepted and learned to love the craziness that is the family beach week.  For those that don't know my entire family...my brothers, sister in laws, nephews, aunts, uncles, cousins...numbering somewhere around 30 people, gather in Narragansett, RI every year for our family beach week.  Times have changed and we are a little more "luxurious" now...meaning we are a little more spread out.  The houses themselves are not luxurious but when I was a child we had all of those people in one house with 2 bedrooms.  That meant you have people sleeping in sleeping bags on the floor or on the couch (if you were lucky).  Now the families are split up between a few houses but we all get houses next to each other so the kids can run from house to house without worry.  Jason and I could get our own house but for me the memory of being jammed into one house with everyone was part of what made beach week special to me so instead of renting our own we join my parents in a three bedroom house with one of my brothers.  My parents get a bedroom, my brother Joe takes a room with his family and we take a room for our family. (My other brother rents a house across the yard from us).  The rooms are tiny and there is barely enough room to fit two twin blow up mattresses along side our bed in the room for the girls but we manage.  The goal is not to spend time in your room but to be out enjoying time with the entire family.

Beach week is filled with fun activities.  We go to the beach, of course!  I love Sand Hill Cove!!  It is the old person and little kid beach but I have always loved it.  There is not a wave to be seen and I can walk into the water while seeing the bottom the entire time.  Now that I'm a parent I love it even more because I do not have to worry about rip tides or my kids getting slammed by a wave.  The "waves" that our kids love to play in and ride their boogie boards on are laughable to call waves but while they are happy with them so am I.  Between all our rental houses is a pool for use by the renters so after the beach or on days when the weather wasn't perfect for the beach we would head to the pool for play time. Every year we take a day and head over to Adventure land.  Adventure land has mini gold, bumper boats, go karts, batting cages and a carousel.  Some years we play mini golf and some years we don't.  This year we skipped and hit the carousel instead since that was what the kids wanted.  The main reason for adventure land though are the go-karts!  My nephew, Johnathon, tries to beat me every year.  Last year I beat him because his car stalled out on the final lap but a win is a win!  This year I lucked out and got one of the faster cars as well as Ali is older this year and I'm not as worried about her being scared or jarring her neck on a bump so I could hold the gas down the entire time.  Johnathon, unfortunately, got a slow car and we beat him by a full lap.  Such is the luck of the draw on go-karts.  He wanted another race but I know when to call it quits and I only give him one opportunity to beat me a year!  This year Sofia was old enough to go solo in the bumper boats but Ali still wanted to stay with me which was fine.  We all had fun and ended up completely soaked. 

Time at the beach or on go karts or at the pool works up an appetite and time can't be spent down at Point Judith without heading to Iggy's for dough boys (fried dough).  We managed to go to Iggy's a couple times during the week and it was delicious! 

Jason, the girls and I took an afternoon and headed over to play golf with my Aunt Carlene.  I have always loved spending time with my Aunt Carlene and the girls love spending time with her too.  I love seeing them have the same fun that I had as a kid.  Some how my Aunt makes everyone feel special.  Anyway we played nine holes together and had a great time.  We tried to figure out a second day to play but the week just goes by so fast and there are so many things to do that we ended up only fitting in one round of golf.

 Our last stop at beach week was at the Fantastic Umbrella Factory.  It isn't a factory and they don't sell umbrellas.  I do not have a good way to describe it other than kind of bohemian hippie kind of place.  This was the first year that I had brought the kids and Jason to see it.  I didn't remember exactly what it was since I hadn't been in years but I remembered liking it as a kid and we went every year with my grandma.  This year we went with my mom and it is still a fun place.  The kids enjoyed seeing some Emus and ducks, walking in a bamboo forest and getting henna tattoos.  We had lunch while some chickens pecked the ground around our table which just added to the fun for the kids.    All in all it was a great beach week filled with fun activities surrounded by all of our family.

Hair Cuts

The girls have graduated to a proper salon for their hair cuts. Gone are the days of the $10 kids haircut. This was the girls second trip to my hair salon and they love it. They love Brianna cutting their hair and she does such a nice job. This time around they both asked Brianna to blow dry their hair straight. I didn't mind as I like to have my hair blown out straight from time to time but I had to laugh to myself since the girls would quickly learn that blow drying their hair straight on a humid summer day is useless. They were so happy with their straight hair. I too love the feel of my hair when it is straight. I feels so soft and smooth. In any event after watching them preen over themselves in the mirror we went home. As typical of the girls they were immediately out in the back yard to play. When they came in a little while later I said, "well so much for straight hair.". They both had a shocked look and went to the mirror. With sadness they realized their soft straight hair had gone the way of frizz and up in a ponytail it went. I explained about humidity again and told them not to worry we can blow dry it straight come winter time and off they went to continue playing.

Bowling

Jason, the girls and I decided to head to the golf course to play 9 holes but by the time we managed to get to the course we pulled into the parking lot, got out of the car and the rain started followed quickly by a clap of thunder.  We were dissappointed but onto plan B to make sure we still had fun.  We decided to go bowling.  We checked on line for the closest bowling place to the golf course and found some candle pin bowling.  This place was in a basement with only six lanes and had been there, family run, since 1953.  The kids had a great time bowling.  We had to help Sofia learn not to slam the ball into the ground but otherwise all was well.  Given that they had the bumpers up on our lane we all scored fairly well too!