Saturday, August 21, 2010

Trail to Ale 10K is 4 weeks away tomorrow!

Holy Crap!!!
My first ever 10K is four weeks away from tomorrow!!! YIKES!!!
Where has this Summer gone??

I feel unprepared for it, even though I have been training... is this normal for this to happen??
I don't remember feeling this way the first time I ran a 5K, LOL! Or maybe I did and have just pushed that back in to the deep recesses of my mind... I am really excited for the race which will be run on different terrains - pavement, dirt and trail system as it is run as a fundraiser for the portland trail systems. I registered for this race WAAAAYYY back in May as I had heard it caps out, but so far this year it has not yet.

I will keep you all up to date as my training picks up this month to prepare for the big day :)

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Summer 2010 at a glance....

Boy have we had a busy summer!

June -
Right off at the beginning, Tommy graduated form preschool! I was so proud of him marching in with his class wearing his little cap and gown, what cutie!

Tommy had T-Ball right up until the week before the 4th of July. The last couple of games, the coaches pitched to them. Tommy did awesome! Tom was the assistant coach for the team and it was great seeing him get involved :)

Then we finished the month off with our first run of the season on the river in our raft on the 8000 release! The river was still a bit cold, but what a great ride!!! It felt great to be back on the river rafting :)

July -
Started off with a bang on the 3rd as the Moose River Lumber Softball Team beat the Jackman Hotel Team in the Local Softball Tournament! The guys played in extreme heat all day and managed to beat the Hotel Team two games in a row to win the championship. I believe they played 6 or 7 games altogether that day!! They were tired but excited to win!

On Sunday my parents came up for a few days to visit us. They took Tommy fishing on Monday while we rafted the 8000 release. And then that afternoon the boys enjoyed some tubing in the lake while my Dad pulled them behind his boat. I watched from shore and got a laugh or two when you would see the tube flip and water spray as the person went flying off, LOL!

July 26-28th Tommy went on his very first trip away from home. My IL's with each grandchild, take them to Santa's Village, Story Land, Clark's Trading Post, and Grey's Animal Park the Summer before they start Kindergarten. Since Tommy will start Kindergarten in September, this Summer was his turn! They left at 6:20 Monday morning and got back around 7:30pm Wednesday Night. We were quite surprised to see them back Wednesday as they weren't scheduled to be back until Thursday. But, I was glad to have my little guy back home :) He had fun and yacked our ears off almost a week telling us all about his trip, LOL!

The rest of July consisted of work during the week and playing on the river on the weekends with family and friends. The weather has been gorgeous this Summer for the first time in almost three years, therefore making the river incredibly warm!

August (so far) -
The first week in August is our annual vacation. The whole family takes vacation this week as well as some of our friends. The whole week is made up of rafting and other adventures!
Monday, Aug. 2 - Rafted the Kennebec River and cleaned up the beach that we like to stop at and hang out. We were going to have a camp out there Thursday, but those plans changed due to inclimate weather...
Tuesday, Aug. 3 - Mother-In-Laws Birthday: made a beautiful wild raspberry cake with almond frosting for her. During the day we drove out to two waterfalls, Cold Stream Falls and Parlin Gorge. Never got to see Parlin Gorge, but hiked the trails around it for an hour or so...
Spent the afternoon at home gathering things together for our trip to the Penobscot the next day!!!!! Then we had a nice big party that night for the MIL's birthday :) Very little cake was left at the end of it :)
Wednesday, Aug 4 - Up at 5am to get final things packed for the Penobscot!!!! Left by 6:15am and headed on over! Stopped in Greenville for breakfast at Auntie M's to get some substanance to fuel our big paddle! Saw a Pelletier Truck loaded up with a double load on the Golden Road on the way over and Had the 3 Rivers Crew offer to load our raft on their trailer so we didn't have to carry it down to put in :) Scouted Exterminator and The Staircase and watched a couple of 3 Rivers boats go down through and then we kissed the boy goodbye and headed out as our friend Jill took pictures and videoed us for the day, and played shuttle bunny :)
The river was AWESOME!!!!! Just like how I remembered it from years ago when we had last done it (8 yrs ago). They were running big water (3300) and it was great! Had great runs at every rapid! The Crib Works were big and we got turned around but managed to swing back around frontwards to make final chute :) What an adrenaline rush that river is!!! Sadahunk Falls was HUGE!!! If there had been just a couple more hundred CFS, we wouldn't have been able to run it at all... both times we ran it, they were rough, LOL! The first time over it my FIL got an elbow inthe mouth and got a bloody lip and then the second time we almost flipped the boat and everyone came out with some sort of bruise or scrape on them, LOL!
After we got off the river, we headed over to Millinocket to have dinner at The Pelletier's Restaurant. The food was great and the beer was super cheap! Our waitress was awesome and I would go back if I was over in that area again.
Thursday, Aug 5 - We were supposed to be camping overnight on the Kennebec this evening, but when we woke up that morning the weather station's were all calling for severe weather with damaging winds and hail that afternoon. Soooooooo..... we decided NOT to chance it and just go rafting and drink instead, LOL! So I headed up to Jackman and brought Tommy for a sleepover at my friends house. We had a great time on the river that day!! The that night we went to our friends camp down the lake from our house and had a camp fire and drank :)
Friday, Aug. 6 - Got up early with some heavy heads... mine wasn't too bad. Tom seemed off, LOL! It was the first time in 13.5 years of being together that I have seen him with a hang over, hehehehehe.... we decided for the easy float down the river that day. We put on early and floated down to Rock Garden on 330 CFS. It was soooo pretty! We sat there until the river came up around 10:20 and then headed out. At Carrybrook I picked up my sit on top kayak and thru on that. I did really good! I even managed to paddle my butt off just before Turtle Island when I got spun and put in the little hole right before and got myself out without flipping... I was super impressed by my mad paddling skills, LOL! I hung out for a little while on the beach with everyone and then paddled down the rest of the way all by myself as I had to be in Jackman for 2pm to take Tommy for a speech evaluation for school. It was soooo relaxing to paddle the rest of the way on my own :) The quiet was awesome! It made me realize that I really need to get out more and get some me time in.
Saturday, Aug 7th - Back to work...... worked at the Caratunk PO from 7:30-11:30 and then came home and packed the little guy and I up to go visit at my parent's house :) Got to their place around 4pm. Went and saw my sister's new apartment, cute and perfect for her and my nephew :) And in a nice little neighborhood in Springvale. I am soo happy for her :)
Sunday, Aug 8th - Got up and my Mom had made blueberry pancakes :) YUM!!! Then we packed up and headed for the beach! Ended up at Drake's Island just after high tide and had a blast! Tommy played in the waves and collected shells after the tide started to recede. Came home after 4 hours and took Tommy school shopping once we had some lunch in our stomachs.
It was so fun to watch him pick out clothes and his new backpack :) Still can't believe he goes to kindergarten in a few weeks!


So that is how our Summer has been going!
I am in hopes of posting more frequently now that I have done this REALLY long blog!!! LOL!

Time is ticking down!

Three and a half weeks away, my baby boy starts on his school career and officially becomes a part of the Class of 2023! How crazy is that?!?!?! It seems like just yesterday that we were bringing him home from the hospital and he is now starting school!

Friends have always told me that the older their children get, the faster time flies by, and they were sooo right! I am so glad I have enjoyed and taken in every minute of him in his early years. He is truly a great blessing to us :)

My mother and I took him school shopping last weekend at JCPenney and Kohl's and he now has plenty of new clothes to add to his already full closet of hand me downs, LOL! He also picked himself out a Bakugan Backpack and this really cute Coleman Lunch/Snack Box that has a water bottle attachment for the side of it and comes with it's own water bottle :) All he needs now is a new pair of sneakers to replace the old stinky ones that are beginning to wear holes in the toes he wears them so much. Gonna solve that this weekend when we hit Skowvegas for the big New Balance Tent Sale and then head to the Fair afterwards for great food, rides, and truck pulls!!!