Death Valley

Two weeks ago we set part on a big family adventure. We had never visited Todd and Betty in California so we thought it would be fun to go and visit them. Of course being us, we wanted to make sure to have adventures on the way. We had never been to Death Valley before and so . . . we thought it would be fun to drive through it by golly. And it was pretty cool. There isn't a ton to do there without researching it out, but we played in the sand dunes, and we stopped at this little town where they have these really old man made caves that people lived in a long time ago in order to escape the heat. They were pretty cool. I find stuff like that intriguing. We also got to walk around 256 feet below sea level at the hottest spot in the United States. It felt like summer at 90 degrees when we were there. And the most important thing? We got a magnet for our fridge.

You don't even have to say it. I know . . . we are hot! A few weeks ago we saw a post on a friends blog where they had gone to an "ugly sweater" party. We thought that it was hilarious. Well, our friend Dedra decided to host an ugly sweater party for our block, and was going to give prizes to the winners . . . and for a chance to go to the DI and pick out killer ugly clothes just for the fun of it, we certainly couldn't pass up the opportunity.
When Lamon put on his outfit at the DI we couldn't stop laughing, and then he insisted on wearing it around the store, and all the way home! It reminded me of the days when we were dating and Lamon would show up at my house dressed in shorts and knee high rubber boots hoping to embarrass me. Anyways, when we got to the party we were one of only three couples there; and we were the only ones under the age of 40. It's too bad that more people didn't decided to come. They missed out on seeing us looking so incredible. Honestly. I told Lamon that he should wear those pants more often. He's HOT!

FTF Getaway!!!!

This past weekend Lamon and I had a bit of a getaway.
Okay so maybe most people might not consider leaving our kids with babysitters in order to go run in a 50 mile relay and then come straight home to be a fabulous getaway . . . but it was so awesome.

We had a blast. Thank you to the saintly sisters who babysat the kiddies. And thank you to those who invited us to run in this race a couple weeks ago. I think we did pretty darn good for two weeks of training. We finished the 50 mile relay averaging 8 minute 22 second miles, came in 18th over all and 10th in the coed division. . . . So maybe there were only 38 teams . . . but hey . . . we rock. I was so excited at the banquet when they called out our teams name for 10th place. I yelled out, "Wahoo!" I was the only one in the entire room of people who yelled out, and people were looking at me like, "Ya . . . wow . . . 10th place . . . great job." Hey . . . I was excited. We even won water bottles and these like 10 cent fishing hats.

Meet the Feed The Fire Team

Sue Barksdale

Sue is so awesome. We only gave her one weeks notice for this race. She had never ran in a race before, and we were all thinking that she would be somewhat slow, but no. . . She pretty much rocked.

James Hodges

James was by far the most ready for this race. He recently did a half marathon, and he was awesome. I think that we all agree that the "Washington Dam Hill" Leg of death that we assigned to him was by far the hardest of all the legs, and he did awesome and didn't even try to kill anyone at the end.

Lamon Mack

Lamon was by far the hottest guy in the entire race. And if there was a prize for the best farmers tan he would have won that too. Oh ya . . . and he is super fast. He was passing people like crazy during his legs. And he was also our motivational team leader. He was the driver and stopped all along the way in order to cheer each team member on. Lamon is awesome!!!

Broc White

Broc is pretty much not human. We purposefully signed him up for the hardest legs in the race. When he saw the legs he was running he said, "How come you guys gave me the best legs?" He doesn't feel pain. He was flying up the hill on his first leg, chasing these two guys, and as he passes we heard him say, "I'm out of shape." Or something like that. We are all like, "Ya . . .um . . . right." He did the only leg rated 10 for difficulty and did it averaging 6 something minute miles. I think we would all like to be as out of shape as Broc!

Mary Mack

Mary Mack is pretty much the coolest person on the entire team. There would be more pictures of her but she was so incredibly fast. . . she got to the transistion before her team even knew what was happening.

Okay . . . so not really. It was actually because my leg was all on the trail system.

I would have been even faster if I wouldn't have had a little urinary incontinence episode. There were not a lot of porta potties stationed along the run . . . and well . . . I had to go! I did the pottie dance for a few seconds and then thought, "Oh what the heck!" Hey, it's not my fault . . . Mandy and I discussed our fears about the lack of toilets since we both have small bladders, and Mandy suggested having Bill follow on a bike with a 5 gallon bucket . . . but Mandy got injured and couldn't come . . . and therefore no Bill on a bike with a 5 gallon bucket. Anyway . . .

So I am just proud of the fact that no one passed me and I passed three people in leg four, and one in leg 7. And I am very proud of the fact that I didn't pee my pants in leg 7. Isn't that looking at the glass as half full as opposed to half empty?

This is me reinacting my experience for everyone!

And here is me and Lamon trying to look sexy. I think I'm better at it! :) j/k