The Dirty Dash

The Dirty Dash was quite an event. Here is where I will chronicle it for you.

We started our Dirty Dash on Friday night when we had all of our team over for Taco Salad. We also made some Tres Leches cake. Mike and Jeff each brought their wives and Jenni came. All of our team consists of people that I work with.

Saturday morning, we traveled up the canyon to Soldier Hollow where they held part of the Olympic ski events. Just FYI, the Dirty Dash is a 10K with lots of crazy obstacles all along the way and a lot of mud. Here is our crazy team left to right:

• Jeff - aka "Speed Freak"
• Jenni - aka "Superwoman"
• Me - aka "Batgirl"
• Mike - aka Ninja
• Tonya - aka Popeye

Here we are being so tough...

Look at those muscles! What a pyramid!

We took about 10-12 shots of this trying to get all three of us in the air at the same time. We laughed a lot.

We had to take a few of these to make sure we were all in the this picture too.

Someone decorated their van for the event. Most of the stuff on this van was fresh manure - man, did it smell. The back had a pig tail and everything.

From the start of the race, there was a big sprinkler that had been running for quite awhile. It was a sloppy mess. Then we ran awhile and then we crawled through the tubes. They had tubes of different sizes. I guess I picked the biggest one. I must have a little claustrophobia.

Check out this mud! MMMM-good. You may also notice some costumes of people in the background. There were definitely some interesting ones!

Here we are climbing over the walls. I went over the first one, but the next two were really hard because there was so much mud in front of them, that it was impossible to jump to push yourself over the wall. It was neat because everyone helped each other.

We made it that far. Not too bad so far!

Then we crossed this muddy, muddy stream and I couldn't get up. My feet kept spinning out. Finally the guy standing there helped me get up...

This was the nastiest, swampiest blackest mud. The background looks really good. The mud was nasty though, and smelly.

We ran a bunch more and then went down the largest slip and slide in the world. I didn't go down very fast. I kept getting stuck....

After the slip-n-slide, we had to crawl through the mud pit. It was really crazy. The mud was probably 18 inches - 2 feet deep and really soupy.

Here we are after we finished! Almost as clean as we started!

How about the mud?

So clean!

Here is where we changed into something a little cleaner after showering in the world's coldest outdoor shower before going home.

We came back to our house and ate some leftover taco salad from dinner the night before. We also looked at our pictures and had some good laughs. We were glad Jeff had his camera to document the journey around a very muddy track.

We took showers and naps and felt much better after the day's events! It was really fun, and probably something I would do again next year.

The Boat Race

One of my scouts came over to build his Raingutter Regatta and this is how it turned out. He was really excited with how it came out. I was pleased too. During the first race, he did really well and it went really fast. Then the second round, he had taped the sail so it didn't turn around when he blew it and then it didn't go as fast. I am not sure why. It turned out really well. The boys had so much fun and they were so excited. There were some really creative boats. At our pack meeting, we had more people there than we have ever had since I started working in scouts. Two of my scouts turned 11 this month, so now we are down to four. I'm sad that they are moving on, but I'm excited for them.
It made me happy that his mom was so pleased with it too. It was a fun evening.

Raingutter Regatta

My scouts are having a Raingutter Regatta race tomorrow. I had never heard of a Raingutter Regatta and didn't really know what it was. So a RR is like the Pinewood Derby, only instead of cars, the boys build boats. The hull of the boat is made of wood and it has a sail. The boys put their boats in a raingutter full of water and they have to blow it from one end to the other. One of my scouts needed help building his, so he came over tonight and we put it together and he painted it. I don't really know how it will do. I have the rudder and keel on the bottom drying. I don't even know if they are going to hold. I guess I'll take it out of the stands tomorrow morning before I go to work and if necessary, reglue them. I just hope it doesn't sink when he puts it in the water. I guess we'll see what happens.

The New Hobby Continued

So the Pioneer Day 5K in Manassa was not my best running day. I was disappointed that I didn't run well. I decided I had to keep trying though, so today I ran 3 miles, which actually turned out really well. It felt good and I made it just fine. I think I am starting to understand the "runner's high" - too bad I don't always feel it.

Some friends and I are going to run The Dirty Dash up the canyon in September. My roommate sent me a link to a news article about it too. Check out the picture. If anyone wants to come join us, feel free. It's going to be one big mess! But it should be really fun.

A New Hobby?

For Independence Day, Lori ran a half marathon, which I thought was pretty exciting. After watching her, I decided I wanted to start running. I have always thought I couldn't run, so I never really have. One mistake I made, was I told Lori that after watching her, it made me want to run. So she called me back later and made a recommendation that we run a marathon relay where 4 people run 1/4 of the marathon. Basically, each person would run a 10K or a little over 6 miles and that it was in 6 weeks. I thought, "There is no way in the world that I can do that." All of the training plans I have looked at suggest that it takes 6 or more to prepare for a 5K.

Anyway, I talked more to Lori and to my roommate, who is a runner, and they said I would be fine. Basically each week, I have to increase by one mile. Last week I ran one mile all the way. This week I am trying to work up to 2 miles. Next weekend is Pioneer day and in Manassa they have the Pioneer Day 5K. So Lori and I are going to run it. Eeks! What am I thinking?

Actually, I just barely got back from running 1 1/2 miles without stopping and I felt good. It really does feel good (when I'm done :))

PIDT

Last weekend I had the chance to go to a conference in Estes Park, CO called Professors of Instructional Design and Technology. It really was one of the best conferences I think I have ever been to. Mainly I liked how laid back everyone was. The schedule was a suggestion, but the topics were up to the people there. For example, someone would say, "I've been wondering about ____. I was hoping we could talk about ___." and then if there were other people interested in that topic, they would find a place to sit down together and everyone would talk about it. In the afternoons, we tried to find good hikes. Sunday we went up as far as we could go in Rocky Mountain National Park and then got out and walked around and then drove back down to the YMCA where we stayed. It was nice to build relationships with people at the conference that were professional, but also "real" relationships that are based on doing things together.

One of my favorite parts was that there were about 1/4 of the participants (10/40) that were LDS, so on Sunday morning before the conference really got started, we got together and were able to have a sacrament meeting. It was neat to be with good friends doing something so important. It made Sunday into a special day for me. It was a fast sacrament meeting, but so nice. We sang, had the sacrament, and then shared a few scriptures. And then everyone started coming for the conference, so we finished up.

BYU was in charge of hosting the conference, so we (some other graduate students and I) got to hand out keys, keep the munchies tables stocked, and keep everything running smoothly. It really was a lot of fun.

On the drive back from CO yesterday, we hit a really bad snowstorm between Laramie and Rawlins. The wind blew so strongly and the snow was coming down hard. We had to go slowly in order to make it okay. I was glad the vehicle we were in had 4wheel drive. Anyway, we made it back last night and were glad to be back!

Lori is amazing!

Just in case you did not know, Lori was in charge of two big events in the last week.
Last weekend, she was in charge of the food committee for the stake Relief Society Humanitarian meeting. She led the committee to plan, buy, prepare, and serve the food at the meeting. I got to go take a sneak peak at what she did and here is how it looked:

Unfortunately the picture is a little limited in scope and it doesn't show all the good stuff they had. But they had fruit cups, baby quiches, cheese slices, sweet rolls, and juice and water to drink. It was so nice. All of the sisters that she worked with talked about just how awesome she was! They were so impressed that someone so young could manage an event like that so well. Way to go Lori!

Then last night, she put on the Mother-Daughter Activity Days program in her ward. They prepared a cruise for the girls and moms. It turned out so nice. Lori had made passports for each of them (girls and moms) and they had different activities on different "islands" to participate in. She found some great deals on all of her decorations and on the materials for the activities. They also served a dinner. Lori had all of the place settings prepared and organized so she knew where each person needed to sit and by whom. I wished I had taken a picture of last night, but I didn't even think about it until today, but I just wanted to share how great Lori is (in case you didn't know). Love ya, Lori!