Rhino Mud run

Have you seen those fun pictures of the crazy people doing "extreme" 5K races?

You know, the ones where they are crawling through mud...

Or it looks like something from a war movie...

...and they have to jump through fire?

Well, Dan signed up for one of those. 

And he signed Chelsea up for the kid version. 

I think it would have been lots of fun, but not sure the belly would have cooperated. 

Unfortunately, it was a BIG disappointment. 

Here is Dan's before:

And the after:

Yeah, not much of a mess, eh? Shoes are a little muddy, and socks have changed color, but that's about it. 

Obviously I was in no shape to chase along side of him to get pictures of all the obstacles, but you can get the idea.

They had two hay bale hurdles about 100 meters from the start of the race. Yeah, kinda wimpy. 

 This is the "fire" at the end they were to jump over. 

L.A.M.E. 

It was just smoldering hay. Probably could have been hot, but definitely NO fire. 

Regardless, of the mediocrity of the race, he still did awesome, especially since he didn't have time to train. I can't remember how many were in his heat...maybe 100? He came in 11th or so. 

Then it was Chelsea's turn...

Hers was only a 1/2 mile run, so Dan jogged along to try to get pictures.

The first obstacle was this tower. A.KA. major people jam. 

Of course, Chelsea is too sweet to get her elbows up and charge her way up. When there was finally a spot, she took it. 

Finally!

She said this one was the toughest....

They also had some monkey bars, but I guess they were super slippery and she lost her grip on the first rung.

Lastly, they had the tires to run through. 

I didn't bother timing her, since it was mainly a just-for-fun race. 

I think Michael wants to do it next year. 

Brinly was super excited to see her again. :) I was a long 7 or 8 minutes. 

We'll find a dirtier race next year...

Happy Birthday Brinly!

I know why I don't blog very often. Our internet is being really cruddy lately, which means it's s...l...o...w......

So, I'll sit for an hour and wait for my pictures to upload. But then, I'll get distracted. And when I come back, someone has closed the window. 

Argh.

I probably should do more frequent, shorter posts, but I don't. 

Anyway, without further ado, 

Brinly's 3rd Birthday!!!

Brinly has been talking about her Birthday, for months. MONTHS. 

She was super excited when it was finally HER day. 

The traditional run-through-the-streamer-to-oficially-turn-a-year-older.

We opened her presents before school, so she could play with them while the kids were at school.

But then waited to have her cake until after Dan got home from work, and moments before we loaded up in the car to go to Grandma's house.  Hence the giant Costco cupcake....

Brinly has been obsessed with Dora, so I was excited to throw another Dora party. However, the last few weeks before the party, she discovered she liked Diego more. But, I was already in Dora mode...besides, they are practically the same thing...

She invited just four little friends (one couldn't make it). 

We held the party during Dan's lunch break, so we hosted a little BBQ and invited the moms' and siblings to join us. 

After lunch, we brought out the cake, but...

So the girls had to go on a quest to find Brinly's cake!

First, you need your map and backpack.

(Aren't they the cutest!?)

 The first stop, was to go through the gate. 

Brinly found a clue that said in order to open the gate, they had to go in the dark cave and find the missing letters to Brinly's name. 

Enter: Big dark cave. Er...as dark as you can make a tent in the middle of the day...

First they looked in their backpacks for something that might help them see in the dark cave, and found mini flashlights. 

I missed the final picture, but they were able to complete the task. 

Next, they had to go down the silde. But a grumpy OLD troll stopped them, and said they needed to have frienship bracelets in order to pass. So, they looked in their backpack to find supplies to make their bracelets. 

I found these super cool bracelets at Hobby Lobby, the fits pony beads perfectly, and connects to the opposite end easily, but securely. It was perfect for little fingers. 

With bracelets done, they were able to pass by the Grumpy old troll, and go down the slide to continue their adventure. 

Another clue took them to Boots' house. But Swiper had been there already and swiped all the colors from Boots' house! They were asked to help Boots put the color back into his house.

(Side note: This dang thing almost had me in tears before the party. We were running late getting things set up, and I finally got the darn thing together. It was awkward and flimsy, as one can only expect from cardboard, and I had to tape it together. 

....only to discover it wouldn't fit through the door. I had to take the whole thing apart, re-tape it together, plus all the parts where it was starting to rip, and then made a mad dash around the house to get food out on the tables, somewhat decorated, and try to tidy my house, all in 10 minutes. Luckily, the guests were running late too. My sincere apologies to those who received this as Christmas gifts! Hopefully it lasted longer for you!)

Finally, with all the tasks completed, the lost cake was found. 

This Brinly keeps us all laughing. She was the one who sang the birthday song the loudest "happy BIRTHDAY to BRINLY...." She knew it was her day. :) 

We love you!