Still easier....

The new blog is still easier than this one!!! I updated it today with the weekend's festivities. Check it out by clicking the title....be sure to save the new blog in your favorites. ALSO, for those who love to see pictures......all of my recent pictures will be on on the following website (it is only available to those that have access to the site):

http://gallery.me.com/becunc02

You can download/upload these pictures to your computer. Enjoy!!

New Blog for kicks!

Since I have a Mac, I've decided to use it as it was meant to be used. It can do all this stuff for me and synch right up with my photos, music, documents, etc. So i'm trying out a new blog for a couple of months before deciding which one I'll stick with. Check it out and let me know if its as easy to follow as it is to use.....

http://web.me.com/becunc02/Lifes_A_Beach/Blog/Blog.html

I won't let the other one go b/c its got my journaling on it from our trip and a year's worth of updates but this new one is SO easy.

Fort Beach Fest

This past weekend, David and I went down to Granny's beach house in Myrtle Beach and invited some friends to join us.  With the short notice and the busy times of summer, only a few couples stayed but we filled the weekend with laughter, relaxation, playing like kids, cooking and soaking up some rays.  Friday night, David and myself, along with Brian Shelburne, Liz, and Lance Lomax grilled out steaks, vegetables, baked potatoes, etc.  Everyone stayed up late talking and coming up with ways to save the world.  Saturday, Lance fixed an unbelievably good breakfast of eggs, sausage and biscuits and the rest of the day was full of pool time and subsequently pool games, laying out, the beach, reading, etc.  My folks, along with Alex, Becky, Karina & Kileigh came by and hung out at the beach with us for a while.  It was fun watching Kileigh take in all the sand, water, etc.  She is not the biggest fan of the water just yet....but knowing her family, she will have no choice but to learn how to enjoy it.  :)  Saturday the party expanded to Katie Lomax, Stephanie & Sid Miller and Mary & Brent Wheatley.  We had planned on going to Aspen Grill (Curry & Jen's restaurant) but after laying out all day, no one really wanted to go in and "get ready".  So the guys went to the store and picked up some burgers and dogs and we grilled out once again.  We had the best time hanging out with everyone.  Some of the guys (and Liz) stayed up late talking but most of the girls (and Lance) shut it down by midnight.  On Sunday, we did more of the same....hung out at the pool, watched tv, talked, read, etc.  Around 6pm that night, we had cleaned everything up, packed up and drove down to PF Chang's to eat dinner with Sid & Stephanie.  It was a great weekend and we are so blessed to have great friends to spend time with.  I wish that everyone could have been there the whole weekend but there will be more opportunities to do that!  All the pictures are on my facebook page, but i'll post a few of the good ones.....next weekend, Louie, Janice, David and I head to Atlantic City to see Jimmy Buffett and hang out back stage....David and I don't know how we are getting there yet (i'm a slacker) but we'll be there for sure!  I'll blog about that when we get back.....

As for everything else in the Fort household- Jackson & Maddie still run the house and are doing fine.  The other 5 dogs are chillin' at the farm and enjoying their time outside of the kennels.  I should go visit them soon b/c I haven't seen them in a while.  

Where does the time go?

I am having a hard time keeping up with this blog and for all the faithful readers, I apologize.  Hopefully all 2 of you will forgive me.  My last post was about New Orleans, moving Matt & Carly and meeting Grey.  After I left NOLA, I drove up to Birmingham, AL for Andy Penuel's wedding.  He married Lauren Holdefer of Tuscaloosa and it was quite a fun wedding!  They got married at The Sonnet House and it was a beautiful place.  It stormed like crazy so the original plan of having an outside wedding was nixed.  In record time, they had a chapel-type building (maybe the old stables that have been completely renovated?) set up and ready for the guests.  Lauren's dress was BEAUTIFUL and Andy looked awesome in his tux.  Louie was a groomsman and he, too, looked nice all gussied up.  The reception was fun and decorating the car was quite entertaining.  The happy couple spent the following week in Gulf Shores, AL and plan on going on a cruise around December.  

To see all the pics from Birmingham, click below:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=291630&id=505590701&l=4ec70aacb5

After getting back from B'ham, which included a pedal to the metal drive from B'ham to Charlotte....grabbing a quick dinner with Matt, Carly & Grey and making my way on back to the beach, I was GLAD to be home.  The next week was the daily grind at work but this past weekend was something special indeed.  Shane Wallace called us Friday to see if we would be interested in taking a boat ride from Little River to Murrells Inlet on Saturday...spending the night and making our way back on the ICW on Sunday.  After coming up with NO reasons to NOT do it, we were in.  We met Shane and Bekah on Saturday at Poo's, boarded our "ship" and headed south.  There is something so primitive and undeniably cool about traveling by boat.  Anywhoo....we made it to MI and Lindsay picked us up to go get ready for Britt's cook out.  We grilled burgers and dogs and hung out at Britt's house before making our way to Pawleys Island Tavern and later to the Hot Fish Club.  Good times had by all and a nice, relaxing boat ride back to Little River on Sunday.  Weekends like that truly make me love living at the beach!

To see pics of the boat trip, click below:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=291651&id=505590701&l=4f54b82603

Leaving New Orleans

I'm sitting in a hotel in Birmingham, AL for Andy Penuel's wedding tomorrow night and am reflecting (and uploading pictures) of the past couple days.  I drove to Charlotte Tuesday night and stayed with Joy for the night.  She was gracious enough to drive me to the airport EARLY Wednesday morning to catch a flight to New Orleans.  I was heading to New Orleans (along with mom, dad and Denise & Tom Akulis) to help Matt & Carly move to NC.  When everyone finally got there Wednesday night, we spent the next couple of days moving furniture and boxes into a huge Penske truck.  We were easily distracted by Grey, who is tiny and precious.  He had a tough couple of days because his tummy hurt, but all of us thoroughly enjoyed being around him.  Carly & Matt were excited to get packed up and moved out of their townhouse in New Orleans and we successfully finished everything up this morning.  Matt & Carly went to closing (yay!) and the rest of us stayed back to finalize everything.  I will miss our tie to NOLA but will love having Matt, Carly & Grey only a few hours away in Chapel Hill.  I didn't get many pictures OTHER than Grey so enjoy.....I'll post on Andy's wedding when I get back to NC/SC.

Summer Sundays

David and I have started a little Sunday tradition (okay, so maybe its not a tradition just yet, but give us time).....We've been heading down to the beach house in Myrtle to hang by the pool, soak up the summer sun, walk on the beach, etc.  Jen, Curry, Liza, &  Margaret joined us today....as did Soo Soo, Lee & Janet.  Its nice to have a place we can all meet and hang out.....Liza continues to entertain us and Margaret is cute as can be.  My favorite line of the whole day was when I was lying in the pool on a float and Liza asked me (in 2-year old form), "Is that your bra and panties?" We all got a big kick out of that and love the lack of  inhibitions of a toddler.  We tried to teach her how to say "bikini" and it came out "Beccakini".  She is also really good at pointing out when you happen to have a beer.....she makes a point to say that Beer is for Big People and then points out who all the big people are that can have beer.  Really a cute kid!  As for Margaret....she just laid on Jen's legs and made faces, ate, slept, and just got cuter and cuter.  Anyways, its kind of laid back - do your own thing - Sunday but that is why we love it!  Its so nice having family close by!

Hopefully these Sundays will continue!  

Margaret Alexandra Martin

Margaret Alexandra Martin was born at 12:21pm on 7/23/09.  She weighed in at 8lbs 8oz. and was 20 inches long.  She has a THICK head of black hair and is precious.  Jennifer is doing great and they are coming home today!  We went to the hospital (now that they live in MB) to visit and see Margaret and I was amazed at how great Jen looked!  Liza was thrilled to have a "real baby" and wanted to see her in the nursery.  She'll have plenty of time to play with Baby Margaret now! Here are a couple pics!

Harrison Grey Raynor

Matt & Carly welcomed their baby boy into the world on Thursday, July 9, 2009 at 4:39 cst. Harrison Grey Raynor was 5lb 7oz and 19.75 inches long. He is a little thing but is so precious in pictures. I cannot wait to meet him in person and will get to do that in a couple weeks! "Grey" as he will be known, is going to be a loved little nugget! The Matt Raynor clan is moving to Chapel Hill in August and their new home is close to being completely built. It is so exciting to know that they will be SO close (comparitively speaking) and I can watch Grey grow up and watch Matt & Carly be wonderful parents. These are my new favorite pictures......


In this picture, he's already taking after Shelton...trying to bend his ears forward to hear better. Hopefully he'll have better hearing than his Grandfather currently does.


Cheesin'!!!

The Happenings.....

I've been out of touch for a while and it seems like I can't catch up with life! I guess I'll start by announcing the birth of BABY BOY RAYNOR today at 4:39pm Central Time. Matt & Carly have a new son and I could not be more excited! I don't think they have 100% decided on a name but there are a couple in the works. He weighed in at a whopping 5 lbs 7 oz and 19.75 inches long. Carly delivered a week early because the baby wasn't growing like the docs wanted it to. As far as I know, baby and mom are doing well. I can't wait to meet the lil man!

I'm currently sitting in a really nice townhouse in Orlando, FL. I just got here today with 3 of the girls from the gym and will be here until Tuesday. They are working out at a college recruiting camp and I brought them here so I, too, could learn what the ropes are for getting a scholarship or competing college gymnastics these days. So far, everyone is having fun but the first workout is tomorrow, so we'll see!

The link below is pictures from July 4th.....Mom & Dad came to town and we (me & david, mom & dad) went down to the Dunes Club to hang with the Magenbauers, Martins, Woodards and Soo Soo. We decorated golf carts for the neighborhood golf cart parade and went to an amazing cook out hosted by The Dunes Club. We saw some of the greatest fireworks I've ever seen and I was so upset that my camera battery died right at sunset. : ( We had a great time nonetheless and we are grateful to have family so close to us now.

This week (prior to Orlando) and the remainder of next week, I'm busy with gymnastics camp at our gym. Its so much fun to have so many kids in town for it and especially to have so many of my coaching friends in town. We all really get along great and are able to learn so much from each other in the gym. I'll be glad to rest after it is over with and I'm sure david will be glad to see me for more than 20 minutes a night.

David is heading to Oklahoma on Saturday to meet with a consultant. He and his dad are flying out there and going to soak up all the information they can.

Summer is flying by and I will do my best to keep the blog updated on more activities going on with The Fort's. Life's a Beach!


I'd like to share my Snapfish photos with you. Once you have checked out my photos you can order prints and upload your own photos to share.
http://www1.snapfish.com/fbshareredirect/p=28691247194145693/l=1889166017/g=9279622/redirectURL=share/otsi=SALBBL/AlbumID=926955017/a=9279622_9279622/usercomments=I_xqd%20like%20to%20share%20my%20Snapfish%20photos%20with%20you.%20Once%20you%20have%20checked%20out%20my%20photos%20you%20can%20order%20prints%20and%20upload%20your%20own%20photos%20to%20share./counttext=91%20photos/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish

Playing Catch Up....

I haven't blogged in a while and have done a lot since then! After our week off from the gym, I had to get back into the swing of things with our new summer schedule. Its nice because we work Monday night and Tuesday - Friday mornings. Typically I'm done a little after lunch but sometimes I stick around and do administrative/team work until mid-afternoon. Either way, its a nice change for me to get home before 5pm 4 days a week. Last Wednesday, David and I drove to Raleigh and spent the night with Billy & Meredith so we could catch an early flight to New Orleans on Thursday. We got to Nola early on Thursday and walked around the French Quarter waiting on our hotel room to be ready. We had a great time in New Orleans and came home Monday night. We went to watch my brother graduate from his residency at Tulane University. My parents rode in Winford Williams' RV and got to NO Thursday night. We stayed at the same hotel we took the gymnasts to last year. Its one block from Jackson Square and two blocks from Bourbon Street. Its a cool place and the prices are VERY reasonable. The majority of the long weekend revolved around food which was awesome.....eating is a hobby of mine. Thursday lunch, we went to the Gumbo Shop and had red beans and rice, shrimp creole, jambalaya and crawfish ettouffe. So good! For dinner we went to a great mexican restaurant on Magazine St. that Matt & Carly go to. Friday, Matt & Carly both had to work, so the rest of us walked around (again!) and went to the WWII museum, ate lunch at Margaritaville, relaxed and Mom, Dad and I went to see Harry & Nell Leveque who live in the French Quarter and have done so for YEARS. They are Linda Gralton's parents and I coached Linda's 2 girls, Katie & Sarah. They are such nice people and their house is really neat. Later, we met Matt, Carly, Carly's sister Jackie and their parents at Dante's Kitchen. Dante's is on River Rd. on the levee and is SOOOO good....most likely the #1 place Matt & Carly will miss when they leave Nola. Saturday, Winford, Mom, Dad, David and I took the Natchez River boat tour and enjoyed our time on the water. This was after eating breakfast at Johnny's Po Boys and walking around shopping (again). After the tour everyone went to their respective sleeping places and got ready for the big night (graduation). Graduation was held at the rooftop of the Windsor Court hotel and it was a nice dinner and cocktail hour ALL for Matt! It was really neat to listen to a couple hours of speakers all talk about Matt and his accomplishments as resident and chief resident of the Tulane Urology Dept. One of his fellow residents made the comment that Matt has probably done more surgeries than any other urology resident in the country this past year. He will be missed by all he worked with and that is no surprise to me however, we will be glad to get he, Carly & Lil' Raynor closer to us. It was also special to recognize him as the last graduate of the Katrina residents. Matt was in his first year of residency when Hurricane Katrina hit and since he was on call, he spent the better part of 4 days trying to get the patients out of both Tulane and Charity hospitals. When the helicopter picked up the doctors on that particular Thursday, he had none of his belongings and was dropped off in Lafayette, LA. Another resident that WASN'T on call and had evacuated to Houston actually drove to Lafayette and picked them up. They drove to St. Louis and matt caught a plane to NC. He truly had NOTHING from his house and was displaced for 19 months. He worked at UNC, still as a Tulane resident and when Tulane got back up and running, his boss in New Orleans asked him to return. After hearing the speeches Saturday night and the opportunities being at Tulane has given him in terms of experience, I'm glad he went back for his final two years. Saturday night David and I went to Bourbon Street and stood on the balcony of Bourbon St. Blues (The Gralton's uncle own that). It was packed but certainly not Mardi Gras packed and we saw some characters as always! We ended our night with some jazz at Maison Bourbon. Sunday was spent hanging out with everyone....David and I had some beignets and we eventually met up with Carly & Matt at Chartres House Cafe for lunch (see, lots of eating)! Everyone decided to go back to Matt & Carly's house and relax after that but David and I were quite antsy to do an activity. We decided that an airboat ride through the bayou would suit us just fine. After haggling with the owner, she gave us a deal and we spent and hour and a half on the muddy waters of Louisiana. I got to ride on the top seat of the boat and only scared myself twice on the whole trip. We got to hold a baby gator (well, 9 months old) and a Gator egg. The guys that were with us were funny....I swear they haven't seen a woman in years. The captain would get off the boat to take pictures and one of the guys said "Make sure you get the hot girl in the picture." Like I wasn't there. Dude. But he was funny nonetheless. The captain of the boat (interestingly enough) was on ABC's Wife Swap. He swapped wives with a family in California who are ballerinas (?) or something like that. He's mighty funny as well. After getting off the airboat, we picked up Winford from his RV (he needed a rest day) and we went to dinner at Zea Brewery near Matt's house. We got up early to catch our flight Monday morning and made our way back to the beach Monday night. It was really nice to be with everyone for Matt's graduation and it was certainly a special ceremony. Their plans are to move to Chapel Hill and work for UNC Hospitals....Matt in the Urology Dept and Carly as a CRNA. She will be on maternity leave until November as she is due to have that baby 7/17!!! Click on the title of the blog to see ALL my pictures......

Such a good week....

So I've been in Southern Pines since Monday and have LOVED it.  I have wanted to spend more than one night here for quite some time and with the gym being closed this week, I finally got to!!  I have had the best week filled with good food, good shopping, good (long) walks downtown, a good dentist appointment and above all else, GREAT friends and family.  I got home on Monday and we just sat around the house and watched TV, ate dinner, etc.  Later that night (like at 10ish) we took the dogs on a long walk through town.  Tuesday, mom and I both had dentist appointments in Robbins, so that took up part of the morning.  We met Julie for lunch at Sweet Basil in downtown SP and I spent the rest of the afternoon walking around to the precious shops that I love dearly in SP.  We met a big group at Vito's for dinner (YUM)......It was Julie (again!), Alison (& Lil'Man), Becky, Alex, Karina, Kileigh, Herb, Patti and Chris for a short while.  We left there and went to see Alison's house and nursery which was SO cute.  All of it.  I love her colors, what she did in the nursery and her taste in decorating.  I also think Ilir has done a great job with her yard, etc.  Wednesday, after our daily morning walk of 2 miles, I left for Chapel Hill/Durham to meet Jake, Page & Ford Fehling, along with Jeff Beaudin for lunch at Mellow Mushroom.  Jake works for USA Baseball and his office is in the Durham Bulls Park area, so we went to eat at the American Tobacco district.....cool place.  Lunch with those guys was awesome.....we had a good time catching up, laughing, watching Ford and grubbin.  I poked around Chapel Hill for a while before heading on back to the Pines.  Did some shopping, walking up and down Franklin Street and of course, stopped by The Loop for a sweet tea.  On the way to AND from Chapel Hill, I stopped by Matt & Carly's house to check out the progress.  On my way UP, they were beginning to put on siding on one side of the house.  On the way home, they were done with one side and working on another.  I also snuck in the house to get pictures.  It's coming along nicely and hopefully the progress will continue smoothly.  Tonight (Wednesday), my parents always go to El Vaquero and meet some friends for dinner and tonight was nothing different!  We walked downtown to EV and met up with Becky, Alex, Karina, Kileigh, Anne & Bob Ryder, Anne & Wiley Fields, Jane & Scott Newton.  After that, we took the dogs on (another) 2 mile walk through town.  I'll be heading out sometime tomorrow although I think I could stay longer......there is something very special about this town to me and everytime I'm here, its never for as long as I want.   But, the beach is a pretty cool place to live as well and I need to head back there and get ready for company this weekend and a Dixie Lane Reunion on Sunday.  I'm sooooo excited about that!  A few pictures for your soul.....

The waitress who took the above picture said, "It's perfect!" after taking it.....really???? We aren't crouched over a stroller for nothing!!!

Kileigh Turns 1

Last weekend I went to Southern Pines for sweet little Kileigh's first birthday party.  Karina and company did a great job planning a fun afternoon for all the kids, including Kileigh.  There was lots of food, drinks, toys, presents, desserts, etc and I think everyone was worn out after it was over.  Kileigh got lots of cute presents from all of her friends and I got lots of cute pictures of her.  A couple of my favorites below but click the title to see the whole album on snapfish.  

Our little fern dove

So I bought 6 ferns a while ago (4 to hang) and I'm seeing how long I can make them last.....I'm kind of into plants and flowers these days and we have a great front porch to have hanging plants.  I walked out of the front door one day and a bird popped out of one of the ferns (and scared me to pieces).  Several days later I noticed a nest.....and today I got some pictures......its a dove's nest.....I hope taking pictures didn't scare it away for too long!

Miracle Picture

No one will quite understand how hard this picture was to take.....it took 4 people, and about 15 minutes and this was the ONLY decent picture that came of it:

Back Row L to R:  Jackson, Maddie, Bec, Kali, Reba, David & Hank

Front Two L to R:  Ginger (Grandma) & Sally (Mom)

My Baby

Kali, the newest puppy, is doing great and I thought I'd share some funny stories and pictures from the last two weeks.  First of all, the crate training (which I fully believe in) is working.  She is understanding that the bathroom is outside for her.  It's still a lot of work for us because she doesn't have the bladder capacity that Jax & Maddie have but she is able to stay in the crate without being let out for a good while (4-5 hours).  According to articles I've read, that is outstanding for a dog her age (9 weeks).  She is starting to understand commands (or so I think...maybe its a coincidence) but "hurry up" and "here" seem to grab her attention.  Occasionally she will run in circles around the house (when we let her play out of the crate) and then stop suddenly and bark at us.  Just one, high pitch bark, as if to say.....PLAY WITH ME NOW.  She is a good retriever but doesn't always bring the sock/toy/ball right back to you.  Again, who would expect that from a 9-week old?  She had her first bath on Tuesday and did great.  She is so adorable and sweet but now that she is more comfortable in our house, she doesn't really like to be held and cuddled....she is more into exploring and finding trouble.  Speaking of exploring.....she got out of the fence yesterday!  Her skinny butt can fit through the pickets in the fence and she made her way out.  When I figured it out and got myself out of the fence, that Einstein of a dog was waiting for me at the FRONT DOOR.  I love smart pups.  Anyways, she's great and she loves visitors so if you are in the area, come meet her.  I promise you will fall in love with her little face!

Nothing Like a Mom

With Mother's Day almost a week in the past, I wanted to reflect on the fact that most mom's are awesome. First of all, my mom is wonderful. That's a given!  But I wanted to use this blog to point out the new mom's in the world and how great i think they are.......These smiles show how great they are!

Lauren & Hadley....this was right after we got back from KS

Liza Martin learning how to brush her teeth

Karina & Kileigh last Thanksgiving

Em & Nate in Nashville

Lily Andrea Grieve....Kalispell, MT

Jackie & Noah

Page & Ford Fehling

Ruby Red Slippers & Sore Legs

This past weekend we hopped on a plane to Wichita, Kansas for a good friend's wedding.  David Glover & Ashley Shroyer met in DC several years ago.  Glover (as we call him) is from NC & went to UNC.  We have a great group of friends from UNC and most of our closest friends flew out to KS to see him get married.  Ashley is from Kansas and the entire weekend was loosely based on the rivalry between Kansas & UNC.  It was great!  We (me and my david) flew in Friday and barely made it in time to go to the rehearsal dinner.  Thankfully Emily & Greg, who rented a car, waited on us to get changed.  The RD was nice....at Wichita Country Club with good food, drinks, toasts, videos and a darn good MC.  :)  Someone in the wedding party had a grand idea to run a 10K the morning of the wedding and the bride and groom were totally up for it.  They (Team Dashley) encouraged us to do it and 33 of us got up and ran it like champs.  Some of the guys did really well, finishing up near the front  but most of us accomplished a lot just by finishing!!!  I had a great running partner in Emily and if it hadn't been for her, I don't know that I would have finished it like I did.  We did stop a couple times to walk in order to get rid cramps, etc, but she figured we ran 90% of it.  I've never run more than 3 miles at a time so I was completely pumped about it.  David also finished it before I did and I was so proud of him! He hates running....its amazing what a man's pride and a little competition can do.  :)



 We all were wearing shirts that said "Worst Idea Ever" on the front and "Best Idea Ever" with a picture of a UNC Ram & a Jayhawk getting married, on the back.  So many runners pointed out our shirts and said how cool they were.  It was also fun to see each other as we were running.....made it easy to point each other out and cheer each other on!  The wedding itself was held at Botanica Saturday night.  We had lots of time between the race and the wedding to eat, rest, shop, etc.....most people just rested.  I think Klug found resting to be for wussy's so she and Talley entertained themselves with scarves for what sounded like hours.  The wedding was beautiful...all of it was outside and Ashley did an amazing job with the decor, colors, set up, etc.  I took tons of pictures and thoroughly enjoyed being there to watch Glove get married.  Ashley was wearing the cutest red shoes with her beautiful wedding dress and Glove wore a turquoise-y tie with a black tux.  the bridesmaids dress color matched Glove's tie and the groomsmen's ties matched Ashley's shoes.  It was really pretty.  There were tears, laughter, cocktails, hugs, kisses and more




......it was a great reunion of our college friends and I look forward to many more reunions as the years go by.......

**Click on the title to see pictures**

Kali(Spell) Fort

We are insane and we know it.  BUT, we got another dog.  She is a German Shorthaired Pointer and is SOOOOO cute.  Our two favorite places on our trip out west were Kalispell, MT and Jackson, WY.  Obviously, we have a Jackson (although he was named that long before we went to Jackson), but Kalispell, MT was another awesome spot.  It could be because Andrea & BJ (and now Lily) live there but it was really a great town.  SO, we decided to name this little girl KALI.  Her full name is Kali-Spell Fort but from here on out, she'll just be Kali.  She is energetic, precious and sweet as can be.  So far, Jackson & Maddie are having fun with her!  

Up In Flames

Myrtle Beach was on fire for a few days and yesterday, as we were driving back into town from Atlanta, we couldn't SEE any fire or smoke but we sure could smell it.  It was awful!  The fire burned around 20,000 acres and many homes.  Our gymnasts and staff who live in Barefoot Resort all faired relatively well.  Some of them told us their stories today and it is a blessing that they have anything left!  Tori, our boys coach and his wife Candace got out of their house when they couldn't see anything but black smoke and fire creeping up to their house.  There are 6 houses on their cul-de-sac and 4 of them are completely GONE.  Tori's truck is completely burnt, their air conditioner unit burned as well as some of their siding.  The fire did not penetrate into the house so all of their stuff is fine.  The other families did have a smokey smell in their house and one family in particular got out as one side of their house was burning.  That side was the only part that burned before it jumped somewhere else.  The damage was erratic and I'm so thankful that our families did not lose all......unfortunately, some local families did.  Keep our town in your thoughts......everything on the beach is normal.  Jackson, Maddie & I walked on the beach today and it was as beautiful as I've ever seen it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JCckSQKloM

This video (above) was taken from the Marina Inn at Grande Dunes.....CRAZY!

Tori's neighbor

Tori's Truck....they said it was 4 feet to the left of this when they left.

The side of Tori & Candace's house

A friend of a friend's house ......this page was found in the rubble along with diamond earrings, an amethyst, etc.

 

Busy Bee & A possible new addition

Planes, Trains, Automobiles & Gymnastics.  Story of my life right now.  We compete from December to May and although April is MUCH closer to the END of the season, it feels like we travel way more than in the beginning.  I just got back from Nashville, TN where we had Level 9 & 10 Regionals.  We had a good time....flew in Thursday and flew home Monday.  The girls did well, but no one qualified to Nationals.  We were disappointed by that, but we will move on and work harder for next year.  We did have girls place on several events and considering it was the best kids in the 8 southeast states, we were proud of that.  While in Nashville I got to see Em, Greg & Nate the Great as well as Justin & Ryan Harris.   We ate dinner with the Harris boys (or met them out) every night we were there and I thank both of them for toting us around anytime we needed it.  When Greg & Em picked me up for breakfast they took me to this GREAT and popular place called The Pancake Pantry.  We saw Taylor Swift and Nate thoroughly entertained me while I got to catch up with Em & Greg. 

 That night Louie, Ryan and myself went to Macaroni Grill where Justin was working.  Ryan also works there but had the night off.  We ate TONS of great food on the employee discount and went to Dave & Busters to grab a drink with Emily (Justin's girlfriend....not Em Givens).  Saturday we were in the gym most of the day but we did go downtown for a very short while that night to celebrate Justin's B-day (the big 2-9).  We couldn't stay out long b/c we had an 8am session the next day but the crowd celebrated like it was 1999 without us.  The stories we heard the next day were classic but I'll leave that your imagination to save face.  Sunday we had two more sessions at the gym.  While Justin recovered, Ryan came to the meet to watch our last girl, Hannah.  He stayed for the most of the meet (which I was very grateful for) and then he took us to Chili's where Justin & Emily were waiting on us.  We had a nice dinner and got dropped off back at the hotel to catch an early flight out the next day.  It was so wonderful to see all the Nashville dwellers......old friends really are the best friends. 

 I'm recovering from that trip and will leave on Thursday heading to Atlanta for the weekend.  We have level 7 & 8 Regionals in Atlanta and hopefully our girls will do AWESOME.  The following week, we will head to Panama City Beach, FL for Prep Opt Regionals.  The week after that, David & I are going to Wichita, KS for David Glover & Ashley Shroyer's wedding.  SO excited about that but the 10k is a bad idea.....but it will be fun.....I think.  So, yes, busy bees I (we) are, BUT.....

On to the POSSIBLE new addition.  No, I'm not preggo.  We went today to look at puppies!  A friend of David has German Shorthairs for sale and they are PRECIOUS.  Seriously, so cute.  They are VERY well fed (borderline chunky bellies) but so attentive, un-afraid and just plain cute.  We haven't decided for sure if we are getting one (or two) but I'm all for it.  They are 7-weeks old so it will be some hard work for the next little while, but that is okay.  They are great.  Now, I'm sure most of you think we are crazy but David really does have a good set up out at the farm so what's one (or two) more dogs??  :)  

Birthday Weekend!

My birthday weekend was busy but fun!  We started out on Friday by heading to Lake Waccamaw for the monthly Supper Club.  Sarah & Coke Gray hosted us at the Gray Cottage on Lake Waccamaw.  Its a beautiful old house big enough for the Gray Family (which is huge) so it was easy to entertain and feed the 13 of us.  It was great seeing everyone and catching up on life.  Saturday, David and I went out to the farm (after a brief stop into the gym....funny how on my days off, I still want to go in).  We played with the dogs and I went for a bike ride around the farm with Jackson & Maddie.  They ran more than they had in a LONG time so they were pretty pooped when we got back to the pack-house.  David wanted to "work" with Reba & Hank on hunting, obeying verbal commands, etc and he needed my help.  So we took them out (one at a time) and David released some quail from a recall pen he has out in the woods.  Both Reba & Hank pointed one good time.  David shot his pistol to give them the sounds they would normally hear and Reba did well.  Hank must be a little gun shy b/c he went crazy!  BUT, they both did pretty good.  They have a lot to learn but they have the attention span of a toddler, so we couldn't do it very long.  After the farm, we came back to the house and got ready for an early dinner at Collector's Cafe in Myrtle Beach.  It is a great restaurant and where went before getting engaged.   We were there at 6pm and there was literally ONE other person in the entire place.  We wanted to be finished in time to watch the Carolina game.  We left Collector's and went to Todd's house to watch the game.  Todd was way more entertaining than the game but the Heels won and that is all that matters.  Sunday, I woke up and met Louie & Laura to head to Columbia for the Prep Opt State Meet (last one!).  The girls did AWESOME and won first as a team.  We had 5 girls in the all around title and many individual event titles.  Even more impressive was the Regional Team.  This year, at the state meet, the top six in each level (regardless of age) will go on to Regionals and represent SC.  We had 4 in the top  6!  We also have a 9 year old who is the 2nd alternate (she was 8th).  It was awesome! So that summed up my birthday weekend.  We got home really late from Columbia (like 2am) and we had to work Monday afternoon but we are so proud of the girls.  I got sick Monday night (but managed to stay up and watch B-ball.....Go Heels!) and Monkey made me a cheesecake that we shared among those at the gym.  I stayed on the couch ALL DAY Tuesday, never got out of my pajamas and slept. My back hurts now from laying on the couch so long, but it did me a world of good.  I feel better today (although I can't really breathe).  Anyways, thanks for the birthday cards, thoughts, calls, texts, emails, messages, etc.  I felt so loved!  

A coach's life....

Lots of people (friends included) don't quite grasp the joy that comes with being a coach, being with kids and teenagers every single day and traveling to random places (some better than others) A LOT. I thought I would take the opportunity to point out why I love this so much at this point in my life.....

1. The girls are hilarious.
2. I have the opportunity to watch them grow up right before my eyes and possibly have an impact on them.
3. I get to see improvements every single day....whether its gymnastics, school, or life in general
4. I see a side of them that most of their friends don't even see
5. I get to help shape their future....either by helping them do gymnastics in college or by teaching them basic fundamentals of life that they will find themselves using on a regular basis as adults.
6. I get to be a role model of sorts for some of the girls and a shoulder they can always lean on no matter what is bothering them.
7. I get just as nervous as they do before competition and like I tell them, it shows that I care about them and what they are doing
8. I see a little bit of myself in every girl.
9. I get to share my passion for gymnastics.
10. I get to share my passion for being a good person and how being committed to gymnastics (or any other sport) helps shape that.
11. I get to travel to little po-dunk towns and big cities (or countries!) almost every other weekend from January to May.
12. The girls get to travel to the same places and what a wonderful experience that is as a child.

This weekend the Level 5's - 10's competed in their state meet. This is the biggest meet of the year for the Level 5's and a stepping stone to Regionals and Nationals for the other levels. Our girls did AWESOME. In all, I think we came home with 92 medals. 22 of those were gold medals! Our Level 10's also won 1st place as a team. Now, to let everyone know before they find out on their own.....the Level 10's didn't have any other teams to compete against. It takes 3 people to make a team and we are the ONLY gym in the state that could manage to put a Level 10 team together. I will also add that not only do we have 3, but we have 6 level 10's. And they are all teenagers, which makes the committment even harder. We are so proud of their dedication, perserverance and of course their committment to the sport at this very high level. There are a total of 18 level 10's in the state of SC and we have 6 of them on one team.

Level 5 - Cassey, ME, CC (Cecilia)

Level 5 - Angel, Savanah, China, Aneesah

Level 7 - Winning 3rd place as a team

Levels 9 & 10 - Waiting for awards to begin

Level 8 - Olivia, Marla, Ana



Our gold medalist from this weekend are as follows:
China James (Level 5) Vault Champion (8.975)
Marci Hogue (Level 7) Vault Champion (9.525)
Hannah McKinney (Level 7) Floor Champion (9.450)
Brittany Smith (Level 7) All Around Champion (37.100)
Casey Pyatte (Level 7) Vault Champion (9.450), Floor Champion (9.350), All Around Champion (36.175)
Madison Knight (Level 7) Beam Champion (9.350)
Marla Thomas (Level 8) Beam Champion (9.225) All Around Champion (36.025)
Olivia McKinney (Level 8) Beam Champion (9.250) All Around Champion (36.875)
Faith Burns (Level 9) Beam Champion (8.925)
Nicki Bindewald (Level 10) Vault Champion (9.375), Bars Champion (9.300), Floor Champion (9.400), All Around Champion (36.725)
Gilly Hogue (Level 10) Beam Champion (9.425) Floor Champion (9.275) All Around Champion (36.325)
Breanna Gawron (Level 10) Beam Champion (9.275)
Courtney Turner (Level 10) Beam Champion (9.025)

We have 14 gymnasts moving on to Regionals this year.....
Level 7 - Brittany Smith, Hannah McKinney & Madison Knight
Level 8 - Olivia McKinney (regional team), Marla Thomas & Ana Smith
Level 9 - Faith Burns & Brianna Graves (Monkey)
Level 10 - Nicki Bindewald, Gilly Hogue, Courtney Turner, Breanna (Breezie) Gawron, Emily Fisher & Hannah Owens

Level 9 & 10 Regionals will be in Nashville, TN April 16-19
Level 7 & 8 Regionals will be in Atlanta April 24-26

Wish the girls lots of luck! The Level 9's & 10's have the opportunity to qualify to nationals at their regional competition.

Fit for a Queen

The Queen City, that is. This past weekend, the gym girls had their state meet in Rock Hill, SC.....so of course, I made my way to Charlotte to see my neice, Liza, Jennifer & Soo Soo. I left gym Friday and drove into Charlotte (I would like to insert here how incredibly frustrating the Monroe - Matthews drive on 74 is!). Anyways, Liza is growing up fast and is SO smart. I had fun hanging out with them, catching up and watching Liza entertain us. Shortly after Liza went to bed, I drove down to Rock Hill because we had a FULL two days of competition.



After the competition on Sunday, I had made arrangements to spend another night in the Charlotte area and went over to Beth's house. Joy also went over there to watch the Carolina game and they grilled out and waited for me to get there (God bless them, they didn't have to wait!). I was SO ready to get there and relax and catch up with the girls and Beth's parents. We had a great time eating with everyone (Joy, Beth, Michael, Tom, Karen & Aunt Mag) and they even had an ice cream cake with "Happy Birthday Becca" on it for dessert! I was so suprised but it was SO good. And one more thanks for Michael for the "last minute" pick up. :) We chatted for a while before everyone heading off to bed (they had to work really early the next morning while I slept in). I was pleasantly suprised in the middle of the night by Mya (Beth's dog) opening my door and joining me in my bed. She is so sweet and such a little cuddler. I was even more suprised when I woke up and went to the bathroom and Beth was home! She was in workshops all day and the second one got canceled so we got to do breakfast together! It was a long drive home (partly because I was tired, but also b/c its just long) but I was so happy to get to see Joy & Beth (and family) while I was in the area. Hopefully they will take me up on my offer to visit me at the beach this spring/summer!

Oooh, Oooh, Pick ME!

And I did....Maddie has been BEGGING to get her haircut ever since Jackson's high and tight military shave. She was a little jealous of the quality time Jackson and I had for those hours I was trimming his bod. SO, today, I picked her. We drove out to the farm to take the pups their treats and I managed to cut Maddie's hair out there. She looks precious as always and MUCH better than Jackson. I used a 7F blade instead of the 10F and it worked way better. She was a good little girl for the most part except when trying to trim her toes and when I got a little too close to her womanhood. No harm with my trusty "professional" clippers but she doesn't like the buzzing noise, especially when I get near sensitive areas. BUT, she did great and although she looks like a baby, she's precious. Oh the things we do to save some pennies. Can you imagine if we had children......"come on now, lil fort.....sit really still while I try to shave around your ear." Funny thing is, that wouldn't be too far out of the question.....and if you don't believe ME, ask Matt about Dad cutting his hair. His ear was never the same......

What a man....

I have to take a moment to brag on how wonderful David is. It isn't often that I tell him but he mentioned today how he has earned lots of "husband points" this weekend. I laughed at him for saying it (as usual), but in all honesty, he really did take his weekend and did whatever I wanted him to. I already mentioned the Comedy Cabana which was lots of fun.....Louie, Janice, Danny, Sue, Bobby & Steven Warbutton, Bobby's girlfriend Tara, Suki and his wife came out with us. Our buddy Charlie and his girlfriend Alicia also met us out there and luckily there was room to add them to our reservation so we could all sit together. Good times. Saturday we woke up and hit the farm. After that, we came back and I was really wanting to ride to Charleston to ask some major questions to the Apple guru's about purchasing a MacBook. Of course we could have called but I need little/no reason to drive to Charleston and love every second of it. So we did! We stayed downtown about an hour then came on back to the beach. On the way back, we would pull off on any side road to just to see where it would lead. We learned a lot about what is off of Hwy 17 between Charleston and Georgetown. We found the OLD Episcopal Church that Lindsay W and Britt stumbled across (with the ridiculously old tombstone...ie...1700's).


So we were walking around the church grounds (which is spooky in itself) and I decided to see if we could get IN the church. I pulled on the latch on the door and the dang thing opened. I wish I could have taken a picture of David's face when the door started creaking open. Priceless. So we went in the church (a couple feet in the church) before deciding that was really creepy.


We didn't get to do any of the state parks/plantations b/c they were all closed but that is in the works for our next trip to Charleston. We drove on up to Myrtle to eat dinner at Liberty Taproom and came home to crash. Result of the trip.....I want a MacBook. Perhaps the Birthday Fairy will deliver. :) So, many thanks to David for entertaining my desire to go to charleston and using a new computer as the excuse. AND for not complaining when I took every interesting turn OFF the highway on our way back home. A 2 hour trip turned into 4. Nice.

So now it is Sunday and let me run through this day for you. Slept late, ate breakfast and I decided that since I could see dog hair on our now-carpet-less steps, that I needed to clean. So i pulled out the swiffer to take care of the now-wooden steps (yes, we removed the carpet from the stairs) and started swiffering away in places that our vacuum can't get to (under the bed, etc). No sooner than I got done with the steps, David had pulled out the big vacuum and started vacuuming all that I wasn't doing! What a man! Then we parted and I ran errands (stories from that later) and he went to the farm. When I got back home he had brought the trailer home (like I hinted we needed to do) to clean out the flower beds in front of the house. SO we raked, piled and dumped TONS of old leaves, weeds, dirt, the occasional dog poop, etc into the trailer so we could get started on having a decent looking yard (I must insert here that I REALLY want Julie James to come over and give me a clue). Then we started on project that turned out to be MUCH harder than I thought. This is where the "other stories" comes in......

So on my errands, I decided that the dogs needed to be groomed (ie- CUT). Everytime I go to Petsmart to get them cut and washed, it cost me over $100. Yeah, makes you sick, huh? Well, since I'm slightly OCD and really don't like a dirty house, the sight of dog hair makes my skin crawl. Why I have a dog (or 6), I don't know, but seriously, the shedding and hair makes me crazy. So what better way to cut down on the hair? Cut the damn hair! However, today, I didn't have the dogs with me so I bought CLIPPERS. Yes, I was going to take on the daunting task of cutting my own dog's hair. All I can say is POOR JACKSON. He was such a trooper and let me tell you.....I sucked. And I will never take for granted what a professional groomer does. Jackson looks okay now (from far away) but I was beginning to think that we were going to be making a trip to Petsmart tomorrow morning for them to make my dog look somewhat normal. David was actually better at it than I was (crazy I know). He wasn't uncomfortable with the clippers and could get a smoother finish. Me, on the other hand, VERY uncomfortable using clippers and therefore left Jackson looking like a mountain range on a textured map. He has SO much hair and its very thick....so when we were cleaning up the shop, I realized that I had dog hair in places that I didn't even know existed on me! Needless to say, the clippers are a work in progress and Maddie's haircut will happen at a later date. Enjoy the pics and just know that this was a first for us and all in all, it ain't that bad! Atleast Jackson is a dog and can handle the embarrassment....I'm totally blaming the bad haircut on his groomer when someone asks me what happened to him....."His groomer must have been hungover or something..." Hehehe. I told David I was going to buy him (Jax) some clothes and David said no. However, if I shaved David's head like I shaved my dogs, David would surely be wearing a hat....all the time. Anyways, laugh it up and have a good time....just know that hair grows back (that thought is the only reason I slept last night). Toodles.....

Three girls & a boy.....a BIG boy

So I haven't been around very much (or doing anything too terribly interesting) to blog about but this weekend, I finally got to go see my precious dogs. Yes, I used to refer to them as puppies and although they still act very much like puppies, they have GROWN so much and Hank is a BIG BOY. I had the luxury of having the weekend off this weekend and David didn't have major plans either! So after a fun night out Friday night with the gym crowd (we went to Comedy Cabana to see Josh Blue...won Last Comic Standing), David and I woke up Saturday and took the dogs to the farm. We took Maddie & Jackson with us so they could run around but most of our time was spent with the hunting dogs. The reason I say 'three girls and a boy' in the title is because Steve's dogs (Hank & Reba's mom and grandma, Sally & Ginger) are currently being housed at the farm with Hank & Reba. SO, there were three girls and a boy to catch up with, love on and feed before leaving. David has done a great job working with the puppies and I can see them starting to really love being obedient. When he whistles, they come to him (most of the time), when he says "Sit", Reba sits....hank, not so much. I really wanted to get a picture with all 6 dogs and us but that was virtually impossible. Getting Hank & Reba to sit still longer than 5 seconds was a feat. At any rate, here are some pics of the growing pups.......

Time Passed with Amazing Grace

This past weekend, I took advantage of having a free day and drove up to Clinton, NC to visit some family. My cousin, Tommy & his family (I think he's gone to Tom as an adult, but that just doesn't roll off my tongue when I see him), were in NC for three weeks and I finally got to see them. Tommy lived in Okinawa, Japan for 8 years and more recently in San Angelo, TX for 3-4 years. His wife Kozue, son Kaine and daughter Maya will live in Okinawa for another 3-4 years before coming back to the states. It was a great time catching up with them, really meeting their kids and hanging out with them and also getting to see Ann, Ray, Granddaddy and my parents. David was sick so he didn't join me but he was missed. Travel plans to Okinawa are in the works over the next 3 years so if anyone is up for a long trip, let me know! Also, I was very pleased to watch Maya (who is 21 months), climb, bend, jump, flip and fall all over the place without a teardrop. She is so flexible and strong and will make a great gymnast!! Time flies and I know we'll see them again before too long but I appreciate the opportunity to spend time with anyone in my family who I don't get to see very often. Until next time.....

Quail Hunt

Saturday we went to the farm to work Sally & Ginger (Steve's hunting dogs) and see Hank & Reba. The puppies have grown so much!! They are as cute as ever though! Enjoy the pictures by clicking on the title!

Becca & Talley take on Charleston.....

And all we really got was a lot of pictures of Hadley Tate....sore hips from all our walks....belly-aching laughs at Talley's old emails.....desperate searches for Prunchetta.....political and religious conversations amongst 3 girls drinking wine, one of which works in politics.....good talks to catch up on three totally different lives....poopy diapers.....middle-of-the-night wake up cries.....great food.....catching up with Laura Hart and her new life in Charleston.....watching Lauren entertain Hadley and being so happy that Hadley is constantly amused by her mother.....and the list goes on. One & a half days in Charleston is never enough but this trip was well worth it. I always love going there and seeing Klug & Hads, but to catch Talley and Laura Hart made it even more special. Not to mention the fact that although we've known each other 10 years and we are 4-5 years removed from our college days, we can reconnect like no time has passed. Good friendships are a lovely thing......So, par for the course, I took a lot of pictures, but mainly of Hadley....So I condensed them into a collage.

Snow....for the second time!

It snowed again this morning and for the life of me, I can't remember the last time it snowed twice in one winter at the beach. The first snow (a few weeks ago) was definitely bigger with more accumulation but this morning we had huge snowflakes that stuck to our decks and our yard. I think David used all the milk this morning so I decided to venture out for a bagel and a coffee and packed up the dogs for the ride. On the way to eat, they told me they wanted to stop by the beach to see if the snow was sticking on the sand and perhaps play in it. Lucky for them I packed the leashes and we made our way to Cherry Grove Inlet. Jackson & Maddie (our only 4-legged residents at this point) had a ball playing in the sand (not much snow on the shore) and came home with a light layer of sand all over them. It was FREEZING out on the beach as the wind was whipping like crazy. It took a while for my buns to thaw out. During the first snow the little puppies were still here but for this one they were out at their palace at the farm. David built them great dog houses (with 2 rooms!) so they were (hopefully) curled up in their houses and toasty for today's snowfall. Jackson & Maddie are loving the new puppy accomodations mainly because they get their house and yard back. Things around here are pretty normal for us. I'm gone every other weekend for meets and David is here and there with work and play. He went to Arkansas two weeks ago and had a great time with Curry (bro in law) and some of Curry's friends. On my weekends off, I tend to get involved in projects and my most recent project includes re-doing a bedroom. I painted the walls and replaced the bedding and had fun doing it. I also went to a class at Pottery Barn and got a discount on everything for the day and came home with some great pillows, pillow covers and lampshades. It adds some color and a needed update to our living room. I guess my life really isn't that exciting since I'm talking about lampshades and pillow covers but no news is good news in my life......

Before I get to posting pictures, I wanted to touch on Louie's (my boss) newest dream....and I wouldn't mind being a part of it.....its this property in the Bahamas that is for sale. It appraised over 1 million dollars but because the seller is very anxious to get rid of it, he's selling it for $800K (give or take). Its in the Abacos and on Lubbers Quarters. It looks awesome and we want to go visit it. We found a youtube video of ANOTHER property on Lubbers Quarters and these folks probably did exactly what Louie dreams of doing (living on the island, fixing up the accomodations and renting it out to vacationers).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwq3h1RD2fk

Check it out....and while its 30 degrees outside, imagine waking up to this....

okay, now for the pictures....enjoy!

The Odd Couple

This is one of the sweetest things I've ever seen. yes, I'm an animal lover but we should all learn from this.......
Watch CBS Videos Online

Growing like weeds....

Oh how times are a-changin'! This post was originally to update all the faithful readers on the "puppies" that are soon to lose that title. HOWEVER, upon signing in to dear old Blogger, I noticed Carly and Matt (sis-in-law & brother) updated their page with the exciting news that they are having a BOY in July. Carly went for her 14-week appointment and sure enough, the little guy was cooperative and showed his stuff for a nearly certain assumption that it is in fact a boy. That excites me beyond belief because A. I knew they wanted and were trying to have a boy and B. this will be a very entertaining 6 more months of the name game. Truly, these two aren't even in the same solar system when it comes to boys names. Perhaps its the blood relation or perhaps its the simple fact that matt and i have remained good friends through sibling-hood, but we are typically on the same page with baby names. We talked about names we did and didn't like for as long as I can remember. Family names are always great and Matt has had a strange liking for typical "western" names.(I use 'strange' because he's not very western...aka - wyatt). Now that its the "real thing" and he's discussing potential names with his wife and mother of his child, its probably a lot harder than when you are 24-28 and talking about it with your sister. Recently when I ask about any common names, I get a response of "uh, no." I can only imagine how exciting it would be to find out that you are having a boy only to sit down and list 100 names of which neither can agree on. I will love anything they pick and can't wait to get to know the little nugget regardless of what his name is! AND, it should be noted that regardless of what his legal name will be, I'm sure he'll generate a nickname or two before its all said and done. I'm thinking Peanut or Catfish.....Catfish Raynor. That doesn't have a bad ring, does it? Anyways, we are so excited and cannot wait for them to live in Chapel Hill so I can see the whole family more often!

So now I will get back to MY babies...Hank & Reba. They are 4.5 months old and continue to grow, much to my dismay. There is something ridiculously cute about little puppies and although these dogs take the cake on being cute, they are getting bigger. Therefore, the cute puppy antics are not quite as easy to deal with (ie- jumping up). I got a nice paw-in-the-face yesterday when Hank wanted to give me a hug. The nature of these dogs is so wonderful and they are so loving and playful, but they haven't mastered the obedience training just yet. They are getting better at "Here," "Sit," and "Kennel" though. Anyways, I got a new lense for my camera from Santa Claus and decided to play with it using the dogs as subjects. Click on the title of the post to link to the album on picasa but a couple of shots for instant gratification are below.

Life is good in Mexico

We just returned from our annual Team Gymnastics trip and this year we chose Cancun, Mexico. It was quite a good choice considering we had perfect weather, great activities, ocean front condos for $100 per night and wonderful people to travel with. I organized this trip and all the stress that went into that was worth it. The girls had a great time, as did our staff and parents that joined us. We ended up taking 13 of our optional team girls ranging in age from 11-17. There were three coaches (Louie, Sue and me), Janice, Mary Ann, Ricky, Jackie & Ryan. When we flew in to Cancun we immediately put on our bathing suits and walked to find a place to eat. There are so many all-inclusives that we ended up at this local fish hut (literally a hut) that definitely doesnt have any kind of sanitation inspection. I'm not saying it was dirty, but it was authentic. The food was amazing, however.

After that we went back to the hotel and down to the beach. The water was pretty rough and there was actually someone who drowned the week before b/c of a rip current. We fully explained how to get out of a rip tide to the girls and anytime they wanted to go in the ocean, they had to be with an adult. We stayed out as long as we could stand (it got chilly in the water when the sun went down) and made our way back up the rooms and my roof-top terrace for pizza. Some of the adults braved the unknown bus system (which turned out to be amazing) and went to the store. A few people ventured all the way out to Walmart but Mary Ann and I were not interested due to time and wanting to get back to feed the kids pizza.



We bought plenty of breakfast and lunch foods for the girls so we wouldn't have to go out for every meal. After dinner, the girls had free time in our section of the hotel (there were leftover NYE celebrations this night so we decided not to let the girls roam). They had to stay in groups of atleast three and luckily all of our rooms were very close to each other. Friday morning, we woke up early and met for practice. Took the bus over to the gym and worked out for a couple of hours. After that, we came back to the hotel, did the beach/pool thing again before heading back to the gym for the college competition. We got to see UNC, Michigan, Boise State and LSU compete in each of their first meets. After that we all went to Margaritaville (duh) for dinner. We got the girls on stage to teach all the waiters their Cotton-Eyed Joe dance.

We shopped a little bit after that before coming on back.

Saturday morning the coaches took the Level 7's and 8's to the meet and the upper levels girls met us there later. The Level 7's all placed on something and the Level 8's rocked by winning 1st, 2nd & 3rd all-around and the team competition.

That afternoon we did more beach/pool time before heading back to the gym for the Level 9 & 10 competition.


Everyone in those levels came home with medals as well! We were very proud of how the girls did this early in the season.



That night, the parents stayed at the hotel with the girls while the coaches/staff got a chance to go out in Cancun. We were supposed to meet some other coaches at a restaurant/bar but it ended up being closed and since no one had good cell phone service, we couldn't find them. We ended up at Senor Frogs with every other college age student there. We actually had a great time....our waiter, Ury, was awesome.

Sunday morning, we woke up and gave the girls a chance to have some free time before heading on our adventure to Selvatica (meaning "Citizen of the Jungle"). At Selvatica, our guides (who were amazing) led us on a 2-mile zip line course with about 12 different lines. Most everyone got the chance to go upside down which was a lot of fun. After that, we (us and our guides) loaded onto mountain bikes to ride to a cenote (sink hole). They had a zipline, a cliff jump and ropes to hang onto in the cenote. It was a pretty cool sight and the kids all had a good time. Poor Ana did a back tuck off the cliff and over-rotated it straight to her back. Luckily she was fine but she was not without a lot of pain for a couple days. After our time at the cenote, we biked back to Selvatica for a great lunch of chicken fajitas, beans and rice. German (pronounced Air-Mon), Alex, David, Carlos and the rest of the guides were amazing to us and made the trip to Selvatica a wonderful experience. I highly recommend it for anyone of any age.





After that, we got back to the hotel and decided to "pool-crash" the Hilton. Ana's parents were staying there, so we hopped on the bus to the Hilton. Once we got there, we had to strategically walk in the hotel in groups of 4 or 5 and make our way to the pool which was AMAZING. Not quite amazing enough to pay for 9 rooms there but amazing enough to pool-crash. It was 5-acres of connected pools and hot tubs, beach beds, hammocks, swim-up bars, etc.




We stayed there through dinner and came on back to Solymar and our condos. Once we got back, we had a Dance-Off. Each room was supposed to make up a dance (they've been working on it for a month) and that night we had a competition. We threw some kinks in the girls plan as we told them they also had to do a "blind dance" (didn't know the music) and they had to pick a solo dancer. It was extremely entertaining and Bree, Gilly & Haley's room won the grand prize. Brittany got an honorable mention for her solo dance.



On Monday, we had to go relunctantly. No one was ready to leave Cancun but after our four hour layover in the Fort Lauderdale airport, we were all ready to be back home. The experience for everyone in Cancun was great. I think we would all go back again in a heartbeat. The place we stayed (Solymar) was great for us. Michelle & Peter Hermick, who I've worked with for 6+ months live right on sight and own a few condos as well as managing a few others. They were there for us whenever we needed them and nothing was over-looked. I highly recommend them and their condos as well. It isn't right in the hustle and bustle area of Cancun which was perfect for us. It is close to everything though! All in all the trip was amazing and I'm already thinking of what to do next year.....New York, Chicago, Vegas, Hawaii anyone?

Christmas in NC

Its been a while since I posted anything and I was reminded of that yesterday (thanks lew)! I do love this bloggin' concept so hopefully I'll get back on the wagon through competition season. ANYWAYS....Christmas was great, as always! We spent the weekend before Christmas in Whiteville with David's family. There were a lot of people there since all of the cousins now live in the area or came down from VA. We had great food and great fun and its always nice to get together and let the kids go wild and adults catch up. Granny wasn't feeling to well so she stayed in her bedroom, but she was with us nonetheless!



We went to Southern Pines on the 23rd and did nothing that night. I wish I would have gone downtown because rumor has it that everyone who graduated from 1980-2008 was there. The morning of the 24th, David went hunting with a good family friend, Scott Newton and although he didn't see or shoot anything, he had a great time and looks forward to doing it again. I went to Klug's house to catch up with her and Nat and see Baby Hadley.

We walked in her neighborhood and I seriously think we walked 20 miles. It was probably only 5 but the beach doesn't have hills like Southern Pines does.

We went to church that night with the Camerons and had dinner at our house following that. Everyone went their separate ways that night as Cullen, Jen, Chris & Kelcey went to see Suzy & Jim in Cary.

We had fun watching Baby Kileigh open presents (she knows what she likes!) and enjoyed our family time together.




Christmas Day we opened presents and everyone loved all that they got. Dad even wore his new clothes (pants from me and shirt from matt) that day. Mom, Dad & I went to the Harrell's house for a bloody mary and good conversation since Matt & Carly weren't here. Matt has gone to their house on Christmas day for as long as I can remember so we felt we should continue that tradition. After that, we walked up to Anne & Wiley's house and were thoroughly entertained by all of their grandkids.

Then it was on to Clinton for the Raynor side of things. We decided to not do presents on that side of the family, so we just ate, visited with each other and left around supper time.



I took advantage of having a day of NOTHING on the 26th and shopped. I worked on the 27th & 28th, then headed back to the Pines to see some college friends. I met up with Em, Greg and Natalie and ate lunch. We were quite bummed that Em didn't bring her 1.5 year old boy, Nate, but he wasn't feeling well and they didn't want to suffer through 4 hours in the car with sick boy. So I don't blame them!

That night I drove up to Sanford to meet up with Alyssa & Jordan Krol, who I haven't seen in what seems like forever! I met them at their house and eventually their mom and stepdad got home and we all went out to dinner. They have two little brothers now (matt & danny) and they are so cute! It was really nice to catch up with them. Jordan is a cheerleader at UNC-Charlotte as a freshman and Alyssa is graduating high school this year. I coached them for a short time while I was in college and we have managed to stay in touch since then.

The next day, mom and I drove up to Chapel Hill to meet up with Matt who had flown in to interview at UNC Hospital. We walked up and down Franklin Street, walked all through campus, took pictures and eventually made our way to Southpoint.



That was after we spent a good chunk of time house shopping for Matt. We drove around and saw some good houses, some not-so-good houses and when it was all said and done and Carly had seen what we found, they decided they may get a townhouse or something. We had a good time with Matt & I hate I didnt get to see Carly (she didn't fly in until I was leaving for Cancun).



So, the Holidays were good to me......three trips home after a weekend in whiteville and I loved every second of it! Next time, I'll have to go out while in the Pines so I can actually see some of the old cronies.

Everyday is a Holiday

December is flying by as every other month seems to do but December is very different than any other month. There is the constant hum of Christmas music (which Louie started playing in the gym before T-giving), the mass of people in Walmart or Target, the weekend gas price inflation for beach go-ers and therefore, beach residents, there are holiday parties, tons of food, holiday photo cards (which I love), decorations, wrapping paper, great smelling kitchens and in our house, major puppy lovin.



We had our first Christmas party of the year last night at the McNeill's house in Whiteville. It also coincided with the annual Christmas party in downtown Wilmington which we hated to miss but its kind of hard to be in two places at once. This week, we have our gym's Christmas party along with the gym's staff party which is notorious for being hilarious and fun. Speaking of which, I need to buy a couple of gag gifts and am spent on ideas. Next weekend all the family Christmas festivities start and I'm pumped about seeing family and friends. Right after Christmas, I'm heading to Cancun for 5 days with 13 teenagers and a couple of coaches. YAY!

The dogs are all fine.....Maddie is still hateful to the puppies but they are very close to being her size and I think her "alpha-dog" will soon diminish. Jackson is still big and laid back and just recently had to be put on a diet. I diagnosed him with slight obesity and cut back on his food. I think he's been helping himself to Maddie's when she takes a break. That fatty. Hank & Reba are growing like crazy and are starting to be introduced to birds. David is getting their kennel ready at the farm and says they will be there full time shortly. I told him that I'm pretending they are going to camp and if I don't think camp is appropriate, they are coming back. I also said I wanted a web cam on them so I could check on them. I'll miss those precious faces! Anyways, they are cute as ever and here are some pictures from the weekend!

LittleMyrtleSouthernClark

This title sums up everywhere that we were for Thanksgiving 2008. It was a fun (long) weekend with a lot of people that I love! We started out T-giving Wednesday night by heading down to Myrtle Beach to Soo Soo's house for dinner....ribs, squash, collards, sweet potatoes and my ever-so-yummy fake cake. Lissa, Todd, Jen, Curry, Soo Soo, David and I enjoyed some good adult time while the kids that were there watched movies or slept.

Thursday, we met David's family at the Dunes Club for Thanksgiving lunch....we enjoyed great food and great company and were told that we had the largest table of the day in the club. I think we totaled 17. I hung out down at Soo Soo's with Jen, Lissa, Soo Soo and Liza for the afternoon while David took some of the guys and kids hunting at Longwood. Thursday night we went to the condo in Little River to eat dinner with the Camerons. Alex, Becky, Karina, Nic and Kileigh stayed at the condo from Wednesday-Saturday, relaxed, shopped and had good quality time together. My parents came into town after visiting Clinton and met us there.

Friday, we (the girls: mom, Becky, Karina, Kileigh & I) shopped but didn't go out until close to lunch time. The boys started the day with us but eventually left in their own car. I (like a genius) WASHED my cell phone the night before so I had to spend an hour in Alltel trying to get a new phone. Luckily I'm not very popular with phone calls so I didn't miss much by not having a cell phone. Unfortunately, I did not have insurance (they talked us out of it when we started the plan...idiots) so to get a new phone was quite a financial undertaking.....they had a refurbished LG phone and its hot pink and for the price, I love it. I also got insurance :) Friday night we ate leftovers and went up to Par 5 to watch Justin, Paul and Tony of Mckenzies Mill play an acoustic show for Tina's birthday (Tina is the best bartender there). They did an awesome job and Tony might have been the funniest I have ever seen him.

Saturday, mom and I did a little more shopping (Becky & karina did too, but we were in separate places). Then we piled up 3 people and 4 dogs into mom and dad's car to head to Southern Pines. David decided to go to the State game by himself since they would be bowl eligible if they won and it was the last game at home. He had a good time and just met us in SP. The funny farm drove to SP for my ten year HS reunion. Speaking of reunions, it was awesome. I know some people didnt have the greatest of times but I thoroughly enjoyed every second of it. a lot of people who i went to elementary and middle school with were there and it was so fun to reconnect with them. The class of 98 was a great group of people....very diverse, very different backgrounds and very different current lives, but we all get along so well and have a lot of fun together. Before the reunion we met up in Justin & Em's hotel room and a group of about 15 people met there before going to the reunion. It felt just like high school! After the reunion, we went to O'Donnel's to hear another acoustic gig by half of Mckenzies Mill. Beth Vinson came (yay) and stayed at my parents house with us so we got some quality time together too.

On sunday, david and i packed up the two little dogs (mom and dad wanted to keep Jax and Maddie) and drove to Clarkton for Thanksgiving lunch with David's grandmother Lib. It was fun to see Liza and Eli (both turning 2 in Dec. and Jan.) play and it was nice to catch up with that side of the family.

All in all, a great Thanksgiving. I absolutely love the holidays where I get to see a lot of old friends and family. It makes it really special and makes me look forward to the next time I get to see them.

Gettin' Down on the Farm

Sunday was a beautiful day and we took advantage of it and took all the dogs out to the farm. We took a long walk, got some decent pics of the pups and Jackson trailed a deer for the 3rd time in his life. You would have thought he would have learned that he is not in shape to chase a deer, but his instincts took over and the dummy took off on a deer trail. He came back slowly, limping a little bit, proud of his accomplishment. What a guy. There are way to many pictures to post, so here is a slideshow!

Three Months Old and CRAZY

Hank & Reba are officially 3 months old....Yay! I feel like I can stop referring to them as a certain amount of weeks old now. They are funnier than ever and really love being outside....even in the frigid weather. We have brought them in every night this week to avoid the 20-30 degree temps so they are also getting pretty good at bladder control and crate training! They haven't peed or pooped in the house at all and we are letting them play a little when we bring them in instead of just shoving them in their crate. I will say that Jackson, my sugar-booger of a dog, was crate trained for more than the first year that I had him and I called the crate his "room". So last night, i told Jackson to go to his room and he literally crouched down and wiggled his way into the pups crate and plopped down, ready for night-night. Even when the pups tried to squeeze in so they could sleep, he wouldn't move! It was hilarious. and yes, I got pics!

So the puppies are learning the commands "here", "sit", and "no" and they respond very well to us, especially when we have chopped up hot dogs in our hands. They also know "kennel" which helps when its time to put them away. We have several toys for them but their favorite for now is a large duck that our good friend and dog sitter, Tonya, bought for them last weekend. They are also fans of the quail feather that david uses when he works with them. Like all puppies, their attention span is the size of a pea and their teeth are as sharp as razors so there is a little pain and annoyance with trying to train dogs at this age, but hopefully the results of it will far outweigh what would happen if we didn't work with them.

I got TAGGED!

Okay, so my good friend and old roomie, Emily has a great blog that I check often to see what her, Greg and Nate are up to. www.thegivensfamilyintn.blogspot.com is her page if you want to check her out. BUT, she "tagged" me which is a totally new concept for me and blogging. The point is to go to your 4th picture folder on your 'pooter, go to the 4th picture and write 4 things about it. Then, TAG four other people to do the same. The picture that came up for Em was from my bachelorette party! It was of me, klug and em and I love it!!! My picture is actually from a recent wedding and is so cute:



About this picture:
1. This is my mom (sally) and Ella, her best 4-year old friend.
2. This was taken at our church in Southern Pines, where my family has been members since my mom was a young'n.
3. This was Ella's "Meme's" wedding.....Anne Ryder, one of mom's good friends .....she helped direct my wedding for those that were there.
4. Mom's favorite thing to drink is sweet tea and she saves her "to go" cups from other places so she can have "to go" tea whenever she wants. Even at one of her best friends weddings. :)

So now I pick 4 people to do the same..........
1. Carly
2. Jackie
3. Jane Hodges
4. Klug.....DO IT KLUG.

Dirty Dogs

It seems like its been a while since I've reported on Hank & Reba....probably not since Watson left us! Anyways, I've gotten around to catching a few good pictures of the dogs (its much harder than you think). They are both doing well. Growing like weeds and getting more and more stubborn, smart, curious, and playful. David has worked with them a couple of days out at the farm on long leads....trying to enforce the command, "here or come". They aren't pros by any stretch of the word, but they are starting to understand. Especially when I have a dog treat in my hand. :) Most of the time they stay here at the house, in the kennel in the back yard. We let them stay out side all night this past weekend when they destroyed their puppy palace for the final time (I was so over cleaning it). So now they cuddle up in their dog house for the chilly nights and they constantly play in their kennel during the day. They are so funny to watch. They had a good time this past weekend with Jen, Curry, Liza and Steve visiting. David took all four dogs out to the farm on Sunday while I was at the meet and they ran and ran and played and rolled in something dead and played more. They are a mess! David managed to give jackson & maddie a bath b/c they stay inside but it got too cold to give Hank & Reba a bath. They don't stink (thank goodness) but man, they are dirty. No matter where they are (here or the farm), they manage to wrestle, roll, and waller in the dirt and jump all over each other. Therefore, its nearly impossible to keep them clean! David is working on their new home at the farm so they will be here until its finished. Anyways, enjoy the pics!

Bye Bye Oysters

This week, we were lucky to have Jen, Curry & Liza Martin stay with us in Little River. (Jen is David's sister, Curry is Jen's husband, and Liza is their almost-2-year-old). We all had a good time although I worked the entire weekend because we hosted our first meet of the year. David, his dad and Curry got some good hunting and "farm time" in. Jen and Liza also went out to the farm as well as hanging out with Soo Soo and the Woodards. There was a nice dinner at the Dunes Club. There was the weekly tradition of Capt Poo's lunch on Thursday and Liza enjoyed seeing the "more more boats." I also took Jen and Liza to the gym so she could play on the trampolines, in the pit and on all the mats we have. We cooked oysters Friday night and Liza (who is very good with words) quickly learned the word oyster and upon her departure to bed, she waved to them on the table and said "Bye Bye Oysters!" I also learned that she loves breakfast and will want you to share your cereal with her. She says "cereal" really well! All in all, it was a great week! I wish I could have hung out more but hopefully they had a great time!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CARLY!

I hope Carly has the most wonderful of birthdays today! I talked to Matt earlier in the week and if she hasn't gotten her present, she'll certainly be happy after she does! Have a great birthday Carly and I hope to see you soon!!! Love you!!!

Happy Birthday Sally!

This post is for MY mom, Sally! Today (10/30) is her birthday. She is offically 35 years old (yes, she had me when she was 7). Kidding, but I bet you won't guess her age on the first try. So, HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!! I love you!

Circle of Friends

For those that know Louie (my boss and old coach), you know how much he loves music. Whether he's playing it, listening to it, putting music on his ipod, or writing his own music....the man LOVES music. So he's been playing with a couple of friends in a throw-together-band called Circle Of Friends. The guys are Louie on drums & vocals, Tim on vocals, guitar and harmonica and John on bass & vocals. They've been playing at German Johns for the past month on Wednesday nights and this week was there last week there. They may play Par 5 or German Johns on a more regular basis, but we'll see! Anyways, last night sounded great and was a lot of fun! If they play somewhere on a regular basis and you are able to come out and support them, please do!!

Old Friends & Oysters

Last saturday I had one of the most fun nights I've had in a long time. David and I don't go out much but last Saturday when we decided to go over to Sunset Beach for an oyster roast at the Wallace's house, we had no clue what we were in for. I've known the Wallace's for YEARS.....I'm thinking close to 15+. I did gymnastics with Lindsay from the time I was 8 or 9 and actually graduated (and was good friends with) her older brother Aaron (we called him Opie). There is another older brother Shane who I didn't hang out during school but have hung out with him since moving to the beach. All of them are awesome and just plain crazy and I love it. Anyways, they have a beach house at Sunset and its the perfect party pad. Their granddad (Papa) was there and he's the only person who has successfully called me "Becky" for as long as I've known him. No one else does....just Wint. Anyways, after some seriously good oysters, we piled up and went to Victoria's and as Lindsay put it, added a little class to the clientele. Well, we tried to at least. Perhaps by the end of the night we werent adding much of anything, but it was an incredibly fun night. Laughing as hard as I laughed that night is extremely therapeutic and good for me. It was also nice meeting the new friends......Britt, Ashley, Casey, Chad & the neighbors. Good food, good people, good times.

Ten minutes changes everything

So this entire time of the puppies existence, David and I have been preparing for Hank to leave us to go to Genteel Plantation...aka...Bird Dog Heaven (heaven as in paradise). So the time came for us to take him this past Wednesday and we packed up the car with all three dogs (mistake #1) and started the trek. Like I said in an earlier post, this plantation is outside of Wilmington on the way to Clinton. SO, David, myself and all three puppies were on the way. About 40 minutes into the drive, the pups decided to shut up their whining. When we got to the little store where we were meeting Steve, we let the dogs out on their leashes (they not fans of leashes yet)and they played a little before loading them back up to go to Ricky's. No joke, once we got to Ricky's, they played for a solid hour and a half. That ENTIRE time, I was letting go of Hank, knowing he'd be in a great place for bird dog training and I just had a great time taking pictures and laughing at these crazy-fun puppies. So about 15 minutes before we left, Ricky decided to tie a dead quail to a fishing rod and watch the puppies (see if they would point it). We stood there in complete shock at what we saw......Reba and Watson chased that bird 100 times and Hank chased leaves. The freakin' bird dog prodigy (thats what we thought he'd be) was chasing leaves. And when he wasn't chasing leaves, he was laying down under the truck. David, Steve and I couldn't believe it......at that point, we felt like we should offer Ricky whichever dog he wanted because he's a great trainer and really needs a dog interested in birds. He immediately said Watson, although if really given the choice, he'd have taken Reba. So, homeward bound we were.....with Reba and Hank. I wasn't completely prepared for Watson to be gone....he was our runt and we named him after our street! We had a special little bond that was really sweet and I'll certainly miss that goofy face. BUT, he'll have a great time in his new home. As for Reba and Hank, they are still chillin' on Watson Avenue and today I introduced them to the kennel in the backyard as opposed to the inside puppy palace. They will eventually understand that the outside kennel is way more fun than the inside one. They barked a whined a good bit and I just couldn't deal with it. I need to work on them a little bit before leaving them out there. Its definitely time to start some obedience training with them and we have to make sure we stay consistent and on them.......they are sweet and cute dogs but they will grow nonetheless and they have to learn now what is right/wrong. So basic training begins on Monday. :) Anywhooo......now the fun part.....pictures!

Hadley Collage....

 

Babysitting Hadley Tate

Friday was awesome because Klug came up to Myrtle Beach for a meeting and brought sweet little Hadley with her. She asked me to come hang out with Hadley while she was in a meeting and we had so much fun (well I did). Hadley & I went to Petsmart, Target and had a little photoshoot in the Tahoe waiting on Klug to finish up her meeting. Hadley was such a trooper (dealing with a non-mom toting her in and out of stores). At one point, after I took Hadley off of the cart (I had the car seat on the cart b/c I had to get large amount of stuff from Petsmart), and put her in the car. I loaded all my stuff in the car and realized there wasn't a cart-catcher nearby and the store was the closest. I seriously spent a few minutes debating what to do. Hadley was in the car and I needed to run back to the store to put the cart away. Just the day before someone had been arrested for leaving their child in the car (although he was going to a strip club, not returning a cart). SO, after some deliberating, I RAN the cart back to the store and RAN back to Hadley. She was fine, of course....and so THEN, I had to use the bathroom REALLY bad. Well what are you supposed to do with a 4-month old strapped to a carseat when you have to use the bathroom? Take her with you, I guess! So that was our motivation in going to Target. I knew the bathrooms were big enough to handle both of us and so we loaded her up in her fancy-pants stroller (which I loved) and we went to the bathroom in Target. We walked around after that and tried to shop, but really, I didn't need anything. I asked Hadley if she wanted anything and she wasn't very interested in the clothes they had there. She said she needed some tights (leggings) so that she could wear her 12-month old 'shirts' as dresses in the winter (She gets her fashion sense from her mother). :) BUT, we decided to head back to the meeting. Anyways, it was a wonderful couple of hours with Hadley and Klug. We ate lunch at Mellow Mushroom and Hadley just hung out and slept in her car seat while we caught up on life. She's precious and I can't wait to see her and klug again!!

Puppies Week 7....Might be Hank's last week!

This week was a good week for the puppies. They seem to enjoy their puppy palace and have learned where to sleep, eat, play and do their business. They do have a habit of ripping the puppy pads apart and throwing them all over their palace. BUT, they aren't using the bathroom everywhere so that is wonderful! They all have learned how to go downstairs, upstairs, under the fence (Big no-no), run away from me when its time to back to their room, get excited for their food and they LOVE water with the biggest passion.

David and I went to Wilmington this week to take Sally back to her home (David's dad's house). While we were up there, we drove out towards Burgaw to visit Genteel Plantation. This place is 850 acres of BEAUTIFULLY kept land that is used for corporate hunts, outings, fishing, etc. Ricky (manager of this land) lives out there in a cabin and the property has an awesome dog kennel, bird (quail) house, fish house, boat house, skeet range, hunting land, plantation house, etc. Its immaculate! Ricky is the guy who gets Hank.....he's the owner of the sire (who Sally was bred with). This daddy dog's name is Sid and he's a beautiful setter.

Sid...Puppies Daddy

Ricky has about 10 dogs out there and they are all so good. Funny thing is, he currently has Sally's mom and Sally's brother and will soon get Sally's pup. He is running out of room, so will be giving David two of his older, good hunting dogs to keep out at our farm. They will be good to have because they can help David learn the best ways to train Watson & Reba. Anyways, this plantation has an old plantation house on it and its beautiful. The owner of the property (Bobby Harrelson) spared no expense in refurbishing this house.

The old plantation house on the property (this is NOT where Ricky lives)

The commercial kitchen...love it!

Half-Bath downstairs....I LOVE the counter & sink

So anyways, this will be Hank's new home after this week. We'll miss him because he is the sweetest dog but he is in great hands with Ricky. I loved playing with all the dogs there (you know I was in heaven) and I started playing with the focus on my camera. These were my two favorite pictures. Its the same shot, but two different focal points. One time on the dog...the othe on the fence with the dog in the background.

Puppy Palace and their first bath....

Week 6 of the puppies was more stressful than any other week. It could have been a combination of several things but I found myself really wishing these dogs would disappear for a while. Not really, because that would make me very sad, but when I opened their door to see dog poop EVERYWHERE, not once, twice but 3 times....I was ready to feed them to the wolves. Now I'm sure that anyone who doesn't know me is ready to turn my name into PETA, but c'mon. I wouldn't really do that! They are just learning and I know that......once I cool off, I'm fine. It certainly doesn't help that 2 nights in a row, my dog Jackson, has gotten sick IN THE HOUSE. I'm not kidding when I say that there was more dog poo than I've ever seen in my life.....on my hardwood floors, rugs, WALLS, etc. It was disgusting....but in his 5 years of life, he's done it so few times (and so very rarely in the last 4 years) that I know he must not be feeling well. We walk him and take him out often, so its not neglect, but perhaps he got into something while outside in the yard.

At any rate, the puppies destroyed their home last night.....they were in a rectangular area that was blocked off with plywood. Their bed was in one corner and their potty pads in another. When we came down this morning, there was no difference between their bed and their toilet. GROSS!. So we decided once and for all, to do something semi-permanent about it. After researching and measuring (while I bathed each dog individually in the bathtub), we went to Lowe's to get some plywood. We took most of the afternoon building the Puppy Palace and we think it might work!! It has their bedroom seperate from their playroom and all of that is walled-off from their bathroom. Puppies will be puppies and will play everywhere but atleast their area to 'do their business' is seperate from where they will sleep and eat. Hopefully it will work until they are ready to go out to the farm for bird-dog training.

Some of the things that happened this week with them: Reba can go up and down stairs with ease. Hank and Watson have mastered going UP but not down. They all had their first bath and might have been slightly traumatized. They ate ALL their food at the last few meals. They figured out their vocal chords and bark and cry loudly and for a good length of time. They play very hard with each other. They are all using the bathroom outside when given the opportunity. Their mom, Sally, really doesnt enjoy being around them anymore. They really do love playing jungle gym on any given object (humans, coolers, lawn mowers, stairs, jackson, chairs, etc.) They LOVE puppy treats.

Until next time...........

The holy terrors....weeks 4 & 5

Somehow when puppies get to about 4 weeks of age, they become really exhausting! I now understand why Sally (pup's mom) is so happy when we put her in her pen in the backyard. She gets a 7-8 hour break! With that, all the chores, pee and poop cleaning, feeding and playing is up to david and me. It is TRULY awesome watching them grow but its harder and harder to get good pictures of them because they want to BITE and CHEW on everything INCLUDING my camera. SO, bear with some of these pictures....they are still precious and seem to be growing daily. Hank is my fatty and eats everytime I put the food out. Reba is a little weird but is wired like a race car. Watson is eating well and playing more and more. We had a little set back weaning them off of mom when Reba would vomit continuously after attemtping to eat her puppy mush. One of the last times she did throw up, a large chuck of (I'm guessing) cottage cheese came up. I mixed cottage cheese in with their food once and haven't done it since b/c she didn't take well to it. Since then, she hasn't had any trouble keeping her food down. But she did give us a scare, especially when I looked up the symptoms online and saw EVERYTHING that COULD be wrong with my dog. But her vet reassured me that it PROBABLY wasn't anything serious and to just ease her back into puppy food. She's enjoying it now. We've been keeping Sally separate from the pups for the entire day and letting her back in at night. The puppies love to nurse when she gets back in and the poor mom probably gets no sleep at night. We took them out to the farm last week and it was so fun watching them play in the grass, play with jackson, explore and figure out life outside our house. I plan on taking them back tomorrow since this weather is amazing. Anyways, the other accomplishments of the dogs are as follows:

1. Can climb through BOTH dog doors and now get outside on their own. Not wonderful.

2. Are paper-potty trained or atleast go on the concrete in the garage if I let them out. Wonderful.

3. Can run and jump and its hilarious.

4. Bark and howl loudly when they see something they can't get to or have.

5. LOVE Jackson.

6. Love David and me more.

7. Actually listen when they want to....they may not know or understand it yet, but they do respond.

8. Falling down the porch stairs makes them dizzy and we try to avoid it.

9. Some of the girls from the gym came over to see them and Hank was definitely the favorite. That fatty.

10. Did I mention that they can go through both dog doors? Yeah.

And now for some pictures.....

Reba & Hank peeking out the dog door....this was shortly BEFORE they learned how to get out.

Reba hanging out with Jackson at the farm

Becca and the three hounds

Reba & Hank climbing on my leg and looking mighty guilty (& cute)

Reba learning the difference between a hole in the door (dog door) and glass...see her reflection?

Watson having a puppy moment in the corner

Reba pretending as though she's sweet

Watson sticking his tongue out for the picture

Hank, Reba and Watson starting to relax after a good playtime.

Where does the time go?

David and I celebrated our 2 year anniversary last night (9/23). It's amazing to think that 2 years have gone by since our wedding in Pawleys Island. We decided to be a little festive last night and head back to Pawleys Island for dinner at Frank's. It was (as expected) awesome. I had grouper and David had a filet. After dinner we went to their outside restaurant/bar (Frank's Outback) and had cocktail before heading home. It wasn't anything flashy but flashy really isnt our style. I think the two years of our marriage have presented us with plenty of fun, laughter, love and an occasional bump in the road. I guess that is part of marriage and its getting over the bumps that really matter. Here's to another year......

Hank, Reba & Watson - Week 3

So the puppies turn 3-weeks old Friday, September 19 and they have grown so much. They are all walking now, starting to play with each other and figure themselves out. Teeth are starting to come through and if you haven't experienced puppy teeth....they are SHARP. Anywhoo.....pictures tell a better story than I do.....

The proud human mama

Reba crawling over Watson

Reba walking....she's 24 hours ahead in development than Hank.
Hank is 48 hours ahead of Watson. You go girl!

Choir Practice......taking after Shelton.

Twangtown Throwdown

This weekend I went to Southern Pines for a fundraiser for the NC chapter of Hugs Across America. This organization strives to provide teddy bears to troubled kids all over the country for many different reason....house fires, neglect, abuse, natural disaster, etc. They want children to feel comforted in their times of despair. Mckenzies Mill (Justin & Ryan Harris, Tony Barnes, Paul Newton, Shane Hoskins and Tim ??) was the entertainment for the Twangtown Throwdown fundraiser and they put on one hell of a show (as always). One of the most heart-wrenching songs they do (and this is the first time I've heard it live) is "Houston". "Houston" is a song written about Tony's cousin and a dear friend to everyone else, Matt Barnes. Matt was 24 when he was killed in a car accident last year. A couple months before the accident, the band was in Charlotte and Matt, being the fun-loving kind of guy that he was, went to support them, hang out and have a good time. He loved music and playing guitar and was very talented at it. He and Justin came up with a good little guitar peice and started humming a tune that went with it. Matt said it would make a great song and they should work on it someday. Well, that someday never came because he left us all too soon. Justin wrote the song with the help of Tony and together, they recorded it. Justin emailed me the song quite a while ago but hearing it live for the first time was amazing. Watching grown men get choked up on stage proves that this song comes from heart or maybe even from above, where I'm sure Matt was looking down with a smile. Anyways, here is my favorite verse and some pictures from the show.....

"I remember the time, remember the place, I remember that smirky little smile on your face when you told me its a perfect melody and we belt it out two-part harmony. But the song was never written, the story never told. You left it up to me to tell it all alone. And I hope I did you justice, I hope I made you proud, I hope you'll let a little light shine on down. As we try to spread our music and we try to make our name, we're all blood brothers here on this stage and we roll, yeah we roll."

Eyeballs and Dog Poo

Well, the pups are two weeks old today and they have grown so much since last Friday. They all have their eyes open and Hank & Reba are standing up. They wobble and fall down pretty quickly but they are putting equal weight on all fours. Its so cute! We cut their nails last night because they were becoming weapons and I guess the stimulation got Reba rather excited and pooped all over me. Sally was busy eating dinner and when she came back into the room, she was all over me and Reba. I should have known. Anyways....what fun. I take them to the vet next week and I'm excited to hear how they are REALLY doing. The next month should be really fun with these pups and I'll keep posting the cutest pics......speaking of, here are a few:

Watson, Hank, Reba (L to R)

Hank (black collar), Watson (blue), Reba (cute collar)

My precious Watson

Reba's cute self

Sleepy Hank

Watson's dreaded pedicure....it looks like he's biting David.

Hank, Watson & Reba

The puppies are growing and are one week old today! They are so precious and I just adore them. Its going to be hard to let them go but when they start peeing and pooping on their own, I might not be as reluctant to let them go. I think they'll be opening their eyes soon and the cuteness will be hard to handle!! Enjoy the pics of their 1 week birthday! We are celebrating with Tropical Storm Hanna!

Hank waving, Watson & Reba

Hank Yawning

Reba, our biggest pup

Watson, our runt

My obsession GROWS! Literally....

So, those of you that talk to me often know that we've temporarily inherited a dog. Sally is a Pointer and a GREAT bird dog. She belongs to my father-in-law, Steve but we are keeping her through the last two weeks of her pregnancy. She was bred with a Setter and the result will be called "Drops." Friday, August 29, we woke up around 6:30am and went downstairs to 3 tiny little puppies feeding on Sally. She did it all by herself and was done after 3!! Small litter, but they are all healthy. She had 2 boys and girl and the runt is a boy. After 6 days, we've decided on names. Reba is the girl because that is my nickname for a very select few people and because my mom's name is Sally, we thought it would be a great fit. AND, we were originally trying to go with country singers as names.....so again, it worked. The boys are Watson (the runt, named after our street and Doc Watson) and Hank (no explanation needed). So, Reba, Watson, and Hank are growing like weeds everyday. Their eyes aren't open yet but their color is starting to show and they are getting around (army crawl). They LOVE to eat and sleep and Sally is being a fantastic mom. Must be something in the name! Anyways, here are a few pics of the day they were born. I'll update weekly, so stay tuned.....

A good heart will be remembered forever....

I haven't posted in a while, and for that, I'm sorry. I forgot how much I loved doing this and plan on keeping everyone informed of our silly lives at the beach. As much as it sucks, what prompted me to start writing again was the very sad and unfortunate news of a new friend of ours that lost his life in the line of duty. In Montana, David and I had the great pleasure of meeting Evan and Carrie. They lived across the street from Andy and BJ and seemed to be wonderful people....young couple, no kids, good jobs, loved each other and their own passions. They were gracious enough to get up REALLY early and drive with us to The Loop to drop us off for our hike. They brought Andy & BJ's cars back to Kalispell after a great breakfast at Belton Chalet. Our hour long ride up to Glacier was really the only time we spent with Evan and Carrie, but on that trip and through breakfast, we shared a lot about our lives, and most importantly, we laughed. The genuine smile and laughter that exuded from Evan will always stay with me. Last week, Evan (who is a State Highway Patrol) lost his life in a head on collision while working. He was 29 years old. He was the 6th Highway Patrol to die while on duty since its inception in 1935. BJ had the highest honor of being asked to be a pall-bearer and although its an experience that wasnt easy, I'm so glad he was looked that highly upon by Carrie, and obviously, Evan. Our thoughts are with Carrie and Evan's family. Losing someone is never easy and the strength of many people will help his friends and family get through this. In the picture below, Evan is in the red t-shirt. This was taken when we got to Belton Chalet for breakfast. Unfortunately, this was the only picture I got with Evan in it.

Dogs aren't our whole lives, but they make our lives whole....

Most of you know how much I love dogs....especially mine and my friends. However, on a three week trip WITHOUT my puppies, I tend to 'adopt' random dogs as my friends. Here are the dogs we met along the way.....some with their real names and others with the name I gave them as their 'adopted' friend & photographer:

Seamus (Andy & BJ's dog)

Seamus & Bec

Walter the 8-week old Newfoundland puppy!

Walter being sweet

Tommy (King Charles Spaniel) & Bec

Tommy was whining in this picture!! Just like a boy.

Bob the Boat Dog (adopted name)

Poker (adopted name)

Teton (adopted name b/c he just wandered up to the pet store we went to)

Nava (on the left) & Ho (on the right) in Nowhereland, Arizona

Ugly (adopted name)

McCain (adopted name)

Sidney (Alex & Becky's pup)

My baby girl Maddie

My baby Jackson & me when I got back! What a love-bug!

Home Sweet Home

We're back! We finally made it back to Little River, after a short detour to Oak Island, NC to pick up the dogs and see some family for a brief visit. We drove from Miami, Oklahoma all the way to Columbia, SC before stopping and then had a short drive (considerably speaking) to get to the island. No major news from the road.....just like I said in the last post, we took pictures of the state signs (because we were bored and its nice to remember) and thats about it. HOWEVER, upon returning home to family, two new babies stole the show on my camera. As pretty as the country is the thousand-plus pictures that I took from the hike and the road, nothing compares to a laughing baby. Tomorrow I'm back to work at the gym and looking quite forward to it. I've missed it and the girls (& Louie, Janice & Edyie) and am excited to catch up with them. I'll keep blogging with things going on in my life, because this is kind of neat. For now, I'll leave you with some incredibly cute pictures of Kileigh and Hadley:

Kileigh Marie Cameron (born 5/22/08)

KMC

KMC

KMC

KMC & Jackson

Kileigh is 2 months old and I taught her how to hold her own bottle....she's a prodigy! Or I'm a good teacher. :)

Hadley Tate Heuber (born 6/12/08)

HTH

HTH

HTH

HTH boxing

Becca, Klug & Hadley...Let's be honest, Hadley isn't happy because she knows
Aunt Reba (aka Becca) is leaving.

Day 19 – Sunday, July 27, 2008

Today we have done nothing but drive…we’ve crossed 5 states so far and have pictures of 4 of their signs! I took a nap this morning and David had trouble taking a picture of Arkansas. So, since there isn’t anything great to talk about today, I’ll sum up the concert last night.

It started at 4:00pm and lasted until midnight. We got over there around 6pm and watched 3 opening bands before Cross Canadian Ragweed came on. They were Will Ridge, Back Porch Mary & Chris Knight.

Will Ridge

Stand-up bass player for Back Porch Mary

Lead singer and Lead Guitar Back Porch Mary

Chris Knight

All of them were fun bands to see live and I’m curious to get on ITunes and check out their records. The set up was at a new casino in a town that really doesn’t have a lot there. They have a nice stage set up out in a field off of the casino (cattle farm across the street). Parking was easy, getting in and out of the show, and getting food and drinks was never a hindrance. Even the hired security were on horseback or ATV.

Anyways, as the sun was setting a storm was nearby and sent us winds that I swear could’ve registered as a tropical storm force wind. The speakers and lights on the stage were swinging all over the place and they actually had to postpone Chris Knight’s set until the front blew by. The weather held out great after that until Ragweed was finishing up….wind picked up again and the rain came with it this time. Ragweed played a great show and besides the obnoxious drunks that frequent shows, we completely enjoyed ourselves. It was a great place to people watch and lucky for the guys there, plenty of girls who didn’t mind exposing themselves for a shout out from stage. Cody Canada, I’ve realized, IS Cross Canadian Ragweed. He alone, made the show worth it. He plays lead, is lead singer and does the entire crowd work. He’s awesome and may be my new crush.

Cody Canada

I might not post for a couple of days until we get back and somewhat settled. This will be my last post from the road and I hope someone reading this has enjoyed it as much as I have. I will send pictures out once I get them loaded and I’ve promised the Wisconsin boys a cd of pictures in exchange for some good Wisconsin cheese. Until then…Happy Trails!

Day 18 - Saturday, July 26 - Cross Canadian Ragweed

We stayed in Clinton, OK last night and got on the road towards Miami (Northeastern corner of OK). We got here shortly after lunch, checked into our hotel and went to Waylon's Hamburgers (a little diner that has been open since 1969 and is on Route 66). It was great!! Nothing major to report from the road today. Tomorrow I'll post pictures from the show tonight because I'm sure we'll see lots of characters, as well as great bands. Cross Canadian Ragweed has been one of our favorite bands for a while and we are so excited to see them in Oklahoma. These guys are from Oklahoma and Texas so it'll be somewhat of a hometown crowd. Their website is http://www.crosscanadianragweed.com/ if you are curious about their music. I dig it. Anyways, sorry for the boring post, but really, its been that kind of day......tonight, however, should be a different story! See you tomorrow!

Day 17 – Friday, July 25, 2008 – On the Road Again…Arizona to Oklahoma

Not much to report for today! We stayed on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon last night and enjoyed a very good steak at the lodge restaurant before going to bed rather early. We got up and got on the road by 7:00am (8:00am MST since GCNP doesn’t observe daylight savings) and didn’t hit the interstate (I-40) until 2:00pm. We started out on the road that leads to the South Rim so we got to drive through parts of the Canyon that we could see from a far-off distance yesterday. It was awesome! We ended up on a couple other highways that we knew would eventually lead us to the interstate and hopefully, civilization. Most of the roads went straight through Indian Reservations and they were fairly void of any public facilities or life in general. They did offer some pretty cool views however. We got into New Mexico and shortly thereafter reached I-40. Since all we are doing today is driving, there really isn’t much to post. I will say that New Mexico was BORING! I read 348 pages of a book if that tells you anything about the scenery in NM. It was nice to finally reach Albuquerque and hit up a McDonalds around 3:00pm. When we got into Texas, Amarillo was a nice city among cattle farms but we were hell-bent on getting somewhere in OK. We made it to Clinton, Oklahoma.....about 1.5 hours from Oklahoma City. We will be on our way to Miami, OK tomorrow for a concert. Here are a couple pictures to pass the time:

This is the bathroom we had to use at one stop on a reservation. I would have much prefered the great outdoors....even if the Native Americans had to watch. DISGUSTING. It made the pit toilets at Glacier look luxurious.

Day 16 – Thursday, July 24, 2008 – Mule Farts and Canyon Views…Both Phenomenal

This morning, David and I got up early to be at the Grand Canyon Lodge to meet the Mule Bus. We boarded our mules and hit the trail around 8:00am. I was on board Annie (The Great Farter) and David got Watoba. We did 3 hours down into the Canyon (4,000 feet); had lunch at the waterfall that supplies both the North and South Rim with their water; and trudged back up 4,000 feet to the top. The views were amazing and I’ve never laughed so hard at animals passing gas! Maybe the funniest part was that David was behind my mule and his mule really liked to be close. Anyways, although pictures won’t do it justice, I’ll post a couple:

On this ride, we learned several things……first of all, the descent that we took equated to 2 billion years of the Earth’s history; mules don’t like to be petted on the neck, like horses do; if you are doing back country hiking here and you need medical attention, it will cost you $300 to get out of the canyon by mule and $3000 by helicopter, mules are like dogs….when one uses the bathroom, they all do, there are (on average) 80,000 visitors to the North Rim each year and 4-million to the South Rim and the Grand Canyon and all its glory can absolutely not be explained or displayed in pictures. It’s just something you have to see.

All in all, it was a great day. Riding mules for 8 hours wore us out, so we have dinner reservations at the lodge at 8:15pm and will probably get some shut eye after that. They do have a little saloon here at the Lodge that we might have a drink in, but it won’t be a late night for sure. We will be heading east from here on out. We have tickets to a Cross Canadian Ragweed show in Miami, Oklahoma Saturday night, then homeward bound from there……still a long ways away, but we’re coming. Toodles!

Day 15 – Wednesday, July 23 - Grand Canyon North Rim Hiking & Kaibab Lodge

Good day Folks! Today David and I got to the Grand Canyon! We left Fillmore, UT and came into Arizona around lunch time today. Arizona is a little weird with their time…..they are on Mountain Time but don’t observe daylight savings time…..which means it’s like they are on Pacific time over the summer. Threw me off a little bit but I’m getting used to it. The only bad part of that is on Friday when we get up to head towards Oklahoma, we are essentially losing 2 hours instead of 1. Anyways, today we got to the Grand Canyon and decided to go for the North Rim, instead of the more popular and populated South Rim.

The views were amazing, as I’ve always thought they were. We got SO lucky calling hotels in the North Rim area (there are only 2 that are relatively close)……First we called the Grand Canyon Lodge North Rim and although they didn’t have anything for Wednesday night, they did have a room for Thursday night. So we booked that. We still didn’t have a place to stay Wednesday night and ended up calling a lodge that is 18 miles outside of the North Rim and they just happened to have a cancellation and we got the room. The other closest hotel is 45 miles away so we felt very lucky to stay just out of the Canyon one night and on the North Rim (literally) the 2nd night. Anyways, we hiked about 5 miles today on some trails and got some amazing pictures. I will not flood this post with pictures, but believe me, it’s awesome here. One of the trails we went down led to absolutely NOTHING. We didn’t realize they had a trail gated off and we couldn’t go as far as we had wanted. Once we hiked about 2 miles, we came upon a gate with NO view. Nice. But, some of the views on the way down were great. We also went to a small trail that had a plaque dedicated to Teddy Roosevelt who was an amazing advocate for the parks systems and the Grand Canyon in particular. The views from there (which I will post) were awesome because you could see the South Rim, the Navaho Indian Reservation, the Painted Desert and it displayed a depth that doesn’t even register to me.

At this point, we were tired and ready to head to our Kaibab Lodge to check in. Kaibab (pronounced ‘Kybab’) means “mountain lying down” and is in the Kaibab National Forest. This lodge (main house which is the front desk, Cracker Barrel-style gift shop and restaurant) was built in the 1920’s and originally going to be a cattle ranch. Now, there are cabins spread out around the lodge with relatively rustic accommodations (by rustic, I mean no TV or phone with western décor).

With the very slim choices of places to stay near the North Rim and our extreme lack of planning with reservations, we are SO happy to at least have a bed tonight. Even the campsites were full and we were considering sleeping in the car. So we ate at their cozy little restaurant and had the BEST key lime cheesecake EVER and are planning on hitting the sack early since we have our (hopefully) full day of mule riding in the canyon tomorrow. Hope the mules sleep well too! Adios!

Day 14 – Jackson, WY to somewhere in Utah

David & I in front of one of the four elk antler arches in Town Square - Jackson, WY

This morning David and I slept in until a whopping 7:45am! We were so excited to get a morning to sleep in, yet we knew we had LOTS of driving to do and we needed to get going. I will admit here that I woke up prior to 7:45 and it was at 5:51am…..for the 3rd morning in a row. I’m not kidding……3 mornings in a row, I’ve woken up and looked at my watch and it read 5:51am. CRAZY! Anyways, we got our stuff packed up, checked out of our cabin and went into town. We had a bagel and coffee from Pearl Street Bagels (or something like that). It was so good and they don’t toast your bagel for you. They say theirs are fresh enough that you don’t need it toasted. I can see how toasting would mask the freshness of a bagel, but I’d never heard of a place that just didn’t do it. They did not disappoint however, because their bagels and spreads were amazing. After that, we shopped a little bit and picked up some Jackson, WY memorabilia before heading back to the hotel to get our car. We were set on buying some locally brewed beer to take home with us and for the life of us couldn’t find a place that sold it un-chilled. We ended up riding back up to Teton Village because we knew they had some that weren’t already in the fridge.

We ate lunch at The Mangy Moose, packed up our beer and got on the road…..at 3:00pm. So much for an early start. BUT, we so enjoyed Jackson and look forward to going back there. Both of us agreed that of all the places we’ve seen/driven through, that is the one place we would actually want to live. Kalispell is a close second because it also has lots of things to do and two very good friends, but Jackson was such a cute town! Wyoming in itself was a cool state to travel through….very pleasing to the eye and lots of national parks and forests. There was a lot of road construction on the route we were taking, but it was still cool. We went through Idaho for a short time before entering Utah.

We are going to stay somewhere south of Salt Lake City…depends on how much David wants to drive tonight! J I did all the driving from Jackson to Salt Lake, so don’t feel too bad for him. OH YEAH, and Cracker Barrel in Salt Lake (I know we’re lame, but it was getting late and we were starving) served REAL SWEET TEA. I was so excited. Anyways, we plan on getting to the Grand Canyon tomorrow and although the one place that was recommended to us is booked (Havasupai….Jordan!) for the month of July, we will still have a great time and see some spectacular scenery. We might do an activity, but really aren’t sure what’s going to be available. That’s all from the road for now……..

Day 13 - Old Faithful, The Mangy Moose & Million Dollar Cowboys

Oh what a day! Its been a long one, but so much fun. We didn't really DO anything.....but it was cool nonetheless. We left Cody, WY this morning after visiting the Buffalo Bill Historical Museum and headed back into Yellowstone. We decided to do an abbreviated edition of the southern route, skipping one leg that hugs the lake. We saw the Upper & Lower Falls (termed the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone) and it was worth the hundreds of people there also seeing it with me.

After that, we ate lunch in the car and kept riding to try and catch Old Faithful bust loose again. We apparently were treated to one of the longest waits in 9 years for this old girl to spew, but once it happened, it was worth the wait. I think we waited 126 minutes and the park ranger near us said that is as long as she's waited in the 9 years that she's been timing it and doing short seminars on it. There were SO many people there.......from the national parks perspective, the economy is NOT so bad. Or a lot of people are traveling on credit because this place was packed. After Old Faithful did her business for us, it was similar to getting out of a small concert parking lot.

So, we were done with Yellowstone for the day and although we continued to see beautiful sights on our way out, we were excited to get to the Grand Tetons and experience all their beauty. Much taller, more jagged mountains with a significant amount of snow still on top. The only sucky part was it was pouring so my pictures are rather cloudy. It did stop raining long enough for us to grab a beer in The Mangy Moose Saloon in the Teton Village. Very cool little village and one we've already talked about coming back to when ski season starts up.

Off to Jackson, WY we go! We did pass an intersection for Wilson, WY which is where my mom's cousin, Duff (Ed) lives. He invited us to stay with them, which was so nice, but we got a room near the Town Square of Jackson so we could experience it in all its' glory. We got into town and checked into our "cabin" at The Cowboy Village Resort. Not so much a resort, but a cool cabin and village. We actually love it, as redneck as it may seem. Some of you are NOT suprised at all, I'm sure.

We went to dinner at Snake River Grill downtown and it was SO good.....I had 6 MINI MINI fish tacos (more "mini" than I was expecting) but I supplemented them with some outstanding parmesean truffle shoe-string fries. Oh yeah. David had BBQ Pork Shank which was also fabulous. Anywhooo.....we strolled over to The Million Dollar Cowboy for a couple beverages following that and were treated to a few cowboys (one was missing a tooth), a good country house band and a couple good local beers.

We're back at the Cowboy Cabin now and plan on getting some rest before tomorrow's fun begins. YeeeeHawww!

Day 12 - Kalispell - Yellowstone - Cody, WY

Today, David and I left Andrea & BJ's around 8:30 after an AWESOME cherry coffee cake and coffee for breakfast. It was SO good hanging out with them and we hope to see them again soon. We got on the road headed for Yellowstone National Park. We stopped by University of Montana in Missoula (Gil!) but didn't really do anything.

We arrived to West Yellowstone around 2:00pm and did the northern loop.....we stopped at several hot springs, overlooks and saw some cool wildlife,
including our first BEAR of the trip!

David spotted it as we were driving past and we turned around to get a picture of it. I never realized how large Yellowstone was and how many people would be visiting it.
I thought it was awesome in so many ways and so love the opportunity to visit it. I did realize, however, that you develop a special relationship with a place that you actually walk through, instead of drive around, stopping every once in a while for a cool picture. So, it doesn't quite top Glacier, but is very cool in itself. After we finished the northern route, we headed east for Cody, Wyoming to catch a rodeo. Cody is the Rodeo Capital of the World and the nightly rodeo we watched has been going on for over 70 years. One guy rode his bull for 8 seconds, so that was cool because he was the only one to get a score. Some of the bulls were stubborn and it was entertaining to watch the clowns and the ropers get the bulls out of the arena.
Fun day and we'll be doing the southern loop of Yellowstone, Grand Tetons and heading into Jackson, WY tomorrow night. We'll catch up then!

Saturday, July 19 - Kalispell and Whitefish, MT

Today is Saturday, July 19 and this morning we all woke up and drove up to Whitefish for breakfast at Buffalo Cafe. Afterwards, we walked around downtown Whitefish for a couple of hours and shopped.

We finished off the morning with a Highlander beer from The Great Northern Brewery Company. This beer was a popular Scottish beer brewed for the local Scottish miners. It lost its popularity (probably because it tastes like tree bark) and hasn't been poured since 1968. Today, The Great Northern Brewing Company poured it for the first time since 1968. We also got the pub glasses as souveniers.....Thanks Dogg!

We trucked it on back to Kalispell so the Wisconsin boys could pack up and get ready for their flight. Andy & BJ took them to the airport and they were heading to the gym. David and I decided to go for a 30 minute helicopter ride over-looking Glacier National Park. We rode with another girl named Rebecca, a mom and her 2 year old and our pilot, Jeremy. Jeremy was awesome and pointed out all the mountains, peaks, lookouts, river, lakes, etc.

We saw things that we weren't even close to hiking over so it was cool. The sight from above is so different from the hike we did. We saw snow on a glacier that broke loose (mini avalanche) this morning and it looked rather cool.

The 30 minute ride went by very quickly and if we would have done the hour-long ride, we could have seen the Canadian border. Oh well! After that, we came on back to the house, hung out for a while and David and I went to Moose's Saloon for pizza and a little bit of culture. Pizza and atmosphere was awesome.

Upon returning to the house, we just hung out, blogged (shock) and got everything packed up. Tomorrow we are heading south to Yellowstone, Grand Tetons and Jackson, Wyoming. We'll keep you posted......hopefully Casey, Randy, Dogg & Shawn made it back to Wisconsin safely tonight! Ciao-

PS- So we heard today that there was a tropical storm off our coast and although its not all that strong, if someone nearby (janice or edyie!!) could swing in and check on our house & condo to make sure all is well, that would be awesome! If we have any mail or packages just take them with you or to the gym and we'll get them when we get back! Thanks bunches!!

Backcountry Diaries.....Hang on tight....it was a wild ride

Sunday, July 13 - Day 1 Hiking: The Loop Trailhead to Many Glacier (11.6 miles; 2,888 feet up in elevation; 2,255 feet down; Swiftcurrent Lookout = additional 1,200 feet)

The crew was geared up and ready by 5:45am Sunday morning.

We loaded Deuce (Andrea) & BJ's cars and Kerri & Evan (neighbors) were gracious enough to ride with us to Glacier so they could bring the cars back. On the way up we stopped at Belton Chalet for breakfast and it was so good and so cute!

Everyone grubbed, used a real toilet and we continuted up The Going to the Sun Road to The Loop. The hike started out fine....everyone was trucking along nicely for at least a couple of miles. Eventually the altitude got the best of me and David and we laid back and did our own pace. We met the rest of the group at the Granite Park Chalet and Andy waited there with us so we could rehydrate. Because we were slower, we ended up hiking with a few other people, two of which were watching a grizzly while overlooking Heaven's Peak. After hiking Swiftcurrent Pass, we finally got a downhill 4-5 mile jaunt. Everyone but me and David did a side hike on Swiftcurrent Pass up to Swiftcurrent Lookout. David and I stayed back to watch the packs since we couldn't leave them unattended and had a nice lunch of spam and crackers, fig newtons and power bars while chasing marmots away. When the others returned with my camera, we saw the amazing views they saw from the top. And they were Amazing.

On our downhill run, Randy & I got really close to a mountain goat and we all got close to a big-horn sheep. Two people in front of us came running BACK to us with their bear spray drawn and said the the big-horn seemed aggressive. I guess a pack of 10 people scared him away, because he ran up the mountain, although he looked injured.

The scenery this first day was amazing and as hard as the day was for us (dehydrated and NOT acclimated to the altitude), it was so worth the view. Waterfalls, cliffs, wildlife......amazing.

Once we finally reached our campsite at 8:00pm we set up camp, ate dinner and lights out. We have a repeat hike tomorrow to new and equally amazing places. Although my blisters on my heels are the size of quarters and David's knees might need to be replaced, we are going to try.

Andy & BJ have been MOST helpful and encouraging and I can't thank them enough for pushing us to do it. They are awesome!!

Monday, July 14 - Day 2 Hiking: Many Glacier to Elizabeth Lake Head (11.7 miles; 2480 feet up in elevation; 2518 feet down)

Today is Monday, July 14, 2008 and it is bright as can be at 9:00pm in GNP, Montana. Today we woke up around 6:30am and got everything together, ate breakfast and started hiking at 8:00am. We left Many Glacier and originally took the wrong path....great! After turning around, we started a pretty hefty ascent to Ptarmigan Falls. David's knees, which began hurting on yesterday's descent, fired up badly on this run. I stayed back to hike with David and we met the rest of the gang at The Falls. It was so beautiful. The remainder of the day followed suit....since David wasn't able to use both legs at full capacity, we did the next three legs at our own pace.....meeting up with the rest of the guys at a designated spot. Our next stop was Ptarmigan Lake. There, we rested, ate lunch, made water and most importantly, re-bandaged my blisters.

The next hike was up a path to the Ptarmigan Tunnel. It wasn't as bad as it looked from the lake, and the view got increasingly more amazing. David trudged along, even though his knees were aching terribly.

When we made it through the tunnel,

the view on the other side was equally amazing. All the rocks on this side were red.

So we started our descent and it was so awesome. David's knees really started hurting on this run because of the intensity with which we were descending. After a good break, we started back but we slowed up tremendously. We eventually made it to the foot of Elizabeth Lake where Andrea & BJ were waiting on us. The rest of the guys went on to the camp site and set up shop. We had 1.6 or so miles to go to get from the foot of Elizabeth Lake to the head of Elizabeth, where our campsite was. It was SO nice to get my boots off and my blisters were NOT happy with me. David's knees were pretty much shot at this point as well. On our way to the head of the lake, we saw a forest ranger (Tracy) on her horse (Bandit) and stopped to ask her what our options were with David's knee. We decided that we would take her up on her suggestion and hike to the ranger station in the morning, camp at Gable Creek and hike to the Chief Mountain Trailhead where customs was. From there, we will get a shuttle into Waterton, Canada and be there one day early. David's knees would probably be able to handle tomorrow's hike to Glenn's Lake but Wednesday's hike to Stoney Indian Pass is way steeper and longer than any hike we'd done to this point. With the potential intensity of that particular hike, we think its safer to head into Canada early after 2 easier days of hiking. So, tomorrow will present its own challenges for us but we'll get through it no problem. Again, Andy, BJ & the rest of the gang were amazing.

I couldn't leave this picture out because this is Helen's Lake....a beautiful part of GNP and this was our view as we were coming down off of Ptarmigan Tunnel. There isn't a bad view of anything in this park.

Tuesday, July 15 - Day 3 Hiking: Elizabeth Lake Head to Gable Creek (Becca & David)

Today is Tuesday, July 15 and today was a relatively good day. We woke up to a family of deer and BJ's amazingly consistent and wonderful farts. I couldn't help but laugh EVERY time I sensed his functions and was so happy that Andy was in the tent with him and not me. BJ fixed us all a warm breakfast of eggs and bacon and although it was soupy, it was tasty. David and I had already decided that we would split from the group and head to Gable Creek Campground instead of Glenn Lake Campground. So, Andy, BJ, David and I hiked 5.something miles to the Belly River Ranger Station. On the way, we passed Dawn Mist Falls, which you can only see if you are in the backcountry so setting our eyes on that falls, was particularly cool.

The scenery around the station was so awesome. Surrounded by mountains, but wildflowers and fields in the valley. Andy & BJ left after we switched some food since we'll be in Canada a day early and they headed to Glenn Lake to meet up with the guys. David and I set up camp, ate lunch and took a good long nap through a light rain shower. We got up around 6:30pm to eat dinner and walk around the area

We spoke to some fellow campers, who, as usual, were all very nice. Kevin and his dad are here from Virginia and packed way to heavy for their backcountry adventure. They met up with Stephanie and John at Cosley Lake Monday night at 9:30pm and shared a campsite since they couldn't make it to their designated campsite. So we sat with them while they ate dinner. Steph and John are from Denver and very cool. John will be doing a scuba diving trip to freakin' Antartica in February. We also met a couple from Ohio who is house-sitting in St. Marys and came out for a couple of days. There's also three friends from Cornell who came from Washington DC, Chicago, and Washington State for summer vacation. A little while later, two guys strolled in with enough wood to build a house and started a fire for us. They are camping here tonight and work for the governement. They are in the park doing some very intensive and thorough stream research. Very interesting and one of the guys looks JUST LIKE Steve Weigel but as a mountain man instead of a beach bum. THEN, about 6 people came into the camp and they were with 2 leaders (Amanda and Slice) who were heading up an SCA (Student Conservation Association) volunteer group for a month. The kids were between 15-18 years old. Two have graduated high school and one girl, Madison is an amazing fiddle player. She played a few strings and we settled into a comical game of Mafia. I was killed off in the 2nd round, asked if I was Kevin's mom (Kevin is 15) and everyone thought David (aka Red Shirt) was the killer. Funny game! But, bed time was calling and here were are!

Tuesday, July 15 - Day 3 (The other 6): Elizabeth Lake Head to Glenns Lake Foot (7.3 miles; 260 feet up in elevation; 290 feet down)

Today the rest of the guys left Elizabeth Lake Head and went to Glenns Lake Foot. For the most part, it was a level hike with a substantial water crossing over the Mokowanis River. Apparently the water was FREEZING and came up to about their thighs. Just prior to that, Dogg had a slight misstep in a creek right before Dawn Mist Falls and got pretty wet as well. This particular campsite was right on Glenns Lake and was awesome. They laid around on the beach, had great conversation and chilled on the coldest night they'd had so far. This was also the day these guys had the great pleasure of meeting Robert....a jewish New Yorker who sounds just like Woody Allen. When asked what his occupation was that allowed him to travel and backpack as much as he did, he said he just waited on his loved ones to die, he did NOT invest in the stock market, and he was preparing for World War III. He also mentioned how awesome it was to have a girl hike with you (referring to Deuce) and said it reminded him of the song, "Jesse's Girl." YIKES. Did I mention the fact that he was wearing cut off jean shorts to hike in. Wow.

Wednesday, July 16 - Day 4 Hiking: Gable Creek to Chief Mountain (David & Becca)

Today is Wednesday, July 16 and what a day it was for all of us. Since David and I had a somewhat restful day yesterday, we thought today would be pretty easy. And for the most part, it was. We woke up a little bit late because it was raining and the fly cover made it darker in the tent. So we dealt with the rain and packed up for the hike. Once we started the hike, the terrain was awesome. Soft, rolling hills of wildflowers with mountains framing it on every side.

We had a couple big hills in the first four miles as well as some breathtaking views. We'd been warned about the last two miles of uphill switchbacks and by the time we realized where we were, we only had 1.6 miles to go. We ran into four people from Tennessee who were heading down and they had a GPS so for the first time on this day's hike, we were able to guage our pace. We'd been rolling at roughly 2 miles per hour, which was good for David.

The ascent slowed us down a little bit, but not much. We reached Chief Mountain Trailhead at 11:00am....3.5 hours after we left and 6 miles easily over.

The only bad thing was we had to wait over 2.5 hours before the shuttle to Waterton was scheduled to come. After a nap, lunch, playing with an 8-week old Newfoundled puppy named Walter, talking to some fellow Gable Creek campmates and using the pit toilet numerous times (toilet paper was a high commodity at this point), we WATCHED our shuttle FLY by the trailhead.

They didnt' stop to check if anyone was waiting for them and they made it through customs before we could decide what to do. Around 2:00pm, we decided to walk down to US Customs and ask them what we should do. They were useless and we kept walking into Canada. SO, we hiked into Canada! That was the one thing we were going to miss by splitting from the others but we actually did it!

Customs let us through and as confused as they were, they made plenty of phone calls to help us find a ride into Waterton. Basically the shuttle service said we needed a reservation in order for them to stop. It might be a good idea to inform the rangers (who were our only source of information in the backcountry) of this small detail. So, at this point, our options were to 1. hitchhike 2. wait on a Waterton shuttle that MIGHT come at 4:30 or 5:00pm (yeah right) or 3. Go back to Many Glacier (which was our FIRST stop on this adventure). Needless to say, we parked ourselves just outside of the Canadian Customs House and waited. We don't know what we were waiting on......someone nice enough to ask where those two homeless-looking people were going or perhaps a shuttle that I really didn't think wasn't coming. We stayed there about an hour or a little more. David went inside to use the phone a few times and somewhere over that hour, the boss man (Don) said he'd take us. He was originally from Sasketchewan but lived in Alberta now. He worked seasonaly at this border crossing because it was only open during the summer months. We threw our gear in the back and piled 3 deep in the front seat of his truck. He drove us all the way to the front door of our hotel (25 min) and told us bits and pieces of what we were looking at. We paid him, grabbed our stuff and checked into our hotel. While walking up to our room, I realized David was missing something major: BJ's trekking poles. We had left them in Don's truck. SO, we decided we couldn't do anything about it at the moment so we went to get some basic toiletries that we'd been doing without over the week. After our first shower in 4 days (and it was as wonderful as you can imagine), we went to the laundromat to wash our nasty clothes. During that time, we walked around Waterton (which was way cute), shopped and looked at menus for something other than spam (although I developed quite a love for that stuff).

We ate dinner at Tuscana and it was amazing. Around 9:00pm, we decided we'd had enough and went to bed. I need to mention how awesome the Canadian border control is because before we left for dinner, David called them to make sure he hadn't left his poles there. The guys didn't see them but said they'd call if they got up with Don. Believe it or not, they did call back to let us know they hadn't located the poles but they would get up with us if Don called them back. How awesome are these guys? So, we might have to drop by Customs on the way out of Canada to get BJ's poles. Kudos to the CA Border Patrol. Hopefully the rest of the gang had a good hike today. We look forward to sharing tons of stories over a couple of beers.

Wednesday, July 16 - Day 4 Hiking (The other 6): Glenns Lake Foot to Kootenai Lake via Stoney Indian Pass (14 miles; 2,448 feet up in elevation; 2975 feet down)

Today, the Wisconsin boys, Andy & BJ hiked from Glenns Lake to Kootenai Lake via Stoney Indian Pass. This was to be the longest day of hiking with 14 miles and possibly the steepest inclines and descent. For the most part, everyone felt great starting out.....hiking up Stoney Indian Pass was awesome because it was the last pass, the sights were amazing and basically, it was the highlight of their hiking. It rained for the first hour then cleared up. They had a nice break and opportunity to make water at Atsina Lake which had a view of both Glenns Lake and Cosley Lake. This hike also encountered 3 un-bridged water crossings. Once at the top, they stayed there for about an hour and a half....ate lunch, dried their tents from the nights' rain and relaxed, enjoying the spectacular views. They decided to leave about the time that Robert showed up at the top. On the way down, there was a substantial snow field with Stoney Indian Lake on one side of it......one wrong step and you could be in 10 feet of water with a full pack on......not a good thing. But they all made it down to Kootenai Lake campground safely. Once at camp, Casey shot an awesome video of a family of moose that basically hung out a good while. They were walking through the lake, dipping their heads, drinking water, whatever moose do in a lake.....but the video and the proximity that Casey was to them was awesome. This was also the night that had lots of mosquitos, Rambo Jim was born, and the family of deer hanging out at the tents. Pictures of Rambo Jim and the views from Stoney Indian Pass are to come.

Thursday, July 17 - Day 5 in Waterton for David & Becca:

Today is Thursday, July 17 and David & I got to spend the whole day in Waterton. BY THE FREAKIN' WAY.....DON BROUGHT BACK THE TREKKING POLES! He's so awesome. And so I digress..... We woke up around 8:30am and slowly got ready....very excited to wake up in a real bed, have a real toilet and sink and most importantly, shower. We went to Pearl's for breakfast (bagel & coffee) and were treated to the most polite 14 year old boys we've ever met.

After Pearl's, we walked up to Tamarak Outdoor Store and shopped for a while. I got a Prana shirt with "Home Grown" on the front in honor of dear old McKenzies Mill. David got a hat and a shirt. After that we checked out of our first hotel (Waterton Lakes Lodge) and took our packs to the new hotel. We walked down to the lake front (Waterton Lake),

around town and to Cameron Falls.

We went to Zum's for lunch and had the most awesome Hippie wrap and Buffalo Chicken Ceasar wrap. As we went back to the Crandel Mountain Lodge to check in to our rooms, the 0ther 6 had made it to Waterton and were chillin on the deck. It was such a great sight to see them after a couple days of absolutely no contact and no clue as to what could have happened. After we checked in and all the others got much needed showers, we went back to Zum's for dinner.

The Big Scoop for dessert (ice cream if you couldn't figure it out) and I have to say that Andy might be the SLOWEST eater alive when it comes to real food, but ice cream hasn't got a chance with her. After eating and a long day of hiking for the other 6, Casey decided to shut it down and head back to the room. The rest of us walked up to the famous Prince of Wales Hotel - which was amazing. My camera had died at this point, so I only have pictures of Prince of Wales from town.
Dogg has the group shot from up there. After that, we trekked back down the hill to town and ventured into the one bar in town: The Thirsty Bear Saloon. We drank a few beers, played pool and just had fun hanging out with each other without having to think about smellables to put on the bear pole, making water, hiking a ba-jillion more miles, etc. Around 10pm, the karaoke started and it got REALLY lame......very "WEAK SAUCE"as Dogg put it. Sooooo, we left and went to bed.

Thursday, July 17 - Day 5 (The other 6) - Kootenai to Waterton (approx. 10 miles...no clue on the stupid elevation in Canada)

I want to back track here and tell about the other 6's hike into Canada because it was TOTALLY different than ours. Although I ended our day with all of us eating dinner, its important to feel what they were feeling leading up to us seeing them on the porch and eating dinner at Zum's. SO, this day was supposed to be a relatively flat, 10-miler. Although the hike through the remainder of the park in the US was somewhat flat (rollers, I guess), they trudged along with nothing really spectacular to look at. It was thick with no view. At the boundary line separating the US from Canada, there was a marker, but no border control. There was simply a sign that said they needed to call Canadian Customs upon arriving in Waterton to let them know they were in the country. Crazy! So the highlights of crossing into Canada include eating lunch, Andrea & BJ kissing while standing in two different countries and BJ taking care of business (you have to understand that we all did this over the course of the week because you have no choice but to go in the woods). But he got to do it on the boundary line. Quite cool. SO, after all of this excitement, they enter Canada and are super-ready for Waterton. Unfortunately, the Canadians, when picking the route with which to send hikers, they figured they would smack them around a little bit and give them some brutal hills to tackle. The last mile was straight up and miserable. Apparently, several of them lost all of their will when, after crossing a couple big hills (or mountains), they could still see that last incline that did not have any swithbacks. So, they made it to Waterton and that is where the rest of the story meets with theirs on the porch of the Crandel Mountain Lodge.

Friday, July 18 - Day 6 - Waterton to Kalispell:

Crandel Mountain Lodge was quite possibly the most hospitable place I've ever stayed. We woke up and (suprise suprise) went to Zum's for breakfast!

So David and I ate at Zum's for 3 of our 4 meals in Waterton. After a super good breakfast, we piddled around and ended up back at Crandel to check out. We had an hour and a half between checkout and when our van was picking us up so we sat on the porch and reminisced. The girls who worked there baked us batches of oatmeal chocolate chip cookies and even ran to the post office to pick up Andy & BJ's package that was supposed to be delivered on Thursday. Again, so nice and willing to do whatever we needed to make us happy! Around 12:15pm, Jim and four New Zealand ladies rolled up in our mini-bus and we started back to Kalispell. BJ introduced himself to the ladies by letting out a massive and very smelly bodily function. They gave him plenty of shit for it and told the driver to "leave the smelly bastard" while laughing (or was that gagging?) It was awesome. Once we got home, Andy & I went to the store to get burgers and fixins' while the fellas stayed back and relaxed over beer and polish horseshoes. Dogg fixed amazing hamburgers and Shawn fixed amazing potatoes on the grill and rest of us enjoyed it immensely. We had an awesome time sitting out on the deck, eating, talking, laughing having pull up contests and just hanging out for our last night all together.

We went back inside to watch Casey's video of the trip, which I hope to get on here somehow and flipping through my 400+ pictures on the TV. We shut it down a little after midnight, EXCEPT for BJ who decided to get up a go for a run about 1:00am. Crazy!

The many faces of Friday night...kind of glad to be back in civilization:

DOGG

Randy


BJ

Shawn

Casey & some geek on the computer

Deuce & David

Into the Wilderness.....

Okay folks, this will be the last you hear from the crew for about a week. We aren't taking cell phones or any other means of communicating so look forward to some great stories upon our return on Friday. Today we got lots of errands and other crap done (quality time with Seamus) before picking up the 4 other guys from the airport and eating insane amounts of pizza from Mckenzie River Pizza Company. The other 4 guys are Casey (aka....Arsenal), Adam (aka....Dog), Randy (aka...Vers) and Shawn (aka...???we'll have SOMETHING by end of the week). Everyone is finishing up their packing before we all shut down for a few hours before starting this adventure. We are all so excited (Casey is quite possibly the MOST excited and I will love his enthusiasm while carrying packs up the mountain). I'm a little nervous b/c I'm sure my legs will be jello after the first day. Anyways, ciao for now and keep us in your thoughts! I will surely be in touch with those of you who I need to be in touch with by the end of the week. I'm not taking my cell phone so it will most likely be Friday night before I can call. Until then......Happy Trails!

In front of the Missouri River in MT

Approaching Glacier.....YAY!!

Sunset at 10:00pm over top of Glacier......so beautiful!

In front of Painted Canyon in North Dakota

Welcome to Montana.....hallelujah!

Handstands in front of the Missouri River

Day 3 - Bismark, ND - Kalispell, MT

We made it!  After driving all day, we made it to Andrea and BJ's house last night about 11:30pm Mountain Time.  It was a beautiful drive and one I won't soon forget.  Leaving North Dakota was pretty much all the same we had seen the day before.  I think we wanted so badly to see mountains that we made up a new word....Cloutains.....its the mountains you make in your head with the clouds on the horizon.  I wish we would have taken a picture to leave on this post but for some reason i thought we would be made fun of, so we didn't take the picture.  We came up on the Theodore Roosevelt National Park and stopped for some good scenic pictures at Painted Canyon.  It was a NICE break from the rolling plains of North Dakota.  We made good time getting into Montana and once we got off the Interstate we felt like we went back in time as we drove about 80mph on a 2-lane  highway.  Highway 2, which we spent most of Montana on, runs up in the northern part of the state and is referred to as the High Line.  I asked BJ this morning why it was named that and he said that it was the Northern-most Intercontinental Railroad....pretty  cool and still very functional today.  We happened upon plenty of small towns....they all had a bar, a casino and sometimes a gas station. The wind was whipping so bad on most of this drive that the wheat fields (or grass, or whatever it was) looked like waves rolling on the ocean.  It was crazy.  We stopped at a little fishing access at the Missouri River and stretched our legs and took pictures.  We looked at the map and decided that we would try and stop in Shelby, MT for supper and maybe a hotel room.  Once we rolled into Shelby we soon realized we would NOT be staying here.  Nothing wrong with the town except that most of the restaurants shut down by 7:00pm.  We went into a hole-in-the-wall bar and asked about food and he sent us across the street to the Sports Club.  NOT what I had in mind at first but after walking in, we realized that this was the place to go on Friday nights in Shelby.  We both had a good steak and left with our belly's full.  We didn't feel like staying in the big town of Shelby so we just kept rolling.  About an hour later, we could see Glacier out in the distance and this time, they weren't Cloutains....it was the real deal.  I got up with Andy and they said we should just save the money and head on in to Kalispell.  So WE DID!  We were exhausted and so ready for bed.  Today (Saturday), David and I slept in while Andy & BJ went to the backcountry office to get our permit and our itinerary is going to remain the same.  BJ cooked breakfast for all of us and it was delicious!  Blueberry pancakes, eggs and sausage.  I think David and I need to head to an outdoor store to get some last minute items while Andy & BJ go for a bike ride.  I'll post one more time tonight b/c it will be my last post until next weekend.  So, I'll post some pictures that match up to this novel and hope you guys enjoy!  

Day 2 - Indianoplis, IN to Bismark, ND

Yeah, long day on the road but we logged some good miles and made it to Bismark, ND!! YAY! We started in Indiana with me driving around 8am Eastern Time and slowly made our way through the road construction in Chicago and on through Illinois into Wisconsin. Getting through Wisconsin was relatively easy with the exception of a BRUTAL storm just south of Eau Claire. 70 mph winds and hail the size of eggs was forecasted for areas near us and thank goodness we didn't drive through the worst of it. It was nasty by our standards and again, it slowed us down. Next came Minneapolis/St. Paul around 5:00pm which, as you can imagine, was another traffic nightmare. I came to appreciate not living in a big city and having to deal with bumper to bumper traffic. Once we got through there, it was good hard driving for another 6.5 or so hours. I made my way to the back of the car and napped a couple times after pulling the first shift of driving. I woke up in time to see us leaving Minnesota and entering North Dakota.....speed limit was 75 and we were running about 85 and it was nice. I don't think we hit the brakes 3 times over 5 hours. We stopped at a little exit in Valley City, ND for dinner (okay, it was Burger King, but we were starving) and we got called out on being from the South. Like an idiot I told them I wanted sweet tea.....forgetting where we were. Finally back on the road and 1.5 hours later we checked into our hotel in Bismark, ND. Tomorrow we will continue heading west for Montana. I have this great book that I received in the mail from someone (no clue why I received this book,but I love it. It has all backcountry roads and byways to take). anyways, there is a great excursion we can try tomorrow since we might have time. I'll post a few pictures from today but again, nothing major to report. Just lots of driving, reading, listening to music and talking. The first picture is a rainbow that we saw in ND....there was 2 but not sure if you can see the 2nd one in this picture.The second picture is of us after our first stop in Chicago (a very important stop considering how badly I needed a restroom!) The final picture is my favorite sunset picture from the drive today. It was in North Dakota and I swear i took that picture around 10:00pm. It took FOREVER for the sun to set and I loved every second of it. There were so many other pictures that I would love to post but I'm not very good at this thing yet. If anyone has any tips on posting pics, let me know. For now, its time for bed.....

Day 1 - Little River to Indianapolis, IN

The first day was relatively uneventful....and for that, i'm thankful. We left around 8am on Wednesday, July 9 and ended up driving through Whiteville & Southern Pines (both of our hometowns) and resisted any urges to stop and see family and dogs. When we got up towards Mt. Airy, I felt like we were really getting somewhere although it had only been about 4 hours. We got caught in a terrible storm in Charleston, WV and slowed to a crawl but got out of that towards Huntington, WV (Talley!!) I've decided that Virginia and Kentucky are incredibly beatiful states and I would love to explore them more. It was painful for David to drive past the "Bourbon Trail" in Kentucky and not be allowed to stop......So, here we are in Indy, checking out of the hotel and getting back on the road for more fun.

Heading Out....

Tomorrow morning, David and I will start our adventure to Montana. For those that don't know, we will be DRIVING to Kalispell, MT to meet up with a life-long friend of mine (Andrea & her hubby, BJ) and 4 of BJ's friends from Wisconsin. We are planning on getting to Kalispell by Saturday and unfortunately won't have time to do a bunch of fun stuff on the way out. Once we get to MT, we will prepare for a 5 day backpacking trip through Glacier National Park, ending in Waterton, Canada. We are so excited and can't believe this trip is upon us. Once we get back from the backpacking trip, David and I will be driving back to the East Coast but taking some time to see that side of the country. I'm sure there will be a ba-jillion stories and even more pictures to go along with this trip so I figured I would jump on the band-wagon of blogging to keep you all informed and hopefully amused. Check back periodically for updates from the road.....until then.....Happy Trails.