Portland to Coast 2011

I have been spending any time I can training for the Portland to Coast Relay. The big race was this past weekend. I was on a 12 women team, the same great group of women that I walked with last year. For those of you who do not know what Portland to Coast is, it is a 130 mile relay race that starts in Downtown Portland and goes to Seaside (the Oregon Coast). There are 400 teams of 12 people each that participate.

Our team name this year was Sipping @ Seaside. I was in van #1 and our team start time was at 3:45 AM....yes, very early! We finished the race in 29 hours and 4 minutes. We placed 79th out of the 400 teams! We were very happy with this. It is a fun, exhausting, and a physically and mentally challenging race. Yet you get addicted and want to do again and again! My legs of the race were 7.1 miles and 4.6 miles long. The only pain I came away with this year was a blood blister on my toe...that is going to cause me to loose my nail, a terrible sunburned face (I look like a raccoon because I was wearing my sun glasses), and blisters on my lips (most likely I got these from the sun and the stress). I was pleasantly surprised that my legs were not too sore this year (last year, after the race, I felt pain with every step I took).

We are already planning on trying to get in next year!

Here is our entire team at Seaside!

Here is Van #1...the van I was in. We had so many laughs along the way!

Camping at the Cove

A couple of weekends ago we went camping at the Cove with our friends. We were pretty excited to try out camping for longer then 1 night (which is all we have done in the past). We stayed 3 nights in our tent. It was a lot of fun and went really well! Days were filled with water play, a 20+ person 2 level party barge, and Jr. Ranger activities for the kids. Evenings were filled with campfires,yummy dinners, laughs, glow sticks, and smores. It is definitely something we will plan on doing again! It was a lot of fun.
Madison found a frog.

This was what we did for 8 hours one day and 4 the next.... relax, float, and play in the middle of the reservoir. Here is part of our group hooked to the party barge. Touching a snake and learning about different reptiles in the area.Floating around...it was a VERY HOT day. Upper 90s and it did not go under 80 degrees that evening. Sleeping was a little bit tough that night. Maddie and I floating.On the Party Barge ready to go in the water.The Beautiful view from our tent!Our home for 3 nights.Peyton helping Pat drive the boat. The kids, well 4 out of the 11, went to a class about the history of bandannas. It was actually very interesting. They were able to decorate their own bandanna with pictograph symbols to tell a story. They really took their time and made some neat stories and pictures.

Eggs!

We were able to spend the day at my friend and teaching partners house, Tiffany. She lives on property out in Redland and has some animals... chickens and a horse. I forgot the camera when went out there so I took a couple of pictures when we got home. Madison was able to ride a horse for the first time. Tiffany's son has a horse that he uses for 4-H and he led Madison around the fields riding the horse. She was thrilled to say the least. I just wish I would have remembered the camera. Here are the eggs they collected from the chickens.
Peyton's favorite egg.

A Day At The Zoo

I feel like I post about the Zoo quite a bit....but it is a place where we enjoy going and hanging out. We have a membership so it is easy to just go when we feel like it. We enjoyed the sunny day, had lunch in the resturaunt, saw the birds of prey show, and of course looked at all of the animals. We even saw my brother Chris who is a leader of a zoo camp group this summer.

Spray Park

We love to go to spray parks. The girls enjoy cooling off in the different water features. This park, Hammerle, is in West Linn and there is a lot of shade. There is also a great playground.

Peyton We brought a ball with us and Madison figured out how to get the ball to balance on the top of one of the sprinklers. She was able to get the ball centered enough to have it stay on top of the water for a long period of time. At one point she had quite a little audience watching her trick.

A Day At The Boat House

We went to my parents house for a day on the Columbia River. We had a great BBQ lunch, fed the ducks, tried fishing, and went out on the boat. It was a beautiful sunny day!

Maddie and Papa Madison and Bryan fishing....no luck today.

Ducklings and their Mama. My Mom told me these little guys were born in a planter/pot on a neighbors deck. The mama duck sat on those eggs the entire time, right on the planter, until they hatched.

Grandma, Maddie and Peyton

Levi, Josh, and Peyton went on the "tube" on the back of the boat. I can't believe how brave Peyton was. She surprised us all.

Porter joined us on the boat and did really well... he was a little hot being black. We just dipped a towel in the river and wet him down.

Madison didn't go in the water this time. She helped to drive the boat.

Blueberry Picking

We went Blueberry picking last weekend at a little place that is right down the road from our house called Bompa's Blueberry Farm. It was a wonderful place to pick. The bushes were the perfect size for the girls and they were LOADED with big beautiful berries for $1.25 a pound. We picked for about and hour and a half and ended up with about 15 pounds of berries. We will eat some now and freeze the rest to eat throughout the year. We love them just by the hand full and also in pancakes. It was a perfect day for picking!
Peyton spent quite a bit of her time picking "flowers" and this upset face is because she found a bug on one of them. She is not fond of bugs! We did hear her little scream quite a few times out in the field!