Alpha Warrior and a Windows-like iMac

We had camera failure a while back that took us offline for a while. And now I have an iMac issue which prevents me from being plugged into the borg-internet (aka my excuse for not having updated posts!). An upside for Windows machines are that they are extremely easy to swap out and replace components. An iMac.. not so much.

We've been extremely busy again with the usual - work, kiddies, deck, etc. Oh, and also training (sort of) for the Alpha Warrior. Let me just re-iterate... the Alpha Warrior!



This is the "full-on, hard core, don't-tell-my-physical-therapist obstacle course" I was mentioning in a few posts back. Both Ryan and I, joined with 3 other of our friends, have formed a team to take on the challenge of the Alpha Warrior.

It has been fun times so far. Ryan and I have analyzed the obstacles, discussed the strategies and what we think will be the difficulties, and the best part of it, is that Ryan created our own mini-obstacles to train at home. I will have to video/document our home obstacles. The kids are even getting into the spirit of it as they are doing a lot of jumping around since they see mama and baba doing that. 2.5 weeks left... BRING IT!

Ridiculous Obstacle Course .. the ROC Race

Last weekend was the ROC Race. The first of more races this year. I ran in a 4-person team with a couple of the neighborhood mamas and one papa. Good times. Ridiculous costumes. Not much of a race, but a fun run. I had a chance to test out the GoPro video camera with the chesty mount harness. Not bad.. not bad. Thanks to Ryan for staying home and taking care of the kiddies while I ROCed out, on Mother's Day weekend. =)

My only official race photo at the trampoline obstacle.



Here's a video summary that team member, Goldilocks, put together. Oh yeh.. our team costume was "Goldilocks and the Three Bears".. just in case ya can't figure it out. =P



This race was fun and a perfect start to the competitive year. I am looking forward to harder obstacle challenges, more competitive running, and overall push for higher performance.

BRING IT!

JTree 2013: Part III: A Climbin' We Go!

Emilia's first EVER real climbing experience was on this past Joshua Tree trip. Check it out!

From Ryan's perspective (GoPro attached to a head strap on Ryan):


From my perspective (Ground level point'n'shoot camera with zoom):


Ever since the Zombie Race, I knew we needed to get a better hands-free and rugged video camera.. the GoPro is quite awesome and I love that I am able to see Emilia's first climb captured up close.

Emilia gearing up:


Start of the climb:


Liam et others watching my lil' 3 year old climbing:


The kiddies were both really excited to scramble up on the rocks. Here Ryan and Emilia scramble to the top of some boulders around our campsite.


Ryan and Emilia enjoying the view together:


And then waving "hi" to mama and Liam below:

JTree 2013: Part II

Dirt. Dirt. and Mo' Dirt. Did I mention that the kids LOVE dirt & sand & rocks? JTree is even better than toys cause it's like one big sandbox with no boundaries.

Liam knows I do not like him eating dirt.. and so when he sees me looking, he specifically grabs a handful and taunts me that he'll eat it.

This rock, however, he really was gnawing on it...

Innocent looking face .. while grabbing a handful of sand...

The two kiddies are getting along. There is just so much sand & dirt, they are willing to share!

"Here you go, mama. I'll share dirt with you too!"

And yes, he was rolling in the dirt prior to taking this photo.

The key to successful sharing... provide them with dirt!

JTree 2013: Part I

We had planned to have an early start and take one day of just-us family time at JTree... our early start ended up being a late afternoon arrival. Just enough time to go for a short walk with the kiddies and then off to dinner, getting the tent and misc stuff set up, and then the night time routine. Luckily for us, the kiddies went down pretty easily. Though, they did wake up rather early and with all four of us in one tent.. when one wakes up, all of us wakes up.

The morning was just chillin' by the campsite, checking things out, while we waited for the rest of our friends to show up.

My sweet lil' Liam

Got them kiddie-sized Cars camp chairs

Ryan and Emilia checking out the surrounding area..

Liam playfully waited at the bottom until his turn to climb

Liam's turn to climb!

And Emilia's turn to bask in all the gravel.