Spartan BC

Micah has been really into obstacle racing the past few years.  He loves running, but he finds the obstacle races more mentally challenging, more interesting, and more of a total body fitness challenge.  His current favorite race series is the Spartan.  The Spartan comes in four lengths - the Sprint (3+ miles/15+ obstacles), the Super (8+ miles/20+ obstacles), the Beast (12+ miles/25+ obstacles) and the Death Race (48 hours)
The obstacles include things like carrying sandbags, traverse wall, spear throwing, crawling in mud under barbed wire, rope climbing........and many more.  The course map is not revealed ahead of time, so you don't know what the obstacles are until you get there.  If you miss an obstacle, there are penalties.  For example, if you fall off the traverse wall, you may need to do 25 burpees.  You have to train and you have to be in shape to get through these races!
This past weekend, Micah went up to Vancouver, BC to participate in a Super Spartan Race with a group of guys (including my cousin, Matt).  I've been told it was a beautiful race with mountains, trees and rivers.

Here's the best part - Micah placed 23rd out of approximately 1000 people!!  That the top 2-3%!!
I'm proud!!  :-)  :-)

He trains for these events by incorporating workouts into his everyday life.  He wears a 40lb weight vest to mow the lawn or clean the garage.  He does push-ups with the girls on his back and he runs regularly.  These are just a few examples.  When he has specific workouts he needs to do, he heads to the backyard and all of the little ducklings follow.  They love to participate using modifications.  #1 likes to create obstacle courses in the backyard so all of them can participate.  #3 loves to do burpees, lunges and crunches so much she'll do them absolutely anywhere, even the grocery store!  It's fun to watch and hopefully these seeds of physical fitness will stay with them. 

Aside from including the children, my very favorite part of the way he does his workouts is that he gives all the glory to God and makes all of it a spiritual exercise.  He prays while he works, offers up his workouts for those who are unable to use their bodies as he can and he meditates on inspirational bible passages that parallel his physical work.  It's pretty amazing to watch this man tie it all together.  

Micah's next race is a Spartan Beast in Texas in early December.  

9th Anniversary

For our 9th wedding anniversary, Micah surprised me with a trip to Studio Vino. We sampled 10 wines, then chose one to make ourselves. You make the wine and the studio takes care of it for several months. In the meantime, you get to create your own label. Then, you go back to bottle it.
The studio is also a tasting room for Arizona wineries.
It was a very cool treat and we had a lot of fun together.

Out to lunch

Sweet Daddy took the girls to Sweet Tomatoes to celebrate their first week of school.

First Day of School!!

I have two in school full-time now!  One in second grade and one in a full-time pre-k.  Both were so excited to go to school and I was excited to let them.  I told Micah that I felt like I was on vacation today.  We are looking forward to another year of amazing growth, learning and fun.

Homemade Raw Butter

I've been wanting to do this for a while, but we had to wait for what seemed like forever for our dairy to have cream available. I knew it would be easy, but I didn't realize just how easy. The girls say it's DELICIOUS!!

Living in a Fog

To say the last several months since #4 has been born have been busy would be an understatement.  Sometimes Micah and look at each other and our eyes seem to scream "We've lost all control!  Don't tell the kids!"

We've been barely keeping our heads above water with our main downfall being lack of organization.
Now that summer vacation is in full swing and we have returned from our only planned trip, we have no more excuses.  We plan to get ourselves back on track.

One of my biggest personal goals is to get all of my technology working for me to help make my life easier.  Like last summer, I plan to get the kids' calendars entered into my own e-calendar.  Getting that back up to date will help.  I have been using my Motivated Moms app sporadically, but with no where to go in the next couple of months, that will be a daily thing again.

I just installed the blogger app, which I hope will help with this since I barely have time to sit at my computer anymore.  I also found a reader app, so that I can get caught up on reading blogs I like - friends, family, personal interest and learning - I haven't read a blog post in months.

Our printer just died.  Today we got a super cool new wireless printer.  I can print from my phone or ipad, which means I can print from anywhere.  I'm sure that capability will come in handy sometime...if not a "need", definitely fun.  When technology makes this that easy, it's hard to resist using it to help you get on top of life.

And something that's been bothering me for a loooooong time.....the picture at the top of this blog is not current!  Of course, I try to change it, but my drop down menu of options is messed.  I currently have an email in to the "help" out there somewhere.  Look people, I'm trying to get it together here.  The least you could do is have my drop down menu fully functional.

Anyway, I'm very much looking forward to getting out from under myself and back up and running soon.

Nun Run 2012

A group of Poor Clares in Tonopah, AZ have been raising money to build their monastery. Three years ago, they started the Nun Run to help them with that goal. Due to scheduling conflicts we missed the first two, but were determined to make it this year.

What a fun event! A great community of people, beautiful weather and a fun course at Kiwanis Park made for a great time. We saw lots of people from school and church as well as priests and nuns from around the valley. And yes, the nuns run too....in their habits!

Micah ran the 10K while pushing #2 and #3 in a double jogging stroller. I ran the 5K while pushing #1 and #4. #1 jumped in and out of the stroller to alternate running along with me and resting while I pushed. I'm not a runner at all, so I was pleased that all my working out lately had paid off and I had a really nice run with not a lot of pain. I placed within the top 50% of my age group which is a pretty big deal for me.

We look forward to doing this event again.