Mudathlon

A few months ago my sister told me about a Mudathlon that was coming to Indy. It was a 3.5 mile race with 20 obstacles, several involving mud. It sounded like fun, so I decided to sign up with her. It was awesome! We got so dirty and had so much fun! Here we are before the start of the race - still clean.

Here we are at the start line - still clean

Here's the start of the race with the first obstacle, the smoke screen, we were able to handle this one - still clean

We had been through a few obstacles at this point, including a giant mud puddle that everyone was tiptoeing around. I told Beth "forget it, let's run through it!" We did, and I totally bit it in the mud. If you look closely, I'm pretty dirty from the knees down.

I was called a cheater on this obstacle. It's not my fault that Beth decided to run over the tallest part of the hill and I (being the smart one that I am) decided to run around it :)

Our wonderful spectators

This is the last point in time we were anywhere near what I would call clean. This is because coming up was....

THE 100 YARD MUD PIT

There were several other obstacles that Ryan wasn't able to get to - they included wading through a stream, hurdling fallen logs, climbing up muddy cliffs, climbing hay bails, climbing walls, sliding down a mud slide, and many others. Here we are at the last stretch of mud before the finish line.

Crossing the finish line

The proud finishers

I don't know why the girls wouldn't hug me!

Beth's face definitely got dirtier than mine. Maybe that's because I was splashing her during the 100 yd mud pit ;)

At least they were nice enough to hose us off afterwards. Let's just say I had mud in places that mud had no business being.

Smoky Mountains

For our ten year anniversary, Ryan surprised me with a trip to Gatlinburg. We had three days with no kids and a chance to be adventurous. I don't think I've ever been so sore and exhausted in my life from all the hiking we did! We had a great time, and it was a wonderful surprise.

Here are some pictures of our cabin. It was three floors and very secluded. We definitely enjoyed having a hot tub to soak in after our long days of hiking. Also, you can see the view we had from the balcony attached to our bedroom.

Our first hike was to Laurel Falls. It was a paved trail that was 2.6 miles round trip. I had the brilliant idea of "let's run it - it's not too far!" We didn't get 5 minutes into it before I was walking. I didn't realize it was going to be uphill the entire way there. At least I was able to run all the way back since it was down hill :)

Oh yeah, this is where we saw our first bear. As you can see people weren't too afraid of it, and Ryan was way too close filming it. I was just glad there was a bear crossing the path because it gave me a chance to stop running and catch my breath!

Our next adventure on Day 1 was Abrams Falls. This was part of Cades Cove which was the slowest, longest drive of our lives. Part of the reason is because there were more bears on the side of the road, so people stopped their cars and blocked traffic. The trail was 5 miles round trip and we were absolutely exhausted after finishing. There were lots of hills - you'd think we were hiking in the mountains or something :)

On Day 2, we started off by hiking the Chimney Tops trail. I can honestly say that I have never been as scared in my life as I was at the top of this trail. It was 2 miles straight up, and at the end you had to crawl out on a rock wall to get to the top. If you made one mistake and fell, you'd fall off the side of the mountain to certain death. Ryan made it all the way up and I stopped halfway. After a long while I convinced myself to climb up the rest of the way. I wish I could say I enjoyed it - but I pretty much cried the whole way up convinced I was about to die. I couldn't even enjoy the view once I was a the top because I was so scared about how I was going to make it back down. Oh well, at least I never have to do that again. Ryan enjoyed it though!

Here's video of me trying to climb up the wall of rock:

And here's some incredible footage Ryan took from the top (while I was stuck in fear down below)

We spent the rest of day 2 wandering around Gatlinburg shopping, going on a sky lift, enjoying our anniversary dinner, and playing Hillbilly Golf.

Overall it was such a wonderful trip and I am so thankful to be married to such an extraordinary husband. Thanks to him for a wonderful ten years - I can't wait to find out what adventures the next ten have in store for us!

Girls' Recital Costumes

The girls had their recital pictures taken last weekend. Alyssa will be dancing ballet and Lainey will be tap dancing. Very cute!