Nike prenational

For cross country Samantha participated in the Nike prenationals. It is the only fund raiser Aloha High School XC does all year. It was held out at Portland Meadows. They don't actually race on the track they race on the inside field of the track. Schools from as far away as California come to this event. I volunteered in the morning to hand out the packets to the coaches. As soon as I was done Samantha's race started. She did a great job and got 59th out of 200 in her event. She ran it in 23:41. If you go to this website http://www.runnerspace.com
NikePreNationals and look at the videos she is in the main slideshow around 1:13 and then you can see her event by going to the videos and watching the "Girls Frosh/Soph - Nike Pre Nationals 2008" video. I was standing right under the video camera and didn't know it. You can't miss when Samantha finishes because you can hear me several times cheering her on. Earlier I ask the guy videoing for the time, (how embarassing) When they are running over the hills, Samantha comes right after the girl that falls and runs right in front of the camera. It was a fun event. Hope you enjoy!

Run Forrest Run!

100+ teenage girls stretch, do practice sprints and get ready on the sideline of a soccer field. Meanwhile, one lonely guy on a bike gets ready in the middle of the same field. After some brief instructions to the girls, a starter pistol fires, and all 100+ girls start chasing the guy on the bike, Samantha being one of them.

It sounds like a scene from EFY.


Samantha surprised me this year by deciding that she wanted to join the cross country team instead of being in marching band. Rachael thinks there must be some ulterior motive (read: cute guy on the cross country team). Samantha assures me that this is not the case, but won't admit that there is one single cute guy on the face of the planet.

We went to watch her run this past Friday at the Tigard invitational. I talked to Samantha a little bit before she ran and asked here what her goal for the day was. She said she wanted to to the 3-mile course in less than 26 minutes. That didn't seem too aggressive, since the last time I watched her compete she did better than that.

Cross country isn't much of a spectator sport. You have to do a little running yourself to get from one part of the course to another to catch a glimpse of the racers. During the course of a 3-mile race, you may get to witness all of about 1-minute of the action, and that only if you're willing to break a sweat.

At the start of the junior varsity race, we watched Samantha run out of sight very near the head of the pack, around number 10. At the first subsequent point where we watched her go by, she had dropped back to around number 20. I was a little concerned that she had been to aggressive in the beginning and gassed. At the next spot, she had moved up one or two spots and was still looking good. The last place I saw her was about 2/3 into the race. She was holding her own at number 17, with a pretty big pack of girls right behind her.

We moved over to the finish area, and before long, the girls in the lead started to trickle in. Then there was Samantha. She had managed to move to number 16 and had a very good kick to the end, not allowing anyone to pass her. She finished with a time of 23:10, about two minutes better than her previous best. To put that in context, the girl's varsity winner ran the course in 18:45.

Number 16 on the JV race may not sound that impressive, but I was amazed. Six weeks ago, I didn't even know she liked to run. I'm really proud of this girl. She's got a little motor in her that just doesn't quit, whether it be cross country, basketball, flute, school, etc.

As for the guy on the bike, he made it through unscathed. He'd better watch out next time, I saw some girls messing with his bike.

Samantha had a cross country meet on Friday (I like to call them track meets because it bothers her). This whole cross country thing seems a little out-of-character for Samantha, but we never thought she would latch on to basketball either. Anyway, I asked her before the meet what her goal was for the 3-mile run. She told me "26 minutes", which was slower than the last time I watched her run. When I gave her a hard time about it, she just smiled.

I've never watched a cross country meet before. It's kind of like watching a golf tournament, in that you have to move around the course. The difference is that sometimes you have to run if you want to catch a glimpse of the racers as they go by. The course at Tigard made several loops around an through a park. There were lots of trees, so most of the time you couldn't see them, then all of the sudden they would come out of the trees and go running by.

At the start, Samantha ran up to the front and was in about 10th place when we lost sight of her. Here is a photo of the start, good luck spotting Samantha in the crowd.


At the first spectator point where we could see her, she had dropped back to about 20th, but she was looking good and running strong. I was worried that she was going to gas, and kind of surprised that she was being so aggressive.

At the second point, she had moved up a little bit and was still looking good.

As she came around for the finish, she was in 16th place. She finished very strong and didn't let anyone pass her. I was amazed that she did so well. She ended up with a time of about 23:10 for 3 miles.

Purseless

For some reason the rest to my family has come to HATE my planner.
I'm not sure why. I never asked them to carry it around for me. Great fun things came from the planner... what was for dinner, money, a knife, fingernail clippers, stamps, the time their game starts....
Anyway, since Jeff started to use an iphone last year I have been quite impressed by the ease he can find places, call people, and check his e-mail. My planner started on its way to the grave last November when the magnet snap, and arm strap broke. I went into the Franklin Planner store and my same planner purse cost $150, so I decided to just fix the magnet and buy a new strap. I took my purse to some luggage company downtown and they fixed it for $20. (I even did the trip downtown in my big truck with 0 turning radius. I am amazing.) One week later it was fixed and I was happy again. I still looked around for a new purse that my planner would fit into perfectly. Nothing.... nothing.... nothing, for a year I have looked. So I was starting to think of going back to Franklin and buying the dang purse. But this whole time I kept thinking I would love an iphone. It would be awesome to have the internet where ever I went. I wouldn't have to manually update my planner anymore. I could check game schedules from my e-mail away from home. So 3 months ago my planner zipper broke and 2 weeks ago the magnet that I had fixed broke again. (I'll give it to the luggage place, it broke on the other side of the magnet this time.) It is dead....completely utterly dead. I loved this planner purse, it really did keep me on top of most things. So over the last 2 weeks I have had a debate going within me, planner or iphone. The iphone won out and now I carry in a little rubber protector with my license, debit and credit card and a set of keys on a lanyard. I'll have to say it has been hard to go out with out my planner. I feel ill prepared for what might come my way. I do have a billfold to hold all of the silly cards that I need like the library, health insurance, THPRD, Albertsons, RV Road help. I only bring that when I know I need it. I'm purseless and lovin it!

Up a Creek

Fortunately, we had a paddle. We took the crew on a 6-day 73-mile float down the Lower Salmon River in Western Idaho. We accompanied the Mechams, Riggs, and Johnsens on this trip, they are all veterans of the Lower Salmon and showed us greenhorns how it was done.

We departed for White Bird, Idaho on Sunday afternoon and arrived in the wee hours of the morning. We threw out a tarp, blew up our air mattress, and proceeded to freeze our tails off for the rest of the night. It was a little colder than I expected. Actually, I think Rachael was quite warm as she slept in her winter parka. Two coyotes came into the camp during the night and then hightailed it back out when one of the dogs from another group started barking at them.

We assembled our boat the next morning, and into the river we went for 5 1/2 days of floating, swimming, fishing, and camping on white sandy beaches. It's amazing how the events of a full week blur together and compress into a few memories.

Alec was kind enough to capture a few pieces of photographic evidence. Rachael took a bunch of pictures which I am sure will be forthcoming, but she is busy perfecting them with photoshop.

Here are a few action shots from the class IV rapid on the river, Snow Hole.




The trip was not without its exciting moments. Just a few hours before the above pictures were taken, we came across another group on the river. They were administering CPR to a woman that had been trapped under her boat for 4 minutes when it flipped after hitting a rock wall. The Riggs assisted with giving her medical attention and helped get her down the river to a large camping area. There they found a forest service employee with a radio who was helping coordinate fire fighting efforts for a forest fire in the immediate area. They arranged a jet boat to come pick her up so she could be evacuated to a hospital. We later learned that she made a full recovery. That incident cast a pall over the trip for a few hours. The kicker for Rachael was that I moved to another boat to help with some non-experienced rafters that had been left on their own when their boatsman went to help with the lady who almost drowned. I had Blake pilot our boat and follow me through a little class II rapid so we could get down to the camping area. After just witnessing a near-drowning, Rachael was a little on edge with Blake driving the boat.

We enjoyed getting into the water on the calm spots on the river, cooling off and "checking the prop". I amazed the kids with my acrobatic talents (don't they look amazed?). Seeing me launch into the air like this must be kind of like watching the Spruce Goose take flight.


We floated through a canyon that was on fire, as I noted before. The firefighters were out in force, with planes and helicopters working to put the fire out. At one of our camp sites, we watched all afternoon as a helicopter went back and forth to the river to suck up water to dump on the fire. At first it looked like he was going to draw water from right in front of our camp, but then he saw the kids out swimming in the river and moved downstream. In this picture, you can see the hose hanging underneath the helicopter that he uses for sucking up water. You can also see the smoke from the fire in the canyon.

All of the camping was on white, sandy beaches. It was very nice, but kind of hard on the feet. By the end of the trip, my feet were so dried out that they were starting to crack, and they were raw from the wet sand rubbing between my sandals and my feet. I guess that is the price to be paid for paradise. The Rigg's tent (show in this picture) blew into the river when a sudden gust of wind came up. Casey and Branden happened to be close by and jumped into the river to save it.


We had a great cliff jumping spot at our last campsite. We entertained ourselves for a couple of hours jumping off of this cliff. This was also the campsite where we caught the most fish. Alec and the kids dug a hole in the beach and lined it with a tarp. We then filled it with water and created a little holding tank for a bunch of little bass that we caught.

Sea Fair, See well, See fantastic

I haven't figured out Mahina's new blog writer yet, but will post anyway, boring font and all.

A few weeks ago Jeff, Cason, Carissa, and I went up to Seattle to visit my sister's family. They were up from Kentucky to visit Ryan's family. They are always so sweet and invite us for the fun. We got up there on Friday night and met Cassidy for the first time. What an adorable baby!!! She smiled the whole time and has got the cutest eyes. Tiffany knows the gift she was given and is willing to share. She let me hold her and put her to sleep. Just that was worth the trip. Sat morning we enjoyed a feast of a breakfast and then headed off to Sea Fair. We found a grassy spot right on Lake Washington and relaxed while we watched the Blue Angles perform and afterward some jet boats. We had some ice cream from the ice cream man and part of an orange for lunch. Dinner was at Karens, Tiffany's sister-in-law, where we had our choice of steak, fresh caught crab, chicken, and hamburgers. She also had out her candy popcorn. It is so good she actually started a business selling it. DElish!!! It was such a great time. Short and sweet. I can't wait for Tiffany and Ryan to finally settle here in the west. I sure miss them.

The Rodeo, An American Celebration

Several years ago the Johnsons and the Hills invited us to go to the St. Paul Rodeo for the 4th of July. Ever since, if we are in Oregon, we go. This year was no exception. The bulls were wilder than ever but we missed the clown from other years.





































I teared up AGAIN during the National Anthem. It always makes me feel such pride and love for our country. St. Paul just makes me feel like I am in "home town" America.






















Spending our 4th of July's in St. Paul has been a great tradition. I remember the year that we planned a picnic with the Johnsons to a park. I had spent a lot of time on a jello salad in the shape of a flag with the whipped cream, blueberry stars and everything. Jeff decided to have Blaze, our dog, drag the cooler to the picnic table. She took off running and needless to say the jello didn't survive. I believe we started the St. Paul tradition the next year.























During the rodeo a bull tried to jump the gates, and a cowboy got his hand stuck in the rope.
It is quite entertaining, no jello gets hurt in the process either. It always ends in fireworks and elephant ears. What a great day.