Lots has happened since my last post. We left OH and went to Chicago. In Chi-town we had a Vemma event that went really well, and then we played the rest of the weekend. We went to the Lincoln Park Zoo with Kali and Cooper, then to The Bean, and Navy Pier where we rode the ferris wheel and played mini golf. Sunday night and Monday night we stayed with the Sheehan's in the suburbs. We ran 10 miles on the Prairie Path on Monday morning, and then went out to tour Wheaton. We had lunch at Los Burritos and Tapitios – one of Dan's favorites from college. We spent some time with Dan's football coaches which was absolutely phenomenal.
Tuesday we headed off to CO. On our way, we stopped in Denison, IA to see my Aunt Karen, Uncle Gary, Cousin Brenda, and G-ma and G-pa. We had dinner at the pub Tuesday night – delicious prime rib! Wednesday morning we headed for CO.
When we pulled into the Springs Wednesday evening, we went straight to Dan's storage unit to drop off our adjusting stuff and put some seats back in the van. After that, we met up with some Vemma friends for sushi. Around 10pm Dan headed for the airport to pick up 2 Wheaton buddies (Todd and Jason) flying in from Chicago for the weekend. I headed to George and Betty's to crash for the night. The next day, Thursday, we decided to climb the incline again to shock our bodies into acclimation. So... Jason, Todd, Betty, Dan, and I hiked up in the middle of the afternoon – everyone did great! We grabbed Chipotle after finishing and Dan disappeared for about 4 hours. Turns out he was helping his Aunt move some stuff that he promised he would some time ago. After we all cleaned up, we went to dinner at a quaint Mexican joint down the street. The Hamstra's joined us with their 2 little ones, Tyce and Cade – too cute!
On Friday we ran some errands in the morning – went to Dick's Sporting Goods to get our official Tough Mudder Team uniforms, checked out the sale at REI, and then headed up to Breckenridge. We were starving when we got up there, so Jason, Todd, Dan, and I went to the Breck Brewery for some grub and then up to the Breck house to get settled in. George and Betty arrived shortly thereafter and we joined forces to cook a delicious pre-mudder meal – steak, sweet potatoes, asparagus, corn, bread, etc. After dinner we went to the Garvin cabin to spend a little bit of time with the rest of our mudder team and add some final touches to our uniforms.
Saturday morning we woke up early to get over to Beaver Creek. The Tough Mudder was probably the hardest thing I have ever done in my life. It started with a 30 min hike up a black diamond ski slope, then we swam through 36 degree water, climbed over 10' walls, ran along muddy bike trails, crawled through tubes that dumped into muddy water, crawled on the rocky, muddy ground under barbed wire, hiked up more ski slopes, walked through more freezing cold water, climbed a snow hill under a cargo net, ran up a half pipe, crossed monkey bars over freezing cold water (I don't exactly have the upper body strength for monkey bars, so I pretty much swam across), and finished by running through electric wires that provided up to 10k volt shocks. The total “challenge” was 10 miles long and took our team just over 3 hours. We all completed every obstacle and we finished as a team. It was an absolute blast! The team is already talking about signing up for another one...
We grabbed sandwiches at the Smiling Moose Deli, cleaned up, and then went to the Garvin cabin to celebrate with the rest of our team.
Sunday morning we went into Frisco to rent Mountain Bikes. We were all pretty sore, but thought some activity would be beneficial. Jason, Todd, Luke (another Wheaton football alum who lives in Vail), John (one of Dan's buddies from Denver), Dan, and I went for about a 3 hour mountain bike ride (Betty joined half way through). This was only my second time out mountain biking. It was a lot better than the first; I'm starting to figure out the gears. Sunday evening we went to Empire Burger for dinner, which was delicious, then we relaxed in the hot tub for a bit before hitting the sack.
Monday morning we all woke up sore. It was Todd and Jason's last day in CO, so we decided to finish strong with white water rafting. (side note: When packing up, I went to get my fivefinger shoes from outside where they were drying since I had to wash the mud off of them, and ONE shoe had disappeared. All 5 of us searched the area for it without success. Our conclusion is that a fox or raccoon ran off with it. Huge bummer!) The river was freezing, but we had a great time rafting. We raced to get Todd and Jason to DIA for their flight; they BARELY made it! After dropping them, Dan and I met my dad for dinner at Northfield Mall. We ate bbq at Jim and Nick's and then had frozen yogurt for dessert. We stayed Monday night at George and Betty's in Colorado Springs.
Tuesday we actually laid pretty low; we organized Dan's storage unit, made another trip to REI to get me a new sleeping bag, had dinner with George and Betty, and then crashed.
Today is Wednesday and we are currently driving to Jackson Hole, WY; we are about an hour and a half out. Our plan is to camp there tonight, play a little bit tomorrow, maybe camp again tomorrow night, and then head up to Portland! We should get up to Portland sometime on Friday. My folks get into PDX on Saturday, and so do Kali and Cooper. I'm really looking forward to seeing my parents, and also spending some time with Kali, Cooper, Dane, Dave, Sarah, and Bill. :)
Sorry this one was so long, but that's pretty much the gist of what 'p squared' has been up to! Huge thanks to George and Betty for their hospitality last weekend! Not sure where we are headed after Portland – maybe Nor Cal for some more hiking, a stop at JH Ranch, and then down to San Diego? We'll see...
Praying for safe travels. Love you all!
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