WE ARE SPARTAN!!

   So we finally did it!! Back in the fall, we signed up for a "Spartan Race" to do on May 10 in Montana with a group of friends.  We anxiously and nervously awaited the day, and tried our best to train and get in the best shape we could!  And it was a good thing we did, because this race was TOUGH!!  It was over 4 miles, most of which was VERY steep hills / mountains!  And scattered throughout were various obstacles we had to get through.  Most of them, I found somewhat easy and even fun!  I was very nervous about the obstacles, but they turned out to be almost a "break" from the rough terrain and steep incline.  The straight ups are what killed me!!  There was a huge section of rolling / crawling under barb wire in the mud, it was so fun, I felt like I was in a movie.  And we had to climb a lot of things, carry logs and weights on our shoulders, wade through waist deep cold mud puddles, push over tree logs, do some tough monkey bars and roll under bridges. The only obstacles I couldn't do were a rope climb which was near impossible for girls, the knots were so far apart on the ropes, plus I am scared of heights so I wasn't even close!  Also there was a javelin throw and you only get one shot at it and it has to stick in the target without falling out.  Dang it, mine fell out, so I had to do the burpees!  If there's an obstacle you can't do, you have to do 30 burpees.  We made a last minute decision to stay with our spouses and THANK GOODNESS we did!!  It was an amazing bonding experience for Lee and I, and I was so grateful to have him encouraging me and sometimes dragging me along the way!!  He pushed me hard and helped me out whenever I needed it including doing half of my burpees!  At the end, I was so overcome with emotion and love for him, and was SO proud of myself for getting through it, and especially for doing as well as I did.  I finished the race in 1hr 30 min, which turned out to be in the top 18% for girls and we beat all of our friends. I could never have done it without him!
The race day was a little bit rainy, and quite chilly in the morning, but that turned out to be a real blessing!!  We got so hot doing the hills and stuff that we would have died if it was hot out!!

 What a fun group of friends we did it with, we all had so much fun.  We hung out the day before in Kalispell, ate out, did a little shopping, and hot tubbed at our hotel. (It was the Pratts, the Wants and the Irvines).

These pictures were taken during the race and posted on their website!  Kinda fun to see us in action!

This was us jumping over the fire at the finish line!!

 I can't even describe the RUSH we felt when we finished this race!  I didn't think the medal would excite me that much, but it seriously felt so good to earn it!!  It was such a rewarding experience and now Lee and I want to keep doing these races together.  We already signed up to do a "Spartan Super" in Red Deer in September.  We will see how it goes!  It's twice as long so I'm kind of nervous!!

 My amazing husband!!  I seriously love him so much.  It was so fun to do this together!!

Horsefly - The kids finally got to see Daddy's hometown!

 So as soon as I got back from my girls' trip, we left the next morning on the long trek to Horsefly BC for Lee's Grandma's funeral.  I have only ever been there once shortly after Lee and I got married, and the kids had never seen it, so it was a great opportunity to show the kids where Daddy grew up. It was also a good chance for Lee to see it one more time since really there wont ever be a reason to go back there again.  I just love the Horsefly sign, it's a classic!  Their mascot or whatever you call it has got to be the sweetest one I have ever seen!

 Horsefly had really emptied out and things were all starting to shut down and be sold, including their little church building!  It was up for sale for $125,000.  Pretty sad that now that all Lee's family have moved away, the branch has been totally wiped out.  It's amazing to think that they had enough of them to form the branch and get a building in the first place when he was growing up!

  Got some sweet pics with the Horsefly mascot on the Community Center!  I love it!

 And then we visited Lee's old school!  It went from Kindergarten to Grade 9.  He said before that school opened though, they had to take an hour bus ride to the school in Williams Lake!

 And last but not least, we visited the house and land where Lee lived.  There is a whole new house on the land, so taking a picture of it just doesn't do it justice, but this is a picture of his land.  It's looks quite pretty with a river running through it, and the cattle grazing in the background.  Lee's house was a tiny old hunting lodge that was really run down and sure didn't have much room in it.  I don't know how they raised 6 kids in it!  I guess that's why they all spent so much time running around outside on their land!
Anyway, if you're wondering why I didn't take more pictures of the town, I actually did take pictures of almost everything there is in the town.  Horsefly is puny!! It was great to see it though.
The funeral and hotels where everyone stayed were actually in Williams Lake.  It was sure fun to see most of Lee's family again, it really felt like it had been a long time since we've seen most of them!  We all had fun going out to eat, swimming in the pool, and hanging out.
It was a beautiful funeral, (although REALLY long), but lots of nice things were said of Lee's Grandma Pitcher, she sounds like she was an amazing woman.  She stayed very strong in her standards and was a great example to them all.  The grandkids and great grandkids all went up and sang Families can be together forever, and it was really emotional.  All of Lee's brothers and even his Dad were crying.  It was very touching to watch.

Afterwards, everyone met up at Grandma Pitcher's old house to go through her stuff and take any sentimental items they wanted.  Lee's uncle Neil got out the guitar and sang some old memory songs.  It was great, and man, our girls just LOVED it!  I haven't seen Scarlett stand that still since... well, never actually!
It was all a good experience and I'm so glad I was able to come and bring the kids.

Girls trip to Vegas!

So it seems I have created some form of tradition of going on a yearly girls trip with some of my friends!  What a wonderful husband I have who is always supportive of me doing this, and who doesn't even seem to worry about how much I spend... it really is fun to get away for a few days and enjoy spoiling myself... I know I probably don't deserve it!

This year I went to Las Vegas, and with a different group of girls.  I had originally booked my trip with 6 other friends, but just days before the trip, Lee found out that his Grandma had passed away and that the funeral was to be held while I was gone!  Obviously I wanted to be there to support him, and to help him out with the kids at the funeral!  So instead of having to cancel my trip altogether, I was fortunate enough to be able to just move it up a few days and to tag along with some of my other friends!  It sure worked out well.  Vegas was beautiful and had great shopping!  We didn't spend a lot of time on the strip (tried to stay away from the evil!), but did check out the sites one day.  For the first few days it was just me, Kimberly and Chelsea, and we had a lot of room to ourselves and enjoyed some quality time shopping, eating, sitting by the pool, and watching a free magic show.  Then we were joined by Jody, Shannon and Robyn, and we had a blast for the short time before I had to leave!  I feel so blessed to have such great friends!  These trips are great for really bonding and building strong friendships, and they also make me love and appreciate my husband and kids even more!

Happy Easter 2014!

Pretty sad that this is the best picture I could get of all four kids together in their Easter clothes!  I may just have one or two uncooperative kids in the bunch.... ha ha

 Easter was pretty low key this year!  The kids got a giant Kinder egg and one other gift!  Then they had an easter egg hunt at Grandma and Grandpas and a big dinner with the whole fam!

 

 

 And of course it wouldn't be complete without decorating Easter eggs!  I had planned to do it without Scarlett around because, come on, it's never a good idea to put her and any kind of permanent dye together!! But she left her movie in the basement and came upstairs part way through, of course wanting to join us!  I carefully helped her and she was THRILLED.  She loved putting sparkles on the eggs and didn't want to stop!  Cute, but stressful!! ha ha

Spring Break in Fairmont

 We spent the whole of Spring Break week in Fairmont this year and had a ton of fun!  It was so nice to get away from all the snow here in Calgary, and go to a place not too far that was a good 10 degrees warmer, and didn't have snow (except up on the ski hills!).
The kids got so excited about the idea of going on this trip and staying in our own little condo.  They absolutely loved it.  There were deer walking all around our place, and they didn't seem too phased by us walking right up to them!  Scarlett thought that was especially neat!  The boys' favorite thing to do seemed to be to whittle pieces of wood with knives and make pencils or roasting sticks with them.  Griffin was pretty proud of himself and got a little too comfortable with the knives... I had to take them away when I saw him throwing them and threatening to stab Scarlett if she didn't go away...
We did lots of hiking and exploring right around the resort, and played lots of family games.  And of course we did a TON of swimming!  Usually a couple times a day.  Mostly we swam at the Rec Center, but we did one evening at the big Hot Springs pool - Although the diving boards were shut down, to all our disappointment.  Scarlett became absolutely obsessed with swimming though this trip.  She would not stop asking to "sim", over and over!!  She got pretty confident jumping in the water, even when we let her head go under.  And we tried hard to teach her to float in her life jacket by herself, but she always seemed to eventually roll onto her back and get stuck there and kind of freak out a bit. She loved roaming around the pools, switching back and forth like she owned the place though.  And the kids loved tackling Lee in the water and having him literally throw them high in the air into the water.
 Lee and the kids went skiing one day at Fairmont Ski resort, and they absolutely had a blast.  None of the kids had ever been so they all took a beginners lesson and then spent the rest of the day skiing with Lee.  They all did really well for their first time!  Lee even took them on the chairlift for the last run of the day, and although they all fell down getting off, they loved it and wanted to try it again! I stayed back with Scarlett that day and swam and hung out at the condo.  We are hoping maybe next year we can bring her and all of us can ski as a family!
  As a family though, we did go snow tubing one day at Panorama ski hill, and that was pretty cool!  Scarlett never got sick of it, and just kept saying, "again"!  We were lucky enough that they let her ride on our laps on the tubes instead of having to do it herself like the front desk said!!  We took a magic carpet ride up the hill, and then slid down one of 3 different slopes.  It was a good time.
  We also met up with the Selks and the Davidsons a couple times, who were staying 20 min away in Invermere.  We swam with them at the hot springs and had dinner and games at their condo one night as well.  We had a lot of fun and couldn't stop laughing the whole night!
  We are thinking that next year we would like to come back to Fairmont again, but maybe get some friends or family to join us as well!

 

 Right after this picture with Dakota's feet in the hot springs, she slid and fell in!  Ha ha, it was funny.
       

 

 

 

 This is at Panorama ski hill where we tubed.

 

 

 

 Love her face!  Little monkey!