San Diego or bust!

A few months ago Del and I planned a trip to go to San Diego with the kids for a week after they got out of school. We were going to drive there and meet up with all my siblings and their families. We'd hang out on the beach, and let the kids run wild.

About a month or two before school got out, Del found out he couldn't get off work for the month of June, which totally stunk! We were all bummed. Del said we might as well go anyway, because he'd have a really busy week at work and we wouldn't see him that much anyway. He offered to fly us all there so I wouldn't have to drive for 2 days with 5 kids by MYSELF just to get there, and then again 2 more days home. YUCK! Matthew eagerly offered to take turns with me driving. Ummm - NO. So to prevent any road rage and vehicular homicides, we all flew. A first time with all the kids by myself. It wasn't so bad. We're a walking freak show. Going through security was fun.

I told Del about a year ago that I wanted to get family pictures taken on the beach. Even though he couldn't be there, we still had some taken. We gave them to him for Father's Day. He loved them, but I'm still going to make big poster collage so he can hang them in his office at work.

Alison Beachem is such an awesome photographer. Her blog link is on the bottom right if you want to see more of her work. She's a friend of a friend. OK, but now she's my friend too. We had a lot of fun taking them. We had them taken the day after we got there, and the kids hadn't been to the beach yet. They couldn't wait to get in the water, but it was a Sunday so I wouldn't let them go swimming.

Here are the pics I kept. Alison threw in a few of her favorites too.

Sunday Dinner Blessing...

Today Rylee was feeling sick, so Del stayed home from church to be with her. While he was home he made dinner, so it would be ready when the rest of us got home. Pot roast, mashed potatoes, corn, rolls, etc. Yu-uh-uh-mmy!

Bug had just enough time to come home and eat before his Scout Troop headed off to Scout camp all week. Since he will be gone, Del asked him to say the blessing on the food. After he said the usual things, he asked, "Please help everybody make it through the week without me." Matt will also be gone for EFY in San Antonio this week, so Del made Bug include his name as well.

Thank goodness it was at the end of the blessing, because we all had a hard time holding in our snorts and laughter.

As soon as he said AMEN - we all laughed, including Bug. He cracks himself up. And us.

What game to play?

Today Sydney and Rylee were sitting in the office with me.

Rylee's playing Toon Town on the laptop, I'm on my Mac, and Sydney was sitting at the PC. Sydney starts spinning around in the chair and says, "I don't know what game to play."

My response was, "How about the bedroom pick-up game?"

Syd quickly replied - "Naahhh, I've played that game before, and I never win."

Cracked me up.

My name is Alexa Nugent.

My first 10K.

Our trip to San Diego came about (I think) because of Adam and Eric. Adam was going to be staying at a beach house with all of his in-laws that week, and Eric and Tosha were planning to be there on Saturday the 13th for the annual Mud Run at Camp Pendleton. Tosha's sister, Alexa, and brother-in-law were supposed run it with them, but couldn't make it. Eric asked if I wanted to fill in for her. I said sure, what the heck - I've never done anything like that before. I had started running in March, so I thought it would be a breeze.

On Saturday the 13th of June, I was Alexa Nugent - 35 years old.

But you can call me Alexa.

Eric, Tosha and I before the race.

Camp Pendleton Mud Run.

121 1522 9622 ALEXA NUGENT 35 1:35:52

(I finished 121st in my category - 1522 overall, my tag# was 9622, I was 35 years old (that day) and my time - 1:35:52.)

First of all, I missed the exit from the freeway to get to Camp Pendleton! Ended up driving 30 minutes MORE, which made us late starting the race. We were in last place out of the gate.

First thing they do is hose you down with fire hoses. It was a little nippy that day too!

Eric took off first thing and left Tosha and I in the dust. Rude. Tosha and I ran next to each other for awhile, but when the course started up hill, that was my undoing. She kept going, I walked, ran, walked, ran, huffed and puffed.

It's a giant obstacle course. We had to run through little rivers, climb over walls through the mud, swim through a lake, crawl through tunnels, climb a steep slippery muddy hill with water/mud running down the middle of it, run down VERY STEEP hills, and the last obstacle was army-crawling through the mud to the finish line.

I had the most fun people-watching as I was running/sucking wind. There were lots of teams running. I wish I had a camera on me to take pictures of all the team costumes. There was a Nacho Libre team - in full tights and masks. Another that was wearing whitey-tighties on the outside of their running shorts IF they were wearing running shorts at all. (I really didn't care to look too closely.) They had stuff written across their bums - i.e. "PRIVATE UNDERPANTS" etc.

There were the hard-core runners that were so skeletal they looked like they escaped from a concentration camp. I felt compelled to offer them some M&M's, but I didn't have my secret stash on me. I watched this shameless, vain man hitting on attractive runners as they ran by. Helloooo - like the girls are going to stop running to give him their phone#'s? What a tard. Another girl wore her shoes like slippers, cuz her heels were bleeding - poor thing.

I discovered several things during the 6.2 mile run.

1. Just because I was once an athlete - does not mean I still am.

2. Bring vaseline to prevent chafing.

3. Running in FLAT Texas for a few months does NOT prepare you for running hills.

4. I don't like mud. Smelled like manure. Blechk!

5. iPod Shuffles don't float, even if you have them in plastic sandwich baggies.

6. Grandmas can run faster than me.

7. Running DOWNHILL is much worse than running UP HILL.

8. Wet, muddy clothes cause serious chafing.

9. Don't wear white.

10. I'm fascinated with watching legs and bums as they're running.

After the run we asked some random guy if he'd take a picture and email to us. He was very nice and happily obliged.

We had muddy ICK in all crevices and orifices. (Eric's shirt used to be white.)

My muddy, disgusting shoes. I threw them away. Nowhere to put them for our flight home.

So..... anybody wanna do it next year? I'm totally doing it again if anybody wants to join me. Soooo much fun. Thanks, Alexa, for allowing me to borrow your identity for the day, and Eric and Tosha for inviting me. Next year I'll know what to expect so I can train better.