Dirty Dash!

A few weeks ago Dave, Josh and most of my siblings and my mom had a unique Saturday morning.  They participated in the Dirty Dash.  The Dirty Dash is a 10K race.  Now it is not your typical race because this race is all about the dirt.  Wet dirt to be exact.  MUD.   

The course is mud, slides, water, marshes, snow, and other obstacles all wrapped into 6.2 miles of fun!  The race took place in beautiful Soldier Hollow where some of the Olympic events took place 9 years ago. 

  

Mitch and Haley were voted most creative for their costumes.  Of course I was the only one voting.  

 Here is Mitch as Superman!  Notice the cute curl!

Here is the clean crew at the beginning of the race.   The t-shirts say We're Great but No One Knows It.  It was our family theme about 30 years ago.  It came from a Girl's Camp song.   Please notice Jacob's short shorts.  Very 1980's Jacob. 

 You start the race by hiking up a huge mud hill which was very slippery.  Apparently Josh was tackled in the first few minutes by Andrew.  At the top of the hill they sprayed all the racers with a fire hose.  So you were cold from the very beginning.  

Not too dirty yet.  The middle kids.  B. Rad, Alli and Andrew.  (Tricia doesn't count as a middle because she thought she was my twin from the very beginning)

 Tricia is doing some kind of Dirty Dash strut here.  They were hiking through one of the muddy rivers.  

 A big mud hole in the road.  Part of the fun was you never knew how deep the puddle was at any given point.  You could be walking next to someone and they disappear up to their neck.  See how muddy Andrew is compared to Brandon.   

 Alli with some stylin glasses.  She was the brave one who took a camera in several ziploc baggies so we could have some pictures of the actual race.  Thanks Alli.  

 Here is one of the least favorite obstacles.  You had to climb through the mud filled tube.  That wasn't the bad part.  

The bad part was that on the other end they were spraying out snow from their snow maker machine. They were freezing cold at this point.  

 They look happy here.  You will see that in the background there is a woman running.  Some people took this race very seriously.

 Here you had to either climb over or under these walls.  This is Alli going under but trying to keep as clean as possible. 

 Here are the boys.  You can see that even when it is not an obstacle it is still a big mud slop of a road. 

 This was their least favorite part of the course.  These are sewer pipes that they are crawling over.  Thye determined this by the horrible smell all around them!  Of course this is the place that Alli slipped into a hole and went in over her head!   NAAAASSSTTTYY!

 Here is the snack station.  Yum!  Muddy jello.  

One of the last obstacles is the giant slide.  Only Dave flew down this thing.  Everyone else had to inch their way down.  (This isn't actually Dave flying.  People can't fly.)

 The kids waited at the big mud pond at the finish line. 

 They collected water balloons to throw at their parents.  They were so excited! 

The racers all waited for each other at the slide so they could finish together.  The first ones in were Josh and Jacob.  (Of course)

 Jenn, B. Rad, Tricia, Andrew, Brandon and Dave were next.  I love how Tricia seems to be trying to be careful going in.  She didn't want to get dirty I suppose...

 The last ones in were Haley, Alli, Mom and Mitch.  

 Wow.  Mom.  You really do not fit in with this crowd!  They are all smiles though except Dave.  

 You see Dave couldn't see.  He was completely blind.  He didn't even know which way to go to get out.  

 B. Rad, Brandon (Who lost a contact)

 Jenn, Mitch,

 Josh,  my baby,

 Mom and Tricia

 Dave still blind.  Mom.

Mitch, Alli, Tricia

 Jenn, Andrew.

 Mitch and Haley

Here is the after photo.

What a fun day for us all!  Thanks Sara and B.Rad!   

Now I am going to post the full video (3 minutes) on youtube for the family to see how lovely they look.  It is too big for blogger.  But I need to preface by telling you that I was holding 2 cameras.  One took all of the pictures that you see above.  The other was my attempt to film but it was really more of a chest cam.  The video camera just rested on my chest and whatever it captures is what you get.  I edited out my running because it would have just made you motion sick.

Bear Lake Adventures! Part 3. The Hot Shots!

Despite the fact that the kid shots are great I think the little voices asking when I was going to post the photos were looking for these. Just so it is recorded that the adults also played hard on this trip... here are the pictures. To start us off we have Haley. She was the first one in the water! She started us off well! Mitch jumped in next! My favorite move was the flip otherwise known as "the easy way to get the wakeboard off" Later in the afternoon when it go a bit choppier we rode tubes. It was no easy riding. These boys take it as a personal quest to dump everyone in the water! First up was Andrew and Mitch. Look how happy they are! They think this is going to be so fun!They were BLEEDING when they finished! So fun! Don't think I tipped the camera here. I think the boat was literally standing sideways in an effort to dump these guys! I can't believe Mitch hung on to this one! But not for long! Next up we have Mitch and Haley! She teased the driver by standing up and waving in the beginning. Soon thereafter she was clinging on with both hands! I love her face in this one. Next up is Dave and I although because I never taught Tricia the new fangled thing called zoom you don't really know it is us. She did get a nifty picture of our first wipeout. Holy crap! That water was cold. It literally took my breath away for a little while. I couldn't answer when Tricia kept asking me if I was ok. I couldn't get enough air! Next up were Dave and Brandon. I love how they tried so hard not get in each others personal space. After they got dumped several times Tricia jumped on with Brandon. She had a great method for never being dumped. It was this... when you think you are going in punch your husband off and hang on tighter! Not just once but every single time. Poor Brandon didn't know if his bruises were from landing in the water or Tricia kicking him! He seemed to recover enough to some skiing. With his hat on? Then B. Rad skied for a while. Then he texted for a while telling all his friends how awesome he looked. Then he wakeboarded for a while. Then he went and hid so I couldn't take a picture of him texting everyone to tell them how cool he was.... Dave even attempted wakeboarding although his shots didn't turn out as well because all his cool poses were under the water. See that brown thing? That is his head. Next year we are going for above water shots. Then Mitch got back in to show us all how it was done. This is the takeoff crouch. This is the sweet pose for the camera. This is the cool silhouette pose that happens when the sun is going down and you can no longer see who is behind the boat.

One important thing I should mention is that one morning both Dave and B. Rad took a ride around the lake. A mere 50 miles. On their bikes. Pedaling. It makes me tired just to type it. They are both amazing!

Thanks to Tricia and Brandon for hosting this fun weekend and for also providing the cabin and the boat! Thanks to Andrew for bringing up another boat and getting the 4 wheelers ready! Everyone really appreciated all you did and we had a GREAT time.