RAGBRAI!!

Our long journey across Iowa on our bikes was AWESOME!! We had such a blast, I am quite sad it's over. There's no way I can even describe this crazy experience, but hopefully through some pictures it will give you a little glimpse of our fun. The state of Iowa is beautiful and most definitely NOT flat! It was such a treat to ride through such beautiful country every day. Ragbrai is a total kick in the pants and I couldn't have hand picked a more fun group of people to do it with. We had a total blast! But I'm not gonna lie, it sure feels good to relax this week!!!

(I apologize for these pictures all being out of order. I am doing this on a mac and can't figure the dang thing out. So here's to an out of order week of pictures!)

This is my favorite picture of the trip. The pie is infamous on Ragbrai and these babes were totally indulging in it. But Will without his tooth makes it just classic!

Having fun at the slip n' slide in one of the passing through towns!

Me and Christine stopping at a watermelon booth along the way. Tasted SO good in the middle of our ride!

'Bike Parking' in one of the lunch towns. This is how we always parked our bikes.

This picture was after a LONG hot, WINDY, and very tough 76 miler day. Felt good to be done!

Snake Alley where the ride ended. This is the windiest road in the world and it was a tough finish!

The last day!!

This can give you a glimpse of how many people there were. This picture is taken in one of the lunch towns. You have to get off your bike when you go through a town because there's just too many people. It's crazy!!

We're DONE!!!!!

Tom's Turkey Legs!! All week we had our eye on them and finally indulged! So SALTY and so GOOD!!

Laundry day!!

Our very first morning!

This was an Omish town that served killer breakfast. Check out this guy on his wagon being pulled by his mini horse!

"Team Bad Boy". They had they're 'moving bar', a smoker (grill) thing, and a cooler they pulled on the back of their bikes the whole way.

Me and my darling cousin Abby. It just worked out too perfectly that she lives where the ride ends and I live where it started. It was meant to be!

The whole clan when we first arrived.

Best team in the whole world! Team Cousins!

Ragbrai is all about the food (definitely didn't lose any weight this week!) We had so much fun trying all the fun food and always did it family style. This is a huge pork tenderloin sandwich that was DELISH!!!

At the lunch town after 51 miles down that day.

Thanks for the fun adventure! Hope you're all enjoying the recovery as much as I am!!

Woah Nelly!

Wow I'm starting to get so nervous! I can't believe this big thing starts tomorrow, I feel like we have been waiting so long for it to happen that it's almost been a dream of some sort. But now I have to actually "wo-man up" and do it!

Yesterday morning I fell down the stairs (embarrassing I know) and landed right on my tail bone. I'm tellin' ya, I cannot sit flat on my bottom. I have been in so much pain and very sore. I haven't even gotten on my bike yet because I don't want to know the result. I'm not getting on it until that race starts tomorrow because then I have no choice but to suck it up and get riding! It feels much better this morning than it did yesterday and if I can lean forward I'm okay. I'm thinking about duct taping a big feather pillow to my seat and getting comfy. Hey, why not? I'm gonna be in the middle of Iowa? Who's there to impress?

Here's to a week of more biking than I think I can handle but here goes! I'm SO excited.

Here is the link and you can see our route, distance, and map for each day!
http://ragbrai.com/data/2009/ragbrai-main-map-2009.php

See you all in a week!

Summer Update

Well I haven’t been the best blogger since getting here to Omaha but now we officially have the internet! It has been really on and off with when it works and when it wouldn’t, but now we’re good! Things have been going really well for us since being out here. We are so happy and really do love it. Scott just finished up his summer semester and now has a month off until school starts again. He did very well and has been busy, but we hear that this fall semester ahead is going to be a rude awakening. So we are going to enjoy the break as much as possible!

I have been working, teaching my preschool class but got a job with the public school district that I am very excited about! I had applied for that job a while ago but they were very slow to call me back. I got a call from them about 2 ½ weeks after I started teaching at the school I’m currently at. I felt awful putting in my notice but this next job has a lot of pros to it. I get summers off and paid!!! Can’t beat that! I will get much more time off for the holidays and the hours are great as well. I will be at an elementary school really close to our place. It’s very nice and the principal that I interviewed with seems like a great guy. So my last day here at the preschool is next Friday and then it’s time for….
RAGBRAI!!

Just looking at these pictures of it gets me so excited!!!! Am I ready? No! I haven’t been able to get out biking nearly as much as I would have liked to and train for this sucker. My schedule has just been so busy and it’s hard to find the time. But I feel like I have been staying in good enough shape that I will be okay. Even though I haven’t been able to bike as much as I would like, I’ve been running and working out daily when I can squeeze in the time. I am looking forward to this adventure so much, and feel so unprepared for it all but we’re going to wing it! I just read that it's one of the hilliest courses they've ever had in 37 years so I think I'm in for it! Oddly enough though I really enjoy climing and hills so I'm really excited.

Here’s a few more things that we’ve been up to around here:

The 4th of July was a great time. We had a big BBQ with Scott's RDEP group and watched fireworks. They are all such great people. There’s a golf course nearby that does $30 range passes for one month for students. Scott has been in heaven with unlimited balls to hit. He is working really hard on his swing and his game!! He has been averaging hitting about 200 balls a day, so you can’t beat that deal! There’s a lot of guys here that like to golf which doesn’t help with our budget, but it’s such a fun thing that they can all do to get out and get some fresh air! Of course we have been enjoying good meals. Do I ever NOT post about a delicious meal when we have one? This one was last Sunday after a LONG fast Sunday! Scott made a delicious Alfredo pasta with big shrimp, and fresh green beans, broccoli and tomatoes with parmesan…….Man! We were in heaven! This picture doesn’t do it justice!

My garden is blooming more than ever! I cannot even tell you how much fun it has been to have my own little garden. Every day I scope it out to see what’s growing and what’s blooming. It truly amazes me how fast flowers grow and how they bloom. Some days I’ll come home and it’s been so hot that some of my pots are completely dead and then I’ll water them and the weather will cool down and within a few hours they come right back to life! It’s absolutely amazing!!! My flower box is my favorite of all. It is so full and beautiful. Don't ya think? Our tomatoes plants are yet to produce any tomatoes but we are anxiously awaiting their arrival! They've really grown big!I love summer and all the fresh fruits. I am completely addicted to watermelon right now. They had them at Walmart for 98 cents EACH the other day! Isn’t that a steal? So when Scott got home from basketball late last night and I had been working out we were craving watermelon, so we cut one open and chowed down half of it! Truly heaven!

All else is well! Hope you are all having a wonderful summer!!!