Come on Irene!

Hurricane Irene was the surprise guest at our annual Luau party and she didn't disappoint! We had a mostly cloudy day and the rain held up when most of the guests arrived, but then it went downhill toward the later hours and all the way into Sunday. We had a few branches on the lawn and our umbrella and table flew off the deck but no major damage.

Mallory spent Saturday morning with Grandma/Grandpa Astriab while Michol and I got the house prepped up for the party. She made an appearance at the Luau for a couple of hours before retiring to Grandma/Grandpa Merrimans for her first night away from home. She had a such a fun-filled Saturday and spent most of Sunday relaxing in her pack n play while Mom, Dad, and Pups crashed on the couch watching endless coverage of the storm.

Laila on Hurricane Patrol

Warrior Merriman!

I ran in my first Warrior Dash race at Windham Mountain. After sleeping a solid 4 hours the night before, Michol and I woke up at 4:30 in the morning, fed the pups, fed Mallory, and headed out for the big event.

The race was broken up into 20 time slots with my slot at 8am. The course consisted of 12 grueling obstacles over 3.2 miles. Temperature was a brisk 50 degrees and no humidity. The first half mile was the worst...all uphill. The last obstacle was a huge mud pit with barbed wire across the top, forcing you to get down on your hands and knees. Michol carried Mallory in the baby bjorn and took some great pictures while waiting at the finish line. Despite all the loud noises, Mallory slept the entire time...she was so good!

The results:
Out of 9,319 participants, I placed 534th and out of the 782 participants in my age group (35-39), I placed 72nd. My overall time was 35:38.80.

After cleaning all the mud off at my parents house, we left Mallory behind and headed up to Six Flags amusement park for Michol's company picnic. The weather was perfect and we both were so tired that we only went on one ride (the gondola ride). At the end of the day, we picked up Mallory, who had a great time with Grandma/Grandpa Merriman, got some take-out, and crashed on the couch for the night. Very long Day!!!!

More pics from the Warrior Dash (official website: http://warriordash.com/register2011_new_york.php)

Survived!

In the home stretch!

The final obstacle....That's me hitting the mud!

Look at me!

Someone is definitely NOT camera shy!





Life is Good!

The pups enjoyed the nice cool air inside on Sunday. Oscar had enough of looking out the window from his normal perch, slid down, and created a makeshift dog bed out of one of the couch cushions. Laila was content with her corner and pillow. What a life!

We love Central Air!



Oscar and his new bed