We Were Warrior Enough!

At the start of last school year, I got into a discussion with a neighbor/acquaintance of mine about a great 5k(ish) race she had done up at Vail that involved not just running a course, but obstacles, a LOT of mud, and a free beer, for those so inclined to drink beer following a nice run.  Well, obviously the free beer peaked my interest...just kidding!  But the rest of it sure did!  It sounded like a ton of fun, and even though Adam isn't a huge runner, I thought it would be pretty great to do something like that with him.

In the bleak winter months I remembered the discussion of this race, which my neighbor had told me was called the Warrior Dash, and searched for it online.  Race day was still a long way off, but there was a price break for early birds, so I started getting Adam (who jumped at the idea wholeheartedly) and I signed up.  And then I noticed there was a race in North Bend, WA, just up the road into the mountains a bit from my sister-in-law's house!  And it was going to take place while we were there for our annual summer pilgrimage to Western Washington!  What luck!  So I sent an email out, calling all Conlins and asking, "Are you warrior enough?"  We are Conlins...of course we are!  We quickly had a nice-sized group of Conlins ready to take on the mud and muck and muscle of the Saturday, July 16th, 2011 10:30am heat of the Warrior Dash: Adam and I, one of Adam's sisters, Alea, and her husband, Zach, Adam's bro, Ryan, another sis, Ashley (who had been thinking she was going to sign up before I ever even trumpeted the call) and Adam's warrior father, Dan.

Quite frankly, this is a run to do with friends/family because otherwise it would have been...lame.  Really.  Sorry.  It would have.  But since I DID do this dash with my loved ones, it was fantastic!  Ryan came up with a great "costume" idea for us, so we felt extra cool.  We even had people stopping us to ask if they could take our photo.  And we had a chant.  I'll write it for you: something about what do we mean (Business!) and when do we mean it (9 to 5, M-F usually, with the occasional holiday...).  It goes on, but I'll stop there.  Yes, it sounds rediculous, especially typing it out.  The important thing is that WE thought we were incredibly funny and that's all that matters. :)  Working the obstacles as a group was great fun, and often had us busting our sides with laughter, and it was great to be together cheering each other on and chatting our way along the course.  At one point, Ashely commented that the real competition was to see who stayed the cleanest...and from that point on she was muddied by her brothers every chance they got!  We slip-slided our way through some of the squelchiest mud I've ever seen, Dan and I both went down.  Zach even lost a shoe, and almost his sock in one muddy bog.  And the jokes were rolling nonstop.

I'll be honest, if I hadn't been with the Conlin Pack it would have just been a gross, muddy, slippery, boring, cold run.  The obstacles get backed up, so you have to wait to go through them; we waited at least 7 minutes to get a chance at the first one, a wall that had to be climbed over.  And once it ends and you stand there for a few minutes, dripping gobs of mud, trying to keep it out of your eyes, wanting to eat that banana offered at the finish line but you can't because you can't peel it without it ending up falsely looking like a chocolate-covered banana, and realizing that the next thing you have to do in order to be slightly less mud-drenched is go get blasted by a hose truck spouting freezing water, you ask yourself, "Why did I do this?"  Oh, and it's only 58 degrees out because Summer is skipping Washington this year, so you are wondering if you will ever know the feeling of warmth again.  Perhaps that is why the free beer is so tantalizing come the end, so you can dull the disgust you have with the fact that you just crawled through 16-inch-deep jello-like mud with who knows how much human sweat and other unmentionable leakage in it simply to avoid some cheesy barbed wire.

BUT then you remember how much you laughed and the awesome people around you and it is cemented decidedly as one of the best days of the vacation.

 

Nana Camp 2011

What do you get when you combine two grandparents with five Conlin boys and remove annoying parental supervision?  Nana Camp!  Papa is pulled into the mix too, but he still has to work during the day so he misses out on a lot of the fun, and it's really my mom's brain baby, so we call it Nana Camp.  Nana Camp usually takes place over the course of two or three days, where my parents take the boys and kick Adam and I out.  They plan fun entertainments and enriching but cool educational experiences, and it goes without saying that the boys have a blast!  For the time being, they split the boys into two groups: "older" and "younger" and with Tommy being too young to be away from us for an overnight, "younger" for this year was Luke solo (Tommy should be ready to join the fun next summer). 

This year, Luke had his turn at Nana Camp first.  There was so much fun to be had!  They took walks along the nature paths close to my parent's house, they met Tutu for dinner, they visited the Factoria Children's Museum, and spent an afternoon at Remlinger Farms.  They also spent time just playing at my parents house, letting Luke enjoy the full, undivided attention of Nana and Papa.  He was in a great mood when he was returned to us after three days of Nana Camp and had so much to tell us about all the fun he had!

The big boys were so excited for their turn at Nana Camp.  My mom had some special fun for them to carry on our Summer of Art theme.  She took them down to the Tacoma Museum of Art, where they had the opportunity to see some amazing works of art and try making some art of their own.  They also visited the Museum of Glass where they were delighted by the beautiful glass art and enthralled by the glass blowing work demonstrations.  Josh particularly loved it!  The boys all entered a picture in a glass decor contest the museum was holding.  If their pictue is picked they get to come assist the glass blowing/painting. After their experiences at the Museum of Glass, they returned to my parents' house and made some Chihuly-inspired "glass" bowls of their own.  Fantastic. 

In addition to their art adventures, my parents walked with the boys to the nearby fossil beds and aided them in a fossil search.  The activity ended with some rock-surfing down the shale hills.  On one of the rainy afternoons (we've had many of those on this trip!), my mom took the boys to the Renton dollar theater and saw Rio, which they had been wanting to see since Luke saw it for his birthday and they missed it because of their camping trip.  Just like Luke, they came back to us bursting with stories and very happy!

Nana Camp ended with a huge group outing to the Everett Children's Museum.  The boys enjoyed three hours running around, exploring, experiementing, trying everything!  It was the perfect ending to an amazing week for all the kids.  They enjoyed every moment!  We all love Nana Camp!  But mostly, we love Nana, and Papa too, who make the time together so very special.

Thanks to my great sister-in-law, Alea, and her husband, Zach, who were willing to babysit for me, I was able to take my parents (and Tutu) out for an adult-only "Thank You" dinner at the classy and delicious John Howie Steak.  Thank you Mom and Dad!  Nana Camp was amazing, as always!