Mid-American Canoe Race

     I remember when I was young hearing stories of how my Dad did this race years ago and while being announced as being in the lead tipped the boat and took himself out of the race.  That isn't the only part that I remember, but I remember thinking it was something I wanted to do when I grew up.  Not the tipping part, just the canoeing part.  I had initially intended to do the race last year, but I had other canoeing plans that got in the way. This race was one that I had listed to put on my next list after this one is done, but I guess I will have to find something else to put in it's place.
     I didn't know what to expect from this race.  It was the 49th time that it had been run.  The only problem I saw with the race was the shuttle service.  We started off our morning driving the boat up to the start line in St. Charles and drove home to the finish line.  After waiting 20 minutes for the shuttle we made it back up to get ready for the start.  We made it with about 15 minutes to spare. I was a little nervous while we were waiting, but luckily there wasn't a problem.
     The race started in heats of 10 boats at a time every 4 minutes.  We were the 7th heat to leave. This meant that there were plenty of boats to catch up to, but also that many would be coming to pass us.  All in all, I think only 3 or 4 canoes passed us.  I don't know what I expected, but I just thought we would see more passing us.  That was a good sign.
     Another positive was that we didn't run into anyone.  I figured with hundreds of boats out there and our minimal experience we have working together that we might have some navigational problems.  That didn't happen. We did cause someone to run into another boat.  Not our fault!  He was trying to squeeze between us but couldn't quite make it.  I got a laugh out of it.  There's no easier way to tip a boat than to have someone run into you.   That didn't happen.  Too bad.  Not that it would have mattered.  The Fox River is so shallow.  We saw a deer run across the river and never get deeper than it's knees.  I also had to get out three times to push the boat along through low points when we were dragging on the rocks. These were all points where we lost valuable time in the race.
     Casey and I did what we set out to do. We finished 31st out of 115 boats! Our goal was to finish in the middle of the pack and not embarass ourselves.  I was really happy with how we did in our race after only practicing once together.  We are already hinting at doing it next year.  I expect that after going through it once, we should have a much better idea of what to anticipate and should do much better next year.
     Katie also posted about the race.  I'm counting on her for the photographic evidence.  She got some good shots of us as well as a few from our cheering section.

65. Take the family to Shedd Aquarium

Melissa has already written and shared about our time at Shedd earlier this week.  I figured I would add a few more pictures.

The girls loved that there were ducks in the fountain at first.  After they got really close they weren't as pleased to see them.

The girls had grins the whole time we were there.

I carried the girls around like this a lot so they could be high enough to see everything.

They looked really intently into each tank.  I had expected them to get really tired of seeing fish over and over, but they kept having fun.

Hannah and Maddie wanted to do some typing as I was blogging so here it is:
Hannah:
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Maddie:
hiunn gyhy66gvfrftvgunj ujngfrh,,gfgtgttttt,tt,tgttt≤ty8ghkgggggggghhkol;;;'

Maddie liked the fountain, Charlie was indifferent. We had snacks on a nearby bench.  Hannah wasn't a big fan of the spraying water hitting us.  She asked multiple times for us to turn the fountain off.  I got a kick out of that.

This proves that Charlie did indeed come on our trip.  He was able to get out of the stroller a few times.  He did awesome.  He is such a laid back little guy.

We had a good time.  I'm glad we were finally able to get there.  I am hoping for many more times to come in the future.

Another goal down!

Mid-American Canoe Race - The practice edition

    The Mid-American canoe race is one that I have wanted to do for a long time.  My Dad has told a few stories of when he did it when he was younger and I always thought it sounded like fun.  A few years ago, Casey mentioned that he thought it would be fun to do.  Fast-forward a few years and here we are registered and ready to go.
    Yesterday right after church, Casey and I decided to take our first practice run.  The water is running relatively fast so we did pretty well.  We didn't exactly go in a straight line the whole way but we never had much of a problem correcting our flaws. The difference will come when there are hundreds of canoes out there to navigate along with.  I'm just hoping that we don't turn the race into a demolition derby. If that happened though it would be memorable.  I'm sure Charlie would like to hear about that story growing up.  It might even push him to want to do the race or one similar to it when he gets older. We did have a couple of instances where things got interesting.  The first one was when we boated right into someone's fishing line.  It's funny at first, then panic sets in when you realize that there is a hook on the end of the string that is quickly moving up to the surface.  Luckily I had a life jacket on when the hook hit me.  No damage done!  The second issue was in the last 30 feet of our trip.  I'm not going to give details (no we didn't tip), but Casey did say, "This is embarassing, I'm glad this is happening under a bridge."  He was right on both parts.  Luckily we figured it out and finished our trip with few flaws.
    I am really looking forward to the race.  We're not expecting to win or place, we just don't want to be the last guys coming in at the end winning the perseverance award.

10. Nancy Young Run for Fun

What a day!  5K to start the day.  Neighborhood garbage day which meant filling up the van and bringing a load of trash, the big stuff that doesn't fit into the normal can to a garbage truck waiting down the street.  After that, I mowed the lawn.  When the girls were napping Melissa went out to run errands and I played with Charlie for about an hour.  What a great hour! I don't get too many times with just Charlie.  Next I pulled Hannah and Madeline to the grocery store on my bike to pick up buns for dinner.  I grilled Hot dogs.  After that I gave the girls a bath.  From there I suited up for my softball game (we won), and stayed around to ump the next game. On the way home I started one of my allergic reactions where I get hives and my eyes swell up. What a day!
Over the past few months I have been terrible at getting out to run.  With the kids being sick and other commitments I am responsible for this spring I have gotten out very little.  That is my disclaimer for the quality of my run. My race today was my school's third annual Run for Fun.  I have really started to enjoy this race as it is a chance interact with them differently than I do the other 5 days of the week. I've run the race every year now, but this year there wasn't a trophy to add to my collection.  Matt, you will love to know that one block in...my shoe came untied!  I definitely heard about it from all of the people that passed me. It's never fun to be the person stopped at the side of the road one block into the race. It didn't hurt me too bad, it just meant that I had to weave my way through a lot of people to catch back up to where I was. I had 6 students beat me this year.  I came in 25th place.  The 6 kids that finished in front of me did great.  I was really proud of them.  At the end of the race I had two of them not too far ahead, but when I started to make my sprint to pass them before the finish line, they also began sprinting to try to beat each other.  There was no way I would be able to catch them.  They had a great photo finish.  It was fun to watch.  I kept it under 23 minutes which is always good, but I was no where near my goal of 20:30. Hopefully I'll get another run in this summer where I can beat it.

78. Ride my bike to work

I rode my bike to work today.  I cheated a little bit by driving to the mechanic then riding from there, but I still took the strides to ride rather than have someone pick me up and drive me from there.
Riding my bike to work has been a great change of pace for me.  Each time I ride I try to challenge myself to ride as hard as I can to beat my best times.  I still haven't cracked the 15 minute mark on my way home, but it is definitely possible.  It all comes down to getting one traffic light and the amount of traffic on Route 31.  If I can time those right I really think I can do it. 
I am going to try to ride a few times next week.  Its going to be really hot, but I will be ok. I have gotten into a good routine and I don't want to break it.  I'm saving gas too!  Not that I put too many miles on the car anyway.
One more down!

One year remaining

I have one year left.  May 19, 2011 is my finish date.  Looking at my list, I've done a lot!  Many things I am sure I would never have done without having this list.  I think my favorite thing that I have done is writing the girls' songs.  Melissa and I sing them those songs each night as they are going to bed.  They both sing along.  I love that moment each night.  I will probably wait a year to write one for Charlie.  That way I can know his personality a little better.
Hopefully in the last year I will be able to get everything completed.  I am pretty sure I will be able to get it all done.  It will be great to get it done and begin working on another list.  Can't wait!

18. Make meals for the family

Tonight we had our last supper.  At least the last dinner that I will be counting for my list.  Originally I had this goal as just making dinner once a month, then I decided to change it up and just put down to make 25 meals.  It was my way of getting it done before may of 2011.
I've enjoyed this one.  It has given me an opportunity to learn my way around the kitchen and be proud to be able to produce something edible.  Before beginning this list I wasn't too adventurous with making dinners. Mac and Cheese out of the box was about as far as I was comfortable as I was to make food.  Now, I feel pretty comfortable coming up with dinner quickly if I need to.
Last night I made dinner #24.  Trisha was over and I made burgers, fries (from scratch) and some grilled asparagus.  It was a good dinner.  I will definitely be making this one again a few times this summer.

Tonight Maddie and I made a new family favorite.  I've made it a few times over the past two years.  It turned out pretty good.  I had to improvise a couple of times on the recipe, and it turned out pretty good.

 Maddie wasn't feeling so good today so she only got to enjoy mashed potatoes and some crackers.  She sure does look happy in this picture.

I only took one picture of Hannah.  After looking at this one I'm thinking I probably should have taken another.  Nice hair Hannah!

Now that this goal is done, I am not done cooking meals for the family.  The purpose of the goal was to become more comfortable in the kitchen and to give Melissa a break now and then.  I think I accomplished both things.  I'm happy with what I have learned and look forward to future meals to come.