Lions, Tigers and BEARS, oh my!!

It is Monday afternoon and I could barely roll out of bed this morning. The aches and pains in muscles I never knew I had were making themselves known. This past weekend, I and a fabulous group of friends went backpacking through the north Georgia Mountains. We hiked approximately 14 miles in TWO days! It was a blast!

The trail was called Jack's Creek River Trail. On Saturday, we started out bright and early at 5am!! Started hiking around 10:30am after filling our bellies with some delicious Chick-fil-a biscuits. mmmmm. We hiked a bit and arrived at the falls around 2-ish. The falls were beautiful and so were we in our swim suits...not. We lived dangerously and jumped off some cliffs into the frothy water below. It took me around 20 minutes to work myself up to jumping off. I did it though with some coaxing from my cliff jumping coach Alexia. We are so brave!

[Aubrey doing a BACK FLIP off the cliff!!?!]

After sunning and chilling next to the falls we started to look for a campsite and[wildlife sighting number one] instead we found a BEAR! Yes, I said it a real live people eating, grunting, hairy, BEAR! In the woods! Of course our very bright hiking companions decided they wanted a picture with the bear [it was only a cub BUT STILL!]. I being the safety first type gal stood about 300 feet away while the boys messed with baby bear. I was concerned that mama bear was going to make a grand appearance so I wanted to be as far away from them as possible. Thankfully mama bear was occupied.

We found a decent campsite and set up camp for the night. Then we all took a nap! Hurray for group nap time! After nap time we woke up and fixed some din din and Joe the fire master built us a fire. Then we all drifted off into a peaceful sleep listening to the rushing water from the river. So soothing.

Sunday we woke up ate some B-fast and began to hike out. We crossed the river 20-something times in 6 miles!! Holy Moley! Most of the river crossings were thigh deep too! It was CHILLY water! Oh and wildlife sighting number two: We were crossing the river for what seemed like the millionth time and a snake slithered across a rock and into the water RIGHT in front of me! eeek!

[Nerd Alert: The Biology Major in me did some research. The snake I saw was most likely the Queen Snake. Common to Georgia and Nonvenomous! "The habitat requirements for the Queen snake are very specific, and this snake is never found in areas that lack clean running streams and watersheds with stony and rocky bottoms. The water temperature must be a minimum of 50°F (28°C) during the snake's active months. This is in a large part due to the snake's dietary requirements. They subsist almost entirely on fresh water crayfish" ] After hiking for what seemed like forever and a day. Wildlife sighting number 3: Aubrey, Lk and I were behind the rest of the group. Mainly because Lk and I are SHORT and have a harder time jumping rocks across the river! We were walking on a flat part of the trail where we could see a couple hundred yards ahead of us and we see a black blur slowly walk across the trail! [another BEAR!] oh and when we got closer to the spot of the sighting Lk stepped in Bear Poop! eeeeeewwwwwwwww!

We finally finished hiking around 3:30pm on Sunday! My calves hurt oh-so-badly and it looks like I have been beaten. Crossing the rivers I slipped and fell so many times I have cuts and bruises all over my legs! [also note to self: do NOT forget to bring bug spray next time!!]

Overall, it was a successful and great trip. Everyone made it out alive with all of their body parts! we win! If anyone is interested in joining us for the next go round give me a holler!

now, time to study for exams....ugh

Muddy Buddy 2009

The pictures are finally ready from the 5K race Mike and I ran on June 20th!!!

If I have not already told you about this race here is the down low.

It is called MUDDY BUDDY. The reason for that is because after you and your partner bike and run six-ish miles you both have to crawl through a MUD PIT! Wooo!

It works like this... I [the slower runner] ride the bike first for a mile to the first obstacle. Mike begins running about 6 minutes behind me. When I arrive at the first obstacle I drop the bike do an obstacle and begin running. When Mike gets to the first obstacle he does the obstacle picks up the bike and goes. The desired plan would be to leap frog each other until the end and then both crawl through the mud pit! wee!

[This was one of the obstacles]

[The infamous mud pit]

[Mike and I finishing! hurray!!]

This is our second year doing Muddy Buddy Atlanta. It is only the third year that Atlanta has hosted this event but it has been going on in other cities for ten years! This year we dressed up as Adam and Eve! Last year we dressed up as Raggedy Anne and Andy! I made the costumes both years! [If anyone has any good "couples" costumes for next years race let me know!]

[Before the race 2008]

[After in our Muddy Buddy goodness]

I recommend this race to any of you active people out there!! We LOVE it! It is a little pricey [$150/team] BUT it is a charity race. It helps Athletes that need prosthetic limbs.

***

Other than the new pictures. I only have TWO weeks left of summer semester! I am going backpacking this weekend [16 miles!!] and my 24th BIRTHDAY is comming up [August 10th ahem] !!!! I am SO old!

Sydney update: She will be starting Preschool [tears] on my Birthday! I will most likley cry everyday for a month when I drop her off. Today we went to Walmart and bought her a backpack and a lunch box! I almost cried right there in the store. ha. She is getting so old!

I know that this was a fairly lengthy blog so I will bid you farewell!

Love, Christina and Sydney

A New Start

This is my new blog address! Take note all of you blog readers out there in web-land. I have decided that the old blog will strictly be for my family member readers for Sydney updates. You of course may still read it but I assure you this one will be of more interest to you. I am working on the look of this blog right now so bare with me! I intend to update this one much more than the other blog so get your reading glasses on!

I recently worked my butt off to save for a TINY LAPTOP!!







It is my new love. I put it in my purse and take it everywhere I go. If it were not for Sydney it would be my baby. ha. However, it's tinyness does not allow me to save the hundreds apon thousands of pics I have of Sydney on it. So, I apologize in advance for picture-less posts that may be in your near future. MOST of them hopefully will have some eye candy for you.



Anyway, a much needed update. Sydney is well into her not so"teriible twos". I hear moms speak about this supposedly horrid phase of wanting to throw your child out a window. In Sydney's case she just is not that bad [which I thank God for approximatley five million times a day]. She gets frustrated when she is trying to tell me something and I do not understand her and of couse the "but I want fill in the blank" temper tantrum. Other than that we are golden.


She has started being scared of "monsters" though. Which is strange to me because I have never mentioned monsters to her. I am a detective trying to figure out where this monster obsesion has come from. When I put her to bed for nap and for bed time she asks me about the monsters about one-hundred times, which I respond with, "Sydney there are no monsters, Sadie scared them all away" [Sadie is our faithful doberman pincher gaurd dog and I trust that there will be no monsters while she is on watch. If I were a monster I would certainly avoid our house!] I also tried to solve the monsters issue by watching Monsters Inc.

I wanted to show her that monsters are nice. She loved the movie but still asked about the monsters when I put her to bed tonight. So, oh well. Strike one! She is also begining to be scared of the dark I believe. I really do not know how to deal with this fear. Any suggestions? Anyone's parents have a good method of breaking the fear of the dark? Obviously she is two and I understand she will need a night light for a while but I do not want her to be scared of the dark her whole life.

These are the super duper interesting things that are going on in my life currently! I am sure you all cannot wait for the next update haha.

Other than that school is kicking my bum. I have three summer classes! Homework. homework. homework! I am looking forward to the much too short two week break between summer and fall semester! Wish me luck on finals I am pretty certian I will all A's! WOO!

Love, Syd and Christina

p.s. RIP MJ, all I can say now is PLEASE God let this blow over soon. It is getting very old!!