Minute To Win it - Haynie Style Great party, awesome games and a successful fundraiser for the Racquetball Women. The fundraiser is benefiting to get the WPRO to Olympia in November. Things you do to help! If you are planning a party - regardless of age and gender, a “Minute to Win It” Party is sure to become a hit. We had so much fun!

Tell You About it: Returning from IRAQ-Homecoming 2010
What a happy day! The last days seemed to have gone by like molasses. Then the moment arrived and there are only few moments in my life rivaling with the image burnt in my mind as I discovered my husband in the marching line up.
If you listen, you’ll hear my youngest screaming ‘daddy!’

God bless the warriors that are home again, the ones that are still overseas and the ones that will go - make their families strong.
Homecoming of I COPRS 02/2010

Crazy as it might seem but a few days before the movers came to pick up our household goods we decided the proper break for us would be to do an adventure race. We did a ‘super sprint’ for “very” beginners and the ones that aren’t quite in shape ;-) Today was break time from “all things PCS”. My husband, Tim, had signed up both of us with an adventure race here in Washington. Considering we hadn’t trained at all, I was a bit sceptical how things were going to work out. What is an adventure race? An adventure race is an outdoor multi-sport event. Sports may include: Mountain biking, orienteering,navigation, trekking, kayaking/canooing - more advanced and longer races provide an opportunity to show your repelling and climbing skills. While I think it sounds fun not sure if I could compete on this sort of level. Today, there were two categories of race durations: the sprint racers (4-6 hours) and the super sprint racers (2-4 hours) - that was us! Should you feel up for it, you can find races at any length. Some folks love 24hour races. Ever since our PCS shifted into high gear and we had cancelled our gym membership, Tim and I had not done much endurance training at all. Little here and there, but we started this race today pretty much cold turkey, however, we needed this break today. Heck, I had been painting, digging, sorting and cleaning for a week now. My gosh, how much stuff is there to do? The truth is , that if we were packed tomorrow: We’d be fine! It seems as though this move is an opportunity to do what we haven’t done for years….clean garden tools, sort out things that I had been holding on to…. Back to racing. Adventure racing sounds much more intimidating than it actually is. Our disciplines were orienteering, mountain biking and trekking. In all categories we had to find markers in the park that had punchers tide to them. We had a map and on foot or on bike we raced to find them and we marked our papers once we were successful. YOU can do a race like this. Can you walk? Can you ride a bike? Then you could have done what we did today! No kidding. A super sprint race is a great way to get started. You should check your ego at the door (park gate) and try to just have fun! Don’t be intimidated, chances are that the ‘fancy’ teams are in a different racing group anyhow. I should also mention, that there are also urban adventure races. While still challenging, usually these races are laid out or fun! You can dress crazy and you’ll have a lot of fun completing tasks a la “Minute To Win It”. The biggest races I know of are the “Urban Oyster” and “Urban Assault” (brought to you by the Belgium Brewing Company, if that tells you anything!). My, then 15 year old, and I participated in the Urban Assault last year, when my husband was deployed, pretty much as an ode to him - since he, my husband, is really into this kind of thing. It was a great bonding experience for my son and I. Only a few weeks after Tims return from Iraq he participated the race as team “What just happened?” Side note: My son was appalled when Tim stopped to get a coffee in the middle of the race! So much fun! Try it! And now, I am on the couch, unable to move and blissfully exhausted. Tomorrow is the last day, before our household goods are being packed up. i am very curious, what we’ll do tomorrow. Find adventure races all over the country:

• + usara.com - US Adventure Racing Association
• + The Merrell Oyster Urban Adventure Race
• + Urban Assault
• + active.com - for all competitions not just adventure racing

My first blog entry!

It looks as if we are leaving this year. Nothing is set in stone but most likely and it seems that we might be moving back to Colorado. Ft.Lewis was our home 2006 through 2010 hard to believe that it has been 4 years. Lots has happened. We loved skiing in Crystal - White Pass wasn’t bad either, but Crystal was our favorite ski resort out of the ones in the area. At Snoqualmie we actually never skied but we went tubing up there, snowshoeing or plenty of times cross country skiing.

Here a picture of Tim and the kids skiing at Crystal. He broke his skies and his poles up there…ts ts.

This was taken in May of 2008 - He loves getting as many people as possible involved in his little undertakings. I think, this time on our outing to Capital Forest he was able to get pretty much the whole neighborhood to come along.

Amen, brother!

We went to Wenatchee 3 adults and 6 kids so that the kids could participate in the Wenatchee Ridge to River Jr.multi sport race. (great event BTW) We had the popup camper with us and 3 ppl were sleeping in the tent. Well they planned to until it started snowing and we ended up cramming 9 people into the popup. Needless to say the air was stale but we were all warm and cozy.