Soccer Fall

This is what our weekends are like until November...but the kids love it, so all is good. :)

***sigh***

Another summer over...another goodbye to Gran & Gramps. They are headed back to the beach and we will miss them. The sleepovers, the s'mores and the constant spoiling....and of course Dad working his butt off on my house projects. Thanks Dad! We love you guys. Drive safe!

I Made This

:) DH and I had a little weekend away and on the last day he went on a bike ride and I went to a bead class. I have wanted to learn basic beading for a long time and I am surprised at how easy it is. And oh sooooo fun picking out the beads. Like I need one more hobby at this point. But I love making photo jewelry pendents...so now I can make them from scratch.

OMG

Ony 3 more years to the big four-oh. That is really freaking me out right now. Had a great little birthday weekend with the hubby. Thank you so much to my Mom and Dad for loving, entertaining and keeping the kids alive while we were gone...an invaluable birthday present! Love you guys!

Day 7 cont. The End

After dropping the fancy bikes off and hopping back on our old ones we still had another quarter mile to the Mississippi River...the end of RAGBRAI. A little bittersweet. There was a short strech of road where the cars were on the route and it was quite a traffic jam!

But we got back...eventually all of the Dogheads found the motorhome and we said our goodbyes. Another one down...how many more to go??? :) Hmmmm I'm thinking the Bahamas might be a little more relaxing next year!

Congrats to Barry on completing his 20th RAGBRAI....check out the tags on his bike!

Day 7 Cont.

BARRY! We found Barry on the route today!

Didn't get to stop much on the route today. Everyone is kind of in a hurry to reach the river and find their shuttle home. The end of RAGBRI is really kind of anticlimatic...most people just dip their tires in the Mississippi and then find their bus/van/shuttle home! Before we knew it we were hitting the end town, time to turn in these sweet bikes.

Day 7 RAGBRAI Last Day!

Dyersville to Belleview, 59.7 miles

Sean and I snuck out in the early morning, before the kids woke up. This was our last day of riding and we got to go by ourselves (thanks Mom & Dad!), but we had to be to the finish by 1pm to return our bikes, ugh! This was also the first time we would ride the WHOLE day...It would be the most I had ever ridden at one time. Everyone said that if I could do a half day on my old dionsaur mountain bike that on this awesome bike it would be a breeze. Sean was giddy with excitement getting to demo his super fancy bike. It was the first time we weren't the LAST ones to leave the campgrounds! It was a beautiful morning and the perspective was so different....the shadows are different...the light is softer....and there are so many more riders to ride with if you get up before 8am!



We hit the first big breakfast stop, I tried to get a panorama shot of our view from the top of the little hill we were sitting on...looks cool if you can blow it up! The biggest line is always for the pancakes!

So all day, Sean would sprint ahead of me....pull off, wait for me to pass him (while taking a picture), let me pass him and get ahead, then he would sprint past me again, repeat....all 60 miles! It was really pretty funny! :)




I love this shot of me with the cows in the background. It is always so funny to watch the cows watch all the riders...wonder what's going on in those big heads!