Adventure II

Steve and I took another crack at the Bushwhacker Adventure Race this year, but not on opposing teams.

The race was purposely modified a little due to some lengthy times last year. So a finish time just over an hour wasn't just because we're awesome...but that helped too. I going to claim 4th place since the trash pick up bonuses don't count and I like to pretend Mike's team doesn't count either :-)

Josh and I picked a perfect day to pick up our bikes. It was sprinkling when we went to get mine, and it was almost no visibility (not pictured) on the way up to Rockford to get Josh's. Imagine riding shotgun in a car going 45mph on the highway because of weather knowing that you have to ride back.

Cleared up nicely though, and the bike pretty much lived up to it's ebay post. Josh only killed the engine once too. Took me a whole day before I stopped doing that.

Ooooooooo, Mr. tough guy.

Watching Josh push the limits on his first ride after the class wasn't the only bonus of the trip. They had a Red Robin in Rockford. Score!!

Aaaaaand we were total dorks spending most of our time texting friends about the bikes instead of actually talking each other.

Ohhhhh Baby

We are now a two bike household...with a pew. Please don't ask why there is a pew in my garage. I barely know myself.

Best Wedding Ever!

Too late to blog about this? IIIIIIII don't think so.

First wedding in the new church. Pretty good. Cute couple. See?


They got that right!!! Totally forgot to take the seeds home.

Excellent shish-ka-bobs made by some of the finest grill masters I know.

But planing a tornado at the end of the evening to keep people longer and in much closer proximity was priceless. You guys are good!

Most couples have to go from table to table to greet and catch up with each guest. But this time all they had to do was walk down a concrete lined hallway.

Despite the spotted twister, it was a great wedding that was really cool to be invited too. Congratulations! (a week late)

Gonna be sore in the mornin' again

I was graciously invited out to the lake house a couple of weeks ago. For some reason I had this calm and peaceful weekend in mind on my way out there. Chatting with new friends on the porch.

Kickin' it back in the hammock.

Good meals with friends at the kiddie table.

Nice view.

Some simple activity.

Idiot. What was I thinking.



Those guys felt it the next day. But even though they played harder, they were not as sore as I. There were a couple of show-off's too.



This is a man utterly confused. What was I looking for? Is that my camera?

It was definitely great prep for a summer retreat later this year. A good workout and you can't miss all the great food the Clark fam offers every time.

Here's some video goodness of Terry at the helm of pain city last weekend. Good stuff.

Good News!!!

I couldn't get the disappointment with yesterdays lack of good cloud pictures out of my head. It was such a beautiful day and most of it was spent indoors. So I did some exploring and found that the rooftop of my workplace is going to work out quite nicely. Nothing terribly exciting today, but I feel much better now.

Record Driving Time

Record long that is. It's bad enough that I only spend a couple of hours at my destination and hardly get anything done. Driving three hours out and back staying with barely enough time to say hi. Don't be fooled when I say I'm going on a cool work trip. I raise the pointlessness of all that time by taking the long route. I think I missed a total of three exits this time on the drive to St. Louis because I wasn't paying attention (no, not while taking pictures). But really, I only learn from my mistakes. Seriously. I've learned more in the new job by having to fix problems every day than I did in college trying to learn systematically. I now know pretty well how the interchanges between 270, 70 and 55 around St. Lois work and the wrong time of day to drive them!!
Our office is in Maryland Heights, if that gives you any idea how incredibly off course this picture places me.
More stupid things Kevin learned... It has really bugged me recently that "pay at the pump" pumps are NEVER labeled so you only find out when the annoyed cashier says so on the loud speaker. So I've finally gotten in the habit of thoroughly checking out any pump before hand so that I can make a sarcastic comment (I know) to the attendant about the missing notice. To my surprise, I noticed this sticker on every pump at one station this weekend. Not to be robbed of my bitterness, however, I noticed that the LCD screen says "Begin pumping, OR insert credit card". LIARS!!!

Game Day

It's already that time again. Tonight's game was the third of Bethany's softball season. I don't have the stats up yet, but they are coming. Didn't seem possible that a game could be played in the certainly soaked field. It took me an hour to dry out and that was just 5 seconds in today's freaky rain.

Last night was just a fun opportunity to watch my first game of the season with friends and play catch with the kiddos. Tonight, I actually had a job. Babysitting Trey and Michael :-)
Thanks to Dave's help, Trey barely got 200 yards away from the dugout! :-) And since Michael was taken care of by the rest of his team, I got to spend some close and personal time with Kolben (not pictured)...and his dinner.

I'm a good driver

On my last AWANA hurrah, I was ego filled to hear a child speak the words "You're a good driver!". I had one simple job. Ferry zip-line gear from from one end of the line to the other at the Camp Good News cookout. This requires wheels because of the gulch between the ends of the line. The ride is fun enough by yourself, but I soon realized that it is better to share...and freak people out. You can't tell from the video, but there are lots of chances to make people who skipped the zip-line wish that they had not. OK, to be honest, for every "you're a good driver" there were five "I'm never ridding with you again".


This is my last activity with the AWANA kids. I've decided to move on or take a break. Miss you guys alot! Maybe see you later down the road.

Site seeing

While Peoria is my favorite home base (like I've had others), it's pretty obvious that seeing new places and trying new things is one of my favorite things to do. It occurred to me recently that I had one of the busiest times ever seeing and doing stuff I don't normally get to do. In a four week time period, I was in Colorado, St. Louis, Moline, Champaign, Canton (emphasis on the activity) and Indianapolis. It's an easy blessing to take for granted, especially with a busy schedule. But I am grateful to be able to experience so much. And the summer has only begun! Back off, I know it's not technically summer yet.

The most recent interesting place was close to home. Noah's cubical down the street at DeKroyft-Metz. Good stuff man.

It's a wedding year

It seems like marriages come in groups every other year. The blog has only been around long enough to see one of those years (7 weddings). A couple of years before that was an entirely different generation of church friends moving on. So far, I can see three weddings this year. Anyone want to update that??? :-)

Josh tried to sneak in to Peter and Kelli's wedding party with his matching outfit.
I was paying attention so well during the wedding that no pictures were taken of the couple....sorry. I think someone else got some good photos though :-) Someone else got some good texts. Smooth.

Studs. All of 'em.

Alyssa looks like she'll need dramamine the next time she dances with Wes. Spin 'er man spin 'er.

Now THIS I can do.