I went eXtreme....

That is what Joe's t-shirt says right now.  This morning he ran his first eXtreme race.  They are also called "Warrior Runs".  It is a 5K race with obstacles.  This army basic training and you will be pretty close to what he experienced.  He did really well especially considering it was his first one and most that were running were more than 1/2 his age.  I am not sure exactly what his time was (he lost his number tag on the first obstacle, but his ankle timer remained), but he finished to the front of the middle of the pack.  Way to go Babe!!!

Starting off through the woods

One of the first mud pits he went through

Climbing one of the walls

So evidently there was a 200 ft mud pit that they had to crawl through which is why he looks like this. Ugh...can you imagine how heavy the shoes and clothes are with all that mud???

Crawling through the final pit to the finish line.

And the finish line!

Joe and his pastor buddy Rusty.  They signed up together for the race.

Paint and Chess

I know..paint and chess....a weird combination).  But I didn't feel like these each warranted their own post, so I combined them. 

Our living room is painted at this point!  Yeah!  We don't have all the outlet covers changed or the pictures back on the wall.  But it is painted.    Here's proof:

The kids thought it was lots of fun to watch TV like you were in a movie theater while the living room was in process.

The technical color was "antique leather".  It is a cross between a gray and brown.  Now that it is on the wall it has a green cast to it as well.  We really like it.

Here you can see the gray in it.  We are going to paint the hutch on the right black.  We are also planning on somehow getting the gold on the fireplace painted black as well.

John decided he wanted to learn how to play chess.  So John did what John does when he wants to learn something....he finds a book at the library.  He read it yesterday and was playing some high schoolers from youth group last night.  He isn't a pro yet, but, if he sticks with it, I definitely think he has the brains to be someday.  Joe was "teaching" (some may call it "beating") him some of the finer skills this morning.

Saturday morning coffee and chess.

Cowboys and Indians

It was so great to have the kids back home this week.  I liked the return of the cowboys and indians.  The neighbors commented that they enjoyed their return as well.

Fun Filled Week

The kids hit the ground running when they returned from vacation and their grandparents.  John and Nathan had Cub Scout Daycamp this last week.  Ashley got to take a class at  World of Wonder at Bradley University.  Sara hung out with me and help plan VBS for later this summer.  Here are some pictures.  If you check out Joe's blog (http://jmhorn.blogspot.com/2012/06/cub-scout-day-c.html) you can see even better pictures of the boys. 

Here is Ashley in front of some flowers at Bradley.  She took a class called Dramalogy and LOVED it.  They worked a lot on improv skills as well as learning the basics of stage acting.

Nathan was the only Tiger Scout at day camp this year.  As you can tell he didn't really enjoy the attention. ;)

John getting his certificates of completion.

Florida Part 3

The next two days at Disney were spent at Epcot and Hollywood Studios.  Here are some pictures:

One of the few full family pictures we got  on the trip.

One of our favorite rides...

Looking the part in "France"

Nathan chilling out and airing out his "piggies" while waiting for the kids to finish riding Mission Space

Love Piglet!

Okay, have to take a break and share more of these pics later.  Evidently our internet cannot handle this and Netflix.  Since we have been greatly limiting TV viewing this summer, I should extend some grace and let the kids enjoy their show.