Volleyball and the Iditarod

Last night some of us got together and went to the Alaska Club and played volleyball in a racket ball room (quite the experience with the walls and all). It was Jody and I, the girls, Joleesa's boyfriend Devon and Tim Osborne. We first played the girls against the guys and uh the girls got whipped. Then I insisted we mix it up. We had 3 on one team and 4 on another until a man named Eato asked if he could join Jessa, Devon's and my team to make it even. I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. Devon didn't want to play but I paid for him so I said he had to. He was always using too much power and even kicked the ball and his shoe went flying and the other team was running for cover. It was great, clean fun and my body felt the fact that it hadn't had much activity for a very long time.

Then we were up at 7:30 this morning to blue skies, bright sunshine and about 5 degrees weather. We bundled up and headed out for the iditarod. I really was trying not to expect too much because I didn't want to be disappointed. But it was AWESOME. Over the years I've read about and watched on tv the Iditarod. But we were actually here. Taking pictures of the dogs. Listening to commentary right above us, watching the fur clothed people go by, hearing the yapping of the excited dogs and seeing the grins on their faces (I do mean the dogs and the mushers faces both). We were bundled up so the chill wasn't too bad. We saw the very start of the race and even though there was quite the crowd we were still able to get fairly close to the trail. There were even times that some men would actually be gentlemen and move away from the fence and motion for the girls with their cameras and short me, get up close. Jessa and Jenna took turns in the dog pit taking close up pictures of the dogs (the only disappointment of the day is Joleesa had to work so she couldn't be there~real bummer~I really tried to push her to find someone to cover for her but I didn't think about it soon enough and she didn't think of it at all). We wandered down the trail and snapped pictures of the teams at different places along the trail. Some time into the day we went into office depot to warm up. We wanted to be sure and be out there fo #51 Hershey Bar which was Andy from Bethel and we cheered him on in Nowling style ~grin. Following him was a musher from Wisconsin but we had never heard of the town he was from but we cheered in Wisconsin style for him. Then we went into a nearby Mexican restaurant to eat and they had a large screen tv so we continued watching the race. After eating the guys wimped out and went back to the car while the girls and I went back to find the hospitality room (which was at the starting line) because I had a free pass to go in there and felt guilty for not using it. I am soooo glad we did. As we were walking back we stopped along the trail again for the various teams. There were 83 teams in all and team number 82 (I think) was a farmer from Rice Lake WI which is just about 30 miles from where we lived in Menomonie. We (I) cheered him on loudly and then we made it back to the starting line just as the last team pulled out with a camera man on the back of its sled. To say the least when he went to disembark from the moving sled he took quite the tumble. A great ending to the race. It was everything I remember reading about or seeing and more. It'll be so much fun to track them on their way over the next week to 10 days. The actual start of the race is at 2 pm tomorrow in Willow AK which is probably about 50 miles from here. I think will stay in the warmth of our home after church and watch it as we celebrate JESSA'S BIRTHDAY with a nice dinner.

It is so good to have days like this. It is something I'll never forget. When my memory goes we've got tons of pictures to remember it by. I hope to post a couple here and I know Jenna will post some too, and then of course they'll be on her Ringo.

Everyone is sleeping now. I just had a hot soak in our jacuzzi tub with lots of bubbles. My lips are chapped, my face feels wind burned or chapped, my body hurts, but I feel good. I'm going to study for SS and feel confident in my spirit the Lord is going to give us a wonderful service tomorrow.

Day's like today, I'm glad I live in Alaska ~smile.