Mud Run

My friends are crazy. About a month ago, I got a text from my friend Beth saying "Save June 6 at 9am...details later." I thought maybe a girls' morning out, or a pray walk, but oh no....she had signed us up for a 5 person team USO (army) mud 5k. That's right....a 5k running race in the mud. Beth's brother was killed in action in Iraq a few years ago, so this was to honor him. We were told to wear wool socks and duct tape our shoes to our pants so we wouldn't lose them. It was actually really fun! There were many mudpits that were knee deep, and others that you had to crawl through (hence the mud on the hands in pictures below). The running portion was in hay, gravel, and tall grass most of the time. My favorite thing I heard from one of the other runners during the race was "Wait a minute, we're running through mud, then hay, then mud, then hay...hello! That's how you make bricks!" Our feet certainly felt like bricks! The race ended with a run through a huge water spray from a firehose. All in all, not a bad way to spend a beautiful Saturday morning!

Team "Muddy Buddy" and our duct-taped shoes

Katie and Keri running

Our and Beth's sister's team's shoes after the run

We did it!

The Cottage and Mani

First of all, we have another nephew!! Keri's sister went into labor 3 weeks early and our nephew Arie was born in Cambridge on June 1st! It is killing us not to be there to see him, but we are very excited for our siblings and pumped to meet their new kiddo in August.

For Memorial Day weekend, Keri got 4 days off of work and we headed up to the cottage. The weather was absolutely gorgeous for that time of year up there. We had fun playing games inside and on the beach and dipping in the cold water twice. One of the really fun parts for us was taking Mani to see how he'd do with a little beach and freedom. He had never seen sand before and freaked out at first when his paw touched, but then became quite the digger! He also wouldn't go in the water for the first 2 days, but something clicked on the last day and we couldn't keep him out of it! He also slept in our tent with us (just curled up at the foot of our sleeping bags and didn't bother us till morning!) and did really well off the leash on the beach. Do we need a kid or what? All of our pictures are of him from that trip! Here are a few shots and a before and after video with Lake Michigan.

Mani loving the sand

Cousin Stacey and boyfriend Tim, Mom, Dad, C.J. and dogs on the pier

Family!

C.J. and Mani walking on the beach

Mani after hearding all of his toys-our puppy is growing up!

Mani scared of the water