The Brinks II

3 of the runners on Team Lady Luck were different this year and another team from our neighborhood was also created, Team Lady Luckier, who, by the way, we BEAT! We all had a total blast together and despite the chilly temperatures down in Vegas we loved every minute of it and can't wait till next year!

As for my performance I was happy overall. My last leg was difficult but my time for all 3 legs was faster then what was projected so I was very happy about that. My first leg was 2.5 miles all up hill, my second leg was 7.2 on a pretty flat terrain, and my last was 4.8 with a few hills, but mostly flat! I felt this year like I actually contributed to the team's overall time, instead of taking away from the time and needing a stronger runner to make up for my pitiful performance, so that was definitely a bonus. Its fun to look back over the last year and see how I've improved in my running. In fact, I'm going to run the Utah Valley Marathon in June!

As for our overall team performance, we ran 195 miles in 30:40:59, came in 5th out of 28 for all women teams and 3rd out of 22 in our division. A fine performance if you ask me!

Thanks to all my Lady Luck team mates and our adopted Lady Luckier gals (you know who you are!) It was total blast and I can't wait for next year!!!!!

Loading up the cars before we leave

Team Lady Luck, Van 2--Naomi, Natascha, Katie, Maleah, Lindsay and me

All of Team Lady Luck, minus Jo, who we picked up on our way.

Maleah, Naomi, Jen, Jill, Cathy, Lindsay, me, Natascha, Katie, Jenny and Harmony.

Waiting to start!

Lindsay--I love her and was soooooooooo excited that we got to run together!

Me getting ready for my first run. Do you like how I had to have my reflective vest and headlamp on even though it was broad daylight?

Naomi, my own personal french braider!

Lindsay caught me coming out of the Honeybucket! By the expression on my face it must've been lovely in there!

Frank the Tank. This guy was hilarious!!!! We saw him everywhere along the course and our favorite was when he would GO STREAKING!!!!!!!

The adopted members of Lady Luck!

Mmmmmmmm, cheesecake!

The first time in 30 hours that I got to lay down!!!!!

p.s.--to Lindsay...little space, big butt! Little space, big butt!

Brady: (opening up some sour skittles to eat) Mom, do you like these?

Julie: I don't know Brady. I've never had them.

Brady: So you didn't get this kind when you were a kid.

Julie: Nope. They didn't have them.

Brady: You mean they didn't have them in your Country. (said as a statement. not as a question.)

Hahahahahahahahaha! For some reason this just made me laugh!

For Fall Break Lindsay and I decided to head over to Colorado! It had actually been planned since August when Lindsay and Colton first moved here. They were so sad that they wouldn't be able to see Josh play football and Jackson's team here had a bye so we thought it would be fun to head over for a visit! So Wed afternoon we checked the kids out of school and headed out. TJ and Colton couldn't drive with us on Wed but they were close behind, heading over on Thursday!

Not only did we have the chance to see Josh play football, we also got to cheer Taylor on during his last Cross Country Meet, spend Ali's birthday with her and run in the Denver marathon relay! And in between all of that we tried to convince Matt and Erin to join us from SoCal, held family polls on the top 5 loudest family members and the top 5 most sarcastic family members and created 'How Well Do you Know Me' quizzes. The 'How Well Do you Know Me' idea was started by miss Natalie and that was very interesting and informative! I learned that after 12 years of belonging to the Brinkerhoff family, there were still things I didn't know about some of them!

It was a FANTASTIC weekend and I'm so glad we had the opportunity to go. TJ, Jackson and I had never seen Josh play football so that was really fun and it was great to just hang out and have fun with the family!

Taylor booking it up the hill! He seriously is so fast!!!!! He was hoping to finish under 20 minutes and just barely missed it. Funny that I just hope to finish a 5 K in 30 minutes!

Waiting to be seated for Ali's birthday dinner!

Sleepy Savannah at Joshy's game.

Josh is the QB. He dropped back to pass and shortly after this picture was taken got tackled. I gotta say, it hurt my heart to see Josh get hit so hard but he's a tough kid so it was all good!

#12--Same as his nephew Jackson!

I'm not sure that I should really claim this group as my family!

A big thanks to Papa and LouLou for letting us wreak havoc on their house for the weekend! We hope it was all worth it for them!

Time for another EPIC series of blog posts! Since I'm so far behind I'll try to keep each post short and sweet and to the point, but I'm not promising anything! Let's begin!

In September we had the opportunity to spend a week in Orlando with most of my family. It was so much fun! Since our last trip to Disneyworld 3 1/2 years ago, we'd been dying to go back so we met Nana and Grandad, Marilee and her family and Heather and her family for a fun filled week at the happiest place on earth!

In 4 days we hit Disney's Hollywood Studios, Magic Kingdom, Blizzard Beach and Animal Kingdom. I was particularly excited for this trip since I was pregnant with Reece the last time and couldn't go on all the fun rides and waterslides and let me tell ya...all those fun rides and waterslides did not disappoint!!!! Rock N Roller Coaster at Hollywood Studios was AWESOME and Expedition Everest at Animal Kingdom is probably the funnest (is that a word) rollercoaster I've ever been on! In fact, we rode it 4 times...IN A ROW! And of course, I'm a waterpark junkie, so every slide at Blizzard Beach was a blast! And let's not forget the Tower of Terror! I don't care how many times I've ridden on it, it is hilarious every time! ESPECIALLY with Tyler screaming like a girl and Steve laughing his butt off!

So here are some pictures...enjoy! Oh wait, one more thing...a HUGE, GIANT, MASSIVE thank you to Nana and Grandad who made this all possible. From the idea to go in the first place to the use of their time share...thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!