Whew!

Busy weekend!!

First off, I didn't make it to Morrilton for the 5k Sat. so ended up missing a race for June. I did have a couple of months earlier in the year that I did more than one so that makes up for it right? James' mom waited until Friday evening when we called to check on her to tell us that one of her cats was sick and needed to go to the vet. Her reason for not calling us during the day? She didn't want to inconvenience us. Grrrr, her not telling us during business hours is what inconvenienced us. I was going to go ahead and take my motorcycle over to Morrilton then meet James at Russellville after he got done at the vet but that didn't work out like planned either. Had everything packed and was within a 1/2 mile of the freeway when I noticed lightning in the sky so turned around to go back home and was facing a major cloud bank in the west. Within 30 minutes of parking the motorcycle it started sprinkling. Went ahead and walked with Elsie for almost a mile until it started thundering then she'd had enough (she's terrified of thunder, okay with rain). Still not storming and I'm warmed up so decided to run and 1.5 miles into the run it turned loose!! Wind was causing the rain to sheet sideways and I was ok while it was at my back but boy did it sting when I had to turn to face into it to get back home. Managed to get 2.27 miles running +.97 walking with Elsie.

Between the vet visit, the rain, and having to load up the kayaks Sat. morning we ended up running late getting to Russellville. We arrived at my sister's house 30 minutes prior to Abigail's birthday party. It was ok though because we were spending the night and would get to have quality time with her afterwards. I learned a very valuable lesson! When you're playing tea party with Abigail don't tell her the lemonade is sour and you need more sugar. I was informed very quickly that her lemonade was sweet and I didn't know what I was talking about!! LOL!

I wasn't able to get any good pics of her party. Too many people to get in close enough.

One of the gifts I had gotten Abigail was a wooden table and chair puzzle set and it went over very well with her tea party set she'd received from her great grandparents on her dad's side. I was frustrated with all the toys being made in China so bought 3 of her gifts from Etsy this year. I went to high school with one of my brother-in-law's cousins and he was asking James wouldn't the drivers I work with be surprised that I was playing dolls with the little girls. WTH? I can do my job but I don't act or look like a guy.

This morning I ran hill repeats on the deadend road next to Shelley and Craig's house. There is one fairly steep hill that is .23 miles from the base to the top. Ended up with 5 reps and a total of 3.01 miles for the morning. Elsie surprised me and ran nearly the entire time. There was no traffic and the houses were set way back so I just dropped her leash and let her do it at her own pace. She stayed on the road with me, didn't try to chase the horses or anything. Only 12.5 miles on the week, basebuilding sucks.........

After breakfast, we said goodbye to the kids and Craig went with us to Piney Bay to give James a ride back from the Twin Bridges area (we dropped the kayaks off at Long Pool and then left the pickup at our landing point). Now there is some fast water in spots on Piney and I was kind of nervous because we hadn't been kayaking since late last fall and I didn't know how my shoulder would hold up + we were going to take Elsie. While waiting on James and Craig to return I paddled around in calm water with Elsie to see if she'd be okay on the kayak. She wasn't crazy about it but didn't act terrified so we thought there would be no problem. Well, remember I said she was scared of thunder? We hit the first set of rapids and she lost it. I hadn't even thought about the white water sounding like thunder to her. She caused both of us to capsize when she jumped out of my kayak and when I tried to grab her and then James capsized trying to snag her. Scared the hell out of me!!!!!!! I thought she was a goner but we'd bought her a doggie life jacket and it was well worth the money. Yes, we were wearing ours too, but we all know Elsie is the important one. James finally caught Elsie, handed her off to me and then he took off after the kayaks. Didn't think they were ever going to slow down. At this point she's terrified but we have no choice but to float on down because we're not anywhere near clear bank. She cried the entire way down, I feel like such a puppy abuser.

Moore's landing had guard dogs chained out that were barking and growling at us and she growled back at the dogs. That is the first time she has ever growled at another dog. James said that it was because the guard dogs were focused on us rather than her and she was trying to protect her family so I guess she still loves us even after all the trauma we put her through today. We waded back into the water to clean up after loading up the kayaks and she was ok as long as we stayed in very shallow water. We're all bruised and banged up from the rocks and we're going to be stiff tomorrow but at least there was no broken bones. The only casualty was James' cell phone, he didn't take the time to put in the ziploc baggy of stuff I had in his dry well (he had strapped a small empty ice chest to the back of his kayak and just threw his stuff in there). I removed the battery and we're hoping it'll dry out and be ok, otherwise he will be getting the spare one I have set back for when my current one dies--I'm notorious for dropping my phones and breaking them.