Summer Time in AK

First was the Alaska 4x4 Meet and Greet. A total redneck event that I offered to chair this year. Not sure what I was thinking... maybe a few too many margaritas the night they called and asked if I would. But all went well and everyone that attended had a great time. I'm just glad it is over. Here is a link to what others are saying about it and some great pix of Kaia having a good time.

Once we recovered from that, we spent a little time getting the house put back together and took the girls out to to learn how to ride a bike.

Here's Kaia in all her biking glory.

Not at all happy to have to go home.

Mekayla had a great time too. Here she is in some Lupine in true Mekayla form. Totally excited and then totally pissed for no good reason but that she was done with the lupine.




Here's happy dog.

This 4th of July, we hit up the parade, attended a freedom rally at Wasilla Lake Park (which was interesting considering how 'Palin-friendly' and uber-conservative our little town of Wasilla is).






We even did a little fishing and then went wheelin' out to an old B-29 crash site. That was really cool considering it was a war plane that went down while serving the country I love.

Here are some great pix of that trip, and you can see more here.







Other good news. The Big Dreams 100 lb Fitness Challenge was a big success. We collectively lost 106 lbs since the start of the challenge back in Feb. GREAT JOB LADIES!!! I am going to start a new one and keep up in a forum fashion in Facebook. If you are interested, let me know via e-mail or facebook message at shunsaker@hotmail.com :) The new one starts on Friday so let me know if you want on that e-list via facebook. Thanks.

Training is going well for the 1/2 marathon. I did an 8 mile run on Saturday. It took me a good long while, but I'm just happy that I did it. I ran about 6 miles before having to walk a bit. I'm thinking I can finish the 13.1 in 2hrs 45 minutes. That is my goal and if I can drop another 20 lbs before then, I will be feeling really good about that. So... that's the goal. 20 lbs and 2hrs and 45 minutes. Wish me luck. :)

MORE good news, Kaia is officially potty trained. NO more wet pants or accidents at night. YAY KAIA!!!

My first Tri

Okay folks. Here are the pix from my first triathlon. It was awesome. I've still got a lot of work to do to be most improved next year. But I'm out there and lovin' it.
I'm down about 1/2 way to my weight loss goal and already training for my next big event. 1/2 marathon in August! Yay! Off to the races!

In other fitness news. The 100 lb fitness challenge has been a hit! Everyone has contributed to the total loss and it has been amazing! Here is the latest and greatest on the fitness challenge.

Remodeling Everything

Well, we've been busy remodeling EVERYTHING. The garage is coming along quite nicely... it is now a storage room and a drop down living room space. We just need to finish framing in the doors, cut a hole in the house, lay down the floor and put up a wall... oh yeah, we need to build an entertainment center and fireplace... okay, so we're not quite there yet.

We have also been doing a lot of remodeling in the front and back yard. We have cut down maybe 20 trees and split and stacked them for firewood. Gas prices are ridiculous and winters are coooold here. :( But at least it is good exercise and gets rid of all that dang cottonwood that makes such a mess every spring. It also lets in amazing light now for our garden, which I am excited to get started on. I figure this late in the season, I'm going to have to buy sprouts for most stuff, but with our raised bed we are building and all the berries I want to plant, we should have a really good crop this year and it will probably only cost us about a grand. Yeah! 1000 buckarooos, but we would easily spend that in berries and tomatos, so we shall see how it goes this year... wish us luck... well, at least more than last year because all we got for our $20 investment was a pea and a carrot... both of which the dog ate. :(

So back to the remodeling. I've also got a big Body Project. The Big Dreams 100 lbs Fitness Challenge is going quite well too. I've been remodeling my body to compete in a triathlon next Sunday. This Sunday is the trial run for that and I'm stoked. I'm almost to my weight I wanted to be by the triathlon, but still a long ways from 'racing weight' I decided I'm going to run a marathon next spring and am using this triathlon and other things like the bike and run for women to help me train in the mean time. I plan to get down to my 'racing weight' and then maintain for about 6 months before the race while I condition and get myself into competition form. :) REMODEL HERE WE COME!!!

Here are the fantastic numbers from the Big Dreams 100 lb Weight Loss Challenge. We are only 14 lbs away from our goal!!! That is amazing. There are 5 other awesome participants who have been miracles for my success as we have been sharing struggles and accomplishments on facebook. Once we are done with this, I may start up another one... mostly because I LOVE prizes, but also because I need the motivation and accountability.



Things have been really busy, and not much posting going on here. Sorry, I'll try to do better and catch up on all of what's goin on in your blogs.