Some of the food . . .

Remember how I said we spent a whole day collecting little clam creatures?  Well, this is what they looked like after being rinsed thoroughly in the sink . . .(earlier, they were in a bucket with salt water, and had little arm-like extensions that stuck out-reaching.  Don't think about that too much, or you might not think this looks appetizing! ;)

 This, after they have been boiled in water for a bit to make a broth . . . 

And this is the finished soup.  Jeff made this after dinner, and I tried the broth, it really was quite tasty . . . Jeff had the whole soup and said it was great!  Chalk that up to adventurous cooking, I'd say!

 Our last full day in the house was just our little family.  We decided to get some local shrimp and steam it up . . . 

 I'm pretty sure this was my favorite meal the entire trip:  Shrimp and cheese grits, sooooooooo good!

This concoction, was a favorite of the kids while we were there.  Take one box of cake mix (any flavor, in this case I think it was just plain chocolate)  Add 1/4 cup oil, 1/4 cup water, and one egg.  Mix until right consistency (think cookie) Fold in favorites (here: butterscotch chips) Cook for 12 minutes or so at 350 degrees.  Put a big spoonful of ice cream in the middle (strawberry swirl or something here) and enjoy!

Time at the beach.

After a pretty exciting trip to the beach house, we enjoyed a relaxing week with family.  These are some of my favorites from the week:

We enjoyed watching for (and seeing some) dolphins . . . 

Bestemor and Bestefar were only able to stay with us until early Monday morning, but we sure enjoyed having them as long as they could be with us!

Pelicans that loved to coast along the rooftops of the house line, making them only a few feet above our heads when sitting on the balcony . . . 

Seeing my siblings, and family, enjoying the wonder of the sea . . . 

Always nice to fly a kite at the beach, they really soar!

Spencer really took to the skim board.  This picture doesn't due his sweet moves justice!

Benjamin was determined to make a fort that could stand all night and into the following day, after a few tries, he had one . . . right up until a storm came and made the waters really rise, but definitely a fun project.

Morning, afternoon, evening: anytime walks on the beach . . . 

Watching kite surfers from our kitchen window on a stormy day . . .

Having PERFECT waves on one day, they were seriously 10-15 feet high, and allowed us to ride them without getting pummeled in the sand.  We got lots of use of the boogy boards (two of which my parents bought to use while they were with us and strategically left behind :) . . . Now don't get me wrong, they were strong, and could cause some interesting wardrobe issues if you weren't careful, but SOOOOOOO fun!

Can you tell which board we left behind?  Here's a hint, it's the one with a crinkly in it that made it feel like you were riding a roller coaster . . . okay, it was the black one. . . 

Decorating Easter eggs, hiding them in the sand, having the kids find them. 

Making ice cream from scratch and freshly picked strawberries, and knowing that some of the cousins had never seen it made before . . . 

Soooooooo yummy!

A challenging game of croquet with the sand at a decline for half the course . . . 

That "peachy pink" one as Hannah described it was the one we stayed in.  Just right.

Playing games together around the kitchen table . . . 

Naps . . . 

Little Caroline was pretty beat, this is how she decided to sleep, and only woke up when it was time to go inside.  Crazy skills!

Catching great "Just Dance" moments :) :) :)

Designating any moment as a "Senior Pictures" moment for my youngest Sister.  Such a good sport about it, too!

I know it's sideways, but hey, that's okay!

oh wait, that's Grandy, but nice pose ;)

Trips to find the perfect beach attire . . . or accessories.

And really, being together, without a lot of other things that had to be done.  We had flexible morning, and midday meals, and made dinner to eat together.  I sure do love these people!  Thanks for taking the time to be with us!

Collective sigh . . .

Before leaving town, we were able to show family around a bit.  Spencer and I went on a long bike ride in the morning (about 2.5 hours worth) he did great, right up until the last three hills or so, but luckily he recovered quickly :)  We divided and conquered around town: some to see the Gardens, and other favorite places around, the rest to see a civil war site.  There were people on hand to answer questions, and we learned about ammunition, cooking techniques, and I was privileged to dance with an older gentlemen like they might have in the time period.  Interesting . . .  Then we said goodbye to Aunt Sharron, Uncle Ronnie, and Emmy who were headed in a different direction than we were.  Always enjoy when we get to see them!

We packed up the vehicles as quickly as possible, and made our way toward the Beach . . . 

About this time, the rain started to fall . . . and if you've been in a rainstorm here, you know that if it's going to rain,  it's going to REALLY rain.  We stopped to get something to eat after only about 30 minutes of a drive, because we were hungry, and it was about that time.  About this time, we realized we'd forgotten a few things that we wanted to have with us.  The clouds looked menacing, but I figured I could make decent time back to the house and they would have just ordered and started eating their food, or close to it anyway . . . 

I drove away . . . seeing the looming clouds and lightning ahead of me, and feeling all of my family behind me, it was a very strange feeling.  I couldn't help reflecting on stories from the scriptures . . . where people looked back when they shouldn't have, and were turned to pillars of salt?  Okay, so I make it to the house, grab the things that I went back for, nothing else, because about this time, rain had really started to fall, and thunder and lightning were in quick succession.  (Enter slight foreboding feeling!)  I rushed everything back to the car, and made it back to family within 40 minutes, they were finishing up, doing the restroom run, and we loaded up just in time for the REAL downpour to hit.  

Just as we were pulling onto the freeway, it was really like rain-out conditions (not sure if that is a real term, but it should be.  Think white-out that you would experience in a blizzard, add about 40 degrees to the temperature, and change the precipitation to rain and you've about got my meaning) and the roads were very slow in moving.  We were a caravan of four vehicles (all of our children riding with grandparents and cousins) inching our way forward, wiper blades on high.  Soon after, I get a phone call from my Dad, asking if we were listening to the radio?  Apparently there was a tornado REALLY close?  We turned to a better station and were hearing play-by-play announcing how close things were.  

Still we crept on . . . 

Then the hail started to fall . . . 

we crept on . . . 

kept thinking of the rental cars . . . 

decided to stop under an overpass . . . 

radio said that's not a good idea . . . 

ignored radio, and waited about 10 minutes or so for hail to stop and rain to let up a bit . . . 

crept out of underpass, with all four cars, and quickly came upon a portion of the freeway covered in greenery.  As we looked to the trees, the tops were off, we could see exactly where the tornado had come through, and hadn't stopped very much beforehand . . . 

definitely NOT tired at this point, just wanting to get to our destination.  We made it another couple hours, still listening to the same radio station telling us we were heading into another cell.  My older brother thought we should pull off at a rest area . . . 

the grandparent vehicles did not see us pull off . . . 

power out in rest area . . . 

can't get a hold of grandparents . . . 

find out they are all right, just didn't see us get off, pass an overturned semi and new tornado-sheared trees . . . 

meet up with grandparents and press onward toward our destination, white knuckled. . . 

make it to the beach house, take about 5 hours when it should have taken less than 3, but we were all safe, and make it in before another cell hit the house and caused the lights to blink, and make us a bit nervous.  Thankfully, it passed quickly and gives us excellent views over the ocean, like our own fireworks show.  

I was and still am very grateful we made it safely, and were able to enjoy our time together.  

Palmetto 200

As you may have gathered from reading our blog, we enjoy physical activity, and one of the things that has made its way into our lives is running. Over the past few years, we have done a fair number of races, from half to full marathons. It has been a lot of fun, but as you know as a runner for the most part running in one of those is a fairly solitary event. You do it by yourself.

About a year ago I found out that Jason Guffey, a missionary who served in Rio de Janeiro at the same time that I did, was living in South Carolina. He was really into running as well, and we frequently would email or facebook to talk about our different races that we were doing. It was a lot of fun to find another friend with some of the same interests, as well as the mission connection. Well around January he contacted me and told me about the Palmetto 200.

What is the Palmetto 200? Well it is a simple 200 mile (204) relay race that goes from Columbia to Charleston, S.C. You can do the race as a 6 person or 12 person team. You begin sometime on Friday and then end on Saturday. Well, Jason invited me to run his race with him. Kathleen was going to run as well, but with her recent running injury, we weren't ever able to get her to run long enough or consistently enough for her to be able to do it. I was going to run about 20 miles of the full distance, which is right around normal for two days for me. I wasn't really concerned about the distance, but running three different legs about 12 hours apart was going to be very different. I practiced running at my respective times (1 pm, 1 am and 1pm), I even practiced sleeping on the ground in a sleeping bag.

Finally the day of the race came. I had driven down to Columbia and stayed with the Guffey's, and then our 12 man team got up early and we began the race. We had two vans, with 6 people per van, which we decorated with our awesome team name, the fighting tortugas (turtles).

Me getting ready for my first leg, just outside of our van

Our van with the designated mileage. I was deemed Hermes in our van,  as I had the  fastest splits

My view from the backseat for the duration of the run

The race was great. We were moving a long really quickly. My first run was 9.8 miles and I did that in 1 hour 15 minutes (a 7.33 minute/mile pace). My second run was shorter (3.7 miles) but it was at 1 am. I did it in 23 minutes, under 6.30 minute miles. I was the proudest of this run, I passed two runners in this leg, but I also was able to get a roadkill (someone that you passed) of a support bicyclist.  I felt pretty good about passing a biker, as did my team, and they made note of it on the van. The volunteer at the end of the leg was just blown away at how fast I came down the hill. She was all screaming and excited. It was pretty cool, I really got into it, and really appreciated the runner from the other team who said "you have almost perfect running form". I am grateful for comments like that, even if they do come from extremely tired individuals who can't see.

Jason Guffey and I cooling down after our first legs of the race. The lake water was perfect for an ice bath

At this point we were about 2 hours ahead of our expected finish time, and we were doing great. Unfortunately, this is also where the wheels came off. As our group was sleeping, the other group was doing their runs. They were doing great until their four runner, who they somehow lost. He was running through the swamp area of S.C. (you know gators) and somehow took a wrong turn. The end result was that instead of running about 5 miles, he ran over 3 hours, and we estimated he completed close to a full marathon distance, before he found a police officer. That made our two hour lead turn into an hour deficit.

My final leg of the race was 6.4 miles over the Cooper River Bridge, into Charleston and threw the Battery. It is a beautiful town I loved seeing it (Although it was only in passing, and by passing I mean as fast as I could). Jason came out and helped me. I was a little lost coming off of the bridge, and there were tons of people milling around. I was trying to dodge everyone, and not doing a fantastic job. Then I saw him, and I just used him like a lineman. I let him blow holes in the people and I just followed in suit.  I was so exhausted. My run went well, I had a 7.28 minute mile pace, finishing in 47 minutes.

Before going over the Cooper River Bridge

Me going over the bridge

We finally finished the race with Jason running in the final leg of the race. All in all, we finished the 200+ miles in just over 33 hours. The race finished at Folly Beach, and although it had been a very sunny and hot day, by the time we got there it was too cold to get into the water.

Our final race time

Me at Folly Beach

Our van after the race, with our tally of Road Kills and Got Killed. Note the bike on the road kill portion.

Team Fighting Tortuga at the end of the race-tired and sweaty

Me performing the Fighting Tortuga Call

The race was a lot of fun. It was quite exciting to see how fast I could go without holding back for a longer distance. It was also great to see Jason and meet his family. He was a great missionary, and from what I saw is an even better husband and father. So in the end, I have to cheer on the Fighting Tortugas with the official Tortuga war cry "                                          ".  There, did you hear it?