The Great Mountain Climb

Here is a big Happy Birthday to the worlds best big brother! You know you really love your brother when you are willing to climb from 10,000 ft. to 13,000 ft. just to celebrate the big 50 with him! Well not with him exactly, but for him is a better way to put it. Though he did give me his 5 and 0 from his cake so I could use them in 15 months!

We all enjoyed some really good times. Here we are all enjoying a laid back breakfast the morning after. The amazing thing is I was not too sore. The truth was I could not go up fast enough to get sore, and could not run down fast enough to get sore. Going up it was all I could do to stay upright, man does that altitude make you nauseaus. Coming down the rocks were killers and I was just trying to not fall on my face!

I have to say Leadvlle Colorado is a beautiful spot. Here are the bros and significant others and I enjoying the park with the kiddos. The weather was pleasant, except at the top of the mountain where wind and more wind prevailed.

Pretty cool medals they got ha? Once again I worked my butt off to complete a race and ended up with no medal. As soon as I crossed the line the lady apologized to me that they messed up their order and sent them too many full marathon medals. That is the second race in a row with no medal. What is the lesson in this for me? Get faster so I can actually get a medal! I was 17th in my age group out of 20, not too bad. And I finished in 4:58, under the five hour goal I had for myself.

Here I am coming down the home stretch. Thank goodness the last three miles is all down hill and on dirt road. It was so good to see hubby waiting there and waving to me. I just wanted to cry, I was really wiped out.I could not eat anything the whole climb as the altitude made me really sick. So just lots of water and gatorade, took some real recovery for that one.

We all lined up together. Only three of us completed the race, but my other brother was a great help in getting me to run on the downhill when I really did not want to. He helped me make up enough time that I could go with my goal. Aren't brothers the best?

SOME THINGS NEVER CHANGE

The more things change the more they stay the same. Isn't that the truth? We have lived in Costa Rica for two and a half years now. We love it here and really enjoy the scenery and the weather. Of course there are things we do not enjoy, but all in all we are old enough to realize things don't really change just because you move.

Yesterday my daughter was at the park down the street with her boy-friend. We don't call him a boyfriend because she is only 15 and that is not allowed. So we just call him her boy-friend. At any rate they were down there watching the kids play and taking her dog for a walk.

He has been having trouble with an ex-girlfriend since he started hanging out with the gringa, or my daughter. A bit of a jealousy issue. So her new boyfriend comes up and starts beating up on this kid. My daughter did not know what to do and just grabbed his arm and tried to get him to leave the park.

As they were leaving the kid came charging at them from the left side. The deal is my daughter can't see out of her left eye, her boy-friend luckily caught what was comming and shoved her out of the way. He got thrown into the gate of the park and the guy pulled the gauges out of his ear and pulled his sweatshirt off of him. Thank goodness the park supervisor was on the ball and had called the police. They came and got his shirt back and told the other guy to leave him alone.

My daughter was really cute. She brought him home and got him two Aleves and some ice and of course lots of sympathy. Of course for her it brought back lots of bad memories about her brother and I was surprised how affected she was. The good part was she begged him to let it go and not retaliate. I guess she has learned something from the older brothers.

Another good thing is she knows it does not just happen in Costa Rica!

BROTHERS

This is just a shout out to my younger bro. I have not experienced divorce, but want to offer him my support and love at this time in his life. It is weird that I still turn into the protective big sister when something happens to my bros.

He is awesome and I know he is tough and will handle the next few months like a trooper. After seeing him in a bike race you would see what I mean about tough.

This guy is so cool. He put himself through med school 10 years ago and is just the best pediatrition in all of Texas. In the meantime he was also an awesome bike racer and now he has graduated into car racer.

Not to mention he is just a darn nice guy and is very generous. Thanks to him and his impecible taste in clothes all his younger and one older brother dress darn nice. When we all get together they all joke that they look like they walked out of his closet! He's also just a blast to hang out with and keeps us all crackin up with his stories.

Families are great and I am sure thankful for 7 brothers and 1 sister that support and hang in there with me through my trials. I know when I need it they are always there for me. One of my brothers is a pilot and last week gave up a buddy pass so my hubby could go to a conference he really wanted to go to in LA. But he did not stop there, he put him up at his house when he did not catch his flight not only going but coming back. It was so cool of him.

Last May my pilot bro donated another pass so that I could attend the graduation of another bro from med school. The above bro hooded him and it was so cool to be there with my bros. We were all there except one younger and my sister.

There are lots of hats to wear daughter, sister, wife, mother, and grandma. I would have to say that sister is one of the best and I am very thankful to be one!