Tough Mudders

Okay, so obviously I’ve been stuck again lately. I’m sad. It sucks.

That said, I’m getting better at putting on “the face” where I act like I’m okay even if I’m not. Sometimes I even managed to sneak a little fun in there too. Loud, loud fun.

Cousin Dave and his girlfriend Gemma came out from England to visit recently. We had a great time, with the exception of my dad throwing his back out and my mom breaking one of her arms while also managing to injure the other. I swear I’m not making this up people. It was ridiculous. We did, however, still have some fun. Here’s some of the documentation from later on in David and Gemma’s trip:

Directed towards prawn trap poachers:

Can you blame the guy? I’d be pretty annoyed too if people were messing with my livelihood.

After I bid farewell to that component of the fam, it was off to Whistler with April, Keith, and Emily to cheer on Yaya and her team in the Tough Mudder. A few of the highlights:

Notice how white her shirt is in this picture. Very, very short-lived:

And here we go:

I was so pumped I had to jump over the line and give my baby girl a hug:

Also note: this is right before she had to run up this hill:

And after that hill:

But before the monkey bars:

It was an amazing event and I couldn’t be prouder of the “Joey’s Angels” team:

I hear the worst part for Siarah was sliding down a compacted snow bank into muddy ice water that had crystallized so much that she had to be dragged through it by people on the other side. Good thing those mudders have a serious sense of camaraderie. Poor girl oscillated between being totally pumped up, crying about her Uncle Joey, wiping her eyes so that she could see and then realizing that she was covered in mud, which was now also in her eyes, so she still couldn’t see and she also had dirt in her eyes to boot. This went on for 12 miles. The kid’s a tough cookie.

By the end, we all felt like tough mudders:

Even though we weren’t.

Suffice it to say that Yaya took the next day to recover, while April, Keith and I went out to explore Whistler before we headed back to Vancouver:

What can I say? I’m a fan of those things.

April making a “Joey’s Snow Angel”:

Me posing beside it and pretending that I’m tough…again:

The view from the Peak-to-Peak Gondola:

So much fun, while simultaneously being absolutely terrifying.

And when we got back to Vancouver, guess who was there?

It was a sister bonanza! Was pretty excited to see Leeah and Brian. We live way too far away from each other, so I was really happy to see them on the coast.

And then I got home, messed up my own back and have been crying for a week and a half. Karmically I had it coming though. I should never have encouraged Dave to secretly take pictures of my dad clutching his back while my mom stood beside him with her arm in a sling.

K