Sunday, August 30, 2009

Our Outdoor Adventure

*Note: Due to the extreme conditions that we were in, no actual pictures of the events could be taken during the actual event. Please bear with our use of google pictures*




Since living in Colorado, we have been able to witness some of the most beautiful creations of God. From Garden of the Gods, to the beautiful Pikes Peak, we are always in awe.

Yesturday was one of those awe days.

We joined Larry's Aunt Michelle, her kids and parents on their drive out to Colorado's Paint Mines. These rocks and hoodoos are beautiful!

While meandering through the scenery, we failed to take note of just how close a mass of black clouds were heading. Poor Larry, kept prompting and pointing out the obvious lighting and thunder rolling our way, but being with a group of girls, his voice was drowned out by all of our need for exploring.

We only got about a miles hike into the Paint Mines when the rain really began. We took no heed to the water and toted some happy kids laughing in the water. And then it hail.

At this point, we decided to wait out the storm under a small cove of sandstone rocks. Water mixed with sandstone = mess. The longer we waited, the larger the hail became. One thing we didn't consider when going into a small canyon-like setting while it was raining was the chance of flash floods. Granted, the flooding was nothing in comparison to this, but it came fast and fairly strong.

It was amazing how quickly the water collected and form a rushing river inside of these trails of rocks. Knowing if we didn't move quickly we'd be flooded in, we each grabbed a sobbing child, hiding as much of their little limbs as we could and ran through this new river of hail and muddy water, praying that it would get better. Looking back, it really seemed like a scene from some Brendan Fraser movie with everyone trying to escape the rushing water and firing enemies.

It's amazing at how lucky we were despite all of this.
We all came out cold, with nice sized welts from the quarter-sized hail (!), and only one of us briefly had a meeting with a small cactus on the way back to the cars.

It's amazing how heart crushing and terrifying it is to know that you are practically helpless in covering a child from the pelting pain of hail.

It was amazing to witness how quickly the large mass of clouds hurried past, despite the enormity the storm should have been.

It is amazing that despite our not heeding any still small voice, our Heavenly Father still loves and helped us.

I have definately gained a much greater respect for nature and just how quickly one's situation can change, in just a blink of an eye. I have such respect for how in control Heavenly Father is, when we all felt so incapable.

One day, I hope to go back and be able to take some Painted Mine pictures of our own, but we'll wait for a REALLY sunny day, I think.

Thursday, August 20, 2009

A Scanlon Tradition

Growing up in the Scanlon household was not a normal experience. For family home evenings, we would put on either various plays, puppet shows, or make our own videos.
It was amazing to find out at an early age that other families did not do this. I had thought every family did their own remakes of the hit films of that year or even just the occasional music video.
No. This is a Scanlon tradition.

To continue with this tradition, we made our own Abba music video in ode to our Scanlon grandparents 60th wedding anniversary.

Here it is!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S17V7LcdB70

And if for some reason you want more, here is the outtake video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdFRjmmmXPc

Monday, August 10, 2009

BAT ATTACK!

This is what Larry found at work today...








Yes, it's a real bat. Live and flapping. Yes, that's my husband. Strange but funny.

Friday, August 7, 2009

Thought for the day...

...how did we let this happen?


Saturday, August 1, 2009

Mud Run!!!

Ohhhhhh Yessss! I woke up bright and early this morning in great anticipation for this! Colorado Springs 4 mile Mud Run!

I was invited by some girls at Larry's work to come along and join their team and I am glad I did. It seriously was a lot of fun. Though the advertisement on the flier was a bit off: "Four miles of pure mud with lots of obstacles along the way!" (um, only 4 and one of the obstacles had us swing over a pretend mud pit, since they forgot!), this still was alot of fun and have decided nothing is better than starting your Saturday wallowing in the mud.




Here we are, the Warrior Princesses!!!!!




With matching shirts, wings, and all!!


A great before shot, with our awesome new tattoos...




















Ready? SET....
...Go!
note: the group that we are running with won the costume contest. Tsk tsk. They didn't even have wings!
Larry, Edana, and Cpt. Venn (taking pic) were awaiting our return at the end.



And here we come!!!!


note: I'm the girl in the back not knowing how to army crawl. Yeah. Figured that would be me with all the army girls! ;) I attempted it and got a face full of mud!

And here is the lovely "after" shot! Ha ha! I love how Ashley (middle) was the only one with her wings still intact!


I think this is a great look for me.








While we waited on the results, we contributed to the "shoe bin" and were hosed down by an fireman.










To our surprise we won our section! Our winning prizes? Wet wipes and a tube of sunblock.


This really was a great run and suggest that all of you find the nearest mud puddle and have at it!


Oh...and my poor wings did not make it...

on a side note, we were on the news! yeah for everyone getting to see my muddy behind!http://ww2.kktv.com/global/video/popup/pop_player.asp?clipId1=4008005&flvUri=http://flash.video.worldnow.com/kktv/KKTV_010820091728015985_5958642B.flv&at1=News&vt1=v&h1=PLAY%20VIDEO%3A%20YMCA&playerVersion=1&hostPageUrl=http%3A//ww2.kktv.com/global/video/popup/pop_playerLaunch.asp%3FclipId1%3D4008005%26flvUri%3Dhttp%3A//flash.video.worldnow.com/kktv/KKTV_010820091728015985_5958642B.flv%26at1%3DNews%26vt1%3Dv%26h1%3DPLAY%2520VIDEO%253A%2520YMCA&rnd=63497418