MS150!! 25 years and rolling!

This was a big year for me. It was the 25th year I rode the MS 150 and it happened while I was 50. So, I have biked this ride for 1/2 my life! Thats crazy! I've biked longer than I've been married to Tom.  In fact, its (almost) the biggest commitment I've ever made (outside of working at Target for 26 years). Crazy.

This year was a perfect ride. Good friends, new friends, traditions, new traditions... The weather was ok.  Saturday got to be hot and very windy by the end of the ride but we were on the gorgeous Munger Trail so we were in the shade and blocked from most of the wind. Sunday was cool (but humid) and the wind slowly became tail wind. We even managed to miss the rain, finishing before it started.

The core team was Wendy (27 years), Ned (23 years) and Kim (2 years). We met and adopted Zach as it was his 1st year. We also met Miranda, who is a friend of a friend and she was our camping neighbor.

Once again the Target team out did themselves! The food was yummy and the beer even better. Jim (the guy that hauls all our stuff and takes good care of our bikes) is worthy of 5 star rating. He's friendly, helpful and takes SUCH good care of us!

I did my 2 back bends of the year (I always do a back bend on Day 1 and Day 2 lunch) - its a great stretch plus I just want to see if I can still do it....I can!

My fundraising is ALMOST there. I suspect I'll get a few more pledges and be just fine. My goal was $4,800 (25 people to donate $150 and 50 people to donate $23 - the number of years ago that Uncle Alan died.  Right now I'm just over $4,600 so... fingers crossed !!

But, rather than telling you...I'll show you!!

The bus ride up includes a beer tasting of the new "hot" beers.

Day 1 DONE! Thats the sign that I wore on the my back the whole ride, I wanted people to ask me why I was riding!

Trying to stay cool before the last leg on the 1st day

My name is on the top fundraiser list! I'm a VIP!

All the top fundraisers

All the top fundraising teams, yep ...Target is in there!

Matt rode this year after a few years break. It was fun to catch up with him.

New tradition - lavender face masks - they felt like heaven!  With new friend Miranda

End of the ride! We did it!  Ned, Zach, Me, Wendy, Kim.

Jim the truck guy - he's the best!

Can you tell who was a sponsor?

Doing yoga to stretch out and leaning on each other so we dont fall over

Silly post lunch Day 2 photo by the silo (traditional shot)

My back bend!!

Friday night cold walk on the shore in Duluth. Love it there!

Sunset Day 2 in tent city

Once again...life got away from us

It seems like the days fly by and then next thing you know, you've totally missed May.

Now, considering May was cold and rainy and felt WAY more like April, its somewhat understandable but.. I also suspect that it has to do with having 3 teenagers and nearing the end of the school year.

Since our last post, we've celebrated Mothers Day, our 21st Anniversary, attended 2 band concerts, 1 orchestra concert, hosted Ian and his family to celebrate his graduation and acceptance into The Berkley School of Music and an out of town Taekwondo tournament. This is on top of tests, final projects, field trips and general every day craziness.

We'll give you the highlights in photos....and videos

Orchestra Concert 
Band Concert - they played a High School Musical Medaly - Jimmys favorite
Wolf Pack 
Jazz Concert  -
Korean National Anthem -
TKD 

Jimmy continues to kill it as the drummer int the jazz band.

LOVE that the kids from 9th grade Jazz continue to play together - Thank you Ross Wolf!  You made such a difference in their lives ! 

Ian and his family, both host family from South Dakota (Amber and Lim) and his mother, father and uncle from Korea.  For lunch, he asked for orange chicken and the brown rice with mushrooms (rice pilaf), we also had watermelon, beans, salad and mondu. Kay had waffles (probably to piss him off since they were his favorite)

His family brought an entire suitcase of Korean snacks, food and skin care products. Kay loved every minute of it!

They even gave Billy their grandfathers 4th degree Taekwondo pin. So special

Billy with Ian's uncle

The group

Billy's orchestra concert. They get better (and smaller) each year

More Korean photos. Jimmy led everyone in a rousing rendition of the South Korean national anthem

My favorite photo

Tracy attended 4 full day training sessions, adding to the craziness

Jimmy representing South Korea at Festival of Nations

The 3rd and 4th kid on the way to Chicago to kick some butt

Weighing in is always a bit nerve racking but they made it

The pomsea team

1st place !! (out of 1)

Love that smile

The pomsea medal winners

Team Rogers - miss those guys

3rd (of 3) in sparring

Sparring team - 2 kids even won a trip to Korea! They are fun to watch

Finally, time for fun!

We came back from swimming to find out hotel surrounded and evacuated. A guy had 9 grams of coke, multiple fire arms and shot one in the hotel room.   Who knew Schaumburg was a rough neighborhood?!

After biding our time at dinner, we returned and were allowed to stay in our room. Police were camped out all night. I think we had the safest hotel room in Illinois that night!  Never a dull moment.

Throw back to High School Musical 2 premier in India.   Still a favorite

Anniversary trivia with Jennifer and Doug. Gorgeous night at New Bohemian We biked up.

He's still a stinker and we had a play date with his brothers

Macho and Gander are slightly smaller than Maui and look like twins, they played non stop

Maui was channeling Ferdinand and was more interested in flowers than playing

The boys

He finally started to warm up to Gander at the end

Tracy actually got in a 40 mile ride with a stop for ice cream, a flat tire and reassured herself that she'll be able to finish the MS150 next week

Bangalore crew reunion and bar hopping in Uptown.  Love these people and miss all the others....

Prom 2019

With all the other things going on in our busy lives we took a moment to interject a fun-filled day with Jimmy, Melanie, her mom and dad and a few of Jimmy and Melanie's  friends.

Will who also was on Spring Break with us, his date Rachel, Mario who also was on Spring break with and his date Margo and Cole, who was not on Spring break, and his date Sydney all meet at the Rose Garden along with about a 1000,kids from other local area High Schools for pictures.

There was photo foolishness, moments of corsage malfunctions, weird socks all around and generally a laugh out loud couple of hours. Jimmy graced us with getting his picture taken with us and we had a lot of fun with the other parents of these really centered, good natured, fun loving group of high School kids #impressed!

The kids headed off to A'More a restaurant in uptown, the parents headed off to Bunny's in SLP to compare stories and bond over the fun loving kids.