Birkie Day Timeline

4:20 am - Alarm goes off, brush teeth, brew coffee, pack car.

4:45 - Pick up Ben and Matt.

5:00 - Hit the road!

5:02 - Hit a deer!

5:05 - Drive back to camp to switch cars.

5:13 - Hit the road again.

7:20 - Arrive at Telemark to check-in and pick up bibs and timers.

8:55 - Jay starts his Birkie

9:00 - Brooke turns in donations for - SKI FOR A CURE!  Thanks everyone!  My pledge page is still open for donations in case you still want to donate.  I am still hoping to raise $2,500.  Ben and Matt wait patiently for race to start.

10:05 - Ben, Matt, Andrea and Rick start Birkie.  Brooke starts Kortelopet.

Racing...

12:01 - Jay finishes Birkie (3:06)

12:03 - Brooke finishes Kortelopet (1:58), catches a bus to car, drives to Hayward to see Birkie finishers.

1:14 - Matt finishes Birkie (3:09) - awesome beard-cicles dude.

1:24 - Ben finishes Birkie (3:19)

Rick (3:52) and Andrea (4:47) finish Birkie.  

We all celebrate with chicken noodle soup, water, beer, burgers, rice krispie treats and peanuts.

4:30ish - Pack up car and head to Minocqua

6:30 - Arrive at Gami's to pick up Mika.  Have a Mexican feast.

8:30 - Drive home

8:35 - Hot tub

9:00 - Sleep

SUNDAY

Wake up... assess damage. :)

Mika the Destructive Dog

Mika has been a pretty well behaved young puppy...until this week.  She discovered the bathroom garbage.  On top of that, she figured out that our bathroom door doesn't ever fully shut.  A gentle nudge with the nose will open it right up.

Last night we went out to dinner and returned to the following.

AND

Mika destroyed my cross country ski hat and a quarter of our roll of toilet paper.  We need to figure out what is going on with our puppy and stop this behavior now.  Maybe Mika thought I needed a headband?

The crate is coming back out...

Since posted this morning:  Mika rolled in fish guts on her walk this morning with Brooke!

Mika turns ONE!

She is under the spotted puppy

This year has been awesome because we were able to spend it raising this little pup.  As you can see, she is very happy too.

Still Alive and Well

My brother Rob left a message on my phone last night because he wasn't sure if Jay or I were still around...because we haven't updated the blog in a long time.  Summers sure keep us busy up here.  But we are both winding down and really looking forward to a gorgeous fall and snowy winter.  

So, for all our friends and family worrying about us, we are super happy and feeling good...and tired from the long summer :)

Mika update:

Mika has had an amazing summer full of jumping off the pier and swimming in Boulder Lake and chasing deer around as much as she can.  We lost her the other day for 30 minutes while she caught scent of a big doe and took off.  I think she learned her lesson though after she threw up four times because her body was so excited and tired.  I have never seen anything like it but Jay said it reminded him of a cross country meet.  Ha ha zinkels and rob.

She was recently diagnosed with panosteitis by our vet Dr. Kurt.  Panosteitis is a bone disease that develops in large breed puppies.  When she has growth spurts, the bones in her legs become very painful and she won't want to use them.  Right now her entire right side is not working so well.  She has to lean against chairs or the sofa to get comforted by us.  All we can do is wait for her to grow out of it and give her some baby aspirin so that it doesn't hurt as much.  She is going to be bigger than we originally thought!!  

Upcoming events: Beef-a-rama, more weddings and watching the leaves fall...can't wait!

Flower boxes