Welcome to Day 8 of our 2016 HAC / GCAC Arizona Training Trip!It FEELS like Day 8, but at the same time it's like we just got here.
The consensus seems to be that the kids are happy to be going home, but would like to stay longer... if they didn't have to swim anymore. Ha!
We let the kids sleep in a little later this morning to recover!
Side note: "Brenden" = "Brennan" ("Oops I did it again," thanks a lot Britney Spears!)
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| Nolan, the lone 'hungry' ranger! |
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| It's a good feeling that we get to eat when the sun is already out! |
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| Some of our girls having a leisurely breakfast. |
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| Look! We spotted an O'notthelastonetime... in her natural habitat! |
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| Everyone needs to have a couch this large and comfortable! |
We surprised the kids this morning! No morning swim, we're going for another hike, up a different mountain! Most were happy, Caitlin and Syd not so much; Syd laid on the ground & wanted to cry!!! (We later learned that one side of Camelback mountain was the Echo Canyon Trail, and the other side is the Cholla Trail. Guess which side was the "intense and difficult" trail. We found that out quick! 1.23 miles to the summit (2704 ft above sea level), and we felt every inch of it :)
Okay, so today's HIKE was absolutely... (searching for the right words)... ridiculous, fun, hardest thing EVER, easy, insane, smart... it was absolutely... worth it. What a challenge! I can't believe we survived! Only one twisted ankle, one black & blue toe (mine) and a few scrapes to report.
I was going to take some pictures of the inclines as we went up them to show everyone what we suffered through, but those views are NOT for the faint of heart. I wanted to keep my balance as much as possible, too!!! Our kids designated one backpack as the "cellphone bag"... they didn't even hold their phones in their hands going up or down. What does that say?!?!
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Coach Beth and Coach Carmen near the beginning... of the mountain hike. Not the 20 minutes from the car to the park, or the 15 minutes on the trail from the bathrooms to the base of the mountain. I went "up" at 9:50am and came down at 12:20pm, the kids were way faster, but 2.5 hours of climbing. L-i-t-e-r-a-l-l-y climbing. It's not supposed to be that long and painful is it? There were a bunch of five year olds like running up the mountain. Every 10 minutes another one would run past... what the heck! There was a mom with a newborn strapped to her stomach (Awe... and yuk!), a basketball team, some cheerleaders, one pug, two airline pilots, families from California, Iowa, Idaho, plus our group! (Carmen was super tough too, she's my inspiration!!!) I learned a lot, specially since stopping to be polite and talk is not the same as "taking a break"... Lots of the "locals" of all ages were running up with their iPod's and headphones on. One muscle guy was with his friend and said, "Hey dude I thought this would be tougher, our third time going up." Pfft yeah right buddy, whatever! The seems not humanly possible lol! Linda said one man when up and back in 27 minutes. [ WHAT! ] I really wanted to zip line down, I said that all the way up the mountain to everyone I passed. I mean, passed me! Ha!
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| We're on top of the world... and SO happy we're not in a swimming pool :) |
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| Everyone say Cheese! 16 came up and 16 made it down! (Phew) |
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| Daniel hanging out. Look at that view, that's unreal. A full 360 of Phoenix, we could see everything! |
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The kids had to wait like 20 minutes for me to come up. They say it was an hour, but NO way man.
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| Having a rest, enjoying some shade. I think some of them just realized they have to go down now LOL! |
| | | | We've officially moved into the 400s... "Touch something pointy for good luck!" That's 'a thing' now I guess... |
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| Uh oh, okay we come to Arizona and end up with only two swimmers stuck to a cactus. I call that success! |
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| Fly Girl helped Hanna finish her veggies with a rousing rendition of airplane. |
I have two more photos to share.... |
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| Sarah and Lauren, they could handle a second trip up the mountain for sure! |
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The boys were out like a light during the ride home from our LONG adventure this morning! Emme was still awake :)
Virag + Sarah + Lauren chowing down at The Golden Corral!
Most of the girls + Emme on round 1 of dinner!
Yummy! (The table didn't stay this clean for very long!)
The HAC boys, they ate SO much, we totally got our money's worth!
If you've never been to The Golden Corral, you definitely need to go...
.... they have SO much variety...
... they have SO much food...
... the buffet feels like it never ends. We ate our weight in food tonight!
The top photo is Ollie G's chocolate plate art, below is a sample of the 'young ones' reserved signs. They used them at the table, in the van, brought them to the restaurant to make sure NO one took their seat. That's cute eh?
Desert time! Who's cone do you like better, Jenna P's or Syd's?
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