Saturday night after the run and before poker Adam and I ran up to Meijer to pick up our newest purchase. Meijer had a $900 Little Tykes swingset on clearance for $225 and then they were running a special 20% off coupon on one item and then I had my 10% Meijer discount and I had $60 in gift card certificates so the swingset ended up costing me about $115. WHAT A DEAL!!! Sunday Adam came over around 10:00 and we started putting the swingset together. Alli had her tools and was a big help.

Three hours, 296 parts, 50 steps of instructions, one "minor concusion", and a very bad sunburn later we finally got the swingset together. The sunburn was Adam and the "concusion" was me. As we were building the swingset I had leaned the A frame of the swingset up against the fort and a big gust of wind came by and blew it over and it landed right on the back of my head. Adam said he saw it falling in slow motion but he couldn't move quick enough to stop it (thanks a lot Adam). Seriously he was very concerned and ran and got me some ice and made sure I didn't get up to soon. I was okay but I just had a headache for a little while.

Alli was helping us build the swingset and when it fell she went in the house and got a towel and I thought she told me to put the wash cloth on my eyes so I did and she said "not your eyes that you see with - your ice on your head". She then went and got me a glass of water and said I needed to drink it because I had to get better because I was taking her to a birthday party at 4:00. I knew there was an alterior motive. After getting the swingset built we got cleaned up and headed off to Bouncer Town for a birthday party. Alli had so much fun running from the great big slide to the "gladiator" maze. After going through the maze she said "mama, that was really cool it was just like the gladiators". If you haven't gone there it is definitely a fun place to take the little ones.

My sister in law Cathy called just as we were finishing up at Bouncer Town and asked if we wanted to do a cook out and I thought what a good idea because that way the kids could play on the swingset that we built but didn't really have time to play on. So at a whim we through together a cookout and Cathy & Jeff, David, Jacob, & Nick, Deber Sue and Jalen, Dawn, Adam, Alli, & Drew, Crystal, Ron, and myself had a beautiful evening cooking out, watching the kids play on the swingset, and played cornhole. That's one thing I love about our family - we could throw together a cookout for 14 people in a moments notice without blinking an eye. It was a great evening but I have to say I was worn out after this weekend.

The Family that Runs Together has Fun Together

On Saturday, June 7, 2008 the Dwenger family made history that I thought never would happen. Ten of us did the Outrun the Sun 2008 Race Against Melanoma down out IUPUI. My dad had Melanoma so I thought this would be a good cause. We had talked about it for about a month and we were all very excited about it (or at least most of us). Friday night we had the terrible thunderstorms with the torrential down pours. Thank goodness we didn't live further south because highways were closed and a lot of places were flooded. It continued to rain all morning Saturday and well into the afternoon. I was getting really bummed because I thought that they would end up cancelling the race and I was just so excited the the family was all going to do this together. Well as luck would have it the rain finally stopped around 2:00 and the sun came out full force and the temperature started rising and so did the humidity! We all met at our house at 5:00 to head down to the race. Since this was a Melanoma run they had it in the evening so that we wouldn't be in the sun quite as much. We got downtown and picked up our numbers and t-shirts and headed to the starting point.

Dwenger family - before the race

Ron's mom (Char) is 73 years old and she was going to do the one mile walk and Ron's sister Deb was pushing Alli in a jogging stroller and did the one mile walk also. Mom had already walked close to a mile from the place we had to park to get to where the walk/run was going to take place so she ended up starting the one mile walk but ended up turning around and coming back because part of it was going up hill and she decided she had enough. I thought she did an awesome job just going out there, she had her little walking cane and was giving it the old college try, and that was after getting up at 5:00 in the morning and working all day! I just hope at 73 I can get out there and try it. I'm very proud of you mom! Dawn, Adam, and David all did the 5k (3.1 mile) run/walk. They ran part of it and walked part of it. They all did a great job especially after Dawn just having a baby 3 months ago, Adam just had major surgery 2 months ago, and a year ago David probably would have struggled to walk a mile. I'm very proud of Dave because he has lost over 100 pounds since November so this was definitely another feather in his cap. Cathy, Jeff and Jacob did the 5k (3.1 mile) walk and did a great job. I did the 5 mile run and my hope was to run the entire thing but believe it or not at 7:00 in the evening it was about 83 degrees and the sun seemed really hot. I ended up running the first 3 miles and then I walked about 1/4 mile and then ran for a 1/4 mile and then walked a 1/2 mile and then ran the last mile. I was a little bit disappointed that I didn't run the entire 5 miles but it was just too hot but I guess I did end up running about 4 1/4 of the 5 miles. Next time I will do it all. I have signed up for a mini marathon (13 miles) in October that I thought I was going to run the entire thing but now I'm not sure that I will be able to do it. I ended up finishing the run in 58:00.08 minutes which was about 11:36 minute pace, if only I had ran the whole thing I would have been under 11 minutes - I'll get it next time.

After the race we all got bananas, apples, and lots of water. They also had a snack pack that had either a ham or turkey sandwich, a bag of chips and a cookie. It was just what the doctor had ordered. They had a fountain that the kids were playing in so Alli (and Dawn) cooled off in the fountain.

We all had a great time but we were all very tired. But in true Dwenger fashion after the race we went back to the house and had a poker game break out. It was a very fun evening and I'm looking forward to the next run- hopefully it won't be quite so hot! Thanks family for a great time, Love ya all!! Picture after the race - We all survived!