The Raney Fort...

Recently my friend Tam issued a challenge, the second annual fort challenge.
Why? well, because it's ridiculously fun! and who doesn't love stepping back into the shoes & mindset of a younger you? as soon as i read the challenge, i accepted! then realized i needed to get my husband on board as well...and let me tell you that was just plan difficult--NOT!
unfortunately i'm not so awesome as most of my twitter friends and i don't own a mac...or a flip cam...so i did my best with still shots & a short camera shot video of our fort building & completion.
And now, as many of you have requested....(insert drum roll) The Raney Fort! Start to finish:

we collected all the blankets we could find. thanks to my mom's knitting & crocheting we had TONS to work with!

We knew we'd need light...so that's where our fort started: 

Then, the hubs got right to work stringing up...well, string!

We did a little rearranging of our living room furniture...even got my old crutches put to use:

Of course we put ourselves to good use as clothes pin holders:

Employed our pets to help us out when needed:

The start...you can see we're watching Foodnetwork's "The Best Thing I Ever Ate":

Progress! We've now incorporated the tv!:

One of our guard animals:

The Raney Fort in all it's SEVENTEEN blanket glory!!:

Guard cat #1 checking to make sure the hubs was an authorized visitor:

Welcome inside the Raney Fort (note the tv & our "table"):

A better view, the tv, computer, & our wet bar...what DIDN'T make it into this photo was our mini-blender (aka the bullet) for our mixed drinks of course!:

Closer look at our drink selection, shaker, & ice/beer chest:

The first frozen mixed drink of the Raney Fort

2.5 oz Pineapple Vodka

3 large frozen strawberries

4 frozen chunks of pineapple

Top glass off with pineapple juice

Blend

Voiola:

Dinner in the Raney Fort...and yes, we're watching "Wipeout" World Cup edition!!!

And of course, if you build a fort you need a place to sleep & well...have conversations:

Our view from the bed...we had to add a little ventilation after our first night in the fort when we realized working BOTH air vents into the fort was very cozy at night...but left the rest of the room quite stifling!:

the backside of our fort (you know the way to the "in-house"):

our first day of leaving the fort up we got vandalized...our guard cat was very angry upon being duped:

The Hubs as he was rebuilding the fort that evening:

Figaro helped...since he *was* the jerk that sabotaged the fort that very day:

And our very poor quality video footage of the Raney Fort:

I'd be remiss if i didn't add the photo's of the mini fort i made with my favorite sister-in-law,  Emily's son aka: my precious nephew!

Where he loved to have Nan read him stories:

You're Not Hardcore, Unless You Act Hardcore...

So I realize that I totally owe a blog to my birthday, and I promise I'm getting there, but since the birthday celebrations haven't come to an end quite yet (it's still June, people!) I'm holding off on that blog. Teaser: Husband was did an AMAZING job! Lot's of surprises involved!

Now...onto being hardcore, or at least attempting it.
After a long & amazing weekend Husband & I finally made it home. Don't you worry we didn't have any plans to stay sedentary just because we were home, oh no! We had been invited by the Bro & Sis-in-law to go try out a mountain bike trail here in town! Whoo hoo! Right? Oh, yeah!

Bro & Sis-in-law were bringing their lovelies down to the In-Law Hizzy for safe keeping during their upcoming Youth Trip Vaca. Husband & I decided we'd leave our fuzzy bundle of joy, Georgia, with the pack while we rode the trail. We got this new fandangled leash for Georgia...it's a harness for the person so that if running or biking, your hands are free, but your dog is still contained, awesome, right? Decided to test out this new leash as we rode our bikes to the In-Laws (out meet up place). It was awesome, Georgia was doing great! She was loving being able to run by my side, greatness. That is until (for those of you that have seen "UP"), "Squirrel!"
Yup, that's right, Georgia took off across my bike path. Like a nanosecond after this decision she looked up at my bike barreling straight towards her and her face said it all, "SHIT! What the crap did I just do, and WHY?!?" There was no stopping; I tried, to no avail. Ran over the poor dog, flew off my bike, and yes: slid across the pavement! Don't worry, I had a helmet on & Georgia was totally ok...not even a limp! Dumb dog! So I pass the dog off to Husband and work on getting my bike to the In-Law's house. The handlebars were turned and the chain had come off so I got to walk it the rest of the way. That is after being made fun of by an eighty-two year old man who was taking his daily walk.
Here's what my hand looked like after that little spill:

Anyway, we got my bike fixed up & all our bikes loaded, and we were off! Bro & Sis-In-Law informed us their friends would be joining us. The more the merrier, right? You would think so, and we did, despite the fact that these very friends are superb Andventure Race participants. That means this chick is REALLY going to be put to shame...but this couple is super awesome & totally encouraging so off we go! Before the others got there the four of us (Bro & Sis-in-law, Husband, and I) rode a few laps on the Blue/Red Trails aka the Bunny Slopes. It was AWESOME! Not overly technical but SO pretty! Who knew this existed in the Red Stick?!? Easy breezy aside from the slight run in my bike handles had with Sis-in-law's rear end. (it was totally her fault...she took a detour off the trail & my breaks just didn't go into effect quickly enough...see her fault?)
So the Adventure Racers show up, we do the Blue/Red Trail one more time then get bold and do a Red Trail! Woot, Woot! Moving up! This trail wasn't too bad, a little more technical, but nothing major. Then it happens...Adventure Racer Husband strokes our egos telling us how awesome we're doing and encourages us to take on another branch of the Red Trail. I must say this was pretty awesome! I mean we were biking crazy curves, then uphill, then the insane (for me, the beginner) down hills!

Adrenaline pumping, we took more & more branches of the Red Trail and soon I totally knew why I should have stayed on the bunny trail! There was this one ravine that wasn't even that bad...just stay hard right. Well my wheel decided to get snatched by a rut to the left and BAM! I was flying through the air over my handle bars for the second time that day! The bad part, I was totally bringing up the rear, and the plummet knocked the breath out of me while tearing up what was remained of my left palm, scrapped up my elbow, and yes, added more bruises. But I couldn't call ahead to let anyone know I'd fallen because I couldn't BREATH. Husband was good though & circled back when he didn't see me behind him any longer. We caught up with the group (by caught up I mean the Adventure Racer Wife circled back to tell us which way to turn on the next 2 paths). Well, that's the last we saw of human life for a while...as the sun began it's decent the other guys found us, and were all, "Whew, the four of you?"...Husband and I were all, "Uh, the two of us..." So Bro-in-law told us to follow him & Adventure Racer Husband took off to find the other ladies (who somehow made it around the lake!) Obviously we all made it back to the car & we were all so stoked at the fun we had! Here are my battle wounds:

Anyway, I washed out as much gravel & dirt as I could...and I already had a doctors appointment for Tuesday so I had them take a look at my battle wounds and they removed the few pieces of gravel I hadn't, shot me up with some Tetanus anti-bodies, and wrapped me up to look like this awesomeness: