Hello!

Well, well...I remember I have a blog haha. Life gets so crazy busy sometimes you just completely forget about all your ONLINE duties. So last time I wrote you all knew that I started cycling. I have an update for you on that, but before we get to that point let me tell you where I have been...PARIS!!!

My mother in law came out to visit and we took her to London, the beach, a castle, and a few other places. Then we took a family vacation to Paris, France and she went too! It was great that she was able to go with us and she was excited to get stamps in her passport.

We spent the first day in Paris, sight seeing by way of an open tour bus - which we sat on the top and took as many pictures as possible. There is so much to see! I don't know what half the pictures are of...but it was pretty stuff! We saw Notre Dame and the Eifel Tower - big highlights.

I want to go back and do a bit more getting on and off the bus, maybe spend 2 full days in Paris. My mom says I can't go for 2 years though, because she wants to come and go with me! :) Maybe we could sneek off on a "girls only" weekend. That would be great fun.

The second day we did Paris Disneyland and I am not going to lie to you - I was disappointed with it. However, had I never been to Disneyland in California then I would not have had something to compare it to. So if you have NEVER been, you might love it, but where I had - I expected certain things and they just weren't that way.

Ashlynn did ride her first real big roller coaster - Space Mountain, twice! She loved it. She kept saying "That was so awesome!" We spent 1/2 the day walking around, riding, checking things out and then went back to the Davy Crocket Resort where we were staying for a bit of swimming.

After we ate we returned to Disneyland for the Electrical Parade...it was rather short. Not only that they had almost ALL villians in the parade! Where were the good guys, where were the pretty princesses???

They also had a fireworks show after the parade. Tinkerbell, however does not fly over their castle. The fireworks were rather pretty though.

On our last day we did a few more things in Disneyland, like Thunder Mountain, which Brier screamed the whole time and totally loved it! That boy has got some lung power! He wanted to do it again and again. We got Minnie Mouse's autograph and stood in line forever for Mickey's.

Then we went to Disney Studio's, but we really didn't do much. Rode a tram to see behind the scenes stuff, ate ice cream, and got Stitch's autograph.

Finally, vacation had come to an end and it was time to head back home. We had a 3 hour drive to the ferry and then a 2 hour drive on home after that. We arrived home at like 1 am and exhausted. The following day we were completely lazy - other than putting photos up on Facebook.

Sadly, the next day it was time for Marilyn to also return home. It seemed like she wasn't here that long at all, but we hope she enjoyed it and I know we sent her home with tons of pictures and plenty of new experiences.

For the rest of the school break we have umm...the cycle rides and a weekend trip to scotland (kid free). Things are starting to slow down again I think...and I am looking forward to it. Who knew I would become so busy this year!

I'll get a slideshow of photos up for you soon, but if you're friends with me on Facebook they are there so have a look.

Talk to you soon!

Tonya

And now for the cycle for health update:

August 5th, 2010

Obviously it has been awhile since I last updated this and it is now less than 2 weeks before our 28 mile ride! Are we ready? I’ve no idea! I’m looking forward to it, excited to do it, but our training sessions have been rather limited since the 13th of July.

I had surgery and was unable to ride for a few days and then school was let out for the summer, so our morning rides after school drop off have been not working. My mother in law also came to visit us here in England and went on family vacation with us to France. So in the midst of training there has been a surgery, company, and a vacation! Needless to say I’ve got work to do!

Lesley and I have decided to try a few evening rides to continue our training before the big day, now that things have calmed down around here and we can actually ride again. It will be nice to get back out there.

Today, I added up just how much we’ve been sponsored for this ride and I am shocked to say we are only £21 away from reaching £500!!! Our goal was only £250 and I’ve not changed that goal. I enjoy seeing how much over it goes because I thought that £250 might have been too much to ask to begin with. It’s only a 28 mile ride, but the support we’ve received has been AWESOME! To those of you who have sponsored us, you ROCK! And we THANK YOU so much!
If you received the Newmarket Journal this morning then you probably noticed us on the front page! Joined by Lesley’s Dad who has decided to become a bit competitive…

If you did not receive the newspaper let me fill you in on the details. Lesley and I began this adventure just to lose some weight and then it was suggested to us to do it for a charity as well, so we thought why not and got it going.

Lesley’s parents Les and Eileen are the Landlords of the George and Dragon Pub and as customers would come in, they would ask, “So do you think Lesley will make it?” I am pretty sure he was telling them, “No!” It’s a wonderful support system that girl has got let me tell you.

So there it started and it continued to spiral with Les giving Lesley a hard time, father/daughter love you know. Actually, they remind me of a set of siblings bickering all the time and you just want to put them in time out or worse. However, I believe Lesley said to her Dad, “Let’s see you do it then!”

Apparently Les was up for the challenge. As he decided he would and that he would do 32 miles and raise £1000 for the Air Ambulance!!! Not only that, he has convinced my husband David to take the day off and ride with him…talk about some competition! Wife against Husband and Daughter against Dad…heck of a thing we’ve got going here.

I believe the customer’s of the Pub are enjoying this just a little bit, because they’ve joined in on taking the mickey out of Les and have decided that Les will not make it and that the Air Ambulance will have to come rescue him! You really got to love the support around here! It’s great fun.

So now that you know the details here are the current stats:

Who/When Riding Mileage Target Raised

Tonya & Lesley
August 14th The Jockey’s Trail 28 miles + £250 £479

Les & David
August 26th
Making up his own route 32 miles £1000 £209.50


Now then Lesley & I have been training for this ride if you want to call it that. We’ve been riding to get fit and it turned into training for this ride. Les plans to do his ride with no training and I am assuming my husband David will have no training either.

There is not a set time limit on these rides. Personally, I would like it not to take all day! I have ridden 20 miles and it took me 2 hours. So I would like to do it in at least 4 hours anything less would be just amazing. My concern would be getting lost as we’ve not yet ridden the Jockey’s trail. We do plan to a better feel for it before the actual ride.

So if you would like to get in on the competition and sponsor one of us, preferably us ladies, we would greatly appreciate it! Sponsor here. You’ve already done more than we expected and we thank you so very, very much.

Tonya & Lesley