The Rat Race 2009

Erik and I love to fly. Before Madeline, we took several paragliding vacations and spent the week flying in a cool destination. This year we decided to go to a week long paragliding competition in Oregon called The Rat Race. In a paragliding competition, a task committee sets a task (or course) that all the pilots will fly based on the weather conditions of the day. There are several waypoints along the course that each pilot must cross and if you make it all the way around the course, its said you made goal. The person who makes it to goal with the fastest time wins the day. The person with the highest score at the end of the week wins the competition.

So we made our plans to go to Oregon with a very nervous Mommy. I hired a nanny to watch Madeline ALL DAY LONG for 8 days. Kaia was wonderful with Madeline and I'm so happy we found her. She made it so much easier for me to leave Madeline and concentrate on flying.

We had an amazing week!! The weather was great for flying! The area was beautiful! Erik made goal on 3 days and I made goal twice. All the pilots got a kick out of saying that we were the first married couple to make goal together :) Erik won 2nd place in the Sport Class and I won 2nd place in the Women's Class!! All in all, it was a fantastic week and we hope to make it a yearly tradition from now on!!!!

Getting set up on launch

Erik and I all geared up and ready to launch

My boys trying to stay out of the sun

Looking at launch from a few thousand feet up

Look at this gorgeous spot we were flying in... Lucky us!

A gaggle of paragliders all flying in the same thermal

Everyone on glide to the next waypoint

Hanging out with the SoCal crew at a winery after a long day of flying

Me and my wonderful Hubby