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I’d like you all to meet my little brother Kevin.   Yes, he’s 25 and not so little anymore, but he’s always going to be my little brother to me.   He recently got engaged to his long-time girl friend, Courtney, and I couldn’t be happier for him!  A few weeks ago, they came to visit me, so we scheduled a fun little photo shoot in downtown Apex, NC.  As always, I had a fabulous time shooting with my good friend Julia!

A few weeks ago, I had a great time shooting our friends at a park here in Cary.  We planned for a picnic and the kids had a blast – could they get any cuter?!  More to come very very soon!!!

While I was at the 2010 BRC rooting on our boys from Team 41, I also tried to capture some images of Team 40, our other National Guard team from Rhode Island.

Meet CPT Chris Ahlemeyer and SSG Bob Tobin. They are members of the 1st Battalion, 143rd Infantry Regiment (Airborne) which is a battalion of the 36th Infantry Combat Team based in Texas.  CPT Ahlemeyer and SSG Tobin finished 1st and 3rd respectfully in the ARNG Best Ranger Competition Tryout in JAN 2010.

They are extremely strong physically and mentally and were steep competition to the rest of the field, particularly on the initial Buddy Run, the Night Road March, and the Darby Queen Obstacle Course. These two did an outstanding job during the competition and came in 14th out of 25 finishing teams.  WTG guys!! While I was sitting in the media area waiting for teams to finish their final buddy run to the finish, I couldn’t believe it when I saw these two hauling in as the 4th team to cross  the finish.  A-maz-ing.

I didn’t get a chance to meet their families until the very last day of the competition, but I know they are all extremely proud of them!  They all came down from Massachusetts and Rhode Island to watch them compete.  Congrats again to Team 40!

Finally getting online (while everyone in my room takes a nap) to post about Day 3 – the FINAL day of the Best Ranger Challenge of 2010. Wow, what a weekend it has been, folks! I could not be more proud of these guys – they did an amazing job pushing through one of the toughest competitions they will ever experience. I say that because there’s no way in H-E-double-hockey-sticks that I’m going to be able to handle the single-mom gig again and plus, Bob says he’s getting to old for this stuff! HA!

History was made this weekend and I could not be more proud to be associated with the National Guard. Not only did they have their first team ever complete the event, they had TWO!!! 40 teams started the competition and Bob and Kevin came in 10th place out of 25 teams who finished. CPT Chris Ahlemeyer and SSG Bob Tobin, from the Rhode Island National Guard also competed and placed 14th overall. It was exciting to see these guys do so well and represent the Guard the way they did. They were up against Army Rangers and Special Forces teams who’s daily work activities include many of the tasks featured in this weekend’s competition, so I was happy to see our guys not only keep up, but surpass many of them.

Here is some information regarding Day 3: Day 3 started at Camp Darby with the Darby Queen obstacle course – 26 obstacles/2 km long. Once the competitors completed the course, they prepared poncho rafts in preparation for a HELOCAST (jump from helicopter into Victory Pond). After entering the water, teams swam the rafts to the shore. The next event was a water confidence course which consisted of a confidence plank walk, commando rope traverse, 40ft drop into water, and 75ft zip line into water. Teams were shuttled by UH60s to Uchee Creek for the 1 mile run to the 3 mile upstream canoe along the Chattahoochee River. The last event was a 2 mile buddy run to the finish.

I should note that the ranger training brigade and race promoters designed the competition to be very spectator friendly, so many of the “cool” events that you’ve seen in my pictures over the past few days were conducted during daylight hours at featured Ft. Benning training locations that were easily accessible to people like me wielding a camera and a double stroller. When the sun goes down, that’s when things really heat up, such as last night when teams went on a 12 hour night land navigation adventure with 80 lbs of gear on their backs. If you’re not familiar with land nav, basically, you’re given a map, compass, protractor, and about 30 grid coordinates to plot on a map. Try to imagine yourself in the woods, at 3am, after an entire day of physical activity in the sun, having already traveled 20-25 km. Heavy ruck sack wrenching your back. Mental fatigue. Dogs barking. This is what those in the know call “seeing the pink elephant”.

It may appear that this competition is about a team of two guys testing both their physical and mental strength over the course of 3 days, but it goes far beyond that – something that took me driving 9 hours down to Georgia with 2 little people in tow to find out. The Best Ranger Competition showcases what this highly trained military community is all about and that it takes more than just two guys, a team, or a platoon of soldiers – it takes support from families and friends for these guys to do what they do best. There were big groups supporting each of their teams and I wish I had thought of having creative shirts made for our guard support crew, like many of the other teams had. I’d say there’s always next year, but we already covered that, right?!

Before I continue my post with pictures, I just wanted to take a second to thank some very special people who I just met while I was in GA. Carol and Dionne are good friends of both Kevin and Laura Dylus and came down to support our team during the events. I literally handed my kids over to these ladies MANY times during the course of days 2 and 3 and they willingly helped me out and treated my children as their own. Due to unforeseen circumstances, I didn’t have an extra set of hands to come down with me, so their help was incredibly appreciated. Thank you ladies! I hope to see you again in the future!!! And also – thank you to our buddy, Major Mike Gilligan who also stepped in to watch my kids as I ran off to catch my “money” HELOCAST shots! Thanks Mike!!!!

Without further ado – here are my pics from day 3!! Thanks for reading my novel!

Another great day at the 2010 Best Ranger Competition. Team 41 started off the day in 10th place out of 26 remaining teams. Day 2 consists of Ranger stakes: skills that all rangers must have. They are tested on the following activities: grenade assault, Ranger first responder, tri-tower challenge, weapons, a stress shoot and 2 mystery events. One of the mystery events included entering and clearing a room.

I missed a few of the early events, like the grenade assault and the stress shoot, but our boys did well all day. They were crazy fast on the weapons assembly and did a fantastic job on entering and clearing a room. Not gonna lie, watching that scenario unfold was a bit intense, but they did AWESOME.

Our support team (including 1SG Dylus’ guys from NC and staff from NC Joint Force HQS) said the guys did a great job on the stress shoot. 1SG Dylus has several friends who live fairly close to Ft. Benning who came out to support the guys – it was so nice meeting all of them today! And a special thanks to all of them who’ve been helping me with the kids while I take pics of the guys.

Then it was onto the tri-tower events for a wall climb, rappel, and fast rope.

They’re doing night land-nav tonight and then onto an obstacle course and helo jump into the water tomorrow.

I’m experiencing technical difficulties here at the hotel, so I’m only able to post a few pics from today. More to come later – hopefully the connection will be better in the morning. It’s painful how long the pics are taking to load. gnite y’all!

ETA: I was able to hop on this morning and add the extra images. Off to today’s events! GOOOOOO Team 41!!!!

And Happy Mother’s Day to all of you moms out there, including 1SG Dylus’ wife, Laura, who just became a mommy for the second time just a few short weeks ago!

Many of you know my husband is a captain in the North Carolina Army National Guard.  This year he and 1SG Kevin Dylus signed up to represent the National Guard in the Army’s Best Ranger Competition.

I’m going to make this post short and sweet because…. well, it’s 10:30 and I’ve been up since 430am and I need to get some shut-eye!  I know many people are anxious to see some pics from the event, so here they are!  These are pics from Day 1 of 3 and include images from the beginning Buddy Run, two of the range sites, and the helo jump at Fryer Drop Zone.

After day 1, team 41 is in 9th place! More to come tomorrow!!!

We had an absolutely gorgeous day at the green McDonalds in Cary, NC last week – a perfect day to celebrate Earth Day!  If you haven’t been to this McDonalds before, you should check it out – not only is it built with many earth friendly materials, there is a charging station for hybrid cars and a really fascinating interactive display inside the store to show customers the economic and efficiency aspects of the restaurant.

Many people came by with their kids to plant a flower supplied by Garden Supply in Cary, NC.  Garden Supply also provided a beautiful backdrop for pictures, to include a bench and gorgeous plants and shrubs. Thanks Garden Supply! And if you’ve never been to Garden Supply – they have an amazing selection and an incredibly knowledgeable staff who can help you choose the perfect plants or shrubs for your house.  And don’t even get me started on their Christmas displays during the holidays – absolutely incredible.  I have to give myself a budget during Christmastime, otherwise, I end up with the entire store in my cart. And you think I’m kidding!

Cynthia and Katie had a great display from The Produce Box – a company that provides locally grown produce delivery right to your neighborhood.   They are essentially a C.S.A. (Community Supported Agriculture) organization, but give you more options than a typical farm C.S.A. set up. I am a HUUUUUUGE fan of local produce here in North Carolina.  I frequent our local farmers markets in Morrisville and Raleigh all summer, and let me tell you, the Produce Box is definitely a convenient way of bringing the farmers market to your door.  Check it out!

Other fun activities included making bookmarks with the Girl Scouts, taking pictures with both Mother Nature and Miss North Carolina Perfect Jr Teen.

And, of course, an event isn’t complete at McDonalds without our good buddy, Ronald McDonald!  He was there with his scoot coupe to take pics with the kids and also give them rides around the building.  Ronald not only has a sweet ride, he has some sweet tricks up his sleeve! You can’t help but smile along with these kids who were giggling the entire time.

A special thank you to Julie Barberio at McDonalds for including me in this great event!  I had a blast!!