Maryhill Fall Ride 2018

Hey, Hey...

This was the last skate race of this year (at least that we'll attend.)  The group that puts on the race, Maryhill Ratz, hired Hannah to take photos.  This was such an encouragement to her.  

Caleb was able to join us from Portland.  I will take every and any opportunity to see and hug him.

Maryhill is often windy so we thought it would be fun to bring bubbles along.

All Ellie had to do was hold the wand out.  The skaters loved it, and it makes for some fun shots too.

My favorite skater!

Soon, I won't be able to say that because several of the kids hope to join him next year.

We've been going to these events for about 3 years.  I have to be honest, our first event wasn't quite characterized as "family friendly".  It can be a rough crowd - colorful language, smoking cigarettes and pot, and drinking.  Not the best example for the kids.  But it's kind of to be expected.  A lot of these people come from broken homes and broken lives and they don't know Christ.  We've had lots of good discussions about that with the kids. 

We want to be the light.  Sometimes it's the things we say, sometimes the things we do, and sometimes the things we don't say and do that make our testimony.

I think it must be working.  There is one other family that has two young daughters who skate and luge, and the organizers are trying to make it a bit more family friendly.  They created an area they call the "Ratz Nest" and provided a drift trike, a gravity bike, a luge and this tiny clown bike that they were free to use on this straight/level part of the road.  I feel like maybe they've noticed we roll and little differently. (ha ha a pun.)  

This area is right where we park so I can sit on the hood of the car and watch the kids have fun.  While I love hiking up the hill to take photos - it has its challenges.  There are no bathrooms, it can be super windy and cold or super hot and we are up there for a while since each run takes about 30 minutes.

I enjoy watching the skaters.  Some of the corners are pretty dicey and their skills are really impressive.  Plus it stretches me to keep learning and trying new things with my camera.

But I know it can be a long day for the little ones.  They REALLY enjoyed this!

Hannah always wears fairy wings to these events.  It started with her wanting to wear something that would stand out so that Eric could spot her when he skated by.  Now, she is known as "that skate fairy" (@thatskatefairy on Instagram)

and then there is Jasper, the skate dog.

This time around I think the kids had a little more fun than Eric did.   Even though, from what I could see, he had some great runs, he fell a few times.  Thankfully, he didn't get hurt.  One time his wheels caught on another guys' wheels.  The first guy fell, and Eric went over the top of him. I'm glad I didn't see that! 

 Another time his wheels scrubbed out and he took it in a corner.

On his last run, his board caught a bad part of the pavement and he flew into the hillside that is mostly rock.  So glad that full-face helmets do their job.  But as the saying goes, "1 and done".  He needs a new helmet.

His leathers got a bit scraped up too, but I guess you can't very well take this hill and not have a scrape or two.

Keep in mind, he is going about 40 mph - sometimes 50 if there is a tail wind. 

 With skateboarding now being an Olympic sport, I bet Maryhill Loops Road will become quite popular.  We feel pretty fortunate it's just a four-hour drive for us. 

See ya next summer, Mary.