Robbie's Birthday Weekend

I love birthdays. A few weeks ago it was Robbie's (Russ' brother) birthday and his amazing wife Angie is a professional birthday/surprise planner and she went all out! She got a bunch of friends/family to get together and go to a ropes course that Rob has been wanting to do for a while. It was a blast! Then even MORE friends met up with our group to surprise Robbie at one of his favorite restaurants; Outback Steakhouse (mmm I had this delicious crab dish) and even after that the party wasn't over! Angie got it all set up to watch his favorite movie in their backyard projector style. It was quite the day!

The ropes course was such a blast, I hadn't done something like that in a few years so it was even better!

We started out with some dinky (although fun) team building style challenges. On this first one we had to get our whole group through this slack line course...if anyone fell they had to be given a special disadvantage and do the whole course again. We did great up until the very end when I was helping Russ through the last 3 footsteps and onto the post...we both went down! So funny.

So we had to do the course again, my disadvantage was I had to hold a tennis ball in my right hand and only use my left...made it tricky but not too bad. Russ though, he was BLINDFOLDED! Luckily a few others in our group could go through and also help us. Angie especially saved the day since she was the one guiding Russ literally every step of the way. 

Next we had to do this log balance thing, you had to get everyone balanced on it long enough to sing happy birthday and if you fell off you then couldn't talk...that made it hard to get it all figured out! But after getting up close and personal with everyone we eventually did it.

Luckily this is when our guide person figured out that we were more there to climb cool stuff then to have a pow-wow/kumbaya session about what we could learn from each challenge.

So then it was on to the good stuff!

Russ and I took the challenge to climb this big swinging ladder, it was hard to figure out and to do but way fun! You were supposed to do it without touching the ropes on the sides...it was a challenge! Each rung got further and further apart, so by the end I could barely reach the next rung! Luckily Russ was a champ and let me use him as a ladder. Seriously sometimes I had to put my first foot on his knee and then the next on his shoulder, he's impressive right?! Thanks to him we made it to the top, it was way fun! (aaaand pretty sure we did it faster than the other duos...just saying :)

 They also have this giant swing where everyone else pulls you up a few stories and then you pull the rope and let 'er fly! I love that drop feeling in your stomach.

Linds getting strapped in for the swing

The boys pulling me to the top

Geronimo!!!

On top of the "eagles nest"

One of the last things we did was the "Eagles Nest". Basically you climb up this wooden pole (that's shaking back and forth might I add) then stand on this little platform on top and jump out and try to grab onto a trapeze bar. It was a blast! It was pretty far out if you weren't about 6 feet tall. I grabbed the bar with one hand but couldn't hang on. Russ on the other hand climbed up the pole way fast and jumped right away and grabbed the bar no problem! 

Just hangin out

Our group - such a blast!

Of course someone said "do a funny picture" and without telling anyone else Russ timed a perfect jumping picture....just more proof that he was made for me right?