Lankytoad’s Weblog

Well another LIVESTRONG Challenge has come and gone, and the only similarity between the three is that they’ve all been extremely different.  For the second year in a row, due to the generosity of everyone receiving this email (a special thanks to my mother-in-law for not only a generous donation, but for the baby-sitting that night), my wife and I were able to attend a fund raising appreciation dinner for raising $3000 ($3020 to be exact).  It was an amazingly inspiring evening, and a great kick off to the 100 miles to come.

On Sunday morning, I headed over to the Seattle Center at about 6:30 am.  It was cool out, but I figured the leg warmers (think ’80s, but black and a lot tighter) and hat would be more trouble than they would be worth.  I kept the arm warmers, but figured I’d be taking them off midway through the ride due to anticipated temperatures in the low 60’s.  Long story short, heavy rain began around mile 15 and the temperature never got above 50.  Sure those items would’ve helped keep my core temperature out of hypothermic range, but they would have gotten water-logged and made me much heavier too…so who’s the smart one now!?!

The 102 miles were cold, wet, and AMAZING!  I felt the presence of my mother throughout the day, and must have had the lyrics “I got soul but I’m not a soldier (see previous emails if you need to reference why that would be)” go through my head at least 102 times.

It was a truly rewarding day and I am so very grateful to all of you for helping make it possible.  I’m thankful to those of you who donated for the first time, as well as those of you who have donated 3 years in a row.  I’m thankful to those who donated big and those who donated small, as well as those of you that donated more than once this year alone.  I’m just plain thankful.

This year was not only a personal record for us as far as a fund raising total goes, but it was a record for the number of people that donated as well.  And overall, over the past 3 years, we have raised more than $10,000 for the Lance Armstrong Foundation.  I am very proud of that and extremely grateful to each of you.   I know my mother would be grateful, and most importantly, the survivors receiving the benefits of your generosity are grateful.  You all truly have made a difference.

Thank you again.  Looking forward to the 2011 LIVESTRONG Challenge.

Sincerely,

Travis Orr

Sorry for the long delay in updates. It’s amazing how busy I’ve been this year! Here’s a quick photo album of our life since X-mas

Yes, we had a good time on New Years Eve. And no, he was sober. Martinelli’s only.

Gabe turned 2 this year on March 4th and joined so many other children in their terrible two’s. He’s crazy moody and stubborn as heck but the payoff is he gives incredible hugs and says “I luh you too” all the time. He had a monster truck party this year, and yes he picked it out at the party store all by himself. Did I add opinionated too? Ha Ha. We “luh you too” Gabe.

The crazy little leprechauns decided to stop by as well. They left green footprints all over! And of course we had Corned Beef and Cabbage for dinner. Thanks for the recipe Great Grandma Dean! If we can’t be with you, we’ll channel you through food.

And then Easter brought Grandma Vickie and lots of fun with eggs. You can imagine how messy it was, but so much fun.

I have so much more to share, like our family trip to California. All the fun at Disneyland, Legoland, the beach, San Diego Wild Animal Park, and Seaworld. Also, Travis participates in the Seattle Livestrong Challenge on Father’s Day this year. He’s doing the 100 mile ride this year so I’ll be sure to take lots of pictures!!

We spent Christmas in Utah this year and had a blast with our boys on Christmas Day. Stockton really understood the whole concept of Santa and Gabe was blown away with all the paper he could tear up and the toys he could open. I swear Christmas is so much funner as a parent than as a child. Stockton and Gabe were able to ride on the actual Polar Express to the North Pole thanks to Grandma getting them tickets.

We also had a rare snow storm for Oregon. Knowing it wouldn’t last for very long we decided to head out at night and have ourselves some fun. Stockton learned how to slide across packed snow while Gabe ate “clean” snow to his hearts content.

We’ve had a fun fall this year with trips to the pumpkin patch and Grandma coming to visit. As for the weather it has been pretty nice. We certainly can’t complain. Now all we need is to get Travis a job and finally fix his back and it will be downright perfect! Although the challenges have been great, so too have been our blessings.





Halloween costumes are coming soon! Thank you Grandma Vickie for all your help, and thank you everyone for your thoughts and prayers. We have been so lucky in that we have so many nice people supporting us at all times. It’s meant the world to us.

The golf course Travis played with my dad almost makes me want to start playing. Almost….

I’ve never played frisbee golf, and yes, I am as bad as you might imagine but it was so much fun I will surely do it again. Oh , and yes, there are warning signs for bears for a reason. Travis saw at least six, three of which on a bike ride in the same area as the frisbee golf cousre, and I saw four off the side of the road. Long horn sheep, deer, and elk were all around too.

Yup, it’s this pretty everywhere you go. The water has such an amazing hue because of the glaciers that fill it.

We drove to Canada so we snapped a picture of of the elusive happy Gabe so we might remember the good times on the road.

He’ll never forgive me for this and to be honest I was pissed at Travis for taking it (as if you couldn’t tell), but it really is pretty funny.

I might just have to paint this someday. It was a trip of firsts for me. I’d never been to Canada, or walked on a glacier, or played frisbee golf, or white water rafted, or celebrated Canada Day, etc., etc. So thank you Mom and Dad for bringing us along!! It’s “aboat” time I crossed a local border.

Sadly, we lost most of our photos to a faulty card, this being one of two we saved. Travis is a little out of focus and I’m trying to describe the grade of hills we had to climb in the last 5 miles of the course, but you get the idea. I can’t even begin to thank everyone who donated to our efforts, but needless to say we are thankful. I hope all of those who donated received there thank yous and if not we’ll be sure to send you one. Combined we raised over $4,100 and got invited to a special dinner the night before because we raised so much. It was such an incredibly rewarding experience. Also, we want to thank our cousin Megan Klingler for being so kind as to fly all the way up from AZ just to hang with our kids during all this. Thank you again! See you next year………..