Big Star Beijing-Style

Did you know digging to China

is a lot harder than the
average backyard hooligan
would have you believe?

It takes FOREVER
and a DAY
and then a month
but, hey, wait a sec ....
Ahoy there, matey
Hannah think's she's spotted something ...

Yes!
It's China!!
It's the Beijing Bird's Nest!!!

Yee - Haw!

This calls for the
Dueling Guitar Hero Competition


Grace is being a gracious winner


and yes that is duct tape,
and not a melted silver medal, on Luke's hand
- we call him Duct Tape Hand Luke -
and no, we don't know why he
always has one wet pant leg.


Then, off to the Scenic Lake Venue
and the Two Man Kayaking Competition
with the One Man Hole

and the "Dew" Quaffing Competition

and the Smore Stuffing Competition.



Grant received 0.0 for execution
since he declined to eat a Smore,
but we did give him an 8.75 for artistic expression



Dave received a 9.5 for execution
but only a 2.5 for artistic expression


Back we go now to the Scenic Lake Venue
for the Staying Under Water The Longest Competition
which Luke won
and it was so totally not fair
because he had scuba gear
and an Oxygen Tank
plus that flag isn't even from a real country

and the Jeremiah Johnson Archery Competion
which takes INTENSE concentration
involving complicated mouth contortions

with arrows that are almost faster than the speed of light!
(check out top right hand corner)



We discovered that blind people
have an especially hard time in this competition
so we let Judy be an "almost winner"



(little side note ....
Did you know blind people
can hunt deer in the State of Michigan
unchaperoned?!?!)

Per usual the over all winner was Cap'n Steve.
Bull's Eye every time.
However ....
later on he tested positive
for excessive amounts of caffeine and self importance.



And our gold medal Beachyball
winners were (sans bikinis) ....
Hannah (Kerri) and Annalise (Misty)



That gold is lip-smackin' good.
Eet Smakelijk, Beijing.



We had only one injury


but luckily our staff of super-qualified
Olympic Trainers and Sports Medicine people
had all the latest technology
handily at their disposal.

Eight Eight Two Thousand

EIGHT!

The magical day has finally arrived.
8-8-2008.
The day of our BSL arrival.

For 2 weeks there will be a total suspension of:
1. ticketing drunken sailors
2. scrubbing toilets at Fox Motors
3. turning rhythmically challenged Dutch people into dancers
4. unraveling the mysteries of DHS
5. guiding Calvin students back onto the straight and narrow
6. untangling computer glitches
7. scooping bulk supplies of organic food
8. battening down hatches that keep unbattening
9. nurturing our covenant youth
10. extracting raccoons from chimneys

Hey. It's a New Olympic Event.
You get to guess who does what.

In the meantime, we watched
(until 2 or 3 am)
this particular guyacquire A LOT of gold
but ....
... still
we kinda liked him best when he did this...

That's right, Michael!
You better give your mother her propers
or we won't buy
even one poster of you
or your Greatest Olympic Moments DVD.

Additionally, we were perplexed by this "display"
during the opening ceremonies.
Admit it, didn't these "drums" look suspiciously
like COPY MACHINES
each with their respective office drone
prostrate before them,
pleading, stroking, and then
beating them to within an inch
of their electrical lives?Another area we were continually educated in
was that of the
Field of Mathematics,
never to be confused with Track and Field.

For instance:
16.725 and 16.725
is NOT the same number

and 13 is really 16 in Chinese.

Okay Okay
Sour grapes
and believe you me ALL of Big Star Lake
heard our vocal outrage
but we will let you be the judge:

Yup.
Definitely 16.
Not that these girls didn't deserve it.
We're just sayin'....

Our necks got a little sore from
all of that beach volleyball
and the swivelling back and forth
which is exhausting for
die-hard couch potatoes.

But Dathan Ritzenhein from Grand Rapids
(Technically he's from Rockford, a suburb or exurb)
Mr. Number Nine in the Marathon

made us eager to get
back on our treadmills
or a least walk to Mel's for an ice-cream sundae.

And in case you're thinking
that we've totally forgotten that
this is a Big Star Lake blog,
here's one last photo to pacify all 3 readers
until we come back with more....We call this "Moonrise Over Blue Horizon Bay"

....When the moon
hits your eye
like a big
pizza pie (from Mel's)
that's amore'....