The whole Lange gang was there to host us in their beautiful home; Diana (Halie's mom) cooked delicious food all week long and provided some good competition on the tennis court and in family game night. Sarah (Halie's older sister) guided us on many a long run, and Halie, the wonderful planner that she is, coordinated infinite more activities for us to do. An all around athlete, the true extent of Halie's athletic prowess continued to be revealed in each subsequent activity we did. Many of the week's adventures were led by the infamous Hank Lange. For those of you who don't have the privilege of knowing Hank, he is Halie's father, former assistant nordic ski coach at Bates, and full of knowledge to share. Ellie (the chocolate lab) provided a necessary cuddle buddy, when she was not busy dodging tennis balls hit her way by Snorel (accidentally, of course).
The days were long, beautiful, and activity filled. We usually started off with an early cup of coffee and long run.
From there the days flew by. Hallie and Snorel were new to tennis and eager to learn, and with Halie and I coaching them they improved quickly. The culmination of the tennis knowledge that they gained was an epic singles match on the very last day. The score was close throughout the match but Snorel came out as the ultimate victor. We played some intense doubles matches as well, with Sarah and Halie victorious over Hank and I, and Hank and Diana taking the W over Halie and I.
The friendly competition was not limited to the tennis court though; each night we played a different game (salad bowl, bananagram, apples to apples and more!). The main event of the week was the olympics which consisted of a series of games. One of the tasks was a Hula-Hooping competition and below is pictured Hank's attempt (total time hula-hooping = 1 second). Points were received for performance in each of the tasks and at the end the teams were neck in neck. The tie breaker event (pictured below) left Sarah and Hallie as olympic champions!
Hallie and I ventured into Boston on marathon monday to cheer on Joy (Hallie's mom) and Chewy and Abby. A rainy and chaotic day in the city, we made the most of it and even managed to see Joy running twice. Hallie got to practice her city driving, and crushed it in six lanes of traffic in a downpour.
(Chewy)
(The leaders)
Beyond the competitive activities we also enjoyed some fantastic road biking along the coast of Rhode Island and Westport, Mass., Sunrise yoga led by Hank, a geocaching adventure and endless good food.
Each day we retired to bed early- exhausted from another activity-packed day and filled with the satisfying kind of tired that only comes from playing outside. It was the perfect way, and the perfect place to recharge, laugh and spend quality time together before we split up (some back to Bates for short term, some headed home for the summer) and to remember how much we enjoy being outside, having fun and being in good company.
Happy Spring!
-Maddy
