A Day at the Lake

Today I watched my friends two girls and we decided to get out of the house and spend the day at the lake. The older kids played in the freezing cold glacier melt off while Soph and I hung out on the beach immersing ourselves in sand.

While up there we played a game of golf and here are the girls at the 18th hole. Rules are..... putt it in the red hole and win another game, or in the white hole and the game is over! To me they look like they are cheating, I don't know for sure though :0)

4 crazy kids after our intense game of miniature golf.

And the wildlife. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of the mangy looking deer we saw! All together it was a good day, very relaxing for having 4 children! We played in the lake, played minature golf (as seen in the above photos), pet the ponies for free (because it cost 5$ per kid to ride for 5 minutes and I was too cheap), ate pizza and ice cream, then went to the nursery and picked out flowers and vegetables for my garden, then to Safeway and back home. Ahhh, the kids (and I) shall sleep well tonight.

XTERRA SOLSTICE TRIATHLON

So this was the weekend of my triathlon that I have been training for since early March. I started out the night before the race feeling like I was going to vomit (a little nervous I guess). The next morning while I was getting ready the feeling became a little more intense. I would have had Toby pull over on the way up there but I really needed to keep the food I had already consumed down for fuel. I got up there early and had about an hour to get all my gear lined up and ready to go on the racks. About 10 minutes before the race we all started trickling into the 59 degree lake water and after a short explanation of the swim course they yelled GO. After about 2 minutes and getting kicked, hit, and trampled by 80 other swimmers we all started to spread out a little and the nervous feeling subsided. Then it just became a race against myself to see what I could accomplish and reach my goals. After the 1K swim was the 25K mountain bike ride with some crazy down hills (my favorite), a lot of rocky meadows, as well as some steep rocky climbs, then we finished off the race with a 10k run through more rocky meadows and up and down hills. I finished in 3Hours 55Minutes just in time to see the kids race that started at the 4 hour mark. Both kids completed there first Duathlon and did great. Alexyss was in the littlest age group and came in 1st place out of 7 or 8 other kids. She sprinted down a dirt road got on her bike and road back totaling about a 1/4 mile in 2Min 36Sec. She has a real competitive streak in her. She started out in the back of the pack and finished first. Her smile was priceless when they announced her name for coming in first place. Then Nojah came in 2nd place in his age group which consisted of sprinting 1/4 of a mile, then riding the rocky trail course around Morgan lake, and then running another 1/4 of a mile when he got back. They both had a great weekend and seem to love the adrenaline rush of racing, as well as playing with other kids, and meeting new people. So I think I may be addicted and am already searching for another race that fits with my work schedule! It was an incredible feeling to finish and to have SO much support. Thank you so much to EVERYONE who came up to the lake to support us. The cheers kept us going and pushed us harder!

The Racing Machine

On Tuesday night Toby offered to do the 3 Rivers Race, a 60-70 mile bike ride (depending on who you ask) for a gentleman I met at work who was unable to do the race for medical reasons. This man had worked REALLY hard training and raising $500 for the event to support the fight against domestic violence. It was so important for him to have someone race in exchange for all of the pledges he had received from everyone, so Tob the trooper he is volunteered (or was volunteered :0) for the event. Toby hadn't been on a road bike for the past 15-20 years and even when he was on one it was short lived so his friend Jody (thank you so much) offered to let him borrow his cyclocross bike and Whit at Mountain Works (thanks again) fixed it up perfect to fit him for the race. Due to rain and work he had the opportunity to ride about 20 minutes to learn the gear system prior to the race! On race day he finished alive in just over 4 hours and seemed to have a great time. It was a great atmosphere and for a wonderful cause! He also won the most spirited racer award.

Here is the support team running along dad cheering him on!

And still smiling at the finish line!

This picture was taken May 31st when Toby was coming into the finish line at the Werst Race up Morgan Lake for the 2nd year in a row. It's a bike, run, walk race to support Jason Werst who was diagnosed with Leukemia 2 years ago. Tob ran track with Jason in college and feels this is a very worthy cause to suffer through. He came in 2nd place out of the run/walkers and 8th place total. Not bad. That hill is steep! I believe over 25% grade at times.

Meet the Neighbors

Meet our neighbors, the fox family of 6. These little ones live out behind our home. Last night we watched mom and dad out roaming around and tonight we were able to sit and watch the little ones play. I heard that there were 4 babies this year but we have only seen 3. They are a lot of fun. Last year I guess there was 13 total from two sets of parents.