"But You're Here Doing It!"

Says the girl with two braids in a ridiculously chipper voice...every time we passed her.  She was obviously feeling pity for the girls in last place!!  I know she was trying to be encouraging and supportive, which is so awesome.  But hearing those words while you're barely able to pick your feet up off the ground is more like a swift kick to the seat of my padded cycling shorts!

"Oh you're last. You poor things!"

But, yes...we were there doing it.  And we finished.

Rewind to the beginning.

Me and miss Rachel.  Duathlon buddies!

ELMA, WA.

LABOR DAY DUATHLON

2.13.2

So we got there and we were nervous and it was cold.  It was our first duathlon and neither one of us really knew what to do.  Our mechanics (Doug and Greg) set up our bikes while Rach and I made a pit stop and I squeezed into my super hot padded cycling shorts.  Doug kept telling me it looked like I was wearing a diaper.  Thanks honey.

Rach gets frisky when she's nervous.

At the starting line.

The course was a back and forth course.  This is us on our way back from the first 2 mile run.

There was a triathlon going on at the same time.  The peeps that were doing that were out of the water and  passing us on their bikes before we were even to the half mile mark!!

Out for the 13 mile ride.

Back from the 13 mile ride.

Going out for the second 2 mile run.

(I had my pants on over my cycling shorts cause I was so cold!!)

This was the hardest part.  Trying to pick up my legs to run after riding on a bike for 13 miles was insane.  I felt like they weighed an extra hundred pounds each.  There is no exaggeration in saying that.  It may be different for other people and they may handle it better, but not for me or Rach.  It was difficult...to say the least.

But we kept going.

(and so did this guy!)

Back from the second 2 mile run.

Just about to cross the finish line.

All done.  And very tired.  It was hard.

And very touching.

Even though is was harder than we thought it would be and we finished last with times of  (me) 1:41:30 and (Rach) 1:41:35...we are so doing it again.  I still can't get over the feeling of accomplishment when I am done with any sort of race.  I worked hard.  I trained, I sweated, I doubted, I hurt.  But I did it.

WE DID IT!!

Thank you RR for doing this with me.  You rock sister!!  You know I love you!

So, on to more intense training. More sweat, more soreness, more pain, more adrenaline...I LOVE IT!!!  I can't wait.

P.S.

Olivia and Isabelle were having a little moment...

I stayed after...just in case...I were to receive something.  (Which actually makes me chuckle a little).   Low and behold,  I did.  But I assure you it wasn't because I placed.  I believe that they had some medals left over and they were just giving them out till they were gone.  I got the very last one.  But...a medal is a medal and you bet I ran up there like a giddy school girl and put that sucker on right away!!

P.P.S

Big shout out to Greg for letting me use his bike.  I promise that I will be getting one soon, so you will only have to loan it to me a few more times!!  ;)

And somehow those homemade chocolate chip cookies and package of Oreo's don't seem like a big enough 'thank you.'  I will have to come up with something else.

Back to School

The first day back to the books was on the 31st.  Savannah was super excited.  Payton on the other hand wasn't too thrilled about it.  We went to an open house the day before and met their teachers.  They both seem great and I am very optimistic about this year.  Not that I had a reason not to be.  So far, Payton and Savannah are excellent students.  So, no worries there.

As usual, I was running late so I snapped just a few pictures before their dad sped off to get them through the doors before the bell rang.

My fantastic 4th grader!!!

My sweet 2nd grader!!!

So another year begins.  My goals are; to get them there on time more often, be more on top of the information they bring home with them, and be more patient when I can't figure out my 4th graders math problems.

Our Last Hurrah of the Summer

The weekend before school started we hopped, skipped and jumped over to THE GREAT WOLF LODGE!!  The kids were ecstatic and enjoyed every last minute of it.  We were wet, giggly, and pruny for two days!!!  Here are some...ok, a ton, of shots from our adventure in water land.

It took a while for Iz to warm up to the whole water thing.

Crossing the Lily Pads

The Wave Pool

A little basketball

The in-between slides...

(Bigger than the toddler ones...smaller than the big ones)

The next morning the girls thoroughly enjoyed the best bubble bath ever.  The jets in the tub caused never ending fluffy bubbles.  The girls loved it!!

She sat there for a while...

Savannah's turn at the Lilly pads.

Jillian wasn't scared of anything here.  She went down every slide her little four year old body was allowed to go down. 

Savannah, on the other hand, didn't want to have anything to do with the slides that were bigger than the toddler ones.  But, she had a blast anyway!

Slip slidin away...

Doug and Payton on our favorite of the big water slides.  You will notice that there isn't too many pictures of Payton.  He kept disappearing, doin' his own thing.  I was surprised at how brave he was being.  He did all of the slides.  Even the ridiculous Howlin' Tornado!! 

The sun finally came out and they started up the outdoor 'tad pole' area.  I think Isabelle really enjoyed this part.  It felt so open and free out there.  Inside was so full of people and so loud that it was nice to get out and breathe in fresh air.

Payton didn't last too long out here...he bolted back inside where the fun was for him.

I think this was a fantastic way to end our summer break.  Going down the big water slides I kept hearing this funny, loud giggle.  I realized it was mine.  I had an incredible time with my amazing family!!!

         SMOOTHIE, ANYONE??

For those of you who are unfamiliar with this beautiful specimen, allow me to introduce you....THIS my friends, is a VITAMIX.  (Que oo's and ah's)

Doug has been wanting one of these babies for years.  He would see them being demonstrated at Costco and local fairs and I would dab the drool off his chin. We would talk about it and try to make ourselves feel better by buying one generic blender after another.  None of which ever measured up to much of anything.  Well, over the past several months I have been concerned with the lack of nutritional value my son consumes.  My girls love fruits and some veggies. But Payton could really do without any of them.  He will eat some fruits, but just is one of the pickiest eaters ever.  So, we talked about how this contraption could help us with that issue.  Next time the Vitamix guy was at Costco we jumped on it.  And we don't regret one penny spent on it. 

Now, this is NOT a blender.  It's a monster.  Calling it a blender is far too sissy of a description for this beast of a machine.  It pretty much can make anything.  It comes with this book of recipes for sauces, ice cream, shakes, dips, breads, deserts, soups (yes...it can actually cook the soup), and of course smoothies.  Among other things.  One of the coolest parts about it, is that you add most things whole.  Which is fantastic because most of the nutrition of fruits and veggies are in the peels and cores!!!  Apple...no problem.  Just cut in half and toss in.  Strawberries...throw the entire thing in!!!  Don't even remove the stem.  Of course with oranges you peel just the top layer off and keep as much of the white stuff as possible.  And it's obvious that you can't throw an entire pineapple in, but you can the middle part which you normally don't eat.  I sound like an infomercial!  But I don't care.  I love this thing!!
Another awesome thing about it is...you can add spinach, carrots, kale anything good for you to smoothies or ice cream and you can't even tell they are in there.  Which, for my kid, totally rocks!!  I honestly don't know how many healthy smoothies we have slurped down over the last month.  Now, we have had our share of shakes and unhealthy things as well.  But for the most part...healthy smoothies it is!! 
Did I mention how fantastic it is?  It is a bit of an investment...but worth every penny!!
I think I might have to create a Vitamix fan club!!