The Bear Lake Brawl

Meaning the drive up there and back with the kids. Haha, not really, but it sure felt like it at times. Kaitlyn is not a fan of driving, at all. Mckayla and Talmage are great, especially when there's a movie on. No, the Bear Lake Brawl was the latest of my triathlon's this season. We drove up Thursday night and didn't get up there till dark. We quickly set up camp, climbed in the tent and froze our tails off. The low dipped down to 40 degrees. Yikes!!! Mckayla and Talmage did great, no complaints at all from them, but Jer never warmed up and Kaitlyn's face and hands were cold despite her eskimo style bundling. Once she woke up at 2am I brought her in with me and she did ok the rest of the night, which I might say was very long. I was probably checking the clock every hour hoping it was morning, and the sight of sunshine finally was a welcome sight.
Anyway, Friday was a fun, laid back day. We drove into Garden City, restrained ourselves from Raspberry Shakes aka: not a good prerace meal (you know you have a husband who loves you when he doesn't get one either so I don't get cravings), and we played on the beach. I was so excited for the kids to play in the water because it is so shallow for so long. Even out at the no-wake buoys which must have been 150-200 yards off shore it was only 4 feet deep. But they only wanted to play in the sand. Silly kids, I can buy you sand from Home Depot. It was very good castle building sand though.

Talmage loves getting Dad wet

The kids' self made sleeping accomodations, rocks and sand.

Well friday night came along and we knew we couldn't do another cold night like before. So we cleared out the van, filled up the tent, and set up camp in the van. It actually worked out really well! Jer and I slept on the floor on the kids pads and could spread our legs out almost all the way. Mckayla and Talmage slept on the back seat layed down flat, then we put the cooler and other food in the front seat. Jer and the kids watched a movie on the bench while I went to bed early with Kaitlyn too. We all slept all night, warm, and I woke up to the windows all fogged up.

Mckayla caught a moth. She has a new found talent for catching flying insects
The race went well. The swim was pretty wavy though, it really felt like good ocean experience save the salt water. It was a little chaotic getting started since none of us really knew exactly where we were supposed to go thanks to a last minute course change, and we didn't hear the horn go off, so just kind of got started on our own after people on the shore were waving us forward. The swim was very unique though in that it is clear, and so shallow so far out that I had to run the last 150 yards of so before getting out of the water.
The bike was good, although I've learned to not trust any race director that describes their course as "pretty flat". It wasn't bad though. It didn't feel quite as fast or as easy as I'd like, but the time was pretty good. And lucky for me, the run was great! It was a 2 loop course and Jer and the kids got to see me on the first loop. It was so great seeing them waving and cheering. I knew I was in 5th or 6th place overall going into the run, so their cheering and passing 2 people early on in the run gave me the added push so I could try to finish in the top 3. I wasn't sure of the time, but ended up out racing Jer and the kids (Mckayla was very sad to not see me finish), and came away with a great time of 2:29 which I believe is faster than Spudman, and that was a downstream smooth water swim. I'm still awaiting final results (I'm thinking 3rd or 4th overall though) as the lovely timing company botched results....again. I'll let you all know when I know though. Oh and Talmage loved my body marking. He would grab my calf and say "O Mama, O" and "numbers mama" because there's an O for Olympic, the distance I went, and 25 for my age. Cute boy.

The rest of Saturday was spent getting famous Bear Lake Raspberry Shakes, playing at the beach, and geocaching. What is geocaching you might ask? Pretty stinkin cool, that's what! Every state park (as far as I'm aware) has GPS units you can use for free. You get a unit, they give you coordinates, and it leads you to a destination. They stock each location with fun "treasures". So we went to the Bear Lake Marina, and were lead to a tree with a metal box hanging from it. Inside were little Bear Lake beverage insulators that look like life jackets, and sunglass holders (chums?). So cool! The kids thought it was so much fun to follow the arrows on the GPS and change our direction to go along with what it told us, and of course, were thrilled to find treasure at the end. There was also this traveling toy. They ask you to take it, log online where you found it, then return it to another state park's box. Anyway, we had a great time, and I can't wait to do it again!
Our attempt at a family picture; the camera died taking our best one, of course.