Spudman

Saturday I competed in the Spudman Triathlon in Burley, Idaho. I haven't done this race since my second season doing triathlons in 2001, so was excited to be back and experience the new course. While Kaitlyn did, I didn't sleep well the night before. I woke up about every 30 minutes to look at the time, and inbetween that drempt I woke up late. When I finally did wake up (at 4:15 AM) to that first of three alarms I set, it was actually a relief. Got everything set up in the first transition area and walked across a golf course - can't say that happens everyday - to the start.
I had a great swim. It was so nice not to have to fight for position with other swimmers. The swim was nice and smooth, and I pushed it a little more than usual. The current was lovely! There was a 60 year old man, Donald Morehouse, that unfortunately died in a later wave. Please pray for his family. 1 mile: 15:40
The bike was also great. I have got to be faster here if I want to place well, and did raise my average. I kept a great cadence and pace, pushed hard, and was a little nervous how my legs would be for the run, but it was worth it. The course was almost completely flat and ran through farmland, it was very enjoyable. 25 miles: 1:13
The run was great. I really look forward to it every race. The legs felt good and I got settled into a good pace and passed a lot of people. I ran with a really nice guy who helped me push hard the last 2 miles. 6.2 miles: 46:47
I had 2 goals. One was to get under 2:30, and the other was to place in my age group and earn a coveted trophy specific to this race. So....2:19, and 1st in my age group, 15th woman overall in a combined field of almost 2000 people and.....

Meet Mr. Spud!

Going back in time a little, thursday the 24th we took off for Logan and camped at Hyrum State Park. Very fun. Nice soft grass and a shady tent site.

While Jer got some fishing in up Blackfork Canyon, the kids and I met up with an online friend of mine Ann and her little girl Kayla. Yeah, Mckayla was thrilled. The kids played on the rocks before having a great time in the lake. Great to meet you Ann! I told Jer you weren't the 50 year old fat balding cyber stalker he thought you were ;-)




We drove into Logan that night for some yummy pizza. On the way back to camp we stopped at a little beach for our water baby to get a litte more swim time. The sun was going down but no matter to her. Talm was her lifeline - Yes we tied a rope to the back of her life jacket. Don't call CPS.

Friday morning Jer did some more fishing and got some great pics.




That morning we headed up to Burley and set up camp in a park across from the airport.
Mckayla met a little friend from there with her family who was there for the triathlon too. When I got to camp from picking up my packet Jer told me Mckayla met a deaf girl. She could apparently read lips because she'd answer Mckayla's questions, but would answer in sign language. After heading over to their camp to say hi her mother informed me that she wasn't deaf at all, just liked to pretend. A little Diva just like our Mckayla. This mom asked me where we were from. We both had a good laugh when she told me Mckayla said we were from Brazil. She swears that's where we live, and I have no idea why. Silly girl. While in camp Mckayla also made a little leaf trail for a mouse she found (no we did not let her touch it) to lead him to his new home she built him.

Later that day Daddy snuck off to the golf course and we caught some pics of him.



I took the kids to the park and guess where we played? The water, some more. Talm has this lovely habit of going in fully clothed.


It was a nice trip, lots of driving, but not too bad. We even spoiled our kids more and stopped at Lagoon on the way home Saturday to use our bounceback passes. It's hard to pass up $8 Lagoon tickets.


Talmage was in heaven examining the model trains in the model train museum. I had no idea that was there, but it was cool (interesting and air conditioned, yes!)


Daddy and Talm after running through the fountains. Talm loved it apparently.
The girls on the "fairest" wheel.

Payson Lakes

We had a great time. We went camping just for camping sake, no races attatched...almost. My dear husband was kind enough to pack the van and kids without me while I rode my bike down to Provo where he picked me up. We got to the campgound and of course the truck before us got the last site, but we were able to find a great little pull off spot a mile up the road or so.













The kids had a blast playing in the dirt! They went on a hike with Dad, dug lots of little holes (who knew a potty shovel could be so much fun?), and we even spotted Sasquach...oh wait, that's Mckayla after crashing face first into the dirt. Jer and I figure we need to camp a lot more, because man, those kids ate like horses. Maybe they thought we'd get them lost or something and were filling up the reseerves ;-). The hammock was fun, they loved the fire and collecting firewood, and slept great.









Now the lake itself was awesome! It in't very big and must not be very deep, because even at 8000 feet it was warm enough to swim in. Not Lake Powell by any means, but better than most other high Utah lakes. No motorized boats allowed either. There was a lot of shallow area, and Mckayla of course jumped right in. I also got some open water swimming in. Jer did some fly fishing from the float tube, and with one or two children on his lap as well! There's a fun trail that goes around the lake, and lots of little secluded places along the shore to hang out. If you haven't been up there before it's a must do on the list of Utah camping areas.

I have to say Thank You big time to Jer. I trained a ton (2 workouts a day 1-2.5 jours each, everyday) last week getting ready for Spudman, my big triathlon for the season that is this Saturday. He's working really hard at work and tries to help accomodate me and Kaitlyn's sometimes unpredictable schedule when he can (and sometimes when he can't), and still makes time to do fun family things like this. So if anyone's looking for a good husband, father, and financial advisor, I've got one!

Lagoon

The first family trip to Lagoon. We had a blast this past Saturday riding the rides, playing in the water, and getting wet in other places as we cruised around Lagoon. Mckayla and Talmage had a blast playing in the kids area. Their favorite ride was probably their last one (which ironically was the one Mckayla insisted on NOT going on all day because it was too scary), Puff the Magic Dragon. They absolutely loved it! Mckayla came off and after I asked her how she liked it she said straight faced "I didn't like it...(I thought, 'oh crap!')...I LOVED it!". We played ourselves to the ground. Here is our 8 minute unedited video of our experiences. Hope you all enjoy.

First Smiles

Have you ever seen such a beautiful baby?!? Well I have twice before but this one's right up there on the list. I'm not doing a great job right now keeping up on our blog, but don't give up on me! Anyway, Kaitlyn's started smiling in the last couple weeks and it is SOOOO CUTE!!!. Anyway, enjoy!

And my two other sweet babies. Mmmm, I love them!!!



Not sure why Talm's pic posted like that, oh well, more cuteness :-)

Being the middle child...

Poor sweet Talm. He has done just great with Kaitlyn. Loves to see and kiss and pat her. He's been calling her "Kaitlyn boy" lately and always uses a high pitched squeal of a voice when he talks to her, silly boy. But the poor kid does get a little less attention now and I paid for it today.
While I was feeding Kaitlyn, I found he had gotten into the freezer, taken out the ice cream and was eating it out of the carton, on the kitchen floor....with his hands. Later, he wanted a drink, and well Momma was nursing again, so he got to work himself. After getting a cup out of the dishwasher he got the pitcher of juice out of the fridge and poured himself a cup. He finished off that cup and after saying "delicious", his new thing, he went back for more, this time emptying the whole pitcher on the floor. Yeah, that'll be fun to mop up... He's so sweet though, such a great little guy.
Another funny food moment from today. The kids got a pack of gummy worms (bad mommy, I know) for being good at the store. One of them said, "look Mom, grubs!". They had a great time being Timon and Pumba with their grubs.

Provo Tri - Mckayla's first triathlon!

Ok, for all of you that have been waiting, here it is! Stay tuned as well for the video to come in the next day or two. I'll mention my race first.

Swim was good, I probably ought to push harder. In a sport where most people aren't great swimmers, I take my swimming background for granted. The water was really good, until we swam back into the boat harbor where it tasted like boat fuel for a few minutes. Yuck! I seriously felt like I was being poisened.

Bike was good actually. Normally I don't look forward to it and don't go as fast as I'd like, but this one was better. My legs hurt more because I was pushing harder, but I needed a faster bike split to do better overall. As a runner, I can still pull off a good run with tired legs, so I need to not worry about saving my legs on the bike.

The run. Well it hurt. My legs just weren't as fresh as usual. At first I thought it was that I just don't have all my endurance back yet, which may be, but it might have also had to do with the fact that I pushed harder than normal on the bike.

I really had a good time though, felt strong and am excited for more to come. I am racing Spudman in Idaho next month and really want to do well, so the next month will be a tough training month for me. Anyway, I placed 3rd overall and 1st in my age group which was reasuring since I had to age up this year. Oh and Jer and the kids were such great cheerleaders! I adored hearing the "go Mom go! go Mom go!" and seeing their smiles as I rode/ran by, it was awesoome! Seriously, this was the best race support I've had. Thanks guys! I couldn't do it without you.



Now onto the fun part, Mckayla! We kind of had to rush her getting dressed and set up which worried me. Oh yeah and not only was it really hot by then (10:30am) which is hard on kids, but she was covered in mosquito bites. They were so brutal. But she did fine. We headed down the boat ramp and lined up behind everyone. I didn't want to get her runover by the older kids and figured she'd go in slow and I might have to drag her in because the water was cold.

Well, the gun went off and so did she! Seriously, she booked it, running over some kids along the way. I had to run to catch up to her. She LOVED the swim! She had such a great time and swam the whole time whereas I worried she'd just want to play.

In this pic below during transition she said "hurry Mom! There's no time to waste!" She was also thrilled her numbers on her arms were still on.

The bike she did great, although she almost fell over going down a hill. Disaster avoided thatnks to Daddy. She was so cute. When she'd need water she'd say "water break!" and Jer would squirt water in her mouth while she kept riding. Silly girl. Sorry, I guess I didn't take any bike pictures, there is footage in the video to come though.
She loved the run and would zoom ahead of me and thought that was pretty cool.

Talmage loved cheering for his sister and tried to run along most of the race, even if part of it was on Daddy's shoulders! :-) And she's not as miserable as she looks in this picture, it's just hot outside.

She was so exited to get her medal. She put it right on and has been wearing it most of the weekend.

She's hillareous. Right after she finished and later when she got her medal she said "I'm a winner. I didn't even run out of energy!" My irongirl


Oh and Kaitlyn did great too! She slept all night, and ate right before I had to go back to the transition area from our campsite to get my wetsuit on and get in. Then she slept all the way until Mckayla's race was over. Jer really lucked out. I hope her good behavior on race day continues or I can easily see a Daddy meltdown if he has to hold a crying baby and chase 2 other kids while mom races. Seriously, he has an event of his own on race days. Everything went really well though.

It was all so much fun. She had her own little timing chip on her ankle, her own race number, she got body marked, everything, just like Mom. She just loved it and that makes me so happy. She was so excited to show the kids in Primary the numbers on her arms and tell them what it was from. She even was used as an example of keeping our bodies healthy in sharing time.