I did it in less than 2 hours!

At 5am this morning Tricia knocked on my door to pick me up for our sprint triathlon. This was our first triathlon and while it didn't start until 7am we wanted to get there plenty early. I'm glad we did since I was a little jittery with excitement.

You can see a little in the background of her picture the bike racks. We hung our bikes on these racks based on our age category. I was in the 35-39 category and Tricia was in the 30-34 category. Then we went to swim!

Me and Tricia before our triathlon

 Swim half a mile: The swimming part of the triathlon was in two waves. The 34 and under age group and the 35 + age group. Tricia was swimming with all the spring chickens and I was with all the old people. Fine with me!  When the race started for me I panicked. There were so many people in the water kicking around (I was kicked in the head and the side and I kicked other people) that I seriously freaked out. So I started to float on my back which I did for awhile. That wasn't so bad then and I could catch my breath. I was much slower but I finished the swimming part. I realized I didn't practice swimming in the open lake like this except one time. I could swim half a mile in the nice pool with pretty lane markers and clear water but the murky lake water is a little different.

We did it!

Bike 12.4 miles: After swimming I toweled off and put my shoes and helmet on and was off on my bike. I was one of the last ones out of the water due to my freaking out swimming stage so I was behind. I was riding faster than I'd ever ridden because of my new bike :). Last Friday we bought new road bikes. So I did have a road bike and could go much faster. However I had only gone on one long ride with it. I couldn't figure out how to get my water bottle out (so I was thirsty) and I was having trouble changing gears. I did okay in the biking but many of the Olympic triathletes passed me (they started swimming in a wave after me!).  We biked around the lake which was nice and scenic.

Run 5K: After biking I drank a lot of water. Then went straight to running. This was the event I had practiced the most and was most comfortable with. I run a 10 minute mile - pretty slow but I am consistent and was able to pass people and make up some time here. The running was beautiful. We ran on a bridge over the lake. I loved the scenic views and even saw some boats on the lake.

I ran to the finish line where Tricia's husband was taking pictures! Then crossed the finish line in 1 hour 47 minutes. I was so excited to finish in less than 2 hours.  I figured it would take 1/2 hour for swimming (I took longer I'm sure) about an hour for biking and 1/2 hour for running. The top people in our age group were doing the race in one hour 20 minutes.

We finished quick enough I could take a shower and go to church! Yipee!

My "little" boy is 2

My "little" baby is 2! I say "little" with reservations since Matthew is in the 90th percentile for height. I took him to the pediatrician today for his 2 year checkup and the Doctor said he will most likely be 6'1" or 6'2". He gets it from me.

Is this the face of a happy 2 year old?

 Matthew got a lot of fun gifts for his birthday. He likes this track rug that he can race cars on. Although Sarah might like it more :).

Matthew and Sarah playing with the car-track rug

One cupcake for the birthday boy

 My friends Jen, Andria, and Tricia came over for a playdate and the older kids had a water balloon fight. They loved it although I'm still finding bits of water balloon in my yard.  While the kids had a water balloon fight my friends and I ate Indian food. Andria had never tried it so I bought Chicken Tikka Masala, Saag Paneer, and Dal Makhini from Amul India. Andria loved it!

Water balloon fight!

Matthew's top ten. I always list my top ten favorite things (who doesn't love lists?) and thought I would list Matthew's top ten favorite things:

1. Popsicles. Just the mere mention of the word popsicle throws Matthew in some super excited state. He LOVES popsicles.
2. Outside. Matthew often brings his shoes to me or bangs on the door to go outside. He never wants to come indoors. Ever.
3. Swinging. This goes along with number 2. When we are outside, he loves to swing. When we go to parks he loves the swing there too. He will walk up to it and bang on it until Mommy pushes him in the swing.
4. Mommy. I love this :). Mommy is number 1 to Matthew. If Daddy leaves...meh. But if Mommy leaves the world is ending. Daddy can't even hug Mommy. He gets jealous.
5. Lights. All of the lights and ceiling fans are pretty much constantly on at our house. He loves to turn them on and off. If we turn the light off and he wants it on, he gets mad at us and flips the switch.
6. Opening and closing cabinets and doors. Matthew is constantly opening and closing doors and cabinets. We went to this fun music class and he spent the entire time opening and closing the cabinets.
7. Jumping. Most kids cry or play or somehow let you know they are done with their nap in a nice, sweet way. Matthew jumps. He is always jumping. It's nice that he doesn't scream after naps - just jumps.
8. Running. Why did I ever wish for him to walk? Now he runs and runs and runs specifically away from Mommy. I don't understand why since I'm number 4 on the list.
9. Milk. It does a Matthew good. He loves to drink milk to help him relax and settle down. He loves his cup of milk!
10. Music. At church Matthew loves the worship. He will dance to the music and tries to go up on stage. He loves our little keyboard and the xylophone at church. I hope he plays the saxophone like Mommy some day!

78 points on Quiddler today. I got to make the word jeez!

Roasting marshmallows and the dollar store

Last weekend we embarked on our first camping trip of the summer. We went to Cross Creek Camping Resort and had a great spot! This place doesn't have many pull-through spots but we got one - yipee! We roasted marshmallows, went swimming, played on the playground, and relaxed. This is exactly what I love about camping. It really does force me to stop working and relax and I needed that. I spend way too much time working on my classes and this weekend was perfect!

Roasting marshmallows

The girls are not supposed to sit in this luggage rack, so where else would Sarah be?

I caught you Sarah!

We have always put our pack and play on the couch in our camper and put the kids in there (Sarah when she was a baby and now Matthew). However Matthew is big and he jumps a lot. I really didn't want him in the pack and play on the couch since I thought there was a good chance he would knock it over. We bought a travel pack and play for him (shown). It is narrow so it fits perfectly in the spot for our table. At 1am he climbed out of it and was standing by our bed. He was up until 6am crying/fussing/not sleeping in his pack and play so we took it back to Babies R Us. We still need to find a better solution.

Matthew in the pack and play. Please stay in there. Please...

After our camping trip, I took the kids to my parents' house for a few days for another little vacation. My mom took the girls to the dollar store and gave them $5 to spend on whatever they wanted. This was apparently exciting because they LOVED it!

We also went to the McKinely museum and walked up 100 steps. Even Matthew walked up all 100 steps.

The next night when I read them a story before bed I read them a book about money. It explained about pennies, nickels, quarters, dollars, interest, banking, etc. I thought the book was really good for kids to understand money. At the end of the story you earn a million dollars (not for real obviously). After reading the book I asked Jenna what she would do with a million dollars. She said she would give it to the poor. How awesome is that? Sarah said she would go to the dollar store and buy a million things.  I laughed so hard at that :).

Jenna also impressed everyone with her algebra skills. I gave her the problem x+1 = 5 and asked her to solve it. She said 4 oh yea!  She can also do this with fractions!



86 points on Quiddler today!

My first Cupcake Wars

I've mentioned in a previous post that we watch cupcake wars every Sunday night together. I was really excited to try my own cupcake wars. Erik went to the store and bought 5 secret ingredients I had to use in two cupcake recipes. He bought:

1. Raspberries
2. Peanut butter
3. Pretzel M&Ms (aka, bite sized balls of heaven)
4. Sliced almonds
5. Caramel topping

 

My secret ingredients

 I made two types of cupcakes. A dark chocolate pretzel cupcake with peanut butter and caramel buttercream and a raspberry almond cupcake with berry cream cheese frosting. Erik thought the peanut butter was too strong in the peanut butter buttercream. (he doesn't understand peanut butter aficionados like me, Joel, and Dan. AMIRIGHT?). The berry cupcakes were very tasty however the frosting was too sweet. I should have cut it with some lemon juice but I only had so much time.

Cupcake wars!

Overall the cupcake wars was a success although I don't know if I would call it a war. We got to eat cupcakes so it was a success to me. I look horrible in the picture - I ran 3 miles that day. Don't look at me - just look at the cupcakes and my cute Sarah.

What is this blue thing? It has been plaguing me for weeks?

The school year is wrapping up. Sarah will be entering pre-kindergarten next year although we are discussing possibly petitioning to have her start kindergarten next year. We are still debating on what to do. Based on what her preschool teachers said she is two years ahead. I don't want her to be bored.

Jenna has read all the Little House books several times. I'm running out of books for her to read. The other books at this level seem too "scary" for her. I don't want her to be bored reading the same books over and over again (I think this is the fourth time I'm reading Mistborn so maybe it's not such a bad thing).

71 points on Quiddler today