Giant Eagle Triathlon

Did we reach our goals in the Giant Eagle Triathlon?  Yes!!
At 3:15am we woke up to start our day. Since the triathlon is point to point, we had to leave our car downtown, and a bus shuttled us to the lake. The swimming part was at Alum Creek lake, then we rode our bikes to downtown Columbus, and ended with a 5K around downtown. It was awesome.

Swim 1/2 mile: Swimming was much better in this race. I swam the whole way! However I am definitely a slow swimmer since I swam 1/2 mile in 22 minutes and Erik walked/backfloated the whole way and swam in 24 minutes. Tricia smoked us with a time of 19 minutes on the swim.


Bike 19.2 miles. The Bike course was so much fun! Police officers were there to direct traffic so we were able to just ride. I didn't fall (and didn't wear my fancy clip-in shoes) and felt confident. I rode in 1 hours 13 minutes for an average speed of about 15.8mph. Pretty exciting for someone who started riding a road bike June 15! Although Erik smoked me with a time of 1 hour 3 minutes on the bike (and he just started riding too!). Tricia did the bike course in 1 hour 4 minutes. They were flying!

Bike course

Run 5k. The run was beautiful through downtown. I was suprised that there were actually beautiful paths in downtown Columbus by the water. My run time was 31:46. Say what? I've never done a 5K in less than 32 minutes and especially not after biking and swimming. I think I must have been excited to do this and just moved my feet. Erik said he was just walking on the course when Tricia caught up with him and made him run. He put in a time of 33:24 on the run - his fastest run time ever. Tricia ran in 32:05. If Tricia would have just let Erik walk then I might have beaten him. But no.... she had to get him to run.

The overall time for this triathlon was:
Tricia at 1:57:25
Erik at 2:03:23
Gina at 2:09:50

Erik beat me which was his goal. My goal was to finish in less than 2:15 and I did. This triathlon was great and I didn't freak out during the swim portion so it was a success. 

Erik loved doing the triathlon too and is already planning for next year. I'll have to work on beating him and Tricia next year.

Interview with the Girls

I read on Pinterest that you should interview your children every once in awhile to generate discussion. So I did. Following are my interview questions to Jenna and Sarah and their responses (I could ask Matthew but that would not be very productive). Although he has added a new word to his massive vocabulary. Now he can say: uh oh, hee haw, on, and eoweow for cat. WOW!

1. What is your biggest dream?
Jenna: To go back in time and see what it was like to live as Rose (Laura Ingalls Wilder's daughter from Little House on the Prarie).
Sarah: To have a pet unicorn

2. What is your best memory this school year?
Jenna: On the first day of art class we all had to draw a picture. The teacher said she really liked my picture.
Sarah: Making a picture with splatter paint. Then everyone's picture is the best!  (Sarah actually said this)

3. What are you most proud of yourself for?
Jenna: Reading
Sarah: Writing

4. What 3 words best describe you?
Jenna: Jenna, brown, ilovesarah (she requested this be one word)
Sarah: Sarah, red, ilovejenna

5. If you could keep one thing what would it be?
Jenna: Daddy, Mommy, Sarah, Matthew, Scruffles, Butterscotch
Sarah: Daddy, Mommy, Jenna, Scruffles, Butterscotch, Panda (notice the missing person)

The girls really liked the interview so I'm going to have to come up with some more questions for them.

Our garden is doing really well and I've had to come up with several zucchini recipes. We have been eating a lot of zucchini cakes lately too. They are yummy :). As we were looking at our pumpkin plant, we noticed a good sized "pumpkin" growing. Ummm... I think this might be a watermelon plant, or this pumpkin has some issues. So maybe we will pick this "pumpkin" and make pumpkin pie!  It may or may not be red with black seeds!

Our "pumpkin"

Sarah jumping off the fourth step

Our triathlon is coming soon and I'm excited! I hope all my injuries will completely heal before then. Erik asked me what my goal was for this triathlon and I said finishing in less than 2 hours and 15 minutes. Since the bike course on this race is 7 miles longer than the last one I think this is a good goal. I asked Erik what his goal was and he said to beat me. Okay.....BRING IT ON!

74 points on Quiddler today

Chopped Basket #2

Erik brought me another chopped basket that he *thought* would be easy for me. However I don't think it was as successful as my first chopped basket. My chopped basket contained:

• Pork chops
• Bagels
• Tortilla chips
• Limes

My Chopped Creation

 This sounds like I could make something Mexican. I went a little different route. I made a pulled pork sandwich with an avocodo lime Jack Daniels sauce (hey - you've got to cook for the judges, ya know!). On the side I made corn cake with crushed tortillas. The sandwich turned out really good even though the Jack was a little strong for me. Erik loved it. The corn cake was too dry. The inclusion of crushed tortillas just made the whole dish dry. The kids loved it though. This was a fun basket - not my best, but still fun!

I signed up the girls for summer camps through the Metroparks this year. Sarah went to Peek-a-boo and Nature too for ages 3-5 and Jenna went to Workin for a Living for Grades 1-3. The camps were fantastic. Jenna got to go fishing and even caught a fish! Every day they did fun activities outside to learn about nature and wear them out. Jenna went to her camp with Nicholas so she had a friend with her.

Nicholas and Jenna at camp. Jenna was very happy!

My biking woes:
I've had some ups and downs with my new road bike. Actually quite a few downs. On Monday I rode to church because I had a meeting and fell down. This is easy to do with clip in shoes if you don't unclip in time. I scraped up my knee (which was bleeding pretty badly), hurt my shoulder and hip (yes, complain complain - I'm getting older okay!).

Since my knee and shoulder were tender, I didn't swim at all and didn't go running until Friday (yesterday). This is a problem since my triathlon is coming up and I need to train. I pretty much lost a week of training.

Today I rode 30 miles ....and fell 3 times. I really had a lot of trouble unclipping in time and with my balance. My other knee was skinned so badly blood was running down my leg. Both knees are skinned now! Walking is painful and my shoulder is out of commission. Yes - I'm a loser! After falling the third time, I told Erik I was done with the shoes. I know he is disappointed in me since he really wanted me to wear the shoes but I am typing this with three ice packs on me now. Yep, done with the shoes.

Unfortunately I'm going to lose another week of training. I can't run or swim in this condition. I hope I can make it through the triathlon!

96 points on quiddler today

Road bikes and bright shirts

I mentioned in a previous post that Erik and I both bought road bikes. Yes - we broke down and bought them. Although it was rather easy to convince Erik since he loves biking.  Convincing him to buy two $600 road bikes has been easier than convincing him to buy a $19 salad spinner (because he obviously doesn't want it!) but hey - that's how it goes.

I still want a salad spinner.

We went to Performance Bike and bought their entry level road bikes: Scattante bikes, and we also bought clip in shoes. We've been really happy with the bikes and I'm not quite so embarrassed by my bike anymore (my hybrid bike is still awesome by the way and we use it for family bike rides). 

The clip in shoes give you greater efficiency and power since you can both push down and pull up on the pedal when biking. I've used them a few times and have fallen down (couldn't get my foot out in time) but I do like the extra power on hills especially.

Erik and I biked 16 miles on the Olentangy trail on Thursday at 12 mph. This was so much fun. The scenery was excellent and I loved the ride. Both of us had these fashionable (put your sunglasses on NOW or you might burn your eyes on Erik's shirt) shirts for our ride. The Olentangy trail is like Grand Central Station but we were able to ride just fine and didn't run into anyone (always a plus!).

Erik all decked out!

Erik has not done much swimming laps and he wasn't sure about the swimming part of our triathlon. So he tested his speed today. It took him 35 seconds to swim one length of the pool and 33 seconds to walk. It looks like he will be walking in the water for the triathlon rather than swimming. I have been diligently reading websites and watching youtube videos to improve my technique. Hopefully I can swim rather than walk in the water!

74 points on quiddler today.

I'm not giving up on that salad spinner either.

Surprise tomatillos!

Erik hates running.

Erik hates swimming.

Naturally, he would register to do the next triathlon with me.

I'm not sure what he's thinking (or what I'm thinking for doing another triathlon) but he is training to do this with me. I'm excited that we can do this together!

I've posted a picture of David, Becca, and new baby Charlotte!







David, Charlotte, and Becca

 So many birthdays in June and July! Dave, Becca, and Charlotte all have birthdays in July. Me and Missy's fiance Dave have birthdays in July. My Dd and Matthew have birthdays in June. My family met to celebrate together and my Mom got this cake with batman in a batcave. We had great fun sending batman flying out of the batcave.

Our combined birthday cake

 Our garden looks spectacular! Erik had to fashion a few cages to keep the animals out of our lettuce but other than that our plants are doing really well. Unfortunately all our tomatoes are still green so we are waiting. (Impatiently I might add as I love fresh tomatoes.) The pumpkins, zucchini, and cucumbers are growing everywhere though. We've had a lot of zucchini and I made zucchini cakes (because there's only so much zucchini bread you can make). These were like crab cakes but with zucchini instead. Everyone loved them (except Matthew but he doesn't count since all he eats is mac and cheese and cashews).

Our garden amidst dead grass (oh I guess we were supposed to water the grass too)

See the picture below - our pepper plants are growing really well. However I peeked closer and noticed that they are not pepper plants (apparently my note-taking skills on the garden were lacking). These are tomatillo plants. There are a lot of tomatillos so we will be able to make green salsa and whatever else you do with tomatillos :).

tomatillo plants

 The girls have pretty much played with the legos nonstop. Here is Jenna with her lego house and lego yard. They are having a blast with the legos and I'm so glad. We are raising budding engineers!

Jenna and her lego creations

I just finished reading Rhett Butler's People by Donald McCaig. I loved the ending of this book better than Scarlett. It was great to see life from Rhett Butler's point of view.

I've picked up Magician: Apprentice by Raymond Feist. This series has been on my list for awhile but never got around to it. It's kind of a vanilla fantasy story but I like vanilla fantasy stories so it's a fun read.

I also got Wings of Wrath by C.S. Friedman in from the library so I'll start on that soon. It is the next book in the Magister trilogy. Of course I'm not sure when I'll get this reading done since I'm back to work again. Work gets in the way of all my reading!

66 points on Quiddler today!

The Little Blue Explorer that Could

Our V6 Explorer survived the 28 hour round trip pulling our camper to and from Minnesota. We were actually a little surprised at how well the Explorer did on some of the hills especially near the Mississsippi River. Erik drove 24 hours and I drove 4 hours. Seems about right.

Day 1: Got up at 5am and drove to Wisconsin camping at the Madison KOA. This was about 9-10 hours of driving and the kids did great in the car. Jenna read, Sarah played on the Kindle, and Matthew pointed at things out the window. We stopped at a rest area to eat along the way and had dinner once we got there. Then we went to Culvers for Ice cream. Yum Culvers! They are everywhere in WI!

Swinging in Wisconsin

Day 2: We arrived in Minnesota! We camped at St. Paul East RV Park and loved it.  Our spot was shady and secluded. We went swimming every day and had ice cream every day. Obviously that worked out well. Joel, Megan, and Grandma and Grandpa came to visit us at the campsite Sunday where we ate hot dogs and corn on the cob and played the bean game. They surprised me with a birthday cake!

Hanging out at the campsite in 100 degree weather

Joel's upside down smile (I guess it could be a frown)

Day 3: After a sleepless night since Matthew could climb out of the crib, Erik found Home Depot and fashioned a little extra height on the crib. He had to buy a drill, wood, screws, etc. But this solution worked fabulously and Matthew couldn't climb out. Next we met everyone at the Mall of America. We went to Legoland and bought girl themed Legos. Sarah went crazy since she loves legos and is currently (as I type this) playing with the girl legos. Jenna is currently reading Charlotte's Web in honor of her new cousin! The mall has an underwater sea exhibit with jellyfish and other sea creatures. We toured this exhibit which was a lot of fun. Then we all went to dinner at the Rainforest Cafe!

Matthew in the camper crib

Day 4: We felt great Tuesday morning so both Erik and I got up and went running. We didn't know where we were going :) but just took off in a neighborhood around the campground. I ran 3.7 miles and Erik ran 3 miles. I couldn't believe he ran 3 miles. He hates running! I also couldn't believe he ran about as far as me since I've been running my whole life and he's been running 2 weeks! Then we went to Tom and Katie's house for a cookout. Tom and Katie have 2 girls: Kira and Julia. We also got to see our Thursday night teamspeak buddy Dan and his wife Regina and their son Isaac. It was so much fun! Excluding the short jokes from Erik, Joel AND Dan!

They had a slip and slide which the kids enjoyed and Tom even went down the slip and slide fully clothed. Good times.  After the cookout I took the kids home and Erik stayed to play games. Joel's friends Tim, Tom, Troy, and Dan all played games until 4am. Erik had SO much fun.  I might have to fly him up there sometime just to play games with them. That's how much fun he had.

Thursday night teamspeak buddies! Erik, Me, Joel, and Dan

Kira, Julia, Sarah and Tom. All went in the slip and slide



Katie - our host for the cookout

Megan and some chips :)

Day 5: Independence Day! I took the kids and met the parents, Joel, Megan, and Erik at IHOP on July 4th and ate lots of carby pancakey goodness. Then we went back to the campground in the sweltering 100 degree heat so Matthew could take a nap. After the nap we went to the Legendary Nelson's Ice Cream. The servings there were

Huge

Let me make this clear. They were

HUGE

I took a picture of a child size cone just so you could understand. Did you see it? They give you a lot of ice cream. However this was not good since it was so hot. The ice cream melted immediately and just made a sticky yucky mess.


The Legendary Nelson's ice cream. You can see the cone in the picture

After eating ice cream we went to the goodwill store and Gander Mountain. We just needed to go somewhere with air conditioning. Then we ate pizza pies and smores cooked on the fire (yes we still made a fire even though it was so hot).

While we were eating we had news that Charlotte was born! She is a firecracker baby :). David emailed us that she weighed 7 lbs 14 oz, 20 inches long. Unfortunately Becca was in labor all day and the baby was caught on her tailbone. So ultimately Becca had to have a c-section. The baby and Becca are doing well now. Yipee! This was exciting news.

After the good news, we went to see fireworks. Matthew had never stayed up so late but he did fine and the girls had an incredible time.

Day 5&6: We left Minnesota with a teary good bye. We split up the 14 hour drive over 2 days and stayed at the LaSalle-Peru KOA in Illinois. The drive home went smoothly and we ate at Culvers for lunch one day (on my birthday!).

This was our first long road trip with the camper and it was fantastic! We grossly underestimated the mileage we would get pulling the camper. We only got about 10 miles per gallon and ended up spending almost $500 on gas. Yikes! However this was a really fun trip and I'm so glad we were able to go.