Park City Triathlon

Yay for more tiny pictures! Nate couldn't come to this race, and I didn't know anyone else doing it, so I only have the pictures that the photography company took, and I don't think they're with $50, so tiny pictures it is!

This was my second Olympic triathlon, and even though I didn't place very well, I actually felt really good about it.

Nate and I drove the bike course the night before, and our car almost overheated. It was REALLY hilly, and I didn't know that before I signed up. This race was a cyclist's race, and a biker I am not, so I lost a bit of time on the bike. I did surprise myself though and I felt really great the whole race. Even though the bike was very difficult I found that I really enjoyed myself.

The run was awesome, and was my favorite part. I passed a few guys that passed me on the bike. Yippee!

There were only 15 women doing the Olympic triathlon, and I got 9th place. Not so good. However, the women that did do it were all great bikers, (I chatted with them before the race) and most of them were from Park City and biked the course all the time. They all went to the same master's swim class, and all knew each other. Great. They all have aero-helmets too. Sigh. I knew from the beginning that I wouldn't be able to keep up with them and their fancy triathlon bikes.

The good news is that it was only my second Olympic race, and these ladies had done quite a few. I really hope I get a chance to do this race again. It was really fun. We had 2 transition areas too, which was kind of a pain, but I liked that the course wasn't out and back.

I am really behind on my posting, so I am going to blog little by little over the next few days!

So Jealous

Right now my Mom is at THIS guy's concert. He is my absolute favorite singer of all time. I love, love, love him, and I was so sad that I couldn't go see him in person because he NEVER does concerts, but he just happened to be doing ONE show in Washington. His next few shows are all out of the country, so I'm out of luck. Fortunately for me my sweet mom just called me from the concert and held her phone up towards the stage so I could hear my most favorite of favorites. Sigh.

Anyone know who he is? I know you would know a couple of his more popular songs...

Oh, and these days he looks more like this...but he still sounds oh-so-sweet!

Which One of These Things is Not Like the Other?

Sahara, Me, Erin, Sarah

I wasn't too happy with my swim time at Scofield, so I decided to give the master's swim class a try. I know a few people there, and I feel like I can really improve by swimming with faster people, and by having a coach. It's a tough class, but I really, really like it, AND I'm not the slowest one there huzzah!

Anyway, this particular day happened to be a "test" day where the coach had us swim 13x200 meters as fast as we could. THAT was a tough work out, but I would never have done it by myself. I really like having someone there to push me. The only time I like being told what to do is when I'm exercising!

The REAL reason I am posing this though is because USUALLY when I see a picture of myself in a bathing suit I think; "Is that how I really look?! I need to lose a few pounds!" This time, however my first thought was; "holy crap I am SHORT! Like not just a little shorter than the others, but short like I am a little kid sitting at the grown-ups table." It cracks me up every time I look at it!

Scofield Triathlon, OR why I am a bad wife...

Well, it has taken me FOREVER to write this post for some reason. Maybe it's because I feel guilty for running off to Scofield to do a race...on Nate's birthday...without him...and I may or may not have left the kids at home with him as well. I know. Despicable! BUT before you judge me too harshly just know that we were all going to go up there and camp, but Nate decided to be a good student and stay home to go to his Saturday morning class instead. Oh, and he found a baby sitter for the boys for me so I can go and torture myself. Wow. I really AM a bad wife!

Anyway, I might as well do a little race report here. I did my very first Olympic tri. For those of you that don't know it goes a little something like this:

1.5 K swim

40K bike

10K run

It was a lot of fun, but also a lot of hard WORK. I had three really important goals for this race. They were pretty lofty, but because I am super awesome I nailed all three:

1. finish the race (I know amazing, right?)

2. Don't fall off my bike (you would be surprised at how many times I have done this...at stop lights)

3. Beat Sarah. Now this WOULD be a lofty goal if we were doing the same race, but she was doing a much harder and longer distance, so I thought I had a chance. We actually ended up crossing paths quite a bit, and after I was done with my race I hopped back on my bike to find her and cheer her on for the run. She didn't need too much cheering though because she was like 10 minutes ahead of the 2nd place girl. She's an animal!

This picture is the main reason I was worried about falling, you can't really tell, but the bike mount and dismount is on a HUGE hill, and I am not so great and clipping in fast, so biffing it in front of everyone was a very real concern. Fortunately, I left my clumsy self behind in transition when I fell over trying to get my wetsuit off fast. Yeah. I am TOTALLY a triathlete.

My big butt on the run! (bike shorts really don't hide much...) The run was the worst part of this whole thing because it was on the highway black top, so super hot, noisy, and not to mention I was already exhausted. My run time was slower than slow, but it was a great experience. It really made me glad that I decided not to do a half ironman this year (I was really thinking about it...idiot!).

Look closely because I'm crossing the finish line somewhere in this picture! (Thanks for taking pics, Jen!)

Overall I felt pretty good about this race I actually got 2nd place in my age group, (which I wasn't expecting) and 12th place overall. I think there were 40 women or so. I discovered that when you do a longer race like this there are a lot of ladies with more experience, so I didn't do as well as I have in the past, but I was very happy. OH, and I actually passed 2 people on the bike! I NEVER pass people on the bike. Woot!

Also, I got yelled at a couple of times. There was this girl I was with most of the race, and we kept passing each other back and forth. Of course, I think this is great. I love having someone to compete with! Well, I ended up getting a pretty good lead on her in the bike, but when I got back to transition I couldn't find my stuff! Some dirt bag put all of their stuff ON TOP of mine, so I ended up having like a 5 minute transition. Lame. Well this girl caught back up to me in the run and started YELLING at me about how she had already passed me several times, and was tired of me being in front of her. Friendly competition? No. I ended up gaining a couple of minutes on her in the run and after the race I said something like "great race!" and she gave me the dirty crusty. It's not like we were fighting for first place here lady, yikes!

Also, Sarah's biggest guy, Noah did the kid's triathlon! He was just about the youngest kiddo there and he did great! Way to go Noah!

I got to try out our new tent the night before with this lovely family! Jen and her kiddos came along for the ride. Her little girl, Rubie sounds like she has a little English accent. She kept saying; "look at me caw-lee!" So cute.

After I got home we hooked up with our great friends Logan and Sara Mann and went to Sara's family cabin up in Brighton. It was so awesome because it really was a cabin, like in the middle of the woods. We had to take a trail to get there. Now that's my kind of cabin! We absolutely love this couple too! They don't have kiddos yet, and for some reason they love to hang out with ours! Did I mention that Reid has a crush on Sara? Well he does. He loves to pick flowers for her on our way to church. We try not to take advantage of them too much by asking them to babysit for us....they're just so GOOD at it!

Pooped

I knew Reid wasn't feeling well the other day when I stumbled upon this scene. This NEVER EVER happens. This kid has a hard enough time falling asleep in his bed. Poor guy!

Happy Birthday Nate!

For an explanation on this please see item #1

This is Nate, just in case you forgot what he looks like

Well, Nate is thirty-something today, and instead of writing a list of my thirty-something favorite things about him, I am going to write about something so important to our relationship...humor! Nate is probably one of the funniest people I know, and miraculously we both think the same things are funny. This is one of the first things that attracted me to Nate in the first place; whenever we were together we would both end up laughing at something ridiculous that no one else would think was funny. So, even though I know many of you will think I'm retarded, here are my top five favorite funny things that Nate has said over the years:

1. You may be wondering why there is a picture of a fetus on my blog, (I AM NOT PREGNANT!) well it's in reference to our lovely days in our child-birthing class when I was pregnant with Reid. Nate was SO disruptive cracking jokes in that class that I found myself apologizing profusely to our instructor after just about every class. This particular class period she pulled out a picture similar to the one you see above (go ahead and check it out...I'll wait). She turned all of the lights off and we were supposed to be practicing our "breathing." So, everything is quiet and Nate says (in reference to the picture):

"And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why you never let the baby chew gum in the womb."

2. This is an inside joke for us and Nate's family, but when we first met I wasn't really interested in dating him. Anyway, there was a big group of us watching a movie and Nate said something to me, (to this day it is debated what exactly it was he said) and I said; "are you calling me fat?!" to which Nate replied; "well, you don't sweat much for a fat girl!" I was sooooo mad at him, but now we just crack up about it. What a way to win a girl's heart, right?

3. One time we were going to visit some friends of his (a married couple) and they were talking about how she had dated a guy for a long time, and he ended up breaking it off and then she met her husband shortly thereafter and they ended up getting married blah blah blah... to which Nate says;

"Well, they say that the early bird gets the worm, but it's the SECOND mouse that gets the cheese, isn't that right?"

I almost fell out of my chair laughing to hard.

4. We were at the grocery store, and I saw this enormous man get out of a tiny little car.

Me: "Why is it that really large people like to drive little tiny cars? Isn't that just exaggerating their size?"

Nate: "For security"

Me: "What?"

Nate: "Yea. It's like a hug."

Me: laughing hysterically

5. Disclaimer: I am pro-recycling, and do my best to lower our "carbon footprint." with that said, one of my favorite things Nate has said is not exactly environmentally friendly. We were talking with some friends about different environmentalists, and how outspoken they are:

Nate: "You know, they are contaminating the Earth with more carbon dioxide by telling everyone what to do than the back end of my Buick." (we don't really drive a Buick, but it was still funny at the time.)

There you have it! These are all kind of "you had to be there" moments, but I just wanted to share with you all what I get to put up with every day!

Happy birthday, Naters! The boys and I love you and your big mouth!

Downey

Have you ever been to Downey, Idaho? No? You have probably driven through it. Well, we went to this bustling metropolis this past weekend to visit Jeff, Andrea and Audrey. It's actually Andrea's parent's house, (my sister-in-law) but they are so sweet and welcoming that it's like another set of in-laws!

I love getting Reid and Audrey together because they play together SO WELL. Seriously, I don't even see Reid when we're there, and I never seem to have to break up any fights. Yay for happy 3 year olds!

Our first day there well all went swimming. This pool is awesome because it's heated by natural hot springs, so there is almost no chlorine. This is great news for a certain little boy who refuses to close his eyes under water.

I had to take a picture of this. I came downstairs to find that Audrey had talked Reid into a tea party (I don't believe he has ever been invited to one before...). It was HILARIOUS because I hid around the corner and heard Reid say, "why yes Audrey I WOULD like some cake. I think Dumbo wants some too." For whatever reason Audrey had surrounded Reid with all of the animals as she served them cake and tea. What a cutie!

Saturday we all went to see a 3D movie. It was great for Audrey and Reid because they sat there completely still the whole time totally in awe. They thought it was great! Link, on the other hand, was a total pill, and Nate and I took turns with him in the hall. Don't ever bring your 1 year old to a movie. Trust me.

I think this face shows exactly how much fun we all had. We were pooped!

On Sunday we drove home just in time for church, but the kids were SO tired and SO grumpy that we only stayed for about 15 minutes. We were supposed to go to Heather's to watch the World Cup final, but the kids were sleeping, so I went by myself. It was so fun. I am sad that the tournament is over, but now I can have my life back, (I watched A LOT of games. A lot.) and I am sooo happy that Spain won. It's one of the few exotic places I have actually been to!

To see my favorite part of the match, click HERE I felt bad for Alonso, (one of my favorite players ever!) but I was seriously laughing SO HARD! I am such a mean-spirited person.