My triathlon....

My very good friend Sarah and I completed, yes completed our first Olympic Triathlon. Now for those of you who don't know what this is we swam 1500 meters (almost a mile), bike 24 miles, and run 6.2 miles. Here we are before the race. We got to the race almost 2 hours before it started. There were several waves of racers ahead of us, but we really needed to get in the water for a warm up, so we got to the race early...plus we wanted to get anxious and nervous while waiting to start, you know the fun part of racing. The race was wet suit legal, so we had wet suits on - neither one of them fit us very well, but it was nice because it made you much more buoyant resulting in a better swim...

And we're off....can you tell which one I am? It was pretty crazy. We were running into each other and kicking each other most of the time. I however, kept going off course, instead of swimming in a nice straight line, I swam in an S shape....pretty frustrating, but I ended up finishing and that is what matters, right? I have driven by this lake several times (see that mansion in the background? our friends Jacob and Kelly live in that neighborhood, it backs up to this lake), never thought I would swim in it...I don't like swimming and not knowing what is underneath me, but I will say that keeping myself calm was fairly easy as there were several people in kayaks keeping the swimmers on course - they had their work cut out with me. Our caps were gray and the next wave behind us wore yellow caps, and while I was swimming quite a few yellow caps (started 3 minutes behind us) passed me...needless to say, I need to work on my swimming.

I really wish you could see this picture bigger, I am the swimmer by the big orange buoy....I am almost done, AND BONUS there are swimmers behind me, I wasn't the last one out of the water....thank goodness. Sarah rocked the swim and finished just about 3 1/2 minutes ahead of me.

This girl is a "stripper", her and her friends had the privilege of stripping wet suits off anyone who wanted to have help. I am sure they enjoyed helping the men more than the women.

After swimming, we ran up this hill, then right back down into the transition area where our bikes were waiting for us. We rode a 6 mile loop 4 times. I can't tell you how hard it was. It was really hilly with some pretty good inclines to boot. It is funny because in the last tri we did (July) Sarah and I had the EXACT to the second time on our bikes. This race, we had the EXACT to the minute time on our bikes (Sarah beat me by 5 seconds), clearly we are well matched in the bike. Here I am, not sure what lap this is, but I tried really hard on the bike to keep my average speed above 16, that was my goal and my average was just over 18!!! I was very pleased with that.

Here is Sarah sporting....A SMILE???? not sure I smiled at all in the bike....

Heading into the transition area to put my bike up and get my running shoes on....yeah, my favorite part, the run!

The run was also quite hilly and by the time we started the run, it had to be 90 degrees, doesn't sound too hot, right? well, it was. EVERY water station had nice refreshing water that I pretty much used to pour over myself, a bit shocking, but overall, very refreshing. I caught up to Sarah about halfway into the run. I ran with her for a little bit, then took off, we were almost done. Here I am finishing and so excited to see the kids and the finish line.

Here is Sarah finishing. Also, very happy to see the finish line.

I think we look pretty good for just finishing a pretty long, hard, and hot race, don't you?

Thanks Sarah, for pushing me to do this race. I don't think I would have done it and done it as well as I did without you. You are such an awesome friend and I thank God for you each and every day. I can't wait to do many more races with you....someday :) You did awesome today, I am so proud of both of us...I will be wearing my shirt proudly tomorrow.

Chloe's Gymnastics class

So, Chloe started Gymnastics last week, this is actually her second class (with a leotard rather than her shorts and t-shirt she sported last week). She starts out very shy, doesn't do the stretches, but once the jumping and actual gymnastics starts, she comes out of her shell.

After stretching, the girls line up, with their hands behind their back and they follow the teacher, Mr. Zac and Mrs. Jennifer to the next "event"
Waiting for her turn on the bar.....

Here she goes....her coach said to her "my you are strong"...she jumped up and made her arms straight very quickly and with little effort

Here she is doing a back something....maybe a flip?

Can you see the extreme focus on her face????

Look out gymnastics girls....Chloe Lunn is on the rise....

Mr. Cuddles' Adventure

Caleb won the Alpha Wolf award at school last week. With this award comes the cuddly Mr. Cuddles...We took him with us on all our adventures for the weekend. First stop, Grandma Lunn's house. We had lunch with Grandma before leaving for the lake.

On the way to the lake house, Caleb and Mr. Cuddles played the V-Smile.

We finally arrived at our destination

No worries, Mr. Cuddles only posed for a picture on the jet ski....and Josh rode with Caleb and Chloe, although I am sure Caleb would have loved to drive all by himself....

Eating lunch on the deck

Mr. Cuddles at the campfire.....also didn't get to enjoy the yummy smores.

Lake house weekend....

We went to the lake house over Labor Day (s0unds like it is our lake house, but it is not.....sadly). Our dear friends, Paul and Sarah invited us to their parent's lake house for the weekend. It is pretty obvious what we are doing in the pictures, so I decided just to post the pictures and not worry too much about explaining....hopefully, you will be able to figure it out. I like the picture of Keira looking over the railing, she so desperately wanted to be in on ALL the action, and as you can see, she definitely had her fill.

Keira had her first jet ski ride and loved it. She can't move very well in the life jacket, so she fell asleep on the boat...not for very long though

Caleb was SOOOO excited to ride the tube. He was pretty good at it. He actually fell off twice and was fine, I thought he would freak out a little, but he just yelled "overboard" and we quickly came back to get him. He LOVED every minute of being out on the boat.

Of course, we were able to swim in the lake right outside their back porch which was nice.

Here are some random pics I took. We had so much fun and love going up there, it is so relaxing and enjoyable with our friends whom we have grown to love. Halie and our kids get along well....almost too well, they act like siblings... We had a campfire and smores, and lots of other good food too..probably too much good food. Caleb brought Mr. Cuddles with him (this was his reward for being the Alpha Wolf at school) and had many adventures with him - I may post about that too. Enjoy the pictures....

My kids are pretty darn cute, aren't they????

Sorry about the layout at the end, I changed it after I uploaded this first set....

My Alpha Wolf......

Look at all the kids that Caleb goes to school with....crazy!!!

The second week of school and my son is already getting an award....they are finally figuring out what I already knew....I am a mother of a superstar. Caleb was this week's Alpha Wolf. Each class has an Alpha Wolf award each Friday. This goes to a student who does all the right things and makes good choices. Being the Alpha Wolf is a big deal....you get to be the line leader, teacher's helper, and I am sure many other important roles. You also get to take Mr. Cuddles (post on him later) home for the weekend. You get to take him on all your family adventures (lucky for us, we are going to the lake this weekend - lots of fun to be had for Mr. Cuddles)...anway, we are super happy for Caleb and very proud parents.

Here is Caleb getting his award from his teacher...

Wooo Hooo!!!