Coast to Coast

The last two weeks have been a blur of fun. We went to San Diego primarily so Eric could go to the BYU/San Diego state and Broncos/Chargers games with my dad and brother-in-law, and even though we didn't see much of Eric while we were there, the kids and I had a great time. The weather was beautiful and much warmer than weather.com had predicted, so when we decided to go to the beach I was in big trouble because I didn't pack any swim suits! I know, what was I thinking? We never go to the beach in October, so I just didn't think it was necessary, but I was wrong. I will never make that mistake again! We tried putting the wetsuits my sisters and I wore as teenagers on the boys, but they were a little big, so we made do with regular clothes : )

The water was so warm, the boys were totally boogie-boarding! Good thing my dad and eric had suits to go in with them!
Paige was an animal in the water. On my watch she got knocked over by a wave and totally did a roll under the water, but didn't seem to care too much. I just felt bad when her teeth started chattering, that's when we went nudist style. We were such tourists, it was kind of embarrassing.
The dude
When Eric wasn't at games, he was fishing with my dad. He came home with this monster lobster and we had a delicious lobster feast with two other little lobsters my dad had caught previously. YUM! Paige wasn't too wild about the lobster though, she wouldn't even walk near the kitchen when it was sitting on the floor. But I have to admit, lobsters are strange looking creatures!
My sisters and I took the kids to Spooktacular at Sea World where they could go trick or treating. It was CRAZY! Insane mobs of people everywhere, but the kids had a blast.
All the kiddos
We went to a park our last night there and watched the beautiful sunset over the ocean. It doesn't get any better than that!
Farewell, Pacific, till we meet again...
I came home for one day, did laundry, and packed up again to visit the East coast. I was Philly bound, by MYSELF, to visit my friends who still live there. Angie flew in from Las Vegas and the five of us had a great weekend catching up and reminiscing. Melissa and Jordan are training for a marathon around the same time as mine, so the three of us ran 20 miles on Saturday around my favorite Philly sites. Then we headed to New York for a day of shopping and culture at the MoMA. I would not recommend running 20 miles and walking around New York in the same day. I was sooooo tired! But it was all very fun and worth the fatigue!

I met up with my good friend, Mehrsa, who gave us tickets to the MoMA (museum of modern art) and then accompanied us to H&M. I love this girl and it was great to see her and her family, too bad it was only for a couple hours! It was raining cats and dogs, so please don't mind our hair.
Here we are with all our umbrellas and baby Evrett in the stroller. It wouldn't have been a true East coast trip without the rain and humidity, but I could have done without it!
I came home from Philly and was greeted a couple days later by our first snow storm! The boys couldn't wait to get out and play in it so I let them go out before school because I thought it all might melt, but it is still here today!
I went from running in a tank top and shorts in Philly to all my cold weather gear here. But I think I would choose cold over all that humidity. We love Colorado!

Missions Accomplished

September was a busy month for me and Eric. He was busy hunting for a bull elk and I was training for my first triathlon. I really wanted Eric to do the tri with me, but he was too busy hunting to devote any time to training. The last two weekends, Eric and I both accomplished our seperate goals! Eric was thrilled to put more meat in our freezer and I was thrilled that the elk was small enough to keep it from being mounted on our wall.

Once elk season was done, Eric was available to come with me to Montrose for the triathlon. I was so excited to have my own personal cheering section! I didn't think they were in the aquatic center to watch me swim since I left them in the car with 20 minutes to spare before my heat began. But as I was walking up to the doors, I heard them call the two heats after mine to prepare to swim. I ran inside (frantic that I had missed my heat), borrowed some lady's cell phone to call Eric, and jumped in the pool. Since I had to leave a message on Eric's phone, I didn't think they would get there in time, but they were cheering me on the whole time!

The swim (500m) was my weakest event, but it went much smoother than I thought it would. I was actually surprised when I saw the orange marker indicating my last length, and had wished I had pushed a little harder during the race!
The bike (15.5 mi) was really fun, except it was kind of lonely since the racers were so spread out due to the limited number of contestants in the pool at one time. I was hoping I could do some drafting (j/k), but I was all alone!
The run (3.2 mi) was hard! It was an out and back course and the whole first half was a steep climb. The second half was nice, but the uphill killed me!
Overall, I felt great and was happy with my time (1:38). I learned some things that would help my transitions and can't wait to do another tri. Next time, Eric better do it with me!
A friend of mine from Denver, Jen Groves, was doing the tri with her sister (my pediatrician), her brother, and a woman from my church, and was the one who told me about the race. Thanks for training with me Jen!
After the race, we planned to drive to Ouray (the coolest little moutain town) to rock climb and go to the hot springs. But on the way up, Mason started complaining that his stomach hurt, and shortly after arriving at the climbing spot, he threw up. Not wanting to give up entirely, we plopped him in a chair and set up the climbing ropes.

Eric tried to convince Paige that climbing was fun...
But she was not a fan of the harness!
Logan did some climbing, but he is not the monkey that Mason is. In fact, I think he was even a little more timid now than he was a couple years ago.
Despite having to cut the afternoon short and miss out on the hot springs, we saw some beautiful fall colors and had a fun day as a family. Now that our goals have both been met and fall is here, we're going to have some free weekends - so I guess we'll be grilling up some elk steaks and eating apple pie!