San Rafael Classic Sprint Triathlon

It started Friday afternoon when my sister Courtney offered to watch the kids so that Ross and I could go on a date. I decided to check trifind.com just to see what races were coming up. I was surprised to see one the next day that allowed same day entry and free camping. I did a tiny more research to find out it was only an hour and a half drive away. I got really excited. I called my friend to see if I could borrow her wetsuit again, (I've really got to buy one of those if I want to drop everything to race triathlon at a moments notice--Thanks Jen, I couldn't have done it without you) And to make a long story short everything fell together so that by 7:30pm Ross and I were on our way to go camping for the evening and to race triathlon in the morning.

The race went around Huntington State Park near Price, Utah. It was a small race, about 100 people signed up in all. A little part of me wished we had brought the kids because they had a children's tri too and I think they would have really enjoyed it. Maybe by next year they'll be old enough to safely monitor themselves while mom and dad both race. In the meantime, thanks go out to Grandma and Papa for dropping everything to watch them Sat. morning.
The biggest surprise of all was that I actually WON! I'm pretty used to being one of the first women out of the water and then getting passed sometime before I even get on my bike and then again several times through both the bike and the run. But not today! When I got to the bike turn around (after 7.5 miles of uphill climbing we got to go back down the mountain--my favorite part) the volunteers at the water station told me I was the first women so far. "Let's keep it that way," I said, which brought them some chuckles. And I was pretty happy to do that. Even on my run as I waited for girls to come running past me, I tried to tell myself, "It doesn't matter what anyone else is doing. Run your best race and that's all that matters." For this day, my best happened to be the fastest out there. Even though it's somewhat unbelievable it's exciting!
This is me after hearing my name to receive my award. Looks like I'm pretty happy about that.
I'll have to get a picture of me sitting in my new patio chair care of Sportsman's Warehouse. They actually give prizes to the overall men and women's winner. Right now my chair is still in the box in the garage, but already it's my most favorite piece of furniture, because of what it represents--my first triathlon win ever! How cool is that. Shhh! Don't tell any other triathletes about this race, as long as no really fast people show up, maybe I could do it again next year.

Wasatch Back--Way to go Mountain Mamas!

We did it! Starting out on Friday morning and finishing on Saturday afternoon our team, the "Mountain Mamas" ran a total of 190 miles on the beautiful mountain roads from Logan to Park City Utah. This is a picture of us getting packed and leaving home. It was fun so fun to see all the team vehicles decorated and a few teams like ours wore costumes. Of all the team names some of my other favorites were, "Not-so-macho-libres", "Bunions of Steel", "Our wives think we're at work" and Collin's favorite was "Homestar runners."

If I was giving prizes to each of the ladies in my van Elaine would get the award for sewing all of our costume aprons. She would also get the award for the "best blue tights" unfortunately I didn't get a picture of those (she wore them for her middle of the night run) and she would also get the award for the "funniest to be around when sleep deprived." If I ever get a chance to pull an all nighter with Elaine I would jump at it in a heart beat. Kudos go to "No Pain Elaine!"

Jen L. gets the award titled, "Most likely to be recruited by another team" Not only did she race up the most intense hill climb "Ragnar" passing men on her way, she really did have a guy on another team tell her he wanted her on his team next year. He loved that she was cheering him and letting him know how many miles left. She also had some banter with another male team that went something like, "You can't hit on us, Can't you see from our team name that we're all mamas" to which he replied something like, "I don't see any Mountain Papas around." I think next year, maybe we will have a team the "Mamas and the Papas."

This is Jan, Jen's sister-in-law. She gets the award for "most life experience." She says she ran her first marathon in her mid 30's but didn't really get into running until the last few years, she's now in her 50's. She also is the "least likely to know her name and address." And she and her husband also get the "relief award" for providing their home in Midway where we slept from 6-8am and had a warm shower. That was heavenly!

Rachel ran the most miles with other runners. She was the most likely to be on the course getting us water and taking care of us as we ran. She is extremely upbeat and positive. You can count on Rachel for a smile and support. Her awards are "Team cheerleader" and "Water girl"

Barb's husband gets the "papa" award for being signed up to tend 8 kids during the race, though it ended up being only his 4. (So, sorry about that Carol) I wish I had gotten a picture of him at the finish with the 4 kids and the dog all to support his wife at the finish. Barb also gets the award for "mostly likely to be left behind, or to think she's left behind." We'd never leave you, Barb. We need you!

Here's a picture near Midway after Elaine and I are all finished, while Jan is running. I'm sad we never did manage to get a picture of the six of us together. We do have a picture of the 12 of us (including the six in the other van) from the finish line--just not with my camera. All in all I had the time of life! One of my favorite parts was lying next to the lake in my sleeping bag under the moon and the stars. I love the beautiful world the Lord created and I felt so blessed to enjoy it with great people doing something that I truly love. What else can I say? Amazing! I love you guys!

The day I've been waiting for

Four years ago when Collin first joined the swim team Breanne was 1 and Connor was 3. I knew the day would come when all the kids would be able to swim in a meet. Yesterday was that day. Of course, I am a very proud swim mom. My kids are Awesome! and pretty good swimmers too.If these pictures tell us anything, it's that their moods swing from high to low. I love this one of Connor and his new toothless grin. He was excited to swim and performed very well.
Collin is the most vocal about his dislike of swimming meets. He swam incredibly well and was very proud of his good effort. I was proud of him too. I think he's most happy about the pizza he knows mom will get him when he puts in his best effort.
Breanne actually swam really well at the meet and had tons of fun with her friends. This picture portrays the fat lip she was giving her dad in an attempt to bully him into buying her pizza in addition to the snowcone she just had. For such a happy, free spirit she sure is moody. If I remember right her passport picture looks something like this. Wonder if she'll regret that someday?
She really did love swimming in the meet. We've got video of her first 25 freestyle, which we'll have to post soon because it's so darling I can't help myself.
Way to go Ironmoores! Keep up the good work. You make your mama proud!

Happy Father's Day

Here's a tribute to my dad for Father's Day. Just like one of the speakers in church today, when I think of my Dad I think of vacations. Here's my dad on his boat, where he lives in the caribbean. He loves vacations. I remember being little and going to the cottage in Michigan in the summer where I learned to water ski in Higgins Lake. I'm guessing that now a days people wear wetsuits in this lake when learning to ski. I was never that lucky. I have pictures of me when I was 4 or 5 on my dad's shoulders while he skied. I'm thinking I must have got much of my adventuring spirit from my dad.

When we got older and my parents divorced, my dad took all 5 kids (I'm the oldest) on his own driving all night long from Ohio to Florida. Only now can I truly understand and appreciate the way he put suitcases around his seat in the van to keep us from standing really close to him and talking, laughing, or screaming in his ear while he was driving. This was the era before seatbelts were mandatory and even though we had mattresses to lay on in the back I think our favorite spot to be was standing right behind or right next to the driver and looking out the front windshield. Only now as a mother can I truly appreciate what he was trying to do, but at the time I was a little upset and maybe even offended that he didn't want us to to stand next to him while he drove. Boy, how our perspective changes.

On a different car trip I remember specifically thinking, "When I become an adult I'm going to remember what it was like being a kid! And I'm going to treat kids the way they want." That's funny, the last time Ross and I took a long road trip I think we took the seat behind the driver out of the car and then strapped them all in tightly with their seat belts. I have every confidence my kids will do something similar.

Salem Spring Triathlon

It's been a year since Ross and I competed together. It's hard to believe I haven't done any races since then, though Ross did the Logan marathon in September. I've missed it more than I wanted to admit. And even though I'm still nursing the bulging disk in my back I was able to go out and race fast and have fun. (Here's to our physical therapist friend Derick's good advice to stay in shape by doing the eliptical trainer, swimming, and some stretches he's given me. I really appreciate him.)

Yesterday Ross and I competed in the annual Salem Spring Triathlon. It was so much fun! The bike portion ended up being cancelled because of rain, which was pretty good news for me. What was supposed to be a 750 m. swim, 13 mile bike and 5K run ended up being a 500 meter swim and 5K run. Because of my injury I considered just doing the swim and not finishing the run, but the atmosphere was so fun, I just had to give it a try. Two girls in my heat (and also my age group) finished faster than me on the swim. They were cooking! I was going pretty hard too. According to the results it looks like I may have passed one of them on the run. To make things even better the woman who got first overall was in my age group. So...when they tally the results by age groups her name isn't considered since her name is already among the top three overall placements. http://www.milliseconds.com/ResultsQuery2.php?varRaceID=1049&urlVarType=Age%20Division%20is That means the winners for women 35-39 says Jennifer Moore. That's pretty cool.

Too bad we didn't get any cool pictures since we left the camera in the car (safely out of the rain) which was parked far from the race. That's ok though, because as far as a date out with my husband it was great time spent. Infact, I can't think of much else I enjoy more than a fun race and a little boost to my ego. The icing on the cake was to hang out with one of my former swimmers, Analyn, who was competing in her first ever triathlon. She beat me by two minutes or so, which is awesome! That 25-29 age group ended up being really fast with her in it.

For another few days I'm on top of the world. And I'm more motivated right now than ever to sign up for another race sooner than a year from now. So I really want my back to heal! Would begging God help? (That's probably a whole 'nother blog post--I'm seeing all kinds of other blessings in my life because of my back injury, I'll tell you about it sometime. Doesn't that seem silly the way the Lord blesses us with stuff we want that we didn't really know we wanted because we wanted something else? If you followed that you are gifted because I'm truly rambling.) But for today I feel happy. (And lucky for you I usually don't blog on those down days.) Here's to hoping you feel happy too.

Family Home Evening

Should I admit it? Sometimes family home evening is less than pleasant. I can't imagine that's much of a news flash to anyone who's actually tried doing it. But perhaps it's somewhat comforting to know that we are all in the same boat together.

But...everyone once in awhile the lesson is inspiring, the kids manage not to hurt each other, and we get through the evening realizing we've enjoyed each other's company. We had one of these last night Wohoo!

Courtney used her unique abilities to make us a cool chart assigning each of the lesson, conducting, scripture, song and prayer. This is different for us because normally Ross conducts chooses someone on the spot for prayer and song and I do the lesson and the dessert. Every once in awhile I'll get the kids to help. I've been pretty pleased with this scenario because at least we're having family home evening. Now we have an even better way that works really great with 8 kids and 3 parents.

Last night Jordyn and Breanne worked together on the lesson and it was incredible. Can we keep Jordyn year round? Breanne was beaming as she presented the part of the lesson that Jordyn assigned her. I nearly cried with joy when the two of them together taught us. It was one of those mom "moments" Elder Ballard talked about at conference. I'm writing it down to capture it.

The night was nearly perfect, but of course we couldn't get through it without someone eventually falling apart. Luke chose the activity, trampoline dodge ball. That's pretty fun until some five year old gets beamed in the head, or another five year old gets told they have to get off the trampoline because they just got hit with the ball, again. We have 3 five year olds right now. Hey we made it through nearly an hour of family home evening before the melt downs. I'll say it again, Wohoo!

Parenting Breakthrough Part 2

On the front cover of the book Parenting Breakthrough: A Real life solution to teaching your kids to work, etc. etc. ( I don't remember the rest of the title of the book, because I'm still working on first things first--and that's getting my kids to work) there is a picture of a boy scrubbing a toilet. This picture of Breanne cleaning the toilet reminds me of the cover of the book. Well, in theme at least. She is cheesing a little, and you'll probably notice my toilet paper missing from the holder (does anyone else lose these mysterioulsy when switching out for a new roll? Oh dear.)
The point of all this is I'm having a few wins now that Courtney's kids are here setting a good example for us. And now that school's out we can spend our time like the book says, training the kids to work around the house. I'm so very proud of all of them for doing many jobs yesterday and starting out on a good foot for summer.
I'm pretty sure this is Collin's first time at working at any one thing for over 2 hours (well, except maybe writing his book which doesn't seem like work for him.) He was out in the sun slaving away with his dad looking on teaching him how to make nice lines. Kudos to Ross for his patience and teaching! Especially since when I went out to show Collin a few spots he missed he truly came undone and wanted to quit. Ross, on the other hand knows just how to talk to Collin to get a great response. I'm confident that I'll learn in time.

I can see this may be an ongoing post theme because I can think of lots of things related to this topic. Ok, I'll post two more ideas now.

After cleaning the bathroom Breanne said, "Ok, now I'll tell everyone not to use this one."

Then as I was talking to Connor about how nice it feels to have a clean home where the spirit can dwell with us I said something like, "Don't you feel so good when we work together?" And he said well, "Yea, when we do it and your not yelling at us. I always like that better." Well, I like it too!