A long, long, time ago, when I was a sophomore in college, I checked out a book from the library about how to prepare for an Olympic distance triathlon. When I realized all of the gear you would need, I decided running shoes were easier, so I went that route...but I never got the idea out of my mind. When we were in North Carolina, our friends came up with a great idea to rent a beach house in Emerald Isle and we'd spend the weekend and do a sprint triathlon. It was the best! We had such a fun time.
Well, one morning way back in February, while Joe was getting ready for work, I woke up to him saying in shock, "My jeans are tight!" I hadn't been exercising either...I decided we needed to do something drastic. I did a little research and happened upon the Pacific Grove Olympic Distance triathlon. We decided to go for it and the training began. After months of juggling our schedules and the kids to fit workouts in and listening to Kate and Jake giggle and fight in our bike carriage, it was September 11th, and we had dropped the kids off at my sister's house (Thanks so much, Jen!) and were sitting in our hotel room getting our transition bags ready.
We crawled in bed that night and didn't sleep a wink. Yes, I'm sure that means we are not true triathletes :) When our alarms went off at 5AM, Joe and I were already awake. He ate... I couldn't. I was so nervous I was nauseous...another clue I'd never be a professional :) Thankfully, we talked our friends Mike and Carrie Thompson (who had talked us into the sprint triathon a couple of years ago) into doing the race with us. I was so relieved!!!!
Here are Mike and Joe getting dressed, pumped and mentally prepared. They would start the race at 7:30AM and Carrie and I would begin at 9AM.
Notice the weather isn't that great? It was cold!!!
Do you see that water behind us? We were told we'd be doing our mile "kelp crawl" in 57 degree water. Those orange buoys out there are what we would be swimming around. Why did this sound fun?? I can't remember.
The four brave souls
Joe and Mike are down there among all of those green caps...
And they are off!!!!
Joe after the swim and getting ready to hop on the bike for 25 miles along the coast.
At this point, Joe and Mike had finished the race and was now documenting Carrie and me as we did the bike and the run.
Way to Go, Mike! Nicholas is proud of his dad, but a little confused as to why he had to wake up so early!
Carrie was flying on the 6 mile run
Love you, Joe!
WE DID IT! And the amazing thing? We all finished within 7 minutes of eachother! Despite the shockingly cold water, it was fun and we felt like we had accomplished something great.
Joe beat me by about 30 seconds... does that mean we'll have to do another one??? SOOO happy we got to do this together.
Wonderful day
Wonderful husband and father...we love you sooooo much.
Ok, Luke took a little bit of the limelight, but can you blame him?
Brett is a natural...what a great babysitter he'll be ;)
I'm so blessed.
And from the look on her face when she got home, I think he'll be asking her out again!
Yep! It's been 7 years since Joe and I were married! Hard to believe-- we both don't feel like it's been that long, but then we see all that has happened in the time we've been together and we almost can't remember what life was like without each other.
My sister-in-law Alisa gave us the best gift ever. She came yesterday to watch the kids for us so we could have 24 hours to ourselves. We said goodbye after a big breakfast together and headed over to the coast-- Half Moon Bay--one of our favorite places to go. It was BEAUTIFUL! We went on a hike up on the cliffs overlooking the ocean and the surfers below at Mavericks; we got to exercise in the middle of the afternoon and then soak in a hot tub; we went to one of our favorite restaurants, Mezza Luna; and best of all, we got to snuggle up and watch a movie in bed and eat all of the popcorn we wanted without worrying about the mess! It's amazing what one night away can do for the soul! As we drove up to the house, we saw Kate knocking on the front window with a huge smile on her face and we heard Jake yelling, "Mama! Dada!" 24 hours was plenty! Thank you SO MUCH Alisa! And Happy Anniversary, Joe! Marrying you was the best decision I've ever made! xo
My hunk of a husband turned 34 on January 18th. I only wish he would have been feeling well! In fact, all 3 of my family members were sick on his birthday.
Joe's birthday fell on MLK day, so we were all thrilled that we'd get to be home together to celebrate! We had grand plans of a bike ride along the bay and going to see the migrating Monarch butterflies... the list continued... but the horrendous rain and the runny noses kept us home. We made the best of it with a yummy breakfast and Jake got really into watching his dad open his presents. His shock and surprise grew with each card and present--it was fantastic.
Jake, happy as a clam after Dad opened up his card. Kate showing off her glamerous hairdo-- I wonder who did it???
We did manage to meet my parents in Fremont for a bite to eat at a yummy restaurant called the Spinyard. We practicallly had the room to ourselves, which is always nice when you have 2 little ones.
Once again, Jake showing his excitement with presents... you'd think those shirts were for him!
I have to admit, even though the day wasn't quite what we were planning, it was really nice spending a day together at home--playing games, watching movies and dancing to our favorite songs. We don't get those moments very often, so I was grateful.
Kate absolutely thrilled to be in Momo's lap.
We crawled in bed that night and didn't sleep a wink. Yes, I'm sure that means we are not true triathletes :) When our alarms went off at 5AM, Joe and I were already awake. He ate... I couldn't. I was so nervous I was nauseous...another clue I'd never be a professional :) Thankfully, we talked our friends Mike and Carrie Thompson (who had talked us into the sprint triathon a couple of years ago) into doing the race with us. I was so relieved!!!!
Here are Mike and Joe getting dressed, pumped and mentally prepared. They would start the race at 7:30AM and Carrie and I would begin at 9AM.
Notice the weather isn't that great? It was cold!!!
The four brave souls
Joe and Mike are down there among all of those green caps...
And they are off!!!!
Joe after the swim and getting ready to hop on the bike for 25 miles along the coast.
At this point, Joe and Mike had finished the race and was now documenting Carrie and me as we did the bike and the run.
Way to Go, Mike! Nicholas is proud of his dad, but a little confused as to why he had to wake up so early!
Carrie was flying on the 6 mile run
Love you, Joe!
WE DID IT! And the amazing thing? We all finished within 7 minutes of eachother! Despite the shockingly cold water, it was fun and we felt like we had accomplished something great. 
Joe beat me by about 30 seconds... does that mean we'll have to do another one??? SOOO happy we got to do this together. 
Thankfully, we were able to get the tiniest bathroom window open. 
Here's my 6'4", 215 pound husband fitting through that tiny window...
Good thing it's all muscle! My hero ;)