Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to all the Dads out there! We've gone camping this weekend, but I wanted to share a few pics that I've taken of the Boo, Bit, and B-man over the last few weeks.

Their giraffe impersonation.

Enjoying homemade chocolate chip cookies!

B-man was taking a little snooze on the couch and Lil Bit was having a tea party with him whilst he slept. It was so cute. She just kept talking to him and pouring him tea and giving him little cookies to eat. So sweet. I asked her if I could have a bite and she said yes and put her toy cupcake up to my mouth. So, I pretended to take a bite and then she looked at me with a very serious look and said, "Spit. It. Out. That's for Dada!"
Well, excuse me!

Happy Father's Day B-man, PawPaw, Grandpa, and Uncle A! We love you!

Gold Nugget Triathlon 2013

Back in March, a couple of my Army wife friends here in AK talked me into signing up for a triathlon! The Gold Nugget Triathlon. It's a sprint triathlon (I think that's what they call it). The events and distances were a 500m swim, a 12 mile bike ride, and a 4.1 mile run. Each event seemed fairly doable on its own, but I wasn't sure what the cumulative effect would be and if I'd even be able to run by the time I got to that portion of the race. But, we signed up and the training began.

I've come to realize that I pretty much have to sign up for an event/race to get my butt in gear and get moving. It's amazing how I find time and schedule work outs when I have a deadline and a training schedule to follow. Without them, I'm terrible about working out. TERRIBLE.

So, I trained here and in SC, thanks to BeBe and her beach cruiser bike. Ha! If I can ride 10 miles on that thing, I could definitely do it on Brian's mountain bike with actual options when it comes to gears. I trained and I made a couple of goals.
Number 1: Finish the race! Do NOT QUIT!
Number 2: Run the whole run section. 

And that was it. Not too crazy. I just wanted to do the race and finish. So, the day of the race drew near and we were getting excited and nervous. And wouldn't you know it, on the day before the race, we had a late season snow storm. It snowed 5 inches the day before the race and the temps were supposed to stay low overnight, so we weren't sure if the trail would be frozen in spots or if the race coordinators would allow us to bike if there was some ice on the trial. But, we prepared as if the race would go on as planned. We dropped off our bikes the afternoon before the race. Thanks to B-man for letting me use his bike! By the time we dropped off our bikes, the ground was already drying up, so we were hopeful. And when we woke up on Race Day, everything was a go! The race was on! It was sunny and dry, but definitely COLD! Colder than normal for race day.

Before I go on, I have to stop and tell you about something Boo said to me during the training process. He knew I had been training and getting ready for "the race". So, one day he said, "Mama, I hope you win the race." And I smiled, and explained to him that I wasn't going to win the race, but that I was going to work very hard to get ready for the race and that I was going to do my best during the race. You see, it was important for me to relay to him that working hard towards something is a good thing to do and that hard work can be rewarding. He has a tendency to give up on things the moment it becomes difficult. And by give up, I mean melt down and sob and act like it's the end of the world. So, I was hoping to show him that we can do things, even when they're hard! And he just looked at me and said, "Mom, you don't know you're not going to win. You haven't even done the race yet." And what else could I say, but "You're right, son. I don't know. Maybe I will win." :) 

The race went really well for me. I took a long time at the transitions, but my actual event times were right on target with my expectations of how I would do, and a little better in some cases.

The best part was that B-man and the little ones met me at several spots along the race and at the finish. They were troopers too. My start time was supposed to be 10 a.m. but I didn't actually start until closer to noon. But they were already on the trails before 10 getting a good spot. It was awesome to see their smiling faces and here the shouts of, "Go, Mama, Go!" as I went by on the bike.

Here are some pics from the race!

Bike Drop Off. Day before the race.
 My designated spot for my bike at transition area 1.
Please note, I'm back in a winter coat and snow boots.

My friend S, who encouraged me to sign up and throughout the training process!
I had an earlier start time than she did, but she came early with me to walk me through everything since it was my first time and to cheer me on!

I was so nervous about the swim. I don't know why, I'm a fairly good swimmer.
I mean, I can't do the breast or butterfly, but I've been known to win my share of "races" at the Oaks Country Club Pool growing up, you know from one side of the pool to the other. And I've had a few people tell me at the pool here that I have really nice form, whatever that means. I think I was mostly nervous about sharing the lane with 2 other ladies. I didn't want to mess them up. But, once I started swimming, the nerves went away. I did swim faster than I had at any training session, by a minute. And I did feel it later in the race, but I was so happy with my time.
11min and 29 seconds.

Up next was the bike.
 You run out of the pool/gym in your bare feet and swim clothes and get to your bike and add clothes/layers for the rest of the race.
I spent a large amt of time doing that. 8 minutes!
Anyway, I finally started riding and just 2 miles into the ride, my cheering crew was waiting for me!
They were so cute and it really boosted my morale to see them.

The snow storm the day before made for a beautiful view while riding. Just days before this, there was no snow on those mountains.

About 3-4 miles left of the bike ride.
B-man was quick to get to this spot! I didn't expect to see them there.

Finish!

Thanks so much to B-man for encouraging me and letting me borrow his bike and watch, etc. And for getting everyone together to meet me along the course. It meant a lot!
Thanks to my Army wife pals too for all of their support! I'm sad to say that 90% of the people I know here in AK are moving this summer. Sniff.

MY RESULTS:
TOTAL TIME: 2 hours 9 minutes
SWIM: 11 minutes and 29 seconds
T1: (transition b/w swim and bike): 8 minutes and 30 seconds
BIKE: 1 hour and 54 seconds
T2: (transition b/w bike and run): 4 minutes and 14 seconds
RUN: 43 minutes and 56 seconds


I hope to do it again next year and definitely shave some time off of T1!

Question of the Day

I've already posted this on FB, but I just had to post it here as well, for posterity.

Yesterday, the 'Question of the Day' was awarded to none other than our favorite little fella, Lil Boo.
It was lunch time and Boo, Bit, and I were at the Food Court at the PX eating our Subway sandwiches. You can imagine the scene: I was already finished with my meal and was busy stuffing trash into a subway bag; Boo was finished with his sandwich and had moved on to his chips (Doritos dust was everywhere); Bit was still busy with her first course, yogurt, and I was wondering if she would finish this meal sometime this decade.
And then, out of nowhere (and I mean nowhere), Boo says to me, "Mama, is milk...cow pee?"
And I looked at him like, what the??!!!And when my eyes caught his eyes, I could see that he was looking at me with his blue, innocent,  inquisitive eyes and was eagerly awaiting my answer. In other words, he was serious. Dead serious.

And I was thinking, "Why in the world would he think that?" And then I thought about it for a minute. Go ahead, you think about it too: Is milk-cow pee? Do you have a visual? Do you see it?

And there it was, folks. That's why he thought that milk could be cow pee. I understood where he was coming from.

So, my face softened from the what the look, and I barely eked out a measly, "No. No it is not."
I'm not even sure I made eye contact. I just wanted this talk to be over. Lol.

He seemed satisfied enough. But despite my desire to move on from this topic, I felt a need to further explain. So, I came up with this brilliant explanation.
"The milk comes out of one place and the pee comes out of another."

Ta-dah!

And thankfully, that was the end of that! Whew!

Boo's Pre-K End of Year Ceremony

Lil Bit and I had the pleasure of attending Lil Boo's end of the year ceremony today. Turns out, it was a little graduation of sorts. It was so cute. He has been working hard on his assigned song and he did great.

He's come a loooong way from his first preschool musical performance. Do y'all remember this one, right after Lil Bit was born? You might have to view it on a computer vs an apple device. It was before I posted things on youtube. Anyway, he's definitely come out of his shell since then!

I can't believe he'll be in Kindergarten next year. It's all day long now, ya know. I won't see him ALL DAY-Monday through Friday. What will I do without my Boo Bear?? Sniff. Sniff.
Well, I just won't think about it now...

So, on a related note, what's on tap for summer? Swim lessons, soccer, and visits from friends and family! Oh, and bike riding, of course! It might even reach 65 degrees this weekend.

More Catching Up!

Lil Bit reconnecting with Sandy

And Murray.
Doesn't he look thrilled?

We were even able to get in a day at the beach.
It was a beautiful day and they played so hard.

Some cousin time!

Our friends who live next to BeBe raise chickens.
We were able to go over one morning and gather eggs and help feed them.

Strawberry pickin with our friend Callie and her twin baby brothers.
This makes 2 years in a row that we've been able to pick strawberries with Callie.

Had to include this big smile!

We went to visit some family in the upper part of the state.
When you say, upper part of the state, you have to say it in BeBe's Southern accent and say, uppah paht of the state. :)

Cousins who met for the fist time that day!
I think they got along just fine, don't you?

Their farm was complete with a cart and pony named Pirate.

We really had a good visit in SC. And we were able to do more than just what the pictures show. But man, all of that time outside had my allergies out of control. My eyes were so swollen and itchy most of the time and I spent most nights with cold compresses over them. Ugh.

We're so excited to have some of our friends and family come up to AK this summer!

Catching Up

I kind of lost my blogging mojo there for a while. I just couldn't get it together after a full day of mothering to get photos from my camera or phone on to the computer and then to the blog. It was all just too much. Lol.
I'm sort of feeling up to the challenge of catching up on things now... 

At the end of March, the little ones and I hopped on a C-17 headed to Charleston. We barely made it to the terminal on time. They changed the flight overnight to an earlier departure time and we almost missed it. But, luckily we made it and we took a direct flight from AK to SC for a short 7 1/2 hours! It usually takes 12-14 hours to fly commercially with layovers and missed flights and lost luggage. The C-17 is the way to go! BeBe and PawPaw were able to get on the Airforce Base in Chs to pick us up too which was a nice bonus. No taxi ride for us. Easy peasy!

We spent about a month in SC. We were trying to catch a C-17 back to AK but one never popped up on the schedule, so we flew back commercially. The kids did great and it was so nice to have B-man waiting here in AK to pick us up! He was a welcome sight for this mama's tired eyes. He's so handsome and has a smile that I just LOVE.

So, here are some pics showing our SC adventures.

C-17 flight. I love the bottom right pic. We had landed in CHS and the ramp is open in the back. The lights had gone out for about 10 seconds  and this was their frightened expression as the lights came back on. Hehehe.

Easter cookies, egg hunts with friends, and dyeing eggs for the bunny.

Country life!
Lil Bit was over the moon excited about the cows!
"Look Mama, LOOK! A cow, mama, a cow!!"

We made brown-eees for G, GPa, and Kirstin and Aunt R and Uncle D for April Fool's Day.
Get it? Brownies vs brown-ees?

Egg Hunt at church.

Easter Morning!

Easter Best!
Susu, their Sunday School teacher in SC (who was also my SS teacher growing up) told me after church that Boo, Bit, and Callie (their friend) told her all about the Easter story. She didn't even need to teach it to them! :)

The Boys

More catching up to come!