Yeooooww!

In Blanding our city pool is an outdoors and closes on Labor Day. That means after Labor Day if I want to get in any swimming, I need to go to one of our reservoirs and swim. Well, it hasn't really been that bad since I have a wetsuit. A wetsuit really does keep you warmer, and for me it squelches my silly fear of being bit by a fish. Yes, I said BIT by a fish.

Well, the last few times I have swam there, it has been pretty darn cold. The weather has turned really cold over the past couple days, but I really want to get one last long swim in. Do I dare to do it? It's gonna be COLD, and if you know me, you know I hate to be cold. Last year me and a friend had to swim there since we were training for a race in mid-October. I'm telling you, it was so incredibly cold. I seriously wondered if we would get hypothermia by the time we made it back. Well, now I am not training for a race, I just love to swim in this beautiful body of water surrounded by nature.

I'll let you know if I end up doing it and survive to tell the story!

Thank goodness for wetsuits, though. My crazy self signed up for another Half-Ironman in April of next year. It's in Oceanside, California, and apparently the water is really really cold. I knew I wouldn't be able to practice any open water swims just before the race since all our reservoirs here will likely still be frozen, so I have really wanted to get a lot of open water swimming in now.

I'll start heavily training for that race in December. I hope my foot can survive the run. As you may know, I have a gimpy foot. I injured it in July and it's been hurting every since. I'm slowly starting to run on it again with only a little pain. The most I have gone is 2 miles. Not much, but a start nonetheless.

This picture is of me coming out of the water at Barb's Race. They had a small strip of carpet to run on after we got out of the water so we didn't have to step on rocks and such. The guy in front of me had just finished swimming twice as far as me (they were having a full ironman at the same time), so he was probably just excited to be done with the swim. He was walking, and I was pumped to get on my bike, so I wanted to run. This is about where I decided to run past him and I stubbed my toe....owie.

His Favorite Place

This year I was so busy training for my Half-Ironman that I didn't plant a garden in my raised beds. Now I'm glad I didn't because they are Roy's favorite place to be. He goes out there almost every day and spends hours playing in the dirt.

And he loves tormenting the cats!

Poor Andy

Poor Anden got his first stitches this evening. We were all over at Chris' office and Andy came to me crying. I gave him a big hug, then realized he had his hood over his head where he was saying it hurt. I pulled it off and it was bleeding like crazy. Well, I'm the offical family comforter and Chris is the official look to see if it needs stitches man. So I told Chris to come see. He split it open to see how deep it was, and yup, he needed stitches. Chris took him to get the stitches. He said Andy didn't even cry when the Dr. was numbing it up. The Dr. was pretty amazed. This is the same kid that didn't even so much as squelch when he had to get 4 shots. He's such a brave little man! He told me he was glad he didn't get cut on the back of his head or he wouldn't be able to sleep.

NY Highlight

This is my NY family. It was the highlight of my trip to be able to see them. Jonathan is the one standing next to me. He has grown and changed so much. He's turning into a MAN, and I can't believe it! He's doing awesome things...he's in a band and is going to college. He is such a sweetheart.

Robyn is standing between her parents. She is still in high school, but is getting her cosmetology license at the same time. She is so grown up and is turning into an AMAZING young lady!

We ate dinner and reminisced. It was so much fun! They are wondeful people!

NY

This is Chris at Times Square. He loved NY so much. It was so fun to be there again and see him look around in awe. When we went to Grand Central, Chris just loved it. We found a corner and people watched for awhile. It is amazing how many people there are in this city! You never fully understand it until you visit yourself. Fun times!

While there we also got to see Wicked on Broadway. It was the best play ever. During intermission I broke down crying. Everyone was staring at me because the play isn't sad. I was so completely homesick. I missed my kids more than I ever had in my life. I knew they were well taken care of, but I just couldn't take being away from them for that long.

On our last day we NEEDED bagels. There is nothing like a NY bagel. I love them all...every flavor. I love them with every cream cheese flavor, butter, as a sandwich, or any other way they make them. We found the best bagel shop on the planet. They were AMAZING...man I'm making myself hungry! Then we went for a run at Riverside Park. It's a large park. We got separated, and Chris had the cell phone, money, subway cards, and hotel key. I cried. I asked a lady to help. We were lost most of the morning and on into the afternoon. I prayed. I looked ahead. There was my husband running toward me! Our NY experience would not have been complete without getting lost in the Big Apple! We drowned our wasted day in.....BAGELS...yup, we went back to the same place.

NY

This is Chris on the Brooklyn Bridge. Right after we checked into our hotel, we took a subway down to the bridge, walked across it, and ate pizza. The pizza was fabulous. If you've ever seen the Seinfeld episode about the soup nazi, it was just like that. On the outside there were all kinds of hand written signs telling what the "rules" were....no strollers, no cell phones, you MUST wait in the line, no checks, no credit cards, etc. When we finally got in, the place was PACKED. We were seated at a table with 10 other people who we didn't know, which made it tough for conversation. I was so glad to have this experience because I wanted Chris to see what NY was really like.

This is me after we had pizza in Brooklyn with the Manhattan skyline in the background.

The next day we went to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. I had NEVER been there during the 2 years I lived in NY! This is my favorite picture of the Lady. Chris and I had to wait in line FOREVER for security to go inside the statue. Ellis Island was really cool, too. After we got off the boat we were sooo hungry, so we went to Chinatown. We got lost on some side streets and it turned out to be really cool cuz we got to see what it's really like. There was tons of fish markets, and the fish looked like they had JUST been caught because they were still moving. Everyone was speaking Chinese and staring at us. Eventually we found an authentic Chinese resaurant. They only had chopsticks there and you had to ask if you wanted a fork. We wanted to fit in, so we struggled along with our chopsticks. The next thing we know all the cooks decided it was lunchtime for them too. They came out to a huge table filled with food, and whipped out........forks for themselves! We were cracking up! The food wasn't that great. Chinese food has definately been Americanized....and I learned that I like it that way!

The next day we went for a run in Central Park and visited Grand Central Station, the NY public library, Rockefeller Plaza, Times Square, and the Empire State Building at night. This collage is completely made of recycled stuff...cell phones, keyboards, mouses, etc.

Boston

We went to Boston and NY back in April, but until now I couldn't post the pics, so here goes. This first picture is me and our good friend Yvette. She let Chris and I crash at her house. She was a wonderful hostess. Thanks Yvette!

The next pic is Chris just after he finished the marathon. He was awesome! We loved Boston so much. Yvette's law office was in a high-rise, so she took us up to the top and we were able to see the entire city.

This is Chris sporting his medal. Did I mention he was AWESOME?! The food in Boston was magnificent. The seafood was so tempting, even for this vegetarian girl. Chris ate squid, and several other things which normal people don't usually eat. We wished the boys were there, but loved sleeping in too!

This is Chris and I at the Boston airport waiting for our flight. While running the marathon, the spring sunshine burnt Chris to a crisp...but only on one side of his body. He forgot to wear sunblock, and was soooo red. He wore his beanie for the first couple days after the marathon because half a burned bald head isn't exactly the look he was going for :)