Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Remembering...

There are so many different titles I thought about for this post.

On Monday our family and friends competed in the Capital Texas Triathlon (Title Option #1). For some of us, it was our first time and for others it was not. This particular triathlon is to honor our veterans and soldiers. The first wave is actually a group of (Title Option #2) "wounded warriors." To see them compete in an athletic event is so inspiring. In fact, my entire 3 mile run was behind one of these wounded warriors. He was a 28 year old man with a prosthetic leg. As he ran through the crowds people would cheer loud for him, thank him, and I even saw one women cry proud tears.

For those who haven't done a triathlon, I'll fill you in on a few of the details. The day before the race we head to pick up our numbers, packets, goodies, and rack our bikes. There are booths with tri gear, free cliff bar samples, t-shirt sales, raffles from sponsors, energy drinks, and much more. There's a lot of excitement from the people and of course, I'm scoping out my competition!! When you race in a marathon, there's usually just one number, right? But when you race in a triathlon, with three events, there are a bazillion numbers! We had two numbers for our bike, one for our helmet, one for our running belt, one for our transition bag, one for our tri top, one for our wrist, and two for our bodies. Not to mention the other optional stickers: one for who we are racing to honor (I wrote Mark Felice), another for a prize drawing (not sure what happened to that), and one with an emergency contact number. I appreciate all the identification to make sure someone doesn't steal my gear, but I think half of it is so that we can identify ourselves and order expensive photos.

When I talk about gear, here's a list of just a few of the items you need to do a triathlon:
Goggles, Swim Cap, Bike Shoes, Helmet, Bike, Tri Suit, Running Shoes, Hat, Sunglasses, Water Bottles, CamelBak, Gu, Recovery Drink, Race Belt, Sunscreen, Bike Pump, Socks, and a couple other little things!!!

Here we (dad, sister, me, mom) are at check-in, posing with a REAL triathlete (not sure who he is). We are wearing our "Tri-ing for a Cause" Mark Felice (Title Option #3) shirts. If you haven't been filled in yet, check out my sister's blog. We reached our goal this year of $5,000!!!! I have some really awesome stories to share with you about where this money is going...that will come later.


The night before the race we met up with family at Mandola's for a little carb-loading the Italian way. Delizioso! When we got home from dinner, we spent about an hour reading directions and trying to put our numbers in the proper place. Some were stickers and others were tattoos! We had already dropped off our bikes that day, so we loaded the remaining gear into the car and went to bed.

Here comes title option #4. Insult Tri. I am not 30 yet, but evidently I am in the 30-34 age group because I will be 30 by the end of the year. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind turning 30, but to have it written on the back of my leg was a little bit of a reality check. I wasn't quite prepared for that. I was so sad not to be in the same age group as my sister and cousin this year. They started in a wave 4 minutes before me.

The morning of the race we all got up, got ready, and stuck to our routine. Ann Marie likes a bagel with peanut butter, my parents eat boiled eggs with a banana, and I eat a Luna Bar. My dad has a cup of coffee and my mom drinks tea. I stick strictly to just water.

My mom getting her gear out of the car...

From the transition area, looking towards the Austin skyline...

Before the race, Kelly and Molly ready to cheer us on!

Swimming Town Lake


I'll have to wait to post pictures from during and after the race. Forrest used my sister's camera to capture the moments of pain and joy crossing the finish line. But I will leave you with a couple of cute Davis photos. He was getting ready for a wagon ride!


Option #5 is the title I decided to use, Remembering...because I feel like it portrays my thoughts from Monday. While I swam, biked, and ran, I remembered veterans who served in years past and soldiers fighting today. I also remembered Mark, who we raise money in honor of every year. He lived such a short life before his strong battle with cancer and has left such a huge legacy behind, helping other children deal with the every day struggles of that same battle.

Saturday, May 28, 2011

Go Astros!

Aunt Kel and Uncle Collin treated Davis to an Astros game and of course he couldn't leave without a new hat and a new ball! While Davis loves a good ball, he wasn't really into the actual baseball game. He was more obsessed with the choo-choo train that moves when the home team hits a home run (which sadly didn't happen too often).

Friday, May 27, 2011

Fishing Gear

Davis helping daddy pick out some new fishing gear

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Gearing Up

Here we are, just a couple days away from the Cap-Tex-Triathlon, and I'm WAY behind on my training. I was on track until the week of the Skeese Greets. I'm not exactly sure what happened, it might have been an injury from the actual race or maybe my weight lifting class, but I injured my neck causing two weeks of tension headaches. Scale of 1-10, 10 being the worst possible pain, that is where I was. I woke up with a headache and went to bed with it. Nothing worked and I tried them all from Advil to Excedrin. So for two weeks I was on pain meds, in and out of the doctor's office, and laying on a heating pad. To say I'm way behind in my training is an understatement. Yesterday was my first swim since the Skeese and today I'm headed to spin class for the first time in 3 weeks! As an update to my health, my neck is 90% healed and the headaches have stopped (thank goodness!!!!). I debated doing the race on Memorial Day, but in the end, decided to just go for it, take it easy, and realize this might not be my best race time.


This year, we have a big crew doing the race. Both my parents and my sister will be racing! My cousin, her fiance, and a couple of their friends are doing it too. Kelly (pregnant) will be on the sidelines cheering on her husband and her brother.

If you're interested in coming to the race, the after-party, or want to sign up for your own triathlon, visit my sister's blog. She has all the info on how to train and what you'll need. If I can do it, anyone can!!!

I also wanted to say a huge THANK YOU to all our supporters out there and those who have donated to the Mark Felice Childhood Cancer Fund. We are only $800 away from reaching our goal of $5,000!

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Monday, May 23, 2011

Rockport Weekend

We spent the weekend in Rockport and had a great time! Forrest was able to get some fishing in, but we spent most of our time at the beach or in the pool with Davis. Looking back at all the time we've spent in Rockport, it's funny to see how our activities have changed over the years. We used to wake up around 5am, head out across the bay, and fish into the afternoon. We used to come back from a long morning of fishing, scarf down some lunch and make a gin and tonic to take to the pool. We used to take long naps (well that hasn't changed), head to the ski basin for happy hour, and then enjoy dinner as the sun went down. Now only one of us can go fishing (guess which one) while the other stays to play with Davis. So while daddy was fishing, Davis and I headed to the shops. The hot hot summer temps haven't quite hit yet, and we enjoyed a nice overcast morning for shopping. When daddy got home that afternoon, we decided to take Davis to the beach. He loved playing in the sand and trying to build sand castles. He also loved helping the kids next to us fill a huge hole with water. Davis was so good at using his bucket to scoop up water.


Our boat ride to the beach...

Rockport beach, while not the beautiful shores of Hawaii, is a great beach because there are basically no waves and it's super shallow.

Wanting mommy to get off her towel and join him in the water.

On the boat ride home, head to toe in sand.

The next day we decided to avoid the sand and head to the pool.

Saturday, May 21, 2011

Pub on Wheels

For my sister's 25th birthday, we peddled around downtown Austin on the PubCrawler! The PubCrawler holds about 15 people, is powered by us, has a steering wheel, a break, and plenty of room for coolers of beer! As we moved our little legs up and down 6th street, cars were pulling over to take our picture, it was a sight!


Happy Birthday Ann Marie!

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Monday, May 9, 2011

Dewberries, Moms, and Triathlons

Relaxing Mother's Day? Not so much. But it was my own fault. Remind me again why I do these triathlons?

The weekend started off early Saturday morning with Junior League Leadership training for me. Starbucks helped me get through those three hours. As soon as I got home, it was lunch time for Davis and time to pack up the car to head out to the Thompson's family farm in Seguin for the annual Dewberry Festival. This year we celebrated 34 years! Sadly, without rain, the Dewberries are few and far between. BTW a dewberry is similar to a blackberry. But we still enjoyed seeing family & friends, playing horseshoes, and competing in a scavenger hunt. Davis is in absolute hog heaven out at the farm. What's not to love? There's dirt, rocks, sticks, dogs, fish, and cows. Davis and Forrest spent the night at the farm, but I headed to Austin with my tri-gear and spent the night with my sister.

Sunday morning, Happy Mother's Day, we were up at 5:30am getting ready for our first triathlon of the season, The Skeese Greets. It's a pretty short sprint tri (apparently this year they actually added distance in each leg of the race), but always a great warm up for the season. I think I finished it in an hour and twenty minutes, but my time chip is messed up because while they categorized me in the 29 and under group by giving me a black swim cap, apparently I was supposed to be in the 30 and up group. When getting "marked" (they use a sharpie to write your number on your arms and legs and your age on your calf), I politely asked the man to write 29 on my calf because I can't handle being 30 just yet. He kindly obliged. Looking back, I forgot how crazy my weekend was last year for this race. Davis was sick and I was up most the night. I wonder how I would do if I just rested the days before the race? Nevertheless, we had so much fun! Sharing Mother's Day with all these other amazing moms meant a lot. It also happened to be my mom's birthday! Her best birthday gift? She placed 3rd in her age group! Did I mention she rode 100 miles on her bike the day before for the Shiner Ride?

After the torture, I mean, fun race, we all headed out to eat. I couldn't eat anything, I was falling asleep at the table. So we headed home and Davis treated mommy to a THREE HOUR NAP!!!! We woke up around 5pm, freshened up (I didn't have the energy to shower before my nap, gross, I know), and went to Urban Taco for a beer and some delicious ceviche!

And now...the countdown to the end goal...the Cap Tex Triathlon on Memorial Day!

Renee's fiance, Robert, was there to cheer us on and took these pics with his iphone! Here we are, getting ready to start swimming!

At the finish line!

Friday, May 6, 2011

Room Make-Over Part 1

A couple weeks ago I posted about our front entry room. It serves as an entry, my office, a playroom, and a sitting room. So here is phase 1 of the make-over.

My mom found the wingback chair on the left at an estate sale for $25. I found the one on the right on Craigslist for $40. They were both out-dated and one was COVERED in cat hair. Ick. I had them recovered and voila...


I removed the play-mat (sorry Davis) and moved a rug from our room into here for the time-being. I'm hesitant to buy a new rug for this room if we won't be staying here long. I pulled out some old bunching tables that have been in our garage for a couple years to use as the coffee table. And as you can see, the toys remain in this room (don't be fooled, there are toys in just about every room of our house).


Part 2 of the make-over will hopefully include some art on the walls, new pillows on the couch, and a lamp shade. I would LOVE to hear from you all because I am not very creative and need all the help I can get.

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Happily Ever After

In honor of the biggest wedding of the month (I can't say year because my cousin is getting married this year), my parents hosted a Royal Wedding Watching Party (who didn't?). Thank goodness they are sensible and decided to DVR the wedding instead of inviting guests over at 4am. My mom rummaged through storage boxes to find all things London! Around the house she placed tour books, my sister's girl scout badges (that she received in London), our wellies, and little tourist trinkets like the English telephone booth. People brought all sorts of English food, but my favorite were the salt and vinegar crisps!

Claire thinks someone should have worn a cowboy hat to the wedding! Check out my mom's white gloves tucked into her belt and yes, that ring on her finger is blue (not exactly the same as Kate's!).

I look like I have creme brulee on my head :) Like our mugs? Yep, that's Kate and Wills!

No wedding party is complete without a wedding cake!