Triathlon

I just erased my original post about this which bored me to tears. In a nutshell, I crossed the finish line. Not last. That was sort of my goal for getting into this. I didn't drown, fall off my bike, or have to walk. I can even say that it was actually fun. I did put my wetsuit on backward (and kept wondering out loud to more than one person why I felt like it was choking me and was so stinking hard to get on - I finally figured it out at the beach and had to change), take my ankle/timing band off with my wetsuit, forget my gloves, had to go back to the staging area to retrieve both items, but did manage to pass my very slim cousin on the bike (in full disclosure she flew back by me on the run). All in all, however, it was a great experience, and I will definitely try for another. I will probably never win a trophy, but it was just nice to know that I didn't need an ambulance to take me home either.

I bought this cheap but pretty sweet bike on Bikes Direct It rides really nicely and I love it.


I also wanted to do this to lose some "baby weight", eh, from the TP. I exercised at least 5 days a week for 3+ months, and I still weigh only about 5 lbs less than when I walked out of the hospital. It's all muscle gain, right? Right.

Things that make me say hmmmmmmmm.

We are crazy. Have no doubt. We have been spending our "together time" as I call it doing a lot of road tripping (there is a VERY good reason it isn't called road vacationing). I am done. Beyond done. Finished. Caputo (this probably isn't a word). From Logan, UT, we thought it would be a good idea to take a 900+ mile roadtrip to Vancouver, BC. Hmmmm.

HIGHLIGHTS:
1 - Got a great deal on a 5-star hotel
2 - Ate some real and really good Chinese food
3 - Opportunity to check out a beautiful city and use the passports we got for our kids.

LOWLIGHTS:
1 - 2 small children. One approaching 3 years old whose mouth doesn't stop flapping unless he asleep, the other is 4 months and hates to ride in the car for even a mile to go to the grocery store. Double hmmmm.

2 - 2 children in diapers. Inevitably, we always gave the diapers more credit than they deserved. As a result our car smelled a lot like the rest stops we frequented.

3 - 2 children who are used to sleeping in their own rooms. One requires the door to be locked at night to keep him from running around like a madman until the wee hours of the morning. I don't care if your hotel has the milky way rating, we needed 3 rooms just to make the stay tolerable. One room plus the portable crib in the bathroom didn't cut it.

4 - Poor planning in the books-on-tape department. If you hear the LG using EXTREME profanity, you can blame it on the R-rated language emanating from our speakers. One benefit of this debacle is that I plan to blame all his bad language until he moves out on this one trip. (You may say, turn it off. Hmmmm. That, like many other things is much to simple to be a solution we would employ).

5 - Poor planning in the not-bringing-a-sitter department. Let's just say that eating with chopsticks with a squirmy worm on my lap doesn't go to far in helping me enjoy ANY dining experience. Again, wouldn't matter too much if the food received the milky way rating.

6 - As a woman still recovering from the ill-effects of bearing children on my style, body image, and any sense of self worth - take note: don't go to cities with your two obnoxious children in tow where there are an abundance of thin Asians, sharply dressed 20-somethings, and plenty of store fronts reminding me that there is a whole world of fashion out there I can no longer relate to.

7 - Staying with friends/family. We learned that relying on the good graces of your peeps along the way may result in your loss of these people as friends, especially if you have your own version of the LG to mismanage. Let's see...where to begin? How about with the sharpie he located and proceeded to use in marking his territory on the steering wheel and leather seats of our friends' car? Or, maybe with the pink finger nail polish he used to paint a small wooden chair, some white carpet and a dining room chair (don't be fooled by the small size of those nail polish bottles, I had NO idea how many square feet a 2-year old could cover in 5 minutes).

As you can see, the lowlights far outweigh the highlights. As crazy as this may seem, we just got back from another 3 day adventure down to Lake Powell for my Triathalon. Stay posted for Triathalon highlights. I promise to leave out my complaints about traveling with kids.