Saturday, July 23, 2011

Trip to Iowa

On the way up to Iowa we spent a night in Kansas City and a night in Lincoln.  It was nice to break up the drive, but it also felt like a lot longer of a trip when you break it up twice.  We saw Allison and Josh in Kansas City and stayed the night with Megan and Barry and Charlie in Lincoln.  Hannah loved to play with Charlie......I know that she is going to try and convince us that we need a dog :).  When we got to Iowa we spent a night in Sheldon with grandma and grandpa before heading out to the lake for the triathlon.
Granpa Irv's backyard is beautiful

Hannah loves grandma's cats too.....poor animals are always ready for us to leave :)
Where did the cat go?
Bye bye
For some reason I am the only one looking at the camera.
Grandpa did "the claw" to Hannah and she thought it was pretty funny.  After we got home from the trip I asked Hannah if she had fun with grandma and grandpa and she said "grandpa Irv claw" and "grandpa funny" and then she tries to do the claw. 
Here she is probably wondering where the cat went again....
Hannah painted her nails for the first time with grandma and she played in her make up bag....
One foot done.  Look at those cute toes (they have a little mascara on them too)
She has concealer on her lips
We spent several days out on the lake and had a great time.  Hannah was not feeling the greatest, but we made the best out of it.  She had a fever for a few days, which was not a lot of fun in 98 degree weather!  After a few days she was a little better and we took the boat out.  Grandpa let Hannah drive for a bit!
Checking out the water with grandma.
Lake Okoboji is a very busy lake, but Sunday evening was perfect.  We headed over to Arnold's Park and had some ice cream and then cruised along the shore to admire all the beautiful homes.


Thursday, July 21, 2011

University of Okoboji Triathlon

We just got back from a week long road trip to Iowa to see Scott's parents and to participate in the Lake Okoboji triathlon (more on the road trip later).  This was my second year to participate in the triathlon and Scott participated in the 10k for the first time.  I did not get much training in this year (2 weeks), because I decided so late that I was going to do the triathlon.  I had originally planned on doing it and wanted to get at least 6-8 weeks of training, but then I had my eye surgery and couldn't see well for 6 weeks, so I was not sure that I would be able to do it.  I am so glad I decided to participate.  I was not expecting to do that well, but deep down I knew that my competitiveness would kick in and I wanted to beat my time from last year. 
It was an early morning again!  I had to be there by 6:30am to set up.  The swim started at 7am.  The lake was a little chilly, but once we started the swim it felt great.  The swim was 0.6 miles and I finished in 19 min and 6 sec (I beat my time from last year by 30 sec).
Hannah was still a little tired and didn't feel great that day....
Transition to biking.  I didn't have a bucket to sit on last year, so this helped a lot!
I finished the 18 mile bike ride in 53 min (I beat my time from last year by almost 2 min).
The run was cut from 5.5 miles last year to 4.2 miles this year, but I didn't know about that (the website still says 5.5 miles).  So, I was a little disappointed, because I paced myself to run 5.5.  I brought my GPS watch, so that it would be easy to pace myself, because I remembered from last year that I had no clue how far I had already run. And since I don't know the area well, I had no idea the finish line was just around the corner :).  I thought they would send us for another loop since I only had 4 miles on my watch.  I finished the run in 39 min and finished the triathlon in 1 hour and 55 min.  I finished 20th out of 120 women (last year I finished 32nd out of 132 women).  I am happy with the results.
It was a lot of fun and I am glad I participated again.  I am trying to recruit people for next years race.  Scott did great in his first 10k race.  He started the race at 9am and it was already getting very hot.  It was one of the hottest weekends in Iowa! He finished in 54min and placed 75th out of 282 people. 
Waiting for daddy at the finish line.....
What a fun morning. 

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Demolition Day

We have a new lot! The house was knocked down last week.  I do feel a little bad about knocking down a house, but this one was in bad shape.  We are very excited to start building on this lot. We have a plan picked out and are ready to go!
Before

During
After

Stay tuned for updates on the house.