Carb Loading

This weekend I did the Midwest Mayhem Triathlon (my first tri). I was dreading the swim, but I survived and it actually felt pretty good. Hopefully this will be the first of many tri's in my future. I've already got my eyes on the Jackson Country Triathlon, and I'm expecting Randy and Tracy to join me.

Of course, it's difficult to do a triathlon without some big-time carb-loading. Luckily Linda's been digging up potatoes in the garden. It's exciting to dig around in the dirt and discover real, edible food. There's also corn and bean plants that look like they might be providing dinner for us soon.

Summer Vacation

Last week the family took a much-needed vacation to Breckenridge, Colorado with Mary, Randy, and Everett. We packed a lot of fun into our four days there - one of the highlights was a ride on the Georgetown Loop Railroad's authentic, 1900's era steam train. The train itself was awesome, and the trip through the valley (about 1/2 hour long - perfect for preschoolers) was beautiful.

Scott and Randy took one morning to climb two of Colorado's 14,000 foot peaks. They summited both Gray's and Torrey's peaks, and this now makes three "14'ers" for both of them. Mary and I spent the morning visiting the local donut shop and taking the boys to an old gold mine, where they got to pet real, live mules.

We also took advantage of Breck's new (free!) gondola. At the "top" (which is actually the base of the ski resort) Scott and Lincoln went down an alpine slide at Breckenridge's Peak 8 area. Much to our surprise Lincoln loved the chair lift (a prerequisite for this winter's ski trip) and the slide. Lincoln wanted to go again, but since it was *not* free, we appeased him with another trip on the gondola.

The biggest surprise of the trip was that we made the 10-hour trip from Denver in one piece. We made some stategically-timed stops to let the boys run off some steam, and were home in our beds a little after midnight.