Sunday, after church and naps, we headed to the Columbia River gorge for a family picnic.
Playing tag is one of the girls’ favorite thing to do when we picnic.
Georgia is walking everywhere!
Looking out over the beautiful Columbia River. We will miss the warm evenings of summer.
We love it when Brian can join us at the river!
The river is our happy place. Even this girl was happy—it might have been that she was outside, or that Brian came home early to join us, or because she took an almost-five hour nap (!) this morning, or that she is finally (finally!!!) sleeping through (through, like we seriously don’t even go in one time, through) the night…probably a combination of all of the above. We are really, really enjoying our happier Georgia!
Luckily our happy place is only 5 minutes from home. I’m feeling an urgency to squeeze every last drop out of our last time ever (ever!) with all my little girls home (besides summers) before we start the whole school thing. Five years wasn’t long enough with that cute little girl holding my right hand.
Someone formed rocks in the river to form a shallow pool that I love for our girls to play in. Hattie is sitting on the edge of it.
Another visit to the river—this time with friends:
I love the noise Georgia makes with her tongue (picture on left)—she makes the same sound and does it in the same side-to-side motion that Elna did at this age.
While Georgia and I hung out with Jillian and Katie, all of the other kids hardly touched the water—instead the played in the sand cliffs behind us.
I loved that they played so well together for hours and hours. We were there for about 4 hours and they were happy the whole time, climbing and getting dirty in the sand. I love that my girls love my girlfriends’ kids!
Elna’s triathlon and my triathlon were part of the same weekend event and at the same venue. Hers was Friday evening and mine was Saturday morning. I was so happy that Katie did it again with me, and that we could convince Ericka to race too. I love these girls!
It was really nice to have Brian not in this triathlon so that he could help with the girls—something I have usually been in charge of. My last triathlon we were both part of, so it felt a lot more hectic with the girls.
I wasn’t super nervous this time—I was mostly just dreading having to do such a long workout.
I ended up placing 4th in my age group--out of all of these purple-capped women. (I was 25th out of 146 total racers) I wish I had gone just a teensy bit faster so I could get a medal, but I’m still pretty pleased with my time.
In the picture on the left, I’m in the middle and closest to the camera.
Our swim was in the Columbia River.
The bike portion was pretty nice this time—a lot flatter course than Hagg Lake’s.
These girls were THE BEST cheerleaders and made me cry every time I started hearing them—they yelled so loud, “Go Mom go, Go mom go!” on repeat.
It was a hot hot run, and I was pretty slow. I really would love to figure out how to make my run time shorter. My swim and run times are competitive enough that if I could get my run time lower, I could seriously place. Interestingly enough, running is what I train most—I ran almost 4 or 5 times a week, swam maybe 3 times total between my last tri and this one, and only biked once. So, you’d think I’d be a better runner.
It felt so good to be done. They had cold wet towels for us, which felt like heaven. I felt tingly from the heat. This race would be an absolute dream if it was cooler.
These girls and Brian were the best thing to finish for.
I loved doing this race with my friends. I am so blessed to have such great friends. I’m also so lucky to have Brian, who is so supportive—he lets me train every day and never complains. I’m looking forward to my next triathlon already!
Elna participated and completed her first kid triathlon. She did great and loved it! It was hot, but fun!
I made these posters for her cheerleaders to hold!
Getting her body markings.
Setting up transition area.
All ready to go!
One of the best moments from the day was when Brian and I looked down at Elna, who had decided to put her own sunscreen on. She had no idea she was completely caked. So funny!
Cap on and ready to start her swim!
Elna and I to the right of the waver in the middle. She was in a 6 and under group, so there were just a ton of little kids and adults—a parent had to be with their child triathlete the entire time. I had worn my swimsuit, so that person was me. The swim was supposed to be 25 meters, but was less than that I think. I wish it had been a little longer, actually. It was so short!
A pretty grainy picture of Elna waving at Brian.
The kids came out of the water through the same archway that adults usually do, which was kind of fun. She didn’t wear a timing chip this time, but she will when she’s 10 if she keeps doing these races. It was a very very low pressure event.
Transition from swim to bike.
And she’s off for her bike ride—a mile.
Finishing her bike portion.
Getting ready to run! The run was 1/4 mile.
She did it!
With her medal! So proud of this girl!
Three children, three places—couldn’t resist. Georgia’s smile!
Hopefully this is the first of many for Elna! And I hope she inspires our other girls to want to be active and do triathlons too, because a family that tri (or tries) together, stays together! Ha! We love triathlons!
