Women's Triathlon

On August 23rd, I did a women's triathlon at Chalco Hills Rec. Area in Omaha. I also roped my aunt Janet into doing it with me. It was 100 yard swim, 6 mile bike, and 1.5 mile run. There were over 300 participants! We trained for about a month for it and basically had to learn how to swim. It was tough, but it felt so good once it was over. The swim was cold and icky because it was in the lake (where they don't allow swimming). But, we got through that, and it was on to the biking part. We did 3 loops (2 miles each) and there was a pretty good sized hill on one part and it felt really good when all my RPM (spinning) classed paid off and I passed a whole bunch of people! The run was hard because we were tired from the swim/bike portions and we had an enormous hill to run up right before we turned around to go back, but it was good and I had a little burst of energy at the end and even sprinted for awhile.

My mom came with us and helped Doug watch the kids. She was a big help! She also came up the night before and spent the night with us, and she watched the kids while we packed all our gear for the triathlon. Auntie Debra came and helped play with the kids while I was doing the running portion of the course.

I had 2 other friends from my gym ("rec center") that did the triathlon with me. Marie (in the black outfit) & Mandy (with the white shirt on).

Cheeseburger in Paradise

Last Sunday, we met Auntie Debra at Cheeseburger in Paradise for a quick supper while we were "out & about". Samantha, Alden, & I spent the night at my parent's house on Saturday night in Humboldt and packed up some of our memories to get ready to my parents to move to Nebraska City later this month. Doug did the "Corporate Cycling Challenge" in Omaha on Sunday morning with Greg. Once we got back to Plattsmouth, we drove to Omaha to run a few errands and get some groceries, so we met up with Debra for supper. Samantha and Debra modeled some "shades" for us. (Note: Samantha is wearing my sunglasses)

1st Eye Appt. With Uncle Scott

We went to Liberty, MO last week to get our eyes checked by Uncle Scott. He checked all of our eyes, even Alden a little bit. Samantha did so great! She even got her eyes dialated, and didn't flinch! Everyone looked good according to Dr. McKnight! After the eye check-ups, we went to Scott & Debbie's house for lunch. Great-Grandma & Great-Grandpa McKnight and the Johnsons were also there that day getting their eyes checked, so we all ate lunch together. On the way home, we stopped at the Zona Rosa to let Samantha "Build-A-Bear" because she did so good at her eye appt. She put an Olympic Red-White-Blue swimsuit on her bear and named it "Katie". She calls her "Katie Hoff". It's really cute!

Sand for Supper

We went to the Doug's parent's house a few weeks ago and went swimming for a little while on Sunday afternoon. It's always such a struggle to take Alden because he loves to crawl on the beach and eat the sand. And he's always such a mess to clean up!!!!! But he has so much fun, so it's worth the mess to watch him crawl. You 'll notice in the 1st picture of him, that you can see where he has been on the beach because of his little "crawl" marks. Samantha had fun with daddy out in the water while mommy and Alden stayed on shore. That night, Alden was super crabby....and we think it's because he ate too much sand!

Doodlebuggin' Again

We went for a family bike ride with the Doodlebug a few Sundays ago. It was a rather short bike ride because we came upon a part of the trail that was closed. We rode about 5 miles and then stopped at the park to play. Then we rode back to the car. It was only about 8.5 miles, but Doug & I were both tired for some reason so that was good we had a short ride.

Zoo - Member's Day

Back on August 6th, we went to Member's Day at the Henry Doorly Zoo. We went right after Doug got off work and boy was it crowded. We are used to quiet Sunday mornings, and this was not one of them. We really just wanted to see what all goes on during the Member Days, and we accomplished that. We also so a few other exhibits we had never been to. We tried to ride the train, but it was too crowded, so we walked UP the big hill (which we had never been to before) behind the petting zoo and saw the otters and small mamals building. Doug & Sam walked down to see the Maned Wolfs get fed, and Sam thought that was pretty cool. We then saw the sealions and walked up another big hill and saw the Elephants and Rhinos. Then we ate supper at the sealion concession stand. I think Sam thought it was pretty cool to eat at the zoo (eventhough it was just a hot dog and some chips). Then it was time to go home. We walked through the Garden of the Senses on the way, which we usually don't do because of allergy concerns, but Doug toughed it out this time. The kids were tired and we were hot, but it was a fun time.

Zoo, Zoo, & More Zoo

After a couple weeks off from the blog, we're back! Over the last 2 weeks, we've been to the zoo a few times. On Doug & my anniversary, we went to the zoo, we saw the new Butterfly pavillion for the 1st time. It was pretty neat to see all different kinds of butterflies flying all about! Samantha didn't think much of the really large butterfly that landed on her arm! She pushed it away and it flew away. I didn't care for the rest of the exhibit after the butterflies, because it was mainly spiders and other creepy insects. After the butterflies, we walked down to the giraffes and then we walked through the beara and gorillas and cats and then it was time to go home! On our way to the bears, I got some popcorn for a snack and then we came across some peacocks that started chasing us! I threw some popcorn at them so that they wouldn't follow us anymore, but that just made them follow us more! I was scared and ran and Doug & Samantha & Alden just laughed at me!! :) It made it to 104 degrees that day, so a short trip to the zoo was in our best interest! It was already about 90 when we left at 10:30am! After a quick nap, Jodi & Jamie came over to babysit the kids while Doug & I went out for our 6th anniversary! We went and saw ____ and then visisted Doug's grandpa Holman and then we to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner. It was a great night out!