#123

I love to sing.  Is that new information to anyone out there? Certainly not to my family who can still sing along to "Sunlight! Come together with starlight! And together we'll shine, in the great, great big sky."

 Yeah, that was just a song I made up when I was five.

Somehow out of all the numbers out there I was lucky enough to get the race # 123 tattooed all over my arm, legs, on my helmet, shirt, and on my bike. 

Singing songs in my mind has always been my favorite race trick.  Just think of the possibilities the numbers 123 gave me to sing! But somehow one little line from a children's song literally pushed me through the last 2 miles of the race.  Over and over and over and over I sang,

"Some people are quick and have a fast pace, but slow and steady wins the race."  

I didn't win the race but we did swim a 1/2 mile, bike 18.9 miles, and run 5 miles.  For some reason that feels just as cool.

And now, I will stop blogging about this.  :)

1st a mother, 2nd a triathalete

I love being a mother.  I have found so much joy and fulfillment in who I am from my two boys.

But I also enjoy wearing other hats (or swim caps or helmets if you will) at times. 

So I jumped on the Packard Family triathlon bandwagon.  Everyone else was doing it, why couldn't I?  It was the perfect motivator through my pregnancy.  I learned to lap swim for the first time.  My spin class loved watching my belly grow. 

After Rhett was born, I naively found a race, convinced a few friends to sign up with me and we started training.  My kids were champs. Rhett was the smallest baby I have seen in a jogging stroller- but he loved it.  I fell in love with my bike (thank you Doug!) and my spandex shorts (thank you Mom!)  I looked forward to my daily Paola and Kim exercise/play time.  The "Night Riders," as we named ourselves, was born. 

We nicknamed each other. We doorbell ditched friends.  We have told hundreds of hilarious stories about high school, our dating lives, courting our spouses, and our marriage highs and lows.  We  have cried our way through sad stories and testimonies.  Training was so wonderful.

The race was pretty fun too:

Because of a breast pump malfunction, this is literally what I was doing up until 30 seconds before my race started.  Luckily we were in the 3rd heat to race and Doug got there just in time.  Baby Rhett saved the day!

Here is the 10 second count down...I think we were supposed to be ready by now, but we were all about having fun.

After the horn went off, we were still putting on our goggles and walking into the water. No need to fight the crowds and drown within the first minute!  I love my little cheerleader Cal watching me go.

I 'll post more about what happened during the 2 hours, 34 minutes, and 1 second later. 

Little Rhett didn't really catch the memo that I was pretty important and busy at the moment.

2 minutes post race:

My triathlon red carpet award speach would be something along the lines of:

"A huge thanks to my producer Doug for really making it possible for me to be here today.

Thanks to Cal and Rhett for being wonderful exrtas in the cast.

Thanks to my brother Zach and sisters Ali and Aimee for being my inspiration.
Thanks to my wonderful trainer, Tricia.

And lastly, thank you to the amazing cast members Paola and Kim- together we did it!"  

When the dad babysits...

things like this go on.

And for some reason I thought turning 3 was going to bring so much more maturity!

He's 3

We love our Cal!

(Only fitting that he had 3 time outs at his 3 year old party.)

Otherwise we had a fantastic time at the Lewis Ranch!

just a little obsessed.

You could come to my house at any time of the day and find something like this going on: 

This would be his horsey face that he has to show me about 10 times a day.  And then he cracks up laughing.

The horsey face even has the power to stop a crying "don't want to go to bed" tantrum. 

Now would be a good time to thank both grandmas for all of the horses, barns, tractors, fences, etc.  They have occupied him for countless hours! Both of Cal's Grandmas grew up with horses so I think they have a soft spot for his new obsession. This might be the closest he gets to owning his own horse for a long time.

P.S.  Can you guess what theme his birthday party is going to be? 

P.S.S The last time we checked, he was terrified to actually get on a horse. 

WE ARE

a playschool graduate.

always holding our toes.

brothers.

kinda sassy.

still a hard working, undecided, med student.

Biker Initiation

I had my first fall.  Luckily I was only going about 1mph. 

There happened to be a couple of cowboys on hand just ready to stare. 

Too bad I can't post a picture of the nice bruise on my bum.

The triathlon is in 2 weeks!

We are having tons of fun training. But I am ready to have my life back.