July 4, 2011

4th of July weekend...

What a great weekend.
Started out Friday night at Red Robin with part of the family to celebrate
Brooke's 16th birthday and Bruce's ?.
It was Denny and I, Mom & Bruce, Brooke, Sami & Tino and Chris & Erika..
It was a fun time.
Then Saturday morning did my shift @ our
coffee stop @ the Toutle River Rest Area (MP 54) 23.4 Mile S of Chehalis
from 7-noon .
My mom was going to go and help but got sick, so Denny ended up going with me.
 (doesn't he look excited)
Then right before we were getting ready to leave
 I got a great surprise from an old high school friend.  Kassandra Lulow came by to see me.
They were on their way on I-5 and saw my post on
Facebook and thought they would come by.
Wow, it was so great to see her.
I haven't seen her since high school.
That was just AWESOME!!!!

Then off to get the girls for our last bike ride before the
STP (Seattle to Portland) bike ride next weekend.
I guess I should say CTP (Chehalis to Portland) in two days.
As we were leaving my sister's house I looked up and saw this,
Jake trying to get a tan on the sidewalk.
Too cute.
This was Courtney's friend Taylor's first bike ride with us.
And of course she had to do the same grunt work the girls have too.

We decided to go to the Chehalis bike trail,
we have only done part of it before.
There was a ghost that scared us.
Got to the end of the trail and had to turn around.
Going across the steam train track it is really soft gravel,
and with the road bikes we were having a hard time riding,
so Brooke and I walked our bikes.
What a pretty ride.
I just wish it was longer.
.
And again we ran out of trail on the other end.
So we decided to go to Airport rd.
The girls didn't really like going across all the traffic at this light.
I told them, just ride fast.
We rode around the airport and on our way out of the airport, you can go two different way.
Courtney was ahead of us and said "I'm going this way".
I said OK ,
I knew she was thinking we were done riding and going back to my house.
NOT!! LOL
The rest of us turned the other way .
So we then had to stop and wait for her.
Yea, she wasn't happy. It was really hot,
but we had only ridden about 10 miles and I wanted at least 20 in.
The girls were trying to ride fast to catch up with this guy on a bike with no shirt on.
They couldn't do it so I did and got a picture for them.
I think he was a little old for them and he really needed to put that shirt back on.
They finally did pass him.
Then we went to the girl's house to take a short break and get fresh "cold" water.
This I think has been the hottest day of the year so far.
We had to stop one more time after this because Brooke keeps
forgetting to take her allergy pills so she has been sneezing tons.
When I said it was hot it was hot.
OK hot by Washington standards.
After we got home we had a BBQ and played Bad mitten.
Jason and Jake came over and so did Brooke's boyfriend Taylor and a friend of his.
I think we were kinda rough on the birdies.

Sunday Denny and I got up and went to the Best Western hotel for me to swim.
I know the owners.
Denny measured it and 20 laps (up and back) is 1/4 mile.
That is how far I have to swim in my mini triathlon at the end of this month.
Don't I have really good form?
I think the Olympic team is going to be calling soon.
I got 25 laps in and it about killed me.
I forgot my nose plug and goggles.
Yes I'm a nose plugger.
My back hurt from holding my head so far out of the water.

Then we took off to REI so I could find an outfit that I could
wear at my Tri for all 3 sports.
I need to be able to swim, bike and run in it.
Here is what we found.
The shirt and shorts for all. The fivefinger toe shoes are only for swimming. I have wimpy feet this year and knew I would have to wear something running in and out of the water.
When I get done with the swim I will put my running shoes for the ride and run in those.
I will slip a pair of biking shorts on over these shorts for the bike part.
Yea this is my plan for right now, we will see how that turns out.

My stuff ready and waiting to do a pratice run.  
Damn that is alot of crap I need.
Do you think Toby and Cookie want out?
I won't let them out,
I'm afraid they will run away because of all the fireworks.
OK got in my little mini mini tri this morning.
I screwed up on my count for the swimming part, so I only swam 1/16 of a mile.
Biked 7 miles then ran 1.5 miles.
Yea, I tried out the new shoe's when swimming and YUP I hated them.
I will be taking them back LOL.
Yes I did ride and run with wet clothes on and my clothes are going to work perfectly.
After I was done,
Denny was in the back yard staining the deck.
So I did go out and help him.
It is going to look really good when it is all done.
It was flipping hot out there.
Now we are sitting on our asses drinking beer...
Staying home just the two of us.
Going to listen to the firework from bed.
Happy 4th everyone.