Claire is 2!

My baby girl is 2, I can hardly believe it! It really seems like I just brought her home from the hospital...except that I am 8 months pregnant with another baby. I will be doing it all over again soon, so crazy! I had a ton of pictures on my phone that I wanted to upload so excuse the photo dump but they were all too cute not to remember. Claire is sick with a fever so we are home from church together.  I figured this was a good way to spend my time documenting about our family, right? Things have been pretty busy around here with school almost out and traveling, ironman races, and 3 kids, we usually are doing something.   Last week Claire and I got the stomach flu so we were bed ridden for a day or two. She fell asleep in my bed watching Dora (her favorite). Still sucking her thumb and grabbing her hair, I love it.

We both got better right before her birthday and I managed to even get her a personalized Dora birthday cake. We asked her what cake she wanted for her birthday and with no hesistation it was Dora. She then kept adding characters that she wanted on top so we got lucky that Macey's had some characters that came with the cake. It seems that the homemade cakes might be over for us. It's just too much work! She loved this cake and saved James and I both some sanity!

Her bday was on Monday so we celebrated at Grammy's house on Sunday with all of her cousins. I forgot my camera so my phone was the only pictures I got. Not great, but you get the point.

She even blew out her own candles! Everyone was pretty impressed. None of my other kids have been able to do that...maybe we are odd or don't have very strong lungs!

Grammy and Grandad Tenney got her a cute little Dora outfit and Dora sunglasses. She loves glasses or "gwa-gwes" as she calls them.

That night getting ready for bed after a bath she and James were at the top of the stairs just hanging out. She is such a Daddy's girl right now and always wants to know where James is. I love it and I know James loves it even more.

On Monday, her actual birthday I had the genius idea of going to the Thanksgiving Point animal farm. Claire is obsessed with animals (probably my biggest animal lover) and we haven't taken her there yet. It was the perfect choice! She got a pony ride, wagon ride, and got to see all the cute new baby horses and cows. She was honestly giggling the entire time we were there. It was the cutest thing ever. I know this is blurry but she got to pet a cute, new baby horse.

I tried countless times to get a picture of all 3 kids at once but Claire was way too excited to see everything so we only ended up with the 2 boys. They are so cute.

Claire, James and Carter enjoying the wagon ride.

Stuck in jail! Carter was trying to keep a straight face.

Another attempt to get all 3 kids in the same picture. I managed to get Claire's head as she ran away. Silly girl! Carter brought his own money to buy Claire a birthday present at the farm where they have a little toy area that they sell stuff. He had many extravagent ideas, but we finally had him settle on a little plastic pig and a peacock feather. She has been tickling us with the feather ever since!

Here's her Dora outfit from Grammy. This is also her new face when I tell her to smile. She closes her eyes and scrunches up her nose.

Yesterday James was working on Preston learning how to ride a bike. Claire was trying to follow them so James told Carter to bring her back. I was on the porch watching the whole thing. Carter is so cute and loving with his sister, it melts my heart. He really is a protective big brother and always is trying to help her or play with her.

He then bent down to give her a kiss. SO darling!! I love their relationship.

I love this age! Claire is talking away and saying little sentences. She is still so tiny but has a ton of hair that people comment on all the time! Some other little things that she is doing at this age:
*She has to sleep with about 25 stuffed animals in her bed. She knows them all and has us go through each one before we lay her down each night. She then has to have her Peppa Pig blanket on top of her. It's quite the process!
*She could eat her weight in chicken nuggets. I have never seen a kid eat as many as she can! She also loves ketchup or "bee-cha" as she calls it. After taking a bite she always says "Mmmm gooo(good)".
*She loves Eeyore and Winnie the Pooh. She calls Eeyore on her pretend phone all the time to say hello. She also loves me to sing the Winnie the Pooh song to her when I change her diaper.
*I love how she pushes her hair out of her face. It makes me laugh, I don't know why.
*She loves the shower instead of the bath now. When we try to get her out, she lays on the shower floor and will flail around.
*She knows she can get anything she wants from Daddy so she will always go to him first. M&ms, not going to bed, Dora cereal at the store, you name it, he has gotten it for her!
*Coloring is her favorite and she gets pretty intense sometimes concentrating. Mainly it is tiny little circles over and over. She just got an easel with a white board for her birthday from her grandparents in England and she has been using it non stop. We have outlawed markers around here since she loves to color on walls, so she is in heaven with the dry erase ones that she gets to use for the white board.
*How she calls Preston, Presty. We have never called him that, she just started using it and it is their little thing.
*When we went to St. George for the ironman, we took the kids swimming. She loved it and every time we were by the pool she would yell WATER! over and over.  I'm excited for the summer.

I love that little girl so much. Having a girl has been so much different than a boy. She is girly but also will pretend to be a dinosaur and find some kind of pretend gun out of something. Her brothers love it! So grateful she came to our family. I couldn't imagine life without her!

Getting to my Ironman

For once I, James, will actually be writing a post on our blog.  I just completed my first ever Ironman (2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike and 26.2 run).  I want to give a little background as to why I wanted to do this before giving you my race report.
Where to begin with this story.  5 years ago I did my first Sprint Triathlon with my Brother in Law Carl.  I was 215 lbs and completely out of shape.  I progressed over the years and did a half Ironman 2 years ago, I struggled through with no idea what I was really doing.  I had watched the Ironman Championships in Kona on television every year thinking how great it would be to finish that distance.  After hurting my knee playing indoor football (soccer) last year I did not have a single race planned.  I was invited to compete on a team for a mud run called the Dirty Dash just as I was starting to run again.  On that team was James Lawrence, the Iron Cowboy, who is working on setting a world record for most Ironman races in one season  http://www.facebook.com/Ironcowboy?ref=ts#!/Ironcowboy.  I got talking to James and he said "you should do one with us".  That put it into my mind and after lots of persuading, Heather agreed.

After a year off I got started early and did as a lot of people do and downloaded a basic training plan and started working.  After a few months of this and talking with James he agreed to coach me and help me train and prepare for the St George Ironman.  I would have been completely lost without his tuition, guidance, encouragement and wealth of knowledge.  I remember sending him the info on what I thought was an energy drink, lets just say it had about as much energy in it as a dead battery.  He also invited me to train on the course with a group, I am so glad I was able to go to learn the intricacies of the course.

So training for one of these races is no joke, early mornings, late nights, weekends taken up for swims, bikes and runs.  Not only is it time on my part but it is time away from my family.  Heather has been great, I can remember numerous times that she would come back early from a friends house so that I could go train.  I remember the times that she would run kids around while I had to complete long rides.  We knew that to get to the finish line it would be a team effort.

So before we get into race day I want to share why this was such a desire of mine.  As a kid I was bigger and thicker than other kids, I played multiple sports but was bullied for being "fat.  I was built like a sprinter and that is what I did, I ran events up to the 400 meters.  In my later teenage years that bullying and image that I had of myself manifested itself into Anorexia.  I went days without eating, over exercising, in the hope that one day I would fit in.  After lots of counseling, support from my Family I started to win the fight and beat it when I met Heather, who appreciated me for me and not for what I looked like.  So why do I tell you this?  No matter how much you think that you have "beaten Anorexia" there is a lingering demon at the back of your mind, the voices of the bullies resonating as clear as day.  I wanted to beat them all, I wanted to prove that no matter what I look like, what my body shape was, that I could do something extraordinary.  Something in a setting where, when you cross a line that you become something only a few will ever be able to do, to show my kids that no matter what people say about you or where you are supposed to fit in that you push yourself to achieve things that some thought would be impossible for you to do.

The triathlon community is awesome, I have made some great new friends over the last year and it is amazing to have people building you up.  To be in a race and run with complete strangers because you both have the same goal, the finish line.  There is no judging on what you are wearing, what you look like, there is just unique spirit that you want everybody to achieve their goal.

St George Ironman Race Day

We headed to St George on Thursday to sign in for the race and so that I could attend the Athletes Dinner and Pre-race meeting.  Athletes were the only ones allowed in the check in area in the Dixie Convention Center so there was a little station to make signs.  The kids were in heaven that they could decorate signs for Daddy, especially after 4 hours in the car.  Here we are after check in, we got some fun swag like the backpack.

Friday was the day to check in my bike and bike gear at Sand Hollow Reservoir, do a quick swim, drop off my run gear bag at the St George Tabernacle and then head back to the condo we were renting to swim with the kids. Heathers parents also drove down on Friday to add their support to both me and Heather.   This was right after my swim on Friday.

After a Texas Roadhouse dinner on Friday night I finished my race day prep and went to check the weather before bed.  The weather was forecast to be in the low 80s, sunny and a light 8 mph wind.  I woke up at 3:30 and we were out the door by 4:15am.  Heather dropped me off near the Tabernacle so that I could catch the bus to the swim.

Once out at the Reservoir, I had time to get my liquid nutrition on my bike, pump up my tires and get ready for my swim.  It was great to be able to see James and his wife Sunny in the transition area along with some other friends.  Friendly faces really help to calm my nerves.  At 6:45 the pro's started their swim.  We got in the water and started at 7.  Open water starts are always crazy, expecially with over 1000 people.  There is very little open water at the start but I managed to find some and get into a rhythm.  I was cruising along fairly well, coming close to the first turn bouy it felt as if one of the boats had sped by us and we were surfing in its wake.  As we made the 90 degree turn it was evident that the once placid water now resembed a raging ocean with white cap waves from 3-5 feet battering us with 40 mph wind gusts.  Once we turned to head back towards the transition it was clear that this would be tough.  The wind and water were pushing against us, waves slamming me and chocking me, let along not being able to see the markers in the water to know where to go.  I have to say it was incredibly scary, I remebered hearing that surfers would say waves came in patterns so I got into a rhythm of freestyle for a number of strokes then breastroke through the big waves then back to freestyle.  I had a goal in mind of 1:15 for my swim, it turned out to be 1:47, I was happy to be alive and to have been ahead of the cut off.   Here is a pic of our start taken by Craig Stevenson, one of the vounteers and then a pic of what the water was like for us.

Once out of the water it was time to hop on the bike.  I sent Heather a text to let her know that I was on my way so that they could find a spot to watch me.  I enjoy the bike, to be able to go fast, pump my legs to go up a hill and all the other fun of riding a bike.  The wind once again made the bike tough, climbing towards Gunlock and out of it were tough.  However, to turn the corner to climb the Veyo wall and feel that tail wind push you was a welcome blessing.  I saw many people walking up hills but I was determined not to.  I made sure to watch my heart rate, keep on top of my nutrition and remember all the other things that James had taught me.  I am often to competitive and go out strong trying to catch and pass people, forgetting that I need to pace myself.  Aside from battling the winds everything went great, no flats or major issues and I made it around the 2 loops.  It was great to see my cheering seciton at the 30 mile mark in Ivins, as you can see the boys had fun trying to bury Preston in the red sand.

The fun of waiting for Daddy to come by.  Here I am at mile 30 feeling great.

Off the bike I ran into the tent to put my run gear on0, it was fun to chat with some of the athletes around me, share ibuprofen, suncreeen etc and wish each other luck.  As I came out of the tent the chearing squad were on hand to see me off.

I knew that on the marathon there should be an aid station every mile, it was 3 loops of a course running up and down St George streets with a mix of gradients.  I wanted to run to each aid station, walk through to fuel up and run to the next one.  I was gradually warming up with James Lawrence caught up to me and let me run with him for a while, it really helped me pick up my pace.  I knew that I had 7 hrs from T2 to the finish line, baring any crazy things happening I was going to complete this race.  I wanted to enjoy it, every last step of it.  People wonder why I was smiling so much, between the joy of all the preparation coming together, the knowledge of the fact that I had conquered some demons, some deeply personal spiritual experiences I had, the wonderful volunteers and the great people out on the streets supporting us it was impossible not to be smiling.  As I pushed through each mile, talking to other runners, it was the best feeling in the world.  As I continued my goal of running between aid stations I knew all to well where my last one would be.  As I pushed out of the last station and headed towards the finish line I met another runner walking and encouraced him to run with me.  We ran down the hill, around the turn around and up the final stretch.  The feeling of turning the corner, high fiving complete strangers and seeing the finish line is indescribable.  All aches and pains disappeared and the energy carried me to the finish.  It was a truly incredible experience and one I hope to repeat someday (sorry Heather it was too good not to want to do again).

Just finished!

The Support crew/cheer squad

I am truly blessed to have a wonderful family who is willing to sacrifice for me and support me.  I am so grateful to the Lawrences for their friendship, support, instruction and encouragement.  I am thankful to Heathers parents for coming down to help Heather with the kids, I know that Heather was very grateful for the help.

Now what to do next?