Surfing lessons

With R starting to taper for his race, we had tons of time to goof around on Saturday (I mean, there's tons of things we needed to do around the house, but who wants to worry about that). Anyway, we didn't think we'd stay that long but we ended up at the beach pretty much all day long - we had the surfboards, wetsuits, boogie boards, plenty of food, the umbrella, beach toys, chairs, you name it - we had it! Highlight was definitely Brooke and Ash learning how to surf - Brooke thinks she is a pro already (she is already asking when she gets her own board - answer, someday), but of course, she needs R pushing her into the waves to really get it. She does have the right form, though :) We actually had to drag her out of the water every time, except for when R said, "Hey, there's a seal" at which Brooke promptly started crying and demanded to be returned to the shore immediately. She reminded me of this when we went boogie boarding later and she said, "just don't tell me if you see anything out here".

Ashley was a little more timid, so my favorite wave was when she rode it all the way in, and I think she could hear Robie yelling "stand up", so she raised her hands in the air and kept her body firmly laying on the board. I guess she figured something being raised was better than nothing at all. Later on she got a little more nerve and actually stood up on the board for a second.

Also good for me was that I even got out on my surfboard and did some boogie boarding. Although I am the worst surfer and boogie boarder (even my kids were like, "you can't catch any waves".. hey, i caught one wave that one time), it was good for me to remember that I actually like the ocean, so I'm definitely feeling a little better about the ocean swim for my race. I have a feeling that I'll forget this feeling next week. Since the beach we went to is also way busier than the beach we usually go to, I was also reminded of how many interesting things there are to see at the beach. I said, "wow" to myself many times. Sometimes it was a good "wow" and sometimes it was a bad "wow". I mean, I totally support people wearing swimsuits and just relaxing at the beach, no matter their size, but I do think you should probably find a suit that is at least within 1 or 2 or at least 3 sizes of your actual current size.

Didn't Take Long

Another successful day at the beach today. Brooke and Ashley were having a great time boogie boarding and just playing in the waves - the water was relatively warm and they had some willing friends, so they were having such a good time hanging out in the water. Then Ashley was on to finding shells. Meanwhile, Lauren was busy whining about sand on her hands. She was thrilled to discover that if you keep a bucket of water next to you, you can continually clean your hands off, which is really convenient when you keep putting your hands back into the sand, yet you want them clean. For the record, seeing the waves and feeling the water only made me more nervous about my triathlon in a couple of weeks - eek!
When we got home, I had to get moving since the missionaries were coming over for dinner. In case anyone was wondering how long it would be before I was annoyed at Robie for not getting home when I thought he would with his new job, the answer would be 4 days. He was supposed to pick the missionaries up at 6, but he was stuck in traffic 30 minutes away at 5:55 - annoying! So after hauling over to pick them up, I did get a little giggle when I remembered that one of the missionaries is a GIANT! I mean, he honestly did not fit in the front seat of our SUV. It was actually comical to see the entire space from the seat to the ceiling and forward to the glove compartment was entirely filled (not as comical as the image of him in Robie's small sedan on the way back, but still).

Leisurely Dinner

One of the things we really missed with Robie's job in LA was sitting and eating a leisurely dinner - every night it was either, "sorry we already ate" (from me), or "I was too hungry to make it home" (from Robie) or "Everybody sit down now, we've got 10 minutes to eat dinner before bedtime". Well, last night we were able to sit down and enjoy a meal - definitely something I won't take for granted again (at least not for a week or two :)) The girls must have enjoyed it because they turned on the tv this morning and Rachel Ray was on (a show I haven't ever watched), but she had animals on so they were loving it, then she started making dinner and the girls wanted to do it, so they helped me make the enchiladas. Ashley grated the cheese, Brooke added spices and stirred it all in and helped me find the ingredients I needed - and Lauren didn't destroy anything until we were almost done - just the push I needed when I wasn't feeling great to pull through with a decent dinner :)

By the way, my nasty head cold (I think it has something to do with my procedure last week, but the dr is not concerned at all about it) is prohibiting me from getting a good nights sleep for the last week- i've tried a few sleep aids, but tonight I got myself some Nyquil, which I think is starting to work) so watch out.

After out enchilada making, I realized I have totally neglected Lauren. No, I'm not referring to the fact that lately she has been stripping down and running around without any clothes on for hours at a time. I am also not referring to the fact that I found her this morning eating out of a box of Skittles before breakfast. No, actually I realized today that Lauren does not know how to ride a bike! Not even the little one with the training wheels - I'm pretty sure both her sisters were riding by this time (too bad I didn't blog back then so i could check). I tried to get her out there and have a quick lesson, but even with Brooke and Ashley's help she just wasn't getting the whole pedaling thing. New goal for the week

Less than 2 weeks to go

In less than 2 weeks, Robie and 2 of his training buddies will be competing in a full Ironman competition. For those of you that don't know, that means they will be swimming 2.4 miles, biking 112 miles and running 26.2 miles, in that order, all in one day! Clearly they work out A LOT, but Saturday morning has been their longest workout session day where lately they ride a ridiculous number of miles, then run another ridiculous amount of miles. Last Saturday their plans were foiled by 6 flat tires, which in comparison to a normal Saturday with NO flat tires was almost comical - in fact, Robie actually approved a blog about it, AND provided pictures(miraculous). Keep in mind their "foiled plans" still took them 70 miles (which, as Robie puts it is "not even close" to their planned amount). You guys rock!
Small side note: apparently they had to stop by a bike shop to get more tubes (because who carries that many tubes?) where the guys called Robie's 2 (ok, he says 3) year old bike a "relic" - talk about ingenius marketing abilities. I called my kitchen a relic today, which did not have the same, "we better make a change" effect.

What a week...

A busy summer week filled my days and left me with barely time to stalk other people's blogs :) OK, technically I had plenty of time but after my procedure on Monday on my nose, I felt like I had a nasty head cold for a couple of days. The rest of the week was sort of a big celebration for my sister, Jenn's, birthday (we're twins, so I guess that's why it affects me so much :)). Between leisurely spending my morning working out by myself (thanks, Laura), eating dinner with the Chambers fam, more dinner with friends on Friday (so yummy and fun - loving the blue and yellow eyeliner) - I definitely maximized the enjoyment of the big 35. Brooke and Ashley were at a fun little camp each morning this week where they went and did crafts, etc, then swam for a while. Although this worked great for them, Lauren was not loving it very much :) , but she survived without her sisters, and is convinced that she is potty trained (only about 1/2 the time is tha true. I didn't have my camera with me much (thus the lack of fascinating blogging), but it turned out to be a great week nonetheless. The jury is still out on the results of the nasal procedure, so I'll post more about that later.

Legoland, Sea World - you'd think we were on vacation

I guess now we really are on summer vacation! Thursday the neighbor called and they were going to Legoland, so we joined them. I'm honestly not a huge fan, but the kids just love it! We didn't even ride many rides, but between looking at the Mini Land and playing at the different play areas, they were pretty well entertained. The girls were thrilled because I let them get soaking wet at the Pirate area, but of course, they were "freezing" then (good thing it was straight home after that).

Then on Friday we met up with friends at Sea World. It was VERY busy at Sea World, but it was still a great day! Major success of that day was not losing any children in their lame Bay of Play and the bigger kids getting to ride the rides they wanted to ride (which is impossible when I take them myself) - and I got to see some of my favorite animals (polar bears sleeping, beluga whales doing tricks, killer whales), and they did get a cute new animal trainer at the Pets Rule show

Lauren is accentuating one of the major things to remember in order to have success at a theme park - your children will eat 3 times as much food as you think is humanly possible. I used to take the amount of food they would probably eat at home, then I doubled it, this time I tripled it and I almost had enough :) I don't know if it is all the churros/popcorn smells or what, but if I ever go back to school, I might use a study on the phenomenon of "starvation feelings created by amusement parks" as my thesis.

Big Change is a-coming

We have some big changes coming our way - I'll start with Robie since he is changing jobs! He gave his 2 weeks notice yesterday and will be starting back up with his old employer. They called him out of the blue a while ago to see if he wanted to come back, but we couldn't come to an agreement, and finally they came back again and we can make it work. Robie is so excited because they have made the job even more of his ideal job (and he loved it before), not to mention the obvious thrill of not driving 2 hours each way to and from work anymore. YIPPEE!!!

The other big change which really will only affect me is that I found an ENT who thinks he can help me breathe through my nose. As a little background, I have allergy issues most of the year, but every once in a while I get these gnarly pressure headaches that just stick around for weeks or months. They make it hard to sleep and also just make me feel tired in the day. I've had this problem for years off and on (tried neurology, allergy, and then finally the ENT) and when I was pregnant with Lauren a different ENT had said I needed surgery on my turbinates (I'd never heard of them but they are what help filter the air for you), because they were too large and could be causing the problem. Anyway, we couldn't do it because I was pregnant and then the headaches weren't bothering me as much anymore, and when they did bug me, I didn't really want to get surgery so I figured I would just keep trying my over the counter remedies. Anyway, lately they have been back full force and driving me crazy, and I realized I have pretty good insurance, so I went to this awesome ENT that Laura recommended and he is going to do a procedure on Monday to fix the problem! He can't guarantee it will solve the headache problem, but it will definitely solve the "not being able to breathe through my nose" problem. It's called a somnoplasty and I am really hopeful that it will help out! No better time than the present since Robie's last day is the 18th :)