MMMM.....chocolate chip cookies

Alexa helped me make chocolate chip cookies for the first time last night. Aunt Tracee would be proud that I actually made cookies and not just bought the dough!
The best part was when she dropped the mixing fork in the butter and sugar mixture....she didn't like the feel of the mixture and dripped batter all over the place!

here is a pic of her mixing the butter/sugar mix with the eggs!

Re-wind to the State Fair....

Just got this picture downloaded and thought the need to post it! We took Alexa to the State Fair on Mon. Aug 13th. She got to pet a lamb, calf, and a chicken. I attempted to talk to someone about letting her pet their horse, but they didn't even acknowledge that we were looking at their horse...SNOBS!!

Anyway, here is a pic of Alexa and Kyle with the calf.

Actual Results

Well....the results have been posted and I did better than I thought on my Triathlon!

I signed up for the Athena age group...yep, women over 150 lbs....ooph ooph!! There were 12 in the group and I got 7th out of 12!! My actual time was 1:46.40

Swim time of 10:21 - 3rd out of the water
transition time of 2:04 between swim and start of bike
Bike time of 55:23 - 6th off the bike
transition time of 1:03 between bike and run
Run time of 37:50 - 9th to finish in the run.

Overall the groups I was 297th out of 342! hee hee, that sounds really bad, but I know it's not!

It's done....My first Triathlon

WOW....that was an adventure!
It was fun, exciting and hard all at the same time! I'm not as good at re-capping as some of you out there, but here it goes!

We arrived and picked our spots for transition and got everything ready to go and set up. After I was all set up, I warmed up a little on the bike, went for a very short run, and then headed down to the water for a little swim. I thought I was ready!

Ready, set, start! The swim went really well, I swallowed a bunch of water, had to do some breastroke to get back on course, but I was in the front part of mid-pack when I finished....I think!

Biking also went well. It took a little bit to get my legs going, but once I got over that little hump I felt good. There were a couple of small hills that got me, as usual! I need more hill work. One was a combo of hill and wind...definitely not my cup of tea! Aside from the hills the biking went really well. I kept it in the big ring 95% of the time and had fun. Oh, and my back was killing me!

Oh the run! Definitely a sport I need to work on! The first mile was the hardest, I think I walked about 3/4 of it! Once I saw the 1 mile mark, I knew I needed to get it going. I started running again and didn't take a walk break until about 1/4 mile after I saw the 2 mile mark. I walked a little and got some encouragement from another racer and started to run again. Across the finish line I checked the clock and saw 1:46.???

I couldn't believe it! I had done it in under 2 hours! Deep down that was my goal, but after the week I had I didn't know if I could do it!

Thank You to Jane Riessen for giving me a ride up there and encouraging me during the race! Also thanks to Kyle for cheering me on and being there at the end to catch me! I was in pain and needed him! and to Tony and Kathy for coming and cheering me on and helping Kyle with Alexa, once I get some pictures from Tony I'll post a couple.

I plan on keeping up with the training and trying a couple of more next year. Maybe just the sprint ones again and participating in some of the bigger ones on a team. We'll see what happens!

finally...CA pictures

Some of my favorite pics from CA!!

My cousin Dan and his beautiful bride Suzie!

The Voetberg Clan!
Sis-in-law Courtney, Pete, brother Ben, me, sis Tracee, Mom June and Dad Marlo

The Etter and Voetberg Kids
Josef, Tracee, Krista, Dan, me, Kim and Ben

The view from the look-out point at the resort.

The big rock I found to climb before my run on the beach! I had to time it just right so the waves didn't get me all wet!

Baby elephant seals....they were so cute!

Just a pretty view at the beach.

Busy

Just a quick note...

Got back from CA on the 13th...it was wonderful! Highs of 70, down in the 50's at night!! Coast was beautiful, will post pictures later!

Traveled back to Marcus for a funeral. My best friend's nephew (14) passed away suddenly. Please keep them in your prayers as the grieve.

Triathlon is coming up fast! One more week! I don't know if I'm ready especially since the last week brought hardly any training! As long as I finish!!

More later....

Little Marilyn

Alexa doing her best Marilyn Monroe impression with the A/C vent!

Another week down

This week went a little better for training. Not as much as I wanted to do, but I'm OK with what I did.

Wednesday - went on the Irwin's ride while Paula watched Alexa. I got about 25 miles in and pushed myself to stay with the leader of the medium/fast group. I made it almost the whole way with them and then suffered a stomach cramp. Guess I pushed myself a little too hard!

Thursday - It was Kyle's 6:00 week, so I made it to the group training in time to get about a mile run in and then headed to Gray's Lake for a swim with the group.

Saturday - Met Julie G at Gray's lake for a brick workout. We only did the swim and the run as it rained while we were swimming and since we are both very comfortable on the bike we chose to run as we both need that! We practiced run-ins and outs and then swam the buoy line twice. Another Tri newbie was there also. Good Job Mary!

Sunday - Was going to ride my bike to the Walnut Creek Kids Y-Tri for my volunteer opportunities, but woke up to thunderstorms! I drove down and rode the trail to the turn-around and helped the kids on the bike portion. I got a little running in as we had a kid crash and I had to run down the trail to help him. Not a lot of riding, but running in biking shoes is definitely a workout!

This next week will be interesting to see what I get done as I am heading to CA for my cousins wedding! They say the trail down to the beach is a 400 yard hike down the cliff! I'm hoping to be able to head down, run the beach and then run back up! I might even try a little swim in the ocean! We'll see!