Telos Turkey Tri

I survived my second Telos Turkey triathlon on Saturday. Ryan did it with me this year and I was pleasantly surprised to see my good friend Kelly there. Of course Joy and her son Kale did it too. In all there were 390 people that participated.

The weather was much warmer this year which was great. I was still really nervous but once the race began I already felt calmer than last year. My results: I finished in 1 hour 19 min. (8 minutes faster than last year). I did the 3.1 mile run in 31:44 min. (gotta improve that somehow). The bike was 10 miles with a super steep climb up 400 south in Orem that you do twice (it's a loop) which I did in 35:46 min. Then the swim which was 350 meters that I did in just under 9 min. (not so good for me but the pool was super crowded). Overall I took 11th in my age division out of 28. I'm happy because I see improvement over last year. I really pushed myself on the bike to make up time for my run and I'm pretty happy with everything overall.

I look at my sister in law who is 41 and finished in 1 hour 13 minutes and it gives me hope that I can still improve (I'm not too old). Last year we finished the triathlon within seconds of each other. She put in a lot of hours biking and running this summer and it's paid off. She's my inspiration.

Ryan did great for his first triathlon. He took 33rd out of 215 men! And he's hardly had time to train and can't swim! He finished just a few seconds after my sister in law but still at 1 hour 13 min. His run was 24:49 minutes, his bike 34:41 min., and his swim 10:15 min. I'm so proud of him!

Halloween (Eden's Birthday)

For Halloween this year Eden was Sleeping Beauty...

Dallin was a Ranger from the Ranger's Apprentice book series...

Cameron was a half devil/half angel...

And Austin was a very crabby Buzz Lightyear...

Saturday morning we headed up to American Fork to take pictures of all the cousins in their Halloween costumes (Austin was still having issues posing for the camera)...

Beautiful girls...

Later that afternoon we celebrated Eden's birthday...

I love this reaction...

It's become a tradition to have pumpkin pie for Eden's birthday cake.

Five things I love about Eden:

1. Her laugh and hugs

2. Her beautiful singing voice, especially when she sings primary songs

3. She's a good friend

4. She's very good at helping me find things that I'm looking for at the grocery store

5. She does a wonderful job cleaning her room

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This year since I had a little more time I tried something new and made a "Monster" dinner. We had "mummy" mini pizzas, monster "toes", carrot "scary eyes", and frightening "monster teeth".

Some of us got a little carried away playing with our food.

Once again we went trick-or-treating with our friends the Haroldsens and the Mickelsens in our old neighborhood.

Just in case you ever wondered what Ryan looks like with hair...

Jen and I took the little kids trick-or-treating while the Dads took the big kids. Austin made it to five houses before he was done. The big kids made it through three neighborhoods before they were done. You can definitely cover more ground when you're running.

Our last stop was to Grandpa and Grandma's house before we called it a night.

Pumpkin Carving

The kids and I carved pumpkins on Friday the 30th this year (better late than never). They didn't have school so we spent the morning doing it just right (which meant doing Eden's twice because the first one dropped and broke). Here's the final version...

Preschool Parties and a Halloween Parade

Since Eden's birthday was on Saturday this year I got to go to her preschool class on Thursday. I got to tell a little about her and her favorite things and read her favorite story, "Who Are You Baby Kangaroo." It was a lot of fun.

Austin had an impromptu Halloween party on Thursday with his preschool group. The mom that was supposed to teach that week had kids sick with the flu so Wendi decided that morning to have all the kids over for a quick party. She had treats and even did a craft. She's amazing and Austin had a blast.

That afternoon we got to go to the elementary school to watch the kids' Halloween parade. It was inside this year because it was too cold outside. I really appreciated that.

Dallin's Arrow of Light

On October 27th Dallin earned his Arrow of Light which is the highest award a Cub Scout can earn before he graduates and enters the Boy Scouts. Our ward had a really nice ceremony for him and Sis. Brummett made this fantastic memento of Dallin's cub scouting experience.

Can You Find the Snowman?

It snowed a couple of inches back on the 27th of October. After preschool Eden and Hayden were excited to make a snowman.

They asked me for a hat and carrot so I gave them one of Ryan's baseball hats and a mini carrot for the nose. As I walked past the backdoor a little while later I noticed Eden and Hayden hunched over a baseball size chunk of snow on the patio trying to force the carrot in. I stood there for a minute wondering why they were trying to make the carrot stick in that little pile of snow. Then I noticed the baseball hat sitting on the ground next to it. It was twice the size of the pile of snow. It finally dawned on me, that pile of snow was their snowman and they were trying to at least get the carrot nose to stick. I couldn't stop laughing.


So, in this picture, in case you missed it, Hayden is holding the snowman and Eden is holding the carrot nose.

Pumpkin Patch

We got to go to the pumpkin patch twice this year! The first time was with Austin's preschool group on the 19th and then with Eden's preschool group on the 22nd. The first day was one of those blustery fall days with dark clouds building on the horizon. It had that creepy fall feeling to it.

As we were walking up to the wagon for our ride to the pumpkin patch I noticed the ground "moving". After a second look I realized it was something large and brown moving along the ground. A group of us were beginning to gather around it and I think it sunk in all at the same time as we all gasped, "it's a tarantula!" Someone said they heard there were a lot in that area but to actually see one was more fall "creepy" than I needed. I had chills for hours. (Sorry I just couldn't bring myself to take a picture. That was one spider I don't want to remember).

Austin found his pumpkin right away and insisted on carrying it himself all over the patch. It dropped more than once but somehow survived.

Eden and I picked out pumpkins for Dallin and Cameron since we weren't going to get a chance to come as a family this year. (Two preschool trips to Santaquin were enough for me).

Austin has the sweetest kids in his preschool group. I really enjoy taking my turn teaching once every few weeks.

The day of Eden's fieldtrip was a little busy. While Austin went to preschool Eden came to the elementary school with me so I could sort the entries for our Reflections contest this year. Unfortunately it took me two hours. Eden entertained herself by taking pictures with my camera!

Then it was off to Santaquin again. It was a perfect day - no wind, no storms, and especially no taranutlas.

For some reason we didn't get to go to the regular pumpkin patch. Instead we went to this one with mini pumpkins. Eden seemed just as happy with the cute little pumpkin she found, though.
After picking a pumpkin we all got to walk through the apple orchard and pick an apple to enjoy on the way back. We also got to step on lots of apples as we walked. It was unavoidable, they were everywhere. But the fresh ones were tasty.

Eden's preschool group with her teacher Mrs. Allison.

After both trips to the pumpkin patch the kids got to come back to the Big Red Barn and have doughnuts - twice in one week! Lucky!