Good day

Well I woke the boys up bright and early at 6:15 this morning and one was quite grumpy while the other was "yay!" I was definitely thinking how not fun it must be for moms to have to wake their kids for school every day! We managed to get out the door by a little before 7 and had an uneventful 45 minute drive to Mayo Lake. Unfortunately it took forever to get all our stuff and kids into the double stroller and push it up a long gravel hill to where the athletes had been gathered when we drove by. By that point, the athletes had moved to their starting positions by the water so we took another stroller ride down that way and I tried to find Matt. The first person I saw was 8 year old Paul Rider, the oldest son of friends of ours and soon his mom came up and volunteered to watch the kids so I could find Matt. I ran down but all I could see were a bunch of men all in red swim caps facing the water. I snapped a bunch of pictures of their backs (and did end up getting Matt in a few) and gave up trying to talk to him. We went and waited where they would come out of the water. We got to cheer him on to the bike and then later as he went from the bike to the run and of course saw him at the finish line. He finished in 1 hour 38 minutes, which was really great, especially considering he hadn't trained for it. He did really awesome in the run, even though that's the end where a lot of people probably do the worst. He was 23 out of 145...or something like that. He finished 85 (or something like that) overall. We also saw his sister Stacy, aunt Gail, and gym client Mike and his daughter compete. And most of the morning we got to hang out a lot with the Rider family. Meghan was supposed to be competing, but had broken her elbow so she was just volunteering. Matt went to college with this couple and they have 3 boys that are 4, 6, and 8. We hadn't seen them since before Julia was born so it was really good to get together again.

After we got home and ate lunch, I went to church for a meeting about the nursery, which I am co-leading now. We talked a lot of organization-type stuff and the rest of the time we sorted through a ton of toys that the church received as a donation. It was fun to work with these ladies and to have such a big part in the life of our church. And the big bonus? I got to bring home a bike for Joshua from the donation stuff! We had been wanting to get him one for his birthday or Christmas so I'm saving it for one of those. He's going to flip! He loves riding the one at Matt's parents' and he will be so excited to have one of his own. I also got a few puzzles and books and some cool dinosaurs, which my boys have seen in stores and wanted. So far I'm keeping it in the closet. Maybe I'll use a dinosaur for Gray's "big prize" for the thumb sucking thing, which by the way is still going well.

We finished the day playing outside at Matt's parents' house (even though they are on vacation), because Matt needed to take a bike over there. I think everyone will get a good night's sleep tonight!!