Double Date

Today we had a chance to go on a double date with our friends the Busey's. It was very needed and way overdue. My husband and I are in serious need of social lives and we're always glad when the Busey's are willing to put up with us for a while. Although, somehow we always end up talking about labor and delivery and Steph & my experiences with childbirth. Course, it doesn't help that Ben is an L & D nurse on base so we always get a good laugh from his experiences as well. Not that he talks about anyone in particular just to comfort you if you happen to ironically have been his patient at some point in time :0) Course, it also doesn't help that Steph is expecting again so that brings the topic up as well. But we had a great time today. The guys went to the gym for a while then Steph and I met them at the bowling alley where we ate lunch and got a few games in. The kids ran around and loved making us nervous about getting their fingers pinched in the ball machine deal. Took some fun photos:

Love this photo! I actually look pretty cute.

John whooped me of course.

Bella helped us a couple of times.

We got Taco Bell's from the BX. Mmmmm!

Thanks for the fun date!! Till next time.

Losing Weight...

Yes, I am a fickle friend.

I realize that you've all given up on me/us because you all gave me grief for not ever posting anything new and I tried to be better but only got one post in. So, now I really do have to get down to business and start blogging again. The really etertaining thing is that it seems like half of my blog posts are about writing more blog posts! :0)

To be totally honest with you guys I haven't been very motivated to write any posts because I feel like I have to dig deep to find anything worth writing about. This is a confession because I'm admitting how discouraging I feel our life is lately. If I had a more positive outlook on our lives right now I would probably be sharing every detail of my daughter's life like most great mom's do. But considering that I haven't felt like I could put myself in that category then it really doesn't matter. And therein lies my problem...I am a good mom/decent mom and I realize that so don't feel like I'm really depressed but there have been a lot of things in my life lately that have been wearing on me and making me feel less and less like I have anything blog-worthy. Now that that's out you're probably all gonna worry about me. But don't, at least not a lot--everyone likes to be worried about a little!

So I guess the best I can do at this point is vent...

Let me start off by saying that I have no idea how you full-time working mom's last for as long as you do. Kudos to all of you because I'm definitely not your caliber!! I find that I'm becoming more and more impressed with women like that who seem to have it all together all the time--working, wife-ing, mom-ing...crazy impressive! I feel like I can only be so good one role at a time. Maybe I feel like a phenomenal employee one day (or maybe it could last a whole week), but then I get home and everything else has fallen through the cracks and my baby's eating three day old raisins off the floor that the broom never swept (cause it does sweep all by itself or why else would we always be leaving stuff on the floor, eh?). Or maybe I cleaned the whole entire house, fed the baby incredible food and got her to bed on time. The next day I get to work and have nothing left to give! I've heard that balance is the key and the concept seems clear enough but application is a lot trickier than it sounds. Sometimes I think that in order to balance my life out I'm gonna have to look like one of those crazy guys from cirque du soleil who balance their entire weight on a toothpick. Besides I've never had that great of coordination :0)

I feel that my lack of fervor for life is wearing on those around me and turning me into a person I don't wanna be. Who wants to be around someone like Eeyore the donkey who is always grey and has a lack-lustre outlook on life? Really, at heart I AM a happy-go-lucky type of person but anyone who only met me recently would probably have a hard time beleiving that. I find myself wondering "What happened to that old me?" The one in that photo from a couple years ago looking like I had the world on a string around my finger instead of the one taken recently where I look like I'm carrying the world on my back. Seriously guys, how do I go about emptying the weights that I feel like I'm having to bear lately??

Truly it's a little hard for me to vent like this because I don't want to weigh anyone else down or have you end up beleiving that I AM a depressed person who only ever complains (I feel like that's what I'm doing a lot lately). But I suppose everyone feels like this every once in a while and I'm hoping you can help me turn that frown upside down and feel blog-worthy again :0)

The end...finally right?

*Rachel*

Cascade Triathlon

Our latest and greatest adventure was John's triathlon at Cascade Lake. We drove up into the mountains to Cascade/McCall area where we spent the day in the sun watching John's race. Bella, John, and I went to a restaurant for lunch where we took a couple pictures, and then walked up to the lake for the race.

Gorillapods, they go anywhere!!

Isn't she a doll?

Daddy and Bella playing during lunch.

I love when these little puffs get stuck on her face, it's so cute!


Okay down to business now. The race consisted of a quarter mile swim in the lake, a 13 mile bike ride, and a 3 mile/5k run. The weather was pretty nice but the participants are all smart enough to know that the lake is going to be very cold so they all have wetsuits. Apparently John was one of the only ones who didn't have a special triathlon grade wetsuit so a bunch of the other guys thought he was a novice. ☺ In fact he ended up being the only one who had a farmer john style, or sleeveless wetsuit. So, here he is making his way down to the shore and the starting line.

He had just stepped on a rock and was trying to dig it out of his foot. Later that night, in the hotel we discovered that it was actually a piece of glass I dug out w/ a needle. Keep in mind this photo was from before the race even started so it turns out that John ran the whole race with a piece of glass stuck in the ball of his foot.

Warming up (or attempting to in the cold water)

Making friends with the winners. Seriously, the kid with the blue stripes on his wet suit won the whole thing and the guy with the red stripes took second place.

And let the mayhem begin...
John said it got pretty crazy in that water and he got kicked in the face a couple times. He said it was a bit scary just because the water was so choppy-it was a little windy that day.

I could spot John out in the water the whole way using my zoom lens but he was easy to see cause of his bare arm sticking out of the water.

These are just dang good photos so I had to post them for bragging rights.

Once the swim is over they have to strip out of their wet suit and get on their bikes as quickly as possible to cut back on lost time in the race. You can see John is starting to undo his wet suit on his way out of the water.

Just about ready for the bike ride.

And he's off!

He said that almost the whole bike ride was uphill and he had to avoid a lot of potholes on the roads so it was a challenging ride for him.

When they finish the bike ride they have to come back to the transition area and park their bikes before they can take off for the last leg of the race which is the run.

And he's off once again!

This is another one of my sweet action shots to show off John's mad athleticism.

Here he is crossing the finish line.

They had sweet big medals at the finish line.

Which Bella promptly chewed on. It's not gold...

(And that white thing in the front is not due to bad photography, that's Bella's foot poking up into the frame. If you know her at all you know she's all about sticking her feet up in the air!)

And that's the end of it!! He did really well and we had a nice time watching him. We were able to drive to McCall, have a nice steak dinner, and stay at a nice hotel that night. We even got to go for a nice relaxing swim while we were there. It was only the second time we've been in a hotel with just the two of us (& Bella now) including our honeymoon so it was really nice. Well, until next time.

*Rachel*

james and I are starting a new season and we're bringing the family along for the ride. I'm so glad I'm in such freak'n good shape...lol.

I think she likes the outdoors more than I do.

she's got the coolest little grin. Even though she really doesn't like that bouncy swing, she loves the camera.

Ta Da!

So, I'm getting grief from everyone because I haven't updated my blog lately. Blogging and I have had a complicated relationship...off again, on again. Well, I will do better again especially because I have something to actually blog about. Introducing my adorable baby:
Isabella Dawn Groat