Ironman Coeur d'Alene w/ youtube video

It was pointed out recently that there hasn't been a post on here since March....well, we've been busy and frankly life has been in the way.  There is a ton of things that should end up here, maybe you'll see a lot of it sometime soon....

We'll start with the most recent event - Sarah's Ironman triathlon at Coeur d'Alene, Idaho.  The race consists of a 2.4 mile swim, a 112 mile bike and a 26.2 mile run.  It's incredible to watch, can't imagine doing it and the feeling when you finish.

The day starts early - I think Sarah and I were in Coeur d'Alene around 5:15 am or so, we were staying 30 miles or so away in Spokane, so we had to get moving.

Body Marking - Bib #, age, etc.

 After a final check, Sarah got on her wetsuit (it was definitely needed) and it might have been the last time I saw her smile until around 8:30 pm.

The swim starts with a 'rolling start' - it took the nearly 3,000 athletes eleven minutes to make it through the start line.  It was a two-loop, out and back swim --- again, totaling 2.4 miles.  

Swim Start

Water temperature was 62-63 degrees (Sarah might correct me, trust me, she knows) and believe me, it was cold to the touch.  Two brave or idiotic males did the swim wearing only a Speedo....

The entire swim happens right in front of you, making it easy to watch and look for your athletes finish.

After the swim, they transition to bike with the help of volunteers who peel the wetsuit off you - the nightly news called it the 'banana peel'.

Start of the 112-mile bike

It was windy race day, causing problems for the swim (lots of big waves) and the bike.  You can ask Sarah about her bike, but most or all of the people that I talked to said the bike was rough.  Most people had the look of relief as they finished the bike, glad to be done.

Bike finish

After you finish the long bike ride, who wants to run a marathon?  Well....that's what you do in this race.

Run start

Weather that day had everything; sun, wind, clouds, low temperatures, temps in the 70s and rain during the run.  Standing in the finishing chute was fun, the looks on the athletes faces as they were  almost done was fantastic.  It was loud - yelling, cheering, clapping, etc.  Every finisher was told as they neared the finish line:  You are an Iron Man.

Sarah - You Are an Iron Man.

It was a fantastic scene to take in, maybe not run the race, but the scenery was nice.  Here's a panorama of the beach area (that dark line on the right?  That's were almost 3,000 athletes left the water after the swim.  The picture was taken at least 4 hours after the swim).

If you want to see what it's like on race day, I recommend you check out the youtube video 2014 IRONMAN Coeur D'Alene: Race Day.

Mischievous Luke - Part II

Got an e-mail saying that Luke isn't all that mischievous....don't let the dimples fool you!  Worst part is Luke knows his dimples may be able to get him out of things.

Luke has this habit of standing on the arm of the chair to turn the lights on, or lay on the arm of the chair to watch television.  We've been on him (standard butt-chewing, spankings, etc.) to knock it off, but it hasn't taken yet.

Sarah sent this picture to me a few weeks back, she was coming upstairs after getting off the bike early one morning and this was how/where she found Lukie.  Notice the confidant smile, notice the dimples....

Whatever you say, Luke certainly has a mischievous streak in him!

Mischievous little Lukie

So a few weeks ago, some odd pictures showed up on the computer and was automatically synced to my phone (I have since turned that feature off).  It took a minute or two to figure out who was taking the pictures, pictures like...

And...

Sometimes, there were clues like dinosaurs to the picture takers identity....

And sometimes the kitty made it to the pictures....

Not sure what was going on in some of the pictures...

Well, Luke has been using the Photo Booth app on the computer to take pictures of himself when no one is watching.  He's taken 60+ pictures on the computer and sometimes he has a partner, his sister, Lex...

The app is nice little app that can take decent pictures, here's an example that was not taken by Luke.

Luke hasn't just been taking pictures with the computer - he once took 30+ pictures with Sarah's phone (I want to say it was much more than 30) and Maddy's iPod went missing for awhile, when it was found it was filled with pictures and videos.  Here is an example of a video found on the iPod...

Yes, with Luke around, be careful with your belongings....

Luke's School Project

So Luke came home from school with a little project, instructions for the project were:

We are sending home snowmen for you to create as a family.  Pick your favorite season and activity.  Decorate your snowman and write a little story about them.  Return them to school to be on display when you are finished.

Since showing an artistic side is one the many things that I'm completely useless at, Sarah helped Luke decorate his snowman.

Of course Luke decided that his snowman would play with Dinosaurs, they were able to use Luke's dinosaur stencils to draw in the snowman's playmates....

Luke named his snowman Lovey, so of course it needed a few hearts to be drawn on the belly...

Luke borrowed some tape with diamonds on it from Maddy.  Sarah suggested that the tape be the snowman's belt, but when she looked next he was attempting to place it somewhere else...

Sarah:  "Luke, where are you putting the diamonds?"
Luke:  "his boobs."
Sarah:  "No, we're not putting diamond tape on his boobs."
Luke:  "Okay, no boobs."

Boobs, butts, and belly buttons....body parts Luke likes....

Here's the finished product...

The Olympics

The Olympics were great....we watched a lot of events and rooted for a variety of countries (ex:  Luke  rooted for China).  Kieran decided he's going to be a ski jumper in the future....good luck buddy!  Luke enjoyed watching people crash while skiing or snowboarding.  While Lex was just upset most of the time because it wasn't Dora on TV.

Me?  I was able to catch up on a lot of sleep that I'd been missing lately....while watching the evening broadcast, it wasn't unusual to take a little nap (30-60 minutes) before waking and continuing to watch until late.  

The best part was sometimes the kids took naps with me....it was usually Luke.

Now that the Olympics are over...I'm back to not enough sleep...Lex gets to watch Dora...the boys are fighting...so the world is apparently back to normal again.

I'm going to miss moments like these in the near future....

Snow

It's the morning after the fifth (5th) snow day of the year.  Even Kieran has figured out that snow days are not good and it'll be made up later.  He did not want to listen to the message from the superintendent canceling school (although Central's superintendent is actually fun to listen to on his message - his disgust with the weather is apparent), Kieran covered his ears when the message was played.

Chaska, Norwood, Delano and most of the area schools canceled --- this time due to snow, the previous four were all due to cold temperatures.  Officially, we received 9.9 inches of snow, bringing our season to date total to 57 inches (average season to date is 39.5 inches).  Why do people live in Minnesota?

We're running out of room where we can put the snow....the piles are taller than our vehicles...

We struggling to even look out our windows downstairs....

Anyone want to go swinging in the back yard?  Yeah....we can't.

Here's a picture of the over-worked snow shovel (nothing fancy like a snow blower, it's all human powered here)...

There's actually trouble coming with the shovel....let's zoom in on 'Old Blue'....

Had 'Old Blue' since the winter of 02-03...she's reliable, hardworking and trustworthy....she's dealt with some huge snowfalls and then some winters where she was bored with the lack of snow.  Either way, she's been a winter constant.

But, can you see the problem she's having this winter with her old age?  Let's zoom in a little more....

Yeah...there it is....'Old Blue' is dying.  We don't know how much time she has left.  It's only February 22nd and we haven't even got to the state tournament snowstorms yet, let alone the possible April snows we got last year (that better not happen this spring).  There is no retirement home for shovels, she's needed this year yet and we'll continue to use her....the trouble is we don't know how much time she has left....

We hope a good death finds her....not on a 1-inch snowfall...something big...it better be worth it....

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day!

Friday evening of Valentine's day, dinner is complete and hopefully things begin to quiet down.  Luke and Lex are happy with their valentines (another car that transformers for Luke and a Dora book for Lex).

Kieran is busy counting the number of football cards he has now --- something like 96 cards representing 95 players --- after getting some more for his valentines...

Both boys have come home with large amounts of candy associated with the valentines they received there.  Check out Luke's valentine box that was made at home and taken to preschool!  I had nothing to do with it...Maddy designed the dinosaur and the box, Luke did a little coloring of the dinosaur's face.  It's probably the most elaborate valentine's box I've ever seen!  (I helped Kieran make his valentines box/bag that he took to school --- thankfully I didn't take a picture, because Luke's/Maddy's box puts that one to shame).

Dinner tonight consisted of a Papa Murphy's heart shaped pizza for the kids...

A veggie delight pizza for Sarah....I had a few slices of that too, turns out it was better than the pepperoni pizza...

The three youngest kids are now watching Wall-E on the Disney Channel.  Maddy has been lifeguarding all night, works the 4:00-9:00 shift (part of being the low person on staff, you work days like this).  Sarah has been studying since about 4:30 --- after 5-6 months of class almost every Tuesday and Thursday, her final written and practicum tests are tomorrow morning!

Me...I'm trying to stay out of everyone's way...and trying to stay awake too (then I can watch some Olympics after the kids go to bed).

Again....Happy Valentine's Day!

Pinewood Derby - update

Here's the results of the pinewood derby:

Kieran took 3rd place in his den (the small group that meets monthly...keep in mind there are only 4 members of the den and I'm pretty sure one wasn't even there, but oh well).  If I remember correctly, Kieran's car averaged something like 132-135 miles per hour.  The overall winning car averaged right around 145 miles per hour.

Kieran's wolf den was also the fasted den in the pack.  The pack is comprised of 5-6 dens, so together with the other boys, Kieran and his den averaged the fastest overall speed.

Edit:  It's currently -18 degrees with a wind chill of -37, schools are closed for the second consecutive day.  This makes 4-5 days that have been cancelled this month alone, all because of cold temperatures/wind chills, none because of snow.  I am seriously considering moving.....

Pinewood Derby

The Cub Scout Pinewood Derby is tomorrow (Saturday, January 25).  Last year, Kieran wanted a semi-truck that was painted like Optimus Prime.  Well....this year he wanted to paint his car so it would look like something from the 'Seattle Seahawk Football team' (did you know the Seahawks are in the Super Bowl?  Kieran will certainly tell you!).  He still wanted the semi-truck though.

He knew we still had left over paint from painting the treadmill/bike room, so that was the base.  Don't worry about all of the washers on the back end, the car cannot be over 5 ounces, we will modify the number of washers after the first weigh in.

There is still a little work to be done, like outlining the windows and grill in black sharpie, but essentially it's finished.

The last piece that needed to be finished was the number 3 (Russell Wilson's number - quarterback) and the Seahawk emblem on the top.  Since those were both well beyond my expertise, Kieran asked Madeline for some help.  She made a stencil for the emblem on the top of the car and painted them yesterday when school was canceled for her (it's been cold here).

I asked her to text me a few pictures when she was finished with the car, here's how the transcript went:

Me:  (after getting the pictures) That is awesome!  Thanks.

Maddy:  Yea no problem.  The stencil didn't work so I had to just do it freehand

Me:  Are you friction kidding me?  Freehand!  Wow....

Maddy:  Thanks

I was impressed.  After I forwarded the pictures onto Sarah, she texted Maddy to say good job on the car and apparently Maddy responded that she 'thought it looked bad.'  No....bad is what it would've looked like if I painted it.

We'll see how the car runs tomorrow!

'Polar Vortex'

Why do people live in the middle of a continent, far from the influences of either warming or cooling maritime breezes?

Look at these two pictures when you think about that question.  The first taken on August 26th at the MN State Fair.

Yeah, the heat index was 106 at the time, though it actually got a little higher.  The second picture was taken this morning.

Yeah, trust me....it did (and still does) feel like -45.  Taken together, that's a 150 degree swing in a little over four months.

Govenor Dayton cancelled classes for all public schools on Friday, three days ahead of these really cold temperatures.  Actually, it never got as cold as it was predicted, no records were set today.

How do we spend our unexpected day off?

Luke crashed and feel asleep at the top of the stairs after lunch...

Lex took a nap after lunch as well (that's not unusual), but she is still wearing her pajamas!

Kieran is taking his football obsession to a new level.  We set up the PlayStation 2 this morning and he's been playing Madden football ever since....

 After getting some chores done, Madeline is now in her room.  Pretty sure she's hiding from Kieran, as he tends to want to talk football to anyone who is in listening distance.

 Sarah's at work and I've read two magazines, plus done all of the laundry.  As of right now, Madeline does not have school tomorrow, but Kieran and I are both 2 hours late....

***Update - now school is closed for Kieran and I tomorrow....