Oklahoma Aquarium

I thought it would be fun to do something different this weekend.  Go someplace we haven't gone (air conditioned of course) and see something we haven't seen.  You never know, you might find something great!  Plus, I thought it would be fun to spend some time away from the chores and work and life that is our usual weekend and just do something with the kids, especially since Royal leaves in about 9 days to spend a week fishing up in Alaska. (Yea for fish!!!)

So, I surfed around the web and Royal and I decided on the Oklahoma Aquarium down in Tulsa.  It's about a 3 hour drive and the website looked like it would be pretty good.  Sadly, it was pretty lame.  Maybe I just had high expectations growing up going to the Seattle Aquarium.  Where were the sea lions? and the sea otters?  and the seals?  penguins anyone???
The only aligators were these statues out front (that exhibit wasn't finished I guess)

The windows to the fish displays were so small that it was hard to fight through the crowd to get a peek at what was inside.

They had obviously renovated parts of the aquarium and had put in some bigger tanks with bigger windows, so not all of it was these tiny peep holes to look in.  The reef exhibits with all the warm tropical fish was pretty great to look at, and the shark exhibit was pretty awesome.  The best part of that, of course, was the megalodon section - a shark found back in the dinosaur times - Jayden knew what it was before anybody even told him.  He went running down the hall, "MEGALODON!!!!"

We ended up spending only a couple hours at the aquarium before we had seen everything (a couple times), so we decided to leave.  I was a bit bummed because we had spent more time in the car then we did at the aquarium, so thanks to our GPS and my sister on her computer in Phoenix (we don't have internet on our phones), we found a children's museum to play at, and we spent a few hours there letting the kids play and run around.
Willow did some shopping

and made me a cake with cabbage on it and sung me happy birthday.

Jayden happened to make a new best friend while we were there and I couldn't hardly find him to get any pictures until they got to the stage and dress up area.

Onto a silly sidenote...we are still working on potty-training Willow.  She does really well at home and has no accidents there (other than she refuses to go #2 in the toilet and waits until bedtime and poops in a diaper....I seem to remember her brother doing the same thing), but she does NOT like using any toilet other than the one at our house.  Well, I didn't get her diapers washed the night before our trip to Tulsa and I didn't want to buy any disposables and I didn't really want to have her spend a day in diapers, but I didn't want to have a pee'd in carseat, or a puddle of pee at the aquarium to clean up, or wet clothes to change and bring home.  So, I came up with a genius idea!  I put her little potty chair in the back of the car, which I wasn't sure if it would work because she has only used it a few times, but when I showed it to her before we left, she promptly jumped up in the back of the car and pee'd in it.  YES!  And 2 hours into the drive down to Tulsa, she asked if she had a diaper on, I told her no, we pulled the car over and victory!

Envy

I opened my freezer and found this.

Strangely, I kinda wished I was that snake.......will the heat ever end????
(and I know if I was in back in the good ole northwest and was experiencing their 78 minutes above 80 degrees the entire summer, I'd be complaining about it.  but i'm not there, i'm here and if i could get a 65 degree rainy day, i'd put my lawn chair out in the middle of the road and sit there.  all. day.)

Big Fishin'

I'm pretty sure Royal's dreams came true last night when Jayden finally popped the question, "Dad, can we go fishing?"  Queue a slack-jawed Royal and angels singing in the background.  Don't worry, Royal quickly recovered and made promises that the next night, as soon as it cooled off a little, they would head down to the pond to try and catch a fish....and there was no way Willow was getting left behind!

 At first, there were a lot of wild casts (Willow didn't get to cast, she just reeled in) and a frustrated boy, that he couldn't cast as far as Royal, or even hit the water half the time.  And there was a lot of catching this:

And Jayden about gave up and said he was no good at fishing and that he wasn't going to do it.  But Royal kept telling him that he used to be just like him, and that it takes a lot of practice, and soon enough Jayden would be outcasting him.  Then Jayden said, "Dad, you have to reel it now.  My pole keeps getting really heavy"  To which, Royal and I both yelled, "That means you have a fish!!!"  And then Jayden reeled in this sucker.

There was a lot of concern on the kid's part about the amount of bleeding the fish was doing after Royal finally got the hooks out (they have been recently freaking out about Royal killing flies and how he's killing a family), but don't worry Royal put him back in the pond and he swam off and never came floating back to the surface, so we think he's ok.

Then, about a minute later, Willow reeled in this one!  And she was very enthused that her fish didn't have any blood on it.

And we now have plans to go fishing again before this week is out.  We're pretty sure the kids are hooked.  :)

Wet 'n' Wild

I am so sick of our weather!! It's too hot and too humid for too many days now.  I mean when I get up to go workout at 5am, it should not be 85 degrees outside, I'm getting up early to beat the heat for goodness sakes!  Pretty much every time me and the kids get in the car, I'm tempted to just turn us west and keep driving until it drops a good 20-30 degrees.  :)

Our neighborhood pool has been getting some repairs done this past week, so it has been out of commission.  That means we've been doing a lot of chilling (literally trying to chill) in our basement and I'm getting a little bored down there.  So, I slathered the kids in sunscreen, put on swim suits, put ice water in our misting fans, filled up 2 big water bottles, grabbed some snacks, some towels, and goggles and went to the zoo.  Today is a Wet 'n' Wild day, which means a fire truck shows up and sprays down the kids and/or adults - it has been proven time and time again that the firemen are actually looking for fully clothed adults and if those adults come into the line of fire, they will get the hosed turned on them, and then when the somewhat surprised clothed person tries to step out of the spray, the firemen tend to follow them with the water.  There are always a few angry "rookies" that stomp off to the sidelines grumbling about the stupid firemen.  It provides for some great people watching.

Both of the kids were a little apprehensive at first, and didn't want to go out there and I didn't wear proper attire, so I knew I'd be a fireman's target.  But I knew if I could get them into the water, they'd feel some relief from the 105 (feels like 115) weather and they wouldn't want to leave.  So, knowing that the firemen never seem too keen on soaking kids who are a little scared, I carried Willow with Jayden holding my hand out into the back part of the field and as I suspected the firemen sprayed us, but didn't soak us.  And it worked....off the kids went.

I'm so glad that Jayden is so tall, he was really easy for me to spot amongst all the kids running around in the puddle. I could hardly ever find Willow first, but I knew if I could spot Jayden, Willow would be right around him.

Every once in awhile, Jayden would take off to the other side of the puddle, and Willow would lose him because she's much smaller and would have to maneuver herself around all these other big people.  Jayden would get to the other side and turn around and call for her.  She'd look and look, and then when she spotted him, she's start running as fast as she could...

...until she got to him...

...and he'd give her the biggest hug!  Isn't this just the sweetest thing ever????

After more than an hour playing in water, the kids had finally had enough.  We got sno-cones and I thought we were headed home, but they wanted to see more animals.  So, we walked around the zoo and I went through every misting sprayer I could find and went into every air conditioned exhibit I could think off.  It was so hot out, we watched the tiger come out from a shady spot and walk right into his pool and lay down.  It must be hot if a cat is willing to go lay down in water!

Then on our way back from the tiger's exhibit, we happened to circle by the fire trucks again, and Willow decided she needed to get a little more wet and got back in the puddle.

Finally, after more than 3 hours at the zoo the kids relented and let me take them home, and they both fell asleep in the car.  Nice.

Run Jayden Run

During Willow's swimming lessons this summer, Jayden and I have taken to running around the track.  Jayden does a pretty good job of entertaining himself while Willow is swimming, but it is hard in the summer because instead of twice a week lessons for 4 weeks, they are 4 times a week for 2 weeks, a bit intense, but great for working around vacations - not that we're going anywhere, but still, if we were... :)

The first time Jayden started running, he ended up running almost a mile while he followed me around the track as I did some sprint work I was suppose to get in.  Then the next day, I told him I'd run with him the whole time and he ran 4 laps around the track without stopping.  A whole mile with no breaks, I could hardly believe it!  He slept great that week!  Then we took a couple week break from swimming lessons, but we are back at it this week, and Jayden's been begging to go running again.  Lucky for me he's forgotten to wear shoes that tie for the past couple days and it's just not fun to run in crocs, so I've gotten out of it.  Plus it's just so hot out that I haven't really been reminding him, because I don't really want to be running around a hot track when it's 100 degrees outside. Today he remembered himself, but he let me get out of it since I promised I'd take some pictures.  :)

He only made it 2 laps today before he called it quits.  It was just too hot.  And I'm kinda glad because his little face was turning so red!

Fruit Party

A few days ago Jayden started talking about a party.

J :  Hey Mom, I need to have a party.
Me: Oh yeah?  What kind of party?
J: A fruit party.
Me: What's a fruit party?
J: You know, a party where people come and eat fruit.

Then I really didn't think much of it, except when Jayden said something about needing decorations and that the party was going to be on Wednesday, after lunch.  I still really didn't think anything of it, because I figured he'd forget about it.  Nope.  Today after we got home from working out, and Willow's swim lesson, and had lunch, he said, 'Ok Mom.  Where are the decorations?'  Then I looked at him and heard crickets chirping in the background as he stared at me expecting me to produce something.  I guess I should of taken him more seriously.... I really didn't want to put together a "party" for Jayden, when I really had no idea what he wanted or expected.  All I wanted to do at that moment was take a shower.  I had worked out in almost 90 degree weather with 87% humidity, and then stood in a super hot and humid pool building for swimming lessons, I was sticky and just wanted to put on some clean clothes.  I did not want to start decorating the house.  But, I did it anyway.  I know, I should get mother of the year.  :)

So, I managed to scrape a few things together.  I found some streamers on top of the fridge, a half full package of black balloons (must of been left over from making spiders around halloween), some foam sticky hearts (left over from valentines crafts), and then Jayden found a Cars Happy Birthday banner.

I blew up the balloons and Willow and I put foam hearts all over them, and Jayden hung up streamers and the banner.

Then we put a blanket in the middle of the floor to have our party in, because it's too miserable to go outside.  I put some grapes on toothpicks, and cut out some animal shaped watermelon, to make them special, and made some lemonade.  Let's have our party!  To which Jayden said, "Um, we need to invite some people"  You mean this party isn't just for us????  Oi....  Now, I see what the party was for, poor Jaydo is lonely and just wanted to play with some friends.  The last couple of times he's invited some neighbor kids over, it just hasn't worked out, so I guess he thought if there was a party, there was no way they could say no.  So, we went across the street to Goldie's house and asked if she could come over for a fruit party.  Her dad looked at me a little funny, but said ok.

The kids sat on their blanket and ate fruit and drank lemonade.

and then played with balloons

and other toys around the house for awhile.  When the party was over, Jayden sent Goldie home with a ballon and a Thomas the Train bouncy ball we found in the same place that had the balloons and foam hearts in it.  You just can't send your guests home without a goodie bag!  What a good host!

Mudwater

On Sunday I got to race in the Mudwater Triathlon, aptly named because the lake water is so brown you can't see your own hands in the water - which is pretty much how all the water is here in Kansas...  I have done one other triathlon in Seattle about 8 years ago and after wards, I swore I'd never do another without someone actually teaching me how to swim and without a road bike (I rode my mountain bike).  So, fast forward to this summer...I joined a triathlon training group through Mommy Movement Fitness with the hopes of maybe getting interested in a different competitive sport that might not ruin my knees, like running has done.  AND Royal had bought me a road bike a couple years ago because he loves me so much, and because he owed me a new bike after making a sad choice one weekend, so now all I needed to do was learn how to swim far more efficiently.

For the past 7 weeks, I've been getting up pretty much around 5-5:30am,  5-6 days a week, to squeeze in bike rides, and swims, and runs before the kids and Royal get up, and before the heat has set in for the day.  When I started this, I wasn't planning on doing the triathlon this past weekend, I was planning on just doing one in August, especially since I knew my swimming was so weak, but Emily (our tri coach/trainer) convinced me to just do it, and do the best I could in the swim.  So, I signed up for the Mudwater Tri 3 weeks ago, and had nightmares from then on about it.  I have never really been very nervous or worried about any of the races I've entered, so I have no idea why this one was freaking me out so much.  My guess is because I felt totally prepared for all the others.  Even the tri I did 8 years ago, I knew my swimming sucked, but I had at least trained and trained at my sucky swimming so I knew my arms were strong enough to pull me through the water the entire distance.  I guess I just felt like 4 weeks of actual swimming and building endurance (we had just done drills prior to that) just wasn't going to cut it.  The funny thing is, my nightmares were never about swimming.  In my dreams, the swim would be going awesome, I would be totally rockin' it, then I'd get out of the water and get to the transition area and realize I forgot to take my bike out of the car, or my shoes would be missing, that kind of stuff.  I pretty much just laughed the dreams off and kept training.

Then on the Monday before the race, I came down with a nasty head cold, and I was pretty much laid up all week, so then I started feeling like I really wasn't going to be ready.  I'd only swam the race distance once, and I knew how hard it was for me, and I was suppose to swim it one more time before race day.  Totally didn't happen.  Nothing happened.  I didn't work out all week, instead I downed Emergen-Cs, Arbonne's Get Well Soons, and Advil.  Thursday evening, I went for a quick bike ride just to move my muscles and test out my theory that my head might actually explode if my heart rate went up.  Luckily, that didn't happen. :)  Friday morning, I got up and ran 3 miles and swam with Emily and Kerri (the other tri trainee) and it went alright, but I had no energy and I had a big amount of green stuff coming out of my nose and lungs (tmi???).  Saturday I rested and started to work myself into a panic - Royal can attest to this - he probably wanted to start counting how many times I asked him if he thought I might actually come in last place on Sunday.  I mean, seriously, the tri I did 8 years ago had literally 3000 women in it, the chances of me getting last place was very slim, out of the 3000 there had to be somebody on a slow cruiser bike and/or walking during the run, there had to be at least a handful of people I knew I could chase down and beat.  But the Mudwater had a total of 118 participants, 41 of which were women.  I could very feasibly come in last place.  Out of 41?  Oh yeah, for sure.  Then I'd calm myself down and be all, 'Who cares?  Who cares if I come in last?  I can smile and just be happy I finished!'  Then I'd feel better for awhile and then I'd start feeling like coming in last was going to be so embarrassing and I'd start talking to Royal about not wanting to be last.  It was a vicious cycle!  A cycle that lasted on through the evening and then I couldn't go to sleep Saturday night because I couldn't stop thinking about actually getting last place.  I know you are all thinking, 'sheesh!  what's the big deal?'  I know!  I have issues!  Obviously!!!!

So, I get up Sunday morning at 4, after getting like maybe 4 hours of sleep, get ready, grab my stuff and head off to the race.  I get there and rack up my bike (no way I was letting that part of my dream come true!) and I look around at the people around me.  They have these speed suits on and super fancy bikes with fancy wheels and aero bars and those fancy cone shaped aero helmets and they mount their bikes with their shoes already clipped into their pedals and I start thinking I REALLY might come in last.  Emily shows up and we go for a quick warm up jog and I feel a little better about coming in last and that I really don't care and that I was just going to do the best I could.  Then it was time to line up to race.  As I'm waiting for my heat in the swim to start, a woman comes up and starts talking to me.  I immediately think, I think I could beat her!  She's a bit over weight and this is her first tri and she's talking to me about being worried about coming in last.  Fantastic!  I'll come in 2nd to last and I'll be alright with that.  Then the swim starts and we're in the same wave.  We start swimming and I watch as she flies right past me and I once again know I will probably be last unless I can catch her in the bike and run.  I get run over multiple times by other people, but I just keep swimming.  I can't seem to swim in a straight line and I just start thinking this was the worst mistake ever!  What in the world was I thinking???  As I round the final buoy and am headed for shore, I look behind me and I swear there are only a handful of people, I am like one of the last out of the water.  I talked to Kerri after the race, because she was just watching, and she swore to me there were lots of people after me, but after I looked at my times and stats later, and I'm pretty sure she was lying because I came out of the water in 37th place.  That's right, 37 out of 41.  Why am I such a sucky swimmer???  I don't know, I just am...but at least I wasn't last!!!

So, I get to the transition area, throw on my bike shoes, helmet and sunglasses, and grab my bike.  I start pedaling as fast as I can, my plan for the bike was to just keep catching the person in front of me and passing them, I tend to do a little better when I have a rabbit to catch.  Shocking, I know...  And I pretend I am Lance Armstrong and that hills are my bitch, because for as flat as Kansas is, I swear the entire bike portion was uphill!  We even rode a down and back, so when we turned around I was kinda pumped because I was excited to go downhill because I was going to go so fast! But the back portioned seemed like it was uphill too and half the time I felt like I was pedaling and hardly going anywhere!  Stupid.  However, when they marked our bodies in the morning, they put our race number on our shoulders and our ages on our calves, so I started chasing down every bike I could and when I passed someone I tried to take a mental note of their age to make myself feel better.  47 yr old man?  I'm totally passing you.  36 year old lady?  Later!  13 year old boy?  Peace out brother!

I get done with the bike, catch a quick glance of Royal and the kiddos and run back into the transition area and put on my running shoes.  I had made it through the swim without drowning (YES!) and I made it through the bike without crashing (Woo Hoo).  Now it was time to cruise on my favorite of the 3 sports, running!  Too bad my legs felt like lead, and it was like 90 degrees and super humid, and I couldn't seem to regulate my legs and breathing for like over a mile.  That was a bummer, but the best part was, people were walking!  Walking!!! Yes!!!!  So, I just kept chasing down the person in front of me and passing them.  (don't worry I was getting passed by plenty of other people, on the bike too, but I'd rather not focus on that)  Thankfully they had lots of water and ice water soaked towels on the run, but my legs and body were pretty much toast and kept telling me to just flop over on the grass on the side of the path, but I kept going and finished as fast as I could.  I grabbed a water and found Royal and the kids.  I had no idea what my time was because my watch died like 2 weeks ago and they didn't have any timing clocks up at the finish line, but I was glad that I finished and glad to I know I didn't come in last, there were still lots of other people out on the course (granted some of them were in the olympic distance tri and were going twice as far as me, but whatever!)

I wanted to stay for the awards ceremony and see if Emily had won the whole thing - because that's just how good she is - but Royal had already left with Willow and I had Jayden and he just didn't want to be there anymore, so we left.  As we are leaving, I get a phone call from Emily, she says I won a door prize and that she picked it up for me.  Awesome!  I never win anything!  Then I get home and Emily calls again, I ask if she won and turns out she did!  But then she says, she saw my finishing time and not only was she impressed with my time, she says I came in 2nd for my age group and that I won a medal and she picked it up for me!  Are you kidding me????  I get a medal????  After I thought I was going to come in last??  I couldn't believe it!  I never win anything!  Sweeeeeeeeet!  So, guess I was freakin' out over nothing!  (Although the thought did cross my mind that maybe there were only 2 people in my age group...)  Then I ate some food and took a nap, I was exhausted!

And I'm really sorry, but there are not really any pictures of me.  Royal made it to the race with the kids and a camera in tow, but I guess Jayden had the camera and was taking pictures of lots of racers and he just didn't seem to get me as I came by.  So, Royal got a picture of me in the transition area - you can see my white helmet as I'm racking my bike back up - I'm like the only racer in there, it's kinda hard to miss me...

And then I guess the kids were tired of waiting for me and there was a playground near by, so they were over there when Royal heard them announce my name as I came through the finish, but there just wasn't enough time to get a picture.  Oh well, I'm just glad they came!  I mean, really, I'm always the one taking pictures, so there's hardly ever any pictures of me doing stuff anyway, so it's no big deal, we can't have pictures of me all over this blog, it would throw things off!!!  Jayden did take a picture of me once we got home though, finger over the lens and everything!  :)

And really just for my own benefit of remember my times when I'm old and crumpled and probably in a wheelchair because they just can't replace my knees anymore, there is proof that at one time I did something beyond what I thought I might be capable of doing and I didn't come in last! WaaHooooo!!!
Total Time: 1:44:50
750M Swim :  18:31 (37 out of 41)
   trans 1 :  0:57 (5 out of 41)
16mi Bike :  54:44 (17 out of 41)
   trans 2:  1:30 (28 out of 41)
5K Run :   29:07 (11 out of 41)
So, in the end I ended up 16th over all, out of 41 participants, and 2nd out of 13 in my age group.  Not. So. Shabby.  (at least in my opinion)