Travelers

Phew - It's been too long since I've been able to post. I'll do my best to get in all the activity that' s fone on...

Ok, first of all I will say I had a fantastic little get away to Royal Oak at the end of August. Addison and I visited my friend Jen, her husband Dan and their little one, Trey - who is exactly 5 weeks older than Addison. They were instant friends :) Ok, so they didn't actually "play" together but they did do some simultaneous complaining, which Jen and I just laughed about...and said a quick thank you prayer for not having had twins! We were moms-about-town, we walked to dinner Monday night with the kiddies in the strollers - had ultimate margaritas, made jokes about drinking and driving...the strollers and got home just in time to warm up a couple bottles and pump-and-dump. (It's just not the same having a drink, knowing that you have to find time to get rid of 'tainted' milk.) Tuesday we strapped the kids in the front pack and headed to Starbucks then switched it up and took the stollers to Trader Joes. But, mostly, we caught up and just enjoyed the time with babies! It's amazing to see the developmental differences between the two just 5 weeks apart.

Addison and Trey

Jen and I...headed to Starbucks!


Dan and I took it easy for Labor day weekend. It's a new feeling for us to be home more often. We are definitely the type of people who are generally always on the go.

My sisters Emily and Anita came in from California to visit us on Sept 6. Anita brought her youngest son, Garrett, with her - he is 5 months old. Luckily, Garrett is an angel of a baby (quite a chubby little cherib, but angelic nonetheless) because they had quite the travelling woes getting here - and leaving. Delayed an additional 3 hours in Chicago on the way here and having a flight delayed and then cancelled when they tried to leave! I hope they thought it was all worthwhile; I certainly loved having them here. It was wonderful to finally meet Garrett and me and the girls had an awesome time just hanging out. We managed to fit in quite a bit of cooking, a few card games, and a board game - Dan finally managed to win a game of Catan. Anita and I tried to pry into all the juicy details from Emily's on going saga of a social life and even tried to get her to respond to some of those e-Harmony matches ;) Anita and I also got to attend a little seminar at Williams-Sonoma on making homemade pasta. We actually made linguine later that week, but I definitely need an upgrade if I am going to embark on that endevour again. It shouldn't take 2 people and over an hour to make a batch of pasta for 4. I love good food, but I'm far too practical (and impatient) for that.

Of course I must add that with the help of a supportive husband, a wonderful baby and the sisters - I was able to get up last Saturday morning, squeeze (a very tight squeeze, mind you) into my wetsuit and tackle the Reeds Lake triathlon course....one leg at a time. I was the most nervous about the swim, but once that was done I was fairly confident I would make it through the bike and run. The run was tough and I could feel my non-existant abs screaming at me for the last mile, but it was worth it. Ah, back to my old self again....well, not really, but I'm getting there.

Emily, me and Anita

Addy with Cousin Garrett

She always thinks I’m kidding when I say she’s my hero.

Back in February Michelle sent in her registration for Reed's Lake Triathlon, http://www.eastgr.org/?t=49&c=131, an event scheduled to take place on September 8th. At the time I thought she was out of her mind. She had a due date for her first child on July 14th, and she had no idea what to expect for recovery time. By the time she sent in that registration the doctors had already warned her of her condition which made her susceptible to pre-term labor, but there were no guarantees. Her thought was that she would stay as fit as possible and then most likely have a baby a few weeks early (late June). That would leave her about 9-10 weeks to train for the triathlon. That was in the perfect world, assuming an early vaginal delivery. As the end of June came upon us with the baby still in her belly she started to become depressed of the fact that her window of opportunity to compete at Reeds Lake was slipping away. Around the 10th of July she pretty much wrote it off. On July 20th Addison finally arrived and everything was good, at that time a healthy baby was worth more than any personal achievement, and the c-section delivery pretty much made the thought of doing a Triathlon in seven weeks out of the question. Or so it seemed….
Yes, appearently, this little girl was not about to stand in the way of her mother. Michelle did go through with it; this past Saturday Michelle attempted, completed, and tore up the course in East Grand Rapids finishing the half mile swim, 17.1 mile bike, and 4.9 mile run in 2 hours, 6 minutes and some change. She finished in the upper half of her age group. So I’ll say it again and maybe this time she’ll realize I’m not kidding. Michelle, you are my hero! You were an inspiration to many this past Saturday.