4th of July Weekend

We've had a fun filled extra long weekend over the 4th of July weekend!  Thursday, I took the kids to Grandma Lee's during the day to swim with their cousins.

 

Warming up on the hot cement.

That evening, Todd and I went to the movie, Eclipse with his brothers Kris and Adam and their wives.  My niece, Jordan babysat.  She's such a great babysitter!

This Saturday I have a relay olympic distance triathlon.  I am doing the bike portion of the relay.  I stopped training altogether when I had the surgery on my arm, but I'm feeling great lately and back to working hard.  I biked 26 miles Friday morning and felt like I could go forever but I had to get back home so Todd could work out!  He's doing the whole race that same day.  It's the Boise Triathlon.  

 

This is my first picture of my bike.  It doesn't have a name, but it's still like a good ol' friend.  I LOVE my bike.  I smile every time I look at it or think about it.  I got it 70% off last year at the end of the season at Bob's Cycles.  It was also their 30 year anniversary sale so they threw in tons of free gear.  Being the end of the season, I didn't get to ride it much until this year.  And I'm loving every chance I get with it!

Saturday morning was spent in Boise shopping for bikes for Brielle and Ashton.  Brielle's was terribly small for her and Ashton had gone all summer without one since he left his behind the car in the Spring and it got run over.  He learned his lesson and has been exceptionally good at putting his tricycle away after each time using it.  And since he and Brielle have triathlons coming up, we felt they both finally deserved this.  I didn't get a picture of Brielle with hers yet. 

But here's Ashton.

George's Cycles does a buy-back program where you can trade your children's bikes in for larger ones since they grow out of them so fast.  We bought them used bikes, but you can't even tell.  We were pretty excited about it because they're high quality bikes- which to cyclist parents, is like any parent wanting their kids to have spiffy things to mimic their own hobbies and interests.  The kids are LOVING their new bikes.

Saturday evening was spent at Grandma Lee's for swimming, a BBQ, and fireworks to celebrate Independence Day (a day early). 

Brielle is getting so good at swimming!  Over the weekend she swam across the width of Grandma Lee's pool 50 times without stopping!  On Saturday, Todd got in with her to make sure she was safe guiding her across the deep end of the pool so she could do real laps lengthwise.  He helped her improve her freestyle strokes.  It's just amazing what this girl can do when she wants to.  She is so strong.

 

Knuckles with Uncle Adam

  Brielle saw hair like this on a hair blog I follow and made me promise to do it for her on the fourth.  I'm really having a lot of fun doing her hair these days after discovering that blog!

Playing ball with nephew, Jayden until

the sun set and fireworks could begin.

No pics of the fireworks, but they were good.  The brothers put the show on for us with all the fireworks people brought and pooled together.  Lainey made it through most of it.  She wasn't the least bit scared.  I almost wished she was because she was so happy and curious and wiggly, that I couldn't contain her in my lap, trying to keep her from the fireworks launching area!  I finally had to lay her down in bed for her own safety!

On Monday morning we went for a family bike ride.  Actually, Todd ran while Brielle and I biked and Ashton and Lainey sat in the bike trailer.  Ashton started on his bike but was still too slow for the rest of us so we rode home, ditched his bike, and let him ride with Lainey.  Brielle did so good!  She sure goes a lot faster on a bigger bike!  She rode about 6 miles.

We spent the rest of the day at Lucky Peak Lake.

This is the area in the foothills and mountains beyond Boise where this weekend's race will take place.  We drove the bike portion of the race to scope it out.  I gulped pretty hard when I saw how much I have to ride uphill for the first half of my race.  Some of it is low incline, some pretty steep.  But basically, it's just uphill at one grade or another for miles and miles and miles.  If I can make it up all that, the last half is all downhill and looks like it'll be a lot of fun to cruise down.

We brought along a remote control boat.  Ashton LOVES it and so did several of the kids at the lake.  They tried to catch it and chased it around for a long time. 

Coming back for a diaper change.  That diaper was holding

on for dear life with the ton of water absorbed in it!

Checking out the rainbow from the fountain.