Tag Archives: Minnesota

Race Recap: Northwoods Triathlon

12 Aug

On Friday before the race, we packed and headed up to Nevis in time for packet pickup and the spaghetti dinner benefiting the Nevis football team. My parents met us there. Packet pickup wasn’t busy at all so it only took me about 5 minutes to get my bib, t-shirt and swim cap (no bike numbers at this little race!). This race is capped at 250 participants, so it’s a nice size – and it sells out FAST every year!

After dinner, we headed back to Travis’ parents’ house. Ironically, his parents were down at my parents’ house in Rochester because Al had had heart surgery that day at the Mayo Clinic. (He’s doing decently well, if you’re wondering.) I put Annabelle to bed and we watched Jim Gaffigan’s Mr. Universe standup on Netflix while Emma bounced off the walls. She was hard to get to sleep that night, and Annabelle woke up a few times because she was too hot and had to burp. Every time I got up to tend to Annabelle, Emma got wound back up. Finally, Emma crashed around 11:15 and we moved Annabelle downstairs to where it was cooler.

I slept decently well for a pre-race night. I woke up to thunderstorms sometime in the very early a.m. and was more worried that the thunder would wake Emma or Annabelle up than I was about doing a race the next morning.

PRE-RACE

Finally, it was 5 a.m. and time to get up. I nursed Annabelle a bit longer than I had planned – until 5:45 – and put her back down. I quickly showered and changed into my tri shorts. I decided to wait until right before the race to put my tri top and sports bras on, because I planned to nurse Annabelle again around 7. Nursing definitely presents a unique challenge for race day!

I ate a bagel with cream cheese for breakfast, made a cup of coffee, and Travis, Annabelle and I took off for the transition area around 6:30. My parents planned to wake Emma up around 7.

We easily found a parking spot and walked the 2 blocks to transition. I set my bike up near my friend Emily’s and we chatted for a bit while I set my stuff up. I went to get body marked (they just did bib number on both right arm and right leg – no age group), which only took about 3 minutes.

By then, it was about 7 so we made our way back to the car so I could nurse Annabelle before the pre-race meeting at 7:45. She must’ve been completely full though, because she wanted nothing to do with nursing. So I just put on my Body Glide, sports bras, and tri top and we headed back to transition around 7:30.

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After the pre-race meeting, I made my way down to the beach and got used to the water. I swam around a bit and then the first wave was off. I was in the fourth wave – women 34 and under. The waves were 3 minutes apart. The leaders from the first wave started coming out of the water. Finally, the purple caps were up!

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SWIM

I was a little nervous as the director counted down our group, but once he said “Go!” and we all started swimming, I willed myself to settle down and “race my own race.” I kept my sight on the buoys, which actually didn’t seem that far away since the swim was only 400 meters, and focused on breathing deeply and evenly. There were a handful of purple caps swimming around me – several of us were doing the breaststroke. The only somewhat eventful things that happened during the swim were that I swallowed a mouthful of water once (but didn’t panic!) and I told an older gentleman who was doing the backstroke that he was going off course.

Finally the swim was over! I stood up when the water was below my waist, and walked up the beach and giant hill to transition.

OFFICIAL SWIM TIME: 10:53

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T1

There was a kiddie pool to use for rinsing your feet off, but I had brought my own wash basin to use. I rinsed my feet off and tried to towel my legs and feet off, but I was dripping water so it didn’t really help. The second sports bra I wore isn’t one that I’ve worn during a race before – I usually only wear one for triathlons, to minimize the amount of fabric getting wet. But since I’m nursing, I knew I would be a lot more comfortable on the run if I wore two. And I was, but that bra definitely held a decent amount of water! I had to wring it out on the bike, and my shoes and socks were soaked by the time I started the run. I was worried about blisters, but it didn’t seem to matter.

Anyway, after toweling off a bit unsuccessfully, I put on my socks, shoes, sunglasses (in case of bugs, not sun), and helmet, grabbed my bike, and away I went.

OFFICIAL T1 TIME: 2:43

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BIKE

The bike course was a loop, starting out going west from Nevis, then north, east and back south. The first half was rolling hills. I played leap frog with a few people. Whenever I passed someone going up a hill, I thought, “Either I’m in better bike shape than I thought I was, or I’m being an idiot and these people are being conservative and saving themselves for the run.”

By about mile 7, I was thinking that maybe the right answer was the latter. My legs were starting to feel tired. Lucky for me, the last 5 or so miles were mostly flat. Other than my butt hurting for the last 4-5 miles, feeling like I had to pee, and the wind picking up a bit, the bike was very enjoyable. The sky was overcast, the scenery was pretty (farmland, trees, lakes and rolling hills), and the volunteers were helpful.

We climbed one last hill coming into Nevis and then it was back in to transition!

OFFICIAL TIME: 52:24 (16.3 MPH)

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T2

I had toyed with the idea of parking my bike near the portapotties and making a quick pit stop, but by the time I got to transition, the urge had passed. So I re-racked my bike in the correct spot, took off my helmet and sunglasses, grabbed a Gu and headed out on the run.

OFFICIAL T2 TIME: 1:08

RUN

After being on the bike, it always feels like I’m running at a snail’s pace, even though I’m usually not. So my strategy for the run was to just find a comfortable pace and keep running. Maybe I was running slow, maybe I wasn’t. I wasn’t going to worry about speed.

A little after Mile 1, I started feeling a little sick to my stomach so I started eating the Espresso-flavored Gu I had grabbed. I ate about 2/3 of it by the time I reached the water stop at the turnaround. I grabbed a cup of water and walked until I drank it all. I discarded the cup and my Gu, and started running again. The sick feeling had gone away and I was feeling good.

By Mile 2, I started getting goosebumps from the pure joy and excitement of being out there and having the race go so well. I guess you can call that the triathlete’s high! The finish line was in sight, but I felt like I could’ve kept running.

I picked up speed for the last .1 mile where all the spectators were standing, and finished strong.

OFFICIAL RUN TIME: 31:58 (10:19/mile)

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OFFICIAL RACE TIME: 1:39:05

Considering my A Goal was 1:41, I have to say, Booyah!

It’s an awesome experience to have the stars align for a race. You go out and crush your goal, AND have fun doing it. Doesn’t get much better than that.

I saw my dad, mom, Travis and Emma as I was coming in to the finish line, so after I returned my chip and grabbed some food and Gatorade, I went and found them. We chatted for a while and then our friends Brenda and Jake arrived via bike with their 2 kiddos. They had tried to time it to see me finish but I was too speedy! Haha. It was fun seeing them anyway.

We tried to grab lunch in Nevis, but only 1 of the town’s 4 restaurants were open, and it was packed. So we decided to meet at Zorbaz in an hour, giving Brenda and Jake time to bike back to their car, and me time to go back to the house for a shower and nursing session.

My parents headed back to their cabin instead of coming out to lunch, so it was just us 4 adults and the 4 kiddos. Travis and I had been wanting to go out to eat with Brenda and Jake sometime, so it was fun to get to do it. Brenda is one of my awesome running buddies!

After lunch, we grabbed our stuff and the dogs from Travis’ parents’ house and headed back to Brainerd. I nursed Annabelle and unpacked only to repack for a somewhat impromptu trip to Rochester by way of St. Cloud. We stopped by Fleet Farm for Travis to buy some fishing tackle and then were on our way down to St. Cloud by about 5 pm.

We met up with our friends Eric and Holly at a park in Sauk Rapids. Eric and Travis went fishing in the river while Holly, her 2 girls, my 2 girls, and I played at the park. After an hour, we ladies ate dinner at Noodles and headed over to Holly’s house, where we put the babies down for the night and the older girls played way past their bedtimes. The guys didn’t get back from fishing until 10! Unfortunately, they didn’t catch a single fish. We finally got on the road to Rochester – a 3.5 hour drive – at 10:30. Oy. It would be a late night after a very long day.

The drive was kind of dicey (due to us being so tired) but we made it to Rochester a little after 1 a.m. Thankfully, Emma went right back to sleep after we brought her in, and Annabelle nursed and went right down too. I crawled into bed around 1:45.

The next morning, Annabelle woke up to nurse at 7 and Emma woke up at 8. We had coffee and breakfast and then headed over to the hospital to see Travis’ dad. The girls and I stayed until around 1:30 and then headed back to my parents’ house for naps. After tag-teaming the girls, I finally got a short nap in myself. Glorious. Emma woke up from her nap around 6, I nursed Annabelle, we ate dinner, headed back to the hospital for an hour and then called it a night.

Monday, Travis had to work in the morning so my mom and I took Emma to a park in town while Annabelle took a 2.5-hour nap at home (Travis manned the baby monitor). It was fun – and so much easier to be at the park sans baby! We ate lunch back at the house and then went to visit Al for a bit. After packing up our stuff and the dogs at the house, we ate dinner at Panera with my parents and headed back up to Brainerd, getting back to our house around 10.

Whew! We have been here, there and everywhere for the past month and a half. Poor Annabelle, you can tell she’s ready to not be in her carseat so much. I’m hoping to be a homebody for a while now. Well, maybe.

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Training Update: Northwoods Triathlon

6 Aug
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From back in the day (2009)

Well, it’s finally here. The sprint triathlon I registered for back in January is this coming Saturday – only 2 days away! I posted about my training plan a while back… and haven’t mentioned anything about it since. So here’s the down-to-the-wire update:

Long story short: I didn’t train as much as I had planned or wanted to, but I feel ready enough to give it a go.

Short story long:

Swimming

I failed miserably at going to the pool to swim (I went 4 times all year). I just couldn’t often find the 1.5 hours it took to drive to the pool, swim, change and drive back. BUT being as I live in northern Minnesota and am literally surrounded by lakes, I did swim in open water 4 times. They weren’t long swims (probably 400-800 meters each) but they served their purpose: strengthening my mental poise. The swim in this triathlon is only 400 meters, so the biggest hurdle for me will be mental. My natural instinct in open water is PANIC because I can’t touch the bottom, or worse – the seaweed might touch me. One of the open water swims I did was in the lake I’ll be swimming in for the race, so that helped even more.

Biking

After discovering that the beach we usually go to is only 6 miles away and that there’s a back way with less traffic, I biked to and from the beach a couple of times, for a total of 12 miles each. Those were my longest rides. Similar to my excuses for not swimming more often, I found it hard to carve out more than an hour for a workout. Also, biking and swimming both require additional things to make them happen – a bike and water respectively. July was a crazy month for us – we were out of town or had out of town guests for all but a week. So I’m not as strong on the bike as I would like to be, but it is what it is. At least I have been biking a fair amount of hills so I’ll be ready for those!

Running

Ah, running. My favorite because it’s just so convenient. You can pack everything you need in a duffel bag and use it practically anywhere. I was definitely the most consistent with running out of the three. I went on a handful of runs with Annabelle on Emma’s daycare days, went on at least a handful of runs with friends (at the crack of dawn no less), and ran by myself a few times. I mostly ran 2-3 miles at a time, but I did run 4 once. Also, after my longer bike rides, I ran up and down our driveway just to get used to the feeling of running on bike legs. (I liken it to the feeling of trying to jump on the ground after you get off a trampoline – you feel like you can’t even jump a centimeter.)

With training behind me, it’s on to race day preparation and goals. I feel about this race like I felt about having a second child – I feel confident because I’ve done it before, but that feeling of confidence can lead me to forgetting the basics, like needing to buy diapers or bring my bike to the race. I’m mostly worried about forgetting the small things – like my race belt (that old chestnut) or tape to use for attaching shotbloks to my bike.

So the other night while I was waiting for Emma to fall asleep, I mentally rehearsed the race and my transitions. Back when I first started doing triathlons pre-kids, I actually practiced my transitions. Now, I’ll have to settle for my imagination. It definitely helps anyway though! I remembered that I want to bring 2 big towels – for putting my stuff on in the transition area and to wrap up in until my wave starts – and 1 little – for drying off my legs after the swim (I hate having water drip down into my socks). Oh and a wash basin to rinse my feet. Races usually provide those, but your feet still get stuff on them between the tub and your bike.

I also realized that oh yeah, there will probably be packet pickup the day before the race (they do have it race morning too though). Oh and I’ll have to get body marked. What if my sunscreen causes the body markings to smudge like that one time? Are they going to have swim waves because the website doesn’t say anything about that. But I can’t imagine them having 250 swimmers start all at once. Though that is how Ironman does it, right?

You see that I have some race day jitters. Never mind that I’ve done 5 sprints and 1 Oly, or that I worked for a triathlon company for a year and have worked over 20 triathlons. Race day is both exciting and nerve-racking… and that’s what I love about it!

So my goals. I swore up and down that I just wanted to finish and who cares about my time. But I can’t help it. Nevertheless, I am leaving my watch and bike odometer at home so that I can’t worry about speed or time while out on the course. Out there, I am just going to focus on keeping an even pace, enjoying myself and cheering others on.

But after the race, I can dissect my times. 🙂 This race is a 400m swim, 14 mile bike and 5k run. I’m hoping to do the swim in 12-15 minutes, the bike in 50-60 minutes, and the run in 35-40 minutes. Add in 3 minutes for T1 (there’s a GIANT hill between the beach and transition area) and 1:30 for T2 and that puts me at 1:41:30 and 1:59:30. I realize that’s a big range but I really have no idea how the race is going to go. Even my previous times (from back in 2009 or 2010!) don’t really help because I was in WAY better shape back then. So we’ll just have to wait and see!

I do know, though, that for me, being obsessed with my speed or time for an entire race takes all the fun out of it. So similar to when I ran my full marathon and did my Oly tri, my main goal is HAVE FUN and remember why I love endurance sports in the first place.

Wish me luck! I’ll be back in a few days with a race recap!

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A Weekend Sans Emma

4 Aug

It occurred to me earlier this summer that we haven’t been taking full advantage of having grandparents so close by. So we scheduled a weekend of Emma staying at Travis’ parents’ house, while we enjoyed more than a few minutes of being able to “get stuff done.”

We were already up in Nevis after the storm so Friday night, we headed home and after getting food put back in our refrigerator and freezer, the car unloaded, some laundry started, and Annabelle to bed, we vegged a bit and headed to bed ourselves.

Saturday morning, we headed out garage sale-ing. Both Travis and I love going to garage sales but Emma, being the toddler tornado that she is, makes it challenging (though we did take her along the other 2 times we went out this summer). We found some good stuff – I bought a handful of picture frames for the photo collage I want to hang up someday in our living room. I also found some fall/winter clothes for Emma, some craft supplies, a running vest for $1 (CW-X brand!), a scarf and some flip flops. Travis’ purchase of the day was a small table saw for $30, with an extension cord and long-handled window squeegee thrown in for free.

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After our shopping spree, we ate lunch and then Travis did stuff in the garage and yard while I nursed Annabelle and got our house back in order after hosting the reunion and being gone for a week.

That night, we went out for dinner at Jake’s across from Gull Lake.

wpid-img_20150718_202421.jpgWe sat out on the patio and it was a little chilly, but our food was amazing. I had lobster and shrimp tacos and they were the best ones I’ve had since first eating them in San Diego. Mmmm… Travis ate half of a small chicken, which he said was delicious.

Sunday morning, we got up bright and early to go for a hike in Crow Wing State Park before church. Well, rookie mistake – we both forgot to bring bug spray. We lasted about one minute before deciding to bag it for the morning. Instead, we went to church, ate lunch and then headed back to the state park. The trail was actually mostly in the shade and there was a light breeze, so the hike wasn’t as hot as we had feared. There were still bugs but we didn’t get bit after putting bug spray on. We learned a lot about the history of the town Crow Wing and the dogs enjoyed getting out. Annabelle slept through the whole thing.

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After our hike, I nursed Annabelle while Travis went out and worked on the car. When I was done nursing, I brought Annabelle and her bouncy seat out to the garage and she watched Travis change the oil while I went on a bike ride. When I got back, Emma was back from her weekend with Grandma and Grandpa. We talked with Travis’ mom for a bit and then she headed out. I can’t remember what we did that night, but I’m sure it was some variation on eating dinner, playing outside in the driveway or on the swingset, and then the bedtime routine antics. Travis and I had a great weekend, and it was a good mix between fun and productivity. Can’t wait to do it again!

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An Impromptu Week in Nevis

3 Aug

Since the bad storm in the Brainerd area caused us to lose power for several days, we hightailed it up to Nevis to stay with Travis’ parents until our power came back on, which it did on Wednesday afternoon (after being out since Sunday night). Regardless, we decided to just stay put until Friday night. Travis’ parents’ were watching Emma for us that following weekend so instead of driving down to our house just to drive back up, we stayed put.

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Travis, of course, had to work while we were up there. But Emma, Annabelle, and I – we just hang out all day, every day. 🙂 I do like those perks of being a stay-at-home mom. On Tuesday (the day after we got up to Nevis), we headed into Park Rapids to buy a few things at Walmart, but otherwise, we just hung out at the house.

Wednesday was my birthday, so to celebrate, I carted the girls and three armfuls of stuff to the beach. Seriously, going to the beach is an ordeal. But hey, I went to the beach last year on my birthday, I went this year – I think it’s going to be my new birthday tradition. I like going to the beach, even if it does take forever and a day to get packed up. There wasn’t anyone else there when we arrived and we had forgotten to bring our beach toys from Brainerd, so Emma was a little bored. Baby and I went in the water too but there’s only so much you can do at the beach… after what seemed like 3 hours but was only 45 minutes, Emma wanted to go swing on the swings at the beach playground. Ok. So I schlepped all our stuff up there. Bless her heart, Annabelle went to sleep in her carseat while I pushed Emma on the swing. It’s just so easy to love that baby.

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Wednesday night, we went out to dinner at the Iron House in Nevis with Travis’ parents. The restaurant had changed owners since any of us had eaten there and the food was delicious – though the service was a little slow. Emma, poor girl, had a fever and when we got home, we discovered it was 104! We thought about taking her in, but we gave her some Tylenol and her fever went down. By the morning, it was gone. So strange. I’m thinking teething again?

Thursday, Emma was still off so the girls and I just hung out at the house. Emma and I actually watched the majority of Finding Nemo before she got bored and wandered off. (This has proven to no longer just be something she does when she’s sick! She enjoys watching shows now, though her attention span is still about 20 minutes). After dinner, Travis, the girls and I headed back to the Nevis beach so that I could do an open water swim (same beach of the triathlon I’m doing). I feel more confident knowing that the water gets deep enough, fast enough that the seaweed doesn’t touch me! Seriously, that’s the worst part about swimming in open water for me – I have an irrational phobia of seaweed.

That night, Emma took forever to go to sleep. She asked for anything and everything (milk, water, juice, yogurt, strawberries) to get out of going to bed. And silly me, I believed that she might actually want something to eat or drink. She did end up drinking a few juice boxes and eating some strawberries in bed – after over an hour of trips downstairs to the kitchen for food and drink. By the time we went to bed for good, I had had it. That’s when it’s nice to have reinforcements in the form of a spouse.

Friday, the girls and I headed up to Bemidji to go to the zoo (Paul Bunyan Animal Land) and have lunch with Travis’ sister, Carolyn. It was really fun – we fed deer and kangaroos from our hands, gave the monkeys bananas through holes in their cages, and saw a lion, pot-bellied pigs, camels, rabbits and tortoises.

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Afterward, we ate lunch with Carolyn at Green Mill. Emma took a nap on the drive up and drive back, so when we got back to the house, she was wide awake.

After work, Travis packed up his stuff and headed back down to Brainerd to make sure everything was good with the house. Meanwhile, I packed up Annabelle’s and my stuff. Once I got the all-clear from Travis, Annabelle and I sneaked out while Emma stayed with Grandma and Grandpa.

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While leads me to the weekend that Travis and I had without Emma… coming soon in another blog post.

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Kriswold Family Reunion 2015

2 Aug

The weekend after the Fourth of July, we hosted my annual family reunion at our house in Brainerd. The reunions started out as my mom’s side of the family but my dad’s only brother Noel and his wife Pat have attended several years too. The more, the merrier!

My mom and dad, brother Jeremy, sister-in-law Jen, and nephews Jensen and Jackson all came up on Wednesday night. Besides getting food and tables ready for the day of the reunion (Saturday), we went to the beach both Thursday and Friday, played with the kids outside, watched Frozen at least a half dozen times, and of course, ate lots of food.

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Jen and Jackson

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Jensen
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Friday night, Noel and Pat, my uncle Roger and aunt Sharyn, and my uncle Kim came over for pizza. We ate outside on our deck and patio. It was a beautiful evening and the best part – no mosquitoes! We had our lawn sprayed by the Mosquito Squad and it was very effective. Definitely worth $150 in my opinion! My brother Chris and sis-in-law Meg showed up after dinner.

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Saturday was the official day of the reunion. We were slightly worried about rain, or about it being too hot (previous forecasts had called for 85 and sunny) but it ended up being low 80s and mostly overcast – perfect weather for a reunion!

This year’s theme was Disney. I had really wanted to find a Belle (Beauty & the Beast) costume for Annabelle but just couldn’t find one in her size. So she ended up being Snow White.

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Emma was Minnie Mouse – I found her dress for $0.25 at a garage sale, and princess shoes and Minnie ears at Walmart (that she wore for about 1 minute).

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I had really wanted to dress up as a princess with a fun dress and tiara, but since I’m nursing, a dress wasn’t very practical. I already had a skirt and tank that would work well for Ariel (The Little Mermaid) so I decided to do that. I bought a purple bikini top from Walmart and a red wig from Walmart.com.

I tried my hardest to convince Travis to dress up as Prince Eric from The Little Mermaid – I even bought him a white polo shirt, blue shorts and a red sash from Walmart. But he refused. He said the costume made him feel like a Walmart hobo. So what did he do instead?

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If you guessed the hunter from Bambi, you were correct.

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The Jedi (apparently Star Wars was bought by Disney?)11709926_852956574759215_5461904379036690660_o

A few of us kept our costumes on for most of the day but most people put theirs on long enough for pictures, and then took most or at least part of them off. I wore my wig and bikini top until after dinner and then ditched them. The wig wasn’t itchy at all, and surprisingly not too hot, but that darn long hair was always in the way with holding and nursing Annabelle!

Other people that showed up for the day of the reunion were my aunt Jayme, cousin Jody, second cousin Lacey and her son Parker, uncle Don and aunt Marilyn, and cousin Tim and his daughter Charlotte. All in all, we had about 25 people. It was a troop!

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Snow White & the Five Dwarfs, plus Malificent11722617_852958474759025_3315473040157688123_o 11700623_852957248092481_4235108760304224122_o

We ate a giant brunch of food around noon, and then dinner was around 5:30 I think. Honestly, the day was one big blur – between keeping track of kiddos, nursing, people coming and going, helping in the kitchen a bit, and catching up with relatives I hadn’t seen in years, it was kind of chaotic. Fun, but crazy.

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Sunday, my immediate family (minus Chris and Meg who had left Saturday night because Meg had to work), Travis, our girls and I all made it to church. Amazingly, we weren’t even that late. It was a Christmas miracle!

After church, we had our relatives who were still in town over for lunch. My dad’s cousin Brian and his wife Dianne who live in Brainerd came over too with their daughter. We had been talking about seeing them ever since we moved to the area, so it was nice to see them. I didn’t get to chat much between taking care of kids though – such is the life of a nursing mom!

While the family was there for lunch, we celebrated my mom’s and my birthdays, which were on July 13 and July 15 respectively. She turned 62 and I turned 32. Everything that has happened this past year with my mom’s health makes us thankful for one more year of being alive, and being together.

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(This was earlier in the week — we celebrated more than once — but you get the idea.)

Sunday evening, Jeremy and Jen headed back out on the road with their boys. They made a short pit stop at my parents’ house in Rochester and then continued on their way to southern Indiana – all in all, a 13.5-hour jaunt! They’re brave souls for making the trek with two little ones and two wiener dogs.

After everyone, except my parents and Noel and Pat, had pulled up stakes and left town, we settled in for some White Collar episodes. We were pooped! But our viewing was interrupted by a crazy storm system that quickly blew in. Travis was watching on the porch and called us to come and look. There was a huge wall of greenish, purple clouds blowing in. The wind picked up so fast that after just a few minutes, we were spooked and decided to head to the basement. About 15 minutes later, we lost power. The trees looked like little rag dolls in the wind. A huge branch fell off a tree in the middle of our yard, and a tree on the side of our yard came crashing down too. I was too freaked out to even watch. Not only is it sad to lose trees, it’s scary to know that one could fall on your house!

The worst of the storm lasted for less than an hour, but we were without power until Wednesday afternoon. That night, we got out all the candles we owned, played music through little speakers connected to my iPod, and the guys went out to survey the damage. We were extremely lucky – a tree fell right next to our shed, but did minimal damage. Another tree next to our house was blown partially over, but not snapped. There are other branches in the middle of our woods that broke off too, but we suffered no structural damage.

Other people were not as lucky. This was one of the worst storms to hit the Brainerd Lakes area in decades. In the woods just 4-5 miles north of us, about half of the trees were either snapped off or completely uprooted. And we’re talking big, 60-year-old trees. One of the resorts right in our area had its entire roof ripped off. It’s just devastating.

When you live in the country, no power means no sewer and no water. So after cleaning up the yard on Monday, my parents headed home and we headed up to Travis’ parents’ house in Nevis until our power came back on.

This post is crazy long already, so I’m going to cover our time in Nevis in a separate post. Coming soon…

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Fourth of July 2015

16 Jul

I’m a little late with this post but right after we returned from the cabin over the 4th, it was a sprint to get stuff ready for our family reunion that we hosted at our house this past weekend. And now we’re up at Travis’ parents’ house because our power is out for 4 days. So. I think I have an excuse for the tardiness.

For the Fourth of July this year, we headed down to my parents’ cabin near Pine City. Travis’ parents Al and Beth, brother Matthew, Matthew’s girlfriend Diana and my brother Chris joined us as well. But first, we stopped at a friend’s parent’s lake house in Aitkin to see our friends who we hadn’t seen in about 5 years! It was great catching up with them — they live down in Minneapolis so we don’t get to see each other as much as we’d like. The kids played on the beach and in the water while the adults chatted and snacked. They had shelled peanuts that Emma was obsessed with — except that she would try to just eat the shell too. Silly girl.

Around 3:30 pm, we headed down to the cabin, arriving around 5 pm. Al, Beth and Matthew got there soon after and we ate dinner. We sat around and talked until it was time for bed. Since Emma is now able to climb out of her pack ‘n’ play, she slept in the bed with me and Travis slept on a twin air mattress on the floor. Annabelle slept in her swing. We were a little nervous about having all 4 of us in the same room, but it ended up working out ok. We put Annabelle down in my parents’ room until Emma got to sleep (with me) and then Travis moved Annabelle into our room when he went to bed. We had a loud fan going in our room so I was able to get up, change Annabelle’s diaper, nurse her and put her back down without waking up Emma. Always a dicey situation!

Saturday was the Fourth and for the morning and early afternoon, we took it easy. Chris had arrived the previous night after Emma and I went to bed, and Diana arrived mid-morning. Travis, Al and Matthew went fishing around 7 on Al’s fishing boat.

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The rest of drank coffee and tea, and ate French toast for breakfast (my fave!). When the fisherman got back, we filled up the kiddie pool and played Bocce ball.

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Emma ended up falling asleep in Grandma Beth’s arms mid-morning — she was definitely acting a little off all that day. I blame teething.

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After lunch, we got the pontoon out of the garage, charged and launched, and made it over to the sandbar beach area by 4 pm (my parents’ property has a rocky shoreline) after Travis and Matthew got a short tube ride behind Al’s boat. Better late than never! We enjoyed our time over there, though Emma is still NOT a fan of boat rides, at all.

Soon, it was time for dinner so we headed back to the cabin for dinner. I wasn’t feeling the greatest and we discovered that both Emma and I had a fever of 102! No wonder she wasn’t acting like herself. Since we have 2 young kiddos and a slew of adults who hate fighting traffic ;), we made a campfire and watched the amateur fireworks around the lake. The cabin just 3 properties down from us put on a great show — though they were so close and loud that the whole time, Emma kept saying “House! House!” because she wanted to go back inside. Annabelle slept through the whole thing.

On Sunday, we ate breakfast and hung out on the pontoon at the dock watching Emma throw rocks in the water off the dock.

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It was at this time that Emma fell off the dock. She had been getting off the pontoon with Grandma Beth and accidentally backed up off the dock. She wasn’t wearing a lifejacket, but it was really shallow (she could’ve stood up) and Beth jumped in to get her really quickly. Emma was ok, and only slightly terrified. She still loves the water! About an hour or so later, we got motivated to get to the sandbar beach. We got there around 11 I think, and spent a couple of hours there, floating, snacking, and playing in the sand.

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We headed back to the cabin for lunch and then the packing up began. Our time at the cabin is always too short! Al, Beth, Matthew and Diana all left during Emma’s naptime. My parents, Travis and I loaded up a trailer of stuff to take up to our house for the family reunion, got packed and headed out around 8 pm — later than we had planned on leaving but it’s amazing how long it takes to get going when you have 2 little kids, especially when one is nursing.

All afternoon on Sunday, it had been threatening rain but we didn’t get anything more than a shower here and there… until we got 5 minutes from home. Then the heavens opened up and we got caught in a such a downpour we could barely see the road. Needless to say, all the stuff we had in the trailer got drenched. It wasn’t anything that couldn’t get wet necessarily but still. Figures.

It was a great Fourth regardless! I’m glad I got to see some fireworks this year.

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Northwoods Triathlon Training Plan

3 Jun

northwoods tri training plan

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We’re really doing it Harry!

Signing up for a sprint triathlon happening only 4 months after giving birth seemed a little ludicrous back in January but now that I’m 2 months postpartum and have several runs, bikes and swims each under my belt, I’m feeling more and more confident that I can do this. It may not be fast or pretty, but I can do this.

I haven’t done a triathlon since 2011. Until 4 weeks postpartum, I hadn’t run since November of last year. I hadn’t really even exercised much in the last 2-3 months of being pregnant. So I’m taking this very slowly. I’m also being realistic about how much time I can commit to training, and keeping my workouts to 4/week. Here’s my plan:

Swimming

When I donned my maternity suit and swam laps at the Y in February, that was the first time I had gone swimming since 2011. Surprisingly, it all came back to me pretty quickly. I did realize how out of swimming shape my arms were when doing the front crawl, and I’m definitely slower than I was back then, but by my third swim a few weeks ago, I could swim 400 yards without stopping (doing the breaststroke, which is what I plan on doing for the triathlon).

To train for the 400 meter swim, I plan to swim once a week at the Y. I will keep things pretty lowkey but do a mixture of long, slower swimming with some sprints for building speed. I’ll probably work up to swimming 800 yards without stopping, doing 1,000 – 1,500 yards total per workout.

Biking

Similar to swimming, I hadn’t biked since 2011 until a few weeks ago. (I got on the bike trainer a few times while pregnant but only last about 5 minutes each time.) I was worried that it would be horribly uncomfortable but it has actually been way more bearable than I thought it would be. My first ride wasn’t even 5 miles long but again, the idea is to take things slow and be realistic. I’ve gone on 4 bike rides so far and I’m up to 8 miles now.

The bike course in the triathlon is 14 miles long so I plan to build up to that and ride that distance a few times before race day. Every other week after my bike ride, I’m going to add a short run (.5 – 1 mile) for a brick workout. I’d go longer if it weren’t for the time commitment. I am still nursing after all!

Running 

My first run postpartum, I ran about 12:30 minute miles, walked a bunch and covered a little over a mile. Five weeks and about ten runs later, I’m up to 2.5 miles and 11 minute miles.

My training plan for the 5K run is to slowly increase mileage (by .5 mile about every other time or so), work up to 3.5 or 4 miles, and alternate weeks between focusing on speed and distance. If I start feeling good about running and have the time, I might increase the distance a little more so that I’d have the option of running a 10K this summer. But we’ll see.

Yoga / Weights

When I trained for the Hot Chocolate 15K last spring, I dealt with a lot of joint pain, which I attributed to losing muscle during pregnancy and never regaining it. So I want to be intentional this time around about doing some strength training, specifically in my legs. I think that swimming and biking will also help alleviate the joint pain from running, but I also enjoy yoga and weights. It’s a good way to mix things up — and it’s easy to do during nap time!

Timing

As you can see from my training plan above, I plan to do my most time-consuming workouts on the weekends when Travis can easily watch the girls. Though I am discovering quickly that my workouts often get bumped when we go out of town or do something else during nap time, like landscaping, so I might have to squeeze some of those in on weekday evenings. Emma goes to daycare on Tuesdays, so I plan to run those days (unless I run on the weekend with a friend). And the yoga or weights I can squeeze in during nap time on Thursdays. Mornings are normally my preferred time to work out, but with a newborn, that just isn’t happening. I can barely open my eyes most mornings, let alone work out!

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I have absolutely LOVED working out again. It helps me feel like my old self, not only physically (I can fit in my pre-pregnancy clothes again!) but mentally (because it gives me a personal goal to work toward and doesn’t involve parenting). Plus, it’s just nice to get outside and have some “me” time where I can think and decompress. Perhaps my favorite thing though is just feeling active again. My workouts are only 30-45 minutes long, but the feeling of being active lasts all day.

IT’S GO TIME!

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Easter 2015

14 Apr

Even though Miss Annabelle decided to arrive early, our Easter plans pretty much stayed the same and were executed with success! We ended up going to the second church service at 10:45 instead of the first one at 9:00, and only planned to stay for the worship at the beginning. Emma had thrown up the night before (from teething mucus we think) so we didn’t put her in the nursery like we usually do, and she doesn’t have a very good track record of making it through a church service. But when the worship was over and both girls were still content, we decided that we’d just stay until one of them started to crack. And we made it through the whole service! Annabelle ended up being held by Travis, and I had to entertain Emma with games on my phone but I was impressed that we were able to stay for the whole thing.

After church, we headed back to the house to pack up the rest of our stuff, I nursed Annabelle, we loaded up the dogs and girls, and were on our way to Nevis by 1 pm. We got there an hour later and poor Emma woke up the minute we parked the car, so her nap was very short. She rallied though and had plenty of energy to enjoy her new toys from G&G and Auntie, and do her first Easter egg hunt.

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She also went on the swing and slide.

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Annabelle met her Aunt Carolyn, Uncle Matthew and Cousin Drew for the first time.

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We ate Easter dinner around 4 pm. It was delicious. After dinner, the guys went out to move snowmobiles into storage and jockey boats. We bought Travis’ parents’ old fishing boat and were going to tow it back but didn’t have the right ball hitch. (We tried towing it back last weekend too but couldn’t get the trailer lights to work. I told Travis, one more strike and it just wasn’t meant to be. 😉 )

Around 6 or 7, we ate strawberry shortcake for dessert and then packed up our stuff to head home. It was a short but sweet trip! Both girls did really well.

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Without fail, Travis always makes a goofy face in the best picture of the rest of us.

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New Year’s 2015

8 Jan

We were planning to host my whole immediate family for 4-5 days around New Year’s (giving everyone a chance to see our new place) but the day my family was supposed to make the trek from Rochester to Brainerd, my mom ended up going to the ER for some health issues (which I won’t go into here). She ended up staying there the whole day, so even though Travis and I were a little disappointed, we decided that it would be better to pack up our stuff and head to Rochester instead of having our family come up to us. It was a little tricky fitting everything in our car, since we had bought a ton of food at Costco the day before! We made it work – but only after jumpstarting our car for the 2nd time in a week (apparently we might need a new battery.)

We left Brainerd around 9 am on New Year’s Day and made it Rochester a little before 1 pm. Emma had lots of fun playing with her cousin Jensen.

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We had our big family celebration that day, since it was the only day we would all be together (stupid work schedules). Before dinner, we took group photos. Usually, we put it off and then totally forget about it!

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My SIL Jen is due March 7 – almost exactly a month before me!20150101_IMG_0234

After dinner, we opened presents. The past 4-5 years or so, we have drawn names and then when we’re opening the presents, we guess who the present is from. This year, people guessed about 80% accurately! Travis got YakTrax and I got a serving dish from Crate&Barrel, dish towels and a book. Emma got an easel/desk and shopping cart from G&G, a cute sweatshirt from Brian and Jill, an awesome lumberjack hat from Chris and Meg, and a Melissa & Doug doll and book from Jeremy and Jen. She is spoiled for sure!

We bought my nephew Jensen some cap guns complete with sheriff badge and holster for Christmas. I’m not sure who enjoyed them more – Jensen or Travis and Jeremy!

The next day (Friday), it was just us, my parents and Jeremy, Jen and Jensen so we decided to do something fun for the kiddos. We checked out the Children’s Museum of Rochester for the first time and were very pleasantly surprised! Jensen and Emma had a great time. The whole place was Clifford-themed, but apparently they switch out the exhibits every 4 months. We will definitely be back!

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Unfortunately, that night we discovered that Emma was running a pretty high fever. Looking back on it now, I can tell that she had probably started feeling out of sorts Thursday night because even Friday morning, she wasn’t herself. She woke up a couple of times that night, and since we didn’t want to make anyone else sick, Travis and I decided to drive back up to Brainerd a day early.

So late Saturday afternoon, we hit the road again. Even though it was a bummer to leave early and miss out on Jensen’s 3rd birthday party the next day, I’m ultimately glad we did because that night was a doozy! Emma developed a really bad cough and (now we know) an ear infection (her first!), so she was pretty miserable. It was nice having our big, comfy recliner to rock her in, since we were doing that for many hours that night. Now almost a week later, Emma is finally getting back to her normal self. We’re pretty sure she got the flu (influenza) because she has been tired and clingy for days, which is very unlike her.

All in all, our New Year’s plans didn’t quite turn out how we had planned but it was nice seeing everyone for the time we could anyway.

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Christmas 2014

6 Jan

{I accidentally published this post prematurely, with no photos. Here’s the revised version!}

This was the first Christmas that we were able to spend with family, without traveling 1,000 miles! It was nice.

On Christmas Eve, Travis worked until around 2:30 and then we got the car loaded up so that we could head up to Nevis right after the church service at 4. The service was nice, but crowded! We sat in the overflow area and watched the service on a TV. But we still got to light candles while we sang Silent Night.

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We made it up to Nevis by about 7 and ate dinner. Travis’ sister Carolyn and nephew Drew were there when we arrived, and his brother Matthew and his brother’s girlfriend Diana arrived later that night after we had gone to bed.

We haven’t completely decided on what we’re doing for gifts each year for Emma (and future siblings) but this year, we did the “Something to Wear, Something to Read, and Something to Play With” approach. So we bought Emma some fleece pajamas, three of the Bear Snores On books (it was a pack through Scholastic), and a tent/tunnel. Since my family always celebrated Christmas on Christmas Eve, but Travis’ did Christmas morning, we’re thinking about doing one gift (the Something to Wear) on Christmas Eve, and the rest Christmas morning. So that’s what we did this year. Emma opened her pajamas Christmas Eve, and the rest Christmas morning. Though she got so many presents from Travis’ family that she totally lost interest in opening them!

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On Christmas morning, Emma actually slept in until 8, which I think she has done 3 or 4 times in her entire life. That was very nice. After we all got up, we ate breakfast (monkey bread!) and then it was gift opening time. We went around in a circle opening one gift at a time so it took a while – maybe another reason Emma lost interest. But we got some great gifts. I received some maternity yoga pants, a couple serving bowls and a platter, dish towels and a couple of candles. Travis got a buck call, winter hat, and a couple flannel shirts. And Emma’s haul was play food and dishes for her kitchen, a Sit & Spin, a couple books, 4-5 pairs of fleece PJs, some new clothes, 3 new puzzles, a memory/matching game, and a few other toys (plus the tent we bought her).

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The rest of that day was pretty relaxed. We played some Pictionary on the Wii (seriously, so fun), Trivia Crack on our phones, and ate a ton.

The next day, we went to see Penguins of Madagascar at the Hackensack theater. We actually didn’t take Emma (G&G stayed back with her) – we saw that movie because the other options were meh (and I personally love animated movies). It was really cute and fun! Even Travis said that it was better than he expected it to be.

That night, Travis, his dad Al, Matthew and Drew set their old tree fort on fire. The trees it was built on were all dead, and the fort itself was falling apart, so they wanted to get rid of it. And what better way than burning it? They cut down 4-5 other dead trees and stacked them underneath the fort. It was quite the bonfire. Emma liked watching the sparks fly off into the night sky.

We stayed up in Nevis until Emma’s naptime on Sunday, and spent our time just hanging out. Emma took a very short ride on the snowmobile – she didn’t mind it during, but when we put her back on the snowmobile to take a picture, she freaked out:

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Emma also took several wagon rides up and down the driveway, swang in her swing and went down the slide of G&G’s swing set. It was nice that it wasn’t crazy cold outside. After Emma went to bed, we played Apples to Apples, Scattergories, and Nerts (a version of Solitaire). Emma slept really well while we were up there – almost every day, she took a 2-2.5 hour nap and only woke up once at most at night. It’s such a relief when we don’t have to fight her for sleep away from home! (Now if only we didn’t have to fight her for sleep while AT home.)

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And that was Christmas this year! (We saw my family for New Years, which I will recap separately, soon.)

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