1st Ever Sturgis Youth Triathlon

This past Saturday was the first ever Sturgis Youth Triathlon.  Of course Olivia jumped at the opportunity and it didn't take much convincing to get Jadon and Titus to participate as well.  With this being the first triathlon Sturgis has put on, we didn't quite know what to expect.  Around 50 youth ages 6-13 turned up for the fun event.  Olivia's age group was first and she was in the first heat.  She also competed against Titus, and her good friend Taner.  Due to the athletes needing to exit the pool and run through the lobby to get on their bikes, you had to decide if you were in the pool watching the heat, or outside watching the transition to the bike.  Andy, Elizabeth's family, and Nana and Papa were in the pool to watch Olivia and Titus swim.  My dad and Patty and I stayed out to watch her transition to the bike and so I could assist her getting dressed.  I was surprised to see her all of a sudden outside, not actually realizing the event had started.  She took no time at all getting her gear on and heading off on her bike.  As she was taking off on her bike the rest of the kids started making their way outside.  Titus, not being the strongest swimmer, was last out of the pool, but raring to go. 

And she's off.

Titus getting geared up.

Can it be?  She's back already.  Olivia was back on her bike from the 1/2 mile course in no time, with no sight of other participants.
 

She's off on her last leg of the race, the run!
 

Titus and Taner coming in side by side on their bikes.  As you can see Titus fumbling a bit in this picture, he wiped out pretty hard right there.  He got up like it was nothing and kept going.  He was such a trooper.
 

There's Olivia running back in on the left, while the others are all heading out still.  The 6-7 year olds only had a 1/4 mile run.
 

Crossing the finish line as the first in her age group!  Way to go girl.  She finished in 7 minutes and 24.  The race wasn't actually timed at all, but Andy had his stopwatch going for our own knowledge.  They wanted to keep the race fun and not make it a competition with the children.  Getting kids interested in exercise rather than the usual competition was the main focus which we understand and respect. 

Taner and Titus finishing strong!
 

Cousins and buddies proud of their accomplishments!  We are very proud of both of you too!
 

Jadon, being in the oldest age group was towards the end of the event.  I actually got to be inside to see the swim portion for his.
 

Swimming hard.
 

Headed out on his bike for the 3 mile ride.
 

Sprinting to the finish for the last of his 1.5 mile run!  He made up a lot of ground during his bike and run.  He's quite an athlete.

Jared with his fellow triathlete sons.  I know it's not the best picture of Jadon, but he was actually smiling.  That is something we rarely can capture on film so I had to post it. 

Overall, it was a family fun event that went by very quickly.  I am amazed at how well organized and smoothly everything ran, especially with it being the first year.  We will definitely be participating in the future years. 

June 11th Celebrations

June 11th is a very special day for our family.  Not only is it my father's birthday, but it's also my niece Jane's birthday.  This year my dad turned the big 60, while sweet Janie turned 3!  The evening of their actual birthday we celebrated at our house and had a backyard cookout.

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Grandpa and Jane blowing out the candles on their ice cream cake.
 

Everyone digging in to dessert.
 

The boys enjoying some ice cream cake too.
 

Mia being Mia.
 

Grandpa with all of his grandchildren. 
 

My dad and his daughters.

It was a terrific evening full of stories shared and memories made.  We're blessed that we can all be together to celebrate these special days.

Mud Running

A short while back, my sister Elizabeth informed me about the Mud Run in Kalamazoo.  I have always loved getting dirty, so I signed myself up for the 5K fun run, and Olivia was thrilled to do the kids' 1 mile fun run.  While registering her, I saw a parent was allowed to run with their child, so Andy agreed.  I was shocked he was willing since he hates running, but he had a terrific time too.

Jared, Jadon, and I all set to start the race
 

Here you can see all three of us entering the first muddy obstacle.  Jared is center, Jadon to his right, and I'm partially seen behind Superman.  I managed to keep up with Jared and Jadon through the first two obstacles, but quickly they pulled away, which I anticipated.

Here Jared and Jadon are exiting the last obstacle before they make the couple hundred yard run to the finish line.

Being a spectator was not a clean task either.
 

Here I am coming out of the last mud pit too.
 

After the race.  Jared and Jadon had already cleaned off since they finished quite a bit ahead of me.
We had a great time and I think we'll all be doing it again next year.
 

Andy and Olivia's prerace photo.
 

Asher entering the first mud pit.
 

Here he hits the mud pit.

He's the first one out of the mud.  If you look closely you can make out Olivia on the far back right.
 

Here's Titus and Andy entering the mud.
 

Olivia making her way through.
 

Asher skipped the slides and just went down the center.  He was super competitive and the first to finish for our group of kids.
 

Heading towards the finish line.
 

Titus got air born coming off the slide!
 

Olivia's turn

Andy is last down the slides.
 

Trudging through the muddy water at the bottom of the slides.

Titus almost there.  He saw us right after this photo and had the muddiest huge smile!  I wish I could have captured that.
 

Here come Andy and Olivia.

It was a blast and raises money for clean drinking wells in Africa!  Andy has even agreed to do the 5K next year.  If anyone else wants to join in the fun, I know you'll love it!

Lots of Changes

Our home is officially on the market! 

After just being nosy looking up someone's home on a website, I happened to see two houses that peaked my interest.  One was out in the country on 2.5 acres near "the shop," was over 2000 sq ft., and had two additional bedrooms with egress windows in the basement, plus gave Andy the huge pole barn he's been wanting.  And it was super cheap!  Another was a home in a terrific neighborhood in Sturgis under foreclosure so the price was a steal in that area.  We checked them both out.  The first one was an ugly trailer with an addition.  I would want to tear it down and start over, so it wasn't so much of a steal after all.  The repo home needs a ton of work, all new flooring, kitchen, paint, windows, siding, etc., but we both loved it.  We decided if we can get the bank to go low enough we could take the profit from selling our house and fix it up exactly as we'd like.  Now the waiting game begins.  We have two showings tomorrow so we can only hope they both love it and get in a bidding war.  Hey, a girl can dream right?  Of course all I can think about now is getting our house, or what if someone else does before us?  We just heard today the bank will reject any offers contigent on the sale of the purchasers home too.  It's stressful, but our house is getting little projects done and hasn't looked cleaner since we bought it.  So, if you know anyone in the area looking for a 4 bedroom home, send them our way!

Olivia's dance recital will be here in about two weeks.  They had photos the other week, so I snapped a few in her cute little get up.  I think this is her last year in dance, at least for now.

Soccer is officially done, but I had to snap some photos at the girls' last game.

Cooper, Mia, and Easton

Mia loved seeing her buddies Cooper, Easton, and their big sister Lola each week at the games too. 

Wow, Mia kicked a GOAL!  Okay, so I completely staged this photo.  It was not actually during a game, but we had to make her look good.

Olivia was not so sold on the idea of moving.  She has lots of friends in our current neighborhood.  Then she learned her good friend from school Citori, lives a block from the house we like, and now she's super excited too!  We'll see what happens.  I'm trying not to get my hopes up, but we can't predict what will possibly happen.  I do love our house and will cry terribly if we do sell it, but am invested into this new house as well.  Andy's wanted to move for sometime now, mainly because of the lack of garage and storage for all his tools.  We'll keep you posted.