My tri

Just wanted to brag on myself for this post...it's my blog anyway, so I can do that right! I really just thought it would be neat to have it documented on here for me to keep up with. A couple of weekends ago I went to Huntsville to compete in a sprint triathlon. My sweet sister gave up her spot because the race was full by the time I went to register. She said that it was part of my birthday present. How many people do you know want to physically exhaust themselves as a birthday present-sounds crazy now that I think of it.

The race was great! I felt so good the whole time. My run was the fastest I had done in a while so I was excited. The swim started off kind of slow and I got kicked and elbowed several times. Luckily the bike trail is easy and relatively flat. I did this race 2 years ago for the first time and came in second in my age group. Well 2 years later I still came in 2nd. My overall time had improved and my overall position was better as well. I finished 106 out of close to 500 people and 18 out of 172 women. I was super excited, and now I am shooting to finish under #100 next year...anyone want to join me! Okay that's all the bragging I'm going to do for now!

They mark all over your body before the race starts 260 was my race # can you guess the other??? That's right my age! Everyone walks around with their age proudly inked in permanent marker on their calves. It is a real motivator at times, and embarrassing at other times. I do love to see how old people are because I am not that good at telling. I must think that I look younger than I do because I would see someone that I thought was about my age, and they would only be 30 or so! I guess I am getting old and I need to face it!















Here are some of my biggest fans - my sister Jamie that gave me this as by present, my mom who helped wrangle the little ones, and the my precious Pip and Squeak! Oh, and I found these rotten teeth kids calling my name on the way out!!!

School Days

These guys started school 8/07. L.C. is now a 3rd grader and No-Bo is already in Kindergarten.
They both had a great first few days of school...and I was nervous!!


These two little peeps also started "school". They are going 2 days a week to a pre-school at a church. I wasn't going to send them this year, but I am glad that I did...they love it!!! What about this confidence with a little attitude they are showing here.

Edisto

We had a chance to go to Edisto for one last whoo-rahh before school started. One of my college roommates called and said that nobody had rented out their house for the week, and she wanted to know if we would like to go. There was no hesitation on my part!!! Jeff had football camp that week, so the kids and I packed up and took off. If you have never been to Edisto you are missing out. It is such a neat non-commercialized beach. There are no chain restaurants, high rises, or crowds. It was so much fun and the kids had such a great time. There were 6 little boys and then Pipi. I had so many great pictures that I had a hard time deciding which ones to use, so there are a lot of pictures below!

That's some serious crabbing! We caught about 10 crabs that we kept, and just as many hermit crabs.

L.C. got started catching the crabs by just using the net. This part of Edisto is on a private beach, so there are so many seashells, sharks teeth and other fossils. The waterway behind L.C in this picture leads out to the ocean. When the tide is going out you can ride in the water like a lazy river and then the tide changes and it pulls you back.


Check out this Stone crab. Its claw was the biggest that I had ever seen. Notice in the picture below the size in relation to L.C.'s hand!


One of my torture picture sessions. They did pretty good (with a little bribery at least).


We watched the sunset almost every night after dinner. Here it was at a friends house who lives on the marsh. She has a super long dock that leads out to the water.

Jumping has never been so much fun.

Another sunset! Look at poor Pipi standing away from all those boys. We will have to recruit some little girls for the next trip.

One day the older boys and I walked way down the beach. On the return walk back we got hot and decided to get into the water. No-Bo was the first to find one of these sand dollars. It was so cool because we were sitting in the water just pulling them out of the sand with little effort. I think we found about 12.
See I did go to the beach too...there are hardly ever any pictures of me because I am always behind the camera. (Another sunset)