Tyler did the Maroon Creek trail with me today. It is just over 3.2 miles and mainly downhill, running next to the river in the forest so it was a lot easier than our hike yesterday to Crater lake.
Tyler's hiking has certainly improved this year. Much less complaints, hardly any stopping, and a pretty good hiking pace.
It was fun to spend time with him answering his questions and explaining about cairns and talus.
Not sure he is ready for a 14er yet. Maybe next year!!
A visit to the dentist is very different in the US than it is in the UK. For one thing they have everything set up for kid size and focused on making sure they have a pleasant experience.
The boys have been asking about camping ever since the weather turned nice. We weren't able to do our usual camping at RMNP this year, but we will be camping later this year.
So I let the boys do some indoor camping this weekend, using the tent that Siew Gin and I used to use before the boys came along.
It is time for the Bradburn Triathlon again. It's Tyler's 3rd time participating and Cody's first. This is slightly more intense than the one in Broomfield Academy because they all the events one after another, though i think maybe the distances are shorter(swimming for sure)
Tyler was up first. Since his last two triathlons were quite a disaster, he was quite determined to win. It was a good thing that swimming was the first event as it is his strong suit. I was surprised how nervous i was watching from the side.
As expected, he rushed ahead with his swimming and was probably 1/4 length ahead of the rest of the group. After a quick transition, he runs to his bike and pedaled off! As it was quite a huge distance, we couldn't run along with him and we sighed a huge sigh of relief when we finally saw him coming out from the corner(he crashed last year).
He was still leading and after dropping his bike, he took off running with Alan running by his side cheering him on. With that, he ran to the finish line and took first place in his group! When i finally caught up with him, he showed me his medal and said "I knew I could win!" :)
Soon, it was Cody's turn. He was in the youngest group of triathletes. For the little guys, they start off with the bike ride. We think Cody lack of competitive spirit as he looks like he's going for a nice ride in the country side, despite us cheering him on(forcefully). But somehow he managed to push ahead and ended up maybe 3rd in the bike ride.
And once he was off the bike, he took off running. The 2nd guy fell a few times while running, so Cody managed to past him. At the last event, after a long pause on the side of the pool, he finally got into the pool and swam to the end to snag the 2nd place in his group.
And when he got out of the water, he said "That was really hard!!!"
Anyways, we were quite happy with their results though we do see that their biking skills needs to be improved. I think they are limited by their crappy bikes!!!
Here are the kids before the race
Tyler ready for his swim event
Ready, set .. GO!
Tyler is way ahead of his competition
A little bit of a wobbly start
Not a bad ride, but nearly caught up by some other participants
On the home stretch. Again looking slightly pale.
Victory!! :)
This is Cody's racing face!
Looks real competitive
tu tudu dudu...
Daddy, i can't run anymore...
Goggles on!
Swim Cody swim!!!
Ugh.. This was hardddd...
Fun in the pool after the race
Cannon ball!
Picture with Daddy!
And Mommy!!!
And as usual, they were given the choice to pick what they want to eat and Tyler said, Shrimp Tempura and Oranges and Smarties(because Grandma just sent some). Cody said, Shrimp Tempura and fishy eyes. Hmm.. I need to work on their variety.
A very busy day today, as I had to run the Rogers River Run 5k, then watch Cody and Tyler compete in the Bradburn Kids Tri.
I have done this race for a few years and have been getting faster each year. The course was a little muddy this year at the end. I had a good chance of going under 20 minutes, but slowed down too much on the last mile, which combined with a slightly long course meant I could only manage 20:50 finishing 46th overall out of 515, 3rd in my age group. Still a pretty good time from which to improve.
Since we've done our deck and planted flowers in the flower bins, we've been spending more time in our garden in the evening and the kids have requested to have dinner in the patio a few times. I figured it was probably a good time to invest in a patio table.
After going to a few shops, we settled for a wooden table from Ikea. Not sure how long it'd last, so we better use it a lot!!
This picture is not from the catalog!
Damith and Sabrina were our first guests
Waiting for our tri-tip dinner
View of the table
And of course we have to remember the hard work put in by our strong men
