Echo Triathlon

Round two, anyone?
It's time for another......triathlon update! YAY! This one is epic, I promise. It was my first Olympic distance triathlon. I've been training a bunch and hoped to make all my dreams come true by competing in the Echo Triathlon. I really like this triathlon venue because the water is great, the bike ride is beautiful and serene, and the run is a trail alongside the reservoir. It's a beaut! My goal for this tri was to finish (and tri my best, of course). My sister, Rhonda has been training with me but she was M.I.A. for this tri due to a very untimely upper respiratory illness. Nevertheless, I carried on without her as my competition. She did, however, show up to be one of my two fans (and my timing advisor)! Thanks, Rhonda!

I wanted to finish a little faster than I did, but I am happy with how I did and am eager to improve on my next triathlon next month. Party on, Wayne...
Swim 1500 meters (I know, very flattering...)

Bike 26 miles

Run 10k

My B.F.E. (Biggest Fan Ever) and photographer, Cortney! I could definitely not compete in these races without his support. Thanks, hon!

Independence Day

Oh how we love the 4th of July! I think it is up there in the rank of our favorite holidays! This year did not disappoint, either! I had the great privilege of working the night before the 4th (again :)). When I got home from work, I took a little run and then came home and got ready for the day. We headed to the annual Valley View Neighborhood Breakfast which is sponsored by Cortney's home ward. It is always a delicious one, with plenty of people to share it with. I'm not going to lie, I was pretty plum tuckered out and just wanted to eat and then go to sleep. So that's just what I did!
The peeps!

The tired face and the hott one...

I took a long, glorious nap and woke up in time for lunch! Cortney just hung out with the peeps! (This day was great so far - just eating and sleeping!) We had a delicious steak and chicken lunch! It's always a nice picnic at the T fam's!

Grandma and Grandpa even joined in the fun!

After we stuffed ourselves, we headed to the movie theaters to watch Cars 2! (Grandma and Grandpa hadn't seen it yet).
And we saw Cameron's name again! (Nice job, Cabby)
From the movie theaters, we went to stake out our firework viewing spot. We were very close to the same spot we sat in last year. It's a good'ne. We hung out there and enjoyed our Zeppe's (and funnel cake.....drool.....) while we waited for Lenn and Mary to get there.


We also went people watching/window shopping at the Layton Park. Awesome!
Along withe Lenn and Mary came the sparklers and the pop-its! We love us some fireworks! There were these two cute little girls who were instantly attracted to the family when we started lighting fireworks. They were fun to hang out with and kept us entertained.
Here we are hanging out, waiting for the fireworks to get started...


The fireworks were a great finale to a wonderful day! It's nice to be reminded of the freedoms we are able to enjoy here in this country. God bless the USA and happy Independence Day!

California and St. G Trip

At the end of June (24th-29th), we got the awesome opportunity to go to California to visit Cameron and Kandis and then stop on the way back in St. G to visit Jeff and his family. It was a short but sweet vacation. I love road trips! I love vacations! I'm doing my best to pass this love on to Cortney. He's the one that keeps the road trips and vacations under control - I would go on a camping trip, road trip, vacation, whatever, every other week if I could!
We left on Friday after I got home from work in the morning. We started the vacation off at Einstein Bagels where we got some delicious bagels for breakfast. I slept while Cortney drove and we stopped in Vegas for lunch. It would not be a trip to California without stopping at In-n-Out at least once.


After Vegas, we kept on truckin' toward California. We got pretty terrible gas mileage. We had bikes on top of the car which were the cause to our gas mileage woes. Ha ha! The car usually gets around 28mpg and on the way there, we got an average of 18mpg. It was awesome! On the way to V-town, we traveled on this two lane highway in the middle of the desert which had tons of joshua trees. It was awesome! I got mad at myself for not stopping to take some cool photos because we didn't come that same way on the way back. It was beautiful. We drove and drove and drove some more and finally arrived in V-town, California! Cameron and Kandis live in this nice apartment complex that has a pool! (I love pools)
After unloading our stuff, we hung out and talked and ate some delicious dip with chips. It was nice to hang out and to see Cameron and Kandis!
Saturday morning we slept in (ahhhhh......) and then woke up and got ready to go see Cars 2!

Cameron is quite talented and he worked for Pixar when they made Cars 2. He does a lot of the textures in the artwork. The movie was cute! The coolest part was to see his name in the credits and to cheer loud! How cool is that?
Afterwards, we went to a delicious restaurant and ate good food. (mmmmm, steak!) Then we got some treats at the store and hung out at the apartment. It was some good times!
On Sunday we slept in, and then went to church. After church, we ate a delicious dinner prepared by Kandis. It was nice to just relax and hang out for the night- I love vacations!
Monday was the day! We got up early and headed to (one of) the happiest place(s) on earth! DISNEYLAND!

I love this place! It was such a fun day!

Matterhorn bobsleds!

The best soft serve icecream ever - pineapple! My mouth is watering as we speak...


Our delicious dinner!

On the train!

On the island...


It was a good, long, fun day!
On the way home, we drove through downtown L.A. And we saw Hollywood too!
Tuesday morning we packed up and then headed to DreamWorks to visit Cameron. It was a cool place! We ate lunch there and toured the place. We even saw the real life-sized Kung-Fu Panda! It was sweet! Touring places like that makes me think of how much work really goes into making movies. Wow.
After our visit at DreamWorks, we took off on our drive to St. G. This time, we put the bike inside of the car to improve the gas mileage. We got there in the evening and just hung out for a bit with Jeff and his fam and then it was bedtime!
We woke up really early to go and take family photos. Here are some of my favorites:








Such a cute family!
After the family photo shoot, Jeff and I headed out to do a little mountain biking! We went on two different trails. I can't remember either's name, but they were awesome! Even though I've been road biking a bunch, I felt out of shape for the mountain bike. It was still a lot of fun!

After the bike ride, Jeff went to work. The ride took a little longer than planned, so we did a bunch of car switcharoos and drove all over St. G :) For lunch, Jeff took us to an awesome Hawaiian food place right by his work. It was so delicious! Holy cow. Mmmmmmm. After lunch, Jeff took a look at our teeth and did a little filing here and there to make them look better. We then picked up Michael from college and then got Frosties on our way back to the house. Then we just hung out and played for the rest of the afternoon.






After the fun afternoon, we went out to dinner at the Pizza Factory! Yum! It was delicious and a lot of fun!








It was such a fun day! After dinner, we headed home (Cortney had to work on Thursday). This vacation ranks up there with the totally awesome vacations! Thanks Cameron and Kandis and Jeff and Christine!