Mike finished Ironman Wisconsin this weekend and he lived to tell about it! After months of training and anticipation the four of us traveled down to Madison, Wisconsin last Friday for the event. Mike checked in at Monona Terrace Friday afternoon while the kids and I sat and watched the inspiring athletes wander around the small Expo and Ironman official merchandise shop. On Saturday he checked his bike into the transition area and dropped off his transition bags (the things he changes into for each individual sport). We were all in bed early Saturday night (though some of us...ahem, Miss Lucy...decided to not sleep much that night) because we all had a very early morning wake-up call ahead of us. Mike was up at 4 along with Lucy and I right behind him and Benjamin at 5. Mike made it out to the shuttle at 4:30 and we met Aunt Jen, Grandma Cindy and Grandpa Bert at 5:30 so we could watch the guys (Uncle Joe raced, too) take off on the swim portion of the race. It was a gorgeous morning. The sun rise over Lake Monona was breathtaking.

After all of the athletes were well on their way into the 2.4 mile swim, we walked over to a great spot where we would be able to watch all of the athletes leave transition on their bikes. Here is Mike leaving with his bike (he's dead center in the photo with the black and red Aero helmet):


While everyone was pedaling through Madison, out to the country roads we settled in at mile 45. Since the bike route is two loops, we were also able to see them at mile 85. Benjamin brought along his neon skeleton outfit, which was a HUGE hit with the athletes - they cheered him on more than the other way around!


Joe on the bike:


 Mike on the bike:


 We were stationed at our spot on the bike course for over 3 hours and the kids were exhausted. The three of us went back to the hotel so that Lucy could nap for an hour and a half while Benjamin and I caught up on the Packers game (ugh). When Lucy woke up we were off to the run course where we got extremely lucky to find a great parking spot in a ramp right on the course. We walked down to the street, found out we were around mile 14 and just happened to catch Joe almost immediately. There was a turn around point not far from where we were so all of the runners came back through our area again. We saw Joe one more time and then Mike came by not too long after that. He said he was "pretty busted up," but he was smiling AND still moving - a good sign.


Once Mike ran by us for the second time we met up with Cindy, Bert and Mike's cousin Sharon who lives in Madison and came out to watch the race. We all walked down to the finish line, which was very crowded. We were able to get a spot right on the barricade and then we waited and waited and waited. Joe came through around 9pm and that was when we decided to move a little closer to the finish line so we could see Mike come across it. It was pretty dark by then and my night photography is HORRIBLE, so I didn't take any photos of the finish line. Mike finished at just under 14 hours.  He said that he had so much fun and...(uh oh) is hoping to do more!!

Our big boy started second grade today! He was so excited to start his day, I didn't even need to coax him into the bath at bath time or into bed at his bed time! He was up early and dressed before leaving his room and he hauled his brand new Harry Potter backpack stuffed full of supplies all around this morning.

He grew like a weed over the summer and is probably one of the tallest second graders in his class. His teacher and classroom will be the same this year, but there have been other transitions within the school, so he'll have some surprises today. I just hope it all lives up to his expectations.

Yesterday we had a bit of an adventure in downtown Rochester. After lunch the kids played around in Peace Fountain (getting completely soaked) and ran around the plaza. Having two children has really helped us be a bit more relaxed about situations where they're given the chance to just act like kids. On our Oregon trip we let them run about getting sandy and wet on the shore of the ocean - something I would probably have been hesitant to do when just Benjamin was little. People do look at us a little strangely when our daughter's shorts are hanging off of her water-logged diaper or when our son is being knocked over by ocean waves in his bluejeans. However, all I see are the enormous smiles on their faces and all I hear is their squeals of delight and laughter. And it is so worth it when I am able to capture photos like these:



We visited the park a while ago and as always I took the opportunity to snap some shots of the kids having fun: