Who Ever Said North Dakota Is Boring??

We have been busy.  It seems like the days of not having much to do here in ND are gone.  I think that eventually, no matter where you live as you get involved with more and more things, life gets busy.  A couple weekends ago Jason participated in the Xterra triathlon in Jamestown.  He has not been training at all but this race was much shorter than his normal races.  The only downside was that it was a mountain bike course.  Jason hasn't ridden a mountain bike in years and doesn't own one.  He borrowed his dad's bike which is a cross between a road bike and a mountain bike.  The swim was .5 mile, 15 mile bike and a 5 mile run.  I guess the bike portion got a little dicey for him, but he still had a good time.  

Getting ready for the swim.

Coming out of the water.

We weaned Max off his binky but lately we have gone back to using it when we are desperate.  This day I needed him to nap in the Ergo so he got his binky. 

Transitioning between the swim and the bike.

On the bike course.

Transition from bike to run.

It was nice because the transition area was the same for all the transition (no other race has been like that) so the boys and I just hung out in this area and got to see him at each transition.  It was a really warm day (look at Max's little face).

 Family picture.

 After the race we came back to Gackle for a Miller Honey Farm BBQ.  It was just something fun to do with all the employees.  We grilled, ate, and just hung out and enjoyed the nice evening.

Ryan and Sherri (and Todd) maning the BBQ.  I'm not a huge steak person but the rib eye was delicious.

 For these pics I just went around to the different tables.  I tried to learn how to say "Smile" in spanish for the Mexicans but I wasn't too successful :)

 The kids played at the park.  My kids are very familiar with this park, we frequent it almost every day.

Mindy and I did desserts, here was our spread.

Like most little boys, our boys are OBSESSED with anything that goes.  Max sat on this little four wheeler for days pretending to drive it.  Sweet Olivia took them for rides on it after dinner.

 In other big news, we got a wagon.  My aunt has one of these and my kids love it.  Ollie rides his bike around town a lot but sometimes he gets tired and I end up carrying it, while I push Max in the stroller.  This wagon is awesome for taking walks and I never have to fight the kids to get in.

This was before I put it together.  They were pretending it was a boat, and Ollie was using the "oar" to fight off sharks and pirates, quite the imagination on that kid.

There were lots of T-ball/softball games last week.  We enjoy walking over after dinner and watching.

 I always get these grand ideas of fun things to do with the kids, but most of the time I realize my kids are just too young (does anyone else do that?).  One of these ideas was a lemonade stand.  I thought Ollie would totally love it.  We made cookies and muffins and lemonade. While Ollie had fun, he wasn't THAT into it.  It was more work for me.  I had fun visiting with people I know and meeting new people and we made $20.  In a couple years they will love it and it will be a business (and tithing) lesson.

 That afternoon we headed to the pool.  My boys are kind of wussy when it comes to water.  They love it once the warm up to the idea (last year in Mexico Ollie couldn't get enough of the water), but they take awhile to warm up.  This afternoon I had SO MUCH FUN.  Seriously, I haven't had that much fun swimming in a really long time.  I played with some of the young girls we know and we thought it would be fun to take pics.  I don't mean to toot my own horn (but toot toot), I earned a lot of cred with the girls at the pool :)

Trying to catch a ball.

Front flip.

 Not sure what was going on here.

 Backflip (and no I did not belly flop).