McMinnville City Triathlon

After spending the night at my brother's house we headed to McMinnville, Tennessee for my first triathlon. The race consisted of a 200 meter swim, 11.5 mile bike ride and a 2 mile run. Here we are right before the race began. Some of our friends from Paris came to race as well: Ray and Rhonda Compton and Melody and her family. You can't tell from the picture, but I was REALLY nervous at this point!!

I am in the blue swim cap. I included this picture because moments later this big guy to my left swam on top of me. It was awesome.



The entire family after the race. The boys are pointing to their numbers because they are about to compete in their triathlon.
We had three families from Paris at the race. If you take the Paris Post Intelligencer with you and capture a picture they will print it in the paper. Stay tuned for that!
The boys are waiting for their race to begin.
Clayton is running as fast as he can. He totally has Fred's sense of competition.

Jack grinned the entire time he was racing. We was intense. We had to tell him the race was over before he stopped running. Too cute!
Once everything was over we got to swim at the city pool in McMinnville. There were three water slides and several water features. It was a great city pool. I highly recommend it!
I convinced Clayton to jump off the high dive. He was a little timid, but he did it. I was so proud of him! He got to do it twice and then we had to leave.
After the race they served peanut butter sandwiches, bananas, oranges and BBQ sandwiches. I was hungry, but I can't eat BBQ after a race. Other people were literally shoveling BBQ and slaw at 10:30 in the morning!! Whew...I just took a peanut butter sandwich, banana and some oranges. I later went back and they were all out of BBQ. When we finally left we were all hungry. On the recommendation of my brother we stopped at the most amazing restaurant! Fred and I split a Chicken Pesto Pizza and a Greek salad. If you are ever on I-24 around exit 111 you should stop at J & G Pizza. It is awesome!!

Five on Friday

1. Fred had the big boys by himself for a few days while I was gone. They did "boy stuff" as Jack told me. We still have a tent set up in our backyard as a result of this "boy stuff". I think they had lots of fun!

2. My triathlon is this weekend! I am so excited about it! My goal is to finish...FINISH! Right now I'm feeling pretty good about meeting my goal. I'm sure there will be a post on my race some time this weekend. Keep your fingers crossed!

3. Clayton and I (and Jack) played Chutes and Ladders this week. On his own he began adding all the numbers. For example he would be on space 15 and spin 6. Instead of counting out six spaces he would add 15 and 6 in his head and then move to the appropriate spot. He loved it and continued to add like this until he eventually won the game. Impressive!!

4. Jack is generally a happy fella. Lately when he gets excited about something (it doesn't take much) he does the cutest thing. He does a fist pump and says, "Yes!" in a whispery voice. It is just priceless!! For example this response is evoked when I tell him we are having toast for breakfast or that we are going to the grocery store together...simple things, but he gets so excited!

5. Andrew and I made it fine to Sioux Falls for my cousins graduation. He did not sleep well in the motel and by Saturday evening he was running a low grade fever. He did not feel good at all. In fact he cried most of the way home. When we walked through the door of our house he flashed the most precious grin when he saw his brothers. He was so glad to see them! FYI-he had/has an ear infection in both ears.

Trip to Sioux Falls for graduation

After we celebrated the end of school we all parted ways. Fred went back to Paris. He was heading to Nashville with a group from our church to help with flood clean up. The boys and I headed to Memphis. We all slept in Memphis Friday night. Saturday we spent the day in Memphis then Mimi and Tee met us at the Shackelford's house later that day. Renee drove Mimi, Tee, Andrew and me to the airport and we flew to South Dakota. The big boys stayed in Memphis until Sunday and then were returned to Paris. Whew! That was a lot of moving around!! On to our trip...below Andrew is pictured during his first plane ride.

Here is the entire crew ready for the graduation ceremonies!

Thanks to Lynn, Jim and Richard for being such wonderful hosts!

Awards Day and Family Celebration

Clayton's school has Award's Day each year. The picture below is Clayton doing his best attempt to not smile. We are so proud of him and all he has accomplished academically. More than academics though, we are proud of the young man he is maturing into. Way to go Clayton!

After a hard year at school is there a better way to celebrate than an intense game of laser tag?!? We hit the laser tag place in Jackson after school Friday for a fun game!

Last day of First grade

Today is the last day of school for Clayton. Where has it gone?!? Since it was the last day of school we decided to let Clayton pick where he would like to go to breakfast. He picked the donut shop close to our house. Good choice! He and Jack picked a chocolate covered donut filled with chocolate icing and chocolate milk to drink. (Wow, does that make us the worst parents ever?!?)

Five on Friday

1. Fred and I love beef from Alex and Gail's cows. We bought a 1/4 of a cow over a year ago from them. It was a large cow and it took up 2/3 of a large freezer. We are down to two packages. I just got a text that our cow (processed of course) has arrived! Fred will be so excited! There is nothing like a fresh steak from Alex and Gail's farm!
2. Andrew and I are leaving for Sioux Falls, South Dakota for my cousin's high school graduation. We are going with my parents. Up until last week we were going to drive (13 hours), but thankfully we found a great deal on some airline tickets!! Sioux Falls here we come!!

3. Clayton found out yesterday who his teacher will be next year for second grade. He really wanted this teacher based on her test scores and classroom management skills...HA!! The real reason, we've determined, is that she's young and cute!! Bless his heart! Or maybe bless our hearts!
4. I got a new cell phone this week. Jack thinks it's awesome. How do I know this? Every time I use the phone he says, "Mom, your new phone is awesome! Can I hold it?" Sometimes he's hard to read. ;-)
5. Andrew woke up Wednesday morning with his first tooth! On a related note...I told Fred Tuesday night that Andrew was growing up too quickly. I decided I was going to call him Peter Pan so he would never grow up. Fred assured me of the fact that little boys that don't grow up are definitely not called Peter Pan, but something entirely different that we don't want him called. Who wouldn't want to keep this little precious little?!?

The first of many...

With three boys (four if you count Fred) I knew we would have some mishaps around the house. We have a rip in our couch, crayon on a wall, dirt everywhere, etc. etc, but this is a first. You may be asking what is the above picture? Well, it's cracked sub floor. Yes, cracked sub floor. Now you may be asking...how did that happen? I'm glad you asked. It seems that when little boys jump from the top of the slide and land just perfectly they can break the floor. When this happens the parents of the house have to crawl under the house to check the floor, take up base boards, remove carpet padding and pull back the carpet to check the damage. Once they have assessed the damage they have to fix it. I'm just going to say...It's the first of many!! But from now on, if you come to my house to play, please don't jump off the top of the slide. It's a new rule. Thanks.