Just kidding! It's cooling down!

Colorado weather is absolutely insane!  Last week we were pulling out our shorts and sunscreen.  Today I had to dig out the snow gear.  I don't think Colorado realizes that there are only two days of school left before SUMMER VACATION!  Never did I believe that we would be building the first snowman of our new house in May.  Not only one, but two!  And there was enough snow to keep going if we weren't all soaked through.  Happy May 21st!  Happy summer vacation??

It's warming up

Warm weather is starting to creep up on us.  Yippee!  We are celebrating by spending more time outside.  

Daxton, for one, needs as much outside time as we can possibly give him.  This picture came just minutes after he was throwing a full-blown tantrum about apple juice instead of an ice-cream cone.  We took our food outside, and out of nowhere he turned to me and said, "I love you Mom."  This kid gives me whiplash!

We are riding bikes around the neighborhood.  There was a neighborhood garage sale this day and it felt like the most suburban Saturday afternoon I could imagine.  Everyone was outside visiting with neighbors, riding their bikes, working in the yard, and generally enjoying a fabulous weekend.

Going to parks and climbing like monkeys.  

Hanging out in the hammock.  We finally have trees big enough to hang our hammock from and the kids are definitely making the most of it.

And eating popsicles.  The kids can't wait for school to be out this week so that this all happens every day.

Racing coast to coast

Jeremy and I had a very unique race weekend.  We traveled to the airport together but hopped on different flights.  He flew out to race in Santa Rosa, California, and I flew out to Panama City Beach, Florida.  

We were both traveling completely alone which made for a different kind of Ironman race.  To make it feel like we were still part of each other's race, we did a lot of facetime calling.  We put out bikes up together, pulled together our gear bags together, and even enjoyed our feast of a breakfast on Friday morning together.  I had a full kitchen so I was able to prepare my meal without too much fuss.  Jeremy on the other hand had to get very creative and cooked all of his meal in a microwave.  

My room overlooked the beach and I loved listening to the waves crashing on the shore. 

Beautiful sunsets.

Jeremy's room was itty bitty and filthy.  I definitely had the better end of the deal there.  I'm surprised there was room for Jeremy in there once he unpacked his gear.

Jeremy's favorite part of race prep are his tattoos for his kids.

The excitement at gear check-in is so invigorating!  I love that part of the day.  Jeremy's race had racks this year and he said it was slick.

My race started hours earlier than Jeremy's so he was able to see my first bike split halfway through the ride before he even left setting up transition.  Gulf Coast 70.3 was supposed to be the race where I earned my Nice spot.  Since I earned it in Oceanside, however, there was no pressure on this race at all.  I had some flexibility to experiment a little with my racing, and I started my race with almost no butterflies at all.  The swim was rough.  I managed to push past the breakers with not much difficulty, but then the swells the rest of the swim were larger than I've ever swam in.  I was up and down, up and down, up and down.  When I finally made it out of the water I was tired, and that's unusual.  My bike was supposed to be the experiment part of the race: how hard could I push myself on the bike and not collapse on the run.  For the first time ever, no girl passed me right away.  In fact, I only saw one girl pass me and that was a girl I rode with for the first 30 miles.  She and her friend were super friendly on the bike and they found me after the race to introduce themselves.  I now have two new triathlon friends; Alexis Dunn and Rachel Allen.  Yea for friends!  We rode together on the way out and I was feeling fast.  There was a headwind on the way back in and by then I was feeling tired.  Those last ten miles took forever.  Onto the run I passed Alexis pretty quickly because I was feeling good.  That lasted for two short miles before I started to fade.  I don't know if it was my bike or the heat/humidity but I knew I was in for a rough run.  I walked through the aid stations pretty early on and that's all I allowed myself.  I knew I was positioned really well and that I might take first.  I was not going to lose the podium because I was too tired to run.  On the third lap another girl passed me, Samantha Mazer.  She looked strong and I couldn't hold that pace.  I let her go and tried not to give up.  I was so relieved when I finally crossed that finish line.  I went to the medical tent so they could help me cool off and help me stop feeling dizzy.  Once I felt comfortable enough to walk I went to grab my phone to check my ranking.  I took 2nd!  I admit I was very surprised, and a tad disappointed it wasn't a first place finish.  

Gulf Coast 70.3. Swim (32:20), T1 (2:34), Bike (2:25:56), T2 (1:13), Run (1:52:38), Final (5:04:31)

I also checked Jeremy's tracker to see how Jeremy was doing.  We knew it wasn't going to be a fast race for him because his training seriously suffered with the move and he was sick before flying out.  I was happy to see his swim look pretty normal, and his bike splits so far were slow, but steady.  I tracked him the rest of the afternoon and watched as he finished the bike, started his run, then become slower and slower.  When he finally crossed that finish I was so relieved and proud.  I was really nervous about the phone call I was going to receive.  What emotions was Jeremy feeling?  I was so relieved when he sounded incredibly cheerful and upbeat.  He said that it was one of the most fun he'd ever had at an Ironman race.  He raced for fun and loved it.  He helped other athletes with their flat tires.  He talked to runners who were struggling.  He helped first timers make it through the race.  He was happy, and I was very happy.  He said he actually had a volunteer check the app during T2 to see how I did, and that was fun for him.

Ironman Santa Rosa. Swim (1:11:38), T1 (4:53), Bike (5:40:54), T2 (3:49), Run (4:26:02), Final (11:27:16)

That afternoon I went to the awards ceremony and received my trophy.  I'm definitely enjoying that growing collection.  Pro Jason Pohl was a pal and took this picture for me.  

I also waited with Alexis to see if she earned one of the Nice spots.  She was a nervous wreck.  She earned one of the Women for Tri spots and was so excited.  We went to dinner together that night and I celebrated by buying a smoothie in this crazy souvenir cup.  

As I predicted, the kids were super excited to drink out of it once I brought it home.  

Jeremy went to the roll down ceremony the next day and said it was very exciting.  There were a lot of first time spots given out and the energy was contagious.  Our racing friend, Matt Tatum, finally earned his Kona spot and was definitely celebrating too.  After the roll down ceremony Jeremy took his time driving back to San Francisco.  He drove down Highway 1 in his super charged Dodge Charger and said it was an incredibly picturesque drive in an incredibly fast car.  Looks like fun!  

So while it wasn't a normal race weekend for us, I would still say it was a successful race weekend.

Moving...

Had anyone told me how energy zapping moving would be, I probably would have kind of believed them but not really understood it.  It's like being sleep deprived with a newborn.  Until you experience it yourself you don't really understand.  As I'm trying to frantically catch up on my blog, I'm looking at the dates and realizing that it's May.  The spring is completely gone.  Somehow the stress of selling, packing, repairing, purging, renovating, and moving made those last three months completely disappear.  We've been in the house three weeks not and I feel like things are finally beginning to settle.  Actually, I think I'm just completely wiped out and might have a mental break down here any day unless I surrender and stop trying to get everything exactly right, right now.  Here is some photographic proof of what we have been living through with the move.

This was the first night we had the keys.  The kids could not wait to see the new house.  Cambrie had been in once to help Julie move some boxes, but McKenzie had never been inside.  This is the beginning of a new chapter in their lives.

The boys were over at the house with me a lot as I tried to talk to contractors and made sure the work was done right.  We needed to paint the entire house and recarpet.  There were a lot of decisions that needed to be made and I kept second guessing my choices all the way up to move in.  One of the more stressful changes was that we decided to move the laundry room down to the basement so that we could install a mudroom right next to the garage.  These cabinets came from the mudroom.  Not a bad place to play while the grown-ups talked.

Here we are at the beginning of the painting project.  I didn't take enough before and after pictures and I regret that.  In this picture they've already painted all the trim white.  Before it was a honey oak similar to that cabinet in the picture above.

Being mom's helper through this whole process means that Daxton had to run a lot of errands with me.  The little guy was a trooper but every so often it was just too much and he had to crash somewhere.

Things were in chaos in the old house as well as the new.  Because I was torn in so many different directions I didn't always have enough energy, or mental energy, to deal with normal life that was still going on.  I can't remember exactly what activities we had going on this day, but by the time 10:30 rolled around I was beat.  I looked at my kitchen and didn't even know where to start.  Instead I sat down and ate Scooby snacks dipped in Nutella.

For awhile I tried to take care of packing things bit by bit.  I would focus on dejunking the toys, then the linen closet, then the winter stuff, then the sewing room, then all the framed pictures.  It worked for awhile and then when I unpacked I knew I didn't have a lot of junk to get rid of (I already made a dozen trips to ARC and Precious Child), and it was easier to find homes for the stuff in the new house.  We reached a point though when we were out of time and things just started getting thrown into boxes.  Those are the boxes downstairs in a pile that I can't even think about sorting through just yet.

The boys still found ways to keep life fun and interesting.  I'm so glad they had the ability to do that because it was definitely a marathon.  My mom helped them build a fort with the boxes we had packed up.

The girls were just as anxious as I was for things to start coming together at the new house.  Our timeline gave us an extra week for hiccups in the plan and we ended up using every last day.  One day after church we went over and installed the kids' light fixtures.  It was a great boost of energy to keep us going because the end was in sight.  It also helped when I had to deal with a carpenter who kept disappearing when he was supposed to be building my mudroom cabinets; when I had to arrange for a contractor to come and move the entire laundry room because Jeremy simply didn't have enough time; when I had to call an HVAC guy to come in immediately to move some vents before the carpet went in; when I had to juggle sheetrock guys, painters, inspectors, realtors, and a carpet guy who kept delaying installation until the night before we moved in. 

This is when things started really getting real, once we emptied out closets, dressers, and bedrooms.  The night before we moved the sleeping arrangements were creative to say the least.  The beds had all been taken apart by amazing sisters from the Relief Society, so the girls ended up sharing one twin bed, and the boys shared one twin bed.  They couldn't quite decide if it was funny or annoying.

Moving day itself was busy, busy, busy.  The movers arrived around 10 and as we walked around the old house showing them the plan, I was depressed to see just how much I still needed to put in a box.  As they loaded the truck, I frantically boxed stuff up.  I couldn't have done any of it though without my mom.  She was simply amazing.  I'd go upstairs to talk to the movers, come back down and find that the entire storage room was boxed up.  Or I'd make my kids a sandwich and discover that she had unpacked the food storage room in the new space.  She was crazy efficient and I really, really don't think I would have been able to move without her help.  Because it was a close move the movers ended up making three different trips.  When they initially gave me their estimate of 8-9 hours I didn't believe it.  There's no way we had that much stuff!  I was wrong.  7:00 rolled around and they still weren't done.  They weren't slacking by any means, in fact they were amazing workers, we really did just have that much stuff.  The first two loads they were really good about taking all of the boxes into the rooms where they belonged.  By that third load though we were out of time and they just dumped it all into the new garage.  We had boxes surrounding us for nearly a week.  Luckily Ryan came out the next day to help with all this leftover work.  He and Jeremy finished cleaning out the old garage, sorted through the new garage, and began organizing the garage.  Having him out that weekend made a huge difference.  

It's amazing what a simply table can do.  Daxton had really been feeling lost and unsettled, but once we set up the table he sat right down like he was home.

We still needed a permanent table for the space and Daxton was the lucky one who got to go shopping with us while we decided what to do.

We had been in the house about a week when Laura Sosa brought these over.  We'll really miss her as a neighbor.  She was so kind to the kids and we loved seeing her outside walking her dogs.  Having her over at the new house brought us one step closer to this house feeling like home.  Our stuff is here, but now we need memories and friends.

We finally received word that the new tenants were moving into the house, which meant it was our last night to say goodbye.  I had to go in one last time to vacuum a couple corners and once I finished I finally cried.  All the memories from the Happy Birthday decorations, to the applesauce on the walls, to the preschool artwork hanging up, to the places where the kids used to play hide and seek came rushing back at me.  It was such a perfect little house.  It felt like home from the first time we walked inside, and still feel like home even when it's empty.  I went to pick up the kids to get a final picture with them in front.  A lot has changed since we moved in seven years ago.  

I had forgotten to lock the front door and so the kids let themselves in.  They gave the house a hug goodbye then cried the entire drive home.  I laughed then because I had already cried and it was a bit funny watching them in complete hysterics.  But I get it, it's hard to say goodbye.  Almost harder because we'll still be so close and we'll see it so often.  I really hope the new family loves it as much as we do.  I wonder what they'll do to the kids' rooms?  I wonder if they'll paint or take down the chandelier?  I wonder if they'll love and appreciate the doorbell on their little hut under the stairs?  So many questions.

And as we settle in I try to wrap my head around the reasons we moved.  The reasons why we put ourselves and our family into the energy zapping journey.  When I see the boys run around the backyard like this it just feels right.  The new space that we can grow into and make new memories, bigger memories. 

Compliments of Denver Post

Risas was chosen as one of the top 10 places to work in Denver!  Well of course, we could have told you that.  They honored the top 150 workplaces by having a fancy dinner down at the Hyatt.  Jeremy was going with John to represent the company, then we decided to ask if I could tag along.  John gave up his spot to finish some bookkeeping (super exciting), and I was able to go.  It was fun getting dressed up (even with only 5 minutes notice), and spend some time with Jeremy. 

The dinner was good, and I had to take pictures of the gold sparkles on dessert for McKenzie.  I have to say it was definitely better than spaghetti back home.