Spring Break!

This race wins the record for "most clothing I've ever had to wear for a race day". There are three layers under that shell. Honorable mention for "wettest my bag has ever been after sitting in a rainy transition area during a race".

Surprised this picture wasn't just a big blur of pure speed racing by, but I guess Chad really cranked up that shutter speed in order to catch me

I think Brandon's face pretty well sums up the spectator experience for this race

The boys are on spring break this week, and thankfully we've had lots of good weather and have been able to do lots of fun stuff! We've done a few park days, and today we took an early train into the city and went to the aquarium. That place was crazy insane packed by the time we left, but not too bad for the bulk of our visit. The boys just love taking the train in, and I think anything we do after that is sort of secondary! It was also Earth Day today, so we got to check out a bunch of the proceedings going on to celebrate around the city. And get some free shwag.

The other big news from our week is that our brand new deck is just about complete!! The contractors have been working on it since Tuesday.. they tore out almost everything of the old deck and then rebuilt it using a composite material, Trex. It looks so good! I can't wait to put it to use! The kids keep saying, "and we won't get splinters anymore!" They have loved having the workmen around all week, so it worked out quite nicely that the work was done during vacation week. I know that Chad has been taking some "before" and "during" shots of the construction, so I'll have to post some of those once he gets the "after" ones taken.

As you can see from the pics above, I had my first race of the season this week... a duathlon, since it's still a bit early in the game for outdoors swims (that will come in - eek - 17 days). It was a great course, located an easy drive from our house. And despite the chilly temps, rain, and my knee feeling like Nancy Kerrigan's post-beatdown during the second run leg, I had a blast. And I came in 8th female overall, which I am very proud of it because it was an extremely competitive field. Chad and the boys were real troopers for cheering me on on such a nasty day! They actually sat in the car with the heat run on for my first run leg, but Chad kept them happy by promising hot cocoa once we got home.

Well, it's Thursday, which is kitchen cleaning day. And since we left the house at 8am to take the train into the city, it is still in a state of filth. So, as much as I would love to regale the reader with more tales of my breakneck-paced lifestyle, I will instead go scrub the stovetop. And then make some fish tacos - ah yea.