TEXAS!!

We had quite the long Fall Break this year. I'll explain. My friend that lives in the Dallas/Fort Worth area (which btw, is like saying the Salt Lake/Provo area- they are not close together), her hubby is in the Air Force and is in Qatar for a year (left last April-won't be home til April). They will be moving when he gets home, so I was thinking of going to go out for our UEA break (long weekend) with the kids. Then Darren says, I think BYU is playing in Dallas in October this year. They were. So, we turned it into our family vacation this year. Plus, I did not want to go there in the summer...too HOT!
Well, we got in Saturday night. Amber was so generous to come pick us up from the airport (we couldn't all fit in one car, so she had to get a babysitter to do so-too nice-and she let us use one of their cars all week, since it's "extra" AND she let us stay at their house. Seriously. So great. I've known her since 4th grade-how many years is that??) We spent Sunday relaxing-her kids had their Primary program-very glad to hit that. Pro Football day, so Darren went to the Cowboys game (vs Rams). The kids got along so well; the genders are opposite-her older is a boy and second is a girl-but they played boys and girls better than ages. Her third is a girl like Aubs, but a year older. And she likes babies, so it worked out well.

We hit Monday by going to downtown Dallas. This is the JFK memorial.

This is the 6th floor window he was shot from (there's a museum-we didn't go to)

Aubrey doesn't know she's a baby. This was not a nice part of town.

We went to the State Fairgrounds. The fair had just ended that weekend, but that might have been overwhelming for us. They have permanent museums there and one was an aquarium. It wasn't too busy so this guy was showing the kids some personal attention and teaching them about the things in this tank. This is the horseshoe crab.

Aubrey makes friends where ever we go

Feeding/Petting/otherwise bothering the Sting Rays

Tuesday: we went on a tour of the Cowboys Stadium. This place is insane. This TV goes from the 20 yard line to the 20 yard line. 60 YARDS long. It's the biggest in the world-and was like 36 million dollars. To hang from the ceiling. At a football stadium. To show the game that is playing directly beneath it.
Part of the tour was the locker room. Yes, we tried on jerseys. Yes, we took pictures of it.

The fam on the field. We found a chatty employee and had him take the picture. You can only see about 1/2 the levels in this-it goes much higher. Cool to be on the field. It's astro turf-but really rubbery. They had already put the "college turf" down-so no star in the middle.

Wednesday: We headed to Fort Worth. They have an historical district which has stockyards. With some shops and a maze and other general old-timey fun. This little rodeo area had a fun "remote controlled" rides (the guy has just as much fun controlling them as the kids riding, I am sure). Trevor chose the long horn. (What the state is famous for!)

Rachel chose the bull. A little rougher ride because it also went up and down.

The main street (in the historic district) That's Amber's girl on the right. (not some random stranger)

Thursday: We went to this insanely huge mall called Grapevine Mills. It has a Legoland Discovery center. (Not like an amusement park; think more children's museum with Lego theme). We spent hours there. It wasn't too crowded and so we just stayed and played. Really fun. Would have been my nephew Henry's dream! Again, Aubrey doesn't know she's a baby.

Daddy and Rach building stuff.

Rach and Trev posing in what they built. This is a very small sample of what we did there at Legoland. But it's already a long post!

We went to dinner with some old friends who live in the "area" too. (I use that loosely because nothing is really "in the area." It's all "Texas-sized," a fact that the residents are all too proud of! It's funny, everything is spread out and you are on freeways A LOT. Thank goodness for GPS!) It was nice to see them and their kids too. They haven't lived in UT since he left for law school-like 7 years ago?

Friday: we went to the Bureau of Printing and Engraving. But no pictures allowed! You can't even bring in phones or any bags. Of course, where they make our money is going to have tight security! It was cool tour and I wish I had pictures, but oh well! Then we packed up and went to dinner. Some fine Mexican at a place called "Chuy's" We were in our shirts-ready for the game!

Back to Cowboys stadium for the BYU vs TCU game. Amber was so nice and offered to watch Aubs. Better that way, since it was late and she would have just been a monkey. I was looking forward to Fall football without freezing my tushie off but they opened the roof and it was pretty cold! We had an annoying TCU fan take our pic (seriously he was annoyed he couldn't swear because my kids were right in front of him but I do appreciate that he kept it PG). Awesome experience-embarrassing loss :(

We came home Saturday. What a week!

Last Half

That is to say, last half-marathon, this year. October 15th was a beautiful day here in Utah, and I started the day by running 13.1 miles. Sounds like fun you say? It was! Allison and I run together many mornings but we don't race together (she is much faster than me :) ) But her little break (not 9 months, more like 4-6 weeks) from running helped her to slow to my pace and so we ran the race together. It was good; I actually think it was pushing me to be faster. I had a PR (personal record) time of 1:52 (previous PR time was 1:59). The venue was nice-really took care of you food wise and stuff at the end (thanks Chick-fil-A and Winder Dairy).
As part of the event they had a kids race and my kids really wanted to do it. They were super excited to get shirts and bib #'s (Trev!) and be allowed to eat the race food (they try to always do it, and I am always trying to stop them!). Super cute-we finished in enough time to see them run-I offered to run with them, but they politely declined. Really, they did great. If I get some training in them, I am sure they could do a 5K. It's just hard to pace themselves, but we could definitely do it. And they are interested.

No finish line pics-but we have our finishers medals. We finished strong in our age category with 4th and 5th place-.2 seconds different

Kids-toward the end of their race

Finish line for T!

Ribbons (in their T's and with bib #'s on)-so cute!!

The other kids-their friends-who did the race too. Was only $10 and I had a coupon code that made it five-totally worth it!

Fall Finale

I competed in a(nother) triathlon yesterday. This concludes my tri race season (and one more race this year-1/2 marathon next Saturday). It was the same event that was in April, but the bike got canceled for SNOW. This race series starts and ends with the same course. Fun idea,so I signed up for both. Benny did this one with me. Thanks tri, buddy :) The bike was iffy (whether it would happen or not this time) until about 10 minutes before the race started. There was standing water on the course and safety first. Well, the swim portion was in the pool at Kearns (Oquirrh Park Fitness Center)-8 lanes of 50 so you snake up and down for 400M. The pool is good compared to open water but it's also tricky to deal with going under lane lines and around others (and others going around you). Then you grab your slippers (yeah, it was that cold so that's what I brought instead of flip flops) and jacket and get your socks and bike shoes on. And a hat. And gloves. And wish you had a tissue because the snot has started to flow. TMI? Then you go for what seem like 10 of 12 miles uphill, while your toes are in danger of breaking off....only a slight exaggeration. I thought my personal time was just okay on this because I am not the strongest cyclist. Then I changed my shoes again and headed out for the run. My feet felt like bricks. You always have heavy legs transitioning from bike to run, but because of the frozen toes, it was a little worse. But it's okay, because I had a good run time and finished strong. You never know quite where you are because everyone has their own start time (you line up at the pool and start about 5 seconds apart) so, I was pleased that I got 3rd in my age. Total time was 1:36-my swim was about 12 min, the bike 57 and the run under 25. So fun that we stuck around for the medals ceremony and Darren took a pic. He came and brought the kids. So nice to have my little fam there. Benny did awesome-3rd in his age too. He passed me on the bike (of course) but I caught up on the run. These ladies had much better bike times too. Guess I know where there's room for improvement. Next time!!