I AM A TRIATHLETE!

Or at least a mini-triathlete. :)

I survived the St. Anthony's Meek & Mighty Triathlon last weekend. Actually, I did more than survive - check this out!

That's right. I got 3rd place in my age group! And no, there were not just 3 people in my age group. :) I got 3rd out of 9 women age 24-29! I have NEVER been so proud of myself.

The triathlon was the MOST fun I have ever had doing an athletic event. I was terrified the night before, running around like a crazy woman, stressing about every little thing. I woke up at 4:50am (ten minutes before my alarm) and was READY to go! I ate some toast, almond butter and banana (my favorite pre-race breakfast) and then...got really sick to my stomach. Uhoh. Nerves maybe? But my sisters and my friend Katie were picking me up at 5:30am so I gathered myself and was ready to go when they got there. After fighting to add my bike to the already full bike rack, we headed downtown.

One of the best things about this race? Being local. We took the back roads to the starting line and were able to park RIGHT by the race start. SWEET. We grabbed our bikes and our bags and headed to the transition area. First we were body marked. I felt soooo cool at this point. I actually LOOKED like a triathlete! We headed into transition and were thrilled with our placement. I was on the end of a rack and we were all toward the bike start end of transition. This meant a much longer time running after the swim, but I didn't mind! We got all our gear set up and then headed to the pool. (Yes, the picture is from after the race - sorry!)

The breakdown for this mini tri was:

200 yard pool swim

5.4 mile bike ride

1 mile run

And it was PERFECT. We all lined up on the pool deck and my nerves were racing through my veins. They started each swimmer about 10 seconds apart and I was 65th in the pool. As soon as people started jumping in, I felt better. I was afraid I would be the worst swimmer out there. Not even close. I saw every stroke known to man - even a few I think were created right there in the pool! I jumped in and quickly started passing people. Then I quickly got passed by my friends Katie and KellyAnn. They have been swimmers all their life. And it showed. We swam "serpentine" - up one lane, under the rope, back the next lane. I tried to keep count, but thought I still had two laps to go when I saw the stairs! SWEET! I got out of the pool and ran toward transition.

Transition went really well. I decided to forego a shirt, so I just threw on my workout capris (with my race number already pinned to them), put shoes and socks on, grabbed my helmet and headed out of transition. I got on my bike too early though and had to get off and walk/run it to the "start bike" line. Whoops. Once I was out on the bike course, I felt GREAT. I had only ridden one time in training (yikes) but I think all the spin classes really helped! I started flying by people on my little mountain bike. I really gained some ground on the bike and enjoyed most of it - except the awful head wind we had to deal with for most of the ride!

I kept thinking "Keep pushing - after this, all you have to do is run ONE mile!" I got to transition with a big grin on my face. I had no idea how I was doing time-wise, but I felt great! I racked my bike, took off my helmet, threw on a baseball cap, and headed out on my run. Oh and I took a nice swig of Gatorade too - I needed it! I started running and...felt like I was running in quicksand. Holy crap. I'm a slow runner anyway, but I felt like I had lead in my shoes! I just kept pushing through. I couldn't stop smiling. I felt so proud of myself! I was sure I was running a 15 minute mile, but I didnt care. I just kept going. And then...I was rounding the last curve. My dad was there cheering me on as he had been at every point during the race. Those cheers mean SOOOO much to me! And then there it was - the FINISH LINE! I raced toward it (in my mind I was flying - in reality, it was a slow jog - haha). I finished with a HUGE smile. The announcer even commented about my smile. I couldn't believe it. I AM A TRIATHLETE!

I ran around for the next half hour, cheering on my friends and sisters and everyone did a GREAT job. My friend KellyAnn finished first in our age division - no suprise there!

Friends...

Sisters!

Here is my overall time/split time:

Overall time: 42:31! (I was hoping for under 45 minutes - I crushed my goal!)

Swim: 5:05 (better than I thought it would be)

T1: 3:39 (need to improve on this!)

Bike: 21:53 (averaged 14.8 mph - not bad!)

Run: 10:46 (actually REALLY good for me - especially since it was so hard!)

If anyone is thinking about doing a triathlon, I would HIGHLY recommend doing a mini tri like this one. I've already signed up for my next one - May 22! I'll give you the details of that one soon, but it will be a step up in difficulty from this one. And I can't wait!!

Anyone else out there thinking about doing a triathlon?

I'm Such a Tease

Still no photos of the new house. Sorry...

I know it will never be "perfect" but there are a few more pictures I want to be hung before I share the photos with you. Please be patient with me. :)

We had a fairly productive evening last night. I made trips to Target, TJ Maxx and Bed, Bath & Beyond to get some new items for the house. Thankfully we still have some giftcards left over from the wedding (and a new one from my boss as a housewarming gift!) so most of the things I bought were paid for. Love those giftcards!

My husband and I made it back to the gym this morning. I hope we can make this a habit. It is so nice to come home from work and be DONE with the whole working out thing. :) I'm back to "Miss Lab"'s workout on Weddingbee. I love it. It's a nice combination of weights and cardio and I think (read: hope) it's something I can stick with.

So now that I have all that out of the way...how about a little more wedding recap for you??

Remember the wreaths my family was working on? Wreaths that at one time looked like this?

Here's how they turned out!

You can see them in the background here, on the doors into the reception hall:

You all already knew this, but I have one talented family! :)

Let There Be...Dessert!

Warnings: If you are craving sweets, this post will not help!

And so continues my disjointed, out of order recaps. :)

This was one of my absolute favorite parts of the wedding reception. There was a room just off the main ballroom that we closed off during dinner. Unbeknownst to our guests - this is where the dessert was hiding!

Check out this spread!

Some of you may remember all my dilemmas about the cake. I was so happy with how it turned out! Oh and my cake topper dilemma? Love how that turned out too!

We had a family friend make her famous brownies...

Grandma made her snickerdoodles...

Littlest Sister made her carrot cake cupcakes...

And when those doors finally opened, it seemed as though there was a collective gasp. Everyone was amazed! Including me - I hadn't seen the finished product until that moment. I couldn't have been happier (as you can tell from this cheesy smile photo). :)

WHOOHOOO! Look at all those desserts!!!! :)


Next up? The cake cutting...to smash or not to smash? :)

One of My Favorite Details

I haven't talked about this detail on my blog because, well, I wanted it to be a suprise for our guests! When our guests arrived at their table, they saw this:

We had tucked a card titled "A Wedding Wish" inside their napkin. It was a note in the "mad lib" style for our guests to fill out. Unfortunately, the pens didn't work too well. But most of our guests still managed to fill them out. We received some HILARIOUS responses as well as some words of wisdom that we will treasure forever!

Did you have any suprise details for your guests?

Family Portrait Time!

My husband and I are blessed with wonderful families. These families also happen to be rather BIG! And we love it that way. Here are a few of our family photos from the wedding:

My mom's family:


My dad's family:



My mother-in-law's family! (And this isn't even CLOSE to being everyone!)

My father-in-law's family:

My husband's family...

Our parents and us...

And my family. But this photo always makes me a bit sad. As you know, my little sister is missing from the photo. It's just not right without her. We are still praying that God will do a miracle.

Here we are with our precious godson, Gavin (who we also happen to be babysitting tonight!)

Our wedding party!

Awwwww.

HOORAY!!! :)

The classic:

And another one of my favorites from the wedding. This photo is currently my desktop background at work. Love it!

Whew! Thank you for letting me introduce my family (and my new family!) to you!

Anyone else out there have big families like me??

Completely Out of Order...Our Rehearsal!

I think I might just have the most disjointed, jumbled up recaps ever. Whoops! Hope you all don't mind. Lets take a step back and talk about the wedding rehearsal!

I have always wanted to wear my mom's veil for my wedding...but I just couldn't find a dress that suited me AND the veil. My solution? Wear it to the rehearsal!



Let me tell you a little backstory on why I thought this was such a good idea - beyond just the sentiment of it. When my cousin got married, my littlest sister Ashlyn was the ring bearer. She did great at rehearsal, walking from the bride's side to the groom's side with the rings...right behind the bride. No one took into account the long train the bride would have on her wedding day! Well, the wedding is going along beautifully, and it is time for Ashlyn to present the rings. She is standing on the bride side, knowing she has to get to the groom's side. So what does she do? She take a little running start and JUMPS OVER THE TRAIN! Luckily she cleared it! Whew! It was the funniest/scariest thing. Can you imagine if she had landed on the dress? Oh goodness!

It was great practicing with a train - helped me realize the difficulties I would have moving around with all that dress behind me!

Our rehearsal was a great success. Everyone was on time, everything went the way it was supposed to...perfect! Here's a nice laugh from me and Dad...


Our Bear Bearer is obviously bored. :) But you can see a glimpse of my fabulous red peeptoe pumps I wore in this picture!



We're ready!!!!!

Practicing the walk in...I think I teared up more at the rehearsal than I did at the wedding. This is when it hit me - we are really getting married!!!!!!!!!!!

My husband and Dad, practice the "hand off".


Our Rehearsal Dinner was tons of fun. We had about fifty people there, but it still felt so intimate. We loved spending time with our friends and family.

Our godson/Bear Bearer's mom gave us these shirts. The front says "The Bride" or "The Groom" and the back has our names. Love them!

Friends and family...


Gavin & "Uncle Nate"

My beautiful nephew!!!

A not so great photo of me, but let me just tell you, I absolutely LOVED my dress! It is a Suzi Chin and it is on sale right now at Nordstroms! Less than $60! Go get it!!!


This may be the only photo I have of my bridesmaids' gifts. I made these! They are towel wraps, with ribbon added on and their monogrammed pin. I had hoped to get a photo of the girls in them but it didn't happen. Oh well!

And there you have it...our wedding rehearsal and dinner! Did yours go as smoothly as mine??

One of My Favorites

This picture is absolutely one of my favorites from the whole wedding. To the blog browser, it may not look like much. Allow me to explain.



About fifteen years ago, I first caught sight of my future husband in this very room. We were in sixth grade, and it was my first night at his youth group. I remember seeing him, sitting against that wall, with a red pick in his hand, having a smart comment for everything the youth pastor said. Not much has changed. :) I had no idea that night that he would someday be my husband. Amazing how God works!

We were married in that same church, so this is a photo I always dreamed of having. Thank you to my talented photographer, Audrey Snow, for capturing it so beautifully!

And It's Time!!!!

Where did we leave off? Oh yes...time to walk down the aisle!!!

The doors opened, and I saw my groom with the biggest smile on his face.

My Daddy and I walked in the doors and headed down the aisle.

My poor groom didn't know what to do with his hands. He kept rubbing them together, rubbing them together...

I love this shot of him and his big brother Nick.

My Mom had one request when it came to my bouquet - she wanted a daisy. See, daisies have always been my flower. This was my way to honor her as I walked down the aisle. I had a gerbera daisy that I carried with my bouquet, but not actually in the bouquet. Unfortunately, I was squeezing the bouquet so tightly that the stem snapped! I handed her my tiny little flower and we laughed together. :)




And then it was time for Daddy's big moment. "Who gives this woman to be married to this man?" "Her mother and I".

He kissed me on my cheek...

Hugged his soon-to-be son-in-law...


And he joined my hand with my groom's. I love these photos. It is so symbolic of my Daddy welcoming my new husband into our family.

And then, it was time for the marriage covenant! Our Pastor (who has known us for YEARS) had a wonderful sermon to share, all about how marriage is a choice and love is a choice. It was important to both of us to have our vows read, "I choose you..." and he really explained this. It was wonderful.

I love this photo of us praying together. It speaks so much to our faith.

The church looked so beautiful.

I love the photos of my groom as he says his vows.

And I love this photo of my parents, watching approvingly.

Beautiful.

Nate's brothers and friend Gavin looking on...

Another wonderful photo. But it cracks me up that you can see our Pastor's "script" inside his Bible. :) At some point we took Communion, but we don't have any pictures of that. (Boo.) As I've said before, it was probably my absolute favorite moment of the whole ceremony.

Oooh. Another one of my favorite moments. We had a "family blessing" instead of a unity candle. Each of us had an uncle speak - mine spoke about the importance of faith and family in our lives, and then his uncle said a prayer as our parents surrounded us. It was beautiful.

And then...it was time to kiss the bride!!!

My husband likes to make fun of me, because after he kissed me, I grabbed his face and kissed him again. One kiss wasn't enough. :)

"Introducing, for the very first time...Mr. & Mrs. august15! :)

Hooray!!!!!!

We all walked out of the sanctuary and into a smaller room. On the way in, my new brother-in-law stepped on my dress and I heard a "RIIPPPP!" I almost died. But I think just one of the "pickups" in my skirt came out because we really couldn't see any tear. WHEW!!!

I love this photo of me and my new sister-in-law!!!

Wow...I love re-living all of this with you!! Thanks for letting me share my stories with you!