St. George Vacation

Here are some fun pictures of our trip to St. George. Austin had so much fun playing with his cousins. We spent the afternoon at the pool and Austin absolutely loved it. He splashed around in his little floater toy until he was so exhausted that he just laid his head down on the toy. He looked like he was going to fall asleep right there in the pool.

Triathlon

So I have never been much of an athlete, but living so close to my brothers and my Aunt Beth and Uncle Gheen has helped me catch the fever of biking, running, and swimming. We all decided we wanted to try doing a triathlon. We signed up about two months ago to compete in a sprint triathlon down in St. George. In the race we swim 400 yards, bike 10 miles, and run 5K. As we started training for the big event I found myself really loving swimming and biking (I'm still not fully converted to the running). It was so exciting to see my strength and endurance gradually improve. It was also exciting to see the extra baby weight that I have been carrying around disappear.

Last week was the big race. We traveled down to St. George and stayed with Vance's brother and his family. The race was so much fun, but a little more challenging than we had anticipated. I finished the race in 1 hour and 28 minutes. Our goal was to finish close to an hour. My brother Tyler finished in 1 hour and 6 minutes. He did amazingly well, finishing 24th out of 300+ racers. I learned a lot about competing and transitioning between sports. I am really excited to do another race and improve my time. Vance saw how much fun we had and wants to join us next time. This time he was our designated photographer. He kept joking that didn't want us to finish too quickly because he wouldn't be able to finish his doughnuts before we were done--no, he didn't really have any doughnuts (sad day!).

A Fistful of Cake (AKA Austin's Birthday!)

Well, it's official. Austin is one year old. My baby is growing up so fast, I can't believe it. We had a fun little birthday party for him with the Gardner family and friends. My mom helped decorate a very cute train cake for Austin, but he didn't get to eat it. I made him a not so fancy cake that he could have all to himself. Not that any of us would have wanted any by the time he was done with it. He was very reluctant at first to dive into the cake. He kept looking at Vance and me as if to say, "are you really going to let me do this?" Once he took a few bites and realized what a yummy treat it was, he was eating it by the fists full. He got some pretty fun gifts. I think he has caught on to the toy idea a little more since Christmas. He ripped his packages open with no problem. He got a fun walker toy from his Grandma and Grandpa Gardner. We got a really cute video of him pushing it around the apartment. He also got his first swim suit and pool toy and a whole bunch of other great gifts! Thanks everyone!