Wipe out

The first video on here has an awesome wipe out of yours truly on her first slolam ski, ever. These pictures are from boating at St. Mary's on Alyssa's birthday. Her friend Tana is with us.after
before
Oh no! Look at that wipe out!
Rob doing tricks
Catching a bit of air

Alyssa on the slolam ski

Hemsley Visit and Heritage Days

On the same weekend as the triathlon, it was Cardston's heritage days. Michelle and her kids came up for her 20 year high school reunion. She and the kids stayed over night at our house on Friday since granny and grandpa were in Portugal. While she was at her reunion stuff on Friday, Alyssa, Tylissa, Kaylene, Sherylee and I went to the Carriage House Theater to watch Little Women--which was excellent. Michelle took the kids to the parade on Saturday while Rob supported me in the triathlon. Then we went to Cardston for the rest of the day & had dinner with Michelle's family and Ken's kids. The above pictures are swimming in the afternoon. Michelle and I took all the kids, including Mark. (Isn't he cute in the water?) We were sad to say goodbye to Sherylee and Kayden who left Saturday morning to go back to Arizona.

Raymond Triathlon, Aug 7, 2010

The Raymond triathlon was on Saturday, August 7th. I did the sprint distance 500 m swim, 20 K bike and 5 K run (which was in reality only about 4 K). I did quite a bit better than the Magrath triathlon, even though you can't compare times directly, only placing and pacing. I finished 10th of 36 overall, 5th of 22 women, and 3rd of 10 in my age group.

My swim was 10:40, which was really good for me, especially when you consider that about 35 seconds of that was walk/running to the pool and from where I exited the pool around the whole leisure section of the pool to the mat where my bike time began. In other words, I swam in about 10:05. I recently applied 2 improvements to my pull on my front crawl which took about 1 minute off my 500m swim time.

I borrowed Ken's bike a couple of weeks, and that really helped my bike time. My bike time was 45:58 which placed me 11th overall for the bike and 2nd fastest for women. This was a big change from Magrath where my bike was really slow.

My run time was 21:43 which looks good on paper for a 5 K but all the times were wicked fast, leading me to believe the distance was not reliable. I was hurting on the run, and finished 5 in my age group, and 14th overall on the run. I haven't been running much lately due to my sore feet. My overall time was 1:18:22.

Raymond did a great job on the event and I had a lot of fun. I really, really like triathlon. I wish it had a longer season and that I could do a lot more of them.

Crossing the mat to start the swim
Me swimming in the blue swim cap
Approaching the deep end.
Crossing the mat the signals the start of my official bike time. I was the first one out of the water in my heat..but the truth is I actually had the 2nd fastest time in my heat since we didn't all start at exactly the same time. I had the 8th fastest swim overall, 4th fastest for women.
Transitioning to the bike
Starting on the bike
Finishing the run

Fun with Fellow Little People

We enjoyed two different events with different people we know who have the same type of dwarfism as Austin has.

First, Nancy Webster was in the area. She lives in Washington state but is originally from Raymond and comes back here every year. Our family met her at the Smith's house. Smiths also live in Magrath and their 2 year old daughter Alyxis has achondroplasia too. We had a really nice lunch together and visited most of the afternoon. Nancy's husband has a different kind of dwarfism, and they have one son (average height) and one daughter with achondroplasia. Their kids are young adults. We met Nancys kids last year, but they were not with her this time. All these people are LDS which is pretty amazing!
Nancy, Alyxis and Austin.

A couple of days after our lunch activity, the Livingstones came to visit. They live in Edmonton and have a son, Andrew, with achondroplasia. Andrew is a year and a half younger than Austin. They also have 3 daughters, one a year older and one a year younger than Alyssa and a girl Prestons age. We visited at the house for a bit, then took their family out on our boat. We did lots of tubing and some kneeboarding, then had them over for dinner. Lvingstones are also LDS" The pictures below are of Austin and Andrew wrestling. I will let you guess who is the better wrestler. Though, I think you might agree, it is about a tie for who could be the worst fashion disaster.

Watersliding at the Findlay Reunion

This weekend was the annual Findlay Reunion (That's Rob's Grandma Berry's family). It was held at the Magrath Stake Campground a mile or so from our house. Sherylee brought Nathan and Kaylene over (she's babysitting while their parents are on holiday) and we spent the afternoon at the waterslide. We also stayed for dinner and the family auction. The kids had a lot of fun on the waterslide, and none of them realized until later how exhausted they were from running up that hill over and over. Grandma Berry was staing at the reunion, and she came and watched the kids on the waterslide for quite a while. We were also very honoured to have Grandma come to church with us this morning.

A Perfect day on the lake

On Wednesday, we took the boat to St. Mary's and it was perfect weather. The water was smooth like glass, and the weather hot. I kneeboarded and skiied and actually figured out how to get air crossing the wake on the kneeboard--now I think I'm hooked. Austin brought his friend Michael, and he had to put on a show for him by standing on the kneeboard and turning around backwards, among other tricks. At the end we took Mike, Austin and Preston on a long tube ride which started out gentle. As the kids got more confident and we clamouring for more, we took the tube over more waves, and near the end actually dumped both Austin and Mike...Preston bounced around on the tube, but didn't land in the water.

Alyssa's Swim Meets

Alyssa had swim meets in Cardston on July 17th and in Stirling on July 24th. I missed her Cardston meet because it was at the same time as the triathlon, but I am posting some pictures from the Stirling meet. Alyssa has improved her speed dramatically this year even though she hasn't swum for 10 months. I guess it is just how she has grown and gained strength with all her other sports. She got ribbons in all of her events at both meets ranging from first to fourth, with the majority being second place. Don't she and her teammates look good in their matching suits, goggles and swim caps? I am swim club president this year and I have been trying to keep them outfitted and organized.

Wasa 2010

Wasa Lake was great this year. We had mostly good weather. It stormed in the night the first night, and on the first day, it was beautiful in the morning and threatened to storm in the afternoon. The other days were nice. We returned to our campsite Monday afternoon when the storm clouds moved in. I took advantage of the time to take a nap--for 2 hours, which is pretty long for me. I guess most of the other adults did too, leaving Granny and Tracy doing activities and crafts with the kids. Thank you! Granny was impressed with Preston's interest and patience in making bead key chains (à la Napoleon Dynamite "I have infinity of these from scout camp.")

Paul wakeboarding

Alyssa making a smooth landing

Kayden getting some air.

Granny and Grandpa enjoyed a few tube rides with their grandkids. In this one, Chad is in the middle.

Who needs a boat? The knee boards are pretty fun on shore, too.

Preston isn't too sure about kneeboarding in this picture.

High-five for kneeboarding, Preston! (Even though he didn't want to get on his knees on the board that day).

One thing I liked about Wasa this year is that almost everyone tried something behind the boat. Tylissa and Kaylene kneeboarded. Chad and Keston tried the wakeboard, Michelle skiied, Granny tried skiing--but found the arthritis in the hands makes it too hard to hang on, the grandparents tubed and even Tracy, Michelle and Sherylee went on a tube ride together. Alyssa learned how to slolam ski on a narrow ski too. Thanks Granny and Grandpa for all your work preparing food and everything!