Lake Placid (Day 3)

Okay, so I learned that while an Ironman is physically exhausting for the competitor... it is also physically and mentally demanding on the spectator, especially if that spectator is with a group of 7 kids.

That being said, I'll finish this blog at a later date after sufficient sleep.  In the mean time, here are my favorite pictures.  I have a feeling there will be more of these in the future!

Lake Placid (Day 2)

Well, today started off a lot like yesterday (which is not a bad way to start a day):

Today the guys had to take their bikes and bags into Lake Placid into an area known as Transition.  It's a pretty crazy place where they switch sports.  It looks like this:

While they were doing that Georgia, the kids and I went walking down Main Street and we did a little shopping.  The Estes family picked up these awesome glowing yellow shirts:

Micaela got two riddle-type books and a triathlon charm for her braclet, Jon got ice cream, and I got a coffee.  Then we met up with the guys and had a good italian lunch (aka pizza).

Then things got a little expensive.  I mentioned to Kurt that I didn't have the right type of shorts needed for my sprint triathlon (aka short triathlon) that's in a few weeks and he told me we needed to go to the expo because they had a really big selection.  I ended up with a nice race outfit and Kurt ended up with two official Ironman pullovers.   After we'd had enough shopping we took the kids to the park to run out their energy and then we headed home to relax for a bit.  I think all of the adults slept but none of the kids did.

We just hung out at the house for the rest of the night making lists and getting everything ready for tomorrow.  The guys don't seem nervous at all which kind of makes me angry because I get nervous just thinking about the Army 2-mile run PT test.  I think it's going to be a good day tomorrow.  Wish us luck!

Lake Placid (Day 1)

Blogger changed it's editing program and I don't know if I like it or not.  I guess we'll see how this blog turns out...

Today was our first full day in Lake Placid (aka Race Day -2) and it was a great day.   I started it off by sleeping in until 8:00 which was wonderful after a few nights of less than 6 hours sleep.  The kids played while we had coffee on the balcony with this lovely view:

Then Georgia made breakfast - chocolate chip pancakes, canadian bacon, eggs, toast, etc.  It was delicious.

Kurt, well, was being Kurt.

Then we headed out to the beach on Mirror Lake.  They guys checked in for the race (got some awesome backpacks), went for a one-lap swim, and then a quick bike ride.  All the while we hung out at the beach.  It is a really nice, low stress beach with ropes and lifeguards and warm water.

 After we'd had enough at the beach (4 hours later), we headed back to the house at Saranac Lake.  By this time Kurt's parents had shown up with presents for everyone (an excavator, chocolate covered pretzels, bike tubes, sangria, birthday presents, zucchini and lucky triathlon rocks) and Micaela joined the group of kids.  The kids took the row boat out and played on the hill out back and we just relaxed for a while.

After sufficient relaxing, Georgia made dinner.  Pasta, meat sauce, zucchini, peppers, and onions.  It was delicious (especially with a glass of Sangria).  Then the guys headed off to their mandatory pre-race brief while Georgia and I decided to walk into town to see if we could find some ice cream.  We didn't find any ice cream in town, but we did find these bears:

We had seen an ice cream store across the lake from our house, so we headed home to grab the car because you can't disappoint kids who've just walked 2 miles in search of dessert.

And now we sleep.  Hopefully tomorrow is equally as fun!

Blogs that never happened

These pictures and videos were intended to be blogs... but motiviation, time, and priorities got in the way.   We should be getting ready to move, but haven't quite found the time to do that either.  One of these days life will slow down and I'll get back to regular blogging.  Until then, hope you enjoy the blogs that never happened.

House Hunting - West Point

While Kurt and I hate actually moving (having our stuff packed, unpacking, the logistics of moving, buying new condiments, etc) we actually like moving to new places and finding new homes.  House hunting (rental hunting) in West Point was more difficult than we both expected though.  There weren't many listings on our two typical websites, so we went up with only about 4 homes in mind that we wanted to see.  Before we got up there two of those homes had been rented, so we had to expand beyond our ideal parameters.  We ended up seeing about 8 homes on our first day up there, and it was exhausting.  All of them were workable, but none of them ideal.  We had pretty much decided that the best fit was this old colonial house out away from everything a bit on 7 acres of land owned by this art center trust.  It was a bit expensive, but it was bigger than most and had a big yard with creek running through it and a really nice three car garage.  We were holding off on sending in the application because there was one last home that we were seeing the next day at 1000.  The last home was listed as a 4 acre horse farm, ready for 2 horses, with a completely fenced in property good for dogs too.  We initially ignored this ad as it was an old home and it didn't show many pictures of the inside, but changed our mind because it was significantly cheaper than the other homes and didn't have an outrageous realtor fee like the others.  We were pleasantly surprised by how cool the property was - vegetable gardens, a grape arbor, raspberry bushes, a small pond, two horse pastures, and just cool places that the kids will love exporing and playing.  The completely fenced in property is really nice too as I'll have a bit more piece of mind with Jon and the dogs running around.  It hasn't been lived in for a while and needs some TLC, but the landlord was all about letting us do whatever outside.  Kurt will be busy during the summer months.  While the house is over 200 years old, it is in surprisingly great condition.  It didn't feel nearly as drafty as the colonial we were looking at and the landlords are going to pay half the heating (can't beat that!).  They'll also do the mowing and they are leaving a snowblower, but their nephew will come by and plow when needed.  Score. The house has a lot of character, something that was important to Kurt, and has plenty of room for all our furniture.  And you might think that a 4 acre horse farm would be out in the country a bit... nope.  It's right smack dab in the middle of a neighborhood.  We're thinking the farm is the oldest thing there and the neighborhood grew in around it.  We were told the neighbors are very nice.

Front of House - old picture

New Picture

Back of House

Side of house

Barn and Stables (we won't be using, told the landlords they could use it for their storage)

Driveway from the house

Walking out the backdoor towards the driveway

Back Patio - kitchen door straight ahead, door to main hallway of house on the right

Kitchen

Dining room

This used to be the kitchen, that's a cooking fireplace.  Room will probably have a pull-out couch for when we have guests.

Front Living room

Back living room (looking into front living room) - will probably be our office

Part of the yard in need of some TLC

Walkway up to the front of the house is to the left

This isn't our house.  This is the military academy.  It was cool to drive through.

Parade Field

Took this picture for Gabe

As we were driving out of town (10 minutes out) we stopped for gas.  I looked across the street and this is what I saw.  I had no idea it was so close!   New Windsor is indeed in Orange County, NY.