What A Tripp!

All Grown Up

Now that Tyghe is walking all over the place, we decided that it was time for his long, hippy hair and baby curls to go. We were so sad to cut off that beautiful hair. He no longer looks like a baby, but like a little boy. Even days later, I’m still not used to the way he looks and wonder where my baby went.

In other events, Caemlyn recently competed in her first Pinewood Derby for Activity Days. She designed her car, but had a good amount of help from dad in making it.

Baby Steps

See what my baby can finally do! (sorry it’s sideways - don’t know how to turn it)
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He’s so tall, it seemed odd that he wasn’t walking yet, but he’s my 2nd fastest walker. He’s been able to take a few steps for several weeks now, but just yesterday decided he *really* wanted to walk. He still falls a good bit, but gets around pretty good. Isn’t he too cute?!

Back to School

Today was (finally) the first day of school. Yippee! All of the kids were so excited, they were up at 6:00am. Caemlyn is now in 4th grade, and has a brand new teacher fresh from college. Zeph is in 3rd and got the teacher he was hoping for - with tadpoles in the classroom. And Kezia finally got to start Kindergarten! - with the best K teacher ever. It’s half days all week, but they came home with glowing reports of how great school was. And no, I’m not joking. I took all sorts of pics this morning before school, and of Kezia going to K - but sadly, there was no memory card in the camera. However, I figured that out soon enough to get some of them this afternoon. It’s still the first day of school… They were much more cooperative this morning though, so all of the pics came out something like this

Individual pics of the kids will be posted in their own web albums. I must add that I think Ada may have been just as excited for Kezia to go to school as Kezia was. With a Sept. 7 birthday, it’s been a long year waiting for this opportunity. I was also thrilled that I could pull the double jogging stroller back out and take the little ones for a long walk/jog. Pulling a bike trailer (need to get one) up these hills would do a lot for my tri training as well.

1:40.46

20K bike, 400M swim, 5K run

No, it’s not fast, but the course is tough and I DID IT!  I laid awake most of the night, and listened to a huge thunderstorm from 4:00am to 4:40am.  There was just a light rain at the start that cleared up, but it was still pretty chilly outside.  Maybe in the 50s.  They used timing chips this year (1st time) that were large and felt like a lead weight when I jumped into the pool.  Making the transition from one activity to another was tougher than I planned, even with the brick workouts I had done.  Guess I need to do  more of them next year.  Since I just got my bike in April, I’m hoping my bike time will see a lot of improvement by the next tri as well.  Thanks to everyone that cheered me on and sent me notes of support.  I really do appreciate it. (pics may be posted once I get them from friends)

Up next - a mountain trail 10K or half-marathon in October.  Anyone want to come join me?

30 miles

The Los Alamos Triathlon is this coming Saturday, and I’m getting very anxious. In preparation, I’ve tried to go on a couple of longer bike rides. I had done the 22 miles round trip to Bandelier and back and it wasn’t too bad. Yesterday though I decided to do the loop. I hadn’t checked out details on a map, but knew the way. I rode out to the back gate (tri course) and then past Bandelier and down to White Rock and back up the truck route to Los Alamos. This was no simple task. Lots of hills, even beyond the 1000 ft change in elevation between WR and LA. I was exhausted when I made it home (just in time to go with the family to the rodeo parade) and only found out then (maps online) that the route is about 30 miles. Oh my. I do finally feel prepared for the triathlon though.

Caemlyn and I also did our 3rd splash n dash on the 30th. I’m proud of Caemlyn for doing it and pleased with myself for cutting 2 minutes off of my time. Yea me!

I’ve been training with a couple of people and Justin is doing the swim portion of the TRI with a team of men from our ward. There are quite a few other people in our ward doing the TRI, so we are having everyone (and their families) over for a pasta dinner on Friday evening. I hope everyone fits in our house! lol Wish us all luck!

In non-tri news, Justin and I celebrated our 11th anniversary on Friday. I actually got us a babysitter and we went out - on a date. hee hee I also got crafty and made him a little “book” out of a deck of cards.

Last week, 3 of the kids finished a session of swim lessons. This was Ada’s first time taking lessons and she did quite well. She enjoys being in the pool and can even swim a very short distance.

This was Kezia’s 3rd time taking lessons. She has previously been too scared to do much and hadn’t made much progress. She finally got over much of that and can now float (front and back) by herself and with a bit more confidence, she’d be swimming across the pool by herself. I’m very proud of her.

Zephram also took lessons this time so that he could start learning the strokes and get more proficient with what he knew. He did well enough to pass the level he was in, but does need to work on diving in head first.

This weekend is the county fair and rodeo, so we played along a bit. We went to the parade in the morning and then checked out some of the stuff they had at the pond. The older kids and I got to go on a nice little boat ride on the pond. Then after a nice rain and hail storm, we went to the rodeo. Tyghe liked his first rodeo alright, but was still tired and cranky. Oh, we also gave Zephram a haircut yesterday. Check out his blog later today for pics of his new ‘do.

I also made a crayon roll this week for one of Kezia’s friends that is moving away. They’re pretty nifty. I can share a link to the tutorial I used - or just place your order! lol

So I rode 30 miles on my bike - but I think this post is about 30 miles long.

There’s More

After our family reunions this summer, I’m sure the kids thought that seeing 37 cousins was it. But NO…there’s more. We took a quick trip up to Durango, CO to see some of my cousins (Sara, Jen, Jake and Mike - sorry you weren’t there Dave) and an aunt (Kathy) that I haven’t seen in many, many years.

The visit was brief, but I’m so glad we got to go. We mostly sat and visited, but also took a short hike to a nearby stream and waterfall. The kids had fun and got to meet and play with many of their 2nd cousins.

Kezia at the waterfall.

After our visit, we went back to the condo we were staying in at Purgatory (Durango’s ski resort) so Tyghe could nap and took the some of the kids on a ride up the ski slope for a ride down on the alpine sleds. Kezia was too afraid to go, but Ada thoroughly enjoyed the ride up as well as the ride down.

This is before we went down - she rode with me.

Long and Lean

Tyghe finally had his 1 year well check this morning. We’re only a month behind - not bad considering the peds office only has their schedule 6 weeks out at a time. It can be hard to remember to call and schedule before they get booked. Anyway, he’s a perfectly healthy little boy. Sliding down the weight chart a bit, but took a huge leap on the growth chart. He’s long and lean.

A couple of pics from our reunions - playing shy for the camera at the 4th of July parade - and standing at the waters edge on the beach in OR.

In other news, Caemlyn and I did our second Splash N Dash last night. Still readjusting to the altitude, so it was rough, but I did manage to improve my time slightly. There’s one more at the end of the month, and then just a couple more weeks ’til the triathlon. Too bad the kids triathlon is on Sunday - I think Caemlyn would do well.

When The Family Gets Together

We recently returned from our 2 week road trip to see our families. We started off with a scenic drive through part of Colorado, and stopped to camp where we could. It was nice enough, but we were glad we brought enough water since their well had run dry.

Then we headed on to Utah to camp at Strawberry Reservoir. The views were beautiful…

but we had to get creative to avoid some of the intense sun.

You’d think we’d know better, but we all got bad sunburns. We were supposed to camp there 2 nights, but due to lack of sleep (Tyghe was too cold), and wet sleeping bags (Ada woke up crying and ended up peeing on our bags) and no showers for a few days - we gave up and drove down to Provo to stay in a hotel. We drove around a bit to show the older kids places we used to go and sort of introduce the 2 little ones to where we used to live.
On our way to CA for the Stubblefield family reunion, we stayed a night in Sparks, NV (they have a nice little lake there that I got to run around). Then we finally met up with my family in Soda Springs, CA. We stayed in 2 very nice mountain cabins on the ice lakes. It was so good to see everyone, and we had a great time. The older kids got to canoe and kayak..

and Justin’s showboating got him a swim in the shallow lake. I only got pics from a distance after he climbed up on the kayak. Too bad he lost his glasses in the process.

We also went the 4th of July parade in Truckee, watched fireworks from above Donner Lake, had a talent show, played games, launched homemade rockets from grandpa’s air compressor launcher (ran and rode bikes) and had a lot of good food and conversation.

We were sad to leave a day early, but had a long drive ahead of us to get to WA/OR for the Tripp family reunion.
We met the whole family in WA for church on Sunday, and Justin’s grandma even made it down to see everyone.

Just before leaving on our trip, we found out that our brother-in-law Mike (Monica’s husband) has stage 4 lung cancer. I’m glad we could be there to fast with everyone on his behalf. Mike is a great guy and an amazing chef - this makes me so sad. Our prayers continue to be with their family.
Then on to Seaside, OR for the official reunion. This is the 5th time we’ve had the reunion in Seaside, and I think it gets better each time. We had so much fun.
We rode funcycles on the beach, climbed all over Fort Stevens and the shipwreck on the ocean, rode the carousel, bumper cars and tilt-a-whirl, played in the sand and water (ran) and went crabbing with cousins.

As this was Tyghe’s first visit to Seaside and the beach, I’ve got a lot of pictures!

Even with the trials the family is facing, I hope they continue having their reunions.

We made the drive home 2 days, with a brief overnight in Utah. With all of the time on the coast, it’s amazing that the only rain we got was at the very end - in Southern Utah and in NM. Pretty ironic.

I have lots more pics to edit and post, and as I do, they’ll be posted HERE.

Good Boy

Zeph turned 8 on the 19th and has stepped up to the plate. He was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints the following Saturday and confirmed on Sunday. It was so nice having Grandma and Grandpa Stubz here for a few days.

Not only did Zeph get baptized, but turning 8 also allowed him to begin Cub Scouts. I’m not sure which he was more excited about.

In uniform before his first den meeting.

Way to go Zeph! We’re so proud of you.

Like Mother, Like Daughter

Last Wednesday the local multi sport club sponsored a Splash N Dash as training prep for the upcoming triathlon. I had planned on doing the longer course of 400 yd swim and 5K run. Caemlyn had swim team that night, but I told her she could do that, or come and do the SnD with me. She went with me and did the shorter course of a 200 yd swim and 3K run. My overall time wasn’t too bad, though my swim time needs some work. Caemlyn did awesome and I’m so proud of her for doing it. I don’t have any pics, since it was just us there. Someone from the triatomics was taking pics though, so if they ever put them online, I’ll see what I can do to share them.

There are 3 more in the series (we’ll miss one due to vacation) - think I can get her to do the other 2 with me?