Our very own Ironman!

After 5 hours and 43 grueling minutes, Jason completed his second half-ironman triathlon! 

The countless hours of training, stretching, icing, carb-loading, biking, swimming, running, and resting finally paid off as he made his way to Buffalo Springs Lake on Sunday. He awoke bright and early that morning to arrive at the race sight at 4:30 AM in order to get all his gear set up and prepare for the competition. The actual race started at 6:30 AM, but due to the large number of participants in the race, his wave didn't start until about 6:50. Jason started out the race swimming 1.2 miles in the oh-so-lovely Buffalo Lake water (yes, I said MILES...yikes!). He then hopped on his bike to complete the 56 mile ride which took him up out of the canyon, nearly to Slaton, and back into the park. Once that portion is completed, he puts on his running shoes and finishes the competition with a 13.1 mile run...that's 70.3 total miles!!! Not to mention the level of difficulty of this particular course; this race is a qualifier for THE Ironman race in Kona, Hawaii and people come from all over the world to race (the overall winner was from Australia). He finished the race around noon with a big smile on his face. 

Impressive.

Here's where Mollie was giving her Daddy a high-five! 

Jason finishing strong.

You can't see it very well, but Mollie was supporting her Daddy by wearing her "future Irongirl" shirt...I hope she loves running as much as her dad! 

And here Mollie shows evidence of how we all felt at the end of the day...especially Jason. You better believe he came home and took a nap, too! 

We are very thankful, though, that MaryAnn and Paul brought their RV out that day, as well. It was nice to get out of the heat for a bit and relax in the shade/air conditioning! 

To add to the excitement of the day, Jason's two hobbies sort of collided...the Cactus Theater was hired to provide the entertainment at the awards ceremony later that evening, so guess who had to perform at his own awards ceremony!! Haha! 

WE ARE VERY PROUD OF OUR IRONMAN!!!

    

Four months of fun!

I can't believe it's already been four months since our sweet baby girl came into this world. But then again, it's hard to imagine life without her! 

We took her in to her four month check up the other day and all is well! She's now up to 11 lbs 14 oz, and is 24 inches long. She hasn't gained much weight since last time, but has nearly grown 3 inches! I was worried about her not gaining enough weight because of how much she spits up, but she's evidently getting enough. The doctor was pleased with how much she's grown and how she's developing! But it looks like we'll still just have to set out and wait this spitting up thing. It should get better as she starts to eat more solid foods, but we won't start that until about 6 months or so. Maybe we'll experiment with a little bit of cereal every now and then...I'm curious to see if it'll help! 

Here's a pic of Mollie in her new jumpy thing...she loves it but is still a little too short to reach the ground! I have a feeling we'll be utilizing these phonebooks more than once for our little shorty-britches. 

She's doing lots of talking, cooing, babbling, and giggling these days. Her favorite food is currently her fingers...she munches on them all the time. She's thinking hard about rolling over, but hasn't quite got there yet, and insists on taking three or four naps each day. That's what our little one is doing these days!

As for Jason, he's hard at work training for the Half Ironman Triathlon in a few weeks. Lots and lots of swimming,  biking, and running to get in shape for this thing. I'm completely impressed and inspired by his motivation and self discipline to continue to train so hard all by himself! Keep him in your prayers as he gets ready to complete this grueling feat...and come out and cheer him on if you can! It's Sunday, June 28th at Buffalo Springs Lake, and it's an all day affair.   

Here's our favorite athlete at his last race!

As for me, I've been so blessed to be able to stay at home with Mollie. Before we had her, I never was really for or against staying home, but just figured I'd do what worked best at the time. I've been blown away at how rewarding it is to be a mom. I've made her my full-time job and thoroughly enjoy watching her meet her developmental milestones, playing with her, watching her figure out new things, and seeing how happy she is. (Although, I did pick up a very part-time job helping out in the kids-club at Bodyworks (a gym here in town)...but I get to bring her with me and we all three get a free membership! Whew hoo! It's kind of fun, gets us out of the house, and has some perks.) Also, I've been able to spend more time with Jason. We've enjoyed getting to see him at lunch most days and getting to eat at home. Since I usually get my work out in during the day, we're all home at the same time and it's nice. That didn't seem to happen much before. I know one day I'll have to go back to work, but I can promise you I am soaking up every moment I have with my two favorite people!                                                                                                                                          

Here's a sweet picture of Mollie playing with Papa Kelly a few weekends ago!