Summer Activities

Now that summer is in full swing, we've both been preoccupied with our athletic pursuits as well as hanging out with friends (kickball league Tuesday nights!) and cooking on the grill. I love summer!! The only bad part about it is the heat, but we finally broke down and bought a portable A/C unit for the house. It helps so much! Here are some pictures showing what we've been up to lately.

Travis has been doing a lot of this:



I've been doing a lot of this (ignore the poor running form - it was at the very end of a long hot race):



and Wyatt's been doing a lot of this:



Actually, not really on the last one. I just like pictures of my animals. Isn't that golf course that Travis was on beautiful? It's down south of Denver a bit and he was there playing in a tournament for a charity that supports the widows/widowers and children of fallen soldiers. He played on the Air Force team whose entry was paid for by someone else. I think he enjoyed the whole experience. It was a weekend-long event including shows and dinner on Friday and Saturday nights. The Gatlin Brothers headlined it and they brought in a lot of other Nashville song-writing talent. It was a great event to be a part of!

The picture of me was taken yesterday at an Olympic-distance triathlon called Loveland Lake-to-Lake. It was my first Olympic-distance tri and I had a great time, though it was painful at times. The bike ride was pretty hilly and the run was pretty hot and exposed. I ended up 19th out of 54 in my age group - one person shy of qualifying for the USAT national championship!! I was kinda bummed about that. At least now I know what to work on (biking and running form!) and I have another reason (like I needed one) to buy a TT bike that fits me! Mine's a little small and it's definitely not a TT bike. After the race (and after the initial nausea subsided) I did a little of this:



...and it was amazing. Now we're getting ready for our trip to Europe! I leave for Switzerland tomorrow morning for a conference, and Travis will meet me there on Friday to travel to Italy. We're planning on spending a few days in Tuscany, then a few days in Rome where we'll meet up with Jon and Misty Schindler. We're really excited about it. Plenty of pictures to come!!!