Just Going to the Dentist

Here's Henry showing off his pearly whites and new toothpaste and toothbrush, courtesy of Dr. Matt. We actually have a book by Mercer Mayer called, "Just Going to the Dentist" which I highly recommend reading to your 3 yr. old in preparation for a dentist visit! :) Henry knew exactly what to anticipate...when we got there he immediately said, "we have to wait in the waiting room." After he sat in the dentist chair, he told the hygenist, "Now the chair moves up and down." Henry had been to the dentist when he was 18 months (before we left the Navy), but definitely did not remember the adventure!

He was a champ! He liked it so much that he even declared on the way home that he would like to be a dentist when he grows up! :) Woo hoo!!

7 Couples, a Boat, Silver Dollar City, and a visit to the Coales

Last weekend was a lot of fun. We (and 7 other families from our Sunday School class--all with kids between 6 months & 6 years) spent Thurs.-Sun. in Branson, MO! Our boys loved "sharing a hotel" with three of the families (it was a 3 bedroom condo) and did not want to leave. We spent Friday on the lake, while Mike captained a pontoon boat. (Note that an adult should always be in charge of the "controls"...to avoid any surprise movements by 3 yr. old captains.) Henry is now an "avid" tuber, and wanted a boat that could go "faster." WE thought the max speed on the pontoon was pretty good since even our friend Kyle was thrown off (and Henry lost his grip with one hand) on their "wildest" ride. Every night I ask the boys (who are now sharing a room!) what their favorite part of the day was...and ever since the trip, Andrew keeps saying "boat"--like he knows it is an "acceptable" answer. It's just funny that he (like at my sister's house a month ago) cried NEARLY the whole time he was on the boat. :)
After that we had a fun time at "The Track" celebrating friend Noah's 4th birthday. All the kiddos got unlimited kids rides, and although our "no-napping" boys were exhausted from the day in the sun, they had a LOT of fun--especially playing mini-golf and climbing on the free-if-you-don't-insert-a-token rides.On Sat. we spent the day at Silver Dollar City (the 1800's amusement park in Branson). It took us the morning to kind of figure out our bearings, but we ended up hitting a lot of fun rides. Andrew & Mike rode on some jerky hoppy frogs, I rode with Andrew on some smooth flying butterflies and Henry & Mike rode on a very fast and tall kids' roller coaster followed by a ride on some 27 mph pirate ships. (Henry did admit he got dizzy, but I think we have a thrill seeker on our hands!) What we thought would be a highlight of the day (but I think ended up behind the roller coaster) was the Veggie Tales show, which we woke both of our sleeping kids for...they even got to meet Bob & Larry after the show. (Picture to come!)

Sunday we had a small worship service and hit the road. We stopped at my friend Bria's house in Springfield, MO--who I hadn't seen in over 10 years! She now has two boys of her own...so we all had a lot of fun! Here is Keaven and Henry dressed up. Henry cried for about 30 minutes after we left because he wanted to "steal" Keaven's superman costume. I now have a chart for getting dressed/making bed/cleaning room...so he "might" be able to earn his own costume.

Triathlon #1 (and some more news)...

So I finished my first triathlon yesterday and had a lot of fun doing it! I must say that 24 hrs. later I am still not sore, so I think that my training paid off! It was a 500 m swim, a 10 mile bike ride through some beautiful, rolling farmland, and then a 5K run on a wooded path. My friend Trina did it with me and for that I'm grateful!! It was fun to encourage each other and just have fun training together! Here's me happily finishing! :) It was kind of emotional...the whole time! When Mike first called out to me when I was just standing in line waiting for the swim, I almost started crying. There was a really sweet moment when two 70-80 yr. old sisters ran through the finish together holding each others' hands. I teared up for that one too! :)

Here is Trina & me at the finish line and then again with our families.

I highly recommend doing one of these. Here are some tips we learned from our first:

Things we did right:

1. Train ahead of time.

2. Practice on the actual race course at least once.

3. Do it with a friend.

4. Eat a yummy pasta dinner before the race.

And here are our reminders for what not to do when doing a triathlon:

1. Don't camp out the night before. There might just be a band across the lake from your campground that plays good tunes until midnight.

2. Don't do "extreme" camping in "severe" thunderstorms the night before. You just might wake up to a lake in your tent (as Trina's family did)...or almost have your tent blow into the lake (as we did). Around 3:30am I woke Mike up and he threw himself over to the front edge of the tent (as did I) and we stretched out as long as we could to keep the front of the tent down. Trina & Ted moved into their car to sleep sitting up. Ugh. Not the start you wanted!

3. Try not to do it 12 weeks pregnant if you can avoid it. :) Yeah, if you didn't hear it yet, or read it on Facebook last night, as of today I am almost through my first trimester with our third baby!! :) I didn't find out until I was about 5 weeks into the training, and my OB said it was o.k., so we went ahead with it. She did limit me to a heart rate of 150 beats per minute (bpm), which required me to buy the coolest Garmin Heart Rate Monitor and watch my limits. I recommend using a heart rate monitor even for regular training...it is REALLY neat -- and easy to use. The 150 bpm required me to walk most of the 5K...I had a lot of energy/adrenaline so I "wanted" to run, but obviously the baby's health was a priority over my triathlon time.

Well that's it from here! I am feeling well (I was more nauseous with this one--but I'm feeling better now and more like my normal pregnant self). Henry is convinced this is going to be a baby sister -- so convinced I'm a little worried that if it's another boy he's not going to believe it's his brother. His first words after we told him was in a high-pitched "cutie" voice: "It's going to be a little, tiny girl, who will come out wearing teenie, tiny shoes, and sucking on a little ciucio" (ciucio, pronounced "choo cho", is a pacifier in Italian). Happy times for us all!