Darren's Triathlon

Darren just bought a Triathlon store in March with two friends. Meet Dan and Kyle. Dan has done done tri's before but Darren and Kyle haven't. So they signed up for one together. They weren't looking to podium or anything, or even come in the 5 or 10. They were just trying to beat each other. That's competition enough!

Pre swim - the swim was open water- meaning 300 people jumping into the water at one time then fighting to get ahead. Kicking and smacking each other the whole time. Water temp 68 degrees! 750 meters (just over a half a mile!)
Then they jump out, take off their wetsuit and bike 13 miles up a mountain on their mountain bikes. Did I say Up a mountain. Up to a ski resort to be exact.

Then they park their bike and run 3 miles- UP a mountain. For those skiers out there, the course ran up a black diamond hill. Who can run up a black diamond hill- Not many people did!
For my race Darren bought the kids these great shirts- They say, my mom is faster than your dad! We wore them again for his race. GO DAD!
So are you dying to know who won- Which of the three friends won????

MY HUSBAND!!!

Yeah Dalls!

4 years old and loving it

Tyler turned four on Saturday but Darren had a race Saturday morning. Tyler kept saying all morning, so when am I going to turn 4? He said he couldn't turn four until he blew out candles and opened presents. So I guess his birthday didn't start till about 1:30 pm on Saturday.

This is Tyler on Sunday blowing out his train cake candles. There was an engine with marshmallow smoke coming out, a M&M coal car, a animal car with preztals for the cage and animal crackers inside. There was logging car which was tootsie rolls.... then a starburst train (maybe this could be a mail train we decided). Regardless he loved it.

Grandma and Grandpa Balls bought him a new Sunday outfit. Doesn't he look handsome.
We got him some fun toys he will enjoy for some time.
On Saturday after the Triathlon we meet up with Corie and Nolan and the Balls' at the Pizza Factory in Odgen. Tyler got a free birthday dessert and ate half of it himself!
He had to blow out candles on his birthday so we also had brownies at the restaurant.
And some of Ella- Ella misses Tyler when he is at school. When he comes home she puts on his coat and his backpack and walks around saying school.
She also wants to be like Tyler riding a bike. She says Helmet and puts it on (backwards) and then cruises around on her bike. Don't get in her way or she will run you over. She isn't afraid of anything!

My First Triathlon

My friend, Neti and I have been training for almost 5 months for a Sprint Distance Triathlon. About three weeks we were feeling done with all this training and began to look forward to get this THING over with. This is us Saturday morning before the tri. oh, about 7 am- I will keep this brief.

The swim was 400 Meters- which I accomplished with very little panic. But getting out of the water and running to my bike I felt pretty exhausted.

The bike was 9 miles which I did in 32 minutes. Biking is my strength.

The run was 5K which I finished with out too much grief. I did get a killer side ache. I drank a whole cup of water and was gasping for air as it went down all wrong.

so 1 hr and 22 min later. I have done something and done it well. If anyone out there wants to train for another one with me, I am game. Just give me about a month off!

Labor Day weekend

I guess we will start with Monday since that is the way they uploaded.

This is my parents place and Ella is our little climber.

We spent the weekend with lots of cousins. This is like a fourth of the cousins.
US!
Headed out on a walk down the lane - eating a banana popsicle
Logan for Great Grandpa Balls 95 Birthday. Aunt Nellie put Ella's hair in the first ever pigtails. We loved it!

Tyler really really really wanted to blow out the candles, but was able to control himself.. Thankfully!

Tyler had his open house for school today. He was so nervous at first then didn't want to leave when it was time. So tomorrow the fun begins-

Green and White Lasagna

A yummy recipe for my cousin Jessica H.

9 uncooked Lasagna Noodles

2 eggs- slightly beaten

3 cups Cottage cheese

2 9 oz Frozen spinach, thawed, squeeze to drain

1/2 cup finely chopped onion

1/4 cup fresh parsley chopped- or 3 tsp dried parsley

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

12 oz (3 cups) shredded mozzarella cheese

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

350 for oven. Cook noodles. Mix egg, cottage cheese, spinach, onion, parsley ,garlic, salt, and pepper. Ungreased 13 X 9 pan. layer, noodles, then spinach mixture, then cheese- repeat once. Sprinkle top with Parmesan. Bake for 35-45 min. Let stand for 10 min.

I like to not cook the noodles and just freeze it. I will even make two at a time, one to eat now, and one to freeze. Then when you go to cook the frozen one, it takes about 1.5 hours to cook. You don't need to thaw.

Homemade Spaghetti Sauce

I just got back from spending the weekend in Logan with the in laws. They let me take all their tomatoes that were ready, home grown onions, delicious peppers, and some zucchini.

My favorite thing to make is home made spaghetti sauce. It is pretty easy, and I just put it in freezer bags and get it out when I want some. The best part is you can hide all kinds of veggies in it.

I will actually post two directions. One that has exact measurement, and mine that I make a huge batch and just add all kinds of things. It turns out different but GREAT every time. I have so many green tomatoes still on the vines every year that I have to pick them and put them in my garage until they are red. This is a great way to use those tomatoes when they are ripe.

The directions are the same for how to cook it but you can either dump in a whole bunch of whatever or do the exact amounts.

1. Puree tomatoes in blender. Start cooking right away. They take anywhere from 2-5 hours to cook down so there is only 2/3rd the amount of juice left.

2. Steam/cook carrots, zucchini, celery, squashes etc.. then blend them up. I have to add some of the tomato sauce that is cooking to help the blender puree them. You can leave it chunky too. I blend all the ingredients so my kids wont notice any thing strange about their "spaghetti sauce" that is packed with goodness.

3. Saute onions, peppers, mushrooms, and garlic with oil. Puree this if you want too.

4. Mix it all together. Make sure the tomato sauce has reduced in size. Take it off the heat. Then add your salt, sugar, basil, and meat. If it is too runny add some tomato paste.

5. Let cool and put in freezer bags. DONE! I do a ton at a time because it is so easy to do a lot.

Measurement recipe

2 lbs of Italian sausage

8 oz of mushrooms, sliced

1 T garlic

2 T salt

1 T pepper

red pepper flakes if you like

1 lb carrots sliced

1 cup celery sliced- I don't really like celery in this but you can.

2 med onion sliced

1 T olive oil

2 T basil

2 T sugar

other veggies- optional- zucchini, peppers, sweet potatoes, etc.

8-10 canned stew tomatoes- if using fresh add more sugar and salt to balance acidic flavor

2 can tomato paste- use only if you need to thicken it up

If anyone has suggestions let me know. We love it.

Tyler

Tyler came up to my room early this morning. I was brushing my teeth and the first thing he said was- Mom did you know that today is the first day of September! So how many more days until my birthday? 26 I said. Then he proceeded to count to 26. Commenting that he can count higher than that and pushed on to 115 instead.

He also starts school in 7 days. He commented several times how he wishes school could start tomorrow and not on the 8th.

Then we went to the store to buy a backpack. There was a nice cars one with Lightening McQueen and even a nice old plain black one. Then we turn the corner and boom! A "delightful" Thomas the Train back pack- Lucky us, you can wear it on your back or roll it around on it's wheels. I did try to talk him out of it, It is a bit over the top when it comes to cheezy- but no, Thomas was coming home with us.

Ella loves to wear it too. It almost touches the ground when she wears it.

pictures to come..