A Lot of Catching Up To Do

Wow! It's been a while, hasn't it? So, what have I been up to since I got back from Tahoe? Let me tell you.

After I got home from Tahoe, I jumped right into my marathon training. I will be doing the Marine Corp Marathon in October and the San Antonio Marathon in November. I'm a captain for this season's Team in Training run team, so I'll be doing most of my running, including track practices, with them. The Saturday after Tahoe I ran 8 miles!

We also had a lot of volleyball going on with Madison. Games for a summer league on Tuesday nights; games for the church league on Thursday night; and clinics given by a club on Saturday nights. She also went to volleyball camp at the high school for a week.

The next big event was haircut time. Madison had asked to get her hair darkened some and she did, but the dye didn't really take on her hair and it didn't really look all that different. Dalton on

the other hand came out looking very different.

Then on June 21st, I participated in the Lake Pflugerville Triathlon for the third straight year in a row. I wasn't sure how I would do considering I had only swam twice all year. I knew my bike would be strong coming off of Tahoe and I knew the run would be ok. Turned out I beat my best time by 2 minutes, coming in at 1:27:19 and coming in 6th place in my age group. Maybe I should not swim more often? No, it makes me wonder what I might have done if my swim was better. I passed lots of people on the bike, but got passed by two people in my age group on the run. Oh well, there is always next year.

Then later that afternoon, we took Dalton to a residential soccer camp with the Austin Aztex. He was there through Thursday afternoon and had a lot of fun.

And finally, on July 1st, we drove to New Orleans. We went to eat dinner and took the kids for a culture shock walk down Bourbon street (although it was still relatively early so not too bad).

When we got back to the hotel Madison went for a swim in the rooftop pool and then we went to bed. Thursday morning when we woke up we headed to the Cafe Du Monde for breakfast and then caught a taxi over to the port where we got on board the Carnival Fantasy for a 4 day cruise to Cozumel and back.

I did manage to get in a couple of runs on the sea days, but after that I enjoyed the day by lounging in a chair on the deck. The day we were in Cozumel was absolutely fantastic as I found a beach that only allows 100 people in and it's all inclusive. The day we were there, I bet there were no more than 25 people all day. And the guacamole and hot sauce are AWESOME! Not to mention the drinks. Madison probably had 7 virgin drinks that day! We did just a little bit of shopping before getting back on board.

And on our last sea day, I had to race Dalton down the slides. What fun!