CapTex Triathlon

We got back from Austin, TX on Tuesday night.

Yesterday was spent doing laundry, unpacking, grocery shopping, and all the other catch up things you have to do when you get home.

And man, we are tired.

I took my big girl camera with me, but didn't use it once, so all my pictures are iPhone quality.

Here we go...

Saturday morning we got up, jumped in the car, and were on the road by 6:30.

We had to stop a couple times in that first hour, to tighten the bike and go potty, but soon we were rolling along and the girls were quietly occupied as we listened to Dinosaur Train.

These girls have the best Nana ever, because she sent us a box ahead of time, filled with little presents for them to open along the way.

In no time at all, we were in Oklahoma!

One of the bags the girls opened had jewelry.

Ruby liked to put on her "jewleries" and be Sofia the First. As soon as the earrings were on, she'd shake her head back and forth to feel them swing.

We passed right through Moore, OK and saw the devastation the tornado left in its' wake.

Looking at the aftermath felt very surreal.

What looks like a garbage dump used to be homes and businesses.

It's hard to fathom.

We got to Texas before lunch time and soon after stopped at "Mac Old Donalds".

This is a rare treat for our girlies.

Aleks stopped eating fast food the month before this triathlon so he scrounged up other food while the girls played on the indoor playground.

In Texas we had some rain and let the girls have iPad time.

In the last half hour of our trip, I pulled out the present I knew they'd be most excited about: Princess dolls!

This bought us peace and quiet for the end of our drive.

We pulled in to Austin around 4:30 and got settled in to our hotel.

We took a short walk down the street to a TexMex place for dinner, dolls in hand.

If you know us or have been reading this blog for awhile, you know that bedtime is important and tricky for us.

My girls are not very adaptable sleepers.

On this trip they REALLY wanted to sleep in the same bed. 

I figured it could be a huge disaster or really be something wonderful.

At the encouragement of Facebook friends, we decided to give it a try.

Here's how it went down.

1. 5 minutes after being put to bed, the girls start wrestling.

2. Daddy goes in to try and calm everyone down and ends up lying in bed with them for 10 minutes.

3. A short time later, we hear the door slam shut.

4. We open the door 15 minutes later to find Maia asleep and Ruby taking her princess dolls in and out of the nightstand drawer. It was the sound of the drawer shutting that led us to open the door in the first place.

5. Finally both girls are asleep, roughy an hour and a half after initial bedtime. I think they finally fell asleep around 8:30.

That night they were up and awake between 2:30 and 5:30, during which I was in bed with them hissing "close your eyes" and "stop moving."

I'm sure many of you are thinking, "Well, I'll bet they slept in the next morning."

And the answer to that is, no. They were up at 6:30.

The next morning we took it easy in our hotel room.

Aleks had lots of triathlon related things he needed to do, so for the most part we were on our own.

After nap time, we headed to the Austin Children's Museum with Nana.

The girls had a great time, but it was no Phoenix Children's Museum, that's for sure.

When we were done we headed over to see Aleks do a short swim in Ladybird Lake.

That evening Nana watched the girls while Aleks and I attended the TNT inspiration dinner.

It was a really great time to hear about the LLS and the wonderful things they are doing to help find a cure for cancer. 

The different chapters for this particular race raised over $100,000.

If you donated to this organization through Aleks, thank you.

Together, we're making a huge impact.

That night, the girls shared a bed again and were asleep in 10 minutes.

The next morning we were up bright and early to catch Aleks' wave, which entered the water at 8:45.

The air was electric.

The pros had already started and were onto the bike portion as we made our way to the lake.

They. Are. Fast.

We caught up with Aleks, who told me he had thrown up that morning from nerves, but was all smiles.

By the way, it was already pretty warm and muggy.

There were over 2,000 participants.

Finally, they were off!

We hung around to catch him in transition and he was all smiles.

At this point, Maia was done, so we headed back to the hotel for a little snack.

Ruby and I wanted to go back to the race, but Maia stayed with Nana and swam in the hotel pool.

I had made a couple of signs to hold throughout the race and Aleks had bought the girls cowbells.

Ruby and I placed ourselves at the end of the bike loop, I held my sign that said,

"Remember, you paid money for this" and Ruby shook her bell.

It was so gratifying to see people read the sign and laugh or shake their head.

I love being a supporter and cheerleader.

In fact, I totally gave myself blisters from shaking the cowbell.

We saw Aleks end his loop and head to transition 2.

We went back up to the hotel for a brief cooling off in the air conditioning and then walked back to wait for Aleks to finish his run.

We caught him on the first loop, and again, all smiles!

Princesses make any wait more bearable.

And finally, there he was in the distance!

Here are some of the finishers on his team.

After I took the girls to the pool and Aleks gathered up all his try-gear and took a shower, we headed to the 24 hour diner.

Which was so good.

And has out of this world milkshakes.

(By the way, that medal is awesome!
It has a magnet on the back and also works as a bottle opener.)

We headed up to the playground above Whole Foods to let the girls play for a bit and when we headed back to the car, they spontaneously decided to hold hands.

That night we all slept well.

The drive home was a bit harder, but uneventful.

We did find Ruby's old pacifier, hidden in the recesses of our car, and boy was she glad to see it!

We let the girls try it out for old time's sake and then made it disappear again.

It was a wonderful trip.

There aren't really words to describe how I feel about Aleks and this accomplishment.

Proud doesn't quite cover it.

One Olympic triathlon behind us and now we're going rest up a bit before the next big adventure!