Three Cheers for family, friends, and fun

This weekend past(see previous post) went off smashingly! It started with my alarm going off at 3:45 on Sat. morning, signaling that I needed to get up. Begrudgingly I obeyed and managed to make it to the bathroom with out running into any walls. After a glorious fifteen minutes of hot running water, I emerged a man ready to face the next three days of events ahead of me.

After a few last minute items that need packing, and waiting for the coffee pot to finish brewing its elixor of life, I headed out for a five o'clock appointment with my ride to that wonderful land east of the mountains.

All of Sat. was spent at my aunt and uncle's house where we were having a party for two of my cousins. We didn't do anything too terribly exciting, just barbequed. And in a way I'm kinda glad, because I was able to spend a good amount of time catching up with relatives I hadn't been able to see for awhile.

At the end of Sat. we headed over to my grandparents house in Toppenish to spend the night and Sun. with them. Again the highlight of this trip was getting to spend some good unrushed time with them, as I hadn't been able to do that in quite some time. After dinner on Sun., we headed home to celebrate the fourth.

Bright, but not as early as previous mornings, I awoke on Mon. to begin preparations for the event that would take up the greatest portion of my day. I gathered together my bike, and our canoe, and headed down into town to take part in the annual Pedal, Paddle, Puff triathlon. There was about thirty to fifty people taking part in this event, but I was on of only five other guys who was doing the "ironman". All this meant is that we were going to do all of the events on our own.

"On your marks! Get Set! Go!!!" and we were off on the six mile biking leg. This was one of the easier parts, and I was able to get done in about 20 minutes. At the end of the biking we came to the boat lauch, and whereas most people were tagging there teamates who would do the next leg, me and five others ran down to our boats. For me, this was the hardest part, as I had never paddled a canoe on a river, and I had never paddled a canoe solo. Needless to say, this leg was my longest, and wettest, and I made the six miles in about an hour. I reached the next checkpoint, and then it was off on a 3.8 mile run. Again this was on of the easier parts for me, and I did it in about 27 minutes. As I came around the corner and headed down the final stretch, my family was there taking pictures of me and cheering me on across the finish.

After that we went and marched in the parade, and then went home. I was going to stay up and watch fireworks, but alas my body shut down at the early hour of eight. And that was the end of my weekend! Hope you all had a fun fourth!