Annie Kim's Picnic and Craft Extravaganza!!

Awhile ago, my sister asked if I could babysit so she could go to some boutique. I said sure, and when my niece and nephew found out I was babysitting, they kept asking what we were going to do. I asked what they wanted to do and they said they wanted to have a picnic. Okay, no problem.
Then the next time I talked to them, they asked what we were going to eat at the picnic. I hadn't given it much thought and asked what they wanted. My nephew told me he wanted a turkey sandwich with no bread, NO BREAD. Okay, I could do that- no problem.
The next phone call was with my niece, she asked what we were going to do at the picnic. I had no clue, so I said it was going to be a surprise. She excitedly asked if there was going to be a craft-- and then informed me that every picnic has to have a craft. It just has to. I had no choice but to agree.

My sister then called me and asked what I was actually going to do and I told her I had no clue. She put me on speaker with both of the kids and they asked what the name of our picnic was (talk about pressure!). I said "Annie Kim's Picnic Extravaganza!!" to which my nephew added "and craft!" followed by my niece chiming in "yeah, AND CRAFT!! Don't forget the craft!!" So we changed the name slightly to "Annie Kim's Picnic and Craft Extravaganza" and everyone accepted it.

I got there pretty early, and they were SO excited when I got there (and my nephew was wearing his 'Team Sprinkles and Glitter' shirt from Ironman last year. He was so excited to show me.)

First we made cookies to take with us on the picnic. They took turns pouring stuff into the bowl.

I never knew what a hot commodity stirring the ingredients was! Holy hell- you would have thought we were taking the last life vest on the Titanic!
So I did what any normal non-parent would do. I put 30 seconds on the kitchen timer and we rotated.... for 5 whole minutes.

While the cookies were baking (and then cooling). We started to 'prepare' for our crafts. I free-handed some Halloween inspired shapes and then cut them out.

I then taped them to a canvas and we were ready for our crafts! We packed up half the house and headed to the park. We found a shady spot, they ate while I set up the paint, and then we got to work painting the canvases.

They ran around and played while I packed up and we waited for the paint to dry then we headed home.
We took the tape off the canvas and painted the insides and added glitter. I was seriously so surprised at how cute this turned out and how easy it was.

The kids absolutely loved it and are already talking about our next picnic! Haha!

*Have you ever been on a picnic? 

*What was the last craft you did?

A very sore Splash n' Dash!!

Let's back up to Tuesday, shall we?

Tuesday night, I went to spin at Landis (we bring our bike trainers and have class outside of their store). It was 'Brick Night' which meant we were doing speed intervals, practicing getting off the bike, transitioning into running shoes and then taking off on a run.
Everything was going great and I was really pushing the speed on both the bike intervals and the runs. We started with a half mile run and then finished with a 2 mile run.
It was dark by the last 2 mile run and I felt like I was flying. I caught up to a girl after the 1 mile turn-around, and we chatted on the way back. About a quarter mile from the store, I must have tripped on one of the many cracks in the sidewalk and went sliding full-force on my knees. (For cars driving by, it must have looked like I was practicing a dance move or something sliding so far on my knees)

The girl I was with screamed so loud (which I think scared me more than the actual fall!), but I jumped back up, acted like nothing happened and we finished the run.
I told her I was embarrassed, and she said we wouldn't mention it to anyone back at the store.... great plan, but we didn't realize I had blood dripping down my knees covering my shoes. When we got back everyone of course freaked out and offered to help.

Once we got it cleaned up, I headed home and put some Neosporin on it and rapped it in gauze (Spoiler alert:: I will NEVER do this step again!)

I woke up the next day, we on a bike ride and when I got home, I tried to take the gauze off. It literally would NOT come off. I tried getting it a little wet. I tried sitting in the bathtub (for OVER AN HOUR)! I tried everything. Nothing was working. I eventually had to rip it off-- which was EXTREMELY painful.

So.... today I was planning on doing the Splash n' Dash to prepare for the race this weekend. Once I finally got the gauze off, my knees were extremely sore and hard to bend (every time I would bend my knees, it would crack open the scab and then they would start to bleed again). So I wasn't too sure how it would go.

I decided to hobble my way to the Splash n' Dash, not bending my knees at all and tried to get to the swim start without opening the wounds. Then once I was out of the water, I had a bottle of water I rinsed them off with before I took on on the run- and the cracked like crazy-- which of course led to more bleeding.

Definitely not my fastest time, but given the situation I did okay. (And I got practice in for this weekends race.)
*Do you like open water swimming or pool swimming better?

*Are you clumsy? YES

Sweet 16!

I cannot believe that Carsen is turning 16 today! That seems SO crazy to me!

When I first met 'Mr. Sprinkles and Glitter', he was 6! It's crazy how fast time flies by (and how old I feel now!!;))

We went out to sushi for dinner and then came back and did the presents thing. 'Mr. Sprinkles and Glitter' surprised him with a new (and huge) TV for his room.
I was a little nervous how my gift would go over with him. He has talked about wanting one (several times) for years... but he hadn't mentioned it recently, and you know kids-- sometimes they think something is cool or want something because they think they'll never actually get it.
I literally was so nervous handing him the gift and waiting for him to open it. Luckily, he freaked out when he realized what it was and absolutely LOVED it!

We spent the rest of the night hooking up his new T.V. and playing Super Mario. He thanked me about a million times and told us how this was the best birthday ever.

*When is your birthday? 

*Did you play Nintendo as a kid? Yes! ALL the time!!

65 super fun miles!!

Today's bike ride was one of those rides where you're having so much fun and feel so great you feel like you could go forever! I loved every second of it!

We started super early to try to beat the heat and rode the beeline, our favorite. :)

We started with a pretty decent sized group, but by the end of our second loop it was just me and Diane left. We both felt great!

I'm really enjoying training this year, I feel like Triplex is really kicking my butt into shape and that's making the longer/harder workouts seem easier-- and I'm LOVING that!!

After I did some adulting (grocery shopping and meal prepping) Carsen and I hit up so FroYo.

*What did you do this weekend? 

*How often do to strength train? I usually do Triplex 3-5 times a week.

Mountain Man OLY!!

Today was SUCH an awesome day!

I've done a race this race before (and a race recap), so I'll just give you the highlights from today.

*Got there pretty early, set up transition, and hung out with friends.

*While walking down to the swim start with a group of friends, our friend Christian noticed a girl's wet suit was on inside out. He tapped her and said 'I don't want to freak you out, but you've got your wet suit on inside out'. She was with 2 of her girlfriends (who were also racing and had their suits on correctly), and she laughed and thought it was joking. She then asked him if it would make a big deal (being inside out), and he replied with 'I don't want to rain on your parade but...." She didn't seem to bothered by it-- but I did notice her later on changing it-- thank gosh!!

*Had a GREAT swim- felt great the whole time and really pushed it. (Averaged 1:58 and came out of the water 2nd in my age group.)

*Bike was fun- I know the course and know when to push it. But, my front break was rubbing and I had to stop twice to adjust it. Not cool. (Averaged 16.89 and finished 6th in my age group.)

*Felt good on the run- saw a LOT of friends (both racing and spectating) and it was awesome! ((Averaged 10:25 and finished 3rd in my age group.)

*Finished 4th overall. 'Mr. Sprinkles and Glitter' killed it too!

*Grabbed some amazing food with Maria and her family before driving home.

*Once we got home, Carsen and I hit up Baskin Robbins. It was amazing!

*Anyone race this week? 

*What's your favorite kind of ice cream? Chocolate chip cookie dough!

Flagstaff again!!

I bet you'll never guess where we went again this weekend?! FLAGSTAFF!! I know, you probably shocked and never would have guessed it! ;)

Since the race is next weekend, it's SO hot in Phoenix, and hotel rooms are only $68 dollars we couldn't really pass it up. It's SO much cooler up there and it's so pretty!

We left a little later than usual, got food along the way, drove straight to Buffalo Park for a run.

It was gorgeous and we finished our run right as the sun was starting to set. Tried to take a photo of me running with the self timer on my phone. Who knew how hard it was to actually get a running picture like this?! 50 tries later and this is the best I got....

Props to all you people who take running selfies on the daily!! I still don't know how you do it!

After our run we were starving and didn't really know what we felt like. 'Mr. Sprinkles and Glitter' was google-ing directions to a restaurant a friend recommended and I did more important things like take more selfie. ;)

Oh my gosh guys! It was seriously the BEST pizza ever! (We almost got another pizza to go do we could have it again tomorrow!) Pizzicletta, we will be back! They also had gelato that we go to go and ate back at the hotel room.

Funny story:: I asked 'Mr. Sprinkles and Glitter' to take a photo of me with my gelato because it was melting.... I have about 10 photos similar to this one:

*What did you do this weekend? 

*What is your favorite kind of pizza?

100 days from today...!!

Ironman Arizona is 100 days away!!!!

I literally don't even know how this is possible! I feel like we JUST did Ironman Arizona and like we JUST got back from New Zealand!!

Time is flying by! I can't believe it! But ready or not- here it comes!! I have some pretty big goals for this race- mainly to redeem myself from last year after having a not-so-great race and hopefully PR and beat my original time of 14:45.

Definitely starting to feel real....

*Is anyone racing this weekend? 

*Anyone else doing Ironman Arizona?!